Production Diary - Blog Alterations

This week, the deadline for my magazine was set for the 20th December and this was for a copy lof my final draft to be uploaded to my blog on the programme which you are able to sign up for for free called issuu - it is an extremely useful way for displaying and presenting media coursework. I faced a few problems over the past few days - the main one being the hard copy on in design nit saving properly, therefore I didn't have the proper copy meaning I will have to do the additions and adjustments I made again once I get back to school. This draft will be marked by my teacher and I hope to make all the necessary adjustments needed. The deadline for my blog tasks to be uploaded and completed is 6th January, and my aim is to get each piece up to a level four as I hope to achieve as many marks for my coursework as possible. I have also now completed two of the questions which make up the evaluation of my product and over the course of the christmas holidays I hope to complete a further 1-2 questions alongside other blog alterations.

Magazine Draft

Production Diary - Front Cover

This week, I have been focusing on finishing the front cover of the magazine and inserting the last few pictures into the slots I have open for the contents page and double page spread. With the deadline for the first set of feedback coming up on the 19th December, I want to make sure that the draft is one which has everything inserted inside, but it definitely will be up for improvements in the following months after the Christmas Holidays in January and February. It is important to get it right as this is 50% of my overall AS Media Studies grade.

I have always found that when making media products, I struggle to choose the right image for the front cover as I tend to over take the pictures making it harder to narrow down what pictures to use. However, I have now decided on a close up to mid shot of the chosen model, and also made sure that the choice of outfit is bold and eye catching.

This week, I also focused on writing up another question which will form a part of the overall evaluation of my product - the task I focused on this week was 'Who would be the audience for your media product' because even though I have not fully completed the media product, I have already done some primary audience research and made an audience profile - also gaining feedback for my proposal where I put forward the ideas of what I would want to feature in my magazine, therefore I hope that it would be as successful as planned.

Contact Sheet

Here are some of the images that I took in the two photoshoots that I did for my magazine in the form of a contact sheet.

I wanted to keep my photoshoot quite minimalistic as I felt it would detract the attention from the model keeping her look quite open to the audience of the magazine. I chose to use a hat and a stool as the only chosen props to highlight the effectiveness of using various levels within images, whilst the hat fits in quite well with her chosen outfit.

Production Diary - Starting the Final Evaluation

This week, as a part of the task I have been set over the next seven weeks for my homework, I have been set to answer a variety of questions based on evaluating all aspects of my media product. It is important that I have all things covered as a I am able to evaluate the progress that I have made so far and compare this to when I created my preliminary task at the start of the year. The question that I have started with is looking at the distribution of my magazine and if it were to be distributed, what company would I choose an why. I also had to evaluate the means of promotional methods that  I would use also.

Last week, Thursday to be precise. I had a second photoshoot for my magazine as I felt that the photos that I took primarily would not suit the front cover of a music magazine so felt I wanted to widen the available choices that I had and take some more images after the consent needed from the model. It was not as long as the initial photoshoot, however I still felt that it was successful and will soon be uploading the contact sheet for both of my photoshoots.

This week, the one task that I wish to complete is choosing the photo I would like to use on the front cover of my magazine as I feel I can be overly pedantic when it comes to choosing so - especially after experiencing this first hand at GCSE. I need to make sure that it goes well with the rest of the magazine and fits in nicely with the chosen genre.

Production Diary - Cover Draft

This week I also uploaded my cover draft for my magazine. I left it in it's scaffolding form as I felt this would make it easier for my to add all the images and text I want into the given places once I was ready to do so. I have already added in the basics such as the masthead, issue number and date of release - however I still need to add in the picture that I will use on my front cover and also make some adjustments to the sell lines.

When I start to create my actual front cover I want to make the front cover look a little bit more interesting by adding drop shadows to some of the text and add a little description underneath each of the sell lines. I think that the block writing looks quite boring if I use it consistently across the front cover so when I add the text to the button, I will use a different font.

Production Diary - Double Page Spread

This week I have added the text from last weeks homework, (creating the text I would use in the box outs which are featured on the last page of my double page spread). I chose three different Box Outs; they included tour dates, the artists review of another artist (in this case Adele) and also ten quick facts about Delilah Rose. By adding in extra bits like this it will hopefully keep the audience of the magazine interested because there are loads of bits and pieces put together rather than one big block of text.

