Planning: Time Schedule

I have produced a time schedule for my final artefact so I am able to manage my time more efficiently. This will help me keep on top of my work and be able to complete my final magazine within the time deadline given.

I feel I managed to stick to this time schedule well during the production of my final artefact. I also kept to using the websites and sources I had suggested and went on to use others that were recommended when I would use the google search engine.

Planning: Draft Pages

I have drawn up some draft pages for my final artifact, which I will use to help me decide on possible fonts, layout of the magazine and help with my images (costumes, locations, models and props) which will contribute to the codes and conventions represented in my final piece.

Front Cover

My idea for the front cover would be to use one large feature image in which smaller images and cover lines would surround in order for the attention to be drawn to the middle of the magazine.

I would use two or three colours for the texts and select these colours according to what they're being laid over such as the feature image and the additional smaller images.

The masthead would be located towards the side of the magazine, being off center and towards the right or the left so the name of the magazine doesn't cover much of the feature image.

I have decided to use two lines on the top and bottom of the page with additional information and the bar code will be placed vertically along the bottom of the magazine.

I would like to use the same font for the cover lines and image captions within my magazine and have the masthead in maybe a font that I will associate with my magazine. The name of the artist/band located in the feature image will be in a larger front laid out across the image as I think this worked well.

Contents Page

For my contents page I divided my contents into features and articles and laid them out separately around the page and I think this worked well as the readers will know exactly where to find everything.

I would use the same colours and fonts used on the front cover to help these be associated with my magazine and I would use a font that looks like handwriting to sign off the editors note as I think this worked well.

I have placed a cover line along the bottom of the page which I will use for any additional features the magazine has such as posters, competitions and festival news.

I have used 3 small images on this page and placed them in the remaining spaces. They are surrounded by additional text and page numbers so the reader can take a quick glance and know where to look.

I have also placed the title of the contents page on the left so it's the opposite side from the front cover to establish a difference between the two, and I have laid an additional layer of text on top to help give a layering effect to the title.

Double-page spread

Again I have used the same colours for my text as the contents and front cover to establish to the reader the magazine has a theme.

I have put the question in one colour and the answers in another so the reader can easily interpret one from the other.

I would use one larger image of the band/artist being interviewed and lay out the interview questions around either the right of left hand side, in a column style.

For the other side of my double page spread I have used 3 small images instead of one large feature image. I would place these surrounding the remaining interview questions and would like to be able to rotate and put these images out on an angle to give the magazine an edge.

I would use a quote from the interview and lay this over the middle of the page in a different colour, yet still following the magazines theme, to help draw attention to the interview answers being given.

My double page spread would appear side by side but for the purpose of my drafts I did two separate pages to help me get the feel of how to use fireworks.

Planning: Features & Articles

To begin my planning I started to look into possible features and articles that are usually found within music magazines in general. I used this research to help me decide on certain features and article ideas that I should use in my final artefact.

Contents Page

Possible features and articles:

1. Exclusive interview with my chosen band/artist with photo shoot
2. New album releases (top 10 this week, etc)
3. Chance to win a pair of concert tickets
4. New bands/artists to look out for
5. Single and album reviews (star rating /5)
6. Posters

Cover Lines

Ideas for possible cover lines based on the above articles and features:

1. Look out for [Band/artist name], the newest craze in the charts!
2. Our top 10 albums this week, voted by you
3. Don't miss out on your chance for [concert name] tickets inside
4. There's room for new talent on the block, all the latest artists/bands you have to hear
5. [album name] ?/5, [single name] ?/5 or [album name] verdict
6. Plus grab your chance to have [band/artists name] on your wall with our posters!

One of my ideas would be to place the cover lines surrounding my feature image and place them in front of the image so they are to be seen covering parts of the model(s). Also to have the name of my band/artist with a quote of something they said in the interview underneath.

I have created a questionnaire which will help me see which target market are interested in my magazine to help me organise my codes and conventions to suit them. This will help me create draft pages of my ideas to see what out of the ideas above works and which doesn't.

Questionnaire

What age range do you fit into?

