Proposal Feedback

I asked three of my friends and family members to read through my proposal and then tell me what they thought about it and then send me what they thought was good and bad about it and why. This is what they said;

Kai Gilbert (15): 'I like the proposal and the whole idea of your magazine overall, I think many people from your targeted audience will read your magazine, as you know how your going to market it to your audience and you know what you want to be included. I think that maybe you could do something to make it more original, like to make it unique'

Natalie Quarrell (34): 'I personally don't think I would read your magazine as I am not a fan of this genre of music, however I know my children would and I would buy it for them, because you have made it very clear how things are going to be layed out and set up which makes me believe it will be a very professional magazine. The only criticism is that I doesn't suit all ages'

Carrie Gandemer (17): 'I really like the whole idea of your magazine, and I this is the sort of magazine I would pick up and buy when i'm at the shops, as it would feature all the artists that I like, I also like how you said you was going to say things truthfully and be upfront, I think that people will respect the magazine for that and trust it more'

In conclusion, I think I do need to do something to make my magazine different from all the others, a unique selling point. But overall I am happy with these comments and I will take them in and work on the criticisms.

Production Diary 12

I didn't post last week as I was very busy with work I needed to catch up with as the first draft date is next week and I had to take a week off of school. So I have finished my contents page completely, I have finished my first double page spread, and then the second double page spread for the same artist. I am still unsure if I am going to make a third double page spread for a second artist, I do hope that I do get a chance to do a the third double page spread, as I have taken some very good photos which would go to waste otherwise.

I then started my front cover, which is pretty much finished, however it did take a while to get to the stage that it is at now. I was getting very frustrated with it and just kept wanting to restart. I have also have plans if I have enough time to do a subscribers cover, as I feel this would really make my magazine look more professional. I am planning to take a camera out of school over the holidays and take some photos to use on the third double page spread if I do it, and also for the contents page pictures.

The contents page is pretty much finished, all of the writing is in, and all that is left to do is to change the place holder photos to my own, which I need to take still. I need to re write my double page spread text as well as I have decided to change the idea for that. But apart from that everything is finished and i'm almost there.

Magazine Mood Board

This is my mood board, with a collection of images  that I have found which are a visual representation of what my magazine genre is about, and also the design of my magazine. I have chosen multiple different magazines as I like different aspects of each and I think putting them all together would look good on my magazine. I have included a double page spread, with Adele, which is in black and white, this is very similar to the double page spread I have created for my magazine. All of the pictures included in the power-point, are all either the looks I want to use, the poses or the sort of outfits I want to use for my magazine models.

Front Cover Text

This is all the sell lines/cover lines which appear on the cover of my magazine, this informs the audience about what is going to be inside the magzine.

Codes and Conventions of Magazines

The codes and conventions have allowed me to understand what things I need to include to make a good magazine overall. It has also allowed me to know what the audience will expect from my magazine, and what I need to make sure I include when I create these pages, also to give my magazine a professional.

Image Ideas

In my magazine I want to use a variety of different images from close ups to long shots, for each different page. I think it is important to use a range of different shots as this as it is what makes a magazine look professional. I am thinking of having a close up on my front cover, and then a range of long, close and mid-shots on my double page spreads. Some of these in the studio and others taken elsewhere. Here i have made a mood board sort of thing which shows some of the images and types of shots I think look good and what I would like on my magazine. This is different from the clothing post, however these outfits and props are what my models should be wearing too.

Name Ideas

When deciding the name of a magazine it is important to pick something that people are going to be able to remember, and also something that relates to the genre of your magazine. I think that the best names are the short ones, that have a deeper meaning, which people can interpret themselves, however only regualr readers will actually know, which I am hoping to create. I decided the best way of putting all my ideas down is to create a mind map.

Promotional Methods

A good way of promoting your magazine is to have a USP, which is a unique selling point. A unique selling point is critical for any magazine, as it is the thing that makes it stand out and the thing audiences will remember it by. For example if could be done with comptitions, chances to win tickets or meet people. Other ways or promoting your magazine is to have stages at festivals, like reading or Glastonbury, which could possibly attract new audiences to the magazine. Social media as I have said before is a good free way of promoting your magazine to audiences.

Social Media

This is a slide talking about social media in general and how I would use it and why it is used.

