Christmas Holidays Ideas

Over the Christmas holidays I have been thinking of additional ideas to add to the pre-production planning stage that will help me for my production.

Title- I have decided to give my magazine the title of 'Spinner magazine'. This is a quirky name that shows the basis of DJ and electronic music by using spinning discs to play the music and also shows the laid back casualness of the genre.

Font- I have been looking through fonts on Microsoft word and the online site dafont. I have decided the fonts I want to use for my production will be mainly be a sans serif font. I feel that this font style shows the informalness of the type of music and also looks 'cool' for the target audience.

Target Audience Research

After I have completed my planning stage of my coursework I then went back and asked my target audience to see if the planning that i had thought of and the sketches of my ideas were what was expected in an elcectric music magazine. All agreed and said my ideas looked proffessional and realistic for the type of music i was studying.

Rough Sketches

These are a few sketches I drew to show my ideas for what I wanted in my magazine production  

This is my Front cover. Based on a large dark coloured image on the front off the cover with many cover-storys in the bottom hand corner.


I idealy want the magazine title in the top left hand corner as this is where the majority of magazine front covers have their heading.

I have decided to use the colours yellow, red and white for the writting as these are colours that attract the audience at a first glance.








This is a design for how i wish for my model to be positioned in the camera.
A straight faced expression with headphones around the neck to represent the music genre.
My idea of having a black background with only a spotlight on my model from the chest up will connote stardum as the artist is in the spotlight.

I like the idea of the main story taking the main space in the contents page as it promotes the story with a larg image that attracts the audience. In my proposed contents page i have placed the word 'contents' down the left hand side as it give the page an urban modern look, which is similar to my music genre.

This is my plan for the double page spread.

I hope to have an image of my model Jack by an over the sholder shot of him using the electrical equiptment.
From my past rsearch of other DJ magazines I have responded by using the idea that most used of having a large image spreading over the double page, with all the text positioned in one place. This looks proffesional and neat.



I realise that when forfilling my production work, that not all of these plans will match exactly... however these are some idea's that I have for making my production a much better piece.

Location Update

This image shows the equipment that I have been allowed to use for my Magazine in the college music studios

Research of existing magazines

The first magazine I researched was iDJ although since carrying out my research the company has actually closed down and are not selling its products any longer.

Front cover

Front Cover of iDJ

As you can see the front cover of  iDJ magazine is very busy, this represents the tempo and rythm of the type of music which i am studying. The designers have also used similar colours throughout to show that, despite being busy, it is still proffesional and attractive to attract the audience from first glance.

 
Following on from this, this front cover has many coverlines that interests the audience when first viewing to promote whats inside. I feel that this is a good technique to put into my front cover as it draws attention to the contents of the magazine.

As you can see the front cover of iDJ mag, they use many colours in one small area of the cover. The use of Black, Grey, Yellow, Red, White and Brown in a small space of the magazine give a 'busy' connotation to the audience when viewing for the first time. This busy style represents the type of music that is being displayed.

In addition to this the Main story or Article is always featured as the biggest, in the middle of the cover. In iDJ magazine there are many images of the models who are music artists being promoted on the cover for the storys inside. This is featured alot in these types of magazines.

Contents

Firstly you can see that the contents page of iDJ magazine looks incredably professionaly laid out so that it looks neat and tidy. I Believe that this shows the technical craft and perfection needed for the music's genre.










 

 

The contents page of iDJ has multiple large images to show the audience what page each detail is on so that if they are attracted to a particular story line, they have quick accesablitly to find it. This is a common feature in all magazines, including my genres.

A Second feautre of Contents pages that I have recognised is that all have a colum of page descriptions and page numbers. This is another way of showing the audience directions for their viewing pleasure.













Finally on the Contents page features the Details of the producer. This shows the contact details of all of the staff who helped to produce the magazine. I like this feature and will more than likely include and editorial in my production as it gives a glistening, profesional finishing touch.

Double page spread

This double page spread is promoting Pete Tong's top 10 music hits for the summer on the left, which seeps over to the right of the double page spread.

The text is all grouped together and not just randomly placed anywhere. This feature is common in electronic magazines.

Secondly the image is of Petes face. On double page spreads it's an often occurrence to have images of people instead of props / equipment as this is the main point of the pages story.

Lastly this double page spread uses only similar colours. Keeping the page simple and not too confusing. I think that this is a good point to follow because it makes the page look attractive.

The Second magazine I analysed was DJ Mag.

Front Cover

This is the front cover of DJMAG. It has many liknesses to the previous electronic music magazine. Both are very busy front covers with many colours and a large combination of text and images to create a strong technical effect to the audience.

