Here I have taken a small selection of the photos that I acquired over the summer as part of a preparatory task. The photos show different areas of music and the cultures that relate to the music. This gives me a source for images and ideas that I have captured myself and are then ready for anything I work on In the future.I tried to keep a wide variety in my images so options can be kept open and I have more flexibility in my choices. On my dance music moodboard i quickly arranged some images that related to my sub genre of magazine. These were the stereotypes of dance,raving and dj's. The curves of the mixmag and stereosonic are somethign i thought could be used as a starting point to my own house style of dance magazine. The energetic movement, bright strobe lights and night atmosphere were all present here and are something i think are a necessity to include as they are the basic dance music traits.
This board shows the types of things the person my magazine is aimed at would follow, join in with or pay interest to. This helps me as if i need ideas about what my reader would want i can gather ideas and concepts from these sources and i can link some into my magazine allowing the reader to relate more directly to the magazine.
Create a student magazine for Aquinas students; Informative and Entertaining.
This is a sample of magazine covers that i looked at on the internet to try and recognise some common features that magazines have. This helped me gain knowledge of what sort of things would need to be included if i was going to create my own magazine cover. Here i have researched into and practiced taking photos with different shot types and from different angles. This helped me develop understanding of the effects distance and angles can have with an image. This means if i want a photo to portray a specific feeling or do a certain thing i can take into account what i have done and use it to make my photo more effective and fit its purpose better. We took photos in groups, each practising using the rule of thirds so we could get used to taking photos whilst considering this. Now we have done this we will be able to use what we have learnt if we take any photos for future work. I took a dance music double page spread, looked at multiple aspects of it; Language used, Conventions and Image uses on the page. Looking at these aspects meant I gained knowledge on how they can be used beforeI do my own and the information should allow me to use the different features I put into my double page spread in a better way. This task was undertaken in class to become familiar with certain terms such as; Connotations, Denotations, Polysemy and Anchorage. We then found a magazine cover and tried annotating this ourselves with these different terms and explaining them in terms of that specific cover. In pairs we created surveys to give out to a random sample of students. This enabled us to gather opinions on different aspects of magazines from preferred fonts to types of articles. We did this as it will be very useful when creating our magazine as if we have the audience opinion we know what they want to see and therefore what we should be including for them to want and enjoy the magazine. Here I took the results of the surveys and converted them into a more visual representation. This meant the audience opinion could be much more clearly viewed and the other opinions on the same subject could also be seen. This meant when coming to a conclusion and making choices about what the results told us was much easier and quicker to decide on. After converting my results into a more visual format i was able to make some easy conclusions to what they told me and what choices they helped me make. From the research i now know;
1, THE MAGAZINE WILL BE RELEASED MONTHLY 2, THE MAGAZINE WILL HAVE A BLUE/WHITE/RED COLOUR SCHEME 3, THE FONT USED WILL BE 'ERAS DEMI ITC' 4, A MUSIC ARTICLE WILL BE FEATURED IN THE MAGAZINE 5, THE MUSIC ARTICLE WILL FEATURE HIP HOP STYLE MUSIC 6, AN EXTRA ARTICLE ON ADDITIONAL HELP FOR MATHS A LEVEL WOULD HELP STUDENTS 7, A GIVEAWAY WILL BE INCLUDED 8, THE PRIZE WOULD EITHER BE TECHNOLOGY OR TICKETS TO EVENTS This document is an analysis of a Mixmag Cover from November 2010. I looked at expected things from its sub-genre and then analysed areas like typography,cover image,mast head and colours used and looked at the connotations these have. This helped me gain a deeper understanding of why certain things are used and how things can have bigger effects than you first think. This will help me in the future as i will be able to incorporate this into my own work which will make the work better quality. Here i took my images that i could use for my Aquinas Magazine. I didnt use some that didnt contain people as they did not fit into the genre of a student magazine. I also didnt want to use some of them that didnt fit into the rule of thirds or didnt fit into the rule as well it they could. The images i did choose had a clear rule of thirds and most had a good contrasting background. This is a flat plan of my Aquinas magazine cover, this helps me as it gives me a rough idea of what I want my magazine to look like and gives me a chance to try out layouts without having to go to the extent of fully creating each possible layout. This will also give me something to follow when creating my real cover. In class we looked at multiple contents pages and split the differences and similarities. We concluded that some were overall conventions and were used on all contents pages, these were the similarities whereas others were sub genre conventions and had things or house styles depending on the sub genre, these were the differences betweeen the covers that we found. Here is my flat plan for my contents page with analysis. The plan will give me a rough guide to follow when creating the real contents page, it enables me to look at different layouts without going to the full length of creating the contents page in these different layouts fully. The analysis helped me make sure the design and features were being used to give the correct message and idea across and also be functioning well ( contrasting colours to make text east to read). This will now help me when i come to getting the exact font and colour of my magazine contents page.
