My Cover

After much deliberation and work in general, I have constructed the cover.

The cover took a while to construct but I was, on the whole, pleased with it. I will justify my decisions in the evaluation - the last part of the project.

The cover that was the most popular style in the questionnaire (and shown below) was a heavy influence on my final cover. The minimalistic style (with one image and a simple colour scheme) was evident on my cover.

My Main Image

I have now taken a variety of images, each consisting of one of two people. I have chosen the following as the image for my cover. I have chosen it due to the direct mode of address and the fact that is, to put it plainly, a good picture.

I shall include this image on my front cover after inverting the colours. The colour inversion will give the magazine a nostalgic edge thereby conforming to my conventions.

Construction - Finding an Image

Now that I have completed my 'Zine!' practice cover and contents page, I will now begin creating my 'real' magazine. The first step is the cover and the first step for creating the cover is acquiring a main image. To acquire this main image, I shall take photos of a cover star that would be appropriate for my target audience and the genre I am covering.

I have decided to take pictures of my friend, Liam Oakley. I believe he will appeal to my demographic whilst being a plausible frontman of a band.

Practice Magazine Construction part 2 - Zine contents page

After completing my 'Zine!' cover page, I moved on to the contents page. I was hoping, once again, that the construction of my practice piece would aid my proper piece.

This is my completed contents page:

Practice Construction Work

I have now begun to create a practice cover and contents page in preparation for my real magazine. The cover will be for 'Zine!', the college magazine.

I have encountered Photoshop previously, but never this advanced. This is my first cover attempt:

I have now begun to create the contents page for 'Zine!'. I am hoping it will be similarly helpful.

In retrospect, the cover was incredibly poor. However, it helped my development of the real magazine thus making it worthwhile. It helped me learn how to implement cover lines and how to affectively create a render of a main image.

Analysis Completion part 2

After finishing the advert analysis; all that was left to complete was the contents page analysis.

I decided to compare a 'Q.' contents page and a 'Kerrang!' contents page. This was due to the fact that they are vastly contrasting magazines and, as such, analysing them will help to establish the conventions of an indie magazine in contrast to another genre's conventions.

The analysis is featured below:

I am analysing the two covers featured above; one belonging to ‘Q.’, the other belonging to ‘Kerrang!’. They are vastly differing contents page hence appealing to their vastly differing target audiences. Whereas ‘Q.’ appeals to a fan of, albeit mainstream, rock, ‘Kerrang!’ appeals to fans of heavy metal music. Moreover, ‘Q.’ appeals to an older audience that would, predominantly, be reasonably intelligent. Conversely, ‘Kerrang!’ appeals to a younger audience, consisting of mainly pre-teens and teenagers, therefore, the audience appeals to a less intelligent audience. This difference in target audiences is why the magazines are so different and the contents pages’ are no exception.

‘Q.’s contents page is much more organised with clearer labels to signify each section and only one image whilst the descriptions are fitted around this image. This is juxtaposed by the plethora of images and the lack of clearly labelled sections on ‘Kerrang!’s contents page. The lack of organisation will appeal to their particular demographic as they will see the superfluity of images and feel there is more to read than if there were no images thus being attracted to the magazine from the off. Furthermore, the contents page isn’t conventional due to the mixture of images and text thereby creating the pretence that the magazine is anarchic – a key factor in the movement of heavy metal and ‘emo’ fans. This further entices them to read thus achieving the magazine creator’s goal.

Furthermore, the colour schemes contrast each other immensely. Whereas ‘Q.’ stick to red, black and white, ‘Kerrang!’ implements several different colours – yellow, black, white, red and blue – although some of the colours are more dominant than other, they are all contained in one A4 sheet of paper. This contrast of colour reflects the difference in their target audience; whereas ‘Kerrang!’ needs to attract it’s younger and easier influenced audience with bright colours; ‘Q.’ lets the music be the focal point of the magazine – the simplistic colour scheme meaning the readers are not distracted from the content.