Another thing that I did this week was to make a few small adjustments to blog posts I have posted prior to this. I want to make sure that I can pick up as many marks possible for my blog so by readjusting points I will be able to do so.

Finally, I uploaded a post about the varied equipment I will use throughout the duration of creating my coursework. This covered the hardware and software that I have been, and will continue using over the next few months.

Equipment

This post looks at the equipment - hardware and software - that I have been and will continue to use throughout the coursework I am creating over Year 12. The hardware relates to the equipment such as cameras and lighting equipment that I use over to take the images for my final piece. These images would feature on the front cover, in the contents page and also the double page spread. The software refers to the programmes (Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign CS6) I will use to put the magazine together. Photoshop will be used to edit an adjust the images I take on the cameras whereas InDesign is the programme I will use to put it all together.

Cover Draft

Contents Page Scaffolding

This week, I finished creating the scaffolding for my contents page of my magazine. I started by adding where I would want images to be placed and then added in the contents sub headings telling the readers what will be included in that issue of the magazine, I think that setting up the layout before actually making the magazine will make it a lot easier when it comes to putting in the images and other information that I want to include. The black boxes represent where I will put images.

Production Diary - Contents Page

This week I have finished off creating the layout of my content page by addind in the sell lines and the subheadings which tells the readership of the magazine what they should expect in that issue of the magazine. It is important that the sell lines are short yet effective and punchy otherwise they might not want to read the magazine.

I have chosen a colour scheme of teal, black, white and grey because I think it is quite common to see magazines with the basic monochromic colour scheme with one bright colour and because this is something that is successful, it would be a good idea to use this as a possible idea for my magazine.

I have also posted two posts showing the scaffolding of the magazine which is where I highlight to the examiner the basic outline of the magazine I am trying to create. It also makes it a lot easier when it comes to actually putting the magazine together because I can just paste everything in to the places that I have set up for them already.

Box Out

I have chosen on doing a variety of box outs because otherwise it might get a bit repetitive and boring - seeing as I have included a small amount of detail on her favourite artists and opinions of them in the double page spread article. I also thought that it was in the interest of the audience to include information about tour dates because they will be able to watch performances live if they wish. Finally adding ten quick, fun facts highlights to the audience how she is just like any other person - normal.

Cover Lines

The cover lines are the text that the audience will see on the front cover of my magazine. I want to keep the amount of cover lines on the front cover of my magazine very minimalistic because I want to create an enigmatic feeling - obviously I will need to add enough detail which will attract the audience, however I do not want to detract their attention away from the image on the front. Another reasons for this is that if they are left wondering a little about what the magazine will feature, they're more likely to want to buy the magazine.

Double Page Spread Scaffolding

This week, I have started to create the layout of what I want my magazine to look like - also known as the scaffolding. I started with how I wanted my double page spread to look because I thought that this would be the easiest part to design as it will have quite a basic layout that can easily be adjusted and my text and images can easily be applied to it.

The blue boxes represent where images will go and the black boxes highlight where I will be putting in text.

Contents Page Ideas

This week, I started to make the scaffolding for my music magazine and for homework we were set the task of thinking up some ideas of what I would want to include on the contents page of my magazine. I chose a variety of sell lines; regulars and features - I also decided that I wanted to have a band index, therefore I wrote up a list of different artists who I would want to include.

Obviously I will not be including all of these ideas on my contents page, as I might decide to adjust a couple and there might not be enough space to include all of them - however these are a few of the ideas for the style of sell lines I would want to include.

Underneath each possible idea for these headings that will go on my contents page subheading ideas, I will add a brief explanation as to what will be included on each of the pages. I will not be too detailed as I want the reader to have to go to that page to find out what is included.

Production Diary - Writing the Article

This week I have completed multiple tasks which will go towards my planning part of my coursework:

1. Planning the layout for the Front Page, Contents Page and Double Page Spreads
2. Feature Article
3. What will be on my Contents Page

Planning the layout for where you want everything to go is a good idea because it makes it a lot easier for when you want to make the actual task. For example, where I have put pictures, there are blue boxes - so when it comes to putting the whole thing together, I have the layout all worked out making the task less menial.

The feature article took me 6 hours to write out and consisted of a large 1700 words. I found it quite hard to start the article off, restarting the opening paragraph about ten times. However, once I had got it started, it got a lot easier and I really got into the flow of writing in this style and really enjoyed it. Sometimes when reading things over for mistakes after staring at the screen all day, you miss silly little things. So I asked my mum to read over it who said she thought it was a really nice style of writing and enjoyed reading it and only noticed a couple of grammatical errors.

