Research And Planning: Magazine Sketches

This is the sketch of what I want my contents page to look like. I dont want the page to look empty and then it will give the impression that the magazine has lots of articles in it. I also want it to have some pictures on it then it wont be all text, the reader will have something to look at then instead of just reading it all.

This is the sketch of what i want my front cover to look like, I chose to do it on a band splitting up because people are more likely to want to know why the band have split up and therefore it is more likely to be bought. I have decided to change the layout of my front cover and have just one artist on the cover because I think that the reader will not be mislead into thinking that both of the singers are going to be in the magazine when just one of them will be. I chose a different name for magazine instead of unplugged, because i think that name makes it sound like the magazine is going to be based around acoustic music, so I have decided to go with the name ''backstage'' this makes the magazine sound like it is going to be about all the behind the scenes gossip with all the big artists. It makes the reader think that they are going to be hearing about topics in my magazine that other magazines might not have in their magazine.

Research And Planning: Fonts

I chose four fonts and then chose which one I wanted to use for my magazine. I decided that font one would look the best because it is a simple one and also looks like it is the best to be associated with a music magazine.

Research And Planning: Contents Page Analysis

Research And Planning: Feature Article Analysis

Research And Planning: Mood Board

I created a mood board of conventions that I would like to try and include in my magazine. I think that the conventions in the mood board are very effective to their genre of music, because my magazine is going to be a mixture of music.

Research And Planning: EMAP

EMAP is a media publishing company which was founded in 1947. EMAP is an abbreviation of East Midlands Allied Press. They have published many magazines and one particular music magazine that they were involved with was Smash Hits.

Feedback 6.12.09

Well done Charlotte. You need to get working on the planning quickly now or show you've been planning by posting your mood board, sketches, rough article and pictures on here. You should be starting production this week in lessons ideally.

Mrs A

Research And Planning: UK Top 10

Here is the current UK top 10, the kind of music that is in the top ten is mainly the music that I am going to be focusing on in my magazine, so the fact that they are in the top ten prove that this is a popular type of music

1. Jason Derulo - Watcha Say

2. Black Eyed Peas - Meet Me Halfway

3. Lady GaGa- Bad Romance

4. Rihanna - Russian Roulette

5. Kesha - Tik Tok

6. Susan Boyle - Wild Horses

7. Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love

8. X Factor Finalists - You Are Not Alone

9. JLS - Everybody In Love

10. Leona Lewis - Happy

Research And Planning: The Killers Image Analysation

Here is an image of a band ''The Killers.'' The are styled to look very casual in general day to day clothes (jeans and shirt)

The setting is on a park bench in a forest which makes them seem like normal people like everyone else. This creates a sense of informality to the picture.

Their body language and facial expressions are very relaxed and not thought about, it doesn't seem like it is a photo shoot but just  general photograph of an average group of friends which also supports the sense of informality in the image.

Research And Planning: Questionnaire Results

I asked this question to decide whether my idea of a mixture of music in the magazine would be a good idea or not, judging by the answers that i got back it supports my idea.

As you can see from the pie chart above, there isn't a distinct favourite genre of music, I think this supports my idea of doing a mixture of music in my magazine.

Research And Planning: Magazine Questionnaire

I created a magazine questionnaire to give out to people for them to fill in, I used the answers I got to adjust my magazine accordingly.

I asked questions like ''what would you expect to see on the cover of a music magazine?'' I can use the answers I got to create my front cover specifically to attract my target audience.

As my magazine is going to be a mixture of genre's, I asked the question "would you rather read a magazine on a specific genre or a mixture of all genre's of

music?" the majority of my questionnaire's came back with the answer of mixture of genre's which supports my magazine theme.

Overall, I think that the questionnaire was a good idea because it has helped me to decide what kind of features I will include in my magazine.

Research And Planning: Front Cover Analysis

Feedback 24.11.09

Good work so far Charlotte but i need to see research. You need to be working on this more at home. You need to outline the genreal conventions of msuci mags and then upload and analyse a front cover, contents and feature article of a similar genre mag to your intended project. Discuss how they use the conventions creatively to target the audience and suggest genre. Don't forget to discuss the purpose of these pages - eg. fulfil AIDA, fulfil surveillance need etc - use theories. See checklist in packs for more help.

Mrs A

Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task i had to create a front cover for a college magazine, I made it so that the image I used looked bold and that the person stood out on the page. To do this I cut out the person and then changed the opacity of the background so then the writing would be clearer, also I thought that this way would look better than having lots of rectangles with a changed opacity.

There are some improvements that need to be made to the magazine such as, I could have used some more headings on the cover, there are currently only three of them, to make the magazine more appealing the target audience.

On the title of the magazine I used bright and bold colours, green and yellow outline, this makes it stand out and it is more eye catching than a boring colour.

I put a strap line running along the bottom of the magazine to stop the page from looking empty, the text that I used was ''exclusively for St. Mary's college'' this makes it sound like it is unique and if you go to this particular college then this magazine is aimed at you. All the topics on the cover relate to current events in the college and are mainly study tips and trip news, this is because students don't want to read about 'boring' things such as academic topics, they would rather be reading about a new trip offer.

The image on the front cover shows the student doing something, I thought that an action shot would work best because it shows what college is all about, she is reading a book but smiling at the same time so this puts across the sense that college life is good.

I think that I could have made the headings bolder and make them stand out more, it looks like they have just been placed anywhere on the page, I could have put a box around them

or an auto shape to make them look bolder and stand out more.

I sketched my contents page as shown on the right, I thought that the best way to keep it 'fun' was to include lots of images, this would also add colour to the page which would keep it exciting and interesting.

I would try to include as little writing as possible because students aren't really interested in the reading they would rather look at pictures and read the magazine that way.

Initial Thoughts And Ideas...

The project that I have chosen to do is a music magazine focusing on the a balanced mixture of genres. I chose this option because I love listening to most music and also I love reading magazines so I think this option would be best suited for me. My target audience for the magazine will be for female teenagers, in order to ensure that the target audience is right for my type of magazine I need to give out questionnaires and surveys and then adjust my magazine to fit the target audience. There are already some music magazines which talk of a similar genre already on the market, I need to make sure that my magazine retains its originality and is as unique as can be. To do this I will make sure that the front cover will be an interesting topic because girls are more likely to want to read about them if they are styled and photographed appropriately for this audience. The USP for my magazine would be the style of genre I have chosen, I think the fact that it will be a mixture of music, mainly chart, means that it will have a wider audience which it will appeal to, therefore meaning more people will want to actually buy it.