Magazine Textual Analysis 6 (DPS)

This is a Double Page Spread from the  Music Magazine Company 'Q' published in 2010. The spread is split into two halves. The left half shows a giant photograph of Lady Gaga and the Right half contains all of the information about Gaga. The top right of the page tells us who the celebrity is if you couldn't tell from the photograph. Also there is L placed in the centre of the right half of the page, probably meaning the first letter of Lady Gaga. 

The colour scheme on this page is rather dull as most of it is in black and white. The only colour contrast on the page is the giant L on the right page that is completely red. The lighting on the image of Gaga is likely to be staged and not natural. This is because you can slightly see where the lighting has been focused, which on this image would be the left side of her face. This would be aimed at people of both sexes as Lady Gaga is well-known and enjoyed by both genders across the world. This also wouldn't be aimed at a specific class as, like i said, she is well-known by most people, whether they are working class or high class. Her eye gaze and gestures are aimed towards the reader, making us feel more engaged with Gaga and the information about her on the page. Even though only the upper half of Gaga torso is showing, it is clear to see that she is wearing a rather erotic and revealing shirt, confirmed by the fact that she is covering her breasts with her hand. There are no props at all used in this image. It is impossible to tell where this image was taken as the background is a blain shade of white and shows no scenery at all. I think the simplicity if the whole double page spread is the thing that links all of the elements together. 

I would say that the shot distance on the image of Gaga is a Medium Shot (MS) because the shot is zoomed in a lot but not enough so that only the head and shoulders are the only things visible. The camera angle on the image is a simple eyes level shot as the eyes of Gaga are near enough in the middle of the page. Because there is only one image on the screen, everything on the page is in focus. Blurring or putting anything out of focus would be pointless as there is not much on the page anyway. I would say that the film stock is actually rather grainy, mainly because everything, except for the the giant L, is black and white. This also means that the page is of high contrast as there are not many shades on this page. The lighting on the image is not natural, however, due to the pages simplicity, it is expressive of the mood of the magazine. I would say that the lighting would be low key as it seems the light is only coming from one general direction.  

There is quite a bit of word use on this double page spread. This meaning that the entire right half of this double page spread is nothing but writing. This page also used the big capitals at the start of a couple of paragraphs. This could mean that this particular paragraph is a more important one or maybe something different. There is also, clearly, a giant red L on that covers the right half of the page. This is possibly there just to add a little bit of colour and to help the design of the page stand out a bit more. The preferred reading of this double page spread is just to learn a little more about Lady Gaga's life away from her music career. There are a lot of typical Q magazine conventions used on this page. The first of which being the layout. In a lot of Q double page spreads the layout is set so that the entire left page is taken by an image of the covered celebrity, and the right page is filled with information about that celebrity, who in this case is Lady Gaga. This layout completely defies the rule of thirds but it makes this magazines contents page unique. Another common factor in these contents pages is the use of drop caps. There is a big S and also a big I to start off a particularly important section of the text, but the most visible is the giant red L covering the black text on the right page. This is a common trait and is just the first letter of the artists name. This also adds to the idea of making the pages unique to Q. There is also the strict use of the Red, Black and White colours as this is Q's main brand identity, the use of the same simple, yet relevant colour scheme. It is also clear that the image of GAGA has been photoshopped. This is just to make her look better for the camera and to the readers. The overall target audience for this double page spread would definitely be of a large scale. Im thinking men and women aged from maybe 18 all the way up to say 65. The reason for this being that Lady Gaga is a world wide phenomenon who is loved by a lot of people allover the world, therefore by using Gaga, Q will gain a lot more readers as Gaga appeals to a very wide audience range.