Underage drinking research.

We have been asked to do some research about underage drinking. I enjoyed this research as it was very shocking. As a young adult mself ive always known that it exists, however i found it very interesting and didnt relaise just how much of a problem it is amongst youths.

Here is what i found:

How do they get it?
10% of 12-15 yr-old drinkers say they buy their own alcohol.
63% of 16-17 yr-olds have bought their own booze in pubs, nightclubs and bars.

What do they drink?
Beer and lager are the most popular drinks among under 18s, with spirits, wine and alcopops also popular.

Where do they do it?
54% of 11-12 year olds said they drank at home or at someone else's home.
33% of 15 yr-olds drank alcohol in a pub or bar and 26% of 14-yr-olds said they drank at parties with friends.

How much do they drink?
The mean alcohol consumption over the past week of boys aged 11-13 has shot up from 3.6 units in 1992 to 8.6 units in 2006. Girls in same age group now drink a mean of 7.9 units in a week, up from 3.1 in 1992. For boys aged 15 that figure rises to 13.1 units a week, and 10.5 units a week for girls.

Why worry?
A survey of underage binge drinkers aged between 14-17 asked the teenagers what problems their binge drinking had led to. Answers included unsafe sex, injury, drug taking, involvement in dangerous driving and problems with the police.

How much of a problem is it?
A majority of head teachers surveyed in 2004 by the BBC Six-o'clock news believed that alcohol was a bigger problem than drug abuse in their schools.

The above was taken from: http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/fea/FEA_13.ASP

PSA-Rape Awareness

In class we got into groups to put a storyboard together for a Public Service Announcement on Rape Awareness. When putting the storyboard together we realised that many things are important in this proess such as the length of the shot. We thought we'd give a rough time but realised it is important to give an exact time. Also it is a good idea to make a storyboard because otherwise your making it up as you go along. It is important to write on the storyboard what shot you are going to use, and who is going to be in it so when it comes to filming you know exactly what you are doing. When filming we realised that the ideas from the stroyboard may change in the actual filming process as ideas that seemed good might not work when filming.
I enjoyed the editing process. This was a chance to get creative with the piece of film you have and really improve it just by uising a few effects. For example at one point our actor was laughing and it could be clearly heard on film, this did not go with the film as it was about rape and the victim wouldnt exactly be laughing, however we managed to keep the shot but silence it, as the shot wasnt close up of the actor you couldnt see her laughing so by silencing it we managed to keep the shot.
I enjoyed this piece of work, i learnt alot from it such as how to use iMovie well which wa useful as when it comes to my coursework i wont be such a novice with it.

Telephone Call

We had to film a video for a telephone call. We made a story board of what was to happen. This has to be done otherwise you're making the story up as you go along. We decided to film both sides of the telephone call in the same room. We thought this would be a good idea however once filmed and watched we noticed that you could see the background for the other shot. Also as there was a window nearby in one shot a reflection of the cameraman was visible and this looked messy, however we didn't think about this when filming. Although they are small details they make a big difference when viewed and can really ruin the video. I enjoyed this exercise as it was a great learning process.

A2 Media

Unfortunately i have been absent from lesson recently. Ive learnt the class has created a short film based on a tour of the school. we watched the groups videos back and in them i noticed alot of mistakes which was very helpful. Its is clear that often story line is thought about instead of framing and shot angles. Many groups had poor shots such as people talking in front of a window so the light shone through and the speaker was barely visible. However this is all part of the learning process and has helped me a great deal to think about what to think about whilst filming as there are many elements of making a video.

Final Evaluation

This is my final product evaluation. With my preliminary i did a little research into similar products. I went into my preliminary not knowing what i wanted it too look like, and not knowing a plan for it or what it would contain. I realised this probably didn't help as if id known what i was going to include in my magazine i could of made it better. With my final task i went about it a completely different way. I had done alot of research into other music magazines and had thought of what my magazine would be (dance music). I had already put some thought into the story, and features which i could include on he front cover and contents, this way i knew how much content i had and how much space id have to play around with. This proved alot more effective as i was able to plan out my front cover more and produce a more effectively organised cover.

