Thursday 14 October 2010

INITIAL PLANS FOR MY MAGAZINE!

Using the results of my resarch, I have made decisions about my magazine:

Price
£2.00

Frequency of publication
Weekly

Average issue size
80-90 pages

Regular content
Gig reviews,upcoming gigs, compettions, new artists section, charts, free gift.

Feature articles
Exclusive interviews, latest updates on artists, major news on the music genre of my magazine.


After conducting my research on the market place, I decided that "classicrock"/"rock" would be the genre of my magazine. The reasons for this is that it reflects a genre of music that I am passionite for and that there are many other rock style magazines that I could compete with and base my new product on. I have chosen the target audience 18+ year olds of both gender.

The price of my magazine will be £2.00 because after collecting research on other rock magazines, the average price was £2.20. I lowered my price in order to increase sales as my price beats the average rock magazine price.

The release of my publication will be monthly as I found that the average rock magazine such as MOJO and UNCUT are both released monthly.


Furthermore, the avergae issue size's of most rock magazines are roughly 80 pages. Therefore, I decided that my magazine will be roughly 80-90 pages so that my magazine would be able to sell as well as other magazines.

Like other rock magazines, my regular content will include gig reviews, upcoming gigs, charts and a new artists section and my feature contnets will have exclusive interviews and information and news on the latest artists in my genre of music. To show compettion in my magazine, i will include a free gift or download each time the magazine is published.

Wednesday 13 October 2010

RESEARCHING THE MARKET PLACE!

NME!
Price- £2.20.
Frequency of publication- Weekly.
Issue Size- Roughly 80-85 pages.
Regular content- Reviews and upcoming gigs and tours.
Feature articles- Exclusive interviews with bands etc.
http://www.nme.com/magazine
http://www.ipcmedia.com/













MOJO!

Price- £4.50
Frequency of publication- Monthly
Issue size- roughly 160 pages
Regular content-  The mojo letter, Ask fred, upcoming gigs and reviews.
Feature articles- interviews, compettions, reviews.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/
http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/











CLASSIC ROCK!

Price- £4.50.
Frequency of publication- Monthly.
Issue Size- Roughly 80 pages.
Regular Content- Gig updates, upcoming tours.
Feature Articles- Interviews.
http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/
http://www.futureplc.com/












KERRANG!

Price- £2.20
Frequency of publication- Weekly
Issue Size- Roughly 80 pages
Regular Content- "Letter of the week", Gig calender, Polls, band reviews.
Feature Articles- Interviews etc.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/
http://www.kerrang.com/

Monday 11 October 2010

EVALUATION OF SCHOOL MAGAZINE!

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
           My final media proctuct contains many codes and conventions and aspects of real media products. For example, my front cover design includes a title-"School Chat" which is situated across the width of the page at the top of my cover. My cover includes coverlines so that the they advertise whats inside of my magazine. I put a bar code at the bottem of my cover so that the audience can see that my magazine is a real product. It was important that i included an issue number so that the audience would be able to see where my magazine was up too and a price because the price will reflect the content of my magazine and its production value. The main convention that I used in my product which reflects real aspects of a real media product was the main image on my front cover. I used simple colours and made sure my title looked professional. In my contents page I divided my product into collumns and broke the sections- Regulars and Features so that the reader was able to identify what they were looking for. I also included an Editors letter and made sure my articles were in chronological order.
          An example of the way my media product challenges the codes and conventions of a real media product is that my mast-head font is not unique which makes my magazine not individual and eyecatching. I did not include enough buzz words or sublines and this would, in a way, effect the number of magazines sold in the school. I also thought my my main image on my front cover was not edited correctly and I think I should of not cut out my image. Also, I think I should of my made my mast-head on my contents page smaller than the cover as this is an important convention in real media products.


How did you use new media technologies in the construction of your media product?
     For my media product, i used Photoshop and QuarkXPress which are new media technologies that have been designed to help build a front cover and contents page of a magazine. After using a camera and capturing the pictures that i wanted, i uploaded the pictures onto Photoshop and QuarkXPress. On the new programes, you can edit, manipulate and create designs which will be used in your media product.


What are the stregnths and weaknesses of both the product and your use of new media technologies?
      
