Double Page Spread Analysis



After looking at several examples of double page spreads in music magazines I have noticed many techniques and methods to insure that it is used successfully and makes an enjoyable experience reading and viewing the spread for the magazines target audience. After looking at a few spreads I noticed a large resemblance in how the double page spread effectively juggles both image and text throughout. I have noticed how most spreads dedicate one page for an image and another for text, I feel that by doing this it makes sure that spread remains enjoyable and consistent throughout and avoids the content from getting boring. This is also reinforced by how most spreads use a pretty informal format and house style this also insures that the content remains consistent. Most high quality music magazine company's use a very formal and thorough spread this makes sure that it goes in depth regarding the spreads contents. The simple house style high quality music magazines use also allow for a really plain but effective spread as it avoids the reader form becoming distracted by small images and captions which is why the mainstream company's stick strong to the simple plain house style. The key magazine company that I have noticed that does this is Q. I have noticed that within most of there spreads they stick to the simple house style as well as the large image on one page. Q also uses the first letter in the artists name as a background which is a useful technique as it ensures that the text doesn't get boring and irritatingly long.



Positives of Photoshop

Positives of Photoshop

There are many reasons why you may want to learn and fully use Photoshop towards a very good standard and get the most from the hue range of things you can accomplish with Photoshop whether its being creative and expressing your creativity through Photoshop or using it as a source of profit in your life, these are just some of the things you can accomplish through Photoshop.
Here are a few of the main things you can accomplish through Photoshop:

• Create professional, beautiful graphic works
• Grow ability and even express your creativity
• An enjoyable profession and even burgeoning a career or hobby
• Enhance your portfolio
• An investment that will pay of in time through financial and personal fulfilment
• Increase proficiency and performance
• Seeing visual ideas and dreams come to life through your own work
• Becoming a creative graphics professional or image editor
• Meeting and exceeding certain job requirements
• Pride in your work and even self accomplishment
• Higher pay for higher quality
• Mastery of the software
• Being able to share the work you have made

This list shows a large number of life changing affects Photoshop can have on someone, even dramatic effects on someone's lifestyle and even future as it opens new doorways to go through in their life.

my college magazine contents

THE ROCK

Ideology of a music magazine

Ideology

An ideology is a set of beliefs or opinions that we have against someone or something. Ideology is very important in advertising and definitely throughout music magazines. Magazines rely on ideology throughout there sales as it is show through groups and genres. In the NME it has a really large range and group allowing it to make more sales compared to other magazines. The ideology behind the NME magazine is a rock/pop attitude which stands out to other magazines such as kerrang which stands out due to its rebellious attitude. The ideology is used to make a specific genre or band stand out against others. For example we have a portrayal that rap music contains artists that are always associated with drugs etc. My ideology about the NME magazine is that because of its large fan base it really focuses on there audience through the genre they specialise in.

NME Cover Analysis

I chose to analyse a NME magazine cover as I am aiming towards a magazine that doesn't focus on one specific genre of music , which is something NME does well as it well mixes rock and pop music. Although I am not too interested in pop music I feel its a good idea to use a blend of 2 or more genres.

The codes and conventions of this magazine cover show the lead singer from the killers (Brandon flowers) express 3 different emotions through image. Each image portrays a separate emotion emphasising the text which says "I'm having a personal crisis right now..." Each image also has a ripped paper effect showing the confusion and again reinforcing the fact that he's having a personal crisis. The  main codes and conventions are through the image as it is the main picture and story of the magazine.

The house style of this NME cover shows a red black and yellow theme towards the top of the page, this allows the text to reflect from the background and allow it to stand out to the reader. Also the cover uses a strong reflection of white and uses the image as a background colour. This makes for an interesting theme and effect. This is a technique a lot of music magazines use so I will have to take this in consideration when making my cover.

The pragmatics and underline meaning of this cover is all about Brandon flowers and how he is currently having a personal crisis and the story will go more into depth about how this effects him and even the killers as a band. I feel that the image well portrays this as it reveals a lot of facial expressions the he might use and show his confusion and personal problems. The text portrays this as it uses a good reflection of black and white showing the darks and lights about the artist.

This magazine is targeted towards a rock/pop genre. This cover emphasises this as it uses the killers as the headline story who are a very well know and popular band which really represent the pop/rock genre the NME is aimed at. The cover uses large font saying "the killers" to allow it to stand out to the reader. The cover uses a lot of yellow and red to make it stand out to the reader, also on the cover it advertises reviews and festivals which may be vital to certain magazine buyers.

