Here is my risk assessment for the images I took in Hyde Park.

Double Page Spread

Here is the double page spread I made. The image of the band looks like they are just starting out, getting used to their surroundings, which fits in with where they are in the music industry.
The two boxes of text at either side of the page contain the track by track album review, which is the cover feature of this magazine.
The masthead fits in with the rest of the magazine, as does the background and font, with the repeated fonts and colours of red, white and black consistently used.
The image is placed like this as it is designed to look quite rough. This is intentional to go with the style of the band, a strong look, yet reflective of the fact the band are new and inexperienced.

Research and planning: Shot list

Here is my shot list for my music magazine. I intend to take these pictures of some of my models.

Research and Planning: Contents Page Draft

Here I have designed a draft for my contents page of my music magazine.
It sticks to the colour conventions of black, red and white. This is because of my house style, designed to fit in with the rock music scene.
The contents title at the top is conventional of almost any magazine.
The pentagons with images inside are a feature designed to make these articles stand out. It is an idea taken from Kerrang magazine as that is a magazine which has lots of extra images and text on its contents page.
The article lists at the bottom are designed like this to make it look like typical magazine contents page, though the extra space that's taken up creates the effect that the magazine has something different to offer, relating to the new bands that are within it.

Research and Planning: Costume Ideas

• I will need dark coloured tops for the models to wear when I take their pictures.
• They will need to strike strong, almost expressionless poses, to suit the genre. 
• Alternatively, two colours, one bold and one brighter to contrast with it could be made to work.

Research and Planning: Location recce

Here is my location recce for Hyde Park where I will take pictures.

Research and Planning-Double Page Spread Draft

Here is my draft design for my music magazine. I have included the three colours chosen to keep with my house style, as the research of magazines such as NME and Kerrang show that most magazines have black, white and another colour. As these are of the same genre as my magazine, this is important.

I have a large two-shot in the middle of the page. These are to make the band members the centrepiece, as they are the main focus of the double page spread. The reason it is a two shot is to give both members equal focus as they are a new band and I have designed the magazine to get readers to learn all about them.

The banner at the top titles the page, to catch interest as it stands out a lot. The page is designed in this way because when people are flicking through the magazine they will see the title at the top and it will hopefully be able to catch their interest, making them stop on the double page spread and read the article.

The text on inside a box highlights it, making it far easier to read while creating the effect that it stands out. This makes it both easier to read and also causes it to look more interesting, again enticing readers.

Research and Planning: Plan for the rest of the week

This week I plan to:

• Complete a shot list
• Upload pictures since I had difficulty doing this last week.
• Continue to draft designs for contents page and double page spread

Research and Planning: Location for images

I found the location of where I will take the pictures online using google maps and uploaded it here, it is Hyde Park.

Research and planning: Draft of music magazine

• I have designed myself a draft of what I expect my magazine front cover to look like. I will have a model in the centre, with a medium close up, attracting the focus of the reader or potential reader of the magazine. 
• The masthead at the top will have the magazine name (Pure Sound) in it in a white font. 
• The banner at the bottom shall be red, with white font written over it. Here will be a list of the included artists in the week's edition of the magazine.
• There will be a series of images on the right hand side of the page, on top of these will be text stating why it's there and how it's linked to the feature inside: a simple sentence in each case.
• Towards the top left corner of the page there will be a red shape with white text which states the price and date of the magazine.

Research and Planning- Plan for rest of the week.

This week I am going to:

• Draft My music magazine
• Add a shot list to my blog
• Upload the pictures of my models I have taken
• Upload recces of the locations
• I will research a double page spread of a magazine article from a rock magazine.

Research and planning: Publication Plan

Publication Plan on Prezi

Research and planning: Double page spread analysis

Research and Planning- Plan for the rest of the week

This week I plan to take images taken of my two models from one of the locations I have chosen.
Also, I plan to continue researching features of rock music, particularly logos and images. I will do this in order to help my product look similar to these, helping it to fit in with stereotypical conventions of rock music.

Research and Planning: Border research

I have experimented with borders on the title of my music magazine in order to see which of the styles and colours would best suit the final product. I think the black border around a white font looks quite effective as well as fitting in with a stereotype of colours used within rock music.