I feel like i managed my time quite well. Although i did have some technology problems along the way all in all i had everything done by their deadlines. The main problem i had with time management was the blog entries. I had the actual magazine done in good time and used my time wisely in producing it. However i became very focused on my magazine and at times forget to post an entry on my progress.

I manged my equipment and other resources well. I knew when i would have a chance to work on my product during school and so i mainly focused this time on research. In the beginning I used this time to do work on my actual magazine, however i soon found this caused me problems as i have a different version of photoshop on my home PC than that on the schools. I also had different fonts on my computer than to the schools and so i couldn't work on my magazine properly. It was because of this that i mainly used my time in school to draw up a magazine plan, do some research into other products, write a blog entry or two and find some decent tutorials on the Internet for when i was at home, this would save my overall work time.

Whilst creating my magazine i have had to make many decisions on problems i have had. One example of this would be when photoshop crashed. I was making my contents page and stupidly enough hadn't been saving my work along the way. Id nearly finished my work when photoshop crashed. I had a decision to make. I could either wait for to photoshop to to work again, which i didn't how long that would be or if It would at all, or i could close the program, lose my work and start again. I decided the best option was to lose my work and start again. I did get really frustrated at first but then i thought that i could sit and wait for an hour for photoshop to recover, which it might not of done, and then i would of lost an hours work time. Or i could start again and use that hour efficiently. I could of created half of a new contents page in that time, and so i started over again.

When doing my photoshoot i gave instructions on what should be worn, and how my model should pose. I said that he needs to wear a bright coloured t-shirt. I wanted this to show that it was dance and that even if the image looked cold, it brought some fun into it a little bit. I also gave instruction on how my model should pose. I knew what look i was going for, i wanted him to look slouchy and 'street'. I didn't want it to look upright and smart as this wasn't familiar with the dance culture.

I decided to shoot my photos at night and in the town centre. I felt this would give that street look, with the use of street lamps and such. With the costumes, i just told my model what to wear: Jeans and a bright t-shirt, luckily my model had some trainers with neon green features and laces, which helped as they went with the t-shirt and really locked good in the photo.

My preliminary task helped me to make some important decisions when creating my magazine. I knew that going into it without a real solid idea of what i wanted wasn't a good idea. Also a school magazine wasn't really something i knew alot about and so i needed to do research. I think with some more research my preliminary task could of been better. This helped me because i did alot of research into my final media product. I looked at different ways to attract audiences.

I'm very pleased with my product, and i think it looks very professional. I don't think there was anything i could of done better. I really like my front cover. I think the colour scheme works really well against the image.

The images i had to work with are how i wanted them to be. However i think i should of read the manual of the camera or taken the manual with me so i could of used different shooting effects for different looks. If id have read it before hand id have also known that cold conditions causes the battery to lose life quickly and i could been prepared for this.

Looking at my magazine i think i have encompassed a sense of belonging to my target audience. Throughout i have used colours that are very familiar to the dance culture and my target audience. I have also used language familiar to my target audience. It is informal, and in some places slang is used.

In conclusion i am extremely happy with my final media product. I don't feel there is anything i would change at all. I am now confident with photoshop and how to use it to my advantage. I feel i know more about the music magazine industry and have learnt alot from the constructing of this media product.

My Completed Media Product

(Click images to enlarge)

Conclusion

In conclusion, i am extremely happy with my work. I feel it looks professional and shows that my knowledge of this task has come a long way since the preliminary. I am now a photoshop addict! i find it fun using the programme and once i had got to know what to do and how to do stuff with it i actually really enjoyed making my final piece, it didn't feel like coursework. I feel that my knowledge is obvious looking at the preliminary to the final piece. I have learnt alot not just on the technology side either. I have learnt about publishers of magazines and the magazines they produce. For instance i was very surprised to find out that mixmag was published by development hell, a small publishing company who produces only two monthly magazines! I feel i have put a huge amount of effort into this work and i feel like it has showed through. It took me alot of time and effort and frustration to get this point and i am proud of myself for sticking with it and not just giving up and going for a simple look when it got tough. I persevered and created a good piece of work. If i was to do this again there isn't alot id do differently. I really don't think id change anything about my product as i really like it. I may have posted some more blog entries whilst creating my magazine. However once i got going i did tend to forget as my main focus became my products and finishing it on time and too a high standard. If Ive learnt anything really crucial in the construction of this product its that you should listen to your teacher when they tell you time will quickly slip away. When you see you have 3/4 weeks to produce it you think its plenty of time and it starts to go slowly, but before you know it the hand in date is near! Time management is a big issue when creating something like this, not necessarily with constructing the product but with the evidence and the blogging. You do really need to do 10 things at once and be able to cope with it. I felt i have coped well though, and and at times i did get worried that i wouldn't finish it or I'd have stuff missing, but its all here :)

