AS COURSEWORK PRODUCTION

Billy Hearn

School Magazine

For my AS Coursework I going to create a front cover and a contents page for a school

magazine of my choice. I am doing this so I can get a feel of how all the software works

so I am ready for the real thing. It will give me the familiarity and knowledge which I

really do need to make a really good music magazine. It is extremely good me doing

this because it really will help greatly.

The techniques I will use for my school magazine will expand and get better ready

for the music magazine. The school magazine will probably not be as good as the music

magazine as I don’t have much of an idea what to do at this present point. This is

because I aim to make the music magazine pact with interesting information.

Research

I collected some information on what sort of information will be inside of a school

magazine. I did this by looking at some school magazine front covers, search the internet and asking my

friends. This is the sort of information I collected: Sport Reviews Concert Reviews Quizzes Facts Questionnaires Contents Page Polls Jokes Gossip Stories Leavers/New People Interviews CCF Reviews.

Drafting

To get an idea of how I need to designto design my magazine, I have created

aManual sketch so it can help methrough. It did help a lot, but during

theprocess of creating the front cover of

mymagazine, I did change the layout alittle bit which was okay because when

Ido the sketch, it doesn’t mean I have

tofollow it. Here you can see that I havebasically used the same layout as myactual finished product on the slidescoming up.

Cropping

In these two images, all I have done is cropped out a bit of the background to make the main focus just the students. Also I have altered the brightness of the picture by adding a touch of lightness to the shot. I have used this picture to show to people outside and inside of the school, that the academic time is the most important thing at the college. It will also give a good impression that the school takes work seriously.

Original Image

Manipulated Image

Front cover Contents

What I have Learnt?

In the process of creating my school magazine, I have learnt many different skills. For

example I have discovered many different processes in editing photos to capture an

image which will suite the magazine. Also I have learnt different types of layout so I

can be ready for the main task. So I am now aware of what magazine I am going to do

and what type of audience I hope to aim for. I am completely used to the software

which I will be using for my main task and I hope to make a useful and successful

magazine.

Music Magazine

Questionairre Overall in the questionnaire which I filled in, I found out that most people

who I spoke to were interested in the “hip-hop” genre. This is a very popular genre fore teenagers and when they answered hip hop they told me they were about sixteen or seventeen.

Another important question which I did ask was how many pages you would expect it to be. More of the older generation wanted about 40 – 45, then on the other hand teenagers and young adults wanted it to be about 30 pages long.

No one will buy the magazine unless it is at a reasonable price. Having a magazine too expensive will not sell especially as it has no reputation. I will start it at a low price and depending on how I do, I may raise the price.

A music magazine should be sold either daily, weekly or monthly. Being sold daily could get boring for the reader, having it monthly could be too much of a wait, and then weekly I think is perfect. Most of the answers I got from people did say weekly.

Front Cover Research

Before I commence with my coursework of creating a front cover for my music

magazine, I must make some detailed yet helpful research to set me on my way. I am

going to do this by browsing through the internet, going to shops and buying some

magazines so I can analyse them and then also I can do a questionnaire to find out what

the most popular options are.

The magazines which I have browsed and bought have helped me greatly because I

now have an idea of what kind of magazine I will be creating using the software

Provided. I now know who to aim my target audience at and I will now go through

some analysis of some magazine which I have found.

Q Front Cover

• The main focus on the magazine shown is the lead singer of Muse and this portrays the importance of the magazine.

• The word plus, depicts that there is endless excitement in this magazine when afterwards it names a long list of top artists!

• The Beatles are one of the most famous and best bands in the world, so when they have a subtitle saying “200 things you didn’t know about the Beatles” many people are going to be interested by this.

• The colours on this magazine work well. They are simple but work with good effect.

• In the magazine he is being represented as an angry person. This shows that he has something to say which will attract readers. Also this link to the next cover line of “Rock’s greatest Nut Jobs”.

Vibe Front Cover• This front cover portrays the

importance of the magazine by showing of one of the biggest names in music. Further more the seriousness of his look shows that it is no joke.

