evaluation

For media studies coursework i have designed a preliminary task front cover, main task front cover, contents page and a double page spread. Here is how the main tasks were completed.

Before i even started this project i knew that i would not get anywhere unless i planned Thoroughly. Meaning i had to do background information on all music magazine genres. Such as Mixmag, Q, NME and many more. throughout my blogs you will be able to see just what research i applied.

Within this slide i have compared the ways in which my front cover uses, develop's or challenges forms and conventions of real music magazine (Mixmag) i have highlighted and arrowed all of each the forms and conventions.

As the previous slide Demonstrates and compares the forms and conventions within a real music magazine and one i created, i now have compared the contents page of both mine and another professional magazine (NME).

Finally as well as comparing the forms and conventions of the front cover and contents page, on this slide i have also highlighted the conventions of a professional music magazine. i felt this one was most hard to compare as all double page spreads have many Different forms and conventions. this points gave me the Initial ideas of the target audience this slide shows what type of audience would be intrested in this music magazine. (ALL POP ACCESS).

On this slide i have selected key features on my magazine which i feel attract APA's audience, and arrowed the reason why. this healps to clearly define to audiences what my magazine offers.

This is a comparison of my first Preliminary task to my main task. i feel that my first task was a little weak, it was my first attempt of using 'Photoshop' so i was getting use to how it works. it looked rushed and i feel there was too many images overlapping making the front page look "too busy". On my main task only used one primary image setting the other two far back. The colours and layout looks so much more appealing.

As my previous blogs show, i was reserching media Institutions & decided that 'bauer media' was the most suitable choice for my personal music magazine. The reason for this is that it already has major successful music magazines on the market, Of which none sells the same type of genre meaning bauer is a good source for advertsing which is Essential to begin. On the website bauer also has a clear and easy layout showing what magazines they publish. This is very helpful as IPC media and E-map came across as a little confusing.

Over the duration of this coursework i have learnt ALOT, Especially Technology!

• Blogging/blogs
• Photoshop
• Power Point

It has taught me how to use these technology's in their more complex and professional ways. Of which i will be using in the future.

On the above slide is listed of the topics i have covered throughout this coursework.

Main Task

Front Cover

Contents page

Double page spread

The magazine Industry

The magazine Industry...

The three of the biggest magazine and multi-media publishers include:

• IPC


• E-Map
  
• Bauer
  
  Researching these three bigest multi-media publishers allows me to gain knowledge and understanding of which publisher is most suitable for my music magazine "ALL POP ACCESS"

IPC

IPC Media is the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher with approximately 90 brands and selling 350 million magazines every year. IPC is said to reach approximately 70% of women and 50% of men within the UK.

This is a great amount of our population and shows how this publisher has become a success by producing the wide range. This would be great for my magazine a company that has experience in publishing existing successful music magazines which will benefit my magazines auidence & promotion.

http://www.ipcmedia.com/

E-MAP

The smallest publishing company out of all three selling 59 magazines. On their website it is very unclear as to what magazine they publish.

http://www.emap.com/

Bauer

Bauer is the largest privately owned publisher in Europe, publishing in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and the UK. playing a primary role in the Women’s Weeklies, Women’s Interest, Women’s Lifestyle, TV Listings, Puzzles, Men’s Lifestyle, Music & Film and Specialist magazine markets. These magazines include music magazines such as MOJO, FHM, KERRANG and Q. These are top leading magazines which shows that the company are successful in dealing with this genre. Bauer is successful with 282 magazines in 15 countries.

www.bauer.co.uk

Main Task Photographs

As i learned from my preliminary task planning the photographs for the magazine is Absolutely crucial for organisation. For my main task music magazine, i needed alot of pictures so i could be fussy when picking out what ones are most suitable. I decided to take a trip down to westfield shopping centre- where i knew i would capture the images i knew i could find. My Target audience of my pop magazine is FEMALES aged between 12-30. It is such a range of ages for the simple reason that it covers a wide range of areas. The idea of images i wanted to include were:

• Gossip
  
• Fashion
  
• Bright
  
• Bold


• Unusual
  

Here were a few:

Planning Writing articles, Tittle and Logo!

In The last few lessons i have been Organizing and writing my double page spread.
After getting started and completing my magazine mock up, my basic idea created and i then could Concentrate on details.
For my double page spread i decided to have one page focused on a real life story-
and the other page dates on performing artists (at 02 arena like britney spears) and major club dates (Matter (02) & fukny Budah). In the next lesson i will write up the entire article.
Mean while i choose the title of my magazine to be called "APA" - All pop Access! After a long time of thinking of title name this name seemed the most appealing and catchy for my pop music magazine. i will now create a magzine logo.

Mock up of main task!

I was given a homework task to produce a general mock up of my magazine.
I had to think about images, words, the information included, title, price ect...
I found this task a little hard, i knew everything i needed to know it was just a matter of being creative and putting all my knowledge together.

PowerPoint - mixmag

Over the last few lessons we have been creating a microsoft Powerpoint slide presentation.
- I choose an online magazine (which had to be different from my homework task NME) and make up a presentation.
I decided to focus mine on a dance magazine called "MIXMAG" the magazine is fairly popular and includes a major range of subjects.
In my presetation i included:

• readership
  
• circulation
  
• bright colours
  
• grovey backgrounds
  
• images
  
• facts

I enjoyed this task as i felt it was not boring and was a different way of learning. I learnt alot from this magazine and will be using particular aspects in my own music magazine.

