Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions

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2. How does your media product represent particluar social groups?

Representation

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3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
While looking for publishers we stumbled upon the Guardian Media Group. This publisher seemed perfect for the publication of our magazine because of the similarities with what they already publish. GMG work on the radio stations like Smooth Radio/ Jazz FM and they also publish the newspaper The Guardian. These are the exact type of mediums my audience would read and listen to as The Guardian is a fairly mature newspaper and my target audience are mature. Smooth and Jazz Radio offer easy listening music which my magazine offer also. Therefore this would be publisher for my magazine as they already have the experience and is successful in delivering for the niche population. My audience would find easy to make the link the successfullness of Smooth Radio and such and think my magazine was just as good because of GMG's amazing publishing.

4. Who would be the audience for your media project? Our Readers enjoy:
Listening to radio stations like Smooth Radio or Heart 106.2 or even Magic 105.4 because I believe these stations offer cool, smooth, niche music which my auidence appreciate.
My audience also like to collect lots of records and CD's of their favourite artists and prefer to listen to 80's or 90's making them feel nostalgic.

Style of Audience
My audience are aspirers as well as indiviualists as they want to not only listen to music but take an active roll in the making of their own music. They are passionate about playing an instrument and truely apreciate music being their most loved hobby.
My audience are a very stylish audience as well with fashion being their many loves. What they wear when they play an instrument is as showcase for who they are.
They like to apreciate the classic musicians like Barry White, Marvin Gaye or Teddy Pendagrass.
Finally, my audience are define as indiviualists as they don't just go along with the crowd and listen to mainstream music.

Characteristics of Audience
- Middle-Class
- Prefer broadsheet newspapers to tabloids e.g. The Guardian as oppose to The Sun
- Appreciate the finer music
- Are musicians themselves
- Use the internet
- Age 25+
- The audience has a mixture of males and females

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Attracting My Audience

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6. What new technologies have you learnt in the process of constructing the product?

Media Technologies

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7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Progression

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Mise-en-scene

Mise En Scene (Props)

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Article Analysis

The heading serves as an intertextuality with a real song called -
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and could be used to connote enigma, to make the reader go 'hmm that sounds familiar'. Also behind the heading you can ever so slightly make out two XX's which is the band's name and logo and the fact that it is hidden within the darkness of the page reienforces the heading.

The very interview itself is written in continuous prose suggesting a journalist or reporter style of text which signifies the bands importance.
The main image of the band themselves looks very dark and very shadowy. The members themselves almost look evil and sinister - they're wearing all black and their eyes look possessed which also serves to reinforce the title. The very fact that there is a shadow around them makes you think that that is their other self their darker self, the evil within them almost manifesting itself in a shadow so we can see it. It makes the band seem supernatural and unique, that about there's something special about them making audience want to read more about them.

The next page illustrates the rest of the article. If you read through the article you will notice several 'XX' being placed under some of the paragraphs. This a syncronised motif and ties in with the title of the band. X can connote several several different things. X could stand for target(x marks the spot) or maybe it could be a roman numeral for 10 but I think they probably intended it to connote death. Darkness and death are pretty similar themes and the fact that there are two X's could probably mean that they want to cheat death because of course you can't ie twice. They want to rebel, they want to be different and thereare similarities with this band and with the teenagers of today they're young and they seem like they want to targetting teenagers in particular because this is generally what the teens of today would be doing (rebelling and lstening to rock music and going goth or whatever).

The several additional images all seem to have a recurring theme; it is the fact that none of the images show the artists actually looking at the camera. One shot even has the use of backlighting to make the artist look like a silhouette or a shadowwhich links to their title and their themes. This could imply one thing: that they do not want to show their faces because it sort of links to the enigmatic of the title. Meaning within darkness, nobody is seen sort of suggesting they want to remain anonymous and not be swept away by the stardom of being professional musicians.
Finally, I notice at the bottom of the page their is a little floating quote saying - " I'm reluctant to go into detail about my lyrics. I don't want to destroy anyone's interpretation of the songs" Oliver Sim.
This made my realise that this band seems to be so into their own music that they don't want to be the ones to spoil for everyone else and by scrutinising their lyrics in detail it's sort of ruins everyone's own interpretation of the lyrics, by saying what the lyrics actually mean your not letting your audience imagine and explore your music their own. That would be one of the key reasons one would listen to The XX because everyone would love them for different reasons and they would discuss it with their friends and soon contributing to word of mouth and thus boosting their popularity.

