AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio: 2012

1. My magazine, Larynx, features many of the conventions used in many magazines today. Firstly, I have chosen my masthead to be a different font typeface compared to the rest of the front cover's font. This is commonly used to make the title of the magazine start out from the rest; we can see this when comparing it to NME magazine. When compared side by side we can see that the fonts are approximately the same height. I had to make sure that my title piece was not too over powering that it takes away from the photo, additionally, to prevent this I edited the colours of the photo to be a bit more vibrant, especially the eyes of the model as they are the most important part to engage with the audience.

My magazine also has a skyline like the NME; however the skylines both feature different things. NME's advertises Glastonbury festival; however, Larynx instead has a list of the featured artists inside the week's issue. This is a common method used by magazines to advertise or more so tease the audience the contents of their pages without taking up too much space on the front cover; this is commonly present on the cover of Kerrang! magazines.Unlike the NME, Larynx’s sell line is quite in-your-face, this is also emphasised with the use of a splash graphic behind the text ‘The Biggest Guide to Synth-Rock’.

The barcode of both magazines are placed at the bottom right of the front cover. The reason for this is because the barcode also states the date and price of the magazine, this is so the issue number and other details are still visible when is the magazines are to be stacked on a shelf the right hand side is not covered by the overlapping magazine. I felt it was relevant to keep all these four of these details together as these are the technically aspects that subscribers are interested in. The main coverline/article is largely spread out across the bottom centre of the cover; additionally the coloured banner behind the bright text helps the text become more aesthetically pleasing for the audience. Teasing contents in the articles help persuade the audience to buy it, this are a highly important way of advertising your own product and is frequently used by many professional magazines around the world.

My magazine contents page takes a lot of inspiration from Kerrang! magazine, this can be evident when shown side by side.

The dark black banners and text boxes help emphasis the vivid colours of the text thus making it more eye-catching for a person who may just be flicking through the magazine. The use of a variation of colour for the competition aids it in standing out from the rest of the titles. Also, the use of it as a screamer also aids in this.

On the left hand side I had added a photo of the editor for the magazine, this and the signature from the editor gives the magazine a more personal feel while still being quite formal. There are not many words apart from the articles and a small message from the editor. This makes the magazine look easy to read as most audiences are put of from reading a long page of text. The fonts are all sans serif which gives my magazine a youthful feel to it.

The main photo is very dominant as it takes up approximately 40% of the page. This is again to focus more on the content of the magazine rather than having text that would put off a new reader. I chose to use a live photo of the band because it helps makes the magazine feel somewhat spontaneous and fun, if all images were just photos in which the model is striking a pose, then the reader make get quite bored as it would make music seem all about the image and the money when it's not. Music is about the live performances and the atmosphere.

Of course being a contents page, I used a lot of numbers to direct the audience to which feature they're looking for. However, I didn't just randomly place numbers, I tried to arrange the articles in a logical order by comparing my articles to the articles in other magazines and seeing which order they were presented in.

For my double page spread I feature a photo of the main artist that took up around 40% of the two pages. I edited the photo to makes the colours and lines seem somewhat comic book-like as it helps it run along side of the article title 'Taking Over The World'. In addition to this, the artist is wearing a superhero-like headband, this allowed the opportunity to insert a direct joke (in the form of a caption) for the reader, in this case it was in reference to Sylvester Stallone's headband in Rambo. In the background of the DPS are very vivid disco lights to relate to the genre of the music, however, they can also be seen as searchlights and almost have that superhero Batman searchlight effect, again relating to the title. It also gives off a lot of fun connotations suggesting that the Richard's Experience music is also very fun and exciting.

The pulled quote is a very common convention in magazine interviews, these quotes are normally catchy or mysterious to make the reader want to read the article. I also used this pull quote technique and placed it on the left side of the DPS, this is because a reader would naturally read from left to right, therefore they would read this quote first and hopefully become intrigued and want to read the full interview. I also inserted a drop cap at the start of the article, which again is a very commonly used feature in magazines. This shows that it;s the start of the article and also helps give it a professional and formal feel to it.

