Harry Dyson: January 2013

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Mrs D

There are some good ideas here. You have a clear idea regarding genre and audience. I would plan for a first draft that isn't based on your gig at the end of Feb as it doesn't fit your deadlines. You can always adapt your draft if the pictures work later.

Magazine Proposal

I'd like to propose a music magazine with the genre of music that it'd like to focus on being Metal as personally it's one of my favourite genres in music, I also have a few artists in mind that I would like to focus on for some of my photos. They include bands such as Bury Tomorrow, The Ghost Inside and Stray From The Path, this is all because I'm going to a see all these bands at a live gig in February and believe that it'd be a great opportunity to get some live shots of bands. I will be aiming the magazine around the ages of 16-21 year olds and it'll be aimed at males, the fonts i will use will be unique and dynamic and will be the apropriate size for whatevr the situation. Colours that i will use will include red, yellow and black as i feel these colours are best suited for the specific genre of music (Metal) that i'm creating a magazine on.

What i've Learnt From My Research and How It Informs Planning?

From my research I've learnt that music magazines are very persuasive in what they write, they write with encouraging and persuasive language to ensure that the reader will want to purchase the magazine. Music magazines also appear to use similar visual layouts with their front covers their contents page and even on their double page spreads. Image sizes and the same with font sizes are used normally to show the importance of a story which also adds to the encouragement of the reader. The colours used appeared to vary between what the magazine was and especially what genre of music it was promoting, for example Kerrang! used colours such as red and yellow to show more aggression whereas a magazine like Q used very dull colours such as black and white to show a more relaxation feel to the magazine.

Product Placement

I want my magazine to be similar to the music magazine Kerrang! as I want to focus around the rock and metal genre of music
Target Audience around 14-21 year olds
On average, costs around £2.20 per magazine
1 issue every week on a Wednesday
First publshed on June 6th 1981
Can be found in local newsagents and in most of the big supermarkets e.g Tesco
Items such as posters are included within the magazines and sometimes other promotional items like calendars, free CD'S and stickers

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Mrs D

Harry, you have missed your first deadline.

There is some good analysis here, especially when you analyse the images. You need to link to genre and audience to be more specific.

Monday, 28 January 2013

"Q" Magazine Analysis

"Q" Analysis

This magazine is called "Q" and the single letter which is the name shows connotations of "simplicity" and youth. The main story in the middle of the page with other smaller stories shown to the left of the page with some pictures and text and it’s in columns to show what they are about. The magazine has the main article/story placed in the middle of the front cover showing its high importance to the reader and this is shown by the much larger image complete with a much larger font size,the colour of the font isb red and black, the style of the font is quite bold and large which helps to link to the target audience of teenagers and also older people from the ages of 21+ who are into the pop and some alternative genres of music.

The front cover displays the 5 men who consist of the hit band "Take That" who are all bundled on top of each other all with large grins on there faces which shows them to be happy and suggests that this story is a positive one for the band and a positive one for the fans too. There all wearing black leather jackets showing them to be appealing with the yoinger generation as well as the older because originally they were around in the 1990s. Along with the positive feel to the main article, the headline says "Take That: Back for good?" which also suggests that the band are getting back together after a long absense from each other.

The contents page of this magazine is spread across two pages seemingly making it a double page spread aswell, it has images on both the left and the right hand side pages with some being smaller showing less importence and others being larger showing much more importence. It has columns on each side with text describing whats on the page and what is expected when you come to read it, it's complete with the same colours on the front cover that are re and white showing these two colours to be of high importence as it appears to be the magazines colours in the sense that you can recognise which particular music magazine this is.

The language used in this particular magazine is very informative in the sense that it seems to get straight to the point of a story thats being told in the magazine, therefore this informs readers that it's a magazine that anyone can read without boring themselves too quickly with a range of images aswell as text.

One of the double page spreads used in this magazine is the main story on Take That who are seemingly getting back together. The visual layout of this spread is that there is an image on the right hand side of the spread with interview columns used on the left hand side of the spread and at the bottom below the image, it also shows a timeline of Take That's hit songs on the bottom of the left hand side spread. The image shows the one of the members of Take That having an arm wrestle with the former member Robbie Williams who has re-joined the group, it shows Robbie to be winning which suggests that he's back for good and he's stronger than ever back with Take That suggesting certain connotations of "strength" but also some "violence".

