Plan for October

In this month my main targets will be;

• To finish my proposal form and potential problems table. I was supposed to complete this task in September but due to the large amount of work that I had to complete. This is why I feel this is such an important task and I also intend to get it done very early in the month. Thankfully, I have already finished the proposal form and I am ready to upload it to the blog. I also intend to complete my potential problems table within the next couple of days.
• To show my usage of Photoshop through the blog. This will involve producing a practice magazine front cover on Photoshop. I will also fill out the Photoshop booklet and record my progress of it onto the blog. This will help me gain a better understanding of Photoshop and will also help me to improve my skills of the program.
• A compulsory task in October is to produce, complete and upload a preliminary magazine front cover and contents page about the college. This task will be made in a group so that will mean that it will be completed quickly. This task will also improve my Photoshop skills and will also give me a better understanding of magazine production.
• To have my Recce uploaded. This is another very important task as it helps me to consider many different aspects regarding my photo shoot.
• To have my costume research uploaded. This helps me to gain a good understanding of how I want my models to dress for the photo
• To have my sub-genre research uploaded. This will give me a greater understanding of the genre and sub-genres of my magazine and will help me decide what the mis-en-scene of the magazine will be.
• To upload a mood board of different magazines. Helps me to get a feel of what to include in my magazine based on the other ones.
• To complete my photo shoot planning document so that I can have a set-out plan of how I want my photo shoot to be.

Time Managment - September

By the end of September I had set myself many various tasks to complete. These are the tasks that I have completed;

• Magazine deconstructions
• Target audience research
• Induction Homework
• Location Research

Unfortunately, I haven't yet completed the proposal form and potential problems table. This is because the other tasks that I have completed have been very time consuming. I have also had other work to do in other subjects therefore I have not found the time to complete the tasks. However I have began to produce my proposal form and I hope to have it completed and uploaded to my blog within the first few days of October.
On a whole, I feel my time management this month has been generally very good. I have completed four out of the five major tasks that I had planned to complete by the end of the month and feel I produced the work to a very high quality. Hopefully, if I continue to work at the pace I will be able to finish my research and planning work in time for the deadline.

Induction Homework - Music Article

This is a presentation I created on Prezi which shows a music article that I produced for my induction homework. It features and interview with  band members of Sunderland-born rock act Pride of the Revolution. This task helped me a lot as it took place within the very early stages of the AS media course. It gave me a good introduction into the course and the feedback helped me to gain a solid understanding of the use of conventions such as images, colour-schemes, mastheads etc. The actual writing of the article also helped as this was the basis for my real magazine article

Time Management - Week 4

• I have done some location research to help me decide where would be the best place to take my photos and whether it will be suitable for what I want to achieve or not.
• I have created another mood board on Pinterest looking specifically at magazine ideas.
• I have done research on the various facial expressions seen in magazines and created a presentation on it. This will help me see which facial expressions will be suitable to use within my magazine.
• I then went on to do my target audience surveys. I gained information such as the price my target audience would be willing to pay.
• Using this data, I then created my reader profile and then after that created a post showing how I gained my target audience research.
• I have created a presentation on the different magazine institutions which are prominent within the industry. I then stated which institution I believe would produce my magazine and gave a justification explaining this.

Institution Research

This is a presentation that I created on Prezi. It includes lots of information about media institutions I.E. their backgrounds, statistics, milestones, ect:

What I Learned From my Reader Profile

The reader profile helped me to understand the needs and requirements of my target audience quite clearly.

