18th September 2012

I have been looking at the equipment I will  be using for my photo shoot so I took some photos of it. Also, there is a photo of the camera I will be using. These will ensure my photos come out looking as good and as professional as possible.

Production Log

 

I particularly like these three Q magazine front covers as they are all very plain and are close ups. I plan to do a close up for the front of my magazine as I feel it makes you feel connected and feel like you're actually stood directly in front of them looking at them. I would like to try and recreate either the Florence or Adele front cover as I think the way they are both gently touching their face and looking directly into the camera looks very effective and mysterious making you want to read inside. 

Also, how the colours used come from what they are wearing and their makeup. E.g. Florence's blue eye shadow is the blue used for sections of text and shapes on the front cover.

Production Log

'Q' Magazine Double Page Spread Analysis

Q Magazine Double Page Spread Analysis

Double Page Spread Analysis

Contents Page Analysis

NME Contents Page Analysis

'Vibe' Contents Page Analysis

Production Log

Last lesson I continued working through the list of everything I need to do. We are encouraged to use a variety of multi-media for each of our posts. So a group of us decided to do a video analysing various types of music magazine front covers that we printed on A3 paper which we then held up and spoke about. I will post this video shortly!

Also, I continued to analyse front covers on powerpoint so I had a copy to post on my blog. To do this, I had to look at the colours, images, text, title etc and think about why its used and what's it effect was. This will make it much easier when it comes to creating my own magazine as I now know, in more depth, how normal magazines are created and what makes an effective front cover, and what not so much.

I found that the colours and the main image on the front cover are the most important element because that is what catches your eye first. My personal preference was definitely the close up images so you can purely just see the head and neck, this allowed me to feel instantly connected with the music artist and if it was someone I liked/enjoyed listening to, this would ensure I'd buy the magazine.

Next lesson, I plan to keep working through my list of what I need to do and keep up to date with everything so I am not behind.

'Top of the Pops' front cover analysis

'Kerrang' front cover analysis

'Q' magazine front cover analysis

Production Log

After spending some extra time working on my preliminary task magazine, I completed it. The overall product is very basic however this is acceptable for the target audience as younger children of year 7s would also be buying it aswell as year 11s for example.

The colours stand out and everything is easy to read. The images are all very 'different' and interesting which would attract people to want to buy the magazine.

Before creating my music magazine, I will closely analyse actual music magazines so I get a clearer understanding of the formant/layout of magazines which will benefit my own to look as realistic as possible.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Our preliminary task was all done within the space of a few lessons therefore meaning that we could not plan and do product research beforehand like we will for our actual magazine.

For the overall magazine I decided to stick with the two house colours of blue and yellow which are Haydon School's colours. This means that students would easily recognise this and instantly know it is a school magazine.

Preliminary Task

This was my Preliminary Task in which I created a front cover and contents page of a magazine for our school. The photos were all taken by ourselves in and around the school which were then uploaded and I chose which were suitable to go onto my magazine. As this didn't have to be perfect, it was quite rushed and if it were my actual magazine, I would change a lot to it. It was all created on Photoshop and this will help when I come to creating my actual magazine as I would be familiar with Photoshop and it develops my skills even further so for my actual music magazine I can incorporate it all together to get an overall better magazine.

Production Log

10^th September 2012 we continued to finish our school magazines and also set up our blogs for both Mr Fisher (Coursework) and Mr Daley (Exam). Our blogs were made on www.blogger.com which allows us to post documents, texts, pictures, videos, prezis etc which will make it much easier when using different types of multimedia for our independent research. Also, it will keep all of my work much more organised as I can add labels to show different type of posts and different pages to separate it even further. At the end of the unit, I will have loads and loads of different posts explaining what I’ve done in every lesson, various pictures, research and all of my coursework. Blogger helps as it will keep all of my work together and organised and also very modernized with this generation.

This is my GCSE blog which I hope my a-level one will look like once I’ve added appropriate backgrounds, posts and pages.

After setting up my blog briefly, I continued working on my magazine and managed to get the front cover finished however as it was only a single lesson I didn’t have time to do much else! I will come in during my frees and spare time to complete my contents page as well. As its for the school, I had to think about what colour attract not only both sexes, but for a wide age range from 11-18 year olds. Blues and yellows (the Haydon school colour) seemed appropriate and not to childish, nor old or girly nor boyish so it appeals to all! I’ll also use as many photos as I can from what we took to ensure every page is entertaining and good to look at!

Production Log

 On Friday the 7^th, we had our first AS Media Studies Coursework lesson in which we began making a magazine for the school. As most School Magazines are far from exciting, our group decided to mix it up a bit and actually make it look fun, interesting and something worth buying! So, we went down to the drama studio and asked if we could use some props. So, we chose possibly anything that was as random as possible, some of which being a convict outfit, a plastic gun, flowers, a feather jacket and a Chinese hat. Every photo we took, we made up a story line that would have some resemblance to Haydon! I decided to do ‘Auditions for the school show’ so it really didn’t matter how crazy the photos were.

We went around the school taking photos of us in costume in different places which would create different storylines, e.g. – photos in the new sixth form common room.

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After taking the photos, we returned back to our room and uploaded them to the computers. I then opened an A4 sized photoshop document and began to create my magazine. Out of the photos taken, I chose a midshot one for my front cover as it is fairly close allowing the reader to feel a connection immediately. The photo was of myself holding an umbrella behind me with my right hand and a basket of flowers in my left. Already, the reader can see that the storyline will be something dramatic and not necessarily ‘normal’. After adding in the photo, I had to choose a suitable magazine name, so I chose ‘Hello Haydon’:

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aydon

 

Similarly to above. I then plan to add in the Haydon Stag next to it so it is recognisable to the students, hopefully increasing their choice of buying the magazine.

Obviously the image on the front, portrays the main story line, so the text ‘Haydon Hits The Stage’ is in a big font to attract readers and stands out from all of the other storylines surrounding it such as:
‘What the students think of new common room’
‘Mr Jones NEW HEAD’
‘New canteen menu?’ etcetc.

I will continue to finish the front cover, and create a contents page next lesson using more of the images taken and other storylines.