Evaluation

The ways in which my R&B magazine develops forms and conventions of real music magazines is through research examples of magazines currently on the market. I used the conventions of the magazine ‘Billboard’ to enable me to make my magazine look like a real music magazine. The main image on the ‘Billboard’ magazine of ‘Ciara’ is most dominant on the page is taken using a long shot, following this convention on my main image on my front cover, using a glamorous looking model. The main image on my front cover magazine is part of constructing my magazine I used a black sparkling dress as part of the costume on my model for my main image on my front cover and black and gold jewellery used for the props and black and gold makeup used to fit the theme colours used of black and gold for the effect of making the photo stand out, and glisten, and also make the magazine look professional and sophisticated. The position of the image was significant as it was most dominate and drew in the audience. Also through the use of font on the ‘Billboard’ magazine consists of a big bold font that is placed on top of the magazine. The masthead is similar to my music front cover ‘Rhythm’ which I have used a bold font to catch the audiences eye. I have also followed the layout of the Billboard magazine, of positioning my conventions on the magazine as the straplines is overlapping the image, and the main strapline are placed on top of the image ‘Ciara’ similar to my magazine where my main strapline is ‘Nisha’, which is placed on my main image. So I was working on building up layers on my magazine. The use of colours used was limited of the use of sophisticated colours brown, black, and gold used on my magazine as it makes the magazine look realistic and professional. From the research I have undertaken looking at real R&B magazines for instance ‘Billboard.’
My music magazine does target a particular social group. The whole theme of my magazine is based around the music genre of R&B, and can be shown to be part of the audience’s culture, as R&B is a style of music and can be represented in a certain way to create the genre. Similarly I created my music magazine with the target audience in mind as I tried to follow the form and conventions of real R&B magazines to create my magazine. The way people look and the way people speak has a big influence on this type of genre. I used colloquial language that would appeal to and reflect my audiences taste, for example ‘Ciara’s Comback’ this influence the reader to recognise the genre of the magazine. Also through the way the model looks like on my main image on my front cover magazine, I have represented the particular social group as my target audience is as being fashionable, glamorous and unique.
The media institution that might distribute my R&B music magazine would be ‘The Nielson Company’ which distributes R&B magazines for example distributing existing magazines for example ‘Rap Up’ and ‘Billboard’. This helped me construct my R&B magazine, ‘Rhythm’ as I followed the form and conventions of real magazines for example ‘Billboard’ and ‘Rap Up.’ The media institutions might distribute my R&B magazine as my magazine fits the portfolio. The target audience for my R&B music magazine ‘Rhythm’ is targeted at 16-25 years of age. I have used a young female model to represent the target audience, so they can see her as a role model and someone to aspire to. The way in which I aim to address my target audience is through the content on my front cover for example ‘Top Ten R&B tunes’ as this related to the genre of the magazine and also content page and double page spread. Through the mise en scene to make it familiar to my target audience is I placed the images on the middle of my front cover to give the impression that the main message of the magazine is the main image which is the most dominate on the front cover. I also placed three images on my double page spread, which is as conventionally double page spreads of R&B magazines place the images where I placed mine, for example the ‘Rap Up double page spread which the main image is placed on the left hand side of the magazine.
Also through the communication of my magazine. From using Photoshop I have learnt about technologies throughout the process of constructing my music magazine is that I have developed many, as I can use ICT effectively to combine images and text. Also I have produced my magazine so that it clearly communicates to the reader through the use of font and size used and also the use of colours, using Photoshop to help produce this effect. An example of this is the use of colour used of ‘yellow’ helps to clearly communicate what is on the magazine with the use of bright colours. I can also use a camera appropriately in ways in which I can hold a shot steady, and shooting material appropriately, thinking about the rule of thirds and also selecting mise en scene including figure, colour, makeup, props and camera work as I used different types of shots to help show the connotation that the music genre of my music magazine includes.
For my magazine I am able to use conventions published on my magazines and established values to enable the reader to understand and relate the material appropriately. Also editing with appropriate transitions and effects so that meaning is apparent to the viewer. I also manipulated the original images I have used appropriately to the context for the presentation, to show an R&B magazine as I used lasso tool in Photoshop to crop around my original images and also resized them. I have also learnt about showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text sizes. For example the masthead ‘Rhythm’ is a slightly larger size and positioned across of the top of my magazine compared to the straplines for example ‘Ciara’s comeback’ which indicates what my masthead and straplines are.
From the preliminary task, I have progressed significantly to the full product of the music magazine. I have improved my foundation portfolio production work from the preliminary task of creating a college front cover and contents page to my front cover R&B magazine, contents page and double page spread. I have learnt not to overwhelm and to limit the amount of conventions I place on my magazine, as I would be not be following the form and conventions of real magazines. Also I have acknowledged that magazines in general have to follow a consistent layout. Also more effort was put in taking the images as I thought more about the mise en scene which is encoded though costume, lighting, makeup, props and setting used. I have also learnt that market research is a success to achieve a successful magazine, as it gives you an insight of how real music magazines look. I also created a questionnaire on audience feedback on R&B magazines for example the results from some of the questions that are on my questionnaire are that the audience believed that R&B magazines consist of a consistent layout which is following the same colour scheme throughout and also same font to help the audience easily recognise the magazine it belongs from. As I used consistent colours, as I only used three colours with the use of black, gold and brown as I believe that creating a questionnaire can also help you to gain more knowledge, on how a R&B magazines look generally and from this I felt more confident creating my music magazine, compared to my college magazine, as I struggled to get feedback on how college magazines are portrayed conventionally as I did not create a evaluation for the preliminary task. .