MoodBoard

This is a moodboard of how I would like my target audience to look like and these are some of the intrests I'd like them to have.

Audience Research.

Audience Research.

Audience Research.

Audience Research.

Audience Research.

Audience Research.

Audience Research.

Audience Research.

For my Audience research I ask a couple of my friends for their advise using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Here is the feedback I got from them.

Textual Analysis of Q magazine.

Denotation:

This magazine cover consists of a medium long shot image of a man kneeling over his guitar. It looks like the picture has gone through post production after the shoot and the background has been cut off, leaving the plain white of a sheet and other images and cover lines filling the page. There is a masthead behind the mans right hand shoulder and multiple cover lines just below the masthead. There is also a text box visible on the left side of the man and a bar code too.

Masthead:

Q magazine has always used a Georgia font 'Q' as their masthead, it is always written in white above a red square on the top left and corner of the page. It is very simple and only one letter so it's easy for the audience to remember. Also in the music industry the letter q reminds me of the band queen which may suggest that the magazine is targeted at rock lovers.

Character:

The model on the front cover is famous late American electric guitarist Jimi Hendrix.

Composition:

He has been directed to kneel and pull on the guitar strings. He is also pulling a face which shows that he is pulling the strings with force. This is stereotypical of ho violent and rebellious rock stars are.

Costume:

He is wearing a navy blue with gold stitching high ranking sailor type blazer which has been customised and has fur added to it, he is also wearing a lot of gold jewellery and brown pinstriped trousers. This shows his wealth.

NVC:

He looks very aggressive in this image, and he looks forceful on the guitar. Almost like he is pulling with passion on the strings. This gives the audience the idea that he both loves and hates his career or the fame it has brought him.

Lighting:

Like all other magazine covers I have looked at this cover also uses high key lighting to give warmth and a sense of security to the audience. 

Setting:

We are unaware of the setting but because the image has been cut out I think it was originally shot in front of a green screen in a photographic studio. 

Cover lines:

The main cover line just like in the 'Billboard' magazine is bolder than the rest. It is placed directly under the masthead and is written in black and in Arial Black font. All the text on this cover is written in black but it is the font that changes. Under the main cover line that reads 'Wild Thing' there is a brief written in Arial. There are two smaller cover lines and an image which isn't of the main model under the main cover line, This allows the readers to relate to the other musicians featured in the issue. The smaller cover lines also suggest that there is gossip and entertaining articles the audience would be interested in. 

Text Box:

The text box which is usually used on the contents page appears on the cover of the magazine. It gives readers information on what reviews the magazine has inside.

Target audience:

Having analysed all of this,it seems like the target audience for this magazine would be males aged between 16-35 as it focuses on the dark side of rock stars. 

Textual Analysis of Billboard magazine.

Denotation:

The magazine cover consists of a medium close up shot of a womans face being supported by her left hand exposing her wedding/promise ring. We cannot really see the background of the image as the womans hair has been blown out and left in loose curls that make it look bigger and fuller and covers most of the page. In the image the woman is looking directly at the camera as if she were directing to the audience. Across her forehead there is a title and a masthead. Like the 'Vibe' magazine there are only three main colours used, these are light blue, yellow and white. However the masthead has an extra colour of red is it. There are seven cover lines on the page and a bar code is also visible on the bottom left hand corner.

Masthead:

Billboard magazine uses a very distinctive masthead, It uses the Candara font and has three coloured circle fillers, these are blue, red and yellow. The typetography is very colourful and stands out which suggests that the magazine may be aimed and a more youthful and pop audience. This tells us that it's aimed at people who listen to pop music and are lively.

Character:

The model for this cover is the English/Sri Lanka singer M.I.A.

Composition:

The photographer has directed M.I.A too look directly at the camera and rest her head on her left arm exposing her ring finger a bit more than the others, giving the audience a glimpse of her wedding ring. In this photo she looks very calm and natural which goes against the sound of her controversial loud music.

Costume:

We can see that she is wearing a denim jacket but it is not clear, the only other costume she has on would be her make up which is subtle and natural. We can also see her wedding ring which may also be considered costume.

NVC:

her non- verbal communication is very calm and inviting, she looks shy and a bit fragile too in this shot.

Lighting:

There is high key lighting in this image, as there are no shadows cast on her skin and her face looks flawless and well lit.

Setting:

This image seems to have been taken in a photographic studio.

Cover lines:

the main cover line is in reference to the model in the cover as it reads 'Exclusive! M.I.A. on her new album, trufflegate and the art of controversy.' I say this because I know her name is M.I.A. and it is the boldest coverline on the page. The cover lines are in the same font as the masthead but just blue instead of white, (this may be the magazine's house style). By having this cover line in bold it draws the attention of the readers and tell us who the woman on the front cover is. The other cover lines are placed on the right hand side in a column. their titles are also written in blue but unlike the main cover line the briefs are written in white. These short coverlines give us an insight to what other major articles the magazine is focusing on in the issue. There is also a circled coverline above the main cover line which may suggest that it's being brought from a past issue and is updating the audience. All these coverlines tell us that the magazine is packed with gossip and entertainment.

