Initial plans for my magazine

This is the initial plans for my magazine. It is my final decision on what things such as the price of my music magazine will be. I have also decided what will be in my magazine.

My music magazine will be priced at £2.50 per issue. This is so that it is not too expensive so that more people buy it. From my research I gathered that most music magazines cost around £2-£4 and the more well known magazines cost around £4-£6.

This magazine will be published weekly. This would allow for a weekly article to be written for readers to enjoy.

Each issue of my music magazine will have roughly 45 pages. This is just enough so that people do not get bored. My research showed me that most of the best selling music magazines are published monthly rather than weekly. However when I asked people what they would choose the majority said they would prefer the magazineto be published weekly.

Regular content in this magazine will be things that most music magazines in the media have, interviews. My interviews for my magazine will be about up-coming artists. In my interviews I would ask the up-coming artists about their influences and where they hope to be and who they hope to be as big as in the future. More regular content in my magazine will be the top 10 albums that have been sold that month and also the top 10 tracks that have been listened to that week. Many music magazines show what songs and albums everyone is listening to and buying.

The feature articles in my magazine will be holiday themed. I have found that a lot of magazines do this. The holiday themed magazine will contain all the regular content but it will be decorated with spooky pictures. There will also be a feature article in this magazine about what events are taking place on Halloween night. A Christmas special would contain regular content and the feature article would be a top 10 list of ‘your favourite’ Christmas songs ever. Readers of the magazine will be able to vote online for their favourite Christmas song. This will be advertised in the magazine about a month before this magazine is sold.

Codes and conventions of a double page spread

This is my prezi presentation showing the codes and conventions of a double page spread. We thought of the codes and conventions ourselves and compared with each other so we didn't miss anything out. We then put our ideas on our blogs. We wrote down these codes and conventions so that I knew what I would include when doing my preliminary and main task.

Analysis of professional magazine covers

 

During this week, we researched different magazines in the genre that we would like our magazine to be. We wrote down the codes and conventions that appear in all of them and then we made that into a script. We wrote down everything that was included on the pages that we saw. We wrote this as a script that we could read out. We printed off that script and then using a dictator we recorded ourselves. On adobe premier we made a short video of images of magazine front covers that we cropped in Photoshop and added the recording of our voices.

Article research

Planned questions

My questions to ask the artist will be:
1) We know you play a lot of instruments. How many instruments do you play?
2) How long have you been playing these for?
3) What made you choose this specific genre of music?
4) Who is your musical inspiration?
5) We heard you had a stage name when you where first starting out as a new artist, would you tell us what it was and why you chose it?
6) We got some information from your friend Kallum, he said that you hate songs that don’t have melodies such as certain rap songs, do all of your songs have certain melodies to them?
7) Who do you write your songs for?
8) Where do you find it best to write your songs?
9) Do you prefer being a solo artist or would you like to join a band at some point?
10) How many times have you performed live?
11) Do you get nervous when you are about to perform?
12) Why did you decide to stop playing gigs?
13) What is the biggest arena you have performed at?
14) Are you excited to be back playing your music?
15) When is the Adam Davies comeback concert?
16) How often are you rehearsing for this?
17) Do you have a new sound now that you are back?
18) Do you have your own support acts now?
19) Do you get fans coming to meet you backstage or people recognising you in the streets?
20) We know that everyone has fans but do you have any enemies or people that don't like your music?

Background information.

The first 3 questions are to find out the background information on this artist. This information will go in my stand first in the article on the double page spread of my magazine. The last 2 questions will be promotional questions about a concert he will be doing. The rest of the questions will be more personal questions.

Contact.

I contacted Adam Davies recently to ask him if he would mind if I sat in one of his rehearsals. He is in my school so I can easily get in touch with him to ask him this. It does not require any emails or text messages. I had heard Adam perform in a school performance last week and I went backstage to ask him if I could interview him. He performed a song he had written himself rather than the other singers who sang covers of famous songs. I then saw him writing another song and confirmed that he can still be interviewed on the day we had decided. I have found out some information about Adam from his friends that I am going to ask questions about. He has previously started a career in music before giving up when he decided that he was not good enough. This was a small career and now he is preparing to do a 'comeback concert' for his local fans that came to watch him perform and anyone else that would like to go and join in the event.

Artist promotion.

Adam Davies does not have videos on youtube. I heard about Adam when he was singing in a school talent show. I then asked him if he plays gigs and he mentioned his comeback concert that he is going to be doing. He does not promote himself on twitter however he does occasionally write on facebook when he will be performing in school as on facebook he has all of his school friends.

Publication plan

Title: Unsung.

Positioning statement: The talent you don’t always hear.

Frequency of publication: Weekly.

Price: £3.50

Distribution: Newsagents, football grounds, supermarkets, street stalls, arenas.

Rationale: This magazine will contain fans opinions and what they are doing to support local upcoming artists, however the magazine will mainly be made up of what the upcoming artists are doing and what they want to promote.