Research and Planning: Kerrang magazine contents page

• Large image taking pride of place at the top in the centre is of a feature not included on the front cover, it is a way of attracting more attention to the reader and making them focus on a wider variety of features.
• Smaller features are placed next to this large image for an identical purpose, to broaden the reader's mind and cause them to focus on even more of the magazine's content.
• The black and yellow fonts which are titles of different categories reflect the continuous house-style of the magazine, as is also seen in the logo. The font is almost identical too, with the only different being the text size, which makes it fit the page and look of reasonable proportion.
• The editor's feature in the bottom left corner is very personal, it makes the reader feel like they have been specifically addressed.
• Every feature has a title in bold, with a small description below it. These are informative of what is included, and where to find it, a generic feature of a magazine.
• The red colours stand out from the rest of the page, causing them to attract attention. They are effective as they make these features seem more important, which means they will be viewed.
• The split in the middle of the page seems to make the information seem like less than there is, this effectively makes the reader find the information easier to digest all at once.

Research and Planning: More Masthead Research

I continued experimenting with fonts using Photoshop and looked at colours. I like the effect of a solid colour on a background of a completely contrasting colour to it. I also like the powerful looking red, white, dark blue and green colours. I like these because they are similar to the harsh, crisp look of other rock magazines, particularly those aimed at a similar target audience so i know it is already a successful style.

Research and planning: Masthead Research

I have selected a number of fonts in on Photoshop to take a look at which I think best suits the title. At the moment I think that the two at the top and the fourth down are impressive. My music magazine will have a similar style to Kerrang and I think that the striking, bold, rough looking fonts would suit it best.

Research and Planning: Music Magazine Target Audience

Here is the target audience for the music magazine I am going to create:

• Age: 13-19 year olds. This is the same audience that already buy music magzines, specifically Kerrang magazine which is of very similar content to the music style included within my magazine, new sounding rock music.
• Gender: Both Genders. Rock music has a very balanced target audience of male and females. Though rock is not the most popular genre in the age group, this is the age group which listens to rock and purchases magazines more than most of the others.
  
• Occupation: The magazine will be targeted at students. This is because students have lots of free time and are already known to be a successful target audience within rock music magazines, they are the audience that buy magazines such as NME and Kerrang.
  
• Class: The target audience will be working class teenagers as they are the target audience for the music created by the artists who will be involved in the magazine so it would make more sense to aim at them since they would like to read more about the artists they listen to. My questionnaire shows that bands intended to be used within my magazine are already very popular with this class.
  
• Wealth: The target is not a particularly wealthy group. It is aimed at anyone with new modern ideas towards music, these people tend to be young, and not particularly wealthy.
  
• Interests: The target audience will have a strong interest in music. The majority of teenagers listen to music almost all the time my results of the questionnaire show.
  
• Outlook for the future: The outlook to the future isn't particularly important, the magazine is designed to be recreational for the audience. It is something for them in their spare time, and it relates to the music they have an interest and passion towards.
• My questionnaire results show that both male and female teenagers from my target audience are passionate about music and most would be happy to read about the artists suggested, showing the style is popular. I also discovered that they would be happy to pay around £2 for a new music magazine even though it is not of the most popular genre within the age group.
  

