Using Conventions of Kerrang! I focused on how the magazine uses the main model to try and attract the audience in to them, by using mise-en-scene; I have tried to apply this from Kerrang through the use of Costume and Pose, in the Kerrang image we can see the eye line is high, which is like The Mercenary this is meant to represent dominance and make the model look strong and powerful enough that it draws the audience in to the cover and feel interested. The mise-en-scene of costume, tries to replicate the ‘Indie’ theme and the pose of the ‘rock on’ gesture makes it clear about the genre of the magazine. Like the Kerrang magazine I have stuck to a three theme colour scheme: Red, White and Black, which is stereotypically seen as the representation of ‘rock’. This is consistent through the fonts which are seen as lively and bold; these fonts stick out from the background.
The Magazine went through a huge re-stylising, to the point where I needed a new model for my front cover as the group was too much for cover. I have also adapted the fonts and colours and changed them to be more attractive and stylish, like the Main Selling Line which is more visible, its bold and the style matches the Masthead a little, this was to improve the quality and to make it feel more professional. The image of the cover page was made more professional buy having the model in focus and in a photo studio, using the white background it means that the model doesn’t need to be cut out of the photo meaning it doesn’t look cut out or feel edgy, like the Draft copy.
In the contents page didn’t go through many changes other than finishing the product and replacing the photo of Fight Your Fires (Unfortunately Tom, a member of the band couldn’t make the photo-shoot for this version of The Mercenary) I replaced the original photo which looked ok, with a better photo from the photo studio, other than that I re-arranged the title blocks making sure that they are centred, and made sure there was enough content to bulk up the contents page and making slight changes to make it look more professional.
In the DPS (Double Page Spread) there was a complete change to the style, which in my opinion feels even more professional than the first draft, I changed this by following the design of having the bands photo cover both pages, and have the text up in the top right corner, in a black gradient background. This looks more professional than the original text area which is just a white space, holding two columns of text. I changed this by shrinking the text and putting it into smaller columns that look more presentable and more professional. However I kept the Red and Masthead font home style for the band, because I felt this looked very professional even in the draft which didn’t look very professional. I feel this DPS was much better than the original draft product, and I am pleased with my improvements.
I wasn’t the only person to look at the magazines; I gathered a range of comments and constructed what two members of my target audience in different aspects, and got them to think about my magazine and how it effects them:
Charlie Taylor. Aged: 19 = Red text and marked as – A.
Matthew Race. Aged: 16 = Blue Text and marked as – B.
What draws your attention to the product?
A. It has a very young theme so it is for the young generation. The font of the titles are bold and stand out drawing my attention further.
B. The bold title of the name of one of the artists on the front page really stands out, if it were in amongst other music magazines, a large, bold and simple statement is what is expected, and this product really hits professional standard.
What genre is it and how do you know?
A. It is for the younger generation, you can tell this through the theme of the writing, what the product is talking about and the photos within the product.
B. You can tell it is a rock magazine with the traditional three colour code including red and black, two colours often associated with rock.
What do you consider are the strengths of the product?
A. The strengths are how well it draws in the attention of the reader, even those who do not know what it is about or whether they like that brand, they are still attracted to it because it is different.
B. As I said earlier it has a very professional feel about it, specifically the titles seem authentic, even so much as the slant on the main headline appears professional.
What social groups does it represent and how?
A. Youth groups who enjoy music and bands, the people in the pictures are adolescents so it represents the younger generation more.
B. From looking at the characters from Fight Your Fires, it would appear to be focusing on Indie kids or Emos, from looking at the dark clothing and long hair.
Would you purchase the product and why?
A. I would not buy the product because I do not find the product interesting as I do not enjoy rock music.
B. I would purchase the product as it appears professional and interesting.
How would you improve the product?
A. I would improve the product by including females within the product because there are female bands and could receive interest from further people but other than that I think it’s very good.
B. I would improve it by combing the main headline on the front page with some extra information to do with that artist, i.e. gig dates etc.
Reading their reviews of the magazine, I realise that I didn’t make it clear about the use of different sexes in the band, as all of the pictures are dominated by males, but there are not photos of female artists and bands, this means that effectively I could have lost a lot of my audience. But a good point of their reviews prove that my magazine meets its forms and conventions, and displays what it aims to portray towards its audience and that is the rock/indie style of bands.
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