Mock Up Double Page Spread

Time Managment - 17th to 21st Decemeber

According to my time management plan today i should be finalising my magazine design. However at this moment im unwell and unable to get into college to finish my magazine. I still need to complete my double page spread and get audience feedback for my work. I would complete it at home, however the software we are using (In design) I dont have access to.

Contents Page

Creating the Contents Page

As you can see here is the current layout for my magazine, its going to contain pictures to interest people in reading certain articals more.

Here i added some more text about the contents

Here i got my magazine contents page with all the writing for the articles and created boxes to add the images to make it more appealing.

Once i created the texts boxes for my contents page i started to add pictures that relate to the articles.

 I continued to add pictures to my contents page as shown above and here is all the images once they have been added.




.........

Mock Up Contents Page

Time Management - 5th December

According to my action plan by now i should be designing my contents page and getting audience feedback. Today I'm about to start the designing process for my contents page. So according to my plan I'm on target but only just, which means where I'm currently at i have the possibility of slipping behind easy.

My Front Cover

Front Cover Development

Below are going to be a selection of screen shots showing how i created my front cover for my magazine.

When creating my front cover first i edited a picture that was going on the cover, i changed the brightness and contrast to make the picture brighter and add some depth to the image. This is to help make it stand out to people. I edited this in Photoshop

    Once i had finished editing the image i added it into InDesign where i had already made my Masthead and my barcode. For my masthead the font that i used was rockie and grungy this is to help it stand out so that people recognize it for the title.

Next i added my central image, i took this photo of my friend playing his base guitar, i felt this linked to my magazine as the genre of my magazine is rock.

After i added my central image i then started to add my cover lines to make my magazine a little more attractive. So that it will catch the audience's eye.

To finish off my magazine i added some final cover lines and a puff with a competition this was to make it more attractive to the audience so that they will be more interested in buying it.

Photo Shoot Front Cover Ideas

After taking over 200 Photos i managed to narrow it down you just 6 protential images that could be the central image for my magazine. 

Front Cover - The Shoot

Clothes 

For my photo shoot I wanted the person i was using to have some branded clothes normally associated with rock, So i had my "model" wear a DC hoodie, as DC is a well known rock brand alone with Vans which he is wearing Van shoes.
  The look i wanted for my magazine was casual. Nothing over the top. Because I felt that if the audience see and normal looking person on the front of the magazine then they will want to be like them.

Props 

Because its a music magazine I wanted an instrument included in the central image. So for the images i used a Base guitar as they are used by rock bands, this is the only prop that we used for the photos.

Location 

When i took the photos i wanted lighting to be natural  and the only place i could get that was outside. So i took the photos up against a house because it was a plan coloured background  and i got the natural lighting i wanted. Also for me this related to how alot of artists start out. In the streets just them and the music for people to hear.

Front Cover Mock Up

Analysis Of Magazines

Magazine front covers from SherbertLights

Contents page from SherbertLights

Double pagestead from SherbertLights

Style Sheet

Pitch Feedback

Above is the video of the response from my pitch, and below is a brief summary of the video and the answers that they gave to what my magazine should include and look like. 

-Title: Undiscovered 
- Other Articles: UK Charts
- House Style: Black, Gray and Green
- Price: £1.50
- Central Image shot type: Medium or Long shot. 

Research and Planning: Pitch

Music magazine from SherbertLights

Initial ideas for Music Magazine

There are different magazine available on the market, covering different genre's.

What kind of music magazine do you want to create?
The type of music magazine i'm going to do is unsigned rock (unsigned bands) and bands that have recently been signed.

Why?
Because its something different, not many magazines focus on the up and coming unsigned bands which gives me a unique selling point.  And find out whats happened since the band has been signed (Diffence when it comes to creating there music)

What will make my music magazine unique?
My magazine will help advertise, promote and give unsigned bands the appreciation that they deserve.

What will it include?
- Articals with up and coming bands
- New Music Videos
- Album Reviews
- Single Reviews
- Local events
- Adverts
- Giveaways
- Posters
- Next weeks issue

introduction to the main task

Now that i have completed the preliminary task i am now going to move onto the main task. For the main task i need to create a music magazine that consists of a front page, contents page and a double page spread. 
Below I'm going to write a work flow to help with my time management.

