Final Contents Page - Music Magazine

Drafts Contents Page - Main Task

Final Front Cover - Music Magazine

Front Cover Drafts - Music Magazine

Colour Palettes - Main Task Music Magazine

Planning for main task - Image Planning

Model:	My three guitars
Camera height/angle/distance:	I did a straight on shot of my guitars, although I pointed the camera up a little to make the guitars look bigger, it’s at a medium range shot.
Location:	In my house next to a brick wall.
Lighting:	I used a small lamp to get the lighting shown here, I raised it up so the shadows hit the floor.
Mise-en-scene	Three guitars, Brick wall
Attempted connotation:	The brick wall could show that its rather rough and rocky, that’s the genre I have gone for.

Planned denotation:	Three guitars presented nicely together.
Alternate angle:	I think a high angle of the three guitars would work well, starting with the head of the guitar then showing the bottom of the guitar as though it was further away.

Planning for Main Task - Language & Register

The way which most of the products i have looked at use things such as nicknames to engage properly with their target audience. these magazines do things like quotes and kickers to grab the reader attention, the short burst of engaging information tempts the reader to pick up the magazine and buy it. For my magazine i will adapt it to include things such as kickers and engaging language, so that it appeals to my target audience.

Planning for Main Task - Music Magazine - Layouts

Layouts

The masthead of magazine covers is always featured in the top of the magazine, mostly to the left. The masthead is often the most eye-catching thing on the page; mastheads are always kept the same, same font, same colours etc. So that the audience can remember and associate that particular masthead with every new issue, they allow magazine covers to me instantly recognisable, so it is crucial not to over whelm the reader. The masthead also sets the scheme of the rest of the magazine, if a masthead is red, the main colour scheme of that cover will be mainly red. This is again not to confuse and overwhelm the reader, it also allows a particular colour scheme to become instantly recognisable, the colours scheme of a magazine can become part of that magazines identity. For example NME masthead is red & white, so the majority of there issues will be colour schemed in white, and the producers will only diversify from this for a special edition issue, however even then the masthead will always remain the exact same.

The main image of a magazine cover will often be a hint towards the main story of that issue, for example if the main story of my magazine advertisement is a bands new Digi-pack release, then the main image must be associated to that release, e.g. The band. The main images of magazines are all different some will be close ups some high angled, some low angled, some action shots, and some not. However one thing hey all have in common is that the people in the main image dominate the page, they are never covered by text or other images, and if necessary they will even be placed in front of certain things on the page like the masthead. This is something I will need to take into account when making my own cover that the text follows the path and shape of the image.

From looking at the main text headlines of various music magazine covers, I found that the name of the band is almost always printed more vividly than the actual story itself, something I was unaware of before, when making my own cover I need to bare this in mind, e.g. My bands name needs to be more eye-catching than the story of their album release in order to draw the attention of the readers who may be fans of the band. It is also essential that the main story is placed in the centre of the page and does not cover any important points of the image; it must work with the image.

Image Editing

When starting to edit my photo i added layers to make the guitar stand out a little more than it did before. I felt as though before the guitar seems to dark and in the shadows, to so make the picture better i added this highlight effect.

Planning for Main Task - Music Magazine - Representation

Representation

The font on the front over of “Uncut” represents the artist as formal and serious about their music; this is because the colours used on it are bold but a mellow sort.  The font represents formality and seriousness because of the use of bold and largeness. By using these large fonts it is conventional and appeals to the audience. Also this specific font style represents loudness which signifies the rock/blues genre; it does this because of the serif flicks in the font. The main image on the front cover of “Uncut” represents the artist as a laid back figure in the rock genre through the use of a medium head shot. The use of pale coloured clothing represents the artist as formal. Also the use of instruments helps represent the relation to the genre. The representation given through the use of the pull quote on the front cover is bold because of the contrasting colours. 

The actual content of the pull quote represents the artist as driven and really likes doing the type of music he does, this is a conventional representation of the rock genre. Also the use of the text being in capital letter helps represent the artist as bold as does the use contrasting colours. The use of fonts, colours and background on this section of an existing magazine represents the characters. It represents them in a conventional way, by representing them as serious but laid back. This is because the text all contrasts and some are in blue and yellow, on a black background.