Here is my draft of my front page magazine:

Here is my self assessment for my first draft:

Reflection:

Self assessing myself allowed me to really see what improvements I need to add to my magazine such as the sizing of the text and improving my use of language in my cover lines. For my steps forwards I am going to take in each question I answered for my self assessment into consideration by adding more conventional features such as a pull quote and also better use of language, cover line fonts, information bellow cover lines need to be shortened, and so on. This task also made me aware of what I have successfully managed to achieve and tick off such as the use of mis-en-scene, framing, angle and use of colours and masthead fonts.

 

Introduction

For our magazine front cover we had to find a model, and plan; costume, lighting, props, positions, facial expression and angles and distances that the shot has been taken from. The overall shoot went very well, it was  well organized and I knew exactly what I wanted my model to do which made the overall shoot go down very smoothly and was quite relaxed.

Here is the contact sheets of all my final images from the shoot:

 

For my studio shoot I used the black studio and I dressed my model with a worn in brown jacket, a burnt orange t-shirt, Rasta coloured bracelet, a black Rasta hat with three skinny strips of the Rasta colours a small image of Bob Marley, a silver chain necklace, headphones placed around his neck and a wooden beaded necklace. I also included some props such as a fake joint, (as it is part of their identity and religion,) and a classic looking acoustic guitar. I also used a constant light and one flash kit. The constant light was placed facing straight at the model at level with the model, and the flash kit was placed to the left of him flashing down at him creating shadows on the left side of his face.

Two of my best images:

I believe that this photo shows a lot of character. The model is laughing and isn’t looking directly at the camera which shows a lot about Reggae artists who are rather modest in the sense that many reggae artists produce music for the pure love and passion of music instead of for the fame (unless it is to preach about something), they aren’t typically presented as self absorbed people but people who kind of go with the flow and radiate loving, cool, calm and collected vibes. I think the highlights on the models face also accentuates this sort of bubbly personality as if this sort of person is the type to light up a room when they walk in. The lighting and mid shot also will help him to stand out on the magazine because it allows his face to be the center of the magazine which is an initial point people are drawn to looking first. I feel like the fact that the model isn’t actually holding a prop in this photo reflects the whole ‘photo being taken in the moment’ idea. This is because sometimes having a props in a shoot makes it obvious that the shoot has been planned and the prop is just an accessory that was purposely intended to represent something or grab more attention.

I choose this second photo as I think it looks think the model even more so clueless about a photo being taken and looks more distracted in his own thoughts and kind of out of place as if this shoot isn’t really in his comfort zone which I think is perfect because it shows that he is not all full of himself and gives him character and admiration that this artist is mainly all about his music. The medium long shot is taken from a slightly low angle which implies that the artist is an inspirational role model that has tons of dominating potential which is ironic as through his facial expressions show this almost uninterested which sort of reflects the artists authenticity and lack of wanting to fit into society and be what everyone else wants from him; this however I believe may draw the audience to like him more, as he is different and doesn’t stay within the lines of what society wants people to be. I also think that the model looks very familiar and comfortable with the presence of the guitar as it rested on his lap as if he is very accustomed to having a guitar. Say for example he was hold it in the photo he would seem like he is trying to bring more attention to the guitar as if to be like ‘oooh look a me and this guitar’, – it’s not that he does not have a love for his instrument as he is clearly making the guitar a feature in the shoots it just represents that he is not overly eccentric person who needs to shove his instrument in the audiences faces as he can just simply recognize it’s presence an so can the audience. I also think the fact he has a spliff in his mouth illustrates that it is apart of his religion and identity and gives him a sense of comfort as he is habituated to have it with him and makes him feel more accepted as well to have this featured and shared on a front cover of a magazine.

Reflection

In  conclusion I really enjoyed doing the shoot. I felt confident that the two best photos from the shoot really resonated with the genre of the magazine and portrays a typical reggae artist really well. I think everything I was going for with my shoot in terms of making my model seem as laid back as possible and camera shots/angles. I think from this being my first shoot I now have a better gist of how to work my camera and the studio and what looks right for my genre so my second shoot will hopefully be much more successful.

Introduction

To understand further what captures the attention of audience we chose 10 magazines or posters for our genre that stood out to us the most. This helped to give us an idea of what sort of fonts we might use for our magazines, here are the 10 magazines/posters that I found were pretty eye-catching:

 

 

After making a collage of the ten images I focused on what sort of font I would want for my magazine. I looked at the colors that were used for each magazine and found that the main colors I saw in the masthead were the traditional reggae colors that you would find in the Rasta flag which I preferred than the other typical plain black or white fonts that didn’t really draw my attention as much it was more the background colors that stood out to me.

Here are 10 practice masthead designs that I choose from DaFont and experimented with on InDesign:

Reflection

All of the fonts that I chose were sans serif as the font type is clear and stands out which I think reflects the whole persona of the audience who would be listening to reggae. From their demographics and psychographics you get to learn that this specific audience seems to be pretty easy going and  prefers simple text that is easy to read and grabs their attention. Playing round with different colours and edits, such as shadows I started to narrow my choices of font for my masthead as some began to really stand out to me such as the distorted fonts as they look fun, inventive and captures the eye. When reggae first came out it was unlike what anyone had heard and lots of reggae lyrics are rather political and talk about standing up for what you believe in and not being a puppet to the system, therefore I think that these wavy looking, untraditional and unformal fonts resonates well with the reggae genre as reggae is a form of music that is very unique and also rebels against people who are in control and the traditional styles or main stream sort of music.