One element of the contents pages that are similar, however, is the conventional title of the article followed by a less brief description of the article. The use of this convention in both contents pages connotes that it is a tried and tested formula and that most, if not all, music magazines use this style in their contents pages.

Analysis Completion

I have now almost finished the analysis stage of my coursework. Before the construction of my magazine, I have to complete the comparative analyses of 2 contents pages' and 2 adverts.

I began the advert analysis, deciding to compare an advert for two vastly contrasting films, 'Control' and 'Wall-E'. Despite the fact that I am not creating an advert, it will help my contextual understanding of the magazines. The analysis is below:

The advert I will be analysing was featured in Q. and is about a film called ‘Control’, which is based on the life and times of Ian Curtis, front man of Joy Division. The advert is shown below:

The fact that the film is based around indie music forerunner Ian Curtis is a salient enough reason to feature in a relatively indie-based music magazine. The decision to include the advert in ‘Q.’ is more likely to attract audiences to the film than if it was in, for instance, ‘Kerrang’ as the film appeals to the target audience of the magazine.

The advert itself uses several conventions to convey meaning. There is one main image, thus signifying that this male is the focal point of the film. The inclusion of a cigarette in the advert could also represent his anarchy and, eventually, his downfall.

The picture is in black and white, which holds connotations that the film is focusing on a life in the past whilst reinforcing the biopic style of the film by making it seem like a natural photo (further re-iterated through the lack of direct address from ‘Ian Curtis’). Furthermore, the previously mentioned black and white colour scheme is starkly juxtaposed by the bright purple text. This means that the text in purple denotes elements of the poster that they want to emphasise. This is exemplified by the fact that the title of the film is in purple and extremely large as to make the name of the film clear.

There are also quotes from reviews of the film down the left. They are all positive as to give the impression that the film has enjoyed critical acclaim and to inform the potential viewer of the positives the film boasts. Moreover, the quotes are in purple, as to force the reader to focus on the positive reviews (due to the juxtaposition of colours) thus enticing them.

The main actor’s and the director’s names are in grey thus putting the aforementioned aspects of the poster to the forefront of the poster. This connotes that the people working on the film are not as important as the film itself. Furthermore, the decision also helps to ensure that the film retains a sense of reality as the film is a documentary, the actors should be emphasised as it’s meant to be real life.

The other advert I will be analysing is an advert featured in ‘Smash Hits’ about the film ‘Wall-E’:

The films are vastly differing films that cater to extremely different target audiences. This is reflected in the difference of the magazine’s target audiences. Whereas ‘Q.’ appeals to an older, more mature audience, ‘Smash Hits’ appeals to a younger audience consisting of mainly pre-teens. As such, they are more likely to want to see Wall-E, hence the inclusion of the advert in the magazine.

The advert uses similar conventions to ‘Control’ but uses them to convey a completely different meaning. For instance, there is one significant image – of the robot Wall-E looking into space. As with ‘Control’, the poster shows one being thus suggesting that they are the main character. The picture is clearly a still from the film, there is not much text as they want the powerful image to speak for itself. The text suggests the plotline of the film. Conversely, ‘Control’ doesn’t reveal the plotline. This is due to the fact that, whilst ‘Wall-E’s target audience needs to be told the premise of the film as they would quickly forget the film’s image without relating it to a plot, the target audience for ‘Control’ would investigate further into the Joy Division-related film.

Whereas ‘Control’s colour scheme is dark and sombre (hence reflecting the mood of the film), ‘Wall-E’s is vibrant and bright. This, yet again, reflects the difference in the audience they are attempting to appeal to – a younger audience would generally be attracted to brighter colours whereas an older audience would appreciated a black and white colour scheme more due to the eminence of black and white in ‘their day’.

The line “From the creators of Finding Nemo” further signifies their target audience – those who would be fans of Finding Nemo, a fellow Disney animation. The youngsters would see this and want to see it if they were fans of ‘Finding Nemo’, thus enticing them to see the film more.