NME Analysis

This magazine is called "NME" and it shows connotations of violence and anti-sociable behavour. The visual layout of the front cover shows the main story to be in the middle of the page or near enough and it is displayed with a very large image highlighting it's importence, it then has 1 column on the left hand side of the page with 3 smaller images advertising or showing other "less important" stories than can be found inside this particular issue. The font on the front cover's style is very basic with nothing too fancy to help the target audience of teenagers and young men/woman to be able to understand it and read it much more clearly. The colour of the font is either white or a very dark goldish colour which again shows that is an easy magazine to pick up and read.

On the front cover, the image taken is a medium shot of two men (Miles Kane and Paul Weller) and they are posing very casually shwoing them to be relaxed and notifying that this magazine is a very "relaxing" one to read, the caption below the main headline says "It's about music, attitude and haircuts!" which then shows connotations of "attitudes" and "lazyiness". They are both wearing what appear to be some form of black suits with ties which displays the maturity and the age of the two men therefore showing the NME magazine to be for older readers too aswell as the younger readers it is usually assiciated with, they both also look very well kept which also represents the target audience or age group. This particular issue of NME is being promoted with the main headline, "Paul Weller and Miles Kane are The Mod Couple!", this suggests that theses two are of a new group or band setting out to become more recgonised within the music industry. Colours used on this front cover are very dull and not exactly of opitimising industry which therefore suggests that this new band/group are quite boring and/or dull in what they do with there music in particular.

The language that's used on this front cover is very infromative, with phrases of words like "The end of UK festivals" and "Your favourite bands interview their favourite musicians!". This shows how NME wan there readers to clearly know what they are reading and what it's exactly about.

The double page spread in this magazine about Paul Weller and Miles Kane displays a large image of the two men on the left side of the spread and part of the image displayed in the right side of the spread. They're standing with their backs against a wall showing them to be very chilled out and very relaxed, it's visual layout shows the two men on one half, chairs from the image in another half and a column in the bottom right hand corner of the page.

Kerrang! Analysis

This magazine is called “Kerrang! Which has some connotations of youth and drama, its visual layout shows the main story in the middle of the page with other smaller stories shown to the left of the page with some pictures and text and it’s in columns. The magazine has the main article/story placed in the middle of the front cover showing its importance and this is shown by the much larger image complete with a large font size and the colour of the font being white or red, the style of the font is quite bold and large which helps to link to the target audience of teenagers into the metal and rock genre of music as this becomes easier to read for teenagers.

The two people on the front cover’s main image for the main story (Matt Tuck and Liam Cormier) are wearing greyish jeans with one of them being complete with a black leather jacket showing or displaying the youth of the two men therefore aiming the target audience to the younger generation of people (around ages 14-21). Both men also have very long hair which also does represent the target audience of ages around 14-21 and it’s also aimed at people who are more into the rock and metal genres of music rather than pop or alternative genres of music. This issue of the magazine is being promoted with a headline that’s almost promoting a boxing match, “Bullet For My Valentine vs. Cancer Bats” this suggests a violent image to the magazine and it may go with the target audience of younger people around ages 14-21. The colours are a mixture of bright, dull and also dark which reflects the youth oriented audience feel and representing Matt Tuck and Liam Cormier to be “less serious” musicians. This is also added with their facial expressions, Matt has his eyes wide open and Liam is making an obvious gesture that he’s whispering into his ear because the story is about “supergroup secrets”.

The contents page in this magazine actually has another page before it advertising a "limited edition kick energy drink", showing again how Kerrang! likes to use pioneering techniques such as this limited edition and one off version of product. The contents pages visual layout is as follows, theres an image which is fairly large on the left hand side of the page, to the right there is a column which displays whats inside the issue and whats on each page and at the bottom of the page there is a column from the editor of this issue of the magazine.

The language used in this magazine is used to persuade the reader to purchase it, certain phrases used such as “Architects split-drama” and “Kurt Cobain: New solo record emerges” suggests that Kerrang! is a pioneering magazine that has lots of one off exclusives that can be offered to the reader when they buy the magazine.

One of the magazines double page spreads is about the band Architects and as said on the front cover it is a “split-drama” story. The image on the spread is of the band and they’re all tied by the hands with tape over their mouths suggesting this particular story to be violent or very “strong worded”. The layout of the spread is as follows, the image of the band is in the middle with 5 columns on the bottom section of the page and 1 long column to the left of the page with a ripped or cut out effect on it. The colour of the headline is red and this shows connotations of “blood” and “violence”.