 

Introduction

For my star image I chose Damien Marely who is on of Bob Marley’s sons. He carries his fathers legacy along with him and he continues to produce reggae and sends similar inspirational and eye opening messages to the audience. After doing some research on my star image for reggae I went on to planning my magazine shoot which made me think of what I want my model to wear, how I want the lighting to be, how I would be framing my model in the picture and what angle I am shooting at, what props I want to include and lastly what facial expressions and body language do I want my model to do.

Here is my research on my star image and my plan for my shoot in the studio:

Damien Marely is a man who, because of his father, was born into fame which makes him seem extraordinary to fans as he lives a rather luxurious lifestyle. However after doing some research on Damien we see that he also is quite ordinary, he is a typically mellowed and chilled out guy who seems to go with the flow and has a big interest in politics as he tries to communicate across to his audience. We also see that he is almost a fan himself as he aspires to follow in his famous fathers footsteps and shares Bob Marley’s messages with the world to continue to share Bob Marley’s light for everyone. Today Damien Marley is a big face of reggae and a perfect example of classic reggae artist in all aspects.

Reflection

After taking a dive into how a big reggae star presents themselves through the media it gave me many ideas for planning my own shoot such as including a fake spliff into my shoot, this is because Damien Marley likes to show off his marijuana to illustrate that weed is part of his identity and lifestyle in Rastafarian culture. I also got to recognize his soft nature and how he conducted himself which was very chilled out in interviews this is why I want my cover page image to seem like the photo was taken in the moment and I want his whole manner such as facial expression and body language to be nice and relaxed and for him to not really focus on the camera in front of him.

Introduction

When it comes to making a music magazine that is aimed at a specific genre there are a lot of things a producer must take into account from their target audience in order to get their attention. This is why I have created a dating profile of my perfect audience member so I can understand what they like, dislike, are interested in etc. If I am able to know what my audience is mainly drawn to then I can design my magazine to attract and intrigue them to buy it.

Here is my dating profile for the perfect audience member of reggae music:

Reflection

Creating this dating profile aloud me to learn a lot about the general, overall demographics of my audience such as people usually from their thirties up to around mid forties  listen to reggae the most and are usually very political which makes sense when you listen to a lot of reggae lyrics. I also found out about my audience’s average sort of behaviors, attitudes and beliefs or in other words ‘psychographics’. There seems to be a pattern of creative people who are into fun and exciting things such as sport or video games. Their attitudes and behavior  show they don’t really pay awful lots of attention to things and most of what they consume of media is on the TV weather that’s video gaming, watching movies or getting news. The information I have learned from my audience I can now encode into my magazine by using mes-en-scene to reach the audience and allow them to decode what I am putting out there for them to understand and be fascinated by.

Before creating our own magazines we were tasked with understanding and acknowledging the competition  for the genre we were gonna base our magazine on. I looked at many different magazine front covers that offered many new ideas and inspiration for me. To really scope out the competition we made a pictogram to analyze what these magazines were trying to send out to the audience. This was my pictogram:

my-visual-copy_56561098

Reflection

This task has shown me what I can better my magazine with to make my front cover stand out and look different, new and appealing, for example I might include a new emerging reggae artist which may intrigue and excite viewers. Analyzing the themes of these magazines such as the fonts and particular colors has also given me many ideas to include as well such as Reggae magazine frequently use sans serif as it is simple and easy to read and isn’t overly formal which reflects the genre as laid back and easy going.

Here is a photo of our analysis of a magazine cover:

Today we annotated a cover of a magazine. We learnt that there will always be a masthead on the cover page – this is the brand name of the magazine. Our magazine we annotated had a main cover line which was Beyoncé’s name which draws viewers in –  this indicates what the main story is gonna be about in the magazine. Billboard also included Beyoncé as the cover star, this woman is a big celebrity so it gages people eyes to want to pick it up and read about it because it is the main story in the magazine and they now know who it is about and what they look like. There were also cover lines on the magazine which lets people who are picking up the magazine read what some of the other stories are and encourages them to read them. Lastly our poster had an issue date which tells you the date when the magazine was launched.

Reflection

We learnt how to annotate a cover on a magazine and recognize new labels to each individual thing on the cover of a magazine and why they are included and important. Our magazine only has a masthead, cover star, issue date, cover lines and main cover lines. But we also learnt there are more such as:

• Captions – which are titles or brief descriptions/explanations under an image.
• Pugs – these are look like stickers or a badge which catch your eye to help advertise things.
• Plugs – these are small fraises that really encourage the reader to buy the magazine such as “Greatest Music Magazine Of All Time”.
• Insets – these are smaller images inserted to the page.
• Price – Tell you how much the product is.
• Barcode – This is used to scan the item and buy it.

This has all taught my things I can include when I come to make my own magazine in media studies so that I can really understand and feel confident.