Sunday 30 October 2011

Audience Research Questionnaire Results And Conclusions

Today i used my questionnaires that 20 members of my target audience filled in and gathered results and came to conclusions that will help me to make decisions about my magazine.




Here is a video of some of my results as well:

Thursday 20 October 2011

Audiance Research Questionnaire

In todays lesson we made a questionnaire, of which we will give 20 copies to members of our target audiance to help ammend and see what we can do to create a new rock music magazine.
These results will help me make decisions about what I put and what goes on the front of my magazine.

After twenty people have filled these out I will collate the results and make a Slideshare about them.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Analysis Of Double Page Spreads

In todays lesson we analysed a double page spread and looked at what codes and conventions it followed.



Wednesday 12 October 2011

Analysis Of Professional Contents Pages.

In todays lesson we analysed professional contents pages.
To present this work we used prezi.

Monday 10 October 2011

Initial Plans For My Music Magazine

In todays lesson we came up with some ideas about the publication of our magazine, we used our research on the market place to help us with this.

The price of my magazine will be £2.50, after looking at my questionnaire results people were prepared to pay £2.50-£3.00 for the magazine so I am keeping the price at £2.50 which is the lower end of what people will pay.
My magazine will be published monthly, this is because the price that people are willing to pay for a magazine is £2.50 however this is too much i thought for a weekly magazine which is cheaper and will attract the target audience because of the low price.

My magazine will have 130 pages as it is the right issue size for a monthly magazine if it had anymore pages we would have to charge more and not as many people would buy it, as it wouldnt seem as apealing.

It will be published by Great magazines as it also publishes kerrang magazine.
This is the publishers website: http://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/

The regular content in my magazine will include:
- live reviews
- album reviews
- gig gudie
- news
- famous last words (quick quiz with a different icon every week)
- feedback(letters to the editor)

The feature content of my magazine will be:
- poster special on summer festivals
- Madina lake- how the leone twins have made it through hell and back
- 30 seconds to mars- about the future
- blink 182 vs. my chemical romance
-panic at the disco- the new album and the new tour
-slipknot- iowa 10 years on
-competition- win two pairs of tickets to see machine head in december

Friday 7 October 2011

Researching The Market Place

In todays lesson we had to research existing music magazines that have the same genre as mine.
I found four examples of this type of magazine

Example one:





This is Kerrang magazine.

Kerrang is published weekly, a new issue comes out every wednesday.

The price of kerrang is normally £2.20 however it can vary dependant on if it has any gifts such as CD'S with the issue.

Kerrangs positioning statement is Life is loud.

Kerrang is published by Great Magazines.
This is the publishers website: http://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/
This is kerrangs website: www.kerrang.com/

The issue size( number of pages) in kerrang is 64 pages

The regular content in Kerrang is:

  • Feedback
  • News
  • Live reviews
  • Posters
  • Album reviews
  • Gig Guide
  • The K quiz!
The feature articles in the above issue of Kerrang were:

  • A competition in which you win a bottle of "bring me the horizons" bbq sauce.
  • Evanescence: Amy Lee:back in black, and pink ruffles.
  • Foo Fighters: The truth behind the nicest man in rock
  • Dangerous! : just how dangerous are aussie rockers dangerous.
  • Iceage
  • Rock feuds: which musicians have more beef than an Aberdeen angus steak house.
  • Madina Lake: How the Leone twins made it through hell and back
Example two:



This is rock sound.

Rock sound doesn't have a positioning statement.

The price of each issue of rock sound is £3.99

Rock sound is a magazine that is published once every month.