Style: The style of this magazine must be informal because I want to make the reader feel like we are friends. There will not be any intricate vocabulary in the magazine. Slang that teenagers use will be used in the magazine to connect with them.

Regular content: The regular content in my magazine will be what most published magazines have, interviews. I will interview upcoming artists. I will ask them questions such as who their influences are aswell as more personal questions to keep the fans interested. I will also ask the upcoming artists where and when their next big gig is so that fans can go and see them playing live. Also I will add a top 10 track list and a top 10 album list so that readers can find out what everyone has been listening to during the week. Readers can even vote in on the magazine website what they have bought or been listening to.

Feature content: Some feature articles can be holiday themed. At Halloween there could be an article telling readers where all of the celebrities have been. There could even be information on any upcoming artists playing a Halloween gig. A Christmas issue could be sold including a list of ‘your favourite’ Christmas songs in which the readers can vote for their all time favourite song. This would be advertised about a month in advance so readers have time to get their votes in. Another feature article could be about an upcoming artist who has just gotten a record deal. The feature article will be an interview with Adam Davies a local upcoming artist.



House style:
Coverlines: Adobe Gothic Std B and Adobe Garamond Pro Bold.


Headlines: Bell Gothic Std Black
Standfirst: Adobe Heiti Std R 16pt.
Captions: Adobe Heiti Std R 10pt.
Features first paragraph: drop capital (Charlemagne Std) drop capital will be 4 lines deep.


News first paragraph: First word in bold.
Body text: Times new roman 11pt.

Colour scheme: Black, white and red.

Review of initial plans

This is my review of my initial plans. It shows the things that I am going to do in my music magazine based on what I have researched about well known music magazines that already exist and the results of my questionnaire.

Questionnaire analysis

Questionnaire analysis from BeckyWalsh

I analysed the results from my questionnaire. I discussed what we could see from the graphs I had made in excel. I then put them on to this powerpoint to display it.

Questionnaire

1) How old are you?

13-15

16-19

20+

2) Are you male or female?

Male

Female

3) What colours would you associate with the Indie genre? (Pick more than one).

Black

Red

Blue

White

4) How often do you buy music magazines?

Never

Weekly

Monthly

Occasionally

5) How much would you pay for a music magazine?

£1.50-£2

£2.50-£3

£3.50-£4

6) Who is your favourite band or artist at the moment?


　
　
　
　
7) What two things do you like the most about music magazines?

Exclusive interviews

Free posters

Tour information

Information about upcoming artists

8) Name three images that you would expect to see on the front cover of an Indie music magazine?



　
9) Are you more likely to buy the magazine if there is posters of bands/artists that you like?

Yes

No

10) What would you be more likely to enter a competition to win?

Concert tickets

T-shirt

Something signed by the band/artist
 

Initial plans for my magazine

My music magazine will be priced at £2.50 per issue. This is so that it is not too expensive so that more people buy it. From my research I gathered that most music magazines cost around £2-£4 and the more well known magazines cost around £4-£6. My magazine is going to be published weekly because this is when  ost people buy their magazines that are very popular. The amount of pages in magazines that are in industry today contain around 100 pages. My magazine will contain this. Regular content in this magazine will be things that most music magazines in the media have, interviews. My interviews for my magazine will be about up-coming artists. In my interviews I would ask the up-coming artists about their influences and where they hope to be and who they hope to be as big as in the future. More regular content in my magazine will be the top 10 albums that have been sold that month and also the top 10 tracks that have been listened to that month. Many music magazines show what songs and albums everyone is listening to and buying. The feature articles in my magazine will be holiday themed. I have found that a lot of magazines do this. Halloween specials where you can get free items associated with this holiday such as fake blood will be sold. The holiday themed magazine will contain all the regular content but it will be decorated with spooky pictures. There will also be a feature article in this magazine about what events are taking place on Halloween night. A Christmas special would contain regular content and the feature article would be a top 10 list of ‘your favourite’ Christmas songs ever. Readers of the magazine will be able to vote online for their favourite Christmas song. This will be advertised in the magazine about 2 months before this magazine is sold.

Research of the market place

Research of the market place from beckywalsh123

I made a powerpoint presentation on what magazines in the market today have in common with each other and what they have that is different. I decided to show my findings on slideshare.

Initial ideas

Using slid.es I created this powerpoint presentation showing the final plans for my Indie magazine. I used my questionnaire analysis to decide what is most popular with the public before making my decision.

Rough sketches for preliminary task

These are the rough sketches of my school magazine front cover and contents page. I used my plans for my school magazine to decide what my school magazine would roughly look like. For example on my front cover there would be the title of my magazine at the top of the page in a larger font than the rest of the writing on the page. All magazines have a main image and a main coverline to give the reader and insight as to what the article will be about. On my contents page the stories that are displayed in the magazine are split into 3 columns, this is done because most magazine contents pages are separated this way.

Evaluation.