15 and under I

16 - 19 IIIIIII

20 – 24 I

25 + I

Are you male or female?

Male IIII

Female IIIIII

Do you read magazines?

Yes IIIIIIII

No II

If yes, what type of magazine do you read?

Lifestyle I

Music IIIIII

Sports I

Celebrity (Heat, Look, etc) II

How often do you buy magazines?

Everyday

Once a week IIIII

Every fortnight II

Once a month III

When would you prefer your magazines to come out?

Everyday

Every week IIIIIII

Every fortnight II

Monthly I

If you were to read a music magazine, which genre would you prefer?

Indie III

Hip Hop II

Rock II

Pop III

Other (please specify)

What features would you like to find within a music magazine? Please tick all that apply

Interviews with bands/artists IIIIIII

Posters and competitions III

Album/artist reviews II

Upcoming release issues (gigs, albums, artists, etc) IIIIII

Other (please specify)

Which of these features would you spend most time reading?

Interviews with bands/artists IIIIIII

Posters and competitions

Album/artist reviews I

Upcoming release issues (gigs, albums, artists, etc) III

If you were to buy a music magazine, would a free demo CD encourage you to read it?

Yes IIIIIII

No III

From the questionnaire I can interpret that:

• my magazine should be aimed for people aged 16 - 19 of any sex
• the genre used should be either indie or pop
• my music magazine should be published once a week
• interviews and upcoming releases should be used most throughout my magazine
• a cover mount (demo CD) would be best used to encourage buyers

Research: Media Institutions

I've looked into media companies to help start thinking about the companies that may wish to publish my magazine. I looked into what types of magazines they already owned, anything else they may be in charge of and additional music magazines they already publish as this may effect if they would be willing to publish my magazine as well.

IPC Media

IPC Media own magazines such as: Nuts, Marie Claire, Look, NME, Cycle Sport, Hair, Livingetc, Loaded, Mini World, Model Collector and more. They own the majority of home and leisure magazines, with the exception of breaking into the music market with NME and the female market using Look and Marie Claire.

IPC Media own over 80 ranges of magazines. As they own NME on top of their other magazines, it shows that they would be prepared to publish my magazine as they are touching into the music market.

Although, as NME is targeting a similar audience and using the same music genre that I would like to target my magazine at, they would be unlikely to publish my magazine due to the fact the two magazines would be competing against one another.

BBC

BBC is a well known organisation owning television rights as well as magazines. The magazines it owns range from army information right through to kids television show magazines.



As they own a variety of different magazines it could be suggested they would be willing to publish a music magazine similar to mine as they would like to have something different and to help widen their appeal into the music market.

As the BBC does still own a wide range of music magazines such as Live Extra and Radio 1, they may not be willing to publish my magazine as this competition between existing magazines and my new addition could cause a strain on their turnover.

News Corporation

The News Corporation are a global corporation and mainly own newspapers such as The Sunday Times, The Times and The Sun, but have also dipped into the television, cable, film and radio market by owning Real Estate TV, Fox News Channel and SunTalk (which is also available on the Internet).

As the News Corporation haven't yet taken ownership over any magazines, this may make them more likely to publish my magazine and as they do not own any other music magazines, this would mean there would be less chance of competition between 2 brands of magazines within the company and could encourage them to publish my magazine.

By owning SunTalk radio station would mean they could be even more likely to publish my magazine as they have already indicated they want to appeal to music lovers.

Research: Codes and Conventions

To help me understand the codes of conventions, I looked at magazines focusing on the same music genre to see the elements they may have in common or anything that changes depending on the magazine itself.

Hip Hop

• Both magazines have the feature image located in the middle of the magazine taking up the majority of the space of the front cover itself. The mode of address in the magazines is direct as the individuals are looking out to the audience to help draw the attention to the magazine itself and be more appealing. The images themselves also look more angry and bullying, which helps show the magazine is suited for a hip-hop audience.
• The magazines above both use mastheads located in the top third of the magazine and allow the feature image to cover up some of the text itself.
• Both magazines use bold colours such as red and black to make the magazines text stand out and also use a variety of large and smaller texts to help indicate it is appealing to a younger audience.
• The language in both magazines used typical language linked to younger audiences, such as "strips down", "rap beef" and "crew love issue" indicating the audience in which they're both aiming for as these are terms understood by the audience who are buying this magazine.
• Cover lines are used around the feature image in both of the hip hop magazines above, suggesting that this is a typical convention for this genre. However, XXL magazine has placed a bolder cover line over the feature image to include additional information about the contents linked to the band in the picture.