• They have used a good technique, as you can see that at the top of the page, the editor as inserted lots of famous so that it gives the magazine that reputation that they want.

• Buzz words are a major part of a front cover. In this instance they have used the words “new” and “exclusive. These words will excite the reader as people love receiving new things.

• Finally the language used is less formal which portrays that the it is more of a fun magazine.

NME Front Cover• In this magazine front cover, the main

picture is slightly covering up the title of the magazine. This could be down to two things. Firstly it could be conveying the importance of the image, or it could be that people have recognised the name enough, they can afford to cover it up a bit.

• There is a clear red and yellow theme going on here with highlights of yellow and red and black catching your eye immediately.

• Here Lily Allen is giving the audience eye contact, this will attract the reader immediately.

• Further more the effect of the cut out word style, enhances the more down-market vibe.

• Like in the recent magazines, they use buzz words to attract the readers attention.

Contents Page Research

Now as I am about to begin with my contents page, I must also do research on this in

the same way as my front cover. I have bought a few magazines and have been

searching the internet to find out any ideas that I can for the contents. It needs to be

linked slightly to the front page because they are the same magazine.

The magazines which I have browsed and bought have helped me greatly because I

now have an idea of what kind of contents page I will be creating using the software

Provided. I now know The colours, structure, pictures and layout I am going to use.

Q Contents Page Most of the contents page is covered

up by a simple picture of a world wide band. This technique gives it a less of a boring contents because now the audience know who the main focus is on.

This contents page has a logo and also they have kept the colour scheme simple but effective. They keep the logo on the side of the magazine to exploit it as much as possible.

The two subtitles stand out in the red and white, Both of them saying “features” and “every month”. They have made this effect to attract readers to find out about the magazine. These sections will tell us what is in the magazine, and what it is about.

Vibe Contents Page Here in this picture the main image is the

big picture in the middle of an artist. Usually their main focal point would be the text and the information but in this instance, it is the a picture.

In the top right hand corner, it say “contents”. It is written in a different style as they have broken it up into three sections to draw the reader in as it is attractive.

Also expanding from my first point and the text at the side of the magazine and is obviously not as important as the main picture. This is because it is a smaller size and it is at the side.

Further the colours which are used work very nicely together, it gives it a more of a professional touch.

NME Contents Page Throughout the contents page, there

are seven pictures. This will make it easier to read for the customer. Compared to the Vibe contents page, the main focus is not on the main image, but is on all the writing and all the pictures. The yellow and black combination both work extremely well as they both contrast with each other with good effective.

There is an introduction to the magazine by the producer of the magazine, it is a long introduction and is proven with his signature at the end of it.

Overall in this contents page, I think it works very well especially how the highlighted yellow stands out.

Double Page Spread Research

The double page spread involves an article on a particular artist or band and then a

picture of them or the individual. What I am going to do is have a large picture of my

Artist with a large heading with a small font for the article. From what I have seen from

my double page spread research I have seen a reoccurrence in this theme.

Q Double Page Spread In this double page spread you

can see that it is a basic one with content and a picture.

Q are trying to show the importance of the band as it is slightly bigger than the content itself.

In this content, they use more of a slang approach as you can see from the heading “STEP INSIDE ROCK’N’ROLLS OWN FIGHT CLUB”.

The colours of the double page spread I think works well because the picture is a lighter colour where as the other half is black with cream and white font colour.

Other Double Page Spread

This double page spread also has a picture covering one whole page. I think that the big picture should be on the left page because it eases the audience into the reading and makes them look at the picture first, because the audience will always look left to right.

This title is also big and coloured with the theme colours of the magazine. This happens often in magazines so I am thinking of doing the same.

The text starts with a huge “I” so you can see where it stars and to make it neat. This is a very good idea and I think I will be including this in my magazine because I like the look of it when I read magazines.

NME Double Page Spread In this double page spread I

have chosen, they have shown the typical features of a double page spread. Big heading, big heading and small font for the article.

They have blended in the main picture with the context to portray the importance of both pieces.

They have also included extra pictures into the double page spread to show the audience more about the band being featured.