Tuesday 19 October 2010

Questionnaire

Questionnaire
This is a questionnaire about music magazines. It would be great if you could take some time to fill in this questionnaire about pop music.


1. Do you read music magazines?
Yes No


I asked this question because I wanted to find out if people read music magazines if they didn't read them then I would be able to see what magazine they would read if they bought music magazines.


2. How often do you read music magazines?
Daily
Weekly
Monthly

I asked this question because it is likely the most common answer will be the frequency of publication I use in my magazine.


3. How much would you pay for a music magazine?
£2.00
£2.50
£3.00
£3.50
Over £3.50

I asked this so I could find out the price that people would be willing to pay for a magazine. This will give me an idea of the price I will charge for my magazine.

4. Who is your favorite pop artist or band?

I asked this question because the answers will tell me what pop artist or band I should include in my magazine.


5. On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is very important and 5 is irrelevant, how do you rate the following. Please circle your answer.
Pictures 1 2 3 4 5
Competitions 1 2 3 4 5
Posters 1 2 3 4 5
Free gifts 1 2 3 4 5
Quizzes 1 2 3 4 5
Charts 1 2 3 4 5
Exclusive interviews 1 2 3 4 5

I asked the above questions to see what people thought were important in a magazine. I will use the most important ones in my magazine because they are most important.


6. What is your favorite color?


I have asked this question because it will give me ideas of colors to use in the color scheme of the magazine, it is likely I will use the most common colors for my magazine.7. What is the first thing you look at in a magazine?

I asked this because it will give me an idea of what I should put on my magazine front cover, because the first thing the reader will look at is the magazine front page I'll put the thing they look at first there.


8. What do you like about music magazines?

I have asked this question to see what people like about magazines, it will give me ideas on what to put in my magazine.

9. What do you dislike about music magazines?

I have asked this because it will tell me what not to put in my magazine, if it is possible for me not to include it then it will make my magazine better.


10 How do you buy music?
Download
CDs
Make it yourself

I asked this question because it will tell me wether to include a CD as a free gift or if I should include download charts or CD charts.

11. What three words do you associate with pop music?
1
2
3

I have asked this question because it will give me ideas for the name of my magazine, common words related to pop will be used for the magazine.


Thank you for taking some of your time to fill out this questionnaire.

Friday 15 October 2010

Codes and conventions of a magazine double page spread

There are many different rules that double page spreads follow and these are the codes and conventions. Every magazine has a simple color scheme which means the colors are kept to a minimum.


There is one large image that takes up a whole page and sometimes bleeds between pages which is when part of the image is on the other side of the page which links the two pages together. Sometimes the picture is across the whole double page spread with all text on the picture.


Quotes are sometimes used in the headline, on the picture or in the standfirst or to break up the text. The standfirst introduces the article and is pasitioned under the headline. It is sometimes across the width of the page and often includes the jornalists name. All double page spreads have a drop capital at the start of the article. This shows the reader where to start reading. It is also common for the first paragraph to be in bold, stightly bigger type size, capitals for the first few words.


The headline sometimes uses stylised font. It doesnt tell the reader anything about the article, it doesnt relate to it at all. This is used to draw the reader in without them reading the article. The standfirst tells the reader what the article is about. Headlines are usually songtitles or puns. The byline is were the persons name who wrote the article is written and photograph credit.


A double page spread is layed out in columns, usually 2 to 4. There is a strapline on the top which tells you the subject matter. Articles are written informally and the personality of the journalist comes through.


Example of a double page spread.
The image covers both pages and the text is written over the image.
Simple color scheme is used to create a modern look.
Drop capital to show the reader where to being reading.


Uniqe font for the headline.
Little color used.
Written in 3 columns.
Serif font - makes it easier to read.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Intial plans for my magazine

Price: £2.90
Frequency of publication: monthly
Issue size: 156
Regular conent: monthly quizz page, competitions every month, free gift or special offer every month, readers comment/stories page    
Feature articles: exclusive interviews, exclusive posters

Using the results from the research I found I have made the following descisions for my music magazine. I decided the magazine i am going to create will be a pop music magazine and the target audience is teenagers from ages 13 to 18 this is because i found that the common age of people who bought pop magazines were young teenagers. I also found that people of the age 13 and above listen to pop music more than any other age group to I chose this as my target audience.

The price of my magazine will be £2.90 because that is an average price from the magazines that I researched. The magazine will be published monthly because all of the magazines I researched were published monthly.

The issue size will be roughly 156 every issue because I found from my research that was a common number of pages in magazine.

The regular content will be a monthly quizz page because I found from my research that most magazines have quizzes and especially pop music magazines. My magazine will contain competitions every month because this makes readers want to buy the magazine. It will have a free gift or special offer every month to draw readers in. This will be a major selling point of my magazine because it attracts the target audience. There will be a page where readers comments of the magazine will be layed out and contact information were they can send their comments in. Similary there will be a story page were readers also send in their own stories.

The feature articles will be exclusive interviews with pop stars because using exclusive and having exclusive interviews with stars makes people want to read it because there will be an article about their favorite star. There will be exclusive posters which will only appear in that magazine of various stars to attract the target audience.