Indie

• NME and Q both focus on appealing to the indie music genre. They both use a feature image and smaller images surrounding this image about the inside contents. The mode of address in the magazines images is direct as the individuals are looking out to the audience to help draw the attention to the magazine itself and be more appealing.
• The magazines both include plenty of cover lines and the language used within both is short and snappy.
• The magazines both have mastheads located in the upper left hand corner and are surrounded by additional block filled text boxes which make the magazine more eye catching for the audience.
• Both magazines uses language trying to encourage the reader to buy the magazine to reveal its contents, "FREE MUSIC" and "ALBUM VERDICT!".
• NME and Q both use upper case writing for their text and they use a variety of colours for this (mainly using red, black and yellow).

Rock

• Rock Sound and Kerrang both locate their mastheads at the top of their magazine, with an additional cover line in a strip above this for additional contents information.
• The feature images in both magazines are located in the middle with extra images along the bottom of the magazine with short snappy comments about things inside relating to these images. The mode of address in the magazines feature images is direct as the individuals are looking out to the audience to help draw the attention to the magazine itself and be more appealing.
• The text in both magazines used have been selected with special fonts which are linked to each magazine. For example, the smashed font used for Kerrangs masthead, is used in every addition and has become their signature font.
• Both magazines add a PLUS! section to the lower third of the magazine in a list format to help include a lot of information in a mall amount of text (snappy/informative).

I also looked at typical contents of music magazines to help broaden my understanding of what things I should be thinking of including into my magazine design. I've also looked into one contents page (NME) to look at the layout of a magazine in which has a music genre similar to the one in which I intend to use.

Typical features included in a music magazine:

• interviews with band members/singers
• album/band/artist reviews
• upcoming festivals and gigs linked with the genre
• upcoming release issues (singles, albums, concert tickets)
• any news linked to bands/artists within the genre
• posters and competitions

I looked at a contents page from NME. The page is organised and has the articles laid out in a similar format, with articles that appear every month located in the bottom right and the new features going along the side at the top. The big image draws attention to the page and the text is clear and readable. The main colour used is red which is usually associated with NME.

 

Kerrang's contents page is very different, with a lot more use of pictures with smaller text alongside each one to give the reader more information about the contents. The articles and features within the magazine are located up the right hand side and are put under smaller sub-headings to help the page look more organised. Black and yellow is used throughout the page and this works as they're contrasting colours.

I looked into double page spreads of magazine interviews to help me understand what is expected from this type of article within a well known music magazine.

 NME's double page spread has a large feature image taking up the majority of the left hand page, with the accompanying interview text along the right hand page. The use of the first letter of the interview being in a different font helps the beginning of the interview stand out and appeal to the readers eye. This font was also used for cover lines of snippets of interview to lay on top of the interview, again helping appeal to the audience. The image used uses a direct mode of address in which helps the audience feel connected to the interview itself.

The Kerrang double page spread follows a similar pattern to the one used by NME, with a large image taking up the majority of a page with the interview laid out neatly next to the image. Kerrang however, used a variety of different colours for text and this helps the sub-headings to stand out and look eye-catching to the reader. They have also used a smaller image of the bands album cover to help the interview pages look more appealing and not as full of text; I like this idea of more than one image as I feel it breaks the double page up and looks much more eye-catching.

Throughout my research I have seen that some magazines offer cover mounts, which include demo CDs of music related to the specific genre, with a few tracks on which may be considered as a way of encouraging people to buy the magazine. I thought something like this may be a good idea to consider when I create my final artefact.

Research: Music Genres

For my research I began looking into the different music genres covered by magazines and identify the types of magazines which focus on specific genres.

Kerrang!

