Main Article Draft

This is my original draft of my feature article. I decided to write my article in a relaxed style as opposed to question and answer as I felt that magazines frequently do this style instead and it provides a lot more entertaining and exciting for the reader to read.

Contents page ideas

This is a powerpoint showing some of the sell lines and the material I plan to include in my magazine. I believe this will help me in creating my final product as I will have a clear idea of what kind of style of writing to include in my magazine as well as the amount of content I am aiming for in order for it to adhere to the codes and conventions of a music magazine.

Cover lines

These represent some of the articles and content that I would expect a music magazine to have. They are of a similar style to music magazines that already exist given the language and style of artists I have used. This will help me when creating my magazine as it will give me good guidelines for the content to have in my magazine and also the style and layout I would like my magazine to have.

Choice of colour scheme

 This is a Voki of my chosen colour scheme for my magazine. I believe it explains as to why I chose the colours of purple, black and white in a brief yet clear summary. This colour scheme enables my magazine to have a professional feel as well as looking simplistic and cool. This clear colour scheme will be useful in the design of my final magazine.

Image Ideas

These are a few image ideas that inspired me with my magazine. They vary with a variety of artists and fashions that I have tried to use as inspiration for my photoshoots.

Magazine masthead font ideas

These are a few font ideas that I had for my masthead of my magazine. I decided to go for Impact (the first font) as I felt it was most bold and eye-catching. However, to make it look a bit more interesting I did put an italic effect on it to make it slightly slanted.

Music Magazine Names

This is a list of possible names for my music magazine. I used these to give me inspiration for the masthead on my final product and my favourite's so far are Breakin, Smash and Indify.


Here is an additional video of me explaining further about the magazine names that I had come up with, what they represent and the name I finally chose.

Magazine mood board

This is my magazine mood board. It shows different types of images that I would include in my magazine, associate with my magazine and also associate with my target audience for my magazine. I believe they give a fair representation into the style and ethos I would imagine my magazine to have.

Analysing my music magazine survey

Analysing my music magazine survey helped me to decide what I will include in my magazine. It allowed me to see what my audience would like in my magazine and I will refer to this when making my final product.

Audience Profile

This is a video of me discussing my ideal audience profile for both skews of my demographic. This will really help me when creating my magazine as I can refer to this video to remind myself of the type of content that my audience would wish to see.

Production Log - Lesson 12

In todays lesson I finished my magazine business model and made frameworks for my magazine contents page. The business model will be a good example of what I shall aspire my magazine to be like. The frameworks will be a useful template when making my magazine as I will have a framework of where to put my pictures and how many artists I will need to get pictures of. Next lesson I will be adding the headings for my contents page and continuing the framework.

Production Log - Lesson 11

For the past few lessons I have been working on my audience uses and gratifications', my music magazine survey, my music magazine proposal, existing magazine names, existing magazine mastheads, and analysing my music magazine survey results.

The audience uses and gratifications outlined a basic explanation of what each of the uses and gratifications mean and how they are used in selling magazines. This will help me in creating my final magazine as I will understand how my audience will want to use my magazine and what ways I can enable these uses within the content and look of my magazine.

My music magazine survey will provide me with quantitive and qualitative data, which will help with completing the design for my magazine as I will be able to see exactly what my target audience want, and from this I can determine what to include in my magazine.

My music magazine proposal will act as a template for when I am actually creating my magazine and will be useful as it has all of my original ideas that I can develop over time. I am happy with the current standard of my proposal but I will most likely alter it and make changes as I progress throughout the course.

The existing magazine names helped me think of ideas for what to make my magazine masthead look like. It gave me ideas for colour schemes, and I found that red was an extremely popular colour for creating magazine mastheads as it is bright and bold. I also got inspiration for different texts and layouts and saw what ones worked best for the styles of magazine. This will become useful when designing the masthead of my magazine.

The existing magazine mastheads  helped me think of ideas for what to name my magazine. It gave me ideas such as having a single bold letter, a play on words or a classic title. It is useful to get inspiration on the title of the magazine as you can see what titles are already in the market.