The Mise En Scene of this image portrays a positive story about Brandon flowers, this is the first thing we notice. This is due to the high key lighting that is used as well as the white background. The image also represents the band as it shows what Brandon, because he is dressed casually it doesn't fit him into a specific genre, where as if it was metal he may wear a lot of black clothes. Each image also shows a specific emotion of Brandon flowers, this is well presented through the mise en scene as in one of the images we see him wearing glasses and being happy showing the simple effect from a small accessory such as sunglasses.

The masthead in this image is in the top left of the page, this is because it is where you read first on a page. It is also large and red and uses a black background to allow it to stand out, The black is only on a banner so it doesn't affect the key image of the cover.

The cover uses a lot of text towards the top of the page and bottom to advertise small things inside the magazine such as a festival review, but towards the middle of the page there is near to no text. The only text that is used shows the killers and a small section of what's inside the magazine. This allows the cover to be simple and unique as not many covers do this although I feel it is a good effect. Also the font that is used is very standard allowing the cover to be informal.

As seen in many other blog posts I have been experimenting with a lot of photo manipulation to enhance my Photoshop skills for when it comes to making my own magazine cover. In this cover Photoshop has probably been used on Brandon flowers himself as well as the ripped effect that has been given.

My coursework progress update

So far I feel that I have been keeping on top of all my coursework and trying to get it all finished to a good quality before the deadline. I feel that by doing this I am becoming well prepared for when we have to create a four page magazine including a front cover. I have done this by experimenting with Photoshop and getting used to the tools again. I also feel that I am staying on top of other coursework tasks I have been set, allowing me to expand my knowledge on media and music magazines. I also now know what is expected from my magazine, I also have a clear understanding as I had created a 4 page magazine last year. The media terminology and language I have learned has also showed me what is expected when it comes to my magazines contents. Also after analysis many magazine covers I am aware of what I should take into consideration, especially when it comes to the importance of simple things such as the house style and other techniques. Analysing many covers has also shown me the differences throughout other genres and shows the differences between them to make it appeal to a specific target audience. I have also learned new theory's such as the semiotic theory and the male gaze giving me even more things to take into consideration and to incorporate in my magazine.

Photoshop manipulation Experiments

This was an experiment of my Photoshop manipulation skills as i wnated to test them out, also i chose to swap famous peoples bodies with random heads to make it funny. I thin by doing this it has reminded me of my photoshop skills and how to use some simple tools to manipulate. Also by doing this i feel my skills have improved by making certain things neater. Also i wanted to do this before we began to make our photoshoped magazine for our coursework.

my college magazine cover

I decided to create a college magazine cover to give me a good idea of what I am going to do when it comes to creating my very own magazine cover  for my coursework. Making this cover has allowed me to recover my Photoshop skills from last year as I forgot some of them. Also this has given me an idea about what I am going to do for my magazine cover when it comes the colours and topic as you see here I used light colours as it is Christmas time. I also tried to keep the cover simple as it is aimed towards students and they wouldn't want to read a lot. The cover is quite plain for this reason. I wanted to show students working as my magazine this term is going to advertise cardinal heenans sixth form. I feel that I could have made it a bit more elaborate if I knew how to use other tools and techniques. If I used other tools and techniques I feel as though I could make my cover look a lot more professional and stand out to other covers. The cover also looks quite bland and boring so on my music magazine cover I will have to make sure its more unique and interesting. I also used two different images and merged them to give an impression that everyone works as a team and together, it also shows a friendly environment.I also used a blue and white colour scheme and house style to promote christmas and show that it is the winter term issue.

Effects of photoshop

Photoshop has its good and bads, these both affect everyone involved. These problems are mainly seen through manipulation as it seriously affects someone. If a celebrity tries hard to be pretty and attractive they might be depressed knowing they still have to be photoshopped on a magazine cover. this also affects the viewer as they are looking a basically a copy of the person as it isn't what they really look like. People may also inspire to look like this person but then find out that this isn't even what they look like. Although the positives allow people to look completely to what they actually look like. Also this could boost someones morale as they could think they look attractive when actually there not. Photoshop is also very useful to make money as people see an attractive person on a cover when there actually not that attractive.