Genre: rock, punk

Audience: young adults, rock music fans, teenagers

- the magazine has a bold masthead in a smashed font which is the font associated with Kerrang. This helps the magazine be easily identified.

- the magazine is laid out so the magazine is eye catching. The feature image is in the middle draws the attention to this area of the magazine and so the contents of the magazine are placed here.

- plenty of colour and pictures of people related to the contents has been used. This appeals to the younger audience as they will be more intrigued by the visual aspect rather than wanting to read layers of text on the cover.

- pictures have replaced words and any text used are short words instead of sentences to appeal to the right audience.

Q

Genre: indie, alternative

Audience: younger adults, indie fans

- the feature image used is quite provocative which helps indicate the magazine is trying to appeal to maybe older teenagers or young adults. Lady Gaga is considered to be quirky and different which is what Q represents so her being the feature image helps keep Q's in house style.

- a variety of different fonts have been used on the magazine, some are larger than others, some are bold whilst others are in italics. This helps the magazine look more eye catching and encourages the audience to pick a copy up.

- the language is short and snappy which helps the magazine get the point across quickly and appeal to the target audience. Using 'Jimi Hendrix' as one of the artists spoken about in the cover lines helps to show the target audience is older as younger generations wouldn't recognise the name.

NME

Genre: indie, rock, alternative

Audience: young adults, teenagers, music lovers

- the feature image is on the right hand side of the magazine to make room for additional cover lines along the left to get the reader to read into the contents of the magazine. The Skins cast being used for the feature image helps represent teenagers as a specific social group as 'party animals' and would help appeal to the target audience more.

- red and yellow have been used which are bold and this helps the reader easily see what is written, also the font is all in upper case exaggerating the text.

- the masthead isn't as obvious here and is surrounded by features and additional photos which helps show it's target audience as the magazine is intending to be eye catching and snappy. Also, Skins is in a larger font than the title of the magazine as the target audience would understand that it is considered 'cool' to watch that specific TV show.

Top Of The Pops

Genre: pop

Audience: teenagers, younger children (10 -13), mainly females

 - bold colours have been used to help indicate the magazine is appealing to children and new teens.

- The feature image is placed directly in the middle of the magazine, with any contents or additional information around the outside. The use of Justin Beiber helps to show the magazine appeals much more to younger girls as he is considered to be a 'pop icon' for the younger girls in the world.

- the layout is simple with plenty of pictures along the bottom alongside text to help encourage the reader to read what is inside the magazine.

- the language used is simple and short to help appeal to the younger audience as well as the use of the bubble styled font (almost similar to comic sans) which is usually used by younger children.

I would be competing with a magazine similar to Q and NME as the music genres they have based their magazine on are the ones I would base mine on. Both these magazines are focusing on the same music genre and I can see that they both contain the same elements such as snappy text, bold colours and fonts and cover lines.

Prelim Task

I had to create a school magazine to help show that I know what is expected from the magazine I will create for my final product. I used Microsoft Publisher for this and had to produce my own image for the product.

Above is the front page of my prelim task; I used this to help with my research and planning and to help me understand the basic codes and conventions; such as a feature image, masthead and additional cover lines, in which will be expected from me to fulfil in my final artefact.

This was a mock-up of the contents page which would come after the front cover in the school magazine. I conducted this to show that I understood what was expected from the contents page and to help me look into the best way to set it out to suit my target audience. The target audience I was appealing to would be the lower years of Queensbury students as the model is wearing the school uniform to help show that I am targeting them as my audience. Although, due to my cover lines it may also be interesting for the 6th form students as they're being targeted through the texts with "socials", the "new cafe" and "year 13 prom" but it would mainly appeal to the lower year students. 

Brief

I have created this blog to help with my AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio.

• I have decided to create a print for my product in which I will have to create a music magazine and conduct my own research into codes and conventions of magazines, planning of my magazine and a prelim which will help with my understanding of the ICT and conventions used in magazines.

• My prelim consisted of a front cover of a school magazine, in which I had to produce my own image and a mock up of a contents page to show my understanding how a contents page within a magazine should look.