Evaluation Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Here are both my preliminary task magazine and my music magazine:

From looking at both of the front covers I can see how my preliminary one could be improved and also how my music magazine could be improved.

Magazine conventions

Photography

Mise-en-scene

I feel I have now learned how to take and edit an effective image for an indie magazine front cover and I think that the I have learned a lot since my preliminary task because I have now learned that black and white images are a bad idea useless there is a lot of white or black. I have also learned the importance of proper lighting and camera settings.

Improvements to my work:

Evaluation Question 6- What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

Evaluation Question 5- How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

With my target audience being 16-18years old they do not need to have their parents paying for them a magazine and therefore I didn't feel necessary to ask parents.

Evaluation Question 4- Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

My target audience is the opposite of NME and Q and I have chosen to do this so that the my magazine isn't too similar. The main similarity is the type of music that will be included e.g. Arctic monkeys, Florence and the machine, Ed Sheeran.



Survey monkey results

Evaluation Question 3- What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

My magazine will also be available online and will have its own website with regular updates, and uploads about the magazine and the artists involved in each issue.

Evaluation Question 2- How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

The most popular music artists were male bands such as: The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, Catfish and the bottlemen etc.etc. Because of this I have chosen some male artists to be in my magazine like The 1975, X Ambassadors. But because my target audience is mostly female I have used more female artists on my magazine such as Annie and the revolution (based on Florence and the machine), Adele etc.

 In my survey I asked people what their favourite indie band was and many of them were male based bands such as arctic monkeys, the 1975, Mumford and sons and imagine dragons. therefore I tried to incorporate some of them into my contents page and my front cover (in the 50 records you must own story and on my footer).


In my survey I found out that my main target audience was female and therefore I have used. Female for my front cover to incorporate that into my product, I wanted to interest more females to my magazine and therefore I have used a dominant female artist.














Existing male indie artists/bands:

Here are some popular male indie bands, a common theme with these bands is black and white images, most of them are shown in a black and white image to give the vintage look, in the images most of them seem to be looking at the camera, this could be to try an make it look like they are looking directly at the person viewing to make them feel involved. Bastille have used an indie font because they have used a triangle as an 'A' this is indie because it is associated with many indie artworks and also photography.
The type of photography been used will attract my target audience of 16-18year old females because they will most likely find the artist attractive and also this will attract males to my magazine because the artists will be seen as role models to them.

Existing female indie artists/bands:

Here are some existing female indie artists, there are some similarities about these artists for example all of there facial expressions seem to be quite similar, most of them are looking directly at the camera with quite an emotionless face, another common theme seems to be that some of them are using back and white, this is very stereotypical for indie this is because black and white is seen as quite vintage and retro.
Most of the people in the photo have there cheekbones very defined because this is seen as quite attractive to have a well defined jaw line and to have defined cheekbones and they also go for quite a natural look to the face because this is also seen as quite vintage because natural makeup was very fashionable on the 60s 80s and 90s.
This type of make up, photography and their simple classic clothing will attract my target audience of 16-18year old females also most of these artists will be a role model to these females and they will want to find out facts about their role models.
The makeup that has been used will also attract some males to my magazine because they will see the artists as attractive.

These are some examples of indie style clothing, most of the colours are quite dark or plain like black, grey, navy blue or white. Most of the tops and dresses are quite baggy, the dresses look quite vintage (1940-50s) styled. Therefore I decided to have my model to be dressed in a navy blue and white baggy dress I chose this because navy blue was a popular colour in indie fashion and also chose a dress to add to her femininity and also because again they are popular in indie fashion.

 I also wanted my model to have her hair down because when I researched hair styles I found that curled/wavy hair is quite popular in indie fashion.

I wanted my model to look very serious because it is commonly used for artists as shown above (existing female artists).

I also chose a simple makeup of red lipstick and a simple eyeliner with a classic wing, I chose this because it is commonly used in indie makeup and indie fashion as shown below.