       A weaknesses which I thought effected my media product was the fact that it was my first time using the two new technologies Photoshop and QuarkXPress. Although it was very new to me, I found it got easier as I went on. On my cover, the editing on my main image gave my media product a weakness as the cutting wasnt precise and I realised i shouldnt have cut the image. I think maybe I should have included more effects on my cover to make the magazine eyecatching and unique. Also I think I should have used a variety of pictures such as I needed more pictures of objects. On my contents page I could have been more diverse in the layout of my contents and the font I used for my headlines etc. Finally, my last weakness which I thought made my media product less professional was my knowledge of the camera. Althoght my angles were my stegnths, i found adjusting to the camera very difficult.
        My media product shown many stegnths which made my product look professional and upcomming. I made sure I used simple colours so that my product didnt look overdone or unprofessional. I thought my coverlines were very appropiate and that they seemed very intriguing to the audience. I made sure my contents page included numbers in chonological order and an editors letter to introduce my first issue. If i was to improve my magazine, i would  make sure my main image was improved and that maybe my contents page layout and masthead font was more unique.

PRODUCTION OF CONTENTS PAGE!

PRODUCTION OF SCHOOL MAGAZINE FRONT COVER!


Sunday 10 October 2010

FINAL IMAGES FOR SCHOOL MAGAZINE!

To create my contents page I used QuarkExpress.
Here are my screen grabs of my development in creating my contents.



  Here, i opened up QuarkExpress and added my headline- "Contents" and numbers of where my main images will be situated.






Then, I added two sublines "Features" and "Regulars".












 Here, I added my main images next to the numbers I inserted.
After adding my images I then included all my articles in the "Features" and "Regulars".
Finally, I then added my editors letter which made my contents page complete.



To create my front cover of my school magazine, I used a programe called Photoshop to help design my media product.

After importing my picture into Photoshop, I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool to cut around my main image.
I then added my masthead- "SchoolChat" using the text tool and chosing my colour and font. I also added my main cover line- "WelcomeBack! Outstanding Results" across my main image. After, I imported a picture of a bar code and situated it at the bottem corner of my cover. 
I then added two buzz words using the rectangle tool to create two coloured rectangles. Then I added a text to the rectangles- "Only 50p" and "Plus Your Horoscopes".





Finally, I added my coverlines using the text tool and different colours. I then posisioned my coverlines on the sides of my front cover.

Saturday 9 October 2010

PHOTOGRAPHS FOR SCHOOL MAGAZINE!

For my magazine, i had to collect some images so that they would be included on my front cover and in my contents!:

This picture is going to be used for my main image of my front cover!


This picture will be used to show one of my featured articles in my contents- "Welcoming new students".



This picture will be used for one of my regular artifcles in my contents- "Students of the Month".
 


This picture is going to be used as a featured article in my contents- "RESULTS!"
 

This picture of my self will be used in my editors letter on the contnets page.


Friday 8 October 2010

ROUGH LAYOUT OF CONTENTS PAGE

Again, after collecting all of my ideas for the contents page I designed a rough layout of what would be my contents page in my magazine:

PLANNING CONTENT!

After designing my front cover, it was time to collect ideas for my contents page. I thought about what Featured and Regular articles that would be included:

FEATURE ARTICLES:
  • Pink Day
  • 10 ideas for fancy dress Halloween
  • Coping with exam stress
  • Welcoming new students!
  • YALA+ other enrichments
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Cake Sales
  • Outstanding results- record breaking
  • Stundents of the month
REGULAR CONTENT:
  • Year 7 News
  • Year 8+9 News
  • Year 10+11 News
  • Sixth Form News
  • Healthy Eating
  • Horoscopes
  • School Trips
This is the mind map of all my ideas for my contents page collected that i did in class.


ROUGH LAYOUT OF FRONT COVER!

After collecting all of my ideas for my front cover, i then designed a front cover of what my final front cover would look like:

PLANS FOR FRONT COVER!

TITLE FOR NEW SCHOOL MAGAZINE: School-Chat
MAIN IMAGE: Picture of a sixth former
MAIN ARTICLE: "Outstanding Exam results!"

COVER LINES
  • New Uniform
  • Beauty And The Beast audition success
  • YALA- do you want to learn a new skill?
  • Welcoming new students
  • Cake sales
  • 10 ways in coping with exam stress
This is my mind map that i did in class to help me plan out my contnets page.