 

Text for Feature Article 1

This is the text I want to go on the second page of my double page spread, the other pages I still need to write up the text to go on my other double page spread.

Production Diary 11

This week I haven't been in school as I have broken a bone in my foot and I am unable to walk at the moment, but I am going back to school on Thursday and I will be staying after school and in my free's to get up to date with the work I have missed, as I was not able to do any work on my contents page at home. I have booked a few gigs to go and see with my friends, and we have also planned to go up to London and see the lights with my models and take photos there as I think that it would be a nice setting for a picture which could go on a double page spread. Areas like south-bank suit my style of magazine perfectly, so we have plans to go down their and take photographs too. I have also asked a few of my friends that are boys to do another photo-shoot for me as I need a mix of girls and boys in the magazine. However for homework we have been set the task of writing of first draft of the feature article, which I am almost finished with.

Magazine Contents Page Text

This is all the text that I want to appear on my contents page, I have written it out first on a word document as I makes it clearer for me to see what I have written. It is also alot easier for me to write it out on the document and then copy and paste it onto InDesign.

Audience Profile

This is a model that I created, who is my target audience. By identfiying my target audience I now know exactly what my audience like and what they expect from the magazine which will help me when I create my own.

Production Diary 10

So today I have continued doing my contents page, I have added some of my own pictures in which I have taken from my own photo shoot with Paige and Daniella. I have also added photos which I have found on the internet of artists I would like my magazine entails. I have decided with a few of my other friends that we are going to go to a few small gigs and take a few pictures that I can use on my contents page. I have also done most of my text that needs to go on to the contents page, however I am going to finish it at home then put it onto a separate document so you can read it all. I did change the layout slightly so I could add some more sections onto the page, like the 'Gigs of the Month' section and the 'Editor Note' section. Lastly my next step is making all of my pictures my own and then moving on to my contents page.

Existing Mastheads & Names

 

 

Existing Mastheads and Names

I researches into come of the existing masthead's of very succesful music magazines. I discovered that red is a very common colour used. Researching these magzines gave me an good idea about when creating my masthead.

Photoshoot 1 - Timelapse

When I did my first photoshoot I had a camera set up behind the shoot, and set it so it took photos every so often. I then decided to create a small short video showing you my shoot. You can see me directing the girls, taking pictures, the cotume changes, and me changing the sets.

Photoshoot 1

 
This is the contact sheet which contains all of the pictures I took from my first photoshoot with Daniella and Paige my two models. Originally I asked Daniella and Siena to do my shoot, however Siena was unable and so I asked Paige who I was going to use on my contents. I have stuck to the idea of having them as seperate artists, however there are photo's of the girls together as this made them more relaxed at times, and they did produce good photos when together.

So when we got to the room where we was having the shoot, I sent the girls to go and get changed and with some help from my teacher I set up the black background, the lights and the camera. I also set a camera behind me which had a full view of me and the girls, which was set to take photos every 15 seconds. I had this set up so I could make a timelapse of the whole shoot, so you can see me changing over the set and also directing the shoot. When the set was ready and the girls where back and in costume, I had them take photos by themselves and then together, and when they were taking photos by themselves I sent the other off to go and get changed. However I could tell they felt slightly uncomftble and not very relaxed, so we put some music on and just had fun with it. The girls then appeared to be more relaxed which helped us both take the pictures. I took a varitey of shots, using stalls and clothing for props. I took photos from differnt angles using the different backgrounds.

Overall the shoot went well and Im pleased with the pictures that I took. I am going to book another shoot in with my contents page models hoepfully in the next week or so, and I am going to take a camera out of school and take some outside shots, and hopefully go to a gig or something so I can get some live music pictures.

Production Diary 9

Today we started doing a basic layout for our contents pages, that will go into our magazines. By starting with the contents page I get the most complicated part of the magazine done first and then hopefully the rest of my magazine will work out around it. So far I have figured out the colour scheme I want to go with, which is the classic red, white and black, because I think it gives it a more professional feel. I have done a simple layout using boxes and text which will be the base of my contents page, I will most likely change the layout around however this will give me a simple idea of where everything can go and how much I need to include. The next thing to do is to add real pictures into my contents page, and the text I am actually going to use.