Here are some examples of vintage/ indie makeup styles all of them contain as classic wing eyeliner, this is because this is very popular and was very popular in the 60s. In most of the images the model has red lipstick on this is very popular with the classic eyeliner as this pair is very common.

I chose for my model to wear red lipstick on this picture but not the eyeliner because I wanted her to look quite natural but also vintage and sophisticated.

I anted the makeup to be slightly different, therefore I decided to only change one thing, and that was the presence of eyeliner.
My front cover is very dramatic and I think the eyeliner might have made it a bit too dramatic if the eyeliner were to have been worn.
In the image I also wanted to define her cheekbones because this is seen as attractive and contouring the face is very popular for 16-18year old females and therefore will help attract that audience.

In this image I chose for my model to wear both classically winged eyeliner and red lipstick, this was because I wanted the image to look both indie and sophisticated and vintage.
This will appeal to my target audience because it will be seen as in-fashion and a relatable makeup style, it will make them feel similar to the artist in the picture.





My original pictures

I didn't use these as my final pictures because some of them were taken quite poorly in poor light. I wanted all my models to be in the same light but because these pictures were taken all at different times of day, I decided against using most of them. some of them are still used in my product but they are not used on the front cover.

Evaluation Question 1- In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms and Conventions Of Real Media Products?

Front cover conventions

Here are some existing indie music magazine covers and their conventions:

 My front cover-

CONVENTIONS

My masthead follows the indie magazine conventions. my magazine was inspired by Q MAGAZINE, this is why I have chosen only one letter for my masthead; but I chose X because I researched indie artwork/designs and the most frequent artwork seen was different X's......

As shown in these pictures there are many variations of these X's, chose the 3rd on as my masthead because it was the most colourful and when I asked people that one was there favourite; a final reason I chose this X was because the pattern isn't really showing anything e.g. flowers or space which may put people off buying it because they may seen it as too girly or too masculine therefore I chose an X that didn't show any main image within it.

My masthead is in the top left corner of my magazine because this is conventional with most magazines such as Q and NME to help the display of the magazine.

My multi-coloured masthead is not conventional for an indie magazine most masthead are usually red, black, white or yellow. In my masthead it shows all of these colours but it isn't conventional to show them all. I chose to go for a multi-coloured masthead to show off the artwork related with the indie style, I have also learnt that the indie style is very bright and colourful and

 quite unique, therefore I went for an unconventional masthead style to emphasise that unique style and also to try and attract both genders to my magazine.

My masthead is very bold and this follows the conventions of a magazine, I chose my masthead to be very bold so that it would be very eye-catching.
I chose a simple one letter masthead and also the multi-coloured brightness of the magazine to try and attract 16-18 year old

 woman and also a few men, I think the bright colours would help attract them because they are eye-catching and they are also look very simple and bold, but it doesn't look childish.
I have also chosen a Sans serif font for my masthead so it looks quite informal, I believe this will help attract my target age (16-18years old) due to the boldness of the font and also the informality.






My main image follows main conventions of a music magazine. This is shown by the image being central on the front cover and also taking up the majority of the page (being the largest image on the page). This is important because it will attract people to buy the magazine because there will be a well known artist on the front of the magazine to attract fans to buy it. I have made my model look flawless by enlarging the eyes and the lips, contouring the cheeks/ cheekbones, got rid of all the spots on her face and also enhanced the colour of her eyes.





Main feature story follows the main conventions because it is very large. My main story is central and the largest writing on the front cover to show its importance, I have used a very different font to the masthead and the secondary feature story font to make it stand out on the page. I also chose a white colour because it stands out on her navy blue dress more than black would.

My secondary story and the plug follow and develop the conventions of a music magazine, this is shown from how I have placed my secondary story in the plug to make it stand out and also to draw peoples eyes to it because of the speciality of the secondary story. I have made the font very similar to my masthead so that it doesn't stand out more than the main headline. I have chosen to put the secondary story in the plug because in this case the secondary story is a 'special'. I also chose to put the story in the plug because the picture takes up most of the page and I don't want any stories on the main picture so that it stands out on the page more. I have chosen only to show one secondary story because of size of the picture and also because I didn't want to over crowd the page to appeal to my audience to show the informality of the magazine so that it attracts more people, and also by putting a reduced number of stories on the front cover it will encourage the audience to read the contents page.