Research and planning: first podcast

• NME is a magazine featuring information about established Indie-Rock artists and new up and coming artists from this genre. It's masthead is always clear. This is to show exactly what it is. caption below the masthead "NME" is "New Musical Express" which is what the magazine's full title is, but at it has became popular being known as NME it doesn't need to advertise it's full title anymore.
• This magazine is aimed more towards males, and the red and grey colours show this, making it look a bit more rough than Kerrang! This also makes it more suited to the Indie scene of which it belongs to.
• As the magazine is a specialist magazine it doesn't have loads of features and relies on the target audience already having an interest in some of the artists it features to get them to read it. The main feature here is of a very popular band, The Enemy. The feature on them practically dominates the front page, showing the audience that if they aren't interested in that band, they probably wouldn't like the magazine, but if they are interested, then they would probably like the rest of the magazine's content.
• The bold, strong, contrasting colours of red, white and black are similar to other rock magazines to link with the sound it represents. It links with the strong, new, sharp style of music that is rock.
• This magazine cover only has very few images as it is more reliant on the content being wanted by it's target audience than trying to grab it's potential target with stories that stand out like Kerrang does. This is because NME is more specialist towards Indie-rock and Kerrang is more suited to a bold, new sounding style of rock music which is more of a similar audience to the one my magazine will be aimed at.
• Mediam shots are commonly used as the main image on the front covers of rock magazines and here is a medium-long shot. This is to show more of the band member and suits the magazine because it is more about the music and not the looks of the subjects in each image like often is the case with magazines of other genres.
• Other features that aren't as important are listed in a much smaller font at the bottom. These are to show that they are there if interest is in them, and they are not forgotten about, but there is much more content regarding the main features.
  

Research and Planning: Magazine Analysis 1: Kerrang Magazine

• The Kerrang Magazine is a rock magazine designed to focus on popular rock bands and also promotes impressive new bands. It uses the black colour throughout to show that it is related to the rock genre of music. Black is a colour commonly associated with rock music and for a rock music magazine, it makes a lot of sense to use it.
• Like with most magazines, there is a larger central picture, advertising the main story, and smaller stories with smaller pictures either at the bottom or at the side. This is done for a number of reasons. One of these is to show which is the main story and to grab people's attention by using an image of either something their target audience is familiar with, in this case the band YouMeAtSix, or surprising them with a new image, which would most likely be of a brand new band. New bands are usually smaller stories though, as the main articles are for established bands that already have their own popularity and will entice more people to read the magazine if it contains information about bands they like.
• The different colours all stand out with a bold font. Each piece of text looks very strong, reflective of the style of music. The text is of very contrasting colour to its background, again, making it stand out, like the style of music, which stands out from the other genres as it is quite bold itself.
• All the images are either of happy looking band members, or of them looking quite stylish. This grabs the audience, wanting to see more of the band members that they love to listen to. Seeing them either happy, or looking stylish, makes them look up to them, and read more about what's behind the happy or stylish bad members.
• Extra features of the magazine are much smaller, but they are in a different colour to the rest of the text in the magazine. The reason for this is to keep the reader focused on the main articles, which are bigger because they are more important, but also to grab the reader with even more reason to purchase the magazine.
• As it is an already established, and very popular magazine, the bottom masthead is covered by the tops of images. The reason this can be done is because it is an already widely recognized magazine and its target audience would recognize Kerrang! even if they aren't regular buyers of it because it is such a popular rock music magazine.
  
• All over the page there are little pieces of text, in a very clearly coloured, strong looking font, which advertise lots of things that the magazine contains. These are here to show how much can be read about and it also shows that there are so many articles and features, even if there are some not liked, there are bound to be some that are liked.
• The coloured borders around the other features makes them stand out on the page and entices the audience to take a look at what they are, even if they aren't impressed with the main article, as it's different on the page, so it may be different inside, and taking a look at what it is gives the audience the chance to see how similar or different the feature is.
• The magazine is aimed at teenagers and very young adults as these are the type of people who are both interested in the rock scene, and would buy magazines about it. The images are often of male band members because teenage girls tend to buy the magazine, and the male band members images are appealing to them.
  

Research and Planning: Music Magazine Questionnaire Results

I created a questionnaire and asked a few people questions to help me to create a music magazine of of my own. The results are displayed in the pie charts. I now know that I should make my magazine about £2 so that everyone can afford it. I will use bands like Paramore and Thirty Seconds to Mars as the main articles as they are popular, meaning that the magazine would sell more. This also tells me to have a style more similar to Kerrang! than to Q because it has a more similar target to Kerrang!. Also, I will seriously consider calling my magazine Pure sound as it proved to be a very popular name for a rock magazine in my questionnaire.

Research and Planning: Shot type analysis

I have drawn a series of images to show a variety of types of camera-shots. This has been done in order to help me understand conventions of camera angles and shots when analyzing TV drama at a later date. I drew an establishing, close up, medium close up, over the shoulder, two shot, aerial shot and point of view shots in order to show that I understand what each of these are and what they will look like.

