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

Contents Page Analysis

Production Diary - Preparation of Preliminary Task

Over the past week and a half I have been preparing the preliminary task for my coursework. We do not get any marks for this, however if we do not complete this we will lose 15 marks. The specification said that we had to create a magazine for our school (Haydon School), which consisted of a front cover and a single paged contents page.

I decided that I wanted the colour scheme for the magazine to fit in with the school colours; navy and yellow. I wanted to keep the design quite minimalistic so did not clutter up the pages with anything unnecessary. I based the main article of the magazine on Haydon’s new school canteen and the introduction of the new caterers. The full bleed image on the front cover consisted of an image which related to this.

I brainstormed some ideas on a piece of paper which I have also uploaded to my blog. Things that I included were ideas of names for the magazine, what the main article should be and sell line ideas. I believe that it is important to plan your work before and get down some good ideas prior to creating this because this way, I am going to have a clear understanding of what I want my coursework to look like.

I have begun creating my front cover and contents page on InDesign which is an adobe programme which is used throughout the course and is the programme that I will be using throughout the rest of this course.

Analysis of Music Magazine Front Covers

Preliminary Task

Here are a few ideas that I put together for my Preliminary Task on a magazine for our school. We have to produce a Front Cover and a Contents Page. I have decided to call mine 'Haydon Talks' (Haydon being the name of the school)