You can see that also in this magazine front cover there are also many cover-stories. This seems to be a common feature in music magazines such as the one that I am studying. Therefore I think that it would be a great idea to translate and produce this technique in my magazine.

Secondly another likeliness is the colours. In this edition of DJMAG the colours used for the images and the text font are vibrant and Intriguing and   give strong happiness and power connotations to the audience. In addition, from this image you can see that the main cover story is the largest in the page. This is the main feature of the magazine.

Contents page

This is the contents page for DJMAG.

This contents page is also very similar to the previous magazine. It looks very professional and laid out in a manor where you can easily navigate throughout the magazine.

You can see from the image on the right that the picture/number technique is used again alike the previous magazine. This breaks it down and prevents the contents page being overloaded with text. In addition it allows the reader to pinpoint the exact story by eye as he or she may not know the name of the musician but may recognise their face.

Lastly another feature I have identified in both magazine contents page is that all have a colum of page descriptions and page numbers. This gives an ease of accessibility to the audience to be able to search for the story they want to read.

Double page spread

This double page spread has a photograph which is in black and white which covers over the spine middle of the two pages. This is an effective way of as it draws the audience into the centre of the page. By doing this it interests the audience as wherever they look on the page their eyes keep tracking back to the central image.

Secondly all of the text is blocked together on the side of the page this makes the page look professional and sofissticated when the audience is reading. Also in this double page spread of the magazine, you can tell that all of the coulours are very similar. I think this is a good point to follow in my production magazine.

Lastly they have used page numbers in the bottom hand corner closest to the end of the page. This is so that the audience can see what page they are up to as they flick through. I will also use this feature in my magazine production.

From researching multiple electronic DJ magazines I have been able to identify the key features of the front covers and the contents pages which i will therefore use ideas from to improve the quality of my final production.

Location update

Today I have had an e-mail in response to my request to use the college music studios. This is great news as it allows me to get on with the task I intend to do.

Time Management for Production and Evaluation

Location Health and Safety

Risk Assessment-

During the time I spend taking photographs for my magazine, I ill make sure I try to provent and protect both myself and my models from any risks that may be able to occur.

Props List

Props List I intend to use-

• Headphones
• Synthesizer 
• Lighting
• Music Studio Decks
• CD
• Torch for spotlight effect.

Location update

This evening I have found out that my request to take some of my photographs in 'The Mars Bar, Worcester' has been granted by verbal permission. My model Jack works at the Mars Bar and his manager has said that both him and I are allowed to take photographs inside.

Location Review

For the images that I will take to place into my magazine, I believe that the location of the photograph is key to portray the correct connotations across in the pictures. I need to portray a 'disco nightclub' situation where the is limited lighting with coloured lamps lightling up the walls.(Exampled Pictured right)



For this reason I have chosen to take some of my images in a local music bar called the Mars Bar where they have regular performances and the props for my photographs.

Performers/Models

For my DJ based Magazine I have to decided to use Jack Looker and Henry Dewer as my models for my images. I have chosen these as I believe that both are good friends to me so will be reliable and both suite my genre.
Henry has a strong interest in producing electronic music so therefore knows the best ways to act as if he is genuinely using the equipment.

I have chosen Henry to Appear on the front cover of my magazine in place of 'an up and coming new DJ producer' I want my model to be wearing large 'over head' earphones and a coat with a postioned style hair.


My second model I have chosen is Jack Looker. Jack is also my friend who has an interest in electronic music. I have chosen both of my models as they have interests in electronic music and both have a cool image status with ease of props as they own them themselves.

I will have an image of the back of jack using the equipment that will be advertised and reviewed in my magazine. As well as using him for other internal images of the contents page and double spread.



Both have agreed to these plans and are happy to participate

I used these Images of my Models as The guitars in each pictures show that they are comfortable in a musical background.

Props, Location and Lighting ideas

Props on Prezi

Target Audience Research

During my free time yesterday I managed to find some of my friends who are suited to my target audience and I asked them Qualitative questions to locate and discover information that they wish to see inside my magazine. I asked them various questions in order to get answers back that will help me with planning my production.

Q ) 'What attracts you to a magazine in the first place?"

A ) A subject on the front cover that inspires me to read the artical



Q ) 'What do you think would work better in a Electronic Music magazine front cover... Busy or basic?'

A) Busy as its more intune with the electronics of the genre.



Q ) 'What content would you expect to see in A DJ / electronic music magazine?'

A) Product testing by proffesionals, whats new on the market, images of the equiptment, up and coming artists.



Q ) 'Would you prefer to view majority text or majority images?'

A) Many images, breaks up text. article about features around the images to give a good effect.