Research and Planning: Preliminary Task evaluation

I have designed the front cover and contents page of a new college magazine. I have named it Hyde life because it is for Hyde Clarendon college and is aimed at students who are spending some of their life at the college.
I designed the front cover on photoshop. I used the already existing house style of the college using the logo and looking at the website, seeing that green, blue, pink and green were often displayed on a black background. I recreated this effect within both my cover and contents page. Using semiotics this shows that it is directly linked to Hyde Clarendon college.
The image I chose to use on my front cover is one of myself which I cut out and reduced the opacity of. I think this effect worked well as it is still central on the cover, though not demanding attention like the stories are with their brighter colours. I don't think that the image was a very good one as it is quite plain.
The main story has a strongly contrasting style to the other ones, being in a different coloured box and text, though still using the colours that are linked with the college. I think this was successfully done.
The masthead is bold and strong to grab attention, the blue banner with green text which has a small, yet noticable, drop shadow is good at getting attention.
All of the text on the front cover is in front of a box to make it easier to read, and for it to jump out. I think there may have been a few too many different colours on there though.

On my contents page I repeated the logo right at the top. With the page masthead below this. The first thing on the page is a welcome note. These are arranged in this order because they are in the order that I want them to be read, with the welcome first, then a logo, then the "contents" text. This works quite well but if it was listed int the centre one on top pof the other this would have worked better. I don't think that would have looked as effective though.
The text on the page is aligned in columns, with a pink text for the story and a blue description in a slightly smaller font with the page number of the story listed next to it. This is done so that the story grabs attention and then the description is there to be read to find out a little more. This effect works very well as it makes the text clear and distinct, as well as causing it to stand out.
The image at the bottom is used to show a student working. This is easy for the target audience to relate to because they will be doing a lot of work at college.

What I Like about the college Magazine:
I like the variety of colours used within the magazine as they reflect the colours of Hyde Clarendon college. they are the same as on the logo and the ones used on the colleges website.
The stories are displayed within different coloured shapes, allowing them to stand out and create an effect within people, making them want to read it.
The image of myself has lowered opacity and lowers focus on it, highlighting the stories that the college magazine has to offer.
The contrasting colours used in every piece of text make every word very bold and clear, which is helpful for a product which needs to be read.

Dislikes about the college magazine:
The magazine looks very basic. There is very little involved in the making of it, which makes it look plain and dull, so it will not stand out from its competitors.
There are a lot of colours. Most magazines stick to a basic few colours, usually no more than three, though this has more than that. It could be quite confusing and difficult to follow as the structure is a bit more complex.
There is very little information involved. This gives people very little to think about it, and less chance of persuading them to read on and find out more.

Improvements:
More features and effects could be added to the magazine, For example there could be more images that have effects added to them, like liquifying.
There could be less colours involved within the magazine, and an easier structure. For example it could have pink and white text boxes or blue and green, rather than having both.
More stories and information could be included within the magazine in order to gain more interest and cause people to read more, persuading them to get the magazine.

Feedback:
Good use of information is included.
Small font is used which is quite hard to read.
Few images are used, there could be a lot more.
Little colour is included on the front cover and contents page, more colours would make it look more attractive.

Research and Planning: Design for college Magazine

Here is my draft for a design of a college magazine.

Research and Planning: Research into imaginary mastheads

I have created a few mastheads which i think would suit the style of magazines with the titles they have.

Death Metal: I practiced using a bold font that contrasted significantly from the background and stood out a lot. It has blocked capitals to stand out. Using semiotics it can be figured out that these link it to rock music.

Popworld: I gave this a bright background and a colour that contrasted well to make it look quite uplifting. The font is also not very strong to view which fits in with the stereotype of pop music. I gave it a drop shadow as well, as the extra effect links it to fit a stereotype of pop. 

Popcorn: I made this similar to the Popworld masthead. This is because they are both related to pop. The colours I chose play on the name as the colour yellow represents corn which would be in a green field. Like with the Popworld masthead I used an effect. this time I made it glow. This was done for the same reason as before.