The planning of what my contents page would consist of was not as time consuming as the feature article. I came up with some ideas of what would be regulars, features of this months issue and a band index.

Feature Article

As we are sat around waiting out the back of her London based recording studio, Delilah Rose is running late, yet again. Well known for her not so punctual punctuality, the nation’s sweetheart still has everyone waiting around for her. After what seems like hours, the fresh faced solo artist comes running through the door – Starbucks in hand – apologising profusely because of the so called “bad traffic”.  This down to earth Brit Award winner really doesn’t know what’s about to hit her.

Born and bred in rural Dorset, London is a completely new experience for this not so typical country girl. With her ‘I’m so relaxed I might as well be lying down’ attitude, she really knows how to make you feel at ease when you are in her presence. When saying that she has “never wanted to be one of those uptight, bitchy celebrities who has everyone running around after her” we can see why the UK and the rest of the world has fallen head over heels in love with this level-headed singer songwriter.

One thing that stands out against the rest is her passion and love for music – telling us about one of her most prominent memories of when she used to visit her Nana every Sunday. She would sit on her knee listening to all the old records whilst her Nana would tell her about her life experiences. “The one Sunday that stood out against the rest for me was when I was about 5 or 6, and the rest of the family were out of the room, and I remember her telling me one thing, and that was no matter how many problems you face, music will always be the rock you can cling to that helps you stay anchored to reality.”

Carrying on our conversation about what family life was like for her as a child and in her teens, we get a deep and meaningful understanding of the hurdles that she had to overcome to get to the place she is today. When asking about her parents she tells us “whenever I get onto that topic it always ends in tears so please bear with me.” She takes a couple of minutes to contain her emotions and then starts to relay to us the story which is obviously something which is extremely difficult for her to talk about. “My mother tragically passed away when I was a young girl, and sadly I know very little about her. Her death led to my father being a bit of a recluse, which I think is the reason why I am so close to my Nana – I definitely would not be the strong and independent girl I am today if it wasn’t for her.”  We can see that Family is something that has instilled some strong morals in this easy–going singer after hearing about some of the tough times she has had to go through. “Sometimes I feel like I am on a rollercoaster at one of the world’s biggest theme parks, and for me music is always there to alleviate the pain. You find people visiting psychiatrists and counsellors to deal with their problems, but I like to write mine down and share them with the world through song.”

After talking about this we decided that we wanted to talk about something a little bit more light-hearted, which Delilah is more than happy with as she laughs and tells us that “serious is too mainstream for me, music is supposed to be something enjoyable – not something that makes me want to cry 24/7.” So we thought we would get on to the topic of musical inspirations. “Artists inspire you for many different reasons - from the type of music you produce to the clothes you wear.” We can tell that this girl has a wise head set on those shoulders with all of these inspirational quotes that she has been throwing at us! “It might seem strange but one person, who when looking at me you wouldn’t think I would listen to, is Etta James. The music that woman produces is just legendary. The soulful and raspy tone to her voice just sends shiver down my spine every time I hear her sing one of her sensational songs.” For those of you who don’t know Etta James was a singer-songwriter whose style spanned from Jazz and Blues to R&B and Rock and Roll and in 2003, she won the Grammy’s lifetime achievement award which is an accolade any artist would want to achieve. “I also aspire to be like artists such as Adele – she is such a strong and independent woman, and I admire the amount of emotion that is portrayed through her songs. One performance that really stands out to me is when she performed someone like you at the Brit Awards 2011. The amount of passion that was behind her performance was sensational, and I hope that one day I will be as high class of a performer as she is today.”