• I have learned that the majority of my readers would be around the age of 16 to 20. They would also usually be full time students, and males would prefer to read the magazine. This information however was taken inside of the campus which means that all of the people who took part had the qualities mentioned above. Although my magazine is aimed at a multi-generational audience, I will consider these results and perhaps add certain features to the magazine, such as colours and images, which would be more suited to younger readers seen as a strong portion of my audience would be 16-20.
• Most of the participants said that they would pay £0-£2.50 on music magazines. This may be due to the fact that they are students and perhaps don't have jobs meaning they won't have the funds to pay more than this amount. However, my magazine will be a monthly magazine and monthly magazines such as Kerrang, Mojo and others usually are priced at around £3-£4. This is a standard price for monthly magazines and decreasing the price to any lower than that could mean that the magazine would struggle financially. Moreover, I understand that my target audience may struggle to pay for the magazine therefore I will make the magazine priced at the lowest possible amount needed for a monthly magazine.
• Many of the participant's favourite artists were from the indie/alternative genre. This is helpful to me as it has shown my which types of artists to include within the features of my magazine. Participants also mentioned which magazines they read. Again, most of the magazines mentioned, such as NME and Kerrand, were from a similar genre to mine. This helped me as I now know to make my magazine similar to these other magazines mentioned. I will do this by using similar conventions and making the content similar.

Reader Profile

The following reader profile will show a summary of the results that I gained from my target audience survey.

                                                                                                                    

How I Gained my Target Audience Research

In order to carry out the research, I created this following questionnaire. I offered a copy of this questionnaire to everyone in my media class. Everyone completed it and handed it back to me. Once the results were in, I was able to produce my reader profile.

Facial Expression Research

Facial Expression Research from joe_hair

This is a presentation that I have prepared and uploaded to Slideshare. It involves the research I have gathered on different types of facial expressions, such as Millum and Ferguson. This research has helped me a lot as it has made me understand the connotations of certain facial expressions and I will therefore use these facial expressions in a way that will most suit the target audience and mise-en-scene of the magazine.

Masthead Ideas

• I considered many different names for my magazine. For my induction homework article, I called the magazine MDR. I was trying to replicate the initials based masthead which NME use. The initials would stand for 'modern day rock'. However, I soon went off the name as I thought it seemed slightly clichéd and it also did not flow very well. I scrapped this name and tried to think of others.
• I then thought of the name 'Sunderland's rock monthly'. I soon decided that this idea was not good as this name means the magazine would focus only on one particular region, when I wanted it to be a national or global magazine.
• When designing my practice Photoshop front cover, I came up with the name 'Mayfair'. I thought this name seemed to flow very well, it hadn't been used before and seemed like a short catchy name for a music magazine. For these reasons, I decided to stick with the name 'Mayfair'.

Mood Board - Magazines

Follow Joe's board Mood Board - Front Covers, Content Pages, Double Page Spreads on Pinterest. This is a mood board that I have made on Pinterest showing lots of images of magazine features such as contents pages, front covers, double page spreads. These are all inspirations for my magazine and I will look at these images as a basis when I am creating my own magazine.

My magazine will feature much colloquialism as it is aimed at a younger target audience and will be slightly more informal than the front covers, double page spreads and contents pages shown above. There would also be more variety of fonts than there is in the magazines shown. The variety of fonts will suit the younger target audience as it gives the magazine a more informal feel and also, having the same font throughout the whole magazine could perhaps make readers bored.
Similarly to the magazines in the mood board, the magazine will be about £2.50. This is because my target audience will be young which means they may not be able to afford paying £4-5 for each issue. This means that more magazines will sell. It would also come out monthly as the target audience may not be able to afford buying a magazine every week.
There will be plenty of colours and pictures used. This is because this will make the magazine more informal which will appeal to the target audience. Similar to what the magazines in the mood board do, I will use the colour scheme of black, white and one other bright vibrant colour as this makes the magazine seem professional yet informal at the same time.

Location Research

I have contemplated using various different locations for the front cover photo-shoot of my magazine.  They are all distinctive locations spread across the north east.

However, I have decided to use a studio as I want the front cover to just be plain with one colour as the background. I have not decided yet but I think that the background will be either dark green or dark blue as those colours have connotations with the music genre that my magazine covers. Another reason I am only using one colour is because my main magazine inspiration NME rarely uses actual pictures for the background of it's front covers, it tends to just use colours. Also, I feel that using a picture in the background would look unprofessional and tatty. It may make the writing harder to read if colours clash and it may also draw the reader's attention away from the main picture on the front cover which would be of the band.  I wouldn't want this as I want their attention to be focused on the main picture.