Research and Planning: Semiotics research

Semiotics is the study of anything that can be interpreted as a sign. It is used to show the meaning behind a sign. These signs can be anything at all. For example there is text, images, colour and a series of pages in a magazine. Each of these are signs and semiotics can be used to discover their meanings. These signs can define items. They can be used to make clearer target audiences, genres, and they can give meaning to a body of text or an image. Semiotics is used in many forms of media. For example, rock music tends to have a unique, dark coloured look to a lot of its images. An example is below.

Semiotics here shows that the dark image is of a musician involved in the rock genre of music. It fits in with the rest of the scene. The bold fonts which strongly contrast to the other the image behind them, making them stand out link to show that they are all linked to the rock scene. The fonts are large and very upfront which is a continuous feature with rock music. The other images have lots of the colour black on them which yet again links itself to fit in with the stereotype of rock music. Semiotics here uses the characteristics of rock music and shows that the way it is portrayed throughout the magazine relates it to rock music.

Target Audience of my college magazine

The target audience for my college magazine is:

• Sixteen to nineteen year old students who have finished their GCSEs and have now gone into a sixth form college because they are the ones who will be at college.
• Gender: male or female as there will be stories that cater for both sexes as they will both be interested in some of the content.
• Interests: College life, socializing, extra activities, what college is like for others. These interests are things that both the male and female students at college will be interested in and be able to relate to.
• Education: The majority will have came from school after getting their GCSE results. However, some will have tried taking other courses elsewhere and been unsuccessful and wanted to do something different or try again.
• Class: The magazine will be aimed at working class people as these are the class of the students at the college. This is so that readers can also relate much more easily.

 

Research and Planning: Examples of medium close-ups

These are a few examples of medium close-ups, which show the face and shoulders of the person in them. They are the same kind of picture as the one I will have to use for my college magazine.

Research and Planning: Analysis of college magazine

This is a college magazine that I will now analyze.

The masthead in this college magazine is in the middle of the page. It is not at the top because it is not the first thing that is intended to be looked at.

The question at the top of the page is there to instantly get the reader thinking about what they could do now, and as they think, the rest is there to influence the decision made.

The slogan is to get the reader thinking and keep there hopes up. It is making them think that they can still do something, which interests them and keeps their hopes up.

The main picture is of someone holding their results in the air, which will give the reader even more hope, seeing the success of others and they will begin to believe that they can do the same.

There is very little information or stories on the page but what is there is there for the reader to read every word, no information has not been added for a reason. Each piece is to keep the reader thinking.

The magazine has only two main colours: red and white. The red background makes the white font stand out, making it very easy to read. 

The information is well suited to its target audience because they will be looking to be at college and this is exactly the opportunity is shows them they still have.

Research and Planning: Indesign Tuotrial

 I made myself a film review using the program Adobe Indesign. This is the first time I have ever used the program and my skills aren't very good so far.

I created guides to make the text appear in columns and posted a film review within them. I put an image using the place tool, in the corner as well as a small bit of text as a page number which I gave a green border, which matched the text.

I attempted to give the image a small drop shadow but this didn't work as it just kept making everything on the page look darker. The same thing happened when I tried to add a gradient effect to the background in which there should have been a colour gradually changing across the page, yet it just turned everything dark again.

Next time I will make sure I manage my layers properly to make sure that none override each other and this doesn't happen again.

Reasearch and Planning: Introduction to Photoshop (CD cover)

 I started my Media course using photoshop and designed this CD cover using a variety of tools like colour change and other methods of editing. I've used photoshop before but I am still improving my skills.

Other tools I have used on Photoshop are the liquify, filter, colour balance, cut and paste and the colour style tools.

Research and Planning: Introduction to Photoshop (Skin Correction tutorial)

I also used a photoshop skin tutorial, in which I edited a picture of a girl using a variety of methods including spot treatment and brushes. I also used the opacity settings to create a better effect.

Research and Planning: Introduction to Photoshop (Creating a Document)

I used a photoshop tutorial to help remind me of some techniques such as text placing, text sizing, text and image moving, as well as background changing.

Welcome to Media

Here is an image of a Kerrang! magazine with the Blackout on the front cover.