After talking about who inspires her, Delilah starts to tell us about what life at school was like for this talented young star. ”School for me was pretty basic. I never had the privileges of attending one of those high costing performing art schools – even though it was a passion of mine – because of how bloody expensive they are! I attended a normal secondary school – Shaftesbury School – and I never was one of those ‘popular girls’ but I wasn’t someone who didn’t have any friends either. I had a good group of friends who supported me and who I could talk to.”  Do your friends still support you now, even though you are always in the limelight? “The majority of my friends treat me exactly the same, some ditched me at the word go because apparently the thought that I was going to turn into one of those conceited, supercilious celebrities” – well you definitely aren’t one of them! “haha, thanks, but any way, I can see why they might have thought that would happen but I think they should have given me a chance first. They have always known that this is the one dream that I wished to follow, right from the very start, and I supported them when they were telling me that they wanted to become doctors or teachers – they just couldn’t be bothered to stick around and support me. I do thank them in some ways now though, because even though I find it harder to trust people, I find it easier to work out who my true friends really are.” You come across as someone who thinks quite logically, especially when it comes to life and those around you. “Well I think it’s important because otherwise, you would just become one of those celebrities who goes off the rails and becomes uncontrollable – I definitely don’t want that to happen with me.”

Her debut album is called Hold On, filled with 13 emotional and meaningful ballads which Delilah has written herself, it is expected to head straight to the top of the charts when it is released on the 1^st December, just in time for Christmas. At the mention of the album a glowing aura illuminates Delilah which really confirms the fact that music is what this girl is meant to be doing. “This album holds a lot of meaning for me,” says Delilah, “the album was named after one of my tracks ‘Hold On’ which relates back to the saying that my Nana always used to tell me when I was finding something difficult – It’s the one that I mentioned at the beginning of this interview.” She tells us that the album was completed about a month and a half ago, and after attending the listening party last Thursday evening we can see that there is a new generation of music on its way. “The songs that are currently hitting the top of the charts feel to me as if there is not a lot of meaning behind them, I wanted to change that, produce songs that people would be able to relate to. The world has listened to enough cliché love songs, it’s time for something different and that is what I plan on bringing.” Delilah wrote the album herself, with the input from people such as Tom Fletcher who stated that “this girl has talent – she definitely will go far,” and Greg Kurstin who helped the likes of P!nk and Kelly Clarkson. With talented people like these helping and guiding her along the way – this will definitely be a hit. “I loved working with all these talented song writers and producers – they were amazing. Since working with them, my writing and song producing has come on leaps and bounds. I really can’t wait to start producing my next album – I haven’t even had my first one out yet!” she says whilst laughing.

 Talking about what’s up next for this vivacious young star – we can see that there is a lot coming her way. With invites to perform at multiple venues and festivals in 2014, she also plans to head over to America, which we are sure she’d be able to crack after her debut single Helpless was released their two months ago and went to number 2 in the billboard charts. “I did a couple of promotional tours for a couple of weeks at the end of summer this year when I went to your generic Florida, New York, and LA. But I would love to go over there for a good couple of months and travel through the whole of North America with my team – I’d like to take my Dad and Nana too!” she says with a little giggle at the end. We just wish Delilah the best of luck with this album, and that America sees as much in her as we do. At the end of the interview, we ask her to finish off with a few words on what advice she would give someone who was starting out just like she was 18 months ago – “Just stay true to yourself and don’t forget where you come from. We see artists whose fame just goes to their heads and that’s just not cool. My nana has always told me to stay grounded, and that is what I’m going to tell you.”

Social Media

 

 

The social media is an extremely important aspect for when it comes to promoting a magazine, or any other medium. This is because there are millions of social networking users who actively use these sites daily, therefore, by having pages on various social networking sites we are reaching out to those who are using these new technologies.

 

I believe that four of the most commonly used and popular social networking sites are twitter, instagram, facebook and pinterest, another being tumblr which is a photo blogging site where various images are share and is extremely similar to pinterest.

 

Facebook and Twitter are networking sites where people are able to share different news, songs and other various things. We commonly see 'trends' and advertisements of what they believe that we would possibly be interested in.

 

I believe that it is extremely important for me to use social media as a form of promotion because of the young audience I am targeting my magazine at because of teenagers using their android and smartphones.

Props and Costumes

Promotional Methods

Promotional Methods

When promoting my magazine, I have been thinking about a variety of ways in which this can be done successfully. There are various numbers of ways to promote a magazine, for example on the sides of buses and bus stops, launch parties, bilboards, posters, leaflets and many more. When choosing what methods I wanted to use I needed to think of how it would increase the circulation and readership of my magazine and appeal to my target audience of those aged 15-24 in the social bracket C2DE. It is important that the Promotional Methods that I choose are successful because this product is unknown to the market at the moment.

