Evaluation of Main Task

The type of music i chose to base my music magazine around was Pop Music. The reason i chose to do this is because it i has been the basic sound of music that everyone has grown up over the last twenty years. For my magazine i decided to base mine around a Female duo. The audience i have tried to target for my music magazine has been that of children aged 10-18, as the population of readers that read pop magazines such as 'Top of the Pops' are of that age.
The title i chose for my magazine was 'Chart Smash', the name fitted well with the genre, as it was similiar to brand of pop magazines that are published today.
I tried to attract my audience by using vibrant colours, as vibrant colors are bright and stand out to the reader, symbolizing pop music as light and easy.
The pictures taken for my magazine were taken in my friend's garden. Because the garden was very large, it gave me the idea to take the photos in different parts, for example the picture used for the double page spread was taken with the girls sitting on the side of the pond, whilst the front picture was taken with one of them standing beside the fountain, whilst the other gently leaning on it.
The reason i had them in those positions was to give a more powerful affect as a front cover,and also to bring an essence of Girl Power to the magazine, as well as to attract the audience's attention. I also used bright colors for the front cover to create a friendly feeling towards nthe audience.
Because the photo used for the front picture was originally wider, i had to crop the picture on Microsoft picture manager in order for the picture to fit onto the A3 page.
When taking the pictures i had to make sure that they wouldn'ty come out as too 'daring' as th girls are wearing very short dresses, i had to make sure that when taking the photos they weren't posing too risky.
Microsoft Picture manager was a big help when editing the pictures. For the preliminary exercise, which was to design a college magazine, the picture had to be stretched, so to avoid from doing the exact same thing, i used microsoft picture manager so i could crop my picture without having to stretch it.
Throughout this task, maintaining the grasp of Desk top Publisher has been difficult. It has been hard for me to be able to put forward my best effort, and i feel as if i have worked hard and put in my best effort in order to make this magazine look realistic, and also as if it were a real music magazine.
However i do feel as if i have learnt alot from having used DTP and hopefully will learn more in the near future.

Double Page Spread!!!

At long last!! here it is, evaluation now then i will print off the copies in color in pete's room!!

COntents picture 2

This is the one i have decided to have as my contents page, the color is very light, show the colors of the text can be seen more clearly.

This is my contents page, as I thought there was no color that went well with it, i decided to have the background as white.

Front Cover!!!!

Here is my front cover, working on double page spread now!!!!!!!!!!!

Draft of double page spread, starting propper one soon

Front cover without title or subheadings

This is the picture for the front page of my music magazine without the title or sub headings. I am currently working on the draft for my double page spread.

Trouble!!!

Disastern strikes, when trying to start with my front cover i had trouble editing the picture, the picture that will be used for the main cover will be the two girls standing next to the fountain, however i am still struggling to be able to crop the picture so it will be slimmer

and so on.........

More pictures

Pictures!!!

FInally here they are!!

Draft of front cover

Unfortunately it turns out that i need to remember to put the things i need in my bag the night before, as i have left the pen drive with my pictures on at home, but have no fear they will be uploaded soon as i get home!.
However i have done a draft of how my magazine will look.
The main idea, is that the image will be the in the centre of the magazine and will also act as the magazines background, followed by the sub headings beside the picture and the title lurking just above it.
The colour of the text of the title for the magazine will remain the same, however the background for it will not. The reason i chose the color's used is, that since pop music is very upbeat, light and vibrant colors will help the magazine to stand out and also keeping within the genre of music.
I will upload a draft of a contents page and double page spread soon.
The sub heaadings on the front covere will also be included on the contents page as well.

Sincere apologies and Front Cover /Double Page Spread

Well it has beena while since I last blogged. First reason is i haven't been very well lately and secondly, my laptop decided to play games. But everything is swell now.
For my front cover, the basic idea is for my band to pose with a golden trophy(fake award), with the intention of it being a BRIT award (cheesy i know, but its pop music and everyone knows pop music is cheesy) the girls will appear to be smartly dressed up as the photo's will tell when they get uploaded onto the comp. For the double page spread it will have the girls drssed casual, but smart and look sweet and innocent, just like the girlbands of today.... with a few exceptions. Anyways thats it for now ta ra!!

Delayed!!

As of late my laptop has been pretty much buggered. Therefore i haven't bene able to blog as much or be able to transfer my photos onto the blog, but i shall do soon!!.

Quick update regarding main task

Now that we have been given all the class time we can have for our main exercise, the rest is up to me now. I have arranged a date for the photos to be taken, the only thing now is to make sure the group are availiable for that date, besides that everything seems to be fine. Goodbye

Decisions!!

The main decisions i am still deciding is the location choices for the photo's to be taken. I have decided to use a girlband for my magazine. As my genre is pop, i think girbands would be very well suited to the magazine as most of todays's girl groups are based around pop music. The band will be entirely original.ALthough they will be used as the front cover and the double pages spread, i will also include photos of other people as new artists to add to the contents page.
so basically my magazine will follow like this
Front Cover- Girlband
Contents- other Images
Double Page Spread- Girlband

Genre and basic updates and ideas!!!