Props and Clothing Ideas

Here are some pictures I have found online of clothing that I want my models to wear, this is the sort of image I want my models to give of.

Survey Monkey Analysis

This is a short slideshow on some of the answers I recieved from my SurveyMonkey survey. This is what I have gained from making the magazine and how i'm going to make my magazine incorparating the audiences views and ideas.

Proposal

My proposal has allowed me to plan out all the different parts of my magazine, and put all my ideas into one place. By putting my ideas down in one place it means I can keep going back and checking things to see if I have forgotton anything or not. Of course along the way im sure im going to change my mind and my ideas will alter, but I will specify my reasons for my changes in my evaluation after my magazine is completed.

Business Model - Q

 

Audience - Uses and Gratification Theory

 

Audience - Uses and Gratification Theory

This is my analysis on the uses and gratifications theory of audience. I have outline the basic explanation of what each of the uses and gratifications men and I have given examples. This will help me when creating my final magazine as I will understand how my audience will want to use my magazine.

 

Production Diary 8

 

Yesterday at school, I uploaded my video for the genre of my magazine which is indie. I also started and finished my survey monkey survey, which took longer than I thought it would because I didn't know which questions to ask. I posted them both onto my blog, and asked my friends to complete it when they got home, I also uploaded it onto my fronter page and twitter page asking people to complete it. The idea of having this survey is to get a better insight of what people are going to want to have in a magazine as they are going to buy this and they are going to want the most they can get for their money. Additionally I had a few problems when trying to upload my genre video has it wouldn't go straight onto my blog, therefore I had to upload it up onto YouTube which didn't work the first time, however when I tried the second time it took a long time but did upload. Then I inserted a link onto my blog and put a small description underneath telling everyone what it was and why this was helpful for me. But I did have some problems when making the actual video as I wanted to insert live clips from festivals I had found, however Adobe Premier wouldn't accept them. However I learned how to sort out that problem after a little bit of playing around with the programme, I also learned how to export a video from 'Adobe Premier Pro CS6'. Today in school, I just worked on my audience presentation and went over past posts and made sure I had written enough and made sense. I felt this was important as sometimes I made posts when I was out and busy so I might not have made much sense. 

Music Magazine Audience Survey

I have created a survey to help me understand what people like to have in music magazines, the idea of doing this is so that I can get a feel for what people and my audience will want when I create my magazine.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JQ5GH6B

Representation Video

This is a representation video I made for my magazine genre, everything included in this video I believe to be important to my genre of music. I thought rather than type it out, I would show you instead.

Production Diary 7

Today I was suppose to have my first photo-shoot, but I couldn't as my model was ill and therefore
I decided I might as well wait for them all to be together to do the shoot. I have decided that I definitely want to have a girl group/band on my front cover, I realize that if I do have this I am going to have to work hard on making sure they all look right in character and go together well, otherwise it wont work. As well as this, I have started on my double page spread analysis, as I was behind on this work as I was off ill. That should be finished by my next lesson and should be uploaded soon, this time it wasn't that hard to analyse the spreads as I did this for GCSE and remember a lot of what we did then. My mum brought me some things home from london the other day for my room, I really liked some of the decorations she had picked and it sounds strange but they really inspired me. I took some pictures which I will insert down below, but I think they just look really cool, I liked how fun they made my room looked. I also really liked the dream catcher and the fairy lights because I think they really reflect the look I want to go for with my magazine. Although it is a indie magazine, which people might how does that reflect your magazine that hasn't got anything to do with indie, I do want to bring that fun hipster side into it to. I don't want to have a dull boring magazine. I want it to be stylish. So i'm planning to buy some fairy lights like these and put them around a section of my trees in my garden and take some shots at evening, when its getting dark and the sky is at that orangery yellow colour.

Production Diary 6

Transcript: This week I was researching online more about the sort of clothes I want my models to wear, I was just searching random things such as festival clothes, festival fashion, indie style etc into google and just saving images into a folder so I could print them off and just show them to my models to see if they own any items of clothing like this. I will leave some pictures of those down below so you can see the sort of style i'm going for. I specifically liked the way that Vanessa Hudgen's dressed at some of the festivals she went to this year and last, she went for a sort of indie boho style.