PICADILLY CIRCUS

TIMES SQUARE

One of the most popular ways to promote a product is on a bilboard which tends to be found on the sides of busy roads, near shopping centres or in a large city. I believe that these are an effective  choice because they are very big in size which will help catch the eye of the audience and are specifically placed in places where many people will be situated. There are many bilboards situated across countries so if this is a chosen promotional method, then it is key that I make it stand out from the other bilboards and make it look exciting and enticing. I plan on making sure that I include key details such as when the magazine will be released for the first time and the magazine's website. However, I would not include the price because it would be more likely for the audience that this medium is targeted at to go into the shop and have a look at it.


Another effective way of promoting a product is on the side of a bus. Buses drive across the country at all hours of the day so it is extremely likely that the majority of the population will see it. I believe that this is an effective choice for how I will promote my magazine because the target audience is of the ages 15-24 because half of them will not be able to drive and will most likely be taking public transport to get to work or school. Another good use of promoting a product within public transport is at train stations as there will be many commuters going to work or shopping for the day so this is another good way of getting a message across.


Some magazines may choose to have a launch party which is where they would invite important people from that industry to help boost their reputation and get contacts within the industry. For example with a music magazine I might invite editors from other big music magazines such as Q and NME but also popular musicians who fit with the genre that I have chosen.

Mood Board

Production Diary - Preparing for photoshoot

This week, I have been focusing on the chosen design of my magazine, which I have not yet finalised. I have been considering key factors such as the colour scheme and photo styles. On the 23.10.13 I have my photoshoot. I believe that once I have taken the photos for my magazine, it will be a lot easier to chose the style and ideology I wish to portray to my readers because I will be able to get the colours of the photos and magazine style to fit together, making sure that there is nothing to crazy and none of the chosen colours clash.

I got my model for my photoshoot, Mary to sign a model release which allows me to use the pictures and assures me that they will put in all the effort into making sure that I end up with high end and high quality images. It also allows me the chance to do a re-shoot if necessary.

The night before the shoot I will sit down and consider the different costumes that my model will be wearing and the props that will be used in the photoshoot such as a ukulele and a bowler hat.

I have decided that the colour scheme that I wish to go with will be black, white grey and either a shade of blue or blood red as I believe that these are statement colours which are extremely eye catching.

Once I have the images from my photoshoot, I will be able to cross off the backstage scenes and contact sheet of the things to do towards my final grade of my coursework for this AS Level.

Image Ideas

As a part of my planning for my magazine, I had to consider different designs that I would want to include in my photoshoot. Above you will find a collage that I created on a free collage making website called 'Fotor Photo Collage' where I added a variety of images of clothing, props and makeup that I could possibly use in my photoshoot. I decided that I wanted the style to be quite minimalistic, however include something that is quite bold and eye catching, e.g. bold, red lipstick; this was used to make a statement. I think that the red lipstick is a good prop as red has connotations of love and passion which signifies a musicians love and passion for music

Model Release

I have now chosen who I want to be in my photoshoot for my magazine, and to make sure that the model for my magazine is happy and decide that they do not want me to use the pictures anymore, I got them to sign a model release which allows me to use the pictures and to make sure that they understand that if need be, there may need to be re-shoots and that the quality of their work is to their best ability.

Possible Colour Schemes

I have started to think about the possible colour schemes that my magazine could consist of. Successful music magazines tend to consist of greyscale colours (black,white and grey) and then one colour which tends to be quite bold and bright. I decided that I wanted to go for a bright blue or deep red because I think that these colours will be very eyecatching and fit in well with the genre of music that I have chosen. These colours are not 100% definite because I need to make sure that the colour scheme fits in well with the photos that I take for the photoshoot, meaning this could all change when I have taken my pictures.

Sketches

 

Here are the sketches for what I predict my music magazine could possibly look like. Obviously, over the course of creating my magazine adjustments will be made to acheive higher marks and scores and all of the text, images and sell lines will be added to the appropriate pages. The production of sketches is a good idea because I feel that this helps me get an idea of what I want to produce and then I can go on from there.

Masthead Design Analysis

As a part of this homework, I had to choose five mastheads of existing music magazines and analyse them and discuss what I liked about them, what I disliked, choice of colours and typography, etc... I believe that this is an effective task because it allows me to look at a variety of designs and get some ideas for myself, it also allows me to see what is and is not effective when it comes to designing the masthead for a music magazine.

