Production Diary Week 4

In this weeks lesson, I edited my target audience profile and added images which represent the audience of which my magazine is targeted at. I created this on Prezi as it is an interactive and fun way of portraying my work in a different way on my blog. I also made a summary to my survey results and explained what I am going to do with my magazine which is helped by the results that I have gained from the survey. I created this on PowerPoint and I uploaded it onto SlideShare to upload to my blog. I provided pictures of the results to prove evidence of my results and then briefly concluded the results.
I also created my preliminary film video on CamStudio which illustrated my magazine step-by-step of what I had added to the magazine. I used InDesign to portray my magazine in the video, and briefly highlighted what I had made. I found this task quite fun as it was quick and easy to complete, and I gained new skills whilst doing it so it's a win-win situation!

Survey results

Using a questionnaire to collect my data had many advantages. Large numbers of people could be contacted quickly and easily, meaning that a lot of useful information could be collected efficiently. It is relatively easy to make and doesn't take too long - once finished, the respondent does most of the work! Another advantage is that it's easy to standardise, as everyone answers the same question. Questionnaires also can be used to explore sensitive material, as they can be anonymous and completed in private. This was helpful because not only did it enable me to gain more information to put into my magazine, but it also told me a lot about the target audience and what they want to see.

3 Double Page Spread Analysis

3 Double Page Spread Analysis

Analysing the 3 different double page spreads helped me in various different ways, including how I could develop these ideas and put them into my magazine. It also taught me to pay attention to every little detail, from the house style, language and the models featured right to the props in the images and the pull quotes to grab maximum attention from the reader. In the future, I will refer back to this post to get some more ideas and improve them to make my magazine to the best of my ability.

Target Audience

Proposal feedback

I found getting feedback on my proposal really useful as it allowed me to understand how my target audience would view my magazine and the ideas resolving it, and also taught me about what they'd like to see inside and how I could improve my magazine. By making small changes like this to my magazine, I will be creating a higher quality product which will resemble a real magazine and will be more appealing towards the target audience.

Production Diary Week 3

In today's lesson, I created my proposal. My proposal contains all of the ideas that I have come up with for the production of my magazine. Some of the ideas that I came up with were:

• Genre
• Frequency
• Target audience
• Content
• Mood
• Unique selling point

These factors are significant for my magazine as they are in the general conventions of a magazine and are what will make my magazine stand out amongst the crowd and sit upon the pedestal of music magazines. It is also important that I created this before creating my actual magazine because I can develop these ideas further and make the magazine to the best of my ability.

I now need to gain feedback from my peers to see what I have done well and to also see what I could improve on. This is vital for the project because I can pick up extra marks and generally make the magazine more appealing towards the target audience.

Proposal

I found that creating my proposal was a vital feature towards making my magazine. The reason for this is because this is where my initial ideas were first created, and without the proposal the magazine would crumble. It is mandatory to gather as many ideas as you can and go into great depth with the ideas so that you can make the magazine to the best of your ability, and this is one of my aims. I intend on using my proposal a lot therefore it is very necessary as it is where all of my ideas are and where I plan on adding any if I gather any more ideas soon.

3 Contents Pages Annotated - Music Magazines

3 Contents Pages Annotated

Annotating the contents pages for successful magazines was a very important step and I feel this because it helped me to develop ideas about my own magazine that I wouldn't have necessarily come up with if I had not completed this task as the magazines I used have inspired me in to be more creative within my piece of work. It helped me with what images to use as well as learning what to do and what not to do for each genre (for example, I wouldn't use a bright pink colour scheme on the contents page for an indie magazine). This task has helped me learn what is right and wrong and how to follow the house style of the magazine within the contents page and how to make it look necessary therefore it has been of great use to me.

Music magazine survey

Click here to participate in my music magazine survey!


This is the link to my survey that I have created for my target audience to gain results about what they would like to feature in my music magazine. I have included questions such as what genre the participants think is most successful, what they think the main feature of a front page should be and what type of magazine name to use. I used a variety of multiple choice answers as well as standard questions where the participant selects one answer; this way I gained more information about what my magazine should include. I have 22 participants and aim to come to a conclusion with these results which will impact and improve my magazine. By sending out a survey to my target audience, I'm hoping to gain useful data that will give me the information I need to produce a successful magazine.

Production Diary Week 2

Part 1: Part 2:

Alternatively, you can read below:
This week, I finished creating the preliminary material for my school magazine. I followed my plan and created it exactly how I had imagined. I like the front page and the contents page however I have found many things that I could improve on for next time (see Evaluation post). Using this preliminary material, I feel, will help me in the future with creating an improved magazine so I felt that creating this magazine was mandatory for my learning to develop.

After I had created my preliminary material and evaluation, I then moved on to the next task of creating a survey. I plan to gather information about what people would like to see on my magazine. I have created a few questions about what they would like it to look like as well as the content that will be inside the magazine, as well as magazines in general. I have also developed ideas about what I want my front cover to look like, for example I have chosen my model and come up with a few destinations to hold a photoshoot. Outside of class, I finished my survey and gave it to people to fill in so that I could gain knowledge on what to include in my magazine and get general information about what people like a magazine to include. I posted this survey on many different social media platforms so I could get varied opinions.