The footer I have used follows the conventions of a music magazine. I have used a footer to show what other artists will be used throughout the magazine such as 'Arctic Monkeys' and I have chosen artists that fit into the indie genre or that are apart of an indie label such as 'Ed Sheeran'. I used the footer to give a little bit of detail to the reader but not so much, this was so I didn't over crowd the page and also so that it would encourage them to read the contents page.

Layout of the front cover; overlapping etc..
I have over lapped the front cover image over the plug, I did this so that the image would stood out on the page and also so that it shows the importance of the main image.


Barcode/ date/ price, I have used a barcode, date and price to follow the conventions of a magazine, I have grouped them all together so that they are all easy to find and so that the target age can easily find it.





Colour scheme
My colour scheme is quite diverse, I have used a white to black gradient for my background but I have used a multi-coloured masthead and then I have used a pastel blue colour for the plug. My main colour scheme (excluding the masthead) would be white black and blue, I have chosen these colours because, when I researched indie colours the main pastel colour that appeared would be pastel blue but also a lot of the artwork contained black and white. In these images I have chosen, they show the main colours I have used in my front cover, and my masthead as well. I chose black and white to add a slight bit of sophistication to the magazine considering my target age is 16-18years, but I chose the pastel
blue because it will appeal to both male and

females.
I chose these colours so they wouldn't be too bright and colourful, because these may attract a younger audience if I were to have used bright colours.
I have challenged conventions of a front cover colour scheme because usually colour schemes are bold colours like red, yellow, black and white. I have challenged this by using pastel blue in my plug which is not a usual chose because of its subtlety.








I have used a range of fonts of my front cover, this is because it is constantly used on every front cover of every magazine. A range of fonts is used to show the difference between stories and headlines and the masthead. Also if there is a range of fonts it tends to show the importance of the stories.

I have used various popular artists on my front cover to increase the amount of people who read the magazine on that issue. well known and even new artists are very popular in regard to my target audience (16 to 18 year old's) and my magazine because my magazine focus's on new and up and coming artists, but it also focus's on the famous/ well known indie artists (Arctic Monkeys).

I chose some well known artists such as Arctic Monkeys and some that people may not know such as friendly fires.

Contents page

Masthead 
My masthead follows the main conventions by re-using it from the front cover, this is so the magazine has consistency. And also to help with creating a brand.

Regulars and Features
I have included a regulars and features list to give the effect of it being a long time going magazine, and by having regulars it gives the audience some sort of structure to the magazine and the features list helps to give the magazine a bit more of interest for the audience.

The stories
I have made sure that I have placed the cover stories quite high up in the lists so that they are easy for the audience to find, I haven't put all of my stories in order of page numbers instead I put the biggest stories first.

Main picture
I have made the main picture the biggest on the contents pages, i have placed the page number largely on the top right corner in a contrasting colour to the background  so it is easy to find.

Secondary picture
I have made the secondary images smaller and on the second page of the contents pages so that it makes the main image look even bigger, again I placed the page number in a corner of the picture and made it a contrasting colour to the background of the image so it is easy to see.

Page number 
I have placed the page number in the bottom right corner of the second contents page I haven't put one on the left page because this is not normal for a magazine to do. I have also placed page numbers next to each story so that the audience knows what page to turn to, to read the story they want.

Range or images
I developed this convention by using less pictures than usual to give a sort of minimalist look to the page, I didn't want to overcrowd the page because it wasn't the look I was going for and also most indie magazines don't show many pictures on their contents pages.

Columns
I have used columns in my contents page because it is a main convention. This saves space and also looks that tidiest when used but also they are very stereotypically used because they encourage each title to be short and snappy. I believe that by using columns it helps to keep the audience interested with each line being so short.

Bullet points
I have used cross bullet points to incorporate the masthead into the contents page as well.