CONTENTS PAGE PEER ASSESSMENT

 

What type of shots have been used to create a variety of shot distances and how has the camera been used to communicate meaning?  

The camera was mainly taking photos from a strange one with the model shooting using the mid shot technique where using a model is mainly ‘bust up’ creating a professional quality image, while capturing the models face expressions as well as body language. For example in the contents page the model can be seen holding a Saxophone which relates the genre of Jazz, and in the bottom right corner is wear sunglasses with a Harmonica also tied back to the genre. 

What choice of Mise en scene is appropriate for the star image and genre?

The overall costume choice and props fit the genre well, as the saxophone is often seen as one of the main instruments in Jazz. The old fashioned sunglasses also communicate to the audience the Jazz fashion in the 60s, as well as the waist coat and fedora.

How far is the font used readable and reflects the genre?

The font is easy to read and clear to the audience both in size and font style making it easy to read.  The font used for the main title is a son serif style font  with 

What technical conventions of a Contents page are present and used effectively? 

The contents page has page numbers, additional information and images. The use of the number is used well and is easy to refer to as a reader. The page works well in drawing the reader in and making them read more.

How has Indesign been used to layout the page to convey a brand?

The design has used mainly light tones of colours which all are basses around light red to give off the sensible and clean genre. He also palace the models main image off the from the centre of the screen to allow room for the contents margin on the side. Furthermore he has added a white background to the image to separate the model from the text and margins. On the margin for the page numbers he has designed it to be easy to read and pleasing to look at, with a backdrop to add an element of separation and to make the section pop out more.

How well have the text and visuals been integrated together?

They have been integrated to the content well enough to work together, the photographic element is done well and makes it work. But I personally think there should be more referencing the genre in the text and like music notes dotted around the page.

Where has photoshop been used to manipulate the photos to enhance the star image or genre? 

Photoshop was used to cut out the model and colour grade to the background to make it more conversational for post production. As well as possibly whitening of  the eyes using the dodge tool, which show great intuition from the audience’s perspective.

How is the language used appropriate for the genre and target audience?

The language used for the genre and target audience works well and doesnt step over the line of standing out too much, although the only thing I would change is make it stand out a bit more and if all words start with a capital make sure it is continued.

Clearly, strong, good, satisfactory, conventional, well good sense TOP LEVEL 4

Assessed by Jacob Jansma

My 5 targets are:

1. More reference to the genre
2. Make background more attractive
3. Sort out position of pug
4. Make captions stand out more
5. Layout of titles can be improved

 

 

 

 

For this task we were researching the contents page of a magazine. In the first picture was my selection of contents pages that I thought looked attractive and very professional and that is how I want my contents page to be. I also drew two rough sketches of potential layouts for my contents page and I wanted to include as many conventions as possible to make my magazine gain interest from consumers. I want it to act like an index and inform the readers of the features of the magazine however I would also like it to be entertaining and pleasing to the eye.

 

 

 

 

These are 5 possible catchy headlines:

Breaking news from the jazz world!

Must see behind the scenes photos of Miles Davis Jr!

Exclusive interview with the new face of jazz music!

How to breakthrough as a jazz musician!

Never seen before childhood images of John Coltrane!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The masthead is adequately placed however I feel it would fit more if it was more conventional and place a bit further to the left and a little bit further down as it is currently touching the caption at the top which isn’t ideal, it is in the Vogue font. It is not quite big enough as I need it to be as big and attractive as possible to grab the attention of potential customers walking by my magazine. However I feel that the colour of the title and the font are typical to convey my jazz genre as it is classy and cool which is what will appeal to my target audience and their preferred reading.

Staring away from the camera, the cover model is satisfactorily framed using the rule of thirds well however in my second draft I am going to choose a new image in which my model is facing the camera. I chose this photo as it was very similar to a photo of a jazz musician I had found on the internet which I was very fond of and the way it portrayed the genre and the artists in it, unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations and I also failed to cut it out successfully and you can clearly see white lines around my models face which is not professional at all which means that the image can only be described as competent.

Desktop publishing (Indesign) has been used well to integrate well emboss and shadow on the cover lines adding perspective. The line spacing is very low but this is intentional to add something unique to my magazine and I would fulfil this part of the brief to a strong level.

A red, black, yellow, white and blue colour palette helps to communicate a classy and lowkey theme that connotes the jazz genre, however I will most likely change the light blue as it is unnecessary and doesn’t quite fit the theme. Despite this I believe the colour palette was successful and is used to very good effect and impact.

The font is a mixture of upper and lower case which is modern and conventional, however it could be bigger. The font has been used in a very good way to attract a slightly older audience.

The costume is extremely relevant to the jazz genre and it used a graphic tie as well as a trilby hat, blazer, waistcoat and collared shirt. The body language of the model makes him seem focused and shows the importance of his saxophone. He has been directed to look at the saxophone and this is instead of looking at the camera and this infers his success from his music and this was evident for the target audience.

In terms of the language used in the cover lines, this is good. The use of superlatives as in the ‘jazz music saved my life’ attracts the reader and draws a sense of importance to the magazine and its contents. The use of imperatives was weak and should be focused on as it can be the deciding factor between two magazines. Using quotes such as the quote that was referred to earlier also conveys a sense of personal identity and helps the reader to feel as if they are involved and this is a good use of linguistic structures.

The magazine is clearly a magazine and contains the conventional features such as a masthead, captions, a pug, a barcode, issue number, date, main cover star, main cover lines and cover lines. This fulfils the brief on a good level.

Photoshop has been used adequately to place the main cover star on the cover however there is white lines and some of the models face is missing and that is very unprofessional. He is clearly the focus of the cover and he must be cut out properly to fulfil the brief successfully.