Jsut a general blog regarding what type of genre my music magazine will be based around. I have decided to bas my magazine round Pop Music. Reason being that Pop music is very simple, and will give me loads of ideas on how to create the magazine and also what will feture on the contents page.
So now that i have decided on which genre my magazine will be based around (pop), here are a few ideas on the different names i have come up with for my magazine.
. Chart Smash
. Countdown
. Pop Shots
. Pop Charts
. Music March (MM)
The target audience for my magazine will be aimed at teenagers mainly, as pop music main evolves around that age of audience.

Examples

Here are just a few examples of some contents and double page spreads.These are going to give a rough idea on how i am going to creat my contents and double page spread, and also act as a rough guideline.

Pictures

Hopefully in a few days i will have started taking pictures for my main task, which is to produce a music magazine.
All pictures MUST be and WILL be my own pictures, taken by myself.
I am also going to upload some examples of double page spreads and contents page so i can use them as rough guidelines.

general blogging and update

Just an update on my ideas regarding the main task for this year's media project.I am still in the process of sorting out the people i am using for my pictures and arranging a day to take the picture, after this i will upload them to the blog. So i will hopefully start snapping away with the camera soon.
Another aspect of the task is the front cover. I want my cover to be in some ways similiar to the covers i found on the internet, as I found these covers the most attracting out of the ones that came up. Well thats it for now. Goodbye :)

Evaluation of preliminary task

A bit late but here is my eveluation for my preliminary exericise. For this we had to answer seven question regarding the final cover for our college magazine.
Here is a brief evaluation

I think my preliminary project follows the basic format of how a college magazine cover would look realistically, as the picture’s aim is to reflect the purpose of the magazine. The picture used for the front cover establishes a group of typical teenagers looking studious, with the picture being the cover and background for the magazine. I think the picture used for the cover would be a picture represented for a college magazine cover.

I attracted and addressed my audience by using the picture I thought best reflected the college atmosphere and environment, and also the one that stood out and had more appeal. The picture used features the students (Rachael and Vicky) portraying happy and hard working the students, giving the impression that they are happy to be at college, creating the general idea that the college is a happy and hard working atmosphere.

My target audience for the magazine would be students and staff of the college, and also parents and school pupils, who may consider the option of going to college. The price for the magazine was low and to some extent probably as accurate as a price for a college magazine would be in real life.

During my first draft of the cover, I noticed some aspects that I could alter in order for the magazine to look more professional and stand out. For instance, due to the background of the picture, it made the top sub-heading difficult to read, therefore by changing the style and making the text bolder and bigger, it made it easier to read. Also there was a lot of space below the title, so by moving the price number from the top right corner to underneath the issue number, I changed the size of the title, before stretching it to fill the remaining space left.

I think from this task I have gained some knowledge and grasp on how to use Desktop Publisher, which will be the basic guideline when I come to do my music magazine.

Research on Music Magazines

Here are some magazine covers and how i would like mine to look. In the pictures the picture also serves as the covers background, which like my college magazine, is how i am going to do the front cover for my music magazine. Also the writing on the front cover is either at the side of picture, avoiding going across the image, whereas on the other front covers the writing is below the image, giving it some style and class.

Plans for Music Magazine (Main Task)

Now i have started to get down some ideas of how i want my music magazine to look and also what it would feature inside. these include:
Medium Close up.
Contents Page.
Interviews.
Images (must be Own pictures).
Double page spread.
Background layout- Colours (Vibrants, colours that stand out)
Texture.
Title of the magazine.
Number issue.
Front cover of the magazine.
Issue Number.
Price.

Update!! and final cover!!!

By now i will have hopefully finished my preliminary exercise and have produced my front cover by friday, with an evaluation as well.
Finally after making alterations to the first draft of the magazine, this is how my college magazine will look. I decided to make the writing inside the top sub-heading bigger and bolder and used a different style of font so it would be easier to read. I also stretched the title ot fill up the remaining space and moved the price beneath the issue number so there could be more space for the title to be stretched.
Here it is!!

2nd Version of College Magazine!!

This is a 2nd version of the cover for my magazine, with alterations.
I decided to move the title of my magazine to the right side of the magazine and enlarged it so it filled out the space below.I also moved the price of the magazine from the right top corner to underdeath the issue number, to allow me to fill out the rest of the space. The top sub-heading is also bigger and in a different style to the rest of the sub headings, as the background made it difficult to read it, whereas the other two were easy to read.

Cover

The Cover i have decided to go with is the first draft i chose.
The problem i have is with the first sub-heading, which is difficult to read.
I will make these alterations very soon.
I also chose to stick with the first cover as i felt that it would attract students and parents to read it and also more presentable.

Draft 2

This is my second draft of the magazine, i will then decide on which one i like most, and make alterations if need be.

First Draft

This is my first draft of my magazine cover, i will do another two and then decide on which one i like the best.

Decided

This is the picture i have decided to use for the cover of the college magazine.
The reason why i chose this, was mainly due to the fact that there is enough space for the sub headings, and due to the students placed in the pciture, the text wouldn't be placed over them. I thought this picture was the mose suited out of the pictures i took, as it gives the college a friendly atmosphere, and also hard working as well.

Photos!!!!

These are the following photos i thought would be suited to my magazine. I will then decide on the picture i think is more suited to fit as a college magazine cover.

Very late Blog Update!!

I am now about to download the photos i took last half term, then i will decide on which one i will use for the college magazine