Magazine Names

Here are 20 names of music magazines that are currently in the music magazine industry. Some of these magazines are extremely big and popular and consist of the variety of styles that magazine names can consist of: Acronym, Phrase, Connotative and Compounds.
(below are some examples of these 4 styles)

Acronym - NME (New Musical Express)

Phrase - Top of the Pops

Connotative - Kerrang!

Compounds - Indie-pendent

I believe that the name of a magazine is an extremely important factor in to how successful a magazine is because it is a clear representation of what to expect inside and possibly what to expect style wise inside the magazine. No magazine names are the same in any way because even though magazines are similar is some ways, they all have their own quirks and differences to the content and style that they are producing.

Through the creation of the names of the magazines, it can be quite obvious as to what sort of genre a magazine might be covering. For example, 'Alternative' is obviously going to be covering alternative music, and 'Billboard' will obviously be covering music that is currently in the charts. However, a music such as 'MixMag' might not be as obvious as the word mix could suggest that the content inside is varied.

Production Diary - Choosing the Name and Masthead Design

Production Diary - 14.10.13

Today in class I had to consider different name ideas and masthead designs for the production of my music magazine. From the start I wanted to make sure that the designs that I have chosen are minimalistic yet effective because I think a front cover which is overly crowded with different colours and images can be quite overwhelming and not very effective.

When considering name ideas, I wanted to keep the name short, but punchy so that it left an effect on the reader because that way it will be memorable. I had to come up with 25 different name ideas that I could use for my magazine and some of them were:

• IM (Independent Music)
• Polyphonic
• Pitch
• Sync
• Loud
• Alternative
• Amplified
• and more..

I decided that I would present the ideas that I had considered on a programme called wordle which would put all of the words into a 'word bubble' where you could change the font, colour and layout. This was an effective way of presenting this because it looks like a brainstorm that you might do on a piece of paper or powerpoint but its another way of presenting my work.

Then I had to consider different designs for the masthead which I did on InDesign. I created about seven different designs which consisted of a similar colour scheme, yet different fonts and layouts such as letters being flipped and being elongated to make particular letters stand out.

Masthead Designs

 

When thinking of the Masthead Designs, I had not actually concluded as to what I wanted the name of my magazine to be so I just considered the different designs with the word Masthead. I have decided that I want to go for different shades of blue and then also Monochrome (black and white). I want to keep the design of my front cover simple and minimalistic yet effective, and I think I will be able to achieve this by not choosing too many colours because I would think that is quite childish. The designs that I am considering are the second and third designs because I like the choice of fonts and the mimimalistic design. Obviously I still have a small amount of time before I actually create my magazine and I may change my mind but these design ideas have helped me think of how I want my magazine to be styled.

Name Ideas

As a  part of the planning section of my music magazine, I had to come up with some ideas for what I wanted my magazine to be called. I came up with 25 different name ideas which I thought would go well with the genre of music that I have chosen; Indie. The names that I am considering are:

• Sync
• IM (Independent Music)
• Amplified

When considering different names for my magazine I tried to consider the four different styles of name ideas that there are: Acronyms, Phase, Connotative and Compounds. I believe that the most effective styles are Acronyms and Connotatives because they have a good link with the genre of music that I have chosen.

Key Concepts Analysis

Key Concepts Analysis from ramsz001

As a part of understanding what a magazine does - I have completed an analysis of the key concepts you will find in a magazine. The four key concepts are: Codes and Conventions, Audience, Representation and Institution.

the codes and conventions are the generic features that you will tend to see in the content of a magazine; e.g. what you would find in the front cover, contents page and double page spread. If a magazine does not have these main features it is unlikely that they will be successful. By including all of these key conventions it will make the magazine look more aesthetically pleasing to the reader.

The audience is an analysis of what makes a reader want to read a magazine. Here you are probably going to look at the uses and gratifications theory which discusses the main points as to why a reader will use this medium, for example as a form of entertainment. We also might look at why print magazines are still as popular as magazines now processed online and also the expectations of a music magazine.

The representation analysis features how the genre of music a music magazine is focussing on is represented through the use of images and text. I also analysed the key iconography that is linked with the genre of music that I have chosen for my magazine.

And finally I looked at the institution side of a magazine which is where I focused on how publishers are making their money, sustaining their audience and also what other assets a magazine like have like awards shows, radio slots and TV channels.