Written Article

Following a whirlwind 2009, Ray Matthews shows absolutely no sign of letting up. With the release of critically acclaimed new single "Doubt" already stamped down as an early achievement, 2010 looks set to reap even more success for one of Britain’s most refreshing and unique new musician. Yet, despite such widespread praise Matthews is certainly not going to let it get to his head. For all the positives the past twelve months have brought, the emphasis remains on improvement and evolution. Talking tours, meeting new people or writing new songs it is clear that the new man of soul’s feet remain firmly on the ground.

Congratulations on "Doubt". It's got a great reception, you must be very proud of it?

Definitely, I truly really feel I've achieved something. When I look back at the start, about two years ago, becoming this big seemed like a dream come true. But I was able to get this far in terms of writing the songs and tabs, I’ve met so many people along the way and it’s been a real journey. But I’m really happy with it all. In terms of the artwork, the videos, the songs, the track listing, I’m really happy.

Your single is quite deep and controversial what is it all about and why did you choose to make this your first hit?

"Doubt" can mean many things to different people. It can be basically described as – “life without meaning leads to doubt and frustration, life with meaning can open all sorts of possibilities” The lyrics basically sum it up. I was going through quite a tough time before this whole music thing came about. I was stuck in a dead end job, not doing very well in studies or with the ladies. I had honestly given up hope. Why was I put on this Earth? There had to be more to life. The only thing that kept me going was my guitar. I felt like I was in my own world when I started playing, that I was something more. Me and my guitar have been quite a journey since then. I feel like it’s like my companion and that we’re going to conquer the world together.

Do you have a particular favourite track from the album?

If I'm being honest I haven't listened to it since we’d finished it, and that kind of surprises me. I used to watch programs like Top of the Pops when I was a kid, and they had these big bands on who would say “We don't listen to our own music”, and I couldn't understand why. But I understand now, it kind of goes past that. It's almost as if I know it so well, I don't need to listen to it, I've kind of moved on from it. But there are lots of high points on there. I grown very fond of “Doubt” as the albums centrepiece, I felt it was quite bold to put a six minute instrumental in the middle of the album. But, I’m very fond of it; it's a cheeky little tune.

You're just about to kick off a UK tour, how are you looking forward to that?

Of course. There’s a new bus with fourteen bunks, which is quite exciting, a different bunk every night I think! But no it's very exciting, there are a lot of places that I’ve never played before, a lot of places I haven't seen before, like Leamington, Suffolk, places like that. There's definitely a lot of excitement around the band about it. Every show I like to give the audience something special , something that's exciting and explosive and we work closely with our lighting guy so I've got something that's really entertaining.

I'm sure you've heard a lot of the comparisons between you and other successful artists such as Jason Mraz or John Mayer, what would you say you offer that makes you unique and sets you apart from these comparisons?

I’m just city kid from North West London; I’m nowhere near as famous as those two artists. I would find it impossible to compare between us. However soulfully, I take a lot of influence from them and other soul artists. I’m really inspired by this whole new generation of musicians that are as passionate about music as I am. This genre is so open to possibilities, I don’t feel like a soul artist but a little of everything else. Over these past few months I’ve worked artist like Dizze Rascal, Florence and the Machine and even Kasabian. I feel like I’ve had quite a rollercoaster of a journey over this last year and experiencing all these different styles of music has allowed me to broaden my own style. I’m not just your typical soul artist; I’ve got jazz, rock, R&B, Techno...the lot. I think that’s what makes me unique.

You played a fair few festivals last summer, where can we expect to see you this year?

This year should be a lot more enjoyable really. Last summer was like putting my toe in the water, but this year I start off with Coachella which is something I’m really looking forward to. In terms of other festivals in the UK we've got Smooth Radio’s Big Weekend to be confirmed, hopefully Glastonbury which will be great for us, T in the Park, maybe Oxygen. There’s also got Creamfields, Reading and Leeds and of course Bestival at the end of it all. There are lots of things cropping up that I can hardly wait for so I hope to have some real fun this year.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out, knowing what you know?