My front cover develops the codes and conventions by having things that a normal magazine would have. This includes a title that is a larger font than any other form of writing on the page. It has a main image to tell you what the main story is in the magazine and it has smaller images with captions to give you an idea of what stories are in the magazine before you buy it. My school magazine front cover also has a price on it. This develops the codes and conventions of a real media product. My magazine front cover however does challenge the codes and conventions of a magazine front cover because it does not have a barcode on it. I thought I would not include a barcode on this piece of work because it is only for school use and not being sold in mass production. There is also the schools website and the issue number of the magazine on the front cover of my school magazine. My school magazine front cover and contents page conform to the codes and conventions of a magazine.

My contents page was made in Quark. It has 'contents' written at the top and in a larger font than everything else. It also has a picture of the front cover with numbers by each smaller image to show what page each story is on. Underneath this my contents page continues to develop the codes and conventions by having 3 columns each containing page numbers and a paragraph going into a little bit of detail about the story the buyer of the magazine can read. The contents page repeats information that the front cover has on it such as the school website and the issue number. My contents page has two letters in the right hand corner under the title. One letter is from the editor of the magazine while the other is a letter from the headteacher of the school. These letters would proceed to be in the school magazine every week to conform to the codes and conventions of a contents page.

I manipulated my final image in photoshop and then put a background to it and cropped in smaller images to make my front cover. My contents page was made in Quark. Tools used in this were the text box, picture box and the linking tool to move my text over to the next column to fit everything in. The tools I used in Quark were mostly basic as I didn't need anything else to create the contents page of my magazine.

The strengths of the products are that they conform to the codes and conventions of a magazine front cover and a contents page. Each product has certain things such as a masthead that is a larger font than all of the other writing. The weaknesses of my products are that because it was a preliminary task for the start of this course I have not been able to make it as best I can to reflect what I could do.

The strengths of using new media technologies are that I managed to create a product even when using a program such as Quark for the very first time. I had already used photoshop before but Quark was completely new. However the weaknesses are that some of the tools took me longer to use than others as I had not used Quark before such as scaling the image into a picture box.

My final front cover

This is my front cover of my school magazine.

Final front cover image

This is my final front cover image, I have manipulated this image on photoshop to make it look like this.

Production of school magazine contents page

Production of school magazine contents page screenshots from BeckyWalsh

This powerpoint shows the process of making my contents page on Quark. It shows the tools I used and I have written how I used the tools to create the finished product. I had never used Quark before so this presentation shows the tools I was able to use while creating my preliminary task magazine contents page.

Production of front cover screenshots

Production of front cover screenshots from BeckyWalsh

This powerpoint shows screenshots of the process I did to create my front cover of my school magazine. It shows all of the different tools I used on photoshop to produce this front cover. The production of my preliminary task shows that I was not extremely familiar with the tools on photoshop as although I had used it I had not used it often.

Original photos for school magazine

During this lesson we went around school and took pictures of things we could include on our school magazine. The picture we had to take for the main image of our school magazine had to be a medium close up. The other images could be chosen to represent other smaller stories on our magazine front cover. These are the original images I took for my school magazine front cover. Going around school there were many things such as posters that I could use on my magazine to feature as stories.

Brainstorm of front cover and contents page for my school magazine

In this lesson, we made a plan of our front cover and contents page for our school magazines. We looked through our list of codes and conventions that we had previously written and we decided what we were going to include on our school magazines. My school magazine plans note the things that other magazines have that show how they conform to the codes and conventions.

Screenshots of my use of photoshop

My screenshots of the use of photoshop from BeckyWalsh

During this lesson we manipulated our main image in photoshop for our school magazine. I did a print screen of every tool I used in photoshop and put the screenshots on a PowerPoint. I uploaded this PowerPoint to www.slideshare.net and then embedded it here.

This is my final front cover image that I manipulated on photoshop. This is the image I am going to put on the front cover of my school magazine.

Shot types and camera movement





In this lesson we were given a list of camera angles and were given this sheet to match the camera angles to the pictures on the sheet. Underneath the camera angles we learnt about camera movement. The camera angles are the way an object is being shot. The camera movement is the way the camera is physically moved towards/away from/around an object.

Codes and conventions of a magazine contents page

In this lesson we identified the codes and conventions of a magazine front cover. We then analysed a contents page of our choice. We looked at many different magazine contents pages and wrote down what they had in common to determine the codes and conventions of magazine contents pages. I made this presentation on Prezi to show what I have noted down as the codes and conventions of a magazine contents page.

Codes and conventions of a magazine front cover

Codes and conventions of the front page from BeckyWalsh

In this lesson we identified the codes and conventions of a magazine front cover. I made a PowerPoint and uploaded it to www.slideshare.net of these codes and conventions. We looked at a number of different front covers and we discussed what they all had in common. We went onto the computers and I made this powerpoint presentation of all of the codes and conventions of a front cover of a magazine.

Preliminary task original photos

These are my original photos that I took for my schools magazine front cover.

Brief

Print
Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contentspage to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.

Main task: the front page, contents, and double page spread of a new music magazine.

All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of four images per candidate.