Production Diary - Key Concept Analysis

Preliminary Video

Front Cover

 

 

Contents Page

 

Audience Survey Analysis

Production Diary - Blog Improvements

Today in class, we were given time to update our blogs and improve all of the work we have produced so far. It is important to keep all of the work up to date so that I am able to get the highest grade possible.

Last week I had finished my Proposal for my final product which I will start producing in the up and coming weeks. As a part of the specification we have to get feedback from multiple others so that we are able to make any needed improvements. Today I asked two of my friends to read through my proposal and then asked them if they wouldn't mind me filming their response.

I was told that my proposal was extremely detailed and well written, however some improvements that I could have made were to explain why I had chosen the genre of music that I have decided on (indie) and also to maybe include a secondary target audience that my magazine could be targeted at.

Over the next week or so, I need to come up with some ideas for my photoshoot, the pictures that I take in this photoshoot will be the pictures that will feature in my magazine.

Audience Profile

Before creating my magazine, I have been looking into who I will be targeting my magazine at. I have decided to create an audience profile as to the sort of person I will be targeting my magazine at. The sort of aspects that I have covered are psychographics, uses and gratifications, age, gender and occupation. All of these factors are key as they can affect who you are as a person and the sorts of things that you like and will listen to. Obviously this does not limit the audience to people who are exactly the same to the person I have ideologically created, this is just my consideration in to the fact that I think that people who are similar to this will like the magazine I am attempting to create.

Proposal Feedback

After writing my Proposal, I asked two people if they could read through my proposal and give me some feedback on what went well with my proposal and what I could do to make some improvements.

Audience Survey

Click here to take survey

As a part of my research for my magazine coursework, I produced a survey on the website survey monkey to collect some information on what people think I should include in my magazine, the genre I should use and the type of artists that they would like to hear about. (also a lot more!) By producing a survey, I was able to collect my results and help me produce some ideas as to what their ideal music magazine would be like.

When thinking about what questions I was to ask the questionees, I had to think about the style of question that I would ask and the mode in which they would be able to answer. For example, most of my questions are quantitative responses, which means that they have different boxes to choose from and the results are a percentage. However, I did include a question which would give me a qualitative response at the end of the survey where I asked responders for their three favourite music artists, this gave me a response where they would have to type in an answer; there was not a given option.

Double Page Spread Analysis

The double page spread analysis has played a key part in the research I have done into creating music magazines. By analysing the three double page spread articles and the images that are on them, I have got a good idea of what successful corporations do and how I can adapt these ideas to make them more personal to the image and look that I am attempting to create. I tried to make sure that I looked at three different style double page spreads because I wanted to see how different genres of music were portrayed in a magazine and see if there were any ways in which I could adjust this to fit the genre of music that I have chosen.

The three artists that were on the front of the three double page spreads that I analysed were Lily Allen, Lady Gaga and Florence and the Machine. Even though they are all female musicians, they are all representing different genres of music so my aims were still successful.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation

For the coursework of this unit, we had to produce a preliminary task which consisted of a basic front cover and contents page of a school magazine. This was not something that would help me gain any extra marks, but I would be able to use this to help compare this to my final piece next year and evaluate the progress that I have made with the software that I have to use.

 

On the front cover, I decided to go for something which was simple, yet effective. I chose a colour scheme of yellow and navy blue as these were the main school colours, which helps relate to the specification of the task; a school magazine. The full bleed image features a student in the new canteen, I chose this full bleed image with the student not facing the camera because this is not the most important part of the picture; the canteen is. However by having a student featuring on the front cover indicates that the magazine is targeted at students. As this is not the only article that will featuring in the magazine, there are other sell lines which tell the audience what will be included in that issue.

 

The sell lines consist of a basic, navy blue typography. I chose this because it needs to be clear and easy to read; this way the readers are able to see what the magazine will consist of. I put all of the sell lines in rectangular boxes to make them stand out against the background. I made the boxes a bold, bright yellow because it contrasts against the navy blue which helps catch the readers’ eye.

 

The contents page of my magazine is quite basic; this is not always a negative thing because by keeping the layout simple, the information will easily be relayed to the readers because there is nothing that will detract from the most important parts; what is on each page. As well as just writing on the contents page, I have also included some pictures so it doesn’t look just look like a word document. At the bottom of the page, I have included a message from the head teacher to give a sense of formality to the magazine as in some magazines you may receive a message from editor.