Analysing my music magazine survey helped me to decide what I will include in my magazine. It allowed me to see what my audience would like in my magazine and I will refer to this when making my final product.

I believe I did all of this work to a high standard and that it will all be very useful in creating my final magazine.

Proposal feedback

This is a video of Chloe giving me feedback on my proposal. I believe her feedback is very helpful in highlighting the things that I have done well with my proposal and also areas for improvement. I will take into consideration these comments when finalising my magazine.

Music Magazine Proposal

This is my proposal for my music magazine. This will act as a template for when I am actually creating my magazine and will be useful as it has all of my original ideas that I can develop over time. I am happy with the current standard of my proposal but I will most likely alter it and make changes as I progress throughout the course.

Music Magazine Survey

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This is my music magazine survey. I sent this to people who I'd assume would be my target audience, such as my friends and their friends, of different genders and ages. I believe I did this well as I tried to vary my questions to give me an array of different answers - which will provide me with quantitive and qualitative data. This will help with completing the design for my magazine as I will be able to see exactly what my target audience want, and from this I can determine what to include in my magazine.

Existing magazine mastheads

These are the existing magazine masatheads that I have analysed. In analysing these it has helped me think of ideas for what to make my magazine masthead look like. It gave me ideas for colour schemes, and I found that red was an extremely popular colour for creating magazine mastheads as it is bright and bold. I also got inspiration for different texts and layouts and saw what ones worked best for the styles of magazine. This will become useful when designing the masthead of my magazine.

Existing magazine names

These are the existing magazine titles that I have analysed. In analysing these it has helped me think of ideas for what to name my magazine. It gave me ideas such as having a single bold letter, a play on words or a classic title. It is useful to get inspiration on the title of the magazine as you can see what titles are already in the market.

Business Model Q Institution

This is my powerpoint of my business model for Q magazine, using the text from the Soundcloud below, with the explanation of Bauer Media's institution. This will help me when creating my magazine as I have a good knowledge of what media house I'd like to publish my magazine. In researching the publishing house, I was able to see the styles and layouts that the magazines they publish have and this will influence the styling of my own magazine to adhere to their conventions.

Production Log - Lesson 10

Representation of the Indie Genre

This is my analysis of the representation of the Indie Genre. I chose to analyse the Indie genre because I think it is a broad yet very versitile and interesting genre to do and I like listening to the music from those types of artists as well as following the fashions. This made it easy to understand the representations of that genre as I am fairly familiar with it already. I believe in being familiar with the representations and putting them into more detail will help me in chosing my magazine style and the content for it as it will be highly based on the representations of that genre.

Audience Uses and Gratifications

This is my analysis on the uses and gratifications of an audience. Here I have outlined a basic explanation of what each of the uses and gratifications mean and how they are used in selling magazines. This will help me in creating my final magazine as I will understand how my audience will want to use my magazine and what ways I can enable these uses within the content and look of my magazine.

Codes and Conventions of Magazines

Here is my codes and conventions of magazines. These are the things you would typically see in every magazine, however I have made it slightly more specific to music magazines. I believe in identifying these codes and conventions, it will help me to complete and design my magazine to the correct standard and also typical conventions that magazines have.

Production Log - Lesson 9

In today's lesson I finished my article analysis. I did it in great detail, similar to my front cover and contents page asnalysis as I wanted to enable myself the best possible information of how magazines work and how they can be picked a part. I did this so that I can use this analysis to help me think deeply about how I make my magazine and what features I want to include, as well as how I want everything to be represented. For next lesson I would have completed a codes and conventions prezzi of Music Magazines which will also help me for creating my magazine in the future as I will recognise what are typical to music magazines.

Research of Similar Product Material - Double Page Article Spreads

Here is my analysis of similar magazine articles and double page spreads in music magazines. The articles I chose are all very different in style and so they helped me see the different styles of magazines and also the genre of magazine that there are. I wanted to chose a variety of magazines so that I could gauge some variety and pick what style I liked the most. I believe this will help me in chosing the design for the article in my magazine and also the kind of artists I want to include.