Major plan For main task !

In the last few lessons we have, finally started the planning for the main task. which very exciting as i have been waiting to do this one.
Within this main task i need to include:

• front cover
• contents page
• double page spread

This sounds simple but there is alot more that goes into producing a music magazine. I have now researched music magazine and know what is expected.

I need to think about the music genre, the audience profile (what each one has in common), their lifestyle.

I need to provide a picture of the audidence what they want, what they expect, tarket auidence, what inspires them, their interests, LINKS.

I need to think about who i am trying to attract, Their identity - clothes, buying, music. (Group belongings). What gigs, concerts they liek to attend. (escapisum).

I will consider colours, fonts, image, style, the shots to use, effects, props, mise en scene, costumes and wildness.

Homework task - research

As an homework task we had the Essay question "Discuss the different ways music magazines attract their audiences by print and online versions"
This homework tasks involved me researching different online and print music magazines, and comparing one. I chose to compare "NME" - a popular music and online magazine that is widely reconized.


When i get back to school i will transfere the homework task back from my pen drive onto my blog.

Introduction to main task

In the last few lessons we have began moving onto our main task!...
after learning from the preliminary task that planning and sticking to your plans is important i will doing everything in detail.
As a basic start we looked at Differnt music genre's!

• Pop
• Rock
• Dance
• Hip-hop/R n b

These were the main genre's i focused on. In pairs we had to write down on coloured paper anything and everything we knew about these.. then sharing with the class gave them ideas as well as giving us other ideas.

In following lessons we have focused on: auidences, language, lyrics, steorytyping bands or artists, colours, attractions, style, youtube background knowledge and Links! which after we found was an very imporatant asspect of a music magazine.

The Preliminary Task final

This is the cover for my school magazine.

Overall i am happy with the outcome- the effects of photoshop have really helped me gain the image i was trying to create. Now i have the skills i need for my main task it should become easier now.

Planing and Taking the right photographs!

After carefullly and in detail plan what photos i wanted to have in my school magazine front cover, I had a few lessons to indepently take photographs of which i wanted/needed.
However with this task i found a problem. I wanted an image of a single child medium shot in school uniform... this became a problem as all the students were in classes and at lunch/break were busy. I therefore decided that it would be much more easier to complete the task at home. As i have a younger bother and sister, who wear uniform for school. Other photos i chose to take were background photos such as fields, trees, art work, school buildings, school work, teachers and the playground. I relised that when completing my main task that PLANNING is CRUCIAL and taking 50 photos is much better than having 5 even if not needed. - here are a few i took around school.

Preliminary Task basic - Photoshop tutorial

To begin the planning for the school magazine, our teacher told us that we would be using a software called "Photoshop" to create and design our front covers for both preliminary and main tasks.
For a lesson we were given a photoshop tutorial, which helped the class understand Basic and complex skills needed for this task. Photoshop is a sotware that allows to you add effects on your image. For example cropping, saving basic layers changing backgrouds, colours, shades ect. This tutorial was crucial as it was needed for both preliminary and main tasks and would be majorly benefical.

Lesson 3

Lesson 3 (Mock up of front covers for school magazine)


In this lesson we were set a task to complete a school magazine front cover. We only had a Limited time of 40 minutes to do this in. I decided that by using computers it would benefit myself more as it saves alot more time rather than cutting and sticking text and images from other soucres. I used the software called "Microsoft publisher" as it was very useful by guilding me. Within this school magazine cover we had to include all the Expectations and ideas that we gained knowledge from in our previous sales pitch. This lesson made me realise that you must put alot of effort and time into the production, and that planning is crucial to keep within your deadline.

Lesson 2

Lesson 2 - (Sales pitch presentation)



In this lesson in pairs, we created a sales pitch for the prelimiary task (school magazine).
Firstly i believed it was the most important aspect of the whole magazine, which was to find out who the target audience were, What they want included within the school magazine and what price they would agree expect to pay if any. So to begin with we researched this information by using Questionnaires on a number of different people. So then we could Concentrate and focus on the actual magazine.
we had to think in detail and choose the following areas with valid reasons Explaining: How often this magazine would be produced (termly), Target auidence (students, techers ect.), Price, sponspership (asda), magazine size (A4), promotion, Title (Life on St.Marks), How the magazine is presented (Glossy, stappled), Language (Fairly simplistic). Images and what topics are included. Aside the magazine we also had to consider the Financial costs of making the magazine.
Over all i leanred that the Target audience and Organisation are the most imporatant factors of a magazine and must be considered at all times. I also leanred that within this Specific magazine market that you need mixed topics such as more fun entertainment and less serious news. It was also benefical listening to everyone elses sales pitch presetation and gaining new ideas.

Lesson 1

Lesson 1 - The introduction. (foundation portfolie)

• Prelimiary task (School magazine)
• Main Task (Music magazine)

In class we were given the introduction and details of the upcoming work listed as above. I will keep an on-going blog in order to maintain an Organised and clear reflection of this work. Within lesson 1, i had to make sure that i understood the concepts of "Process" and "outcome". I also realised that to succeed both tasks that i would have to be disciplined and organised with myself as well as having creativity. This lesson helped me understand the details which are being asked of me, also Sharing ideas around the class from different people made the work seem easier and more understandble.