Flat Plans

These are my original flatplans for my magazine, they may change if I find a different inspiration.

Organisation

In order to manage my time effectively I have created a timetable of all the aspects I need to do to complete the course at a high level.

 

Date
28th - 4th	Plan out front cover, flat plans and take photos
4th - 11th	Begin cover and think about article topic
11th - 15th	Continue with cover, start to write article
15th - 25th	Start planning contents page
25th - 4th	Continue cover and start contents page
4th - 11th	Continue contents page and make corrections on article
11th - 18th	Start article
18th -25th	Make improvements on all elements
25th - 28th	Think about evaluation
8th - 15th	Evaluation
15th - 22nd	Evaluation
22nd - 29th	Evaluation
29th - 3rd	Final cut off, make last minute adjustments

My Magazine

I have decided to create a indie/alternative music magazine aimed at an audience of 16-21 year olds (young adults). Inorder to gain the best result possible I will create a questionnaire asking what my target audience would most like to see in it, I have came up with a series of questions which are:

1.    How old are you?

2.    Are you male or female?

3.    What do you want in a music magazine?

4.    What type of music genre do you like the most?

5.    Do you buy any music magazines already, if so please list?

6.    Why do you buy them magazines?

7.    If you don’t buy magazines why not?

8.    What sort of price would you be willing to pay for a music magazine?

9.    How often would you buy a music magazine?

10.  What do you want a music magazine to contain?

11.  What free prizes/goods would you like to get from a music magazine?

12.  Would you like to see horoscopes in a music magazine?

13.  What artists would you like to see in the magazine?

14.  Would you like to see the top 10?

15.  What colour schemes would you like to see on a magazine?

16.  What usually catches your eye the most on the front cover?

17.  Would you buy a weekly or monthly magazine?

18.  Would you prefer an all-male magazine, all female magazine or a mixed gender magazine?

19.  Would you rather read an interview or an article on an artist?

20.  Would you like to see advertisements?

AFL Assessment

·         Excellent skill in the use of appropriate digital technology or ICT in the evaluation, use of youtube, prezi, soundbytes and slideshare.

·         Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production

·         Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes

·         Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task

·         Excellent ability to communicate

AFL Assessment

·         Planning and research evidence will be complete, there is alot of research on exisiting magazines, flat plans and audience research.

·         There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience, this will help in the final product.

·         There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props as there are numerous flat plans present on the blog.

·         There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning

·         Time management is excellent, alot of posts regarding research and planning.

I would give this 20/20 for research and planning because it includes everything on the marking criteria.

AFL Assessment

 

• There is a specific target audience which is apparent when looking at the front cover as we can tell it is a DJ magazine, it will most likely have a teenage audience.

• There is an understanding of layout, however does not look as professional as it could be. The main image on the front cover has been cut out well and shows skills in photoshop, however the background is very plain, there is nothing going on that stands out to the audience. The contents layout is structured well however the pictures could have been spaced out to seperate the texts in bulk, the same as the feature article as it looks like a lot to read and it will put off the audience.
  
•   Need more of a variety in fonts and text size, there is no font that stands out to you on the page, which is what you need for the main feature in the magazine. The text on the contents page is good as it is easy to understand and clear. The font on the article is small however easy to read, however it does look like there is alot of writing and not enough pictures to seperate it all.

• Using ICT appropriately for the task set, it is clear that he has skills in photoshop as he has used alot of tools inorder to complete the magazine. 

• Shooting a poor variety of material appropriate to the task set as there is only a selection of photos and a lot of text. There is also a lot wasted space which could have made use for social networking links, or a website.

• He has manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including cropping and resizing, however this could be improved by resizing the image so not as much space has been wasted.

• Need a variety of photographs as there is the same image on the contents page and feature article.

I would give this project a D overall, as they do understand magazine conventions however their project doesn't look as professional as some of the others, it could have took more influence from the style model. To improve it could feature a more complex layout and include a variety of pictures. The background on the article does not match the house style of the other two pages, therefore it would have lost marks. Also include some forms of social networking like twitter, facebook etc as it is aimed at teenagers.

Practice Work on Photoshop

 

This is a practice magazine I completed on Photoshop so I could get a feel for the project and experiment with some filters and other tools on the programme. The chose a photo I felt was suitable for a magazine cover, a medium close up of the model. I kept the house style simple, only using two colours which were white and a shade of brown, I chose these colours because I had not seen a magazine with this typoe of colour scheme and I wanted to experiment. For the title, I increased the height and width inorder for it to fit across to full page, I copy and pasted the title twice and moved it slightly to look like it had a shadow instead of actually using the drop shadow effect which I will use in my final project. For the feauture headline, I once again kept it simple and used a different font to the title to make it stand out. I beleieve that my magazine does look professional however when asking members of my class what type of magazine they thought it was they guessed a fashion magazine which is something I would have to look at with my final magazine, in order to complete the task of a music magazine.

Preliminary Task

 

This is the contents page for my preliminary task, A school magazine. I have followed the house style from my front over setting a recurring theme for the rest of the magazine. I included photographs which are relevant to the stories in the magazine, this helps attract the audience to the magazine. For some of the images I had to brighten up the image however other than that I did not have to edit them, except making them smaller to fit on the page. I have included the social networking sites because of the popularity to my target audience (teenagers)

To improve on this task I would seperate my contents page into sections to make it easier to read and navigate. The pictures on the side could be edited to all have the same lighting as it looks odd because one is darker than the other. I would make the social networking sites smaller as they take up too much space which could be used for something else. Once again I would make it look more professional by basing it off a style model.









 

Preliminary Task

 

 

This is the front cover for my preliminary task, A school magazine. I have followed magazine conventions by using an image which would be correct for the genre, the striking image will attract the audience into wanting to read it. What is also striking about the front cover is the large, bold writing which gives an insight to what the main article in the magazine will be. I've also found the house style of the school logo by using blue, yellow and white, setting a house style for the rest of the magazine. The image on the front cover shows the head teacher smiling and seeming happy, this denotes the happy atmosphere of the school and also that the head teacher is friendly.

To improve on this task, I would make it look more professional by basing it off a style model, I would also have a better layout with some more complex attributes, showing off my photoshop skills.I would use more fonts inorder for various texts to stand out and catch the audiences attention.