Magazine research

I like this magazine cover as it's very simple. I like the way that all the writing is white and the same font because it makes it more established. The picture is also very simple, but it looks interesting. I also like the style of writing used for the title 'Vogue' and it looks very sophisticated which suits the target audience of women aged about 16-early 40's.

Magazine research

In contrast to the music magazine, NME, I think this magazine is very different. I like the choice of colours used as they all match and fit well together, however the way the writing is all different sizes, and mostly quite big, it makes the magazine look a bit too crowded. I also don't really like how there are lots of images on the front because it looks a bit too busy and it is hard to focus on just one thing. However most people don't tend to actually read what is on the front cover half of the time, which is good because it still is able to capture the audiences attention as it's so bold.

Magazine research

I think this magazine cover is really well thought and planned out. I like the use of colour in this one, its bold and captures your attention. It is also good how it says you get a free CD because that will make people want to buy it if they get something free with it. Even thought the magazine heading is quite small it still stands out just enough. I think its very clever how they also have to writing in the middle saying 'LOVE MUSIC HATE RACISM'. This is good because the people in the background relate to tis as they are mixing from different ethnic backgrounds. I also like the way that on the side it looks as if part of the page has been ripped out, it makes it look more interesting. Although the cover is very simple and there isn't actually much on it, it looks busy, but in a good way, and I think it works well at getting attention and standing out on the shelf.

You can see from looking at this front cover that the cover lines are mostly on the left, and for most of the cover, they have used the same font. It also shows a group of teenage boys mixing together from different ethnic backgrounds. You also see that in bold at the top, and again further down, it says you get a free CD with it. Lastly on the right hand side its made to look like art of a page has been ripped out.

Pitch for magazine at the moment

My magazine is a music magazine which incorporates fashion into it as well. It is mainly aimed at girls aged 16-25 who have an interest in the music business, but moslty who just want to keep up with the latest trends and mainstream music.

Ideas of styles:

Rihanna

Pixie Lott

Lady Gaga

Kesha

Jennifer Hudson

Beyonce

Esmee Denters

Main cover will be of a girl in a big house doing a fashion shoot kind of thing, main article inside maybe on the girl having won a competition to perform her new song at the start of London Fashion week.

Or how she's a new RnB artist who has recently been found and signed.

Props:

Guitar

Microphone

Style of clothes:

Jacket

Going out dresses

Oversized top, jeggings and heels

Backgrounds used in shots:

Garden scene

Scene in games room by pool table

An old fashion room

In a sitting room by a fireplace using low key lighting

Preliminary Planning

Preliminary:

School is all about, the ability to do well, so as to be able to carry on and go into further education. This is why I decided to base it on the topic of what to do after school. I chose it to be about travelling after school as many people think this is a good idea if they are not sure whether to go to University or not.

I chose that specific picture as it was a picture I took from a school trip, and with the badge he is wearing, it is clear he is on some sort of trip. Although I was told it would have been better to choose a picture that filled the whole front cover, I quite liked it when mine left a white gap at the top, because I have only seen one magazine which does this, and it’s quite original and different.

I decided to go for the colour white and black for my smaller topic headings, as they match the title. I also used black and white because these colours showed up better on my picture, unlike other colours I chose such as green and purple.

For the contents page I decided to keep with the same colour scheme, except add red to make it stand out a bit more. I also kept with the same topic line, which was about University, because I used a picture with someone wearing a top from University. I also added a picture which is a picture of a pool, looking over to the mountains, and I decided to use this picture for the topic, successful school trips. I made it go across the whole of the bottom of the page to make it look like there was more on the page, and also to make it stand out more.

I came up with the smaller topics by making a list and then choosing the best things. This is the list I made, with the ones I chose in bold.

New head teacher
New school cafe
Revision tips
Good ofsted report
Girls rugby team
New school equipment
Arts and Crafts fair
Exam results
Getting ready for university
School trips

Preliminary planning

• Get pictures for the front cover
• Do a mock up of my page layout
• Research other school magazines
• Edit pictures
• Do my final layout and add pictures to the magazine.
• Do the contents page

Action Plan

Sunday 24th Jan - Research other music magazines

Tues 26th - Friday 29th - Get audience research

Saturday 30th - Plan main layout of my magazine and do a mock up of what I will include in the double page spread and front cover

