Jordan Demoulpied Media Studies

For my Foundation Production, I have created a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread using original images that I have took myself. I then used Photoshop to produce my products, using codes and convention of a real music magazine I hope that I have created a true look of a music magazine. To complete my work I used the aspects of LIIAR;
L-language
Institution,
Ideology
Audience
Representation
Then I have presented it all in the form of a blog. http://havocduckducksplat.blogspot.com/

Before I even tried to produce my products I had to research what are already placed into music magazines now. So I looked at the codes and convention of the music magazines, especially a front page, contents page and a double page spread. To help me understand all these things I created some textual analysis for the three different types of products I need to create. To analyse the example pages in music magazines I chose, I had to use LIIAR to fully dissect each part giving me full knowledge of the codes and conventions. It came to it that most music magazines, contained very similar ideologies and codes and conventions, such as having things placed in a readable manner and not having a wild style about it, even though they were different genres and magazines.

Conventions of music magazine front covers are, a masthead, dateline, barcode, have a main image, cover lines, main cover lines (anchorage) and a price. My own front cover features all of the above conventions of a real music magazine’s front cover.
Conventions of a double page are the features heading, some text, main image and page numbers. My double page spread contains these things. Conventions of a contents page are headings , page numbers, brief page descriptions and images. My contents page contains all these and also includes an editors corner as well.

I then created a name for my magazine, what genre it would be, target audience and LIIAR of my magazine. I then produced drafts of what my products would hopefully look like after I have finished, I first produced three drawn drafts roughly placing things where they’d look best, I then produced three IT drafts, finalising where things would go.
To produce my work I used the software Photoshop to create it all, the first thing I produce was my double page spread knowing that it would be the hardest thing to make due to the fact I had to write up an article, I created my TV logo and everything inside Photoshop itself, then with the photos I had taken, and edited in some form of way. In my DPS I made the image black and white and then chose certain parts to place in colour form, making the image stand out more. I then placed my image on the DPS next to my feature logo, I then placed the article text in boxes I had created especially for the text.

Next I created the Front page, again knowing that this would be a hard thing to do, I first created the magazine logo in the shape of DJ decks (linked to music) which are the connotations of my chosen target audience and type of music given in the magazine, then placing my magazine name (PSYKE) on top of the decks I placed all this in the top left third of my cover, I then placed my edited image which was to crop and change the colour of the whole image. I then placed my article information towards the bottom of the cover, along with other article information. Next I added the barcode into the left third of my magazine along with the price. My sell line was added underneath the masthead which again is on the left third.

Lastly I created my contents page I knew this was going to be the easiest thing to complete because content pages are usually quite simple. I started be choosing the font I wanted to use which was a ‘Greek’ style writing form, this form of font is unique to a magazine, and gives my magazine an edge against competition, a unique style. then I added boxes with headings in them stating what’s inside the magazine, in the top right corner I placed a editor corner where a ‘edit or’ briefly talks about what’s in the magazine. I then added brief overviews of what the articles were about. The last thing I did to my contents page was add two images of what is coming in this issue, scaled down and slightly edited images. Hopefully my target audience will find this style interesting as it may not be seen in other magazines with the same type of music presented in this way, this unique style could hopefully attract the attention of a well known publishing companies, who will be able to get my magazine into the public eye.

All my products follow codes and conventions of normal music magazine, such as having my masthead placed on the left third, thus helping readers find my magazine in the shops, and having things placed in the right places and not over powering any of my products. I believe my products attract my intended audience by having the DJ decks as a logo, my chosen name for the magazine because I feel it suits the music style as the kind of music my target audience listen to enter a psychedelic mood , and the genre is well presented over all my products . The drum and bass genre represents mixed social groups as many people listen to it not just one certain group. The age group I have aimed at are at the age 17+ as then many people of this age group will be able to hear this music more in clubs and parties. I attracted the target audience by choosing articles which would link to the genre. Throughout this task I have learnt a lot of Photoshop techniques, which will help me with future projects and home usage.

I acquired audience feedback by creating two polls on my blogger page, hopefully attracting people who look at it to then vote on the questions. A publishing company such as a local supermarket chain, may want to distribute my magazine because it would be something new which would entice new costumers into looking at the entertainment area of the stores. The institution I would like my magazine to be picked up by should have other music magazines under their wing otherwise my magazine may not get picked up some an institution such as Future Publishing or Bauer Consumer Media.

I think the overall media products I created are pretty well done, I think I worked well when I finally got to making my products but I know that I could of worked much faster and better if I had done it in my time. The best things in this I did in these products are the actual products itself especially the DPS and the contents page.

The things I know I could of improved on are the front cover which I found pretty hard to put together, and my overall blogging performance, but in conclusion I think I did well considering it was the first proper project I had to do.