Planning Production: Rough layout of the Contents Page

This is a rough layout for the contents page of my magazine Unplugged

Planning Production: Rough Layout of Front Cover

This is the Rough plan for the front cover of my final magazine, unplugged.




Publication Plan:

Title: Unplugged...

Positioning Statement: The Real Raw View

Frequency of Publication: Fortnightly.

Price: £2.50

Distribution: Newsagents, Supermarkets, Music shops and Possibly Online.

Rationale: The approach of the magazine is to inform the readers of new and undiscovered or underrated musicians. It will include giving the reader an insight into what they can expect from that musician and include articles written by the fans for the fans, and music executives.

Style: the magazine will be an informal and humorous magazine, and will appeal to anyone who likes indie/rock or acoustic music. My target audience will be mostly men and women aged 14-25, but will hopefully appeal to people out of this age range if they are interested in the music. Because the age range we are aiming to provide for are young, we will ensure that the wording used in the magazine will be understood by all ages.

Layout: the layout will be a mixture of text and images, but there will be some pages that will consist of images only.

Regular content:

·         Shout it OUT!

·         Breakthrough – The tracks to listen to

·         Subscribe

·         View Review

·         Fans Forum

·         Plug In – get involved

·         The Month In Pictures

It will also consist of feature articles including:

·         The Big Music Guide

·         Death Cab for Cutie – Picture Exclusive

·         Two Door Cinema Club and what comes next

·         Joe Brooks –  Is he the next Superman?

·         Jacks Mannequin – how it all started

·         The Decemberists: What does the future hold?

·         Songs from the Scots (Kevin McGuire)

·         Conor Maynard...One Step Closer.

·         This month – Breaking Out

·         The Switches, Turning on the charts

·         Matt Costa – On The Road.

·         Good Shoes show us their rise to the top

·         Songwriter Showcase

Audience Research: Results & Conclusions

Questionairre ananlysis

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Questionairre

Analysis of Professional Contents pages

Analysis of Professional Contents Pages on Prezi

Analysis of Professional Magazine Covers

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Initial Plans for my Magazine

After researching the market place, i have made some initial plans for my magazine.
My magazine will be priced at £2.50, and will be published fortnightly, and will contain approximately 100 pages, this will include regular articles such as:
• Gig guide
• Up and coming Bands
• Competitions
• Track of the Week
• Fan Shoutouts
• Best Bands – a lookout for the best bands from a certain area.

It will also consist of feature articles including:
• Here and now – a look back on the greatest artists
• Exclusive interviews
• Gig reviews
• Record Collection – showing albums of the month.
• The Big Music Guide

Media Packs

Media packs are a way for us to see all of the information and planning that goes into a magazine, aswerll as their statistics, for example how many readers they have on average, or how many of their readers are of a certain gender. it also allows us to see their target audience, and what they do to appeal to their prospective readers.

This is the nme media pack for 2011, and here you can see about their readership, issues, NME Magazine & NME Radio
http://www.nme.com/mediapack/pdf/nme_media_information_full.pdf

Most magazines have an online media pack which is available to see by all customers and readers.

Researching the Market Place

In todays lesson we looked in depth at the magazines that we could be in competition with if we were to go to sale. Looking at other magazines gives us an idea what the customer wants to read, and also give us an idea on the price at which we should sell our magazine and how big the magazine should be.

The following are music magazines that i could take inspiration from:

Rock Sound magazine:

·         Price £3.40 approx. 113 pages avg.

·         Released Monthly

·         Published by Freeway Press Inc.

·         http://www.rocksound.tv/

·         Features of this issue:

o   Following Young Guns

o   You me at Six interview

o   10 most controversial album covers

o   Live & Loud: Enter Shikari

Q Music:

·         http://www.qthemusic.com/

·         Released Monthly

·         Published by Bauer Media Group

·         Magazines motto: “The modern guide to music and more”

Features of this issue.

o   Extensive review section

o   Compiling Lists – eg. 100 greatest albums

o   Has a different message on the spine which links to the main story in the magazine.

another main feature of Q magazine for the month of november is taht for the 25 days of november they will issue a different cover of a magazine as it is the magazines 25 year anniversairy.

Under The Radar magazine:

·         http://www.undertheradarmag.com/

·         Released quarterly

·         Price – varies per issue.