Tuesday 1st Feb - Make a final decision on the design/content of my magazine

Friday 5th  - Friday 12th - Start designing the layout of my front cover

Saturday 6th - Saturday 13th - Get pictures for my magazine

Tuesday 16th - Sunday 21st - Finish my front cover

Tuesday 23rd - Tuesday 9th March - Start and finish the main double page spread

Tuesday 9th March - Tuesday 16th - Check both the front cover and double page spread and make final alterations

Tuesdya 16th - Tuesday 30th - Put everything together and make sure everything is to my highest possible ability

Planning my magazine

Planning:

• Research other magazines
• Research target audience and write who my target audience is
• Plan what to put on my front cover
• Start taking pictures for my magazine
• Mock up of magazine cover
• Mock up of double page spread

Audience research:

My target audience is girls aged 16-25 from the B social class, meaning that they will mostly be middle class.

Research

Bang: April 2003 launch that marked a departure from Future's usual formula and markets (though does have 2 magazines for guitarists). A monthly music title in small-A4 format that went straight up against established titles from Emap and IPC, as well as Development Hell's recent launch Word. Closed in January 2004.

My first impression on this magazine is that it looks like its for boys, aged 15-25. The magazine title is very bold and bright red so this helps to make it stand out. The images are also quite good because they are spaced out which gives it a better layout. However I think I would have chosen to put the barcode at the bottom and not at the side, and I think the colours should may be be different colours. I don't really like the way they use different fonts and colours because it makes it look a bit messy.

Characters

Jerry Maguire

Works for a Sports Management International company.

He seems a bit bigheaded

He seems to like being the centre of attention because he really get it.

He is quite important but never gets to be seen, he's always behind the scenes.

Lester

Works for media management

Lives with his wife and daughter who don't like him very much, or pay much attention to him.

He obviously doesn't like his life very much as he says he will be dead in less than a year and his life is already over.

House/life looks perfect but inside its not at all.

Jason is an 13 year old boy from Newcastle. He lives in a council house with his mum and has an older brother who has moved out to live with his friends. Jason's mum doesn't really seem to notice him and doesn't care about his education and 5 months ago he was kicked out of his school for not attending classes. For the past 2 years his mum has been on and off with guys, but finely he thought his mum had settled down and decided to have a break from men and life was good when Jason took up a dance class. He had made some great new friends and really thought this could be an opening for him at last, that was until his mum dropped the bombshell that she had met someone else and they were moving away.

Audience research methods

I will put a survey/questionnaire on a networking site, e.g. Facebook, for people to answer questions.

I will also do an interview, on my friends and people in my age range.

Seeing as my magazine is on fashion and music I should probably ask more girls than boys to get a better idea of how to make the magazine better.

Audience research

Mainly for guys.

Early 20 to early 40's.

Josh is a 23 year old student studying music and events management at university and works part time in a recording studio. He is middle class in the classification of B. He is interested in the history of music and wants to delve deeper into the music industry.

National Readership Survey (JICNAR)

Classification	Description
A	Upper middle class
B	Middle class
C1	Lower middle class
C2	Skilled working class
D	Working class
E	Subsistence

The audience I am aiming at is fairly middle class people interested in music and fashion. It would probably be more for late teen girls. Not necessarily interested in the media business but wanting to keep up with news from the music industry and hear the latest gossip.

Audience research:

I could interview people.

I could give a survey out and get people to answer questions.

Recording of response.

Vox-pop.

Interview questions:

What type of magazines do you read?

Do you like to read about celeb gossip?

What makes a magazine good?

As an interviewer I don't think I rose to the challenge very well. I think it would be better if I could engage more and ask better qualitative questions and if I actually had a structure set out.

Brainstorming ideas for portfolio

What do I want to achieve?

Better design skills

Learn how to use all the different programme's/software

Get more experience for the future

Alone or in a pair?

I would rather work in a pair because you will both know things, and the other person may know something you don't which would help a lot of the final piece. But then again it would be good to work alone to show how good you are, and not you and your partner.

Comment?

It is a very good design layout and quite professional looking. It shows understanding with the programmes used to reach your full potential. However the pictures could merge together more to fit better and you could have used bolder colours to make it stand out more.

I think after reading over both options given, I would prefer to do the print. I think it would be more interesting that the video option and I would learn the skills I actually wanted to learn. I also quite like photography and as all images have to be our own, this would be interesting to do.

Mark: Level: Level 3: 40/60

Overall I think it is a very good piece and there is a good use of different camera shots and the construction of the piece is quite strong although it was fairly confusing.

Group 2: