18th March

Todays lesson was another important lesson spent in the computer room working on our main task. I spent the lesson working on my contents page. There were no major problems with photoshop this time which is an improvement. I got the structure of the page done and chose the house style i was going to use, just have to continue with it. I researched a bit more on the use of house styles used in NME and kerrang, which helped.

Plan for the contents page is to have one big picture the covers the top half of the page then below have 3 columns with page numbers and titles linking to whichever page, also using smaller images and text to relate to pages included in the magazine, but not too many so that the page will look overcrowed, the title will be in the same font that i have chosen and will be bright to include colour. Using some of the ideas gathered from the examples above aswell as some of my own.

Front Cover

I made a start on my front cover for the main task, this however seemed to take up the whole double lesson due to the confusion of using photoshop again, with moving edited images onto the cover. Eventually by the end of the lesson it began to look like a music magazine, so no time was wasted just took longer than expected. This was all made alot easier because of having completed the mock up and had ideas on what i wanted it to look, and a rough guideline on how to do it.

On Mondays lesson we got the mark scheme which gave us an idea and realisation on what we should be aiming for, and what we need to include. With finding out this i was able to create a to-do list on what i need to do. So far there is no outstanding media work that needs to be done or i have missed which is good.

Mock up and photos

I`ve decided that my magazine is going to be indie/rock. I have chosen this genre because i personally like the music and also we researched this genre in class, so i think that it will be easier to produce this kind of magazine.The music magazines i have researched to get ideas for my own, helped in the design of mine. NME and Kerrang were the main magazines i based my mock up on. The target audience for my magazine would be aimed at young adults and teenagers 15-30 varried age, that are intrested in this genre of music and trends therefore the magazine will apeal to what they enjoy. Images will be of bands, current and upcoming, advertising images from gigs and events. Design of the magazine colours; black white and red, fonts; bold, catching attention and appealing to the audience. Identity role models would be of artists and bands featured in the magazine, trends would be topshop/topman etc. Interactivity of the magazine would include interviews, reviews, and competions that are advertised in the magazine that link to the website and voting for events such as awards that happen. Surveillance would include festivals, gigs, awards ( N! awards). Escape making it enjoyable to read because its up to date in what their intrested in such as music, events, fashion. My magazine will appeal to an audience that are intrested in indie/rock music also such trends that are seen within this category of music. In the magazine there will be interviews with exclusive bands and artists also reviews on the latest music, events and gigs. This will encourage my target audience to enjoy the magazine and have a sense of escape when reading it, being up to date with the latest music and events.

There were a few problems with designing the mock up, i had trouble with the layout and how to link the house style to the style and genre of the magazine. But with a few days of working on it everything seemed to sort itself out. Throughout the magazine i need to remember to use the same fonts and style of headings to gain the house style.

The plan for my front cover is i plan to use a large image that will take up most of the front cover and stand out. Then have smaller images towards the bottom advertising smaller stories that will appear inside, one of the images advertising the double page spread. Also my front cover will have, a bold title that will be at the top of the cover, bold headings and bright coloured backgrounds behind the text. Date, price and bar code.

For the contents page is to have one big picture the covers the top half of the page then below have 3 columns with page numbers and titles linking to whichever page, also using smaller images and text to relate to pages included in the magazine, but not too many so that the page will look overcrowed, the title will be in the same font that i have chosen and will be bright to include colour.

And for my double page spread is to have the main image covering the two pages with a bold title, then a few paragraph`s underneath about it. Then to the right hand edge of the page have a photostrip of images also realted to the main image and information given.



I came up with ideas that i could use for some of the photographs, these being some photos that i already had taken at gigs, and festivals that i had been to, also i could relate the stories and advertising of events in my magazine. The other photos that i am going to use have been planned out i have the people that i am going to use, and there outfits etc all done and photos taken.

It was important that we had our photographs and mock ups ready for last weeks double lesson (11th March) so that we could start straight away on out main task, and that there would be no confusion as to what to do.

Homework/research

Our task was to write and comment on the genre of music, our group had been given rock; this could be split up into many sub-genres such as, classic rock, indie, emo, screamo, metal etc. The expectations for this genre of music were very stereotypical; dark colours with white because most of us had read the magazine before. Appealing to a young audience seeing as a lot of teenagers listen to music and it`s seems to be the most common genre, a mixed audience that was interested in rock. Would include such things as interviews, gig dates, reviews, information to do with rock music etc. Language used to be informal and aggressive due to the stereotype rock musicians follow. We thought about artists that would be featured Nickleback etc

When we studied the magazine we found our expectations to be right in most aspects we were asked to look at, however some were not such as; the audience seems to appeal to an older generation as well as younger with older artists reappearing. The layout was at first glance scattered on certain pages, but once you began reading each part was organised and presented neatly with dark colours mostly, then a hint of colour on certain pages relating to what the page was reviewing or advertising. The language we expected was correct, informal with lots of information included in blocks set out in text boxes to fill the page, which would take time to read. Abusive and offensive language and slang was used in interviews with bands and reviews, keeping will the stereotypical theme of rock. The content of the magazine included, interviews and news about current bands and up and coming bands introducing them, reviews, gigs, posters, and advertising clothes, games, albums etc. Typical artists including slipknot, and bring me the horizon were featured. The size of the magazine was surprising being such a well know magazine we expected it to consist of more, but it was a smaller magazine with fewer pages not including as much.

The website which we looked at was NME, the layout for this was well set out which made it easier for the reader. The menu bar placed along the top was full of links that took you to each separate page and put everything into categories making it easier to find what you were looking for. The important and main information filled the front page with new top stories down the left side of the page which acted like a contents. It`s filled with pictures and captions, and very interactive with videos, blogs, their own radio station also it lets you vote for the NME awards and subscribe to receive emails and news updates. The house style and colours are bright the background advertising the NME awards.


Powerpoint

We were set the task of researching a magazine that we had previously looked at, and producing a powerpoint including: the history of the magazine, the publication, circulation, publisher, how it appeals to its audience, the content of the magazine and the audiences intrests.
I chose NME magazine for this task, seeing as the genre of my main task would be very similar so it would be beneficial reasearching and being able to gain ideas of how you connect to your audience through your magazine.

Preliminary task

After having a few lessons explaining and experimenting with Photoshop and then taking individual pictures to use for the front cover. Completing the preliminary task in Wednesdays double lesson before half term, using Photoshop and editing the photographs which I was going to use for both the front cover and contents page, was a bit easier to do with the work been done before starting. The front cover of the school magazine I was pleased with after having a few problems understanding how to use it, and then completing the contents page which I wasn`t so pleased with and will be the area in which I need to improve with the main task.



On Monday we started our preparation for our main task, by researching in groups different music genres and presenting our findings to the rest of the class. This was interesting to see what the other groups had come up with and how our expectations were either met or proved wrong. Then we were asked to research our given genre which was rock online and comparing it to the print version, in our groups case they were rather different but this may have been due to our magazine being Kerrang and the website being NME.