Questionnaire Analysis

I created a survey and asked 7 people to answer it, and these are the results that I got. Overall, it suggests that I should make my magzine a pop magazine and that I should aim it at teenage girls. It also told me that I should think about 'Billboard' magazine when designing and creating mine because that is what most people would be most likely to buy. It shows that the majority of people think a music magazine should come out monthly and that it should be priced somehwere between £2-£3. By completing this survey and analysing it, I have more of an idea as to what I my music magazine should be like.

Moodboards for Poses

These are a few moodboards that I created to help me when creating my music magazine.

This is a moodboard with suggestions of poses that I could get my model to do on the front cover of my magazine. I quite like the poses that Lea Michelle, Blake Lively and Lily Allen are doing. 

This is a moodboard with suggestions of poses that I could have my model do on the double page spread in my magazine. As I'm creating a pop music magazine, I want the pose to be quite fun and not too 'modelly'/serious. I quite like the poses that Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Leighton Meester are doing.

Survey

I have created a survey to help me with my research of music magazines, and eventually creating my own. Please click here to complete the survey. Thankyou.

Fonts inside the magazine

Fonts in my music magazine

Masthead Fonts

Titles and Masthead

This is a screenshot of a few different fonts I could use for my title/masthead in my music magazine that I created in microsoft word.
1)The first font is all in captitals which makes it stand out. This font has a quite 'edgy' or 'different' look to it.
2)|The second font is lowercase letters, but still has a different kind of look to it.
3)This font is less 'edgy' as all the letters are more curved. The thicnkess of the front makes it sound out quite alot.
4)This font is thick aswell but is quite hard to read.
5)The fifth font is just a normal, typical italic font that is eay to read but looks quite boring.
6)This font has more of a 3D look it, but is still quite hard to read.
7)Although the letters are quite straight, they still look fairly rounded wich could give the magazine a softer look.

Differently to this, I could use a website called 'dafont', which has thousands of copyright-free fonts. I could screenshot a specific font and insert it into my magazine.

Double Page Spread Basic Outline music magazine

I researched music magazine double page spreads, and found some of the codes and conventions/typical things people would expect to see with in a magazine:

• text in columns
• main title including/involving artists name
• one large/full length image
• quotes from the yext or interview in bold
• pale/light coloured text

I found a picture of  a double page spread from a music magazine that I like:

I really like the use of the smaller black and white images at the top of the page, and then the larger image being in colour.

 

 

 

Contents Page Basic Outline music magazine

This is a basic first draft of my contents page- it shows where I want the main features to be.

Front Cover Basic Outline music magazine

 

This is the first design I made of my front cover on the computer. It's a very basic design that shows where I want the main features of the front cover to be. I included the image, title, puff, barcode and date and 'other features' as these are the main conventions of music magazine front covers. I made the background pink because it is a teen pop magazine and is mainly aimed at girls- the colour scheme of my magazine will be pink, white and black.

Hand Drawn Drafts

Codes and Conventions of a Magazine

This is a powerpoint showing how I analysed different magazines, and a few examples of magazine covers that I like and may use to get ideas for my own magazine front cover.

Contents Page Analysis

Contents Page Analysis

Double Page Spread Analysis

Front Cover Analysis

I found and analysed a pop music magazine to help me when I begin to create my own- it made me more aware of the codes and conventions of pop magazines and what people might expect to see within it:

Pop Music Analysis

Before creating my magazine, I had to choose a genre to base it on, and I chose 'Pop Music'. I chose this genre because it is a very broad/wide catergory that lots of different types of music can fit into it. I think it would be the easiest music genre to base a magazine on because the model wouldn't have to have a specific look.

I did some research into pop music and what it actually is,and found the following:

Pop music (a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of "popular") is a genre of popular music which originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll. The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, even though the former is a description of music which is popular (and can include any style).
As a genre, pop music is very eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country; nonetheless, there are core elements which define pop. Such include generally short-to-medium length songs, written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), as well as the common employment of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and catchy hooks.
David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as "a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, and folk musics". Although pop music is often seen as oriented towards the singles charts it is not the sum of all chart music, which has always contained songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs, while pop music as a genre is usually seen as existing and developing separately. Thus "pop music" may be used to describe a distinct genre, aimed at a youth market, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll.
Throughout its development, pop music has absorbed influences from most other genres of popular music. Early pop music drew on the sentimental ballad for its form, gained its use of vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music, instrumentation from jazz, country, and rock music, orchestration from classical music, tempo from dance music, backing from electronic music, rhythmic elements from hip-hop music, and has recently appropriated spoken passages from rap.