My 5 targets are:

1. Change my main cover star image.
2. Change the blue font to white or red.
3. Use more imperative language
4. Bigger masthead and place it closer to the left side
5. Improve my pug to look more professional

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I conducted some market research into my competitors and into the ways that they use information, personal identity, social interaction and entertainment. I could use all of this to attract my target audience successfully and therefore cater to their preferred reading. If I am able to do this then I can appeal to a bigger audience as they will spread the word and my brand will become more popular. My USP is that I have secured a collaboration with a jazz record label to get inside information before any other magazines are able to find it out.

 

In

 

my

 

In my photoshoot today I tried to portray my model in as many poses as possible that I had found in my research that I thought would suit my front cover and these were all of the results. Unfortunately in the white studio I struggled to get the camera to focus and a lot of photos ended up very dark as well so I can’t use them. I believe that I have at least 5 options for my cover image in different poses. The facial expressions are on point, he conveys a confident narrative and he can also be seen enjoying himself and it gives a very laid back metanarrative for my genre and that was what I was trying to convey and I believe that I was successful. He looks extraordinary due to the attention to his outfit which makes him look very cool and pays a lot of attention to his appearance and I wanted to convey this idea to my target audience. He can also been seen as ordinary as most people are very obsessed about their appearance and how people will judge them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I created this Photoshoot meeting agenda to make sure that I had a documented copy of everything that I needed for my shoot from the outfit and accessories that I needed for my model and all of the poses that I wanted him to try. By using this, I was able to show my model all of the poses I wanted him to try and I could also refer to it while I was in my shoot so it was very helpful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my magazine cover, I experimented with a range of different fonts and effects to try and come up with the most suitable masthead for the jazz genre. I tried to make each idea different to each other in a different way to make sure I have every possible option to attract a large audience of jazz enthusiasts. I decided to experiment with different colours but I believe that after my experimentation that a dark red and black masthead may be my best shout because I feel it represents my genre and the colours of red and black are the typical colours you may relate with an underground club. I wanted to experiment with space in between the text as I had gathered from other jazz magazine covers that the text is usually tall and spreads across the whole of the top of the magazine. I tried to include as many features of AIDA as possible, for example I am going to try and include a coloured masthead which will bring attention to my magazine instead of a plain colour like white as it makes my brand stand out to the audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I created a mood board to convey all aspects of the genre of jazz. I found pictures, conventions, typefaces, artists, album art, magazine covers, logos, lyrics, colour palettes, tour posters and magazine layouts that I thought were appropriate to my genre of jazz.

From this mood board, you can see that there is lots of nice colours and the album covers contain a lot of art and drawings which portrays the genre as fun loving and artistic but there is also a strong theme of red and black and a dark theme. I want to give my audience the best representation of the genre and I will include denotations and conventions for new readers which can attract them to become a new customer and fan of jazz. Using this inspiration, I am going to try and include these in my magazine brand so that I can encode this to give my audience a sense of nostalgia which they can decode to provide them with their preferred reading which will live up to the audience expectations.

I chose Miles Davis as my dream cover star for my magazine. It was slightly more challenging to find modern news articles surrounding Miles Davis as he passed away more than 30 years ago but I found some media sources that I was able to use to portray him as a brave, talented, interesting, courageous yet arrogant and self confident musician. I found these articles very important in helping me to find the metanarrative of Miles Davis and the connotations I could withdraw from the news stories and media sources helped portray the star as ordinary yet extraordinary at the same time. These denotations will be useful to portray the paradox of my star image and therefore I can represent the true paradox of a jazz musician through my cover star. On the second slide I have included images of every aspect of my star image from the setting and mood which would be like a jazz club with red and black lighting, the outfit I would like a hat and a suit with a bow tie to make my model look smart and like a vintage jazz musician. It is also very important that they have a jazz instrument such as a saxophone or a trumpet as I need that for the Mise En Scene of the star image.  I would like my model to be looking like they are playing the instrument and I think I am going to try and add fake sweat to represent them as a jazz artist giving it their all in a live performance.

 

 

 

For this task, we were researching our audience and their profiles. Using the website Yougov.co.uk, I searched the stars of my magazine and from that I was able to find out the demographic of my target audience that were interested in the artists and other celebrities that they would also be interested in and this information is very useful to determine the preferred reading of my audience to be able to encode the desirable features which will be vital for my own magazine so my audience can decode these and they will enjoy reading it.

Using this data, I created a dating profile as a member of my target audience. I made this dating profile to give me a very good idea of my audience psychographics, as a producer it is very important for me to know my audience psychographics as this will allow me to include the appropriate features in my magazines to create the best magazine for preferred reading. I will now have a better understanding of my audience and I can therefore create a magazine for the purpose of education, entertainment, social interaction and personal identity.

 

I have chosen the genre of Jazz to base my magazine on. I have decided to name my magazine ‘Lounge’. I chose this brand name because when I think of jazz I think of the downstairs lounge to a club, with dark red and black low key lighting. With this image in my head, I will base my magazine with dark colours and a cool and calm theme and this will be my USP. The uses and gratifications of my magazine will aim to entertain and inform my customers while containing plenty of interviews to give a sense of social interaction, and my magazine will also be used to influence the personal identity of a reader as they will potentially inherit new characteristics through the reading of my magazine.  I will include lots of photos and advertisements to appeal to readers of most ages although the jazz genre mostly attracts individuals over the age of 40. I will include the views of critics in my magazine to appeal to the older generation. My mission statement is:

‘Lounge aims to satisfy and bring together jazz enthusiasts from all over the world. We keep you up to date with the latest news in the jazz world while including plenty of interviews and reviews to keep our audience interested. We will bring together jazz fans from all around the world to create a safe, comfortable and relaxed community for fans of Lounge to provide them satisfaction’