Blog  1:

This first week of the preliminary task, we as class have discussed the typical conventions of a magazine. We were given examples to look at and we had labelled out all of the conventions we could for example, Masthead, Taglines, Puffs and Pugs etc. We were then told to get three examples of Front Covers of school magazines we would have to outline the technique and told to analysis them; this would help us with our main task which is to make a music magazine.

 

Blog 2:

After we had finished the first task of analysing the front covers of the three school magazines, we then had to pick between several contents pages of school magazine, and do exactly the same as the front covers. As well as that we had to do an evaluation of the three magazine front covers; we had to talk about the techniques such as the Masthead, Main Images, the layout, selling techniques and if we would use any of their ideas for our magazine when we come to make it.

 

Blog 3:

We had to hand in the evaluation, analysis of the three magazines Front Cover, analysis three magazine Contents Pages and the Evaluation of the Front Covers. This would have to be put onto the Wix website throughout this week we had looked at the Wix website and how to put our work onto it, all of the task we had been asked to do have to be put onto the website. This was at first a difficult thing to do because I was not used to using this type of program and was difficult to get the grasp of straight away, but I feel I will grow in confidence as the weeks go on and I’ll be getting more familiar with Wix.

 

Blog 4:            

This week we have started to get ideas for our magazine, we had made brainstorms of ideas for what our demographic would be and what would feature in the magazine such as events, school information etc. after this was done then we would start to sketch out what our magazine front cover and contents pages would look like, this would be our first draft that we would do onto A4 paper then onto computer. This would show that we were capable of making a good design and showing the conventional techniques.

 

Blog 5:

After the part was done then it had to go straight onto the Wix website, this week we had to decide what fonts and colours schemes we would want for the magazine. For example I choose the colour scheme of the school logo to make it distinctive to the school, and then picked Sans Serif and Calibri so that it is easy to read for the reader. This would be for the Front cover and Contents page.

 

Blog 6:

The previous work would then have to be put onto the Wix website, to evaluate and to see what the demographic thought of the magazine choices; I made 10 questions for this survey so that it got straight to the point and I didn’t bore the participants, and that it got straight to the point so I only asked the important questions. If I was to do anything different with the survey, I would make more questions and get more people to answer so I have a wider range of answer. We would then have to do an analysis of the results we got and put it in a PowerPoint that would go onto Wix.

 

Blog 7:

 We would be making our final designs for the Front Cover and Content Page for our magazine.  Then we have to do a magazine brief were we was asked a set of questions that would be to do with our magazine, this would be asking us about all the stages that we have taken to get to this point of making our final designs of the magazine. This would essentially be an essay to test our knowledge of the work that we have covered.

 

Blog 8:

For the final week of the preliminary task, we would have to take our original photos for the front cover and contents page. We would plan what type of photos we want to get E.g. the mise-en-scene and setting, once that was done we would go out and take the pictures, we would put them onto the final design of the front cover and contents page. We would then have our final designs of them both and all of our research; this is all now put onto the Wix website. After term we will start our main task of creating a Music magazine of our choice. 

 

Blog 9:

this was our first week back and we have now started to look at our main task,we have to create a music magazine with out own choice of genre. we had to decide on whattype of genre our magazine was going to be and had to look at similar magazines that we would want to look at and or mimic the same conventions and style that they have used.

 

Blog 10:

We have now begun looking into what institutions are and what different types of magazines have what insititutions. i looked at four different institutions Bauer media group, IPC Media LTD etc. i had to decided which was the most suiting to my genre of magazine i choose IPC media LTD because they produce NME which shares similar qualities to what i want for my magazine.

 

Blog 11:

We have now got to come up with either a focus group or questionnaire to ask our demographic on what they would like to feature in the magazine such as the different conventions. i came up with several more questions than my preliminary task questionnaire this shows that i have progressed and that i can get more of the demographics opinion.

 

Blog 12:

After we had found out the Questionnaire results i put it into pie charts and had analysed the results, this will be helpful for when i have to construct my final designs for the magazine FC, CP and DPS. By getting the opinions of the demographic i could see what they would like for the magazine, by having this i get to make my magazine more realistic and also more true to the target audience because their ideas are put into the magazines structure.