 

Improvements to make:

·         Make the masthead more attractive and eye catching

·         Use another font on the front cover to break things up a little

·         Incorporate the social media in some way

·         Use better quality images

·         Include a price for the magazine

·         Have something on the front cover which is the main focus

·         Include a brief description under each sell line

·         Make the colour of the page numbers more bold as this is one of the most important parts

 

As I have used the software InDesign before, I did not struggle when coming to using this. However I do feel I need more practice when using this to make my final product look more professional and clean cut.

Preliminary Task - Front Cover and Contents Page

Production Diary - Magazine Proposal

Today in class I wrote the proposal for my magazine which consisted of ideas which I have thought of for the production of my magazine which I will be starting to create soon. Some of the ideas that I had to consider when writing my proposal were:

·         Masthead

·         Genre

·         USP

·         Magazine content

·         How the audience will get involved

·         Target Audience

·         Frequency

It is important that I consider all of these factors as these are what make a magazine successful.

Now that I have written my proposal I need to get feedback from some of my peers to see what I have done well when writing my proposal and what else I should include to make it even better. This is a key part of the process because I could have missed out some vital information which could easily loose me some marks at the end of the project.

Proposal

Production Diary - Audience Survey

Here are the question that I created for my survey that I will get my target audience to answer as I want to gather some information about what they would be interested in before I start the proposal:

1.   Would you prefer the main article of the magazine to feature breakthrough or established artists?

       2.       What sort of freebees and competitions would you like to see included in the magazine?

3.      Do you like the idea of incorporating readers tweets with the magazine?

4.       Would you prefer the double page spread article to feature trivial questions or questions asking the artist about their musical career?

5.      Would you enjoy reading about the featuring artists point of view on other music artists?

6.      DO you think it would be a good idea to have a single page where readers opinions are posted?

7.       If you were to read a music magazine, name TWO genres you would read

8.      Do you like the idea of having videos where extra questions and answers are featured which weren’t in the magazine?

9.       Do you think it’s a good idea for the magazine to include a variety of artists, or those that are similar?

10.   List three of your favourite artists

Production Diary - Completed Preliminary Task, Writing Feedback and Audience Research

This week I finished creating my preliminary task. I decided to go for a colour scheme of navy blue and yellow as these are the colours of the school. The name for my magazine that I chose was ‘HAYDON TALKS’ and I incorporated the Haydon stag which is the logo of our school, in the masthead. I believe that the design of my preliminary magazine is simple yet effective because the colours are bold yet not overpowering and the articles are informative yet not boring.

The next part of my preliminary task that I will complete will be the evaluation. In this I have to include information about why I chose the colours, what programme I used and the tools that I had chosen. This will be used when I have to talk about the real task in the evaluation next year. I will have to talk about how I have overcome any challenges whilst using the programme and also what I have achieved in this time and discussing how my skills using the programme have excelled.

Over the past week I have been thinking about ideas I could put forward in my proposal for my music magazine which I will start planning next week. As I wanted to gather some information as to what my target audience would think, I created a survey on surveymonkey where I created ten question and sent it round to females aged 16-19 years old.

Here is some of the information that I gathered:

1.       67% wanted the majority of the magazine to consist of established artists

2.       The top three choices of prizes for competitions or giveaways were concert/festival tickets, meet and greet, and win a trip to…

3.     89% liked the idea of incorporating readers tweets with the magazine

4.      Many wanted the double page spread interviews to consist of a mixture of trivial questions and information about their music

5.       100% of those asked wanted to hear the featuring artists point of view on other music artists

6.       89% thought it would be a good idea for there to be a page where readers opinions would be featured

7.      The top music magazine choices were: Pop, Indie, Alternative and Dance

8.       100% of responders thought it’s a good idea to have video interviews where extra questions would be asked

9.       78% of respondents believe a variety of artists should be included in the magazine

10.   Here is a table consisting of artists they would like to hear from

ARTIST	How many people liked them?
Ellie Goulding	2
Chrvches	1
Gabrielle Aplin	1
Justin Timberlake	3
Taylor Swift	3
Justin Bieber	1
Ed Sheeran	3
Mumford and Sons	1
Purity Ring	1
Demi Lovato	2
Bastille	1
One Direction	2
Olly Murs	1
The 1975	1
Miley Cyrus	1
Bruno Mars	1
Rihanna	1
Matthew Morrison	1