Here are some pictures of the location ideas I had and an explanation of how the picture would have been framed; 

Marsden Grotto:            

  

I was going to use this location because it is an iconic location in the north east. I also think that the size and powerfulness of the grotto would give the picture an atmospheric feel. For the picture, the two band members would be standing about 50 yards from the grotto. They would be positioned so that one half of the picture would be dominated by the rock and on the other half of the picture, the band members would be standing together. It would be positioned this way so that both the band and the grotto can be seen very clearly by readers. I am not using this location for my photo-shoot for the reasons that I stated in the earlier paragraph and also because it may be hard to perform the photo-shoot as it would be on a beach. 

Penshaw Monument:  

I was going to use this location because it also is an iconic location in the north east (particularly for Sunderland). Similar to the last location the band would have been standing about 50 yards away from the monument but this location is on top of a hill therefore the band would stand on the steps in the middle of the hill. It would pretty much be identical to the picture of the monument I have used above, however the band members would be standing on the steps. This would mean that they would look as though they were underneath the monument and this would show it's dominance and power. Also the readers would be able to clearly see the monument and the band members in the same shot. Moreover, I still will not be using it for my photo-shoot for the reasons I have already stated. The fact that the photo would be taken on a hill may also make the photo-shoot hard to perform as it may be very windy and this may affect the appearance of the band members.

Wearmouth Bridge:

I was going to use this location because it is a very atmospheric location and it also is iconic to Sunderland. This would be useful for my magazine as the band who would be on the front cover are from Sunderland. The band would be standing in the car park that can be seen on the image. The image will be framed so that the bridge can be in the background with the band as the main feature of the image. I would have also taken the photo when it was dark so that the bridge would be lit up. This creates even more of an atmosphere and the darkness would also signify that the music genre covered during the magazine is dark. I have decided not to use this location as it may be hard to access as you need to pay to access the car park that I want to use. Also lots of people go fishing in this location therefore they might interfere with the image. Similar to the last location, the weather may also be an inconvenience in this location. It may be very windy, therefore affecting the band's appearance. 

Time Management - Week 3

• Due to the imminent creation of my product's reader profile, I have looked at various other magazine's reader profiles to gain a better understanding of how to make my own. 
• After this I have began to work on my deconstructions, I completed my three magazine deconstructions across the week.

Magazine Deconstruction 3

Mag deconstruction 3 from joe_hair

This is a presentation I have uploaded to Slideshare featuring scans of my deconstruction of certain magazines. In this presentation you will see a written deconstruction of an issue of Mojo from May 2011.

Magazine Deconstruction 2

Mag deconstruction 2 from joe_hair

This is a presentation I have uploaded to Slideshare featuring scans of my deconstruction of certain magazines. In this presentation you will see a written deconstruction of an issue of Mojo from May 2011.

Magazine Deconstruction 1

Mag deconstruction 1 from joe_hair

This is a presentation that I have uploaded to Slideshare featuring scans of my deconstruction of certain magazines. In the presentation you will see a written deconstruction of an issue of NME from September 2012.

Other Magazines - Reader Profiles

NME:

The target audience of NME is mainly young people of many different ages. Usually between the ages of approximately 15-30. These young people tend to prefer the genre of rock. NME covers pretty much all of the rock genres from indie rock to heavy metal, therefore the magazine will appeal more to this target audience.
This is similar to the target audience that I want my magazine to be aimed at. However, my magazine will mainly focus on the indie and alternative music genre therefore my target audience won't be as flexible as NME'S is. In my survey I will include the question, "Which music magazine would you prefer to read?". In order to find my target audience, I will hope that most of the participant's answers will be "NME" as my magazine will have a very target audience as NME.

This is the reader profile for NME that I found on the internet. The statistics show that NME is very popular with those who spend lots of money on shoes, clothes, audio equipment, ect. This is the sort of stuff that I would expect my target audience to spend their money on. Also the average age of readers is 24, which again is similar to what I thought the average age of my target audience would be. Many of the statistics shown are similar to how I predict the results from my survey will be.


Kerrang!

Similar to NME, the target for Kerrang tends to be the younger generation. As shown in the official reader profile below, the median age for readers is 19. This again is similar to the target audience I am hoping that my magazine will appeal to. However, Kerrang focuses on the Heavy Metal/Hard Rock genre. My magazine won't be covering this style of music, therefore my target audience may be different to Kerrang's in terms of the genre. I also think that during my survey, a lot of participants will write Kerrang as their favorite music magazine. This also will be useful as it will help me determine which generation my target audience are a part of.

The reader profile above shows that Kerrang is a very generalizable to our population magazine as 60% of readers are male and 40% are female. It also mentions that, on average, the readers buy approximately 31 music albums per year. Similarly to NME, I predict that the results generated from my target audience survey will produce similar results to these.

Time Management - Week 2

In week 2 I have continued to gain a good idea of the program Blogger and other various pieces of software. During this week I have;

• Created a post explaining my initial inspirations and giving justification as to why I chose them as an inspiration.
• Using Pinterest, I created a mood board including lots of various image and mise en scene ideas which I will consider when creating my magazine.
• I have also created a post detailing my initial ideas of my target audience, looking at their various traits. This will help me identify what my target audience will want to see within the magazine.
• I then later created an audience profile to help me gain an even better understanding of the demographic and how I can make the magazine cater to their needs.
• I have created a plan detailing what I hope to complete and achieve in this blog within the month of September.  

Audience Profile

Here is a profile of a fictional target audience member that I have illustrated and described.

Plan for September

These are the targets that I have set myself to complete by the end of September;

• One of the targets that I have set myself for September is to complete and upload my magazine deconstructions. This is a major priority as this task will help gain a better understanding of the conventions of music magazines and therefore help me decide which conventions to use in my music magazine.
• Another target is to complete my target audience research. I will do this by producing a questionnaire and will then ask various participants to complete it. This task will help me as it swill show me different elements of music magazines that my target audience like. Once I have gained the data/information, I will create a reader profile on either Microsoft Publisher or Photoshop. This will be based on reader profiles that other rock music magazines such as NME and Kerrang have created. I will also upload a scan of my questionnaire to the blog to show how I actually gained my research. To go with this, I will also upload examples of past reader profiles made by other magazines to show similarities between the target audience and also to show how I got where I got the influence to make my magazine from.
• I would also like to have uploaded a scan of my induction homework. This homework was to produce a double page spread article for a music magazine. I would like to have it uploaded as the feedback that I received for it was generally very good. I am also considering using it as a bit of an influence when I produce my real magazine.
• I hope to have my location scout uploaded onto the blog by the end of September. This is also an important task as it gives me an early idea of where to perform my photo shoot and which factors may hamper the process.
• I want my Proposal Form and Potential Problems table to be uploaded onto the blog. These are very important tasks as they are very near the beginning on the research and planning checklist. It also helps my to gage certain aspects of my idea and the potential problems table helps me to identify potential problems within my production of the magazine and how to prevent them.
• Lastly, I want to upload my institution research. This will help me gain a good understanding of how magazines are produced and it will also make me consider which institution I would like to produce my magazine.

Target Audience Traits

I created a few illustrations to show what the typical preferences and traits that members of my target audience would have.

Mood Board

This is a mood board that I have created on Pinterest. The images shown on the board are mostly associated with modern day rock music. These include; pictures of various different rock artists and pictures of their live performances. I have also included other various images associated with the target audience, such as; hairstyles, a magazine front cover and also clothing brands that my target audience would probably wear. Follow Joe's board Mood Board on Pinterest.

http://www.pinterest.com/joehair9/mood-board/

Inspiration - Explained

MixMag - The style of music that is covered in MixMag is different to the style that my magazine will be based on, however I really like the design of this magazine because it uses vibrant colours on its front cover.  It also remains consistent with colour schemes throughout the magazine, however this colour scheme does change for every different issue. For example; the issue which shows Calvin Harris on the front cover uses a colour scheme of Pink, White and Black throughout, where-as the issue which shows David Guetta uses the colours Black, Yellow and Brown. This ensures that the magazine has a colourful, flamboyant feel but also remains consistent and professional throughout.