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

As you can see here again i have come a long way since my preliminary. My contents for my final piece is alot more attractive. Ive kept a house style with my magazine whereas you can see with my preliminary that i tried but it didn't quite work out. My content of the contents page is very basic aswell. To me it looks as though i wrote the text and had a big space at the bottom so i chucked some pictures in to fill it up, i didn't think about using the space i had to play with efficiently and so it ended up looking empty.

I feel my contents for my final is alot better, it probably has the same amount or maybe less information but it looks more, its organised better although it contains images and shapes it doesn't look messy. I feel it looks professional and i am happy with it. Again i have learnt alot more about photoshop with this. Before with my preliminary, i didn't understand the concept of layers and this made me struggle with my work. This time i realised what they were about and why they were good when making pictures. One thing i have definitely learned with this is to save your work! Whilst making my contents i had near enough finished when photoshop crashed on me! It was only once it had crashed that i had realised i hadn't been saving it as i was going along which was a really stupid thing as it only took a quick tap of Ctrl+s. I had to start my contents all over again! The funny thing is that i didn't stick to the same layout that i had done before and i actually preferred the re-done version.

Things i have learned:

• Always save your work every five minutes or so, you can do alot more to your work in that time and so its worth it.
• Computers and software like to crash at the most important times! Because of this you should always make sure you leave yourself enough time to recover from it.
  

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In the progression form my preliminary to my final task i feel i have learnt alot. I have learnt alot more about the program used to make the product, as you can clearly see. I have come a long way since my preliminary to my final in terms of knwledge of the software. On my preliminary i managed to do very basic stuff, and back then when i'd finished it i was really pleased with it but loking at it now there was so much more i could of done. If i was to re do it now i could erase the faults in the picture usch as the refelction in the glass of the background image. I could of made the headline text alot better, it all looks very merged as if its all about one story and i could of made my model look like he was actually in the background image. However for my very first time using photoshop i dont think its a bad effort.

Now i know so much more, not just in terms of the software. I did alot more research on other magazines with my final which enabled me to make a more valid judgement on what atrracts an audience to the magazine. I know about publishers and that many magazines are produced by the same people.

Things i have learned:

• Dont take the internet for granted, you may lose conneciton and so should always be prepared.
• How to be a good photoshopper
• How research into other music magazines helped the development of mine
• How to look back on my work and be critical of it
• Manage your time efficiently! Use every second you have!

What have you learnt about technologies used?

Before this task i had never written a blog. As a young adult i am a confident user of socail networking sites such as myspace and facebook but i had never written a blog and didnt really fully understand wha blogs were for untill i started this coursework. When first starting to use thi s program, blogger, i found it easy. Its easy to use, everything is there in front of you, its very easy to follow and i found posting my first ever blog entry was easy. However as i becam more familiar with blogger i learnt how to include pictures in my posts, and how to change text and its colour. I have also found out how to jazz my blog up. When i first started my blog looked very dull and boring. I worked out how to change the layout and its colours, so i now have a customized grren and black blog :)

The one thing that i did find caused me trouble was the fact that we had to record it all on the internet rather than handwriting or word processing. This is because the internet can often be a pain and not work, this caused me alot of trouble and nearly caused me to miss the deadline!

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt alot about the technologies used in the process of constructing this product. At first i found it really frustrating, as i was not very good at all wit photoshop as i had never used it before. It really frustrated me and i woud have to take breaks to calm down. However i stuck through it and i brain stormed in my head what i wanted on my magazine and what i wanted to do and what effects i wanted to use. Once i knew what i was looking to do i then went on google and searched the inernet for some tutorials. After following a couple of tutorials i felt alot more confident with the software and even learnt how to do a few tricks on ym own.