Production Log - Lesson 8

In todays lesson I analysed similar product material in the form of contents pages. I made sure I did this in lots of fetail as I am aware that this will help me when creating my contents page for my own magazine. It gave me some inspiration as to what I would like my magazine contents page to look like, for example, what kind of layout and style I would want. The contents page that I most liked was Q so I will most likely style my magazine around Q's layout as I think it looks professional without stopping it from looking cool and slick at the same time. Next lesson I shall be analysing some more similar product material in the form of double page article spreads for magazines such as Q and NME.

Research of Similar Product Material - Contents Pages

This is my analysis of similar magazine contents pages to the style of magazine I want to make for example I have chosen contents pages from Q, Kerrang and NME. This helped me see the different styles and layouts of contents pages; which gave me inspiration for the kind of style and structure I want on mine. I believe this will help me in chosing the design for the contents page and the types of article headings and house styles I will include.

Production Log - Lesson 7

Research of Similar Product Material - Front Cover Analysis

This is my analysis of similar magazine front covers to the style of magazine I want to make. This helped me see the different styles of magazines and also the genre of magazine that there are. I believe this will help me in chosing the design for the front cover of my magazine and also the kind of artists I want to include.

Production Log - Lesson 6

In todays lesson, I tiedied up my blog and made sure that it was organised and easily accessible. I sorted out all of my lables and made sure that all of the work I had done, had been handed in. As well as this I also started my research task for similar products to my magazine and set up a lable for that called 'Research'. Next lesson I hope to continue with my magazine research and also gain some ideas for what I could aspire my magazine to be like.

Production Log - Lesson 5

In todays lesson, I did two things; firstly I edited my blog to make it look professional and then I evaluated my preliminary task. Stasrting with editing my blog, I just changed a few things in regards to design and layout to make it look appealing as well as professional. Moreover, I made sure my embed quotes were in the right place so that everything worked as it should. I then moved on to evaluating my preliminary task. This was fairly easy as I have evaluated in many subjects prior to media so I was able to easily depict the good and bad aspects of my magazine. I did a faily detailed evaluation as i wanted to ensure I could justify what I did, why I chose to do it and how I believed it would be effective/not effective. Next lesson I shall be learning how to film my work and post it.

Evaluation of my preliminary task

Evaluation of my preliminary task

During the first two weeks of AS Media we were required to complete a preliminary task in the style of a school news magazine. We used the software InDesign and Photoshop. I find both of these applications easy to use as I previously did media at GCSE level so I already knew the basic skills of how to make a magazine. I believe the skills I used best were the text tools as my prior knowledge enabled me to move text (e.g. bringing it together so it’s all in alignment) to try to give my magazine a professional feel/follow similar conventions of a news magazine.  

I titled my magazine ‘Haydon News’ as it was straight and to the point so everyone, whether it be teachers or students, will know what it’s about. I also believe my use of bold colours (black, red and white) would entice students and teachers to pick up a copy of the magazine as it is eye-catching and clear as to what it is about.

Moreover, I tried to keep the house style to 4 specific colours: black, white, red and blue. I decided to do this as it kept my magazine looking professional and trustworthy as well as clear and bold.  They also incorporate similar colours to Haydon’s uniform and logos with the colours black, white and blue; this was a good idea as it relates the magazine specifically to Haydon.

 On my front cover I decided to use a picture of a new year 7 boy as the full bleed as year 7’s typically look smarter than older years as they are new and also much more enthusiastic. He is represented as a happy and enthusiastic which not only highlights him in a positive light but also reflects well on the school if anyone else other than students/teachers were to see/read the magazine. This was also good as it would entice people to pick up a copy of the magazine as the happy face and thumbs up makes him look appealing to the audience.

