Music Magazine

Preliminary Production - Written Production

Our first production was to create a new magazine cover, the cover had to include a Medium close-up (MCU) of a single person. We then had to upload the picture onto photoshop adapt and change the picture to make it better. From there on we used Adobe photoshop to creat and finalise our front covers. We then had to create a mock-up of our contents page. I used ther publisher programme to create this and I got a positive outcome.

My primary audience was he school in general. It was not aimed at a specific year or age group. I just aimed it at those who were at the school and those who were connected to the schhol. I.e parents/guardians. My plan was for the magazine to contain information and upcoming events of the school I wanted to keep it unique to the people of Sheldon school and the people linked to it. I tried to keep the front cover exciting, but quite formal as well. I kept the main heading font black and attempted to keep it concise and crisp. My main problem was trying hard not to make it fall either side of the formal and informal line, so to speak.


For our front cover we had to draw sketches of what we were going to attempt to create. I used 'thirds rule'. I didn't want to overcrowd my front cover so I tried to keep it filled with enough information for the consumer to want to read on, but i didn't want to take the focus away from the main picture by overcrowding the cover. My sketch was, I would say, a fair outline of how my cover went. I kept my picture in the same place, but moved some things around. I kept the sixth from block as my background because the main article read 'Sheldon's sixth form named England's Best!'. So I wanted to keep the relation. Personally I didn't think that my sketches were useful seeing as I changed my cover completely from what I was planning to do. Although it did help me to realise how I wanted my cover to look, and what I wanted show.

I personally found the pictures very hard to get right. Wather it made it very hard to get the right lighting and background colour. I found it very difficult to get the right amount of background in, because I had the 'Sheldon Sixth Form' writing on the wall of the building, I had to think about how much I was going to have to crop and if I was going to get all of the writing in. I managed to get nearly all of the writing in. Although some of it was cut out. Adapting the photo on Adobe photoshop I found particularly challenging because I hadn't used it before so I wasn't sure what tools did what. For my photo I had to use a tripod to keep the camera straight. It would have been disaster if it was wonky at all.

When I used photshop I had to manipulate the colour of my models skin because it was particularly pale and I wanted him to look bright and good looking. I also tried to exclude some blemishes to make my model seem more attractive. It took me a long time to finish manipulating and adapting my picture due to my naivety of photoshop and my lack of experience of photshop.

I tried to make the cover attractive, not only for pupils of the school, but also adults. I did this by trying to make the main heading fairly formal, using a smart font and keeping it in the original colour of black. I made it fairly big so that it would stand out. I also included on my front cover, competition boxes that stood out because it was a different shape. This was aimed at the younger generation to try and make them read into the magazine.

Overall I think that the frint cover went well. For my forst time using photshop and other programmes I feel that it was a fair attempt. If I could have done something better, I would have tried to think about my draft more so that it helped me more when I went onto photoshop and bgean making it. Also if my knowledge of Adobe photoshop was broader and I new mor it would have helped also. I thihnk that my preliminary production was a success and will help me as I begin my main production.

Preliminary Contents Page

Here is my draft of my contents page. I have tried to make it attractive to the viewer by changing the format and the layout of page. I have tried to include a fair amount of pictures so
that it is not all writing. I think there is alot of room for change, due to the amount of space. I think I can include alot more information. I will try to use various colours, my main colours being the traditional school colours of purple and gold to show the uniqueness of the magazine. The use of brightness and colours on my contents page should help to make it less boring and more interesting to read.

My Magazine Cover

Here you can see the final outcome of my school magazine cover. I feel that on the whole, the process was good. Seeing as it was my first time using photsop. I had to change my draft as I progressed due to the fact that I wasn't sure what to do at times, and where to find templates. Also my use of effects were clearly naive, cos on the print out my model's face appears to brighter, and un-realistic. I think that my next cover will be better, I will have more understanding of photoshop, and will find it easier to manipulate the picture and make it better.

Original Photos

This is my first picture I took for my front cover. I liked my models facial expression, its exactly the look that I wanted. Sadly I wanted all of the background writing to fit into the picture so I could not use this picture. The lighting was not great at the time when I took the picture due to the weather conditions, so I will use and improve the picture I select using photoshop.

This is my second picture. Again I could not get all of the writing in. This became an issue with all of my pictures, I couldn't take the picture any further away otherwise the picture would not be a medium close up, which is needed in the criteria of my magazine. Also the picture was not straight due to me not holding the camera straight.

My third picture was clearly my most successful, I captured all of the backgroun writing, and also his facial expression is what I wanted to capture. As you can see, the colour seems different, this is because I have changed the lighting to make the picture and colour seem more defined. When I attempted to resize the picture I lost some of the writing in the background. So I played around and when I cropped the image I managed to only partially lose the writing, so it was okay.