One trouble i did come across was that i had to use two different versions of photoshop. I managed to acquire photshop on my home computer, however this was a different version being Photoshop CS3 comapred to the schools Photoshop elements. Alot of the tutorials were not desinged for photoshop elements and s i could only do basic stuff on my work at school. Howeve i learnt alot during the constructing of this product and have come a long way since my preliminary task as you can see. I learnt how to do many things, such as add shadows to text, make a torn paper effect, a burnt paper effect, remove red eyes, whiten eyes and teeth, maqke certain bits of an image more contrasting thatn others etc.

How did you attract your audience?

As you can see, like before i have carried the same effects through the magazine to attract readers. My contents features an easy to read layout, with images shapes and bright colours, very much like my front cover. It is easy on the eye, not too crowded and messy but still containing alot of information.

My double page spread again uses the same effects. I have a main image, which is around half an a4 page so readers could cut it out and use it as a small poster. I have used basic shapes to highlight text, making it stand out more rather than just having it on a plain background. This way it makes the page look more full, i feel with a plain white background and no boxing backing the text , the page would look very empty and boring, but the use of the yellow background against the black boxes for the texts really contrasts and pops. As you can see the same colours are kept throughout the magazine making it recognisable to the reader.

How did you attract your audience?

As my magazine is a dance music magazine i knew it had to use bright colours. Something familiar to clubbers is glow sticks which com in neon colours, so i knew i had to incorporate some of the colours to attract those readers. So as you can see i have used some of those colours, Ive used a bright yellow, and a bright aqua/blue colour. I have also added a splash of green in the top right hand corner.i like these colours because they are bright and i feel that they draw your attention to it.

I have also used intriguing taglines using emotive language e.g. Exclusive Look! This draws in the reader as it makes them wonder what the story will contain. I have also used some custom shapes to highlight some features such as "25 greatest tracks form back in the day". The use of shapes makes it stand out to the reader and not washed out onto the image.

My readers will also be attracted to the magazine because of its attractive low price. I have priced it at £.230. This is good for a monthly magazine as most other dance music magazines are around £4.50, my magazine would still be a good quality and sized magazine, making it more value for money.

Other ways i have attracted my audience is through the use of bold pieces, such as the headline and image. I added a drop shadow on the main headline making it more bold and making it stand out. With the main image i edited the contrast of just my model, so it makes the model look as though hes standing out form the background.

Lastly i have attracted audience by advertising a competition to win tickets to a dance festival. This would attract readers as it sells out quickly and the tickets can be expensive and if they can win them for free then they will want to do that.

Who would be the target audience for your media product?

As you can see my main target audience would be late teens to mid twentys as the magazine would feature information about clubs and such like and only 18 and over can get into clubs. Although this is my main age it will still be targeted at teens youngern than 18, around 16 years and above. Although the clubbing may not be of relevance to them it will still contain alot of information about dance music and dance acts. Its is aimed at your working calss person, who works all week and then at the wekend just wants to go out to clubs/raves probably get drunk and just generally have a good time and unwind. This magazine is specifically dance/prouduced music, not music made through use of instruments such as guitars, drums ect. My magazine is also aimes at people who make music such as dance music producers and also at DJs or anyone who is generally interested in how it is made and what equipment is used.

What kinds of media institution might distribut your media product and why?

The main distributors within the UK are Bauer and IPC. On looking at both of them i decided that IPC would be the best media institution to distribute my media product. This is because Bauer is a very big publishing company both in the UK and in Europe. Bauer owns magazines, TV, radio and online publications and i felt that as a new magazine to go with Bauer this would be a bit too risky as it may not sell lot. Also Bauer produces alot of big music magazines compared to IPC who produces 3/4 with only one main magazine, NME. It was because of this that i felt IPC would be best. IPC's other music magazines are more hobby based, NME is their only magazine that specifically targets music fans rather than music players/makers. I felt IPC was best because my magazine aims at both of these, with a small section of my magazine focusing on DJ equipment etc.