I will take all of this information into consideration when designed and creating my music magazine.

Practicing Creating A Music Magazine

This is an example of how I could use photoshop/firework to edit imges, add text and create my music magazine.

I found an image of an singer (Beyonce) on the internet, and edited it in photoshop by deleting/rubbing out the white background and some of the shadow to make it look more effective. I then used word art to create the title, look a snapshot of it using MWsnap and again deleted the white background. 

Music Magazine Front Cover Photos and Editing

 

Music Magazine Front Cover

 

 Image:

 

After researching music magazine front covers, and finding some examples, I found a few things that majority of music magazines have in common.

I found that most music magazines have one large image on the front cover of the artist/musican that is being featured in the magazine. The photo is usually a close up of the artist's face or a mid shot. This is the type of image that I will use on my music magazine front cover.

 

 The name of the musican/artist that is photographed is usually printed onto the front cover of the magazine in a large, bold font.






I also found that, as these three examples show, most music magazines have plain, often white, background so that the focus is completley on the featured artist.

 

Editing:

I could use programmes such as photoshop or fireworks to edit the photos that I take, and want to use on/in my magazine to make it look better, or to make it fit on the page better. I could then use either of these programmes to create the actual magazine later on by putting the edited images onto a background of my choice and adding text.

 Also, these programmes allow you to edit out parts of the image that you may not want- for example, tatooes.








These two images show the same image before (picture with the tatoo) and the same image after (picture without the tatoo) I edited it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Text in my music magazine

What I would and wouldn't use in my music magazine

After researching music magazines, and magazines in general, I found that the title on the front cover of the magazine is often in a plain, easy-to-read, bold font and in a bright colour that stands out from the background- mainly black, white or red.

I could word art in Microsoft Word to create the title, for exaple:

I could use either red or black (or both) for my magazine title because it stands out and would catch the readers attention. The shadow effect gives it a 3D look, which would also be more intersting for readers of the magazine to see/look at.

 

 

 

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Final School Magazine

After speaking to my friends and teachers I got some feedback on my first draft of my school magazine. I listened to what they had to say and then re-designed/edited both the contents page and the front cover of my school magazine:

This is a screenshot of how the contents page of my school magazine after I recieved some feedback and edited it. Some of the feedback I got suggested that originally it was that the images weren't very well edited or placed on the page, and that the page in general didn't look very interesting-especially as the audience is school children. To change this, I deleted the image of the cashless catering machine and instead used a an image of a pupil using the machine which both looks better and demonstrates how the system works. I also changed the colour of some of the text to make it more interesting to look at. The image of the pupils I originally used didn't really have anything to do with what was on the page/in the mgazine so I created a small sub-heading at the bottom of the page and linked it to the contents of the magazine.

I also recieved feedback on the front cover of my magazine, which included that there was too much green and that the images weren't edited very well. To improve this, I changed the background to white. Aswell as this, I edited the box that the title was in to make it look softer and more aesthetically pleasing for the target audience (school students). I also edited out the background of the image of Millie I used to make it blend in to the magazine better. Another small change I made was making the speech marks around the quoatation red to just add a little more/different colour to the cover.

Editing Images- School Magazine

This is one of the original shots of the school tree that I took. I chose to use this image because I took it from quite far away which makes it easier to edit and ensures that I didn't accidently cut any of the tree out of the photo.

Using photoshop, I edited out the background to make it look nicer on the contents page. I did this by using the eraser tool. I then uplaoded this image to fireoworks and added it to my contents page.

Editing Images- School Magazine Front Cover

Editing Images



This is one of the original photos that I took for my magazine. I chose this photo over the others because I wanted to use a full length shot on the cover, and a mid shot on the contents page.

Firstly, using photoshop I cropped the image so that you couldn't see the window, the bench or the notice board. This made the image alot cleaner and neater.

Next, I used the healing brush tool and the cloning tool to edit Millie's skin, and then used them again to edit out the marks of the pavement and the wall. This again made the photo look cleaner and neater.

School Magazine First Draft

Practice School Magazine

 

This is a screenshot of the front cover of the school magazine that I created. I made it using fireworks and photoshop. I took the images (Millie and the school tree) and then uploaded them to photoshop. For the photo of the tree, I cropped the photo and then rubbed out the background to make it look better on the pale green background. For the image of Millie, I used the healing brush tool and the cloning tool to edit her skin slightly and to edit out some of the marks on the ground. After editing them, I uploaded them to fireworks and added them to the front cover.

 

This is a screenshot of the contents page of my school magazine which I also created on fireworks and photoshop. I took the two pictures and uploaded them to photoshop. For the image of the cashless catering machine I just cropped the edges and used the healing brush tool to make the edges softer and neater. I then edited the background out of the image of the three students by using the eraser tool. I then uploaded them to fireworks and added them to the contents page.

 

 



School Magazine Mood Boards

School Magazine Mood Board

For my school magazine, I chose to use the colour scheme of green and white, and to use images that were relevent to my school and schools in general.

School Magazine Content Pages

Examples Of School Magazine Content Pages

 

This is a bad example of a contents page of a school magaizine. They have used two colours that don't really compliment eachother throughout the page- a black black background and white writing. This makes it a lot harder to read, especially as it is aimed at children. There is a lot of pictures and they are all on the right-hand side of the page, and all the writing is on the left-and side of the page which again makes it harder to read because the writing has been made very small to give room for the images. By looking at this example I know now not to make my contents page too crowded or busy, and not to use contrasting colours. 

 

This is an example of a contents page of a school magazine that I think has a good layout and a good colour scheme. The way the magazine has been set out and designed makes it look effective but not too busy. They use two simple colours throughout- purple and white, which is aesthetically pleasing, easy to read and makes the magazine more consistant. I could use this to help me when I'm designing the contents page for my own school magazine. 

 



In my opinion, this is another bad exmaple of a contents page of a school magazine. This is the opposite of the first example in the fact that it is too empty/plain. Although they have used red which is an eye catching colour, they have not really thought about the layout of the page. There are four images, which are all very similar, and all on the right-hand side of the page. They have listed what is included within the magazine but haven't given specific page numbers which I think a conents page should have.



School Magazines-Layout

What I would and wouldn't use in my magazine

 

 

 

 This is the current layout of the school magazine 'Idsall Voice'. The magazine's front cover doesn't follow of the codes and conventions of a typical school magazine, however follow some of them.
The magazine has a master head at the top of the page, in the centre, which includes the name of the school (one of the codes and conventions). It also includes the school logo and photos of the headteacher, and a few pupils of the school. These are all elements that I plan to include in my own school magazine that I will create soon.



 

Despite this, there are certain things are aren't included in this magazine that I would like to use in mine. For example, there is a lot of text on the front page, where-as I would like to have small headings with a few images that sum up what is on the inside of the mgazine, without going straight into the information on the front cover. If I set my magazine out like this, people would read the front page and either feel as though they don't need to read the inside, or don't want to read the inside because they have taken in enough information already.

Media Bible

This is a 'Media Bible' that explains and defines all of the media termonolgy that we might need to use during this course.

Media Language

 

 

Key Terms and Definitions

 

 

Mood Music = Music used to enhance the atmosphere or setting of a moving-image text.

 

Extreme Close-up = A camera shot designed to show the facial expressions of a character.

 

Connotation = The suggestion of a deeper meaning or idea- often connected with colours.

 

High-angle Shot = A camera shot designed to place a character in a vulnerable position or to make them appear smaller.

 

Diegetic Sound = Dialogue between characters on a screen in a moving-image text is an exmaple of this.

 

Symbol = A sign or object that stands for something else, eg. a crucifix.

 

Genre = The type of media being used, eg. (computing) magazine, (romantic) film, (indie) music.

 

Panning Shot = A camera shot used to create a swift movement or confusion in a moving-imge text.

 



School Magazines- Text

What I would and wouldn't use in my School magazine

 

 

Within the magazine, the text should mostly be the same, unless I want to make something stand out/be seperated from the rest of the page. From researching the codes and conventions of school magazines and magazines in general, I learnt that the text should be an easy to read font, especially in a school magazine because children are going to be reading it, and the same font should be used throughout. I also learnt that the text should be in black, or another dark colour, because it will make the writing stand out against majority of background colours.

 

This is an example of a font that would be suitable for my magazine, because it is easy font to read and understand, which is important because its the part of the magazine that gets the information accross to the audience.

 

 





This is an example of a kind of font that I wouldn't use because it's quite hard to read and understand, and when looking at a magazine, the audience would want to be able to read it easily and quickly.

 

This is the font I would be most likely to use within my school magazine because it is easy to read/understand but doesn't look too formal/boring. This font is called 'Arial Narrow'.







 

School Magazines- Title

What I would and wouldn't use in my magazine

 

 

 

I found out that one of the codes and conventions of school magazines is to use the colours of the school on the front cover, therefore I will use green, white and black on the front cover of my magazine. I also found out that you shouldn't use too many different colours, which is why I will stick to these three main colours.

I learnt that the title should have something to do with the same of the school, and should be in a font that is quite easy to read.




This is an example of a logo that wouldn't be suitable for the school magazine that I'm making because it doesn't follow the codes and conventions that I previously researched- it is a very hard font to read and the colour doen't match the colour scheme of the school.



This is an example of a more suitable title for my school magazine because it is in a font that very easy to read, and it is one of the three main colours that are associated with the school, which therefore means it follows the codes and conventions of a typical school magazine.



 

 

Codes and Conventions of School Magazines

Codes and Conventions of School Magazines

 

What are codes?

Codes are a sequence of signs that create meaning. Codes can be split into two futher catorgories: Technical and Symbolic.

Technical- All the ways that equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.

Symbolic- Show what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example, a character's actions tell you how the character is feeling.

 

 

What are conventions?

Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something/what you would expect to see in that specific type of media. There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interview quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific.

 

 

How codes and conventions apply in media studies?Codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre – it is not enough to discuss a technical code used such as camera work, without saying how it is conventionally used in a genre.

 

 

Research on the codes and conventions of school magazine front covers:

Some of the codes and conventions that apply to magazines in general are;

•  The title is either in the middle, or at the top left corner of the magazine.
• Images are normally to the right of the text, or in the middle of the front cover and each have a sentence to briefly show what is inside the magazine.
•  Not too many colours are used, and the colours aren't too bright.

Some of the codes and conventions that are more specific to school magazines are;

• The title usually has something to do with the name of the school.
• The school logo appears on the front cover.
• The school colours are used throughout the magazine.
• The is an image of the students and/or the headteacher.
• The information is recent and relevent to the school/it's pupils.

Examples of school magazines that follow some of these codes and conventions:

 

 This school magazine has the school logo in the top corner, and has recent and relevent information on. It also has images of the students.
















This school magazines also has an image of the school logo on the front cover, and has two images of the pupils. The name of the school is used in the title of the magazine.
















This school magazine features the school logo and has two large images of students. The information is recent and relevent to it's audience.

 

Work schedule for entire course

Week	TASK
Week 1	Research the codes and conventions of general magazines and school magazines (included front cover and contents page). Blog
Week 2	Analyse existing school magazines. Create a school magazine mood board. Blog
Week 3	Make a rough outline of what my magazine will look like (front cover and contents). Blog
Week 4	Decide what kind of photos I want to take, where I will take and who will be the model. Blog
Week 5	Borrow a camera from school and take the photos for my school magazine (prelim task). Blog
Week 6	Upload images to the computer. Edit all images. Blog
Week 7	Create first draft of school magazine. Ask for feedback. Blog
Week 8	Edit magazine and create second draft/final piece. Blog
Week 9	Complete evaluation of school magazine. Blog
Week 10	Make sure everything is on my blog.
Week 11	Research codes and conventions of music magazines. Analyse front covers, contents and double page spreads. Blog
Week 12	Decide of genre. Analyse magazines of that genre. Look at specific conventions of chosen genre. Blog
Week 13	Make a practice cover using existing artist on fireworks. Blog
Week 14	Hand draw rough outline of what my music magazine will look like. Blog
Week 15	Look at different fonts that I could use in my magazine and on the cover. Blog
Week 16	Create basic draft of all 3 pages on fireworks. Blog
Week 17	Make a survey on name for magazine ect. Blog
Week 18	Analyse survey answers. Blog
Week 19	Think of artist name and identity/personality. Decide on when I will take the photos, where and of who. Blog
Week 20	Make second draft of all pages. Blog
Week 21	Borrow camera from school and take photos of main model and other models. Blog
Week 22	Upload images to computer. Decide which photos I want to use. Blog
Week 23	Edit selected images. Blog
Week 24	Edit selected images. Blog
Week 25	Edit all pages and add in images. Blog
Week 26	Ask for feedback on magazine. Edit where necessary.
Week 27	Make word doc/powerpoint ect about creation process. Blog
Week 28	Upload magazine to blog. Blog
Week 29	Make sure all of blog is up to date. Blog
Week 30	Start evaluation questions. Blog
Week 31	Evaluation questions. Blog
Week 32	Finish Evaluation questions. Make sure blog is complete.