Sketch

Here I drew a very rough sketch of my final magazine cover. It shows the name of the magazine large and one of the main subjects of the page. The picture shows a young model, year 12 student. The picture captures him laughing and looking as though he's enjoying himself. In the background of the student shows the sign that is on the side of the sixth form block, which reads "Sheldon Sixth Form". This will help show that the magazine is for Sheldon and its main subject is to do with Sheldon.

Preliminary Task: Provisional Submission

AUDIENCE

My target audience for my magazine are mainly sixth form students, but its also partially directed towards younger and possibly older people. Younger people such as students in years 7 - 11 and older years being teachers and parents. The magazine's aim is to provide the reader with local news such as: Sports, Forthcoming events (exams, OFSTED inspections) etc. There will be a broad amount of information targeting all of the years and also teachers and parents, therefore making it appeal to not just one target audience, but a few.

IMAGE

My main image's subject will be a new coming year 12, who has recently moved to join the outstanding sixth form. The gender of the subject will be male, they will be smiling/laughing to portray the warmth and happiness of the school. I will use natural lighting because the picture will be taken outside the sixth form block, just in front of the sign. One of my main subjects is how Sheldon sixth form is doing so using the sixth form building in the background helps show this.

MASTER HEADING AND TEXT

The name of my magazine is 'SHELDON TIMEZ!' I've used capitals so as to make it seem as big and as large as possible, so as to grab the readers attention as soon as the see it. The colours i have chosen will link in the the school colours (purple and gold), this will help show that the magazine is unique to the school. The master heading reads 'SIXTH FORM NAMED ENGLAND'S FINEST' The size will not be as big as the name of the magazine but will still look big and stand out. Again I will use the traditional Sheldon colours to emphasise the uniqueness of the magazine.

INTERIOR FEATURES

The interior features will consist of several different sections; Breaking news, Sport and forthcoming events. These the subjects will be broken down and relate to all of the years and may even relate to some of the parents and teachers.

Contents Page Analysis

In the contents page, we see at the top in our view a welcome note fro the editor. This makes the magazine seem quite chatty and informal, and also makes it seem personal to the reader. The title is similar to the colours of the front page; this shows how continuity is brought through from the front cover. The contents page also shows the same pictures that were on the front of the magazine. As we see the Reading and Leeds picture is again shown on the contents page, but it now shows what page it is on. It also shows the other pictures which may be smaller and less interesting articles. Down the side on the page, in the right column inch we see we have a list of the different articles on all of the pages. This tells the reader what is in the magazine, and what it contains. We can see that the two articles that have been portrayed as the bigger and main articles have bigger pictures which show more importance to the other, smaller pictures. All of the pictures are tightly packed together, it also shows the use of thirds rule, where the pictures take up two thirds of the page. Most of the pictures show the people in the picture making direct eye contact with the camera; this shows direct address to the readers and makes it seem more personal.

'Kerrang' front cover analysis

My chosen magazine is ‘Kerrang’ a well known, highly rated magazine which talks abut rock music and is entertaining to those who enjoy rock music giving them insights to bands and musical icons. The magazine’s target audience, in my opinion, is 15 – 25.

The master heading ‘KERRANG!’ is used to represent the magazine. ‘kerrang’ isn’t a real word, therefore its only purpose is to entice the reader to read the magazine because it had no meaning. The author has obviously used it to try and make the title relate to rock music. The master heading is in a fixed location throughout the monthly issues. Also the font of the master heading stays the same, this creates continuity carried on from each issue so that the readers know that they are reading the same magazine, but a different issue. The font used is bold, and has some cracked parts to it, this relates to the rock aspect of the magazine. Presenting loudness, rebelliousness.

The principle image is the image used to relate to the main article in the magazine. So the main article is obviously about Billy Joe Armstrong, and he takes up the whole of the front page which may show that it may be an exclusive report. Other smaller article headlines are dotted around in a messy fashion, to again relate to the rock aspect. Also to show that they may not be as important as the main article. The smaller pictures and headlines are in different, brighter colours so as to make them stand out in front of the main picture.

Slang and abbriviation is used to try and relate to the target audience.

‘WTF?!’ this relates to the target audience along with ‘BOOTY’ which I don’t think anyone over the age of 30 would say, or even understand. So this emphasises that the target audience is of young age.

The front page main principle is to emphasise the main article which is shown as the main, and biggest picture accompanied with the biggest writing. Other, smaller articles are shown in bright colours to make them visible and to make the reader want to look at the advertisement of the article.

First Blog

This is my first Blog.

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