Well, I’m not going to lie to you, it took ages to get to where I am now. But I never gave up, I kept at it. And you know what, you’ve got to sell yourself. You’ve got to put yourself out there, business cards, advertisements, auditions: the lot. My whole town practically new who I was.

It's been almost a year since the release of debut single “Long Forgotten Sons”. You've had a lot happen since then, where do you see yourselves a year on from now?

I'd like to think I've finished the album cycle now. For example Florence And The Machine has done fantastically well, and she's still got another single to come which is a testament to the song writing on the album, but I don't think I'd like to tour our album for what would be another 11 months. But in reality that is probably what will happen. On another level, in 11 months time I'd like to have another release out. At the end of this year the aim is to have either an EP or another single out, and by January we'd probably hope to have a large portion of the next album under my belt, so I'd like to keep things snappy and keep on writing. Hopefully I'll be trying new things and changing myself in different ways.

Finally, if you describe your new found success in three words, what would they be?

Amazing, Awesome, Unbelievable

Pictures

This seemed like a good picture to use because he's not looking at the camera and looks like i'm fully immersed in playing the drums. The light from the windows sort of creates a silhouette around me, making me look almost anonymous.


A high angle shot of me playing seems good. You seem to get more of the drums than the instrument however and my hand looks a little blurry.


This shot sort of establishes the drum kit as a whole. Makes me look a little small compared to the drum kit though.


I chose this picture because this high-angle shot shows more of me and shows the kit as a whole.


This picture was picked because I wanted it to seem as if he is introspective while playing the guitar. You don't see his face so this seemed sort of like a negative. But the majority of the shot shows the beauty of nature which suggests his music is beautiful.


I picked this shot because you can see the artist's face but he's not directly looking at you. I want pictures that show the instrument and the artist together as if they are nothing without each other.


I believe this shot was effective because you can see his facial expression. He's not neautral, it's more like he's calm or peaceful. It's as if he is peaceful when he is playing his guitar.


I decide to get a shot of him standing up. This time he's not playing the guitar, he's holding it. Him looking off into the distance looks like he's about to go off on a journey with his guitar. It gives off a sort of natural feel to the picture.

Contents Page Sketch

This is the sketch of my contents page. In this sketch I have demonstrated my layout and features for the magazine. I made my main image the biggest picture because this image contains the main artist that is going to be interviewed in the magazine. Making the image big makes the artist seem like the most important and it is easy for the reader to identify it on the page because it is eye-catching. I have decided to include my magazine front cover in the corner of my contents because I feel like this adds a certain theme of sophistication. The two additional images would serve as accompanying artists who are going to be interviewed in the magazine and I think including their images makes them accessible to the audience - The audience know their face.
Having one section for the main features column details the contents in the within the magazine directing the reader to where the best news in the magazine will be.
The section next to the contents masthead would be reserved for the editors invoice where I would describe to the readers the contents of my magazine. This helps the reader to familiarise themselves with the magazine before they actually start reading the contents.

Contents Page Analysis - NME

There are a lot pictures used so you could say that this magazine targetted at a younger audience, maybe 14-19. I say this because the pictures show young teen musicians having fun and 'rocking out'. This can relate to the target audience as 14-19 age range can be a time when teenagers start to rebel (smoke, drink, get tatoos)and listen to rock music which is the main genre of Kerrang! magazine.

As you can see, the font is simplistic, as opposed to the contents masthead the rest of the cell lines are in capitals to make them stand out more. The use of the colour is very bold because it is a bright colour and the most eye catching colour on the page. Yellow could suggest hapiness in a teens life, maybe going out and partying because yellow connotes happiness. The rest of the page is black and white, this could also relate the audience as teens may decide to go goth or emo and decide they really like the colour black, so it's not just targetting teenagers in a broad sense, it's targetting a wide variety of teenagers.

