For this task, I analysed an article from a professional music magazine and consider how it is written. In particular, I considered the target audience and evaluated how the written word fulfils the needs, uses and pleasure of this particular media text.

The needs, uses and pleasures for the target audience includes:

• Up to date information (gigs, trends, available media…)

• Fashion ideas / new looks

• Gaining an insight into stars’ lives and personalities

• A reflection of their own values, attitudes and beliefs

 The article that I will be analysing is ‘Billboard (June 20th), HudMo’s Genreless Genius, written by Meaghan Garvey‘. By analyzing an article it is expanding my understanding of articles found in music magazines and how they draw in the target audience. The article structure consists of a four paragraph, album review. From reading the article there is a lack of presence from the journalist as his voice is only portrayed rarely through some of his own opinions. For example, ‘Mohawke transcends any pigeonholing once and for all, offering a polished vision of his genre-agnostic world’, this is one of the writers few complex opinions in the text as he goes in detail showing his own views on the album. The opinions from the journalist gives a very direct tone to the flow of the article, and focuses on the history and background of the album. Even though there are no personal pronouns being used as evidence the article is written from the 1st persons perspectives because the article revolves around the album.

The first part of the article describes the history of the album by talking about the artists past albums. At the end of the article the opinion from the journalist is summarized when he writes ” It’s a welcome deviation, and a clean slate, for a guy who doesn’t like to stay in one place too long.” This statement is very humorous for the writer as he’s trying to keep the audience interested in the article. The writer uses a lot of complex adjectives into the article to describe the music album such as, “murky psychedelics”, “grandiosity shines brightest.” these adjectives keep the reader interested in the article because they are unusual words and not boring for the audience to keep reading. 

To conclude the journalist portrays through the article that the album is successful, strong and unique. The writers purpose was to let the audience see what was included in the album and whether it is worth the money for them to buy themselves.  Through the writing, he gives his own opinions and focuses on the artist’s past to give the reader background to the album.

For my shoot, I’m going to Castle Cornet to take pictures of my models Kira Totty and Amy Grief. I’m in charge of directing my models and responsible for my camera to take the pictures. I’ve chosen Kira to wear a fur jacket as well as a bright yellow top and Amy will be wearing a floral dress with boots.

Here is my risk assessment and production meeting agenda sheets:

This is my new improved cover for my pop magazine. I have listened to my peer media students feedback and made the appropriate changes to my magazine:

• I re-positioned and added more text to the my cover including pugs, headlines and quotes from my star.
• I changed fonts and added more bright colours to my magazine so that it would become more attractive to my target audience.
• I feel like the colour choices fit my genre as well as my fonts are feminine and elegant similar to the mise-en-scene used for my model.

From making the changes to my magazine I hope that I have successfully improved the front cover to my magazine and will attract my target audience. However although I am happy with the big improvements I’ve made to my cover, I still feel like:

• the image on the front of my cover isn’t the best image I could of chosen as I feel the star does not look confident and empowered which is the key message I want to get across through my magazine.
• Next I will change my photo and background to fit my mise-en-scene I wanted to achieve.

Here is my first draft of my cover for my pop magazine. I asked another media student to comment on my magazine on their opinions of my fonts, design, pictures and layout.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR PDF

Some targets that my peer had discussed with me include:

• Incorporating more bright colours into the design.
• Add a pug and headlines for more detail to the magazine
• Re-position some of the text and change fonts

From doing my shoot, I managed to meet the aims from my Production Meeting Agenda successfully. I used all the accessories and added extra props to make my models look more effective. As well as setting up all of my flash lighting by linking to my camera which created the right amount of lighting on my model.

Here are the contact sheets from my Simply Pop music magazine photoshoot:

My best images from my shoot:

The images below are my favorite pictures I took from my shoot. This is because they portray my model as feisty, empowered and confident through the use of mise-en scene used.

For this task, I have created different mast head designs that I will use for the title of my magazine. Here are my creations:

Here is my production meeting agenda to plan my photo shoot:

Outfit Ideas:

Here is my slide share analyzing and my research into what is available currently as print magazines and also online for my genre of Pop. This research is important so I recognize the components my competition uses in order to create a successful magazine and see it as inspiration without copying so the audience won’t think my magazine is a “copycat” version of another companies.

This task included creating a Prezi presentation that represented a star of my chosen genre. My chosen star was Rihanna as I found range of media texts surrounding her. I found from researching that as a star she has many sides to her which she portrays through her singing as well as through her social media life.

Click on this image to see my presentation:

The idea of a star image links to how the star is represented through the ideologies about the individual based on their values, attitudes and beliefs which are communicated through the media and which the audience read and can assume their own. The star can portray themselves in any way they would like even if it’s not realistic. I used Rihanna as my example of the paradox of the star as she is a really focused business women who shows many of her emotions through her performances and songs.

I looked into outfits I would like to use for my own model and the facial gestures and positioning I will want my model to use. I provided the looks I would like my main model to wear: a casual outfit, natural makeup, jewelry, hairclips and a brave pose. I want her facial expression to look very fearless and powerful.