My skills of the use of technology have improved considerably since the preliminary task of creating a school magazine. I have now seen how much time and effort is needed to create the perfect music magazine. From the layout and house style to the journalist entry; in order for my magazine to be successful.
My use of technology has improved noticeably. I now know how to navigate Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 at a steady pace. By using this software, I managed to conjure up ideas for a house style and layouts for each of the magazine front covers, contents page and the double page spreads by using certain tools like the lasoo tool where I was able to cut out the head of my model on the front cover out and paste it as another layer so her head would overlap the masthead. This made a dramatic change in the appearance and quality of the magazine from the preliminary school magazine to the finished music magazine. By using the scale tool; I was able to rotate, enlarge and skew both pictures and graphics in order to make my magazine to look professional. This made a dramatic difference to the software that I used for my preliminary. I used word which had several editing tools but I felt restricted. For example I could skew the font but couldn’t create a drop shadow.
As I have no experience in photography, this was probably the biggest challenge for me. When we had decided a structure of how we would stage the photos, I then took it upon myself to try and take photos for my magazine. I had my ideas set out in my head but when it came to me taking pictures, I was useless unable to fulfil my wishes. However, after a lot of practise and advice from fellow photography students, I was able to take a range of pictures from which I then chose the best one. To edit my photos, I used a program called Picasa. Here I was able to edit the lighting of my photos to either increase the light or decrease.
I have also increased my knowledge of internet websites ranging from www.blogspot.com to www.dafont.com. For my preliminary, my knowledge of some of these websites was restricted, and therefore for my fonts I used default fonts already installed on the computer. However, for my final product I was determined to find a font that fitted in with the genre of music my magazine was to portray. I then was able to install the font onto the computer in order to change the size, colour and then edit it with a drop shadow or outer glow.
By researching up on other magazine like Q, Kerrang and Uncut, I was able to read other journalist entries. I made sure that the copy I included in my magazine would reflect on the target audience and inspire them to do well in life. I created a background story on how the duo were forced to leave their record label and become independent and made to put all their hard work and effort in to become well known in the music industry again. The pull quote was made to stand out and draw in the readers’ attention.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Production Phase
To complete our production work it took around 5 lessons which were 50 minutes/1 hour long.
In the first lesson we decided what genre of music we wanted our magazine to be and thought about the colours we would use and how we would style our models for our photographs.
After this was done we spent another lesson trying to find a name for our magazine. This was harder than we thought as we found it hard to agree on a name as we had different ideas on what we wanted it to symbolize. Because of this we decided to discuss our thoughts and each looked for names we thought were appropriate, after we had a group of names each, we analyzed them all and finally came to an agreement.
The next two lessons were consumed trying to find a font style which matched our genre of magazine, which we again had disagreements about and drawing up sketches of possible layout ideas for the front cover, as we had different tastes in style for the magazine it took up a lot of time to come to an agreement but decided that a simple and bold font would look better for our masthead and wouldn't look fancy and take the attention away from the images and other writing on our front cover.
Once the sketches were finished we spent a lesson discussing them and how each one would provide a positive appearance for the magazine which would catch our target audiences eye. We decided that having the masthead going across the page would look bolder and make our magazine look confident and popular.
Once we had completed all of this work we got to work on putting our ideas together.
In the first lesson we decided what genre of music we wanted our magazine to be and thought about the colours we would use and how we would style our models for our photographs.
After this was done we spent another lesson trying to find a name for our magazine. This was harder than we thought as we found it hard to agree on a name as we had different ideas on what we wanted it to symbolize. Because of this we decided to discuss our thoughts and each looked for names we thought were appropriate, after we had a group of names each, we analyzed them all and finally came to an agreement.
The next two lessons were consumed trying to find a font style which matched our genre of magazine, which we again had disagreements about and drawing up sketches of possible layout ideas for the front cover, as we had different tastes in style for the magazine it took up a lot of time to come to an agreement but decided that a simple and bold font would look better for our masthead and wouldn't look fancy and take the attention away from the images and other writing on our front cover.
Once the sketches were finished we spent a lesson discussing them and how each one would provide a positive appearance for the magazine which would catch our target audiences eye. We decided that having the masthead going across the page would look bolder and make our magazine look confident and popular.
Once we had completed all of this work we got to work on putting our ideas together.
Production Phase[1]
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Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Photo Shoots
We booked locations, booked actors and styled them for our magazine. In each case we planned the location (carefully considering the mise - en - scene), styled our actors (costume, hair, make-up) and directed them to construct the representation we wished for.
Below is a sample of the many photographs we took on the different photoshoots.
Below is a sample of the many photographs we took on the different photoshoots.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Research into existing music magazines
In our group we each brought a different music magazine in and then completed a radial analysis on the front page, contents page and double page spread. After we had finished, we combined them into one slideshow and compared the conventions contained in the music magazines and how we are going to apply these to our music magazine.
Radial Analysis
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Thursday, 11 February 2010
Audience Identification (Secondary Sources)
With the use of secondary sources, we are able to apply professional research such as Burtons Theory to help identify our target audience. However, we have to be careful about what questions we write in our questionnaire to make sure that they have high validity and suit our sample. For example, we can't ask what social class they come from as they may find it offensive, or use social-desirability bias to make themselves look better.
WHY WOULD PEOPLE READ THIS MAGAZINE?
Considering Richard Dyer's theory of utopian solutions we will try to offer particular solutions to our audiences inadequacies. For example, by including free promational products, our audience will be relieved of their bordem with excitement. Also, through the use of album reviews and interviews, the feeling of confusion will be replaced with the clarity of being wanted in a community who enjoy the same music as they do.
Finaly, after taking Blumier and Katz's idea of uses and gratifications into account, we want to offer alot of excitement and entertainment in our magazine. To achieve this we will promote our magazine with langauge like 'Exclusive' and 'latest'. Social interaction may will happen within our magazine as readers may discuss the content with each other.
WHY WOULD PEOPLE READ THIS MAGAZINE?
Considering Richard Dyer's theory of utopian solutions we will try to offer particular solutions to our audiences inadequacies. For example, by including free promational products, our audience will be relieved of their bordem with excitement. Also, through the use of album reviews and interviews, the feeling of confusion will be replaced with the clarity of being wanted in a community who enjoy the same music as they do.
Finaly, after taking Blumier and Katz's idea of uses and gratifications into account, we want to offer alot of excitement and entertainment in our magazine. To achieve this we will promote our magazine with langauge like 'Exclusive' and 'latest'. Social interaction may will happen within our magazine as readers may discuss the content with each other.
Audience Identification (Primary Data)
We decided that to gather rich primary data we would construct a questionnaire. By using a questionnaire, we are able to gather quick, reliable quantitative data which requires little time and skill to create. However, by using questionnaires it restricts deeper understanding such as emotions and body language and could deprive participants of expressing themselves. Therefore helpful data may not be recorded.
Primary Data
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