·         Regulars:

o   Dedicated issues – some issues are based on a genre, band, or era of music.

o   Book, album & DVD reviews

Initial Ideas

The initial ideas for my magazine are that I will produce an Indie/Acoustic and light rock magazine, where I will feature unknown artists that I think could break into the industry.

My target audience will be mostly the younger music fans for example 16-30 year olds, or anyone who has a keen interest in the up and coming artists and gigs that they can go to in their local area. As this is one thing I will try and incorporate.

I wanted to produce my magazine like this, because I would like to see a magazine like this in the shops where unsigned or 'underground' musicians are recognised and are featured in magazines as opposed to hugely famous bands.

A lot of the sales from magazines such as NME and Kerrang come from the fans of the Feature band, but I think that a lot of people are now moving towards the unsigned artists, as the gigs are more intense and intimate, and the way that a lot of unsigned artists are now moving up and selling records to the mass consumer.

Evaluation of School Magazine

To produce our School magazine we had to follow the codes and conventions of magazines, the codes I followed were; using the barcode at the bottom right hand corner of the page, Having the masthead at the top of the page and having no writing covering the front cover stars face. I also used a consistent colour scheme and a vary of font and font sizes, that were not too different or that varied too much.

We used a variety of new technology and new media software when producing the magazine itself. This was a new experience for me, as i have not taken media before. Firstly we had to use high-tech cameras to take high-resolution pictures, which we could then manipulate to produce the desired effect. I enjoyed taking the photographs, as it is something I am interested in doing therefore I would say it is one if my strengths from this project, and I enjoyed learning about the different shot types. We used Photoshop to do this, which was a good way to manipulate the photos and produce a good front cover image for our magazines, Photoshop was fairly easy to use when I got used to it, therefore id say that this is something I could improve my skill on for the next part of the course. My front cover turned out well as I cropped the image, added a gradient background, and inserted text into the Photoshop file. I think I could have improved my cover lines by adding sub-lines, and added more detail onto the masthead, I could have also added buzz words, and editded the colours so they fitted together more.

We used Quark XPress to make our contents pages. I found this very difficult as I had troubles with the software itsself, and I found it hard to understand some of the procedures that were involved on the software, so I would say Quark XPress was one of my weaknesses, we used Quark to make the contents page, I decided to Change my initial ideas as my opinion of the simplicity of the layout changed whilst in production. I decided to put images down the central columns of the page, where I thought the readers eyes would be drawn to the images, and therefore the regulars are on the left hand side above the main story image, and the feature stories are on the right hand column. I decided to keep the background plain, and using different colored image and text to make the page aesthetically pleasing.

To improve my skills I will attempt to produce small tester products on the equipment, to enhance my skill.

Production of School Magazine Contents Page

Production of School Magazine Front Cover

Screenngrabs of ps

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School Magazine - Front Cover:

In Todays lesson we produced the front cover of our music magazine.

We have used photoshop to produce our front covers and we will be using Quark XPress to produce our contents pages.

Compared to my Original Plan, the layout of my front cover has changed slightly, this is due to the angle that I had taken my photo. I altered where some of the Coverlines went, and tried to make it fit around the image in a clean, sharp way.

I stuck to my Colour Scheme by using Green, Gold & White, and I decided that a gradient effect would look nice behind my Image. I used Dark Writing on the light Surfaces, and Light Writing on the dark surfaces therefore making the writing stand out more. My Only Concern with the colouring, is in the Bottom -Right hand corner where the gold does not show up extremely well on the White keys of the Piano.

Photographs for school magazine.

Below are the photos i took to go on the front cover and on the contents page of my school magazine.

 

I took this image of Mr Dyment our headteacher to use on the contents page of my magazine.

I took this Photos of 2 girls in the lower school cooking during one of their lessons. This is also for my contents page, and is related to the article named: Recipies of the Week. The Mise en Scene for this photo was just the equipment that the girls were already using, therefore it was easier to make the image look more profesional.

I chose to take this photo of the lower school PE class as the photo for the article on skilled sportswomen. i think this reflects the article title and shows the girls ready to play.

This is my front cover image. the main story of the music magazine is Music Maestro, therefore i wanted a picture of a lower school girl in uniform playing an instrument. i picked the Piano as i think it looks good, and it is a nicer image shot.