5th November
1. Introduction to main task
2. Initial ideas for music magazine
3. Creating pitch for magazine idea
4. Research of chosen subgenre

12th November
1. Present pitch and get audience feedback
2. Further audience research
3.  Focus on photographs

19th November
1. Indesign/photoshop training
2. Designing front cover

26th November
1. Designing front cover
2. Audience feedback on front cover

3rd December
1. Designing contents page
2. Audience feedback on contents page

10th December
1. Designing double page spread
2. Audience feedback on contents page

17th December
1. Finalise magazine design
2. Introduce evaluation

24th - 31st December (Xmas Holiday)
1. Draft Evaluation

7th January
1. Evaluation

14th January 
1. Evaluation
2. Final Blog check

The Evaluation

In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

After looking at examples of student magazine's i was able to see and understand may over the common features. They usually consisted of a house colour of about 3 colours and has students on the cover. The magazines also included a masthead, cover lines and splashes.  When developing my own magazine i use the colours light blue, silver and aquamarine that connote calm and relaxing. For my central image i used a picture of a college student in a medium close up shot.  My magazine articles where interrelation to the themes of college e.g. exam stress, money saving tips and included articles that students wanted to read. 

How does your media product represent different social groups?

My magazine is aimed at students my age (16-19) so i designed my magazine in a way that was appealing to me.  I used light blue because I felt it was a calm and neutral colour as it both attracts boys and girls, I used the colours aquamarine with silver and i felt they went well together and work well with the light blue and didn't give the magazine a specific gender base. My cover image was of a student. This was to show that the magazine was for the students about the students which went well with the title of the magazine. The font i used text was bold and large, this was to grab the attention of students, also using bold text made the magazine feel a bit fun which relates to students as their fun. 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that my magazine would work well for my college because it contains articles that people want to read. The magazine contains information about the newest games and movies which relate to teenagers  also give the students help with their exams and give then tips on how to save money which is useful for students that dont have a job or just need help with money management. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience is 16-19 year old college students. Who want to find out what's going on in their college and their local area.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by using bold font to grab the students attention. The colours I used stand out again the centre image. I did used lots of bright colours and too much information because I didn't want the magazine to feel cluttered and busy. For the contents page I kept to the same style, keeping it simple but sticking to the house style. I made the background colours simple so that once the font was added it was bold and in your face, along with three images that linked to the magazine content. 

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

During the creation of my magazine I used Photoshop and InDesign. I already knew how to use Photoshop but InDesign was completely new to me. I would normally use Microsoft Publisher to create a magazine but after using InDesign i see that magazine would be better suited to InDesign. I took my photos with a digital camera, this was good because it was portable and the quality of the images was good. 

Generic Conventions

Magazine Designs

Magazine Front cover and Contents page

Focus Group

Research Evaluation 

below is a brief summary of the video above, the answers they gave are to do with what my magazine is going to look like and what people want to see in it. 

- Title: Student Talk

- Content: Student Life

                 Money

                 College news - Sport results + musical

                 Film, game and album review

 - House Style: Medium Aquamarine, light blue 2 and Silver

 - Mode Of Address: Informal

 - Image: mid-close up outside college, with games and other pictures linking to content

 - Price: Free

Initial ideas

One of my tasks is to create a student magazine, so below i'm going to write down some of my ideas for name, content, house style and so on.

Name

- College Mag
- 24.7 Student
- Ludlow Gossip
- Student talk


Content

- student life
- student finance
- collage news
- film review
- game review
- album review

House Style

- Medium aquamarine, light blue 2 and silver
- Light Blue, White and grey
- Silver, light green and black







Mode of Address

-Informal
-Chatty
-Slang
-You - Talking to the audience

Images

- Mid-close up of student outside the college
- Mid close up of group of students outside the castle.
- Picture of student with game, dvd and album for the reviews


Price 

- Free - 50p
- £1.50

Research And Planning: Analysis of 2nd Student Magazine

Research and Planning: Analysis of Student Magazine

Preliminary Task: Brief

As part of my AS Media studies course i have to manage my time effectively. Below im going to write a plan for what im going to do for the coming weeks. 

Week 1

- Explore Generic Conventions of a students magazine and create a A3 mind map on these idea. 

- Analyse a front cover and contents page of a student magazine and put it onto here (my blog)

- Conduct a focus group to establish what the student audience what in a new college magazine. 

- Analyse front cover and contents page of another Student magazine.

Week 2
- Mock up for front cover and contents page.  (Use my findings from magazine and focus group to produce my mock up front cover and contents page)

- Begin designing the front cover for my student magazine. 

- Design the front cover and contents page for my student magazine.

Week 3

- Design the front cover / contents page

- Introduce the evaluation. 

Introduction to AS Media

As part of my AS media studies coursework the brief my coursework requires me to create a Front cover, Contents Page, Double Side spread of a new music magazine. before i do this, i must produce a student/college magazine and a mock-up contents page.  
I am writing this blog in record the basis of my work, planning and research. So i can make a magazine to the best of my ability. : )