Title:

The title placed above the masthead is a reminder of an event the magazine are hosting in New York. It targets those interested in music and advertising and gives a website readers can look up if interested. 

Target audience:

Overall, having gone over all these points it seems that the target audience for this magazine is teenagers aged between 15 and 20 who are interested in pop music and gossip about musicians. 

Textual Analysis of Vibe Magazine

Denotation:
This magazine cover consists of a profile close up image of a man's face. it is a black and white image and we only see the males scarf and face in the picture, the background is white, which helps bring out the man's facial structure. In the image the man is looking away for the camera. The image fills up the whole cover page of the magazine. slightly above the man's forehead there is a title and just below that there is a special edition masthead of Vibe. There are only three colours used on this cover which are white, black and red. There is only one cover line on the cover page which is written in red and white bold font. Nothing else is visible on this page.

Masthead:
Vibe magazines masthead is very distinctive. It uses a sans serif font and the v is always slightly italic. The typetography is very bold and clean cut which connotes that the magazine is about bold and loud characters. The name vibe also connotes that it wants the audience to feed of a certain musical energy the magazine is trying to give off. This tells us that the target audience is people who like to listen to music and feed off of it's energy.

Character:
The model for the cover is famous American rapper 'Jay-Z'.

Composition:
He has been directed to pose in a very subtle way (turning away from us) but yet still looks quite angry/aggressive or unintrested. This just conforms to stereotypical male masculinity. He looks like he holds some type of authority in this photograph.

Costume:
Because this is a close up we can't really see any form of costume apart from the Louis Vitton scarf that is wrapped around his neck. This might have been chosen to show that his music can be relate able to everyone, be it simpletons or the wealthy kids.

Non-verbal communication:
His non verbal communication is quite cold and he looks a bit uninterested in the camera but more focused on something out of the shot.

Lighting:
There seems to be a lot of high key natural light as the photograph is in black and white to bring out a more subtle image.

Setting:
There is not much too see about the setting as we can only see a plain white background.

Cover Line:
There is only one visible cover line which relates to Jay-Z's accomplishments in his career. But they do not give too much detail away as to what the actual story behind the cover line is. The cover line still uses a sans serif font which shows that the editors of the magazine want everything to look uniformed and traditional to their well known masthead font. By just having one main cover line it may make readers more interested in just one story rather than other articles in the magazine.

Title:
The title above the masthead does however give readers a bit more information on what they will be reading and what they should expect to see in the magazine. 'Juice issue' may suggest that the magazine will be giving away all of the best gossip since it was first published 15 years ago.

Target Audience:
Taking all of these points into consideration, the target audience for this magazine seems to be urban 16-30 year old people, mainly men, as it explores the history of HIP-HOP and Rap in this issue.

Conventions Diagram.

This is a similar conventions diagram to the other two but this is from a Hip-Hop magazine. It's features are much simpler and it looks cleaner than the othe two but it doesn't give you enough information.

Conventions Diagram.

This is the second Conventions diagram I created using photoshop. This is of a different music magazine called 'Billboard' even though the feature are similar to the 'NME' magazine there are some slight differences which I have spotted and explained in the diagram.

Contents Convention.

This is a contents convention diagram that I made to help me understand the different parts of a magazine's contents page. This would help me understand more of what I need to do to layout my music magazine and give me an idea of what I could include on the page. 

Kerrang Front Cover

This is the Kerrang front cover used for my research.

Music Magazine Research

After completeing the front cover of the college magazine I then went onto doing research for my music magazine. It took me a while to figure out what type of magazine I wanted to to seeing as I like all kinds of music. But at the moment I was really into house and dubstep mixes, So I researched magazines like 'INDIE' and 'KERRANG' these are the images I found of their front covers. The Kerrang one will be posted on another page because I am not able to upload multiple pictures on one post. I then decided to start creating a mock draft of the music blog to get used to the layout and how to create the magazine. For this front cover I used the producer Jamie XX. It is not yet complete.

College Contents Page

This is my college magazine contents page.

College Magazine

My First peice of work for this course was creating a college magazine. For this we took up to three images each of some of our fellow students selected by the teacher to be our models. I took this image of my classmate. I then adjusted it by turning the image 90 degrees anti clockwise before uploading it onto Photoshop CS3 to edit it further. In photoshop I mainly used the text option to write the title, cover features and price of the magazine. I did however use the transforming tool to enlargen and center some of the text on the cover, I double clicked on the text layer to add colour and other features such as 'strock','drop shadow', 'inner shadow', inner glow' and 'outer glow'. After all of this I saved it as a .psd  file.

Introduction

07/11/2011

Hello, I'm Mpho Machaka and the reason why I have this blog is to keep a record of my Media Studies coursework at Christ The King Sixth Form College. I also study Photography, English Language and Literature and Government and Politics at this college.