Popular music

After looking at the music industry i have decided to look at what is popular. I thought that the best way to do this is to look at the official UK charts to see what is actually the most popular at the moment. After researching i have found that Martin Garrixs "Animals" is currently top of the charts at No 1 which is an electronic dance genre.
 At no 2 is "somewhere only we know" by lily allen which is pop music. At no 3 is "of the night" by bastille which is alternative music , so far we see how no particular genre of music dominates the top of the charts, in uk anyway.  Then we have "story of my life" by one direction at no 4 that is pop music. Finally at no 5 is Ellie Gouldings "how long will i love you" which again is pop music showing a popularity in pop music through the charts which is typical as it is 'pop' music. This shows how pop music mainly leads the official top 5 in the charts but allowing some exceptions to squeeze in now and then.
I think the popularity in pop music is due to the amount of music that fits into the pop genre also there is a large amount of pop artists compared to other genres.

My knowledge of Photoshop

I feel that my knowledge of Photoshop I quite well as I have used it for the last 2 year as I studied GCSE media studies. In the two years I got familiar with the basic tools of Photoshop and some advanced tools. In the two years I used these tools to construct a 4 page magazine containing a front cover contents and a double page review.
 My Photoshop skills where really tested when I had to create a front cover as at this point I was still new to Photoshop. Overtime I began to learn how to manipulate images and realise how much you can actually do with Photoshop. After I finished my 4 page magazine I was happy with how it all came together as I got a B.
 I feel that the two years really gave me an understanding to what Photoshop is used for and how much you can actually do with it. As well as using some old skills on Photoshop this year I am hoping to recover some of these skills and learn some new more advanced and complicated skills and tools of Photoshop.

Susan Boyle 50 cent Manipulation

To develop and refresh my Photoshop skills I have created a manipulation of Susan boyle/50 cent. The positives of doing this is that it may show two personality's in one image, it also allowed me to experiment with new methods.
 This type of image may be used in a magazine to show how 2 completely different genres and characteristics can be show as one image. The negatives of doing this sort of manipulation is that it may go against one specific audience and could be seen as disrespectful to the fans.
 Also the artists may find this uncomfortable. It can also been seen as stupid and unrealistic that these two artists would do a collaboration together. With this manipulation I wanted to work quick as I wanted to see what I knew from last year without asking for help or researching.
 From this I feel that I can use simple tools in Photoshop pretty well to create small manipulations.

Magazine Terminology

Magazine Terminology

Pugs: Pugs are placed at the top left and right hand corners of the paper. Usually consist of logos or promotional offers.

Banner: Text that stands out because of the background, used for advertisements and key statements within the magazine

Copy: Main Text, usually stands out because of its position on the page and font size.

Strap line: Memorable phrase to a specific brand, used to make a specific brand or franchise stand out to the audience.

Lead: The intro paragraph of an article. This is usually interesting and unique to grab the readers attention and want them to continue reading.

Buzz words: Words such as "wow" "exclusive" and "free"

House style: A specific style or design given to a magazine, again makes the magazine more unique and stand out to other companys

Puffs: Colourful promoting boxing, makes advertisements stand out

Masthead: The name of a magazine, usually at the very top of a magazine cover and is the biggest writing on the page

Slogan: Motto, catchy and memorable phrase that either is for entertainment purposes such as a strap line or to make relevance to the product.

Drop capitals: Really big letter which starts of an article

Caption: Description of an image, used to explain an image

Anchorage Text: When a text pins down the meaning of a picture, very important for someone unfamiliar with the magazine

Headline: Main story in the magazine, stands out to the reader as its the key story in the magazine

Sell Lines: Text on the cover that helps to sell the magazine 

Analysing a Collage Magazine

Collage Bulletin Analysis

In this collage magazine we see how the school can create a magazine and what it consists of. The cover uses red and white which represents Christmas. Also the text and images reflect Christmas as there is a Christmas tree and a penguin. We can see how it is aimed towards parents than the pupils as the old layout and traditional logo. Also a lot of texts are used which I didn't think many pupils would like to read. A heads message is also used which shows that all of the teachers are being interactive with the pupils. The cover also uses capitalization to make subheadings and headings stand out to the reader and to give key information. This also uses a informal technique to show its a school bulletin and aimed towards school pupils and parents. This also has a connotation of Christmas as it contains Christmas features such as the Christmas tree and penguin. Also we see the snow on the "cardinal" in the heading. We can also see how the school are being interactive with the school and parents through the heads message.