 

Blog 13:

I have now started to take my own photos for the magazine, i am using a single artist to feature in the Front Cover and the Double page spread, i am going to have a close up shot for my Front cover and that will be the only image that features on the Cover. Than on the DPS it will be a silhouette and a mid shot, the contents page will have two images on it so to not make it cluttered. I will keep them with the same editing which is a black and white effect this also fits in with the colour scheme.

 

Blog 14:

I have now started to study the different Front Covers of other music magazines, i have studied three in detailed i have looked at the different conventions such as the Mastheads, Main Image,Structure etc. I choose CLASH,NME and We Love Pop. These are three different genres CLASH is alternative and indie, NME is Rock and We Love Pop is Pop.It was good to get three different genres to see how they layout and present their Front Covers to their audience, it also gave me an chance to perhaps imitate one of them, I liked the way that CLASH had structured the Cover and will be using it when creating my own.

 

Blog 15:

I have now started to study the different Content pages  of other music magazines, i have studied four in detailed i have looked at the different conventions such as the Mastheads, Main Image,Structure etc. I choose CLASH,KERRANG,VIBE and Top of the Pops. These are three different genres CLASH is alternative and indie, KERRANG is Rock,VIBE is an RNB and Rap genred magazine and Top of the Pops is Pop. They all had different layouts and different ways of grabbing the attention of the audience, they all had USP.It was good to get four different genres to see how they layout and present their Front Covers to their audience, it also gave me an chance to perhaps imitate one of them, I liked the way that CLASH had structured Page and will be using it when creating my own.

 

Blog 16:

I have now started to study the different Double Page Spreads of other music magazines, i have studied two in detailed i have looked at the different conventions such as the Mastheads, Main Image,Structure etc. I choose NME and KERRANG. These are two different genres  NME is Rock and KERRANG is Rock.By having two which were the same genre i could compare and see what convention is key to have, it also gave me an chance to perhaps imitate one of them, I liked the way that NME had structured the Spread and will be using it when creating my own.

 

Blog 17:

i have ended my photos and have started to edit them i have gotten different shot angles of the same picture so that i had different perspectives and more choice when i came to making my final diesicision, i am going to have four final images, one on the Front cover which will be the background, two on the Contents page on thee right hand side of the page of two artists in one mid shot, then one artist mid shot holding a microphone and then finally one on the Double Page spread which will be on the left side filling up the whole page. they will be edited with a black and white effect.

 

Blog 18:

I have now made an investigation in the types of fonts that will feature in the headings and subheadings of the magazines also the text on the interview section on the Double page spread, i had come up with three different fonts to feature on the hedings and the subheadings of the magazine i choose ROCKWELL EXTRA BOLD, it was a clear and fitted in well with the design of the magazine and it had the best comments when i asked for opinions on them. I came up with three for my interview text and i choose GEORGIA, it was again the most fitting for the appearance and also the comments was that it was clear to read.

 

Blog 19:

I have now begun to look into the music press, i have looked through the different decades of music pres and how it has progressed and improved with the different media platforms also the change in music and how it is sold and distrubuted, this help me because i got an insight into how music has changed and how music is now being promoted.

 

Blog 20:

This week i have started to write my evaluation and also i finish my designs of my Front Cover, Contents Page and Double page spread i feel pleased with my final results because i do believe that i have been able to create a real looking magazine, i have been aware of the conventions that have to feature and how to convey them into my designs. i have to answer several questions for my evaluation i have to talk about how i have constructed my magazine designs and how i have appealed to the demographic etc.

 

Blog 21:

I have finished the evaluation and i have now uploaded everything to this website, I have learnt through the preliminary task and the main task on how to produce a quality product and also gotten skills from using programs such as Adobe photoshop this was a masive help when creating the edited photos. I feel that my media pratical side has developed massively since i started i can see a difference in this year of media and the different in GCSE. I can also see a difference between my preliminary taska nd my main task it different have a professional finish and also i hadnt put as much effort into it compared to the main task which i am proud of.