Additionally, I think this style really suits her. I have a model, who I think can also pull this sort of look off. Vanessa also wears a lot of feathers in her hair, face jewels and jewelry which I also intend on having in my magazine. I also decided that I now don't want one model to be my main artist, I want to make a girlband of 3, my models for this will be Kristin Page, Siena Singh and Daniella Blow. I haven't yet decided on a name for the girl band either, but i've been looking online at indie bands names to get a feel and some inspiration.

Production Diary 5

In my last media lesson, we went through the codes and conventions and the representation of magazines in class as a group. Then we went of and had to present this in our own way and put it onto our blogs. I haven't yet started my codes and conventions presentation, although I want to make a powerpoint presentation to present that. But I have started my representation, I have made a video with lots and lots of pictures which I would associate my magazine I want to create with, so it has pictures of indie artists, festivals, bands, clothing, and tattoos etc. Everything about the indie subculture I have got a picture of and has been put into the 3 minute video. I am almost finished with this, however it is at school so I cant work on it at home as I don't have the same programmes. However I am staying after school next week for a couple of days and I will finish it off then as well as my codes and conventions presentation.

Analysis Of Contents Page

Contents Page

This is my analysis of two different contents pages. The reason I have done this is to gain knowledge on the norms, and the codes and conventions of music magazines. This will help me when I create my own magazine as I will know what and what not is effective and what I need to include and what is optional to include on my contents page.

Research of Similar Product Material - Front Cover Analysis (Rolling Stone & Q)

Analysis of Double Page Spreads

Double Page Spreads

This is my analysis of two different double page spreads. The reason I have done this is to gain knowledge on the norms, and the codes and conventions of music magazines. This will help me when I create my own magazine as I will know what and what not is effective and what I need to include and what is optional to include.

Production diary 4

Today I came back into school after being off for a few days and I finished the front cover annotations and started my contents page annotations. I found it a lot harder to find examples of contents pages online, especially double page contents pages. So far I have found one 'vibe' one and one 'Q' one, but I am still looking for my third now, but there is none I really want mine to look like. So I've started my contents pages but haven't yet finished them yet, I have used these sheets to help me do the annotations. The sheets have lots of information on them which give me hints and reminders of what I need to write about and what comes under that. For example; for analyzing magazine front covers, when talking about the masthead you should talk about the significance of the titles name, describe the typography, how big is it, color and font, and where does it sit in relation to the image. In addition to all of this I booked my first photo shoot which will be in the studio and in a couple of weeks, and it will be of Daniella Blow, Siena Singh and Kristin Page. I will be taking these photos for the front cover as well as the contents page and double page spread. I have decided to have Daniella as my main model and Siena and Kristin as my secondary and third models. I have also thought about asking one of my friends thats a boy to model otherwise all of the models will be girls and that may restrict the audience.

Production Diary 3

This week I wasn't in any of my lessons as I was ill and didn't come into school. Although in the lesson that I had previously been in we had started analysing and annotating professional magazines that are well known for being successful, we had to annotate magazines that we wanted our magazines to look like. I chose to annotate the front cover and contents page of two 'Q' magazines and a 'Rolling Stone' for the front cover. I did some of these in class and currently finishing them now. I haven't actually started the contents pages yet. Additionally I also started thinking about when I should do my photo shoot, what genre I want to go for  and who should be in. I decided I wanted to go for the indie music genre and I was going to ask one of my friends called Daniella Blow to model on the front cover and then ask some other friends to model for the contents pages. However I have also asked some of my other friends to take part in my photoshoots, as I think they have the right look for what I am going for.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Evaluation 

For the preliminary task we had to design a Haydon biased magazine, I have now finished this and now i'm going to evaluate it and see what I did good and what I can improve on. I decided to call my magazine 'The Stag' as the stag itself is the logo of Haydon School and it can be seen everywhere around the school. For the front cover I decided to have the masthead large, simple and white as I think the white really stands out against the full bleed. Additionally the masthead follow the codes and conventions of a magazine by being so large and bold. I was originally going to use a picture of a girl standing in front of a tree for my full bleed, however I didn't feel that it linked to all the students, therefore I changed it to a picture of my two friends, Casey and Tom, on their prom day. I decided to use this picture as prom is something that right from year 7 everyone gets excited about, boys and girls, as well as this it was a major event that had happened not that long ago. Also I applied other aspects of a real magazine to mine, for example I added a bar code, sell lines button, issue number, and date. I also kept my colour scheme simple and consistent throughout the magazine, I think this makes my magazine look more professional.