Rock sound is published by Sonic Publishing.
This is the publishers website: http://www.sonicpublishing.co.uk/rock-sound/
This is the magazines website: http://www.rocksound.tv/magazine

The issue size of Rock sound is: 116 pages

The regular content in rock sound is:

  • Album reviews
  • Exposure (shows new talent)
  • Welcome to my world
  • Hall of fame
  • Posters
  • Live reviews
  • Gig guide
  • On the clock
  • News
The feature articles in this issue of rock sound is:

  • You me at six: repent their sins in this months explosive cover story
  • Young guns: we hang out with some monks in Thailand
  • Mastodon: dramatic return to form on " the hunter"
  • Lower than atlantis: we talk panda punching.
  • New found glory: talk defending pop-punk and fellow defendants.
  • Against the machine: legend tom morello talks comic books
  • Etc

Example 3:


This is Black Velvet

Black Velvet costs £3

Black Velvet doesn't have a positioning statement

Black Velvet is published quarterly (every 3 months)

Black Velvert is published by Shari Black Velvet
This is the publishers website: http://www.shariblackvelvet.com/
This is the magazines website: http://www.blackvelvetmagazine.com/

The issue size of Black Velvet is: 78  pages

Regular articles in this magazine include:
  • Reviews
  • gig guide
  • Posters
  • News
Feature articles in the above copy of the magazine include:
Interviews with:
  • Mayday Parade
  • Panic at the disco
  • Octane ok
  • The summer set
  • The red jumpsuit apparatus
  • Framing hanley
  • We are the in crows
  • Sugar cult
  • The architects
  • Oh no picaso
  • Default
Example 4:
This is NME.
NME is a weekly magazine and like Kerrang comes out every wednesday.
NME costs £2.40
NME is published by IPC media
This is the publishers website: http://www.ipcmedia.com/
This is the magazines website: http://www.nme.com/magazine

The issue size of NME is: 50 pages
 Regular content in NME is:

  • Gig Guide
  • News
  • Live reviews
  • Letters to the editor
  • Posters/pictures

Media Pack


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.


Tuesday 4 October 2011

Initial Ideas

In todays lesson we decided on initial ideas for our music magazine.

The type/genre my music magazine will be about is rock.

And the target audience is simply anyone who enjoys and listens to rock music, within the ages mainly of 16-24 years old. It will target both genders also

This is a media pack for NME that is produced by IPC Media
To view the media pack press "view media pack"

http://www.ipcadvertising.com/ipc-brands/2009/feb/03/nme

Monday 3 October 2011

Preliminary Exercise Evaluation.

For a magazine to be successful and sell, also to appeal to the target audience, they need to follow a list of codes and conventions, which are like the rules of magazines. To make my magazine appeal to the target audience i had to follow these codes and conventions. On my front cover i followed most of the codes and conventions. For example: i had a positioning statement,my masthead(title) was across the whole top of the page, my bar code was in the bottom right hand corner. I also had my title in a unique font and the cover lines in a different font to the masthead. I used a simple yet effective colour scheme of royal blue and white. I used one main image which was taken at a mid shot and had the subject giving the audience direct address which is a code and convention of magazine front covers. One of the codes and conventions i didn't follow was having subsidiary images on my front cover, I didn't use any of these because i wanted to keep the layout simple and easy on the eyes.
On my contents pages i followed the codes and conventions as best i could, by this i mean the only codes and conventions i didn't follow was not having subscription details for the magazine, i didn't use this because i felt it was unnessary. I also didn't put on a website or write an editors letter. I didn't do this because i felt this didnt fit in with the school magazine genre. I did however, use subsidiary images to anchor the stories to the pictures, i also used the same font on the word "contents" as the title was in on the front cover and carried on the simple colour scheme, this was done so to maintain the brand and make the contents page as easily identifiable as the front cover. I also split the contents page into regulars and features as this is an important code and convention as it makes it easier for the read to distinguish between the different sections,I also used different size font for the coverlines and for the sublines: 12/13 point for the coverline and 11 point for the subline. I feel overall i did well with producing a magazine front cover and contents page that stuck to the basic codes and conventions of magazines and only deviated away from them on a few things.