In waht ways does yourmedia product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My double page spread uses forms and conventions of real media products. It uses bold headings for the artist name. It also uses custom shapes to highlight extra information. Also both mine and the real thing highlight certain quotes from the text and enlarge them. Also both products of course use a largeish image of the artist. Also they both use small extra photos relating to the article or text, these are captioned. I feel my product challenges the forms and conventions of the real media product through the use of a coloured background. I did first use a white background but thought it made the page look too empty and blank. I feel it also challenges it by having a decent sized piece of text. Most people who pick up a magazine pick it up because of the artist on the front. The double page spread on the artist should then be a decent size. It should not be too long as magazine readers most likely will not want to read something really long but it should be at least one half to three quarters of a page. The real media product uses only a short amount of text, which could leave the reader feeling unsatisfied.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge froms and conventions of real media products?

As you can see my product is very similar to the real thing. Firstly both products are titled to indicate that this is the contents page. Also both products use images from to advertise stories/features within the magazine, these images include the page number on which the article can be found. Lastly my product and the real thing are similar through their use of headings for different categories e.g. events. I feel my contents page challenges that of the real thing. It does this by its use of bright colours and shapes and carrying the magazine logo onto the contents. I actually feel that my contents page is more appealing than the real thing!

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As you can see here is my front cover compared against a dance magazine, mixmag which would be a main competitor. Both my logo and the logo of the competing magazine are placed behind the main image. This gives it a more professional look. Both mine and the the competitor use bold headings to promote the main story. I have used 3 colours through out my magazine and stuck to that colour scheme as using too many colours can make it look to busy and cluttered and messy. As you can see the competitor does this and it wasnt until find this image that i realised the colours are very similar!

Both mine and the competitor highlight features theough the use of custom shapes. I have used a circle, whereas mixmag has used an arrow

Evaluation

This is my evaluation of my final finished product. I will present this evalutation in two ways. Firstly i will go through a power point slide by slide with explanation of each slide. I will then post a written evaluation with my final front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Front cover

As you can see, after starting early and working all day! I have finished my front cover :)
I am very pleased with this and i feel it looks very professional and identifies with dance music, i shall post a full evaluation at a later date!

Attracting readers

I know that i need to attract readers. I have looked at other magazines and what attracts me to them. To attract readers i have used some simple shapes, like in the picture above. I have made it bright, and kept it simple by using only 3 colours, yellow, aqua/blu and black. I have made the majority of the writing black so it stands out on the yellow and is eay to read. I tihnk this will draw in readers.

Update

This is just a brief update as to how my front cover is looking so far. As you can probably tell it is not going to look like my original plan, When actually crating my front cover i felt my plan was too busy, and i needed to keep it simple. You can see in the top right corener i have created a torn page effect with a green background, on top of this green background i shall use a small image and som text to highlight a feature within the magazine. So far i am plased with this. I feel proud of myslef as when i first started this i really hated photoshop, i'd never used it before and couldnt get along with it. I let the fact that other people were good with it get to me, but then i really made an effort to get along with it, everyone is a novice in the beginning! I thoguht about effects and looked around the internet for some tutorials, this really helped me and i now feel quite confident with this software :)

Logo

1

2
As you can see above are two logos i have created for my magazine. At first i thought my logo should look bubbly and and bright and so i created the green one(1) you can see above. I thoguht this was really good as it looks plasticy and shiny and uses neon green a common colour associated with dance music. However after i thoguht more i felt the logo wasnt very good. This was because at looking other magazine logos i saw they are all very simple, mainly one colour and none have any special effects. This makes them easy to read and easy to repeat. I realised this as when i tried to repeat the green logo it proved to be very difficult as to make it look shiny and such like it consists of many layers. this made it hard to repeat as i had to copy each and every layer and then line them on top of each other.


I then created the blue logo(2). I liked this better as it looked simple and was easy to repeat. it still uses a bright coulour and still looks familiar to dance music.
From producing a logo i learnt that sometimes you want to try and use alot of special effects because you tihnk this will be the best and look impressive. However sometimes the simple and easier option is often best. Making things look too complicated can put readers off as they may get an impression that this is what the rest of the magazine will look like. I shall keep this in mind .

Photoshopping

As you can see below this is the image im using for my front cover. I wanted to make my standout a bit more from the background. I did this by using the rectangular marquee tool and selecting around my model. I then cliked enhance> brightness/contrast and turning the contrast up and the brightness down a bit.

(Click to enlarge images)

Magazine Distribution - My decision

Upon looking at different publishers i have decided i