My magazine was very conventional. It used the most used colour in magazine, which is black. The masthead was partially covered by the main image and the main image its self was very conventional. I used the featured band for the main image, in a medium shot as often used in magazine covers. The layout involved the usual balance of picture to text that is more picture than text since the audience aren’t likely to enjoy read a lot. I also used language that was sensational such as “Exclusive”. This kind of language helps attract the audience, acting as a hook to make them buy the magazine. Another factor to attract attention was my use of bright colours against dark colours in order to make certain things stand out well.
The use of a lot of black in the model’s clothing meant it fitted with the rock world they’re meant to appeal to. The age of them was also important, being the age of the target audience it meant they would relate to the audience better. The figure expressions are mainly serious; this relates to the serious themes of the majority of the rock music industry. There are also quite playful expressions that relates to the more playful, rebellious side of some of the rock music. What’s more all the people used were white and mainly male. Rock music is dominated by white American males and so it is more expected of this genre of magazine. The colour ‘red’ which was used as one of the main colours is also a very rock-genre kind of colour. The name of my magazine, “The Anti” connects specifically with my target audience, who value themselves as ‘outcasts’ and ‘outsiders’. The idea of the ‘anti’ suggests rebellion and therefore ties in with the idea of outcast. Language used in the feature article I wrote so it fitted the target audience. Swearing is something many young people do and value as being something cool as well as relating to this idea of being outrageous and not caring what people think of you. By having swearing in the feature article it would have appealed more to the target audience.
My magazine could be published by Bauer Consumer Media. I think this because they publish the Kerrang! magazines, which I used as a guide for when creating my own so is very similar to mine.
The audience for my magazine is going to be teenagers and young adults (14-18). This is represented through the age of the models used and the fact I used more picture than text. The majority of the audience are more likely to be male considering the use of dark colours which are stereotypically more associated with males. Also more of the models used are males so they will relate to them better being of the same gender.
In order to create my magazine I had to use two programmes; Photoshop and InDesign. I had not had any previous experience with these programme so it took me a while to get used to them. Photoshop I used to manipulate and alter my photos so that they looked how I wanted them to. Normally, I would use it to alter the lighting and contrast or add a tint to the pictures to get the right effect I wanted. InDesign was the programme I used to actually produce my magazine pages. The other use of technology to make my magazine was flickr.com . With flickr I was able to store my photos and post pictures onto my blog. With InDesign and Photoshop I spent a lot of the time trying things out as I wasn’t entirely sure how to use it. Throughout the project, however, I became more accustomed with both programmes and learnt skills vital for media in that I can now use Photoshop and InDesign to a reasonable ability.
One key thing I learnt in my progression to the preliminary task was, as I said, how to use Photoshop and InDesign. However, I also found that I improved with my research and planning. Since we had more time and this magazine was of more importance in terms of quality, I was forced to go more in depth with planning and researching. With this I learnt to consider all the things you need to think about in making your magazine relevant to your target audience such as colours, models etc. I also got to experiment with different shot types and learn the most conventional ones used in magazine as well as why they’re so often used. I also felt I’d learnt to pace myself better with this task. In the preliminary task I felt I had to rush to finish towards the end, but with this project I made sure I was always up to date and where I should be.