Monday 11 October 2010

Magazine research

Research

Q magazine

Price: £3.90
Frequency of publication: monthly
Issue size: 200
Regular content: interviews, letters
Feature articles: exclusives












Mojo Magazine

Price:   £4.50
Frequency of publication:  monthly
Issue size:  178
Regular content:  rants, ask Fred
Feature articles:  interviews












Top of the pops magazine

Price: £2.10
Frequency of publication: monthly
Issue size: 156
Regular content: real life, your letters, Don't miss, posters
Feature articles: quizzes, win

Friday 8 October 2010

Evaluation of school magazine

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


The school magazine follows the conventions of a real media product because the front cover contains one main image of a person in medium close up. The front cover has a main title which fills the whole top of the page. The front page doesn’t have too many cover lines but they are all in a bigger font to the writing underneath the cover lines which makes it stand out. The front cover has buzz words on it, the word exclusive would make people buy it. The front page has a barcode which every magazine has to have. It has a price, issue number and the date of the magazine. It doesn’t follow the conventions because it doesn’t use other smaller pictures. The magazine cover doesnt follow the conventions of a magazine cover because iy doesnt have a unique font. The contents page follows the conventions because it is layed out in columns and the spaces are filled with pictures and there is an image of the front cover on it.
I used new media technologies in my magazine.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction of your media product?

I used quarkexpress which is a media software which creates contents pages and articles in magazines easily. I used this for the contents page and found it easy to use. It easily layed work out in columns and was similar to photoshop which i used for the magazine front cover.

What are the strenghts and weaknesses of both the product and your use of new media technologies?

The strengths of the products was the main image on the front page it was in the right shot and fitted with the magazine. The person on the front page was in uniform which relates to school. The strenghts of the contents page where that there were enough images to fill the contents page without leaving any spaces.  

School magazine front page and contents page


Magazine front page




Contents page

Magazine photographs


I used this image for an article



I used this image for the contents page



I used this image for the contents page



I used this image for the contents page



I didn't use this for the front cover image



I used this as the front cover image



I didn't use this



I didn't use this



I used this for the contents page

Sunday 3 October 2010

Saturday 2 October 2010

School magazine planning

Plans for the school magazine

School...
pens, pencils, pencilcase, uniform, fun, friends, boring, work, paper, tables, class, teachers, lunch, food, people, eyes, blackboard, whiteboard, languages, science, math, english, art, paint, scruffy, tie, shirt, shoes, burgers

Regulars
Why our school? Sunday
Drama, drama
Teacher talk
Newest clubs

Feature articles
Lunch fun
NUMBER NINJA
Get involved
Clubs!
Learn your way
Arrr Mr Pirate

Annotations of music magazines

Here I have annotated a music magazine. I found that this magazine followed the codes and conventions of music magazines.

Codes and conventions of a magazine contents page

A magazine contents page is laid out in columns, usually 3 or 4 columns.

There is one main picture relating to the feature article an there are other smaller pictures with page numbers on them which anchors them to the written contents.

The name of the magazine is at the top with the word contents and the issue date, subscription ad contact information. There is sometimes an editor’s letter.

The contents page is divided into categories and headings of regulars features of the magazine, which appear regularly and features which will only appear in the issue.

An image of the front cover of the magazine is usually on the contents page and the contents has a simple color scheme like the front page.

Contents are written with the page number and one or two words which could be the artists name or ambiguous text to intrigue the reader in bold type, often capital letters.

The sub lines give more specific details about what the article is about. Smaller font in roman (no bigger than 11pt, the headline is usually average of 12 or 13pt)

Photography is credited for the front cover, the main image and the photographs are interesting and vary.

At the bottom is the page number followed by the issue date and the magazine title. There is often a web address and the contents is usually one or two pages. The total number of pages is divisible by four.

The fonts (typeface – look of letters)

There are only two types of font

Serif

A this font is used in articles because it makes it easier to read.
Sans Serif

A this font is usually used for the front cover because it gives it a modern look

Codes and Conventions of a magazine

The codes and conventions of a magazine are the unwritten rules that a magazine follows.

The codes and conventions are that every magazine has a central image which fills the front cover of the magazine which goes with the main feature article, the image is used to convey attitude. The image has direct address which means that wherever a person is the image will be looking at them, this draws the attention of the buyer of the magazine.

The title is written in a unique font which no other magazine will have. It usually fills the width of the cover or is in the top left corner.

Magazines all uses buzz words for example Exclusive; this attracts peoples attention because it means its something they can’t get anywhere else. Most magazines use puns which is a play on words.

There is a simple color scheme for a magazine which is usually 2 or 3 colors to give the magazine a modern look.

Every magazine has the barcode on the front cover of the magazine because they have advertisements on the back.

Magazines have a positioning statement that is usually above or below the title. The price and issue date is usually 11pt in size and sometimes by the barcode.

Magazines have specials offers called puff, which is offering something extra for example special offers which attracts attention this Is a selling point of a magazine.

Cover lines, sell lines which Is text around the cover and frame the main image.

The main cover line is the largest text on the cover after the title and it anchors the meaning of the image. There is usually a sub line in smaller text that gives more information on the article this is written in smaller font or a different color to the cover line.

The other cover lines are usually on one two words with sub lines explaining them. This is consistent across the design.

There is a strip across the top or bottom of the front page containing lists of artists names who feature in the magazine.

Friday 1 October 2010

Different shot types


In class we were set a task to take photographs of different shot types. Here are the images i used.

An extreme close up of the time


A big close up of someone using a mobile phone


A close up of someone in 'nature'


A high angle long shot


A photograph with conatations of stress


A photograph with conatations of friendship


A two shot in medium long shot


A very long shot that conveys isolation


A long shot


A over the shoulder shot of someone writing


A low angle medium close up