I also like the images used on the covers. The artists shown are made to look vey slick and appealing. This is shown on one of the images where the gentleman on the front cover is wearing a posh suit and holding a hot beverage in a mug with a saucer. This makes the artist look very professional and respectable, yet very slick and outlandish at the same time. This is how I would like to portray the artists on the front covers of my magazine.

NME - Similar to MixMag, I very much like the way that NME use a different colour scheme for different issues. This again gives the magazine a vibrant feel. I would like to recreate this technique when I design my magazines. There will be a different colour scheme each week depending on who will feature on the front cover. On NME, the artists shown on the front cover tend to look quite serious and are usually in in-direct mode of address to show that they have an attitude. This suggests that the style of music that NME covers a lot more serious as the artists used on the front covers of MixMag tend to look quite happy and vibrant, showing that the music style of the two magazines does differ. The content of my magazine will be more similar to NME as the music my magazine will cover will be the same genre. I will also try to recreate the stances and facial expressions that the artists on NME have as I feel it shows a stronger representation of the music genre that will be covered. I also like how on NME, the font style tends to remain consistent throughout the front page. I think this gives the magazine a more formal feel and this will appeal more to my target audience. The size of the font does tend to differ a lot on the front cover for things such as the title and the sub-headings, however this is a fairly standard asset of modern day front covers. I feel that NME front covers really manage to find the balance between being quite colourful, vibrant, flamboyant and being formal and professional. Out of the three magazines I am inspired by, this is the one I would most like to base my magazine on.

Mojo - I like the front cover of Mojo magazines because they are very formal. Out of the three types of magazines I am inspired by, I think this is the most professional. Although the music genre covered in Mojo is similar to the one covered in NME, I think the target audiences are different. This is because the artists who feature in Mojo tend to be older therefore the target audience will be older.
Similarly to NME, I admire the way the artists are portrayed on the images. It represents the music style and makes the magazine seem very formal. The three issues of Mojo in my inspiration page show the artists being in direct mode of address which could perhaps suggest that these artists had less of an attitude and took their music slightly more seriously than the artists on NME do which again would appeal more to the older target audience. Some may argue that NME is a young man's Mojo. The colour scheme for Mojo doesn't tend to change much. The colours used are usually Black and White with another additional colour. The issue in my inspiration page that has The Smiths on the front is one of the few mojo issues that doesn't have a Black or White background.  The fact that the colour scheme rarely changes again would appeal to the older generation as they may feel that changing the colours for each issue would seem immature and untidy. 

Time Management - Week 1

During the first week of the course, most of our time has been spent getting introduced into the course and what our AS coursework will entail.

• I have set up my blog and began to create posts on it.
• I have created a welcome post, as well as posts including my aims and my briefing.
• I have also created a post on my initial inspirations and I will create a further post explaining these inspirations at a later date.

Inspiration

Briefs

 When centres choose briefs to offer to candidates, they should be guided by their strengths in terms of resources and expertise. Centres should also bear in mind the key areas: forms and conventions, production contexts, the role of technologies, audiences/users and representations. 
The set briefs are as follows: 
Print 
Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program. 
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 FOURimages per candidate. ~

Aims

0. Aims 
   The aims of these specifications are to: 
   • enhance candidates enjoyment and appreciation of the media and its role in their daily lives; 
   • develop critical understanding of the media through engagement with media products and concepts and through the creative application of practical skills;
   • explore production processes, technologies and contexts; 
   • become independent in research skills and their application. 

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I will be regularly posting updates of my AS Media coursework. Feel free to browse through my progression throughout the course. Enjoy!