Here i analysed a double page spread, i looked at the different feaures the magazine had. I then looked closely at these different features and why they had been used in the way they had, what connotations they gave and the effect it had on the whole article. This then gave me an idea of what a double page spread needs to contain so when i create my own i know the sort of things i should look at also using.
This is the cover i produced using my flat plan as a base. I have chosen bold fonts and colours which will need to be carried over to the contents page when i create it as this will mean it will look consistent and as if they are part of the same magazine. Part way through creating this i gained feedback that my secondary images were'nt anchored very well and that the article information on the right wasn't bold enough. I then added new text and a faded block on the image to make the anchorage clearer. I also changed the font of the text on the right and made it bold giving a bolder clearer look. Skills like framing an image centrally, following a colour scheme and trying to create a house style were all put into practice in the process of this
This is my contents page for the aquinas magazine. To create this i used the flat plan of my contents to guide me and give me a good starting point. I then added all the features trying to keep in mind i was wanting to create a house style that was also similar to the cover as this would keep it consistent and make them look as though they were part of the same magazine. I used similar Typography and a similar colour scheme aswell as the squared features and the partly transparent backing shaped behind text which is found on the cover also. This overall kept a good consistent house style.
After finishing my contents and cover page, i created a feedback sheet to get other peoples opinions on my work. This gave a wider view of my work compared to just doing what i thought looked best. This feedback meant before publishing my cover or contents i could make any changes or improvements that had been suggested which would improve my work. It also meant i could find out if i had achieved some of the aims likr creating a consistent house style. I have here put my analysis of the double page spread into an essay, the essay explains how the choices the person creating this means it can give the impressions it does. The essay also explains some of the connotations the different features it has . This will help me in the future as when i create my own i will have ideas about how to create connotations through my own work. Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine
(if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style). Maximum four members to a group. All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of FOUR images per candidate. Magazine Proposal
My magazine will have the Sub-Genre of Dance Music; similar existing magazines to this would be ‘Mixmag’ or ‘DJMag’. The target market for the magazine will be people who listen to dance music whether its dubstep, drum and bass or house, all forms of dance and electro music should be able to relate to the magazine. It will be aimed at younger people ranging from the ages of 14/15 to those slightly older of 24/25, these are people who will frequently use social networking sites and new technology like iPhones and Blackberries. They are also likely to use the internet frequently as this is a large source for new dance music as it is not as widely accessible as some mainstream music which can easily be heard on day to day radio. These people will attend a range of live music events from small raves, clubs to larger dance music festivals or mainstream festivals which have dance music stages/arenas there. I will want the magazine to have information on latest music releases and artists. I would also like reviews or information on live events that readers can get involved with. News in the sub-genre would be a good thing to have published in the magazine. I would like the magazine to be fairly low priced as this way it is affordable to the target market that could well be students and therefore might not have much spare cash. I would think the magazine having close links with internet as this is a good source for the music itself and deeper information for the reader. It is something they will also be more familiar with as the younger generations have taken to the use of the internet much more. |