Furthermore, I also tried to keep the headings of the articles within my magazine quite short and sweet so students could just walk past and see if it was something they wanted to read about. I also made the topics relevant to a variety of students and teachers so that they would feel getting the magazine would be useful.

In addition to this, I kept the magazine as a free product as students don’t have a lot of money and would probably be more likely to spend it on sweets at the shops after school, so this way students feel like they’re getting a freebee through it not costing anything; however if it was popular I would consider charging 20p to start with so I could possibly gain profit as that is something I currently wouldn’t be getting.

Moving on to my contents page, I decided to keep this fairly straight forward and simple so that it easy to navigate no matter what age, experience or reading ability. I chose to do this as I understand that both teachers and all levels of students will be reading the magazine and will want to be able to access information quickly and easily. I did this by making sure the text was easy to read, the colour was clear and that it wasn’t too small e.g. I kept the page numbers bold and relatively big so the magazine was easy to navigate. I also highlighted the article names that I kept the same as those on the front page so not to cause confusion and also to make them stand out as important.

In addition to this, I continued with the same house style just so I could keep it at the same level of style as the front cover.

Finally, I decided to use a range of pictures involving both students, teachers, food and the general school environment so that it was both enjoyable and easily understandable magazine for everyone. Moreover in all of the pictures I made sure they were clear and good quality so to reflect and represent the students and the school itself as a very positive and happy environment to be a part of. I decided to include the picture of the head teacher as this enforces that my magazine is reliable as it is approved by him and it also makes it clear for students, outsiders to see and know who the head teacher is and what his school has got going on.

Analysis of previous AS Media blogs - Johnny Fonseca

This is my analysis of a previous blog by an AS Student called Johnny Fonsecca. I believe I did this well as I made sure I analysed in lots of detail and said what I throught he did well and not so well with his blog. I believe this will help me when figuring out what I need to include in my blog and also the level of the work I want to achieve at the end of the course.

Final preliminary task

Final Preliminary Task

 

 

This is my final front page and contents page for my preliminary task. I believe they have been successful because they adhere to the codes and conventions of news magazines e.g. having a masthead and a button.

 

 

Production Log - Lesson 4

Today I managed to finish my preliminary task. I completed the front cover last lesson and also made a start on the contents page; so this meant that I only had to finish off the contents page this lesson which wasnt a very tedious or time consuming task as I have done it before. I am happy with the final product of my preliminary task as, despite it not being my best piece of media work, it definitely fits the criteria we were given. I shall begin evaluating it next lesson.

Production Log - Lesson 3

Today we continued with designing our school magazine front cover and contents page. I finished my 'Haydon News' front cover as shown here and am currently in the middle of my contents page. Next lesson I aim to of finished my contents page too!

Production Log - Lesson 2

Today we carried on with our coursework and for this we were required to use InDesign. Personally I enjoy using InDesign as I have used it before at GCSE so I already have prior knowledge of all the tips and tricks! My magazine front cover is coming along well and I am going to continue with it next media lesson.

Planning of my preliminary task

This is a powerpoint of some of my preliminary task ideas. They helped to shape my preliminary task product as I always had somethuing to go back to, to get inspiration and ideas from that I may have forgot to consider along the way. It had ideas such as titles and pictures I could include which was really useful to refer back to. I believe it helped me in creating my final design and is a really good representation of a small part of my planning skills.

Production Log - First Day

Today I had my first ever AS Media lesson! It all went pretty fast but I managed to keep up relatively well (I think). We were introduced to the coursework aspect of the AS course and got thrown straight into the deep end by being asked to sketch out designs for a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. I didn't struggle too much with this as in doing media at GCSE I had sketched for comics and magazines before. I finished the task pretty quickly, and although my artistic skills are much to be desired, the basic layout was there. Once that was checked over by my teacher, Mr Robson, me and some other students got to go out and take some pictures for our front cover and contents page. Admittedly, they aren't the best pictures I've ever taken but they will suffice for now until I get the opportunity to take some more. I really enjoyed my first lesson and look forward to seeing what else AS Media has to throw at me.