The contents page looks well organised as opposed to "DRUMMER" contents page, there is a stronger use of images. This could be due to the target audience. Teenagers don't want to read large amounts of text, they do enough of that at school. Simple pictures of their favourite band or artist is enough to tell the consumer that this is the magazine for them. The page number and title of the artist or article title and a description sentence is positioned just under the picture, a simple guide for the reader to get to the artist they want to read about first. The largest picture must be one of their big articles. Making the picture big automatically makes it eye catching because that's the first thing we'd see when we turn the page. The image is of an artist from "Cancer Rats", shirtless, with tatoos and pointing two fingers up at the camera. This suggests despite all the success of being a rock star he's still just like a teenager because he look rebellious with all the tatoos and bandana. The two fingers also imply that he 'don't listen to noone, he does what he wants, when he wants' stereotypicial of a rebellious teen; the audience can relate to the magazine because of this picture.
The shirtlessness could imply a bit of sex appeal. This magazine looks very male dominated - Bold font, plain colours, pictures of mainly men. It seems like a masculine targeted magazine. The fact that he's shirtless could suggest that it's targetted at women aswell as men.

There is a quote situated under the masthead stating - "My favourite dance move is the Spider Walk..." BERT McMRACKEN, THE USED. This has been put here because it is an insight into the world of a famous musican for the audience. They would feel more connected to the artist after reading this statement and maybe even relate to the artist because maybe their own favourite dance move is the 'Spider Walk'.

Finally, the bottom left shows a promotional feature the magazine is offering. It says it can deliver KERRANG! straight to your doorstep. This maybe placed here for regular customers, to keep regulars still feeling like they're wanted and not just target new customers.

Contents Page Analysis - DRUMMER

This magazine contents page looks well structured and easy to look at. In some ways because of the use of the simple colours and fonts it is somewhat sophisticated and they don't bother faffing around with needless bright colours and colourful pictures. In some ways this is subversive because most 'rock' style music magazines tend to target younger audience with flashy images and lots of colour. The sophistication of the front cover could still target a young audiencebut it starts to target a more older audience. Therefore this magazine is trying to broaden audience through it's colour scheme and layout.

The image of the drum set next to the title is put purposely. Drums are big and make loud noise, the typography of the masthead reflects this because the masthead is also big and chunky; this magazine would see to target a more masculine because of this. I would even go so far as to say the two 'M's look like the two bass drums in the picture.

The main image illustrates a professional drummer at his set which suggests that proffesional artists are going to be interviewed in the magazine. This is effective because it attracts newly starting out drummers and fans of the instrument to buy the magazine because they think they'll get interesting information from the professionals themselves.
The main image is in a black and white colour scheme and the drummer is wearing and baseball cap. These are all suggestive mise-en-scene that this magazine is targeting the rock genre.

The small pictures are layed out around the main image and they all seem to have something in common, the all have a common colour scheme in the picture: red, black and white. I believe this is effective to the overall sophisticated feel the magazine is trying to portray.

The word 'EXCLUSIVE' is written next to one of the subheadings interviews. This word is a superlative and is used to attract audiences because audiences believe that this is the only magazine with an interview with this artist making the magazine more valuble.

Final Masthead Design

Final Design Masthead

Without the box around the masthead, the type was a little bland and flat after removing the box so I added effects to it (Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Bevel and Emboss, Gradient Overlay). These effects allowed the masthead to stand out more and with the new masthead my front cover looked a lot neater.

Experimenting on Photoshop - Filters

Front Cover Image Design with "Torn Edges" Filter
I chose this filter because it makes my main image look almost like a silhouette. I wanted the audience to not feel attatched to the artist because the artist is so emotionally involved with his music, it shouldn't matter whether he's famous or not.


Front Cover Image Design with "Plaster" Filter
This filter seemed effective because of the metallic effect it gave to my main image. I liked this because not only did it give my artist silhouette image again, it make the guitar look almost like a 'trophy'. It's as if the guitar is essential in his life, it is the 'key' to his music. I feel this filter highlighted the guitar more.


Front Cover Image Design with "Dark Strokes" Filter
This filter is really good because it makes my main image almost look like a painting. I like this feature because that is the message I want to send out to my audience - that soul music is like an art. This is also affective becausemy artist isn't looking at the camera. He's so emersed in his guitar it shows a certain degree of sophistication.