Rough Layout of Contents Page

This is the Rough Plan For My Contents page:

Planning Content

Plan For Contents Page:

Colour Scheme:  Gold, White and Green

Main Image : A Shot in Music
Subsidiary Image : A Two Shot in Medium Long Shot - relates to the 'Recipe of the Week'

Regulars:

·         All Booked Up

·         Renewing the Rewards

·         Skilled Sportswomen

·         Subject Updates

·         Recipe of The Week  

·         This Week In Photos

·         Calendar

·         How to Get The A

·         New Clubs

·         A Night At The Oscars

·         Real Life Theatre

Features                                                   

·         Apprentice’s

·         Exam Excellence

·         Music Maestro?

·         Revise Wise – AS Style

·         Community Arts

Rough Layout of Front Cover

This is my rough plan for my school magazine front cover:

Plan For Front Cover

Preliminary Excersise - Plan of School magazine Front Cover & Contents :

Title: UpDated!

Main Image: A Medium  Close Up  (relating to main story – Music Maestro? ) This Photo will include some connotation to the heading Music Maestro. My Main article is going to be about the range of New Music Lessons that are on offer within the School. The Different range in musical instruments that are on offer, will again hopefully appeal to both Genders, And All Age Groups.

Overall my magazine is going to try and appeal to all Students, Parents & Teachers within the School,  i will use Generic Colours (Green, White and Gold) as again hopefully these will appeal to both Genders and all age groups.

The Barcode Will Be In the Bottom Right hand conrner, along with the date, issue number and the Price.

Practise Shots & Descriptions

In Today’s lesson we looked of the camera shots needed when taking photos for magazines.

We took 12 different pictures, each focusing on a different camera shot.

Below are the camera shots, and the photos that we took.

A Low Angle Medium Close-up

A High Angle Long Shot

An Extreme Close-up of the Time



 

 A close up of someone in nature




A two shot in medium long shot




An over the shoulder

shot of someone writing




A Long Shot Showing Isolation




A Photo That  shows Friensdship





A Photo With Connotatins of Stress







A big close up of someone using a mobile



The Codes and Conventions of contents pages

In todays lesson we looked at the Codes and Conventions of contents pages. i will look back at these Codes & Conventions when designing my Contents Page.

Images:

• All have a main Image
• normally 4-5 images
• Main image dominates the page
• Credits for the front picture are on the contents page
• Subsidiary images are different sizes

Font/Text:

• Font is all the same
• The font needs to be Clear & Consistant
• Bigger Font for main stories
• average font size is 11
• Titles are in bold
• font size for each coverline is 12/13
• Page numbers are a different colour to the Stories
• page numbers anchor the story to the image

Overall:

• Colour Scheme is Consistant - this reinforces the brand
• Plain background
• Often has an editors letter
• Website, Date, Issue Number & Contact details are all on the Contents page
• Subscription Details

The Codes & Conventions of The Covers Of Music Magazines

In Today’s lesson we Looked At the Codes & Conventions of Music Magazines Front Covers. These are the guidelines that i will follow when designing my own magazine.

Masthead:

·         Title kept separate from image, unless the magazine is established

·          The image can go underneath.

·         Title: Large, Bold, Unique Font

Barcode:

·         Generally on The Bottom Right

·         Always has the Issue Number, Date, Price & Website

Buzz Words:

·         Used to make the reader feel like they are getting something special/extra For their money.

·         Nobody else has it

Images:

·         1 main Image

·         Sometimes a magazine has small subsidiary images

·         Mid Shot Used or Close – Up

·         No text inserted over face

·         Other images relate to stories in the magazine

Colour Scheme:

·         Simple Colours that don’t clash

·         Usually the magazine will only use 3 or 4 main colours

·         The colours that are used, re-enforce the brand

Coverlines:

·         The Coverlines are smaller than the main story

·         Coverlines relate to the genre of the magazine

·         Minimum 5 Coverlines

·         All Coverlines font is the same

·         Limited Range of Fonts: Serif, Times New Roman & Sans Serif

·         Text is usually close to the image or relates to a story within the newspaper

·         Main Coverline:

o        Link to the image

o        Font is usually bigger than the rest

Cover Overall:

·         Plain background to make the main image stand out

·         Limited amount of fonts used.

·         Main Picture:

o        Band: Long Shot or Medium-Long Shot

o        Single Artist: Midshot

o        The artist is looking straight into the camera (Direct Address)

o        Body language of The Person must Fit the Genre of the Magazine

The Following Images Are examples of Music Magazines that we looked at: