michael spierin AS course work: February 2012

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During the planning stages of my work I drew from current magazines such as NME and Q magazine as these are both examples of products that I enjoy and would use for inspiration. As well as these I looked at some magazines that were not necessarily music orientated such as Front and Wired, I did this to see what conventions were popular in all genres in turn this also showed me what kind of layouts and juxtaposition would not be appropriate for my magazine. For example in Wired they use mainly text on their double page spread with smaller pictures due to its purpose being more informative whereas Front had mainly pictures to illustrate text with less reading needed as it is a ‘lads mag’. Therefore it was my intention to find a medium of these to create a piece that was enjoyable as well as useful for indie music fans.

One main convention that I tried to imitate after looking at real magazines was the use of one large single image on the front cover. This figure in almost all cases was the person featured in the main article of that issue. To do this I shot my main image as a mid-shot and shot the model from a slight angle as this is what I had seen during planning and I felt it gave a good effect. A criticism that I would give myself for my front cover picture is the fact that lighting had not been considered as it was originally an outdoors shot but then cropped to look as if it was in a studio at a later date also I would have preferred the model to have been wearing a slightly more smarter outfit such as trousers and shirt as it would fit the contextual requirements of my article.

On my contents page I included a quote from my double page spread underneath my main image this is because I had seen this convention used in NME. To do this I chose a quote that was interesting and would be likely to draw the reader’s attention to that article and be a lure to buy the magazine. Through my planning I found that many consumers judge a magazine based on its contents along with the front cover mainly, therefore I tried to get the best marketability onto that page.

A convention that I challenged was on my double page spread, my main image was a location shot at a mid-shot angle whereas in most real magazine double page spreads the main image is a studio shot of the person either posing or acting as part of a naturally staged shot. It was my thought that to have a location shot would have an effect that gave it a rural look however ultimately I feel that the result is unprofessional and I would gain more from taking a better studio shot the cropping and manipulating on photoshop.

A convention that I rejected was the inclusion of a house style banner or border this would be down to failure during the planning stages and in my next piece I would definitely like to include something like this as it is something that is shown in most magazines such as Front.

2. How does your media product represent a particular social group?
For my product I had a clear intended target social group, this was indie music enthusiasts who are interested in finding out and learning about their favourite artists and new artists. During my planning I put together a consumer profile. This is an extract from this profile.

“Aside from his studying he has a great love of music and especially enjoys going to live gigs and reading up about upcoming artists of the future. Jay lives in the fashionable Camden Town near to his university; he is a confident and sociable character who spends much of his weekends out with friends who share the same love for music. They go to see their favourite, more mainstream, artists as well as going to see unsigned acts all across London and nationwide. His preferred way of discovering new music is through magazine media.”

To achieve a look and style of front cover that would be appropriate to this I used a male model that is 17 years old, this was so it is a personality that my age range would be able to relate to. A change that I would make to my next product would be to use an older model as that would give it a more professional look.
The outfit that the model was wearing was close to what I had planned for in the sense that it was neutral between formal and informal so that it gave the image of being enjoyable but also serious magazine for the reader. However what I hoped for was to have my main model dressed in a casual shirt and trousers outfit, this would have been achieved through more detailed planning.
I decided to have my model give a quite plain facial expression as I feel that it gives the front cover style that closely matches what I have seen with most other male models of front covers on the market. This was something that I felt was successful in execution.

When considering my artist profile for the front cover and double page spread I firstly thought about his chosen genre, this being indie-house collaboration, then based his personality features upon this along with his style of fashion, reasons for making music and inspirations. To further enhance a perception of the artist I put together an artist profile during my planning.

“Niall Spierin is a well-liked young music artist; his style is indie house the sound is unique and is not usually heard in the indie music. However he also enjoys taking inspiration from the 1980’s electronic sound that came out of Chicago and New York in that time. This type of music genre collaboration is inspired by others who have done similar work, such as C + C Music Factory …..
He came into the business during the time which the delivery of music completely transformed to online oppose to hard copy sales in stores. Due to this many of his early work was uploaded onto YouTube to build up a fan base….”

My double page spread differs from what is usually seen in most music magazines, in that the person shown in all of the images (front cover, contents, DPS) is not actually the person who has been interviewed instead the images are of the artist then the interview is with his producer. The reasons for which I did this was for the saleability of the magazine, I realised that the front cover should include an image of a recognisable face and consumers would be more inclined to choose a magazine featuring an image of an artist opposed to an unknown face of a music producer. Furthermore the interview was based upon the artist so the images are contextual and are relevant to the article. However a change that I would make is that on the Double page spread I would have included an image of the interviewed producer also.
On my contents page I have again shown the main feature of the magazine as the focal point of the page, also I took a picture of another featured artist and placed them smaller on the page. The clothing on the contents page shown on the main artist is the same as the front cover. This time however it was a location shot outside in front a brick wall, I later edited this so that the brick pattern was still visible but the colours still fitted in with the page. In conclusion to this I would change this effect or spend more time ensuring that it was more refined as the outcome was unprofessional. Also I would have more people shown on this page so that more of a diverse range of personality, gender and age is shown through the magazine.

3. What type of media institution would distribute your product and why?
When researching into options for who would distribute my magazine I set out looking who what media institutions distribute current magazines such as NME and Billboard. However what I was looking for was something a little more diverse that specialise in magazines that are directed at enthusiasts of interests. For this reason I decided that Future PLC would be suitable for my product, they have a wide portfolio that don’t only include music genre magazines. They have a successful history since 1985 spreading magazines worldwide; therefore I felt that they would give me a strong chance of a successful release.
At the present time their clients include; Tesco, 02, Microsoft, BskyB, Dell, Adobe and Sony which again shows that they would have the ability to distribute my magazine well.
Future PLC currently distributes magazines to 92 different countries of which many are targeted to my intended age range.

In today’s market magazines are on the decline in sale terms, this is due to the rise of internet media and social networking. These changes have enabled music fans to gain similar information as they would in magazines online for free which for many is more attractive than buying them.
It is because of Future PLC’s current industry change that I feel they would be best suited to distribute my magazine. As a response to the changes in music media consumption they have invested in a range of websites already that gage a whole new readership for those magazines. For example Revolver Mag is a featured website from Future PLC.

4. My target audience for my magazine are enthusiasts of indie music, the age range of my audience would be between 18 – 28. This is because it is this age group who are most keen on finding out about new and upcoming artists as the may be students wishing to learn more or be keen gig and festival goers. This is reflected in my product as my article is an interview of an artist who is within this age range and also is new to the industry. They would buy my product as it gives the audience a different more revealing scope on this genre that magazines such as NME and Q do not offer.

During my research and planning work I put together a profile of a typical reader of my magazine, this is an extract that shows what sort of person may be targeting.

“Aside from his studying he has a great love of music and especially enjoys going to live gigs and reading up about upcoming artists of the future. Jay lives in the fashionable Camden Town near to his university; he is a confident and sociable character who spends much of his weekends out with friends who share the same love for music. They go to see their favourite, more mainstream, artists as well as going to see unsigned acts all across London and nationwide. His preferred way of discovering new music is through magazine media.”

To reflect these choices I have used images of models that are of a similar age to my intended audience this will help to build a relationship for the reader enhancing the attraction to my product.

The outfits that my models are wearing are appropriate to the age range however does not fit the original design that I put together in my planning stage. The genre of music that I have chosen is not accurately matched by the casual type of ‘trainer and jeans’ fashion shown on my product. A change that I would make is to have models dressed in a slightly more formal way, not exactly black tie but a shirt with trousers worn with an open jacket.

On my contents page I have included features that area all appropriate to my genre. This shows that my product could be enjoyed by this target audience as it gives a full impression of what the magazine would be covering.

The audience that I am targeting could be seen as quite a small range and fairly specific in terms of type of reader, however I feel that this is useful as it has given me the opportunity to focus on specific contextual requirements, such as language used in the article. This in reflection may have been a good decision for my first product as it allowed me to produce a product that closely fitted what I had planned for however now I have greater knowledge of how audiences are targeted in other magazines I may be able to widen the intended market for greater success.

The only audience that may be excluded from my product would be young children (below the age of 14) this is due to a small amount taboo language even though these words have been disguised using a ‘*’. Moreover this is still appropriate as it adds humour and purpose for the older aged reader. The only other way that a younger person may be excluded is when features are about live gigs and festivals that they may not be able to attend due to age restrictions; however they may still want to learn about them so it would still have a purpose for that audience also. I would not take the decision to remove such articles for the fact that the younger audience are missing out as the result is much better by including them for the older audience.

The concept of Larynx is to give a wide coverage of indie music, however unlike most other music magazines it will cover other areas. Such as people who produce, write and work with big name artists as well as some less known artists. Also featuring organisers of concerts and festivals, another feature that an issue of Larynx would include interviews with artists about their musical inspirations, how they got into music and who they have most successfully worked with and why.

It has the purpose to entertain the reader and inform them of what’s going on in the world of indie music but also will educate those who are looking for a career in the industry of how to go about doing so.

When featuring music producers the articles would not be about the technical making of music but instead ask questions of why the music is made in the way it is and what it is like to work in that industry and with such stars.

Larynx readers get an insight into how, when festivals and concerts are organised and artists are selected to perform.

Larynx magazine also includes interviews with many artists also, but again has a different spin on the questions asked. Instead of finding out about gossip and funny stories of them the interest will be focused on how they got into music, who they work with and why and finally there musical inspirations and musical upbringing.