Next I did my contents page, for this again I kept to the same colour scheme of; blue, white and yellow, this is to make my magazine look more professional, also these colours are easily recognisable and related to the school so I thought it would be a good choice of colour scheme. I then decided to go for a simple layout and just make a section at the top for the title 'contents' and space for social media, underneath I then placed the pictures. Next to the pictures I have put the large page numbers which are conventional to a magazine and then a small description of whats on each page. 

Although, I admit that even though I believe my magazine is pretty well made for the amount of time we had to make it, if I was to recreate my magazine, I would change some things. For example I would add more information underneath the picture on the contents page, I would rearrange the picture so their is no large white gaps anywhere. I would write more to do with the social media and adding in a subscribing box with information regarding that. Additionally I would use pictures that are in better quality and from better angles. Lastly for my front cover I think I would use a better quality photo, and really think more about what my sell lines would be. I would also change the font to make it look more  professional.

Production Diary 2

Todays lesson I completed my preliminary task, which was to create a Haydon based magazine, which I called 'The Stag'. I have also started my evaluation but I need to finish it for homework. Last lesson I finished the front page and had started looking at the pictures for my contents page but hadn't had enough time to actually work on any of it. So in todays lesson all I had to do was finish the contents page, where I had to add pictures, write the page numbers, write the title, think of descriptions, add social media, etc. So far my evaluation is coming along nicely, I think it has to be roughly over 500 words but i'm already over that. So far I have explained what I feel I did well on the front page of the magazine and I then need to add more about the contents page and what I can do to improve. 

Final Preliminary Task

Analysing Previous Work

Research Post - Clare Hanington's Blog
 

For homework this week we got set a research task, of looking at a past AS media students blog and analyzing it. We were told to pick a blog that we thought looked successful and explain why we thought this. I looked at a chose Clare Hanington's blog.  I was reading through some other blogs but I didn't feel as if they went through as much detail as Clare did in her blog. Clare did feel as if Clare made a conscious effort to explain everything she was doing and why she was doing it, for example Clare also uses a range of social media to upload her ideas and when she explains what she has done recently. She uses presentations, prezi, voki, videos herself, written word, and  sound-cloud. I also like how she stuck to a color scheme through her blog, it makes it look more professional and everything looks neat, tidy and its easy to navigate. I also feel that her blog reflects her personality which is important as she spent a lot of time and effort into making it right. I hope my blog is as successful as hers.

Production Diary

Sketches & Ideas

I have now completed my sketches and have chosen everything that I want to go into the magazine. I did the sketches roughly and didn't spend much time on them as I only wanted a basic outline to go by. I have chosen to call the magazine 'The Stag' as it relates to the school as that is the schools logo. For the front cover I have chosen an image of a girl standing in front of a tree, she is a new sixth former to the school. I feel that this is a good image to have as this was a bit event happening at Haydon recently. I have chosen to go with a colour scheme of 'yellow, navy and white' as these colours relate to the school well. I got the ideas for the story's for the pictures we took around of the school, additionally I am using some prom pictures that my dad took at the school prom in the magazine. I may makes some changes to my magazine depending on whether it looks right when I put it all together but for now this is what i'm going to stick to. I haven't decided on fonts and sizes yet, as i'm not sure whats going to look good with the layout of the magazine. The language i'm going to use in the magazine will be simple and clear to understand read so the whole school can read it and understand. As if I use bigger words the new year 7's might not understand as much as the sixth form students.

Preliminary Task - Design Ideas

Our preliminary task is to create a magazine which is based on Haydon School. As soon as I heard about the task I knew I wanted to make it as fresh and relatable to the students as possible. I wanted to make it a magazine that when the students see it actually want to read it and not just throw in the bin, I want the magazine to actually relate to things they care about. We was then sent out to take pictures of the school and the students around and within the school. The magazine will be based on everything that involves the students in the school, for example the prom, results day, new students and the canteen. After this I made a power-point of all my ideas so I wouldnt forget them, which I will link below.  Now that I have all my ideas down my next step is now to sketch the front cover and contents page of my school magazine.