Front Cover Image Design with "Conte Crayon" Filter
This filter is interesting it makes my main image black and white, similar to the Plaster filter. I like this because it looks pretty sophisticated. It suggests that it doesn't need colour, that image itself is powerful enough to attract audience to my magazine.


Front Cover Image Design with "Cut Out" Filter
The same as the Dark Strokes filter only a darker shade. I like this filter a little bit more because the background isn't too bright that it would distract from the main image. It's easy on the eye and looks very deep an sophisticated.

Pictures

I figured this low angle shot of my artist made him look superior. I wanted to capture his facial expressions while he was playing the guitar. However the ceiling is not really what I wanted.

This mid-shot shows all of the artist and all of the guitar in the shot. His body posture is fairly casual, cross legged, it's as if he's just casually playing the guitar.

This is initially the picture I chose for my front page. I turned of one of the lights around the artist to create this sort of dark shadow behind him to make him look a little mysterious and dark. It made the picture look more professional and I think this picture would appeal to audiences.

Another picture I took with one of the lights off. I think this picture was a little unsuccessful because you don't really see enough of his face. Though having his back towards the camera gives him that rebel look.



These three pictures were also unsuccessful because I wanted to have him turned away from the camera but still see his faceand body. These were the set of pictures where I had the light infont of him turned off and the light behind him turned on to make his face shadowed but it didn't come out so well.

A side of view of my artist to try and get all of his body posture. I believe this was a successful picture.

This didn't come out so well as it is slightly blurry. you don't see his face at all.

I wanted the theme of direct address to apply. He's smiling and looking at the camera directly addressing the audience the smile also suggests a bit of sex appeal.

Second Masthead Design

Second Masthead Design

We were happy with this design as we thought the box made the masthead stick out more and it would look sophisticated like VIBE or XXL's mastheads. The colours are warm, gold colours (sort of a sunrise/sunset feel, will make the consumer feel easy going) and not too bright and flashy, our target audience is 25+, there's no need for it to be too flashy to attract sales, they're mature enough to buy a magazine for it's content not just the front cover. I added the puff - 'Love Soul. Love Smooth.' which I think is an effective puff because if you love soul music you will love our magazine but of course the puff needed to be short, snappy and memorable, the repitition of the word love allowed to be that more memorable. The puff couldn't be the same colour as the masthead because it's not part of the main title, it had to be seperate.

Experimenting on Photoshop - Masthead

These are several experimentations with a box around the masthead (which we thought sort of worked well in our last masthead except without the purple lighting. A simple black box is all that was needed) with various different fonts. Red seemed like a good colour at the time, it's bold, dynamic but not connoting the Soul genre. Maybe silver, silver connotes shine or metal, not very "soul" but it looked good. Eventually gold became a really good colour which not only comlimented the box but what themes our magazine was trying to sell; gold connotes luxury, wealth, shine, maybe even the sun (e.g. waking up one morning, sun is beaming in your face and a good soul song comes on the radio) It's simple, sophisticated and really good looking.

First Masthead Design

First Masthead Design

I believed this would be a good masthead to work with as the dark colours portrayed maturity and that soul is a very niche genre and dark colours sort of represent that because, like silhouette, make the genre seem unknown.
We decided to re-think the masthead because the font seemed too bold, it almosr seemed like the masthead was shouting at you and that's not what our magazine is trying to suggest. Soul music is supposed to be cool and easy going. This font sort of looks like one of those old army film Rambo fonts (not very "smooth"). The colour almost seemed too dark but we didn't want the purple too bright otherwise it wouldn't be targeting our specific audience.

Experimenting on Photoshop - Mastheads

Messing around with different fonts for my masthead. I don't really have a main idea right now just dicussing with the group which of the various fonts looks good or not.
The second image shows the remaining fonts that we're selected or we felt probably deserved a place on our magazine. These fonts we're selected because they seemed to provide a sense of professionalism and hold an official touch, without looking too bland, fancy or complicated. I particularly the silvery one. It seems funky and eye catching. I might decide to use silvery colour scheme because silver connotes wealth and shine which I think might be suitable for my magazine.