Music Magazine Annotation Analysis and Comparrison

After creating two annotations of music magazines I have decided to analyse them as they are both different in there own way. For the first "Florence" magazine I found that it had a more structured house style compared the "The Killers" cover as it stayed to one particular house style and colour scheme. Om the other hand "The Killers" cover used a lot more bright colours and seemed less formal.
Also after annotating two NME magazine covers I have noticed how they really vary in the types of magazines and genres they specialise in. Also I have noticed how include some of the same features as they each follow a specific layout.
This comparison clearly shows 2 completely different genres and how they are presented on a magazine cover, also why they have presented the in this way. WE see why they have portrayed a specific genre this way as it may reflect the band a specific way whether its negatively or positively. Simple things such as the colour can represent a band or genre as through most metal covers are dark.

Music Magazine Annotation 2

Music Magazine Annotation 1

Applying the male gaze

Applying the male Gaze in Hollyoaks

Hollyoaks EP - 11th Oct 2013

Throughout the episode i have noticed that most of the women wear make up and for the most part are very attractive and seductive through there personality which supports the male gaze. Women would be against this as they may see it as the characters are representing women as slutty. Although this can just be women being jealous as the character are attractive and get a lot of attention. In hollyoaks women always seem to have the more dominant role, we see this as one of the female characters has another tied up, in this scene dark lighting and close ups are used to show expression on the characters faces as well as to make it more dramatic. Close ups can also be used to show there attractiveness.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

Our first preliminary task is to create a magazine front cover for cardinal heenan sixth form. When designing a front cover there are many things to take into concideration including a structured layout, a good reflection of colours through the entriety of the cover, covers usually include a medium shot to really show the character, formal or informal texts, a strong facial express that may show the tone of the magazine.
These are just some of the key features magazine covers include. Colour reflection is sometimes used in cover to present the mood and atmosphere and sometimes paralinguistic features that show a hidden meaning such as in this cover red, blue and white stars are used to maybe show he is from america and his music may be about that.

The Next Task

The next task will consist of me advancing in the course to research in detail about collage magazines and what we should put into our own collage magazine. As i research i am going to see what is important to put into front covers and why it is. As you see from the above i already have a clear understanding of what the contents of a music magazine cover are and what affect they have graphologically. As i create my magazine front cover i am going to use programs such as photoshop to further enhance the affectiveness of the front cover by maybe changing the layout more suitable for a collage cover.

Feminism

Feminism

The term "feminism" is only a recent theory although the roots go back much further. Marie de France was the first ever feminist who used poems to express her opinion. In the fifth century there was a french writer called Christine de Pisan who is considered the first ever "feminist" who would write about her opinion on men and the appearance of women. A key event for feminism is in 1787 where british translator and journalist joined a radical circle of intellectuals to get her opinion out there. Another key event was in 1854 were Barbara Leigh Smith drew together a group calling themselves the "feminists" as they campaigned to change laws. This then led to the outbreak of "feminism" as more and more people would become feminists. This created the womens rights campaign in the 1960s which ensured discriminatory laws for women.

The popularity in feminism then led onto people having other theories that relate to feminism such as "the male gaze" (1975) by Laura Mulvey. This idea represents how men look at women, how women look at themselves and how women look at other women. For example a man might think Scarlett Johansson is attractive and seductive, she might also think that she is attractive but other women may think she represents weakness to women and they are a piece of material, women may also think this as they could be jealous of her.

Here we see beth ditto naked on the cover of nme. This is used to represent feminism and show the impact feminism has. Because this cover shows a more unattractive naked woman it makes feminists unconfortable as it suggest that there is no such thing as feminism and instead shows how it really is just how woman may be jelous. Also this cover shows how women dont have to be attractive to be on the cover of a magazine. Feminists would also support this because it has made males against this and not buy it. 

Semiotic Theory

Semiotic Theory

Semiotic Theory is the relationship between a sign, an object and the meaning behind it, when a person interprets the sign they believe that the sign represents the object. The sign is the interpretant which means that is the representation of the object; according to C. Morris people are the interpreters of signs and interpretations are concluded through three stages:

Perception: when a person becomes aware of the sign in front of them.

Manipulation: when a person interprets the sign and decides how to react or respond to it.

Consummation: when a person responds to the sign

Denotation

Denotation is the literal meaning of the sign, this can be referred to the dictionary definition of the sign. Denotation can be contrasted to connotation if the sign doesn't have the same connotation as the denotation.