For the production of the magazine we used two different programmes, one of these we had used before and one we hadn't. To do the front cover we used Adobe Photoshop which we had used for the production of our music magazines in year 10. For our contents page we used a programme called Quark XPress which we had never used before. to make the magazine front cover we had to cut out the background from our pictures we took, we had to add a background or gradient and we had to add text boxes for our coverrlines and use a different text for the masthead we had to arrange the text boxes so nothing majorly interfered with the main image because our magazine isnt a well established one we couldnt have the main image overlapping the masthead.We also had to add a barcode, issue date, number and a price.After we had done all this our front cover for our magazine was complete. For our contents page we had to use Quark XPress which was a new technology package for us all, before we started our contents pages we were given a run down of what to do and shown the basic functions of Quark, after that we were left on our own to get onwith it. To start with we had to get the right amount of columns, then we had to add the text we wanted for our feature articles and regular articles, and we had to add a masthead and title. The colour scheme was consistent with the front cover,i did this to maintain the branding of my magazine. After addign the text i added the subisuary images and a copy of the front cover on the contents page by the masthead.

I think the strengths of my magazine front cover was that it followed the codes and conventions of magazine front covers, I also think it looked how i wanted it to on the plan and that i used Phtotshop well, with the limited time we had to do the task. I think my colour scheme was a bold one that would easily attract the reader and from far away it looked attractive and the text stood out and the coverlines were easy to read. On the front cover i also used a buzzword "plus" I used this to attract the reader and so they think they are getting more for their money than they are. I was happy with my magazine front cover.Another strength of my magazine front cover was that it looked how i wanted it to look when i made the rough layout, also the fact that i was familiar of how to use photoshop was a srength as it made my work faster and i knew how to use some of the tools to do my work.
 The weaknesses of my magazine front cover was with more time i would have made the layout betetr and more quirky and added images to anchor the story which would have made it more attractive to the reader, and came up with more extras and been adventourous with the tools on photoshop so the layout was better.
I think that the strengths of my magazine contents page was that the colour scheme and the fact i had a miniture of the front cover on my contents page was helping to maintain my magazines branding and so the readers could know what the magzine was without having to read the masthead. I also think another strength was that my contents page had subsidiary images and columns which is part of the codes and conventions of contents pages. Another strength of my magazine contents pages was that I had my titles for the features and the regulars in a larger different font and my coverlines and my sublines were in different fonts so that the coverline stands out more than the subline. One more strength of my contents page was that it hd a clear layout and the page numbers came before the story.
Weaknesses of my contents page was that i struggled to use the programme and i didnt anchor my pictures to  a story. Another weakness was that i didnt include an editors letter and i could have. i also didnt use 5 or more subsidiary images which is part of the codes and conventions, although  did use some. Another weakness was my layout wasnt the way i wanted it to look when i did my rough layout. This was because the programme wouldnt allow this so i had to change it to see if it looked better rearranged.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Preliminary Exercise Production Of Contents Page

Today we made a contents page for our school magzine. We did this on quark. This is how i did it.

To start with i added my picture boxes in and then i added in my feature articles and the regular articles on.







After this i added the masthead which was the name of the magazine and the title "contents2 the font used for the masthead was the same as for the front cover. I did this to maintain the branding of the magazine.








I then added my subsiduary images to the contents page into the picture boxes i previously made.










After this i added the background, which was the same colour as on the front cover. i did this to maintain my magazines branding.










This is my completed contents page for my school magazine. I made it on Quark XPress.





Saturday 1 October 2011

Preliminary Exersize Production Of Front Cover

This is my front cover, I made this on Adobe Photoshop in todays lesson.

First of all, I had to cut out the background from my image, to do this I had to crop out most of the background and copied this over to a new window as shown below.












I then added a background and transferred the picture onto the blue background of my front cover, like this:












After i had done this i chose a font for my masthead and added a masthead and my positioning statement.
















I then added the issue date, number and barcode and the amgazine price, I used a different font for these.








After this i added the cover lines and the sublines. These were done in the same font as theissue date, number and price.                                                 









After this i added on extras and then my magazine was complete.











This is my completed school magazine.