The font selected for the title of the article is made up of little cubes, I specifically chose this because of the genre of the music. The font is very LCD or digital, which naturally makes people think of electronics, which again relates to electronica and synth type music. I also added a blue and a red back layer to the font to make it seem as though it's meant to be 3D. This almost makes the artist seem futuristic.

2. My media product represents musicians as being quite serious when it comes to their music. It somewhat represents the stereotypes of people who listen to rock or synth music as being quite reckless and carefree. This is shown through the main featured artists having a beard and long scruffy hair. It also represents the music scene as being for the younger audience as all the photos/artists I have featured are below the age groups of 20.

3. The institution I would be aiming for would be Future PLC. This is because Future have operations in the UK, US and Australia. They also specialise in special-interest publications and have created over 180 publications, websites and events for people who are passionate about their interest. They hold market-leading positions in games, film, music, technology, cycling, automotive and crafts.

Additionally, Future do not have a magazine for the electro/synth genre. I also feel it's a good decision as they would not be too much out of their comfort zone; they have published many heavy metal magazines, and many guitar magazines. These magazines include Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Revolver, and Guitar World. They were also voted No.1 for guitar magazines worldwide. My choice of genre for the magazine has never been published by Future, and I don't think there is a magazine out there specific to this niche genre.

Future were established in 1985 with just one magazine. Today, Future sells 3.2 million magazines each month; they attract more than 23 million unique visitors to their websites; and they host 27 annual live events that attract hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts. This is perfect for me as my target audience is people who use the internet a lot, keeping up to date with social networking, and people who love to go to music events and gigs as such. They employ nearly 1,200 people in our offices in the UK, the US, and Australia.

4.The reader of my magazine is to be predominantly male, around the ages of 17 - 30. This will hopefully help me when creating my magazine as I personally fit the targeted audience. The SEG is to be a range between D and C1 as I want my magazine to be appealing to the younger generation such as students, while still having that appeal for a working class adult.

The interest in genre is to be electro/synth rock, such as bands like Enter Shikari, Muse, Lights, Attack Attack and Crystal Castles. Their personality is to be quite distinctive. As well as this, the interest in 'fashion'. They don't want to wear the latest high street brands but rather they would wear the lead singers latest tee shirt, or they have to have that cool necklace the bassist is wearing. Brands that are quite indie and unique.

I want to aim towards people who are well networked, those who own a computer and have a broadband internet connection. For example, everyday users of electronics such emails, iTunes, Facebook and Twitter; people up to date on technology. As well as this, I would be wanting to draw in readers who want to know about the latest gigs and festivals near them and likely those who have an interest in playing instruments and creating electronic music.

In addition, I would want readers who are fairly up to date on political events and social issue (this includes celebrity gossip) as this can give the opportunity for small captions and puns that will entertain the reader more so than 'knock-knock'.

And finally, I need the readers to be passionate about music. Music has to be first, and it has to be important to them.

I did some audience research and received feedback on my magazine to see if it achieved what I had aimed for it to achieve.

5. I attracted my audience by the use of a 'special offer' within specific issues. For example, in this instant, my magazine cover advertises that it's poster special in which the buyer will get lots of free posters.

6. Throughout using photoshop I have learnt a lot about the technologies from the process of constructing my media product. I have applied many techniques to my product, my first example is the editing on colour levels. I edited the colour levels of my photographs to make the appear more vibrant and vivid and therefore more aesthetically pleasing. It also draw in more focus to the cover star's eyes, this helps the reader feel more connected with the star and therefore feel as though it's more personal.

I also learnt about creating banners and adding shadows to objects and text. Additionally, with the use of gaussian and motion blur I managed to make items on my cover seem fast paced and current. Adding an outer glow to my title to give it a neon style effect. This helped it fit the genre of synth as people generally relate synth to night clubs and disco lights.

7. Since starting from the preliminary task of creating a college magazine, I will I have greatly improved on my knowledge of the use of major conventions within a magazine. Additionally, with this knowledge and the from what I know of photoshop I feel I have managed to create a realistic feeling magazine to a high standard. Even small things such as the sizing and spacing between text can make the cover look more professional, we can see this when comparing the size and spacing of the articles on my college magazine and my music magazine.