Connotation

Connotation is the person that is viewing the sign and there personal opinion of what it portrays as. The connotation contrasts with the denotation depending on the sign.

I have used this cover from NME of the killers as in this cover you see multiple expressions and this can be interpreted through the connotation and denotation. The denotation is that the band are laid back and don't really care about what is going on around them, also through there facial expressions you can see how they aren't showing any true emotion. The connotation in this is that really the band does care about what is going on and what there image portrays as. Also you know this as it explains how they are talking about there music and are passionate about it. The cover also uses a lot of lighter and friendly colours such as pink and yellow to show the depth of the content aswell as how graphic it may be.

Questionnaire

QUESTIONNAIRE

In my questionnaire i have tried to see whether people buy magazines or not. I am hoping to find out why people buy music magazines and why people don't buy music magazines. Hopefully this questionnaire will allow me to get a better look at the music magazines audience and why there is a fall in magazine purchases. Please answer my questionnaire by clicking the word QUESTIONNAIRE above.

Types of Research

Types of Data/Research

To have a succesful music magazine many types of research are taken into concideration to make sure its final out come is succesful and contains the content its readers want to see. This comes in data and research. There are two key types of data that are essential to any research, this is qualitative and quantitative data. Following this is two types of research, primary and secondary.

Qualitative Data

Qualitative Data is a method of research in which you look for quality. It is usually found through interviews, focus groups and sometimes questionnaires. It is found whenever you get information on a 1 on 1 basis and gather an in depth detailed understanding on human behaviour and decision making.

Quantitative Data

Quantitative Data is used to quantify data and gather results from a sample to the population of interest. Also it can be used to measure the incidence of various views and opinions. This is usually followed by qualitative research to explore further findings.

Primary Research

Primary research is when you collect consistent and original data where the researcher can focus on both quantitative and qualitative data. This also allows you to address specific issues and problems.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is when you look at past results and compare them, this includes published research reports and surveys.

After all of this data and research is collected it can give the magazine compamies a clear understanding and background knowledge on a genre and its audience and what the audience may be interested in and what they want to see. This can then allow for a great final magazine where the reader will enjoy the magazines content.

Music Magazine Task 1

Music Magazine Task 1

A music magazine is a magazine that tailors to music fans and people interested in music culture.

Music Magazines go back to BNG that was released in the UK in 1903 and is still selling to this date. the oldest magazine worldwide is billboard from 1894. Although with the rise in technology i think music magazines will eventually disappear as they will branch out into websites and make money through subscriptions and advertising. Although i think only a few very popular magazines will remain, these magazines include NME, Q and MOJO. This is because they have a very large fan base even though they are losing sales every year.

Each magazine has a particular genre it aims at this allows for a varied fan base to other magazines as the reader can relate to each magazine. Music genres in magazines vary from pop to rock to heavy metal. NME has lead sales in the UK since 1952. NME focus on rock but occasionally very through other genres. Q is a popular UK magazine and is published by Bauer media group.Mojo is a popular magazine initially by emap, and since january 2008 by baur, monthly in the united kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q,publishers emap were looking for a title which could cater for the burgeoning interests inclassical rock. 

My favourite artist is example because his music varies and i have quite an eclectic taste in music. Also his music changes throughout his albums which gives his music some variety and uniqueness as he works with a lot of artists from a number of genres.

 

A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to people that are interested in music and specifically a certain genre as magazines mainly have a specific genre they specialise in.

Music magazines come in a very large range of genres and in some cases sub-genres, these include rock, pop, rap, indie, electronic, house, country. Each genre of magazine usually has a specific layout or setting to better suit its target audience and what they like and there interests are, for example the layout for a heavy metal cover would be more dark and maybe stand out more than a country magazine.

Introduction Blog

Introduction Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog!

As part of my AS Media Study A-Level i will have to keep a blog, in this blog you will find:

• My Planning throughout the course
• My Evaluation
• My Research
• My Final Piece

 To support the research i will provide videos and images in my blogs. Also, i have purchased specific music magazines that focuses on the music genre i have chosen. This is to get a better understanding of the layout of music magazines. An example of a music magazine is Q, Q is a very popular music magazine that once specifically used classical rock, now it has became more and more popular it has grown and used a variety of genres.

About Me

I am currently studying media, art and english language.

I am interested in media because i like to watch films and regularly go the cinema. I am also interested in a lot of genres of music such as alternative, dance, electronic, rock and acoustic. I am also interested in video games and football.