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

Cover
Front cover
For my front cover, I close to use the same house style that our school uses; yellow and navy blue. Both colours contrast to eachother and are both secondary colours, and stand out amongst eachother hence attracting the audience. The font I used is quite a fun, quirky and unprofessional font; reflecting on the youth of the audience as it's not a serious magazine and it is more made for entertainment purposes. Both fonts for the masthead are quite fun and the colours follow the house style of the whole magazine.

Full bleed
For the full bleed image, I selected a photo of a young girl smiling and giving the audience eye contact (direct mode of address) to again, attract the audience in. It is a close up shot which reflects her youth, also foreshadowing the youth of the magazine as it is mainly targeted towards students.

Coverlines
I then created the coverlines, which fit smoothly around the young girl, to make her stand out more. The main coverline is about her therefore it is the boldest headline, which again, follows the colour scheme of the magazine. I also used a pull-quote from this article to give the audience a glimpse of what the article includes. For the prom article, I used a circle shape as it attracts more attention and the yellow signifies it's imporance; it is a happy colour therefore I put it at the top of the magazine as it will be one of the main things that the students will be interested in seeing. For the smaller articles, I included photos with borders that follow the colour scheme to make them stand out amongst the more significant articles, however I didn't want to overpower the main articles so I kept it small. The text I used for the coverlines is plain so that the masthead and other features stand out more.

Strapline
For the strapline, I used the navy blue colour as it is darker and will make the yellow font more bold. I included the Haydon Magazine social interaction websites (Twitter and the official website) so that the audience can feel as though they have a more personal connection to the magazine.

Contents page
For the contents page, I again followed the colour scheme that the front cover uses. I featured a welcome message as well as a Headmasters note so that the audience constantly feel in loop. I used a big navy box for the page information to fit inside with yellow text on top; I used this because the contrasting colours really stand out amongst the bland, white background and attract full attention from the readers. The font is quite plain compared to the title of the page, and I did this so that the other features would stand out more. I also included a photo of a happy student to reinfornce the mood of the audience as well as a photo of the school to make the contents page look more interesting. For the background which goes around the box, I used the Haydon stag logo in various sizes and angles to make the page look fun and not too boring.

To improve
To improve my magazine, I could have done many things differently, such as:

• Including social networking and logos for the social networks used.
• Using images that are not blurry.
• Using images that are taken with a more professional camera, not a smartphone.
• Using a more professional font for the masthead.
• Using a more professional colour scheme, or maybe not sticking to it too much.
• Not using more than 2 fonts.
• Using a strapline at the top of the front cover as well as at the bottom.
• Carefully wrapping the text around the images.
• Not making the text too big.
• Not overdoing the use of the stag so much, maybe using it once or twice and not several times all over the contents page.
• Using columns.

To summarise, I think that I made my preliminary magazine quite well however by changing small things I could have made it better, however this is how I will improve when I create more magazines in the future.

Completed Preliminary Magazine

Music Magazine Annotations

Music Magazine Annotations

Analysing 3 music magazine front covers helped me to a great extent as it helped me to develop many ideas about what my magazine will look like as different genres follow many different house styles and conventions, and this task taught me the difference between them. I also gained ideas about what kind of pose to use for the model, as well as props, make-up, clothes and what shots to use for the full bleed image. This is very significant as it can make or break the magazine, as the image is generally one of the first things that a customer will see. This task was very helpful as if I hadn't have completed it, I wouldn't have a lot of inspiration or creativity to base my magazine upon therefore I feel that this was a very significant and vital step to the task.

Production Diary Week 1

This week, I began to create all of the relevant information and work for my preliminary task. For the preliminary task, we must create a magazine for our school (Haydon School). I started by making a PowerPoint presentation which contained all of my ideas including masthead ideas, colour schemes and the main headlines. After I had created my PowerPoint presentation I went on and sketched out what I wanted my front page and contents page to look like. I plan to feature a headline on the Prom Queen of Haydon so I made the full bleed background image a photo of the Prom Queen to portray her significance to the magazine. I also included photos of the new school canteen and happy students after they had received their GCSE results because these too are both very important headlines in the school at the moment and it needs to be a relevant, up to date and fun magazine, and I think that it ticks all of the boxes! I also included the Haydon Stag on the contents page in my sketch as well as the masthead simply being "HaydonMag" so that it grabs attention and the audience immediately know what the magazine is about. I also plan to use social networking as the Internet is taking the world by storm and it means that we can communicate with the audience in a more private way which helps the students not only gain more of an interest in the magazine but it attracts more readers too. I have began to also create the front page on InDesign on the computer, and in the upcoming days I plan to finish my cover and move on to the contents page to completely finish it. After this, my magazine will be complete and will hopefully contain all of the aspects I had originally planned!

Haydon School Magazine Preliminary Task Front Page and Contents Page

Haydon Magazine Preliminary Task Initial Ideas

Preliminary Task Haydon Magazine