Target Audience

The genre I have chosen to base my magazine coursework on is Electronic dance and DJing music. I have chosen this genre as I think that, after looking at current selling electronic magazines, I can tell that the conventions are particular to the genre and would be a great pick to base my work on.The DJ magazine i will produce is particularly suited to a niche audience. The people who will buy the magazine are the ones who would be interested in the content and this only. In instances such as NME where the magazine has more than music content, such as fashion advice and politics news, this content appeals to a wider range of audiences whereas my genre is specific.

My target audience would be between the ages of 16 and 26, who of which have an interest in electronic music and clubbing. I have targeted the magazine at both people who work in the electronic music industry, such as record producers and DJ's as well as making the magazine appealing for everyday people who are attracted in the genre. Typically my audience would fit into psychographic category of 'achievers' as they are young people who want to achieve lots of different things in their life and want to get better at the things they do. In addition judging by the upbeat tempo of the music genre I believe that my target audience would have the social values of a hedonist and a post-modernist. Both of these values release the act of 'play' and to  'enjoy life now'. Following on from this they would be categorized from B-C2 in the Jicnar scale. Most commonly the target audience would listen to techno, drum and bass and dubstep style music and would follow artists such as, Pendulum, Netsky and Flux Pavillion. They would commonly be intelligent people that will respect the hard work and effort that goes into the music that this genre produces.

Time Management

To produce an excellent music magazine time keeping is key. Using technological convergence I will use the calender feature of my student web mail to plan out the dates and times of each piece of work and to keep the production running consistently and smoothly.

Break Down of planning
5th December (evening) Finish magazine research and upload to blog
6th December (free lesson) Target audience research, speak to friends about what they would expect to see in my magazine
6th December (lesson) Type up Minutes and post blog
7th December (lesson) Make contact with desired Locations and produce a risk assessment for health and safety
8th December (free lesson) discuss with models. ask for any ideas they may have regarding help of final production
9th December (lesson) take photos of models and finalise who I want. type up minutes of discussion.
10th December (Weekend) Finish typing up minutes and finish any unfinished work.
12th December (Lesson) Think and prepare availabilities of props

I have used the calender in my mail so I can keep track of time easily.

I do not think that I will completely keep track of time, due to various problems and obstacles that I may face however I shall update regularly to inform the changes.

Evaluation

For our media studies coursework, our main task was to produce a front cover text and contents page using various technological programs.

First of all we, as groups did research and viewed previous models and layouts of magazines, which were designed and created for many different audiences. We found out that in the majority of the front covers of the magazines, many had an image of a person who was dressed accordingly to genre of the media type. Therefore as our magazine was sport based I feel our decision to involve our female model dressed in a white England National Football shirt was a good idea. This image connotes passion to the nation and aspiration to do well in sports as well as the will to succeed in academic studies. Furthermore we found out that all magazine front covers have large masthead at the top of the text. We decided to also copy this and have our masthead in larger font size with a serif style text type. In addition to this we found that the splash story was commonly found to the left or right of the head of the centre of visual interest image. We found out that these features worked well to appeal to its target audience so therefore closely followed these techniques to improve our own text.

Our product was pitched at a specific audience while we were planning our product. Our magazine was a college student magazine that is to be sold to students who attend higher sixth form college education. This means that it will have to be both interesting and informing to the audience. Our main target audiences both male and female, ages between 16-19. They are most likely to be of a family with either intermediate managerial, administrative and professional roles, or of supervisory, clerical administrative roles. Both of which are Achiever’s as they are in education to do well. To also keep up with interests within our magazine it is aimed at people who had post-modernists social values, these people with to have what’s in the present and to ‘play’ now.

In order to attract this specific audience we had to use a range of techniques. Firstly we picked a white colour for our masthead text as it is part of the college colours and also stands out to the audience when viewing for the first time. The colour white connotes strength and the ability to be clear; these are qualities the students need to take into their education to achieve.

Secondly we used a splash story that personally directed the reader. Using this technique involves the audience when viewing and address them to be consequently interested in the stories within the magazine. I couldn’t go to over the top with the fonts as my targeted gender was multi-sexual and couldn’t be pinpointed. Bold colours and fonts attract the masculinity of the male readers however could be impeding to the female genders interest. Therefore I feel we have picked the correct colours and font to attract to our audience.

During this Project we have used many types of programs and technology for our production most of which are new to myself. First of all we used the Internet to research our magazine cover and how we could make it appropriate for our targeted audience. We then used a Digital SLR camera that had features that we’re suited to the type of photo we wanted such as auto focus and zooming. This is the technology we used to take the picture that was used for our image. Next we used a production tool called Photoshop to make amendments to the image and add in text to create our front cover. This was extremely simple to use and made the production a lot easier.

The best tool on photoshop was the magnetic lasso tool as it gave us the option to cut around the body and head of the image and paste it apon any background we chose.
We then designed the layout for the contents page on a program called indesign. This program was also relatively easy to use and I found very little problems when using it. New modern Technology shows how easy it is to product magazine front covers and contents pages in comparasment to the times before the computer. Finally we used an online blogging website called Blogger to keep up to date with the stages we had already passed and learnt. This was a good way of remembering and showing off what we had already learnt. I feel that all of this new technology can only be a benefit to the magazine producing industry as it is quick, easy and an up-to-date way of producing top quality pieces of text.

Plan

This was our origional plan layout for the front cover. we tried to follow this plan as much as we could however if we thought that our ideas would looked better changed in the final product then we did so.

Our Contents page

This is the layout for the our the contents page

Our Front Cover

This is the front cover for the magazine that we have produced.

The Discussion

During our research we talked about many ways we can produce our final product.

·   We felt that our magazine cover should be based on opportunities for students as this inspires the audience

·   A sporty front cover promotes healthy living and taking part in sports. This also promotes team work. These qualities are vital for college life.

·   We decided the image would be in front of the college as this shows off the college grounds and building.

Planning

Audience - The audience we are attracting are mainly teens aged 16-19 both males and females. We are mainly focused on this range of age due to the fact that this is the age where people plan to begin or leave college. Most teen will consider themselves as achievers on the psycho graphics - how they think of themselves, so within this magazine we need to connote what aspects then can achieve at college.

Time scale - The deadline this project up until the evaluation is 7^th October, therefore working quickly is key but also being accurate with the work. The research is done and the planning is now being completed, all that's left is production and post-production. This is the photography part to the project and manipulated images etc. Once we have taken and edited the picture we will conjoin the image into the front cover design and add text to ultimately produce the final product in the post-production stage. All this will be completed before the 7^th October. This then leaves us time to write up an evaluation.

Appeal To Target audience – we have decided that our front image and main text will be based on opportunities. We feel that if our magazine was based on a sport female it would connote that it’s not only males that can succeed in sport at this age. It shows to the audience always to keep trying and never to give up as everyone can succeed. This transfers into the college community by also connoting to the ‘non-sporty’ type to succeed within their academic studies.


Colour- The colours of the masthead will be blue and white to relate to the colours of the college and the logo. White and blue are basic colours which connote strength and power. These connotations give the reader an inspirational feeling while viewing.


Font- The masthead will be a serif font. This makes the final production look more professional. The cover story font will be on a wob. This means that the text will be white on a different coloured background. This will make the writing clear and more appealing to the audience.


Use of language- The language will be formal as it is targeted at aspirer's who are looking to succeed in college. The variety of text we will have on our cover will appeal to our audience as it will be big and bold to attract the viewers and the text will need reading as it connotes important information throughout the magazine. The use of language and content will want the readers to buy and look through our magazine, especially for those who are sporty and for people who are thinking about doing something in sport.   


Props- no props but the England national football shirt.

Preliminary Project - Research

During our research I have found a few magazines that would appeal to college students. The common age for these magazines would be ages 16-20 with a mixed gender audience. These targeted audiences are most commonly ‘achievers’ as they are studying hard for their A levels. The range of people on the Jicnars scale would be completely undependable and impossible to base the content of our magazine on this. The audience we have selected are from different backgrounds and parental way of working.

Examples of a Magazine

This magazine is effective for a college audience because the stories inside the magazine are based on informational college students who are giving advice to the audience. The picture boost on the front cover is a female student as this appeal to the audience as they can relate to the girl in their current educational status. From this magazine front cover, we can use the masthead or running head that appears at the top of the magazine. The masthead uses the wob feature by having white writing on a coloured back ground. This is effective because it appeals to our target audience.

Denotations and connotation of image: The student is looking directly into the camera smiling, therefore it connotes that she is very happy and proud of what she’s doing. Confidence high, no sign of hesitation. She’s wearing a pink blouse which connotes that she’s quite calm, relaxed, free and confident.

There is also a lot of ideology on this front page as the girl is showing all her dominance by looking extremely confident and no hesitation of shyness. The residual side of ideology is that she is serious about her education and is encouraging the audience that going to college is a good idea. Emergent ideology connotes that woman can be more intelligent and appealing than men.         

Tom

I'm interested in music, no particular type but as long as it sounds good to me, then it'll be on my ipod. I'm not a fan of the news, as it is too miserable for tea time television. My favourite television program is Match of the day, as I am a big football fan and this is the best way to view all of the weekends action. I don't read magazines, apart from the occasional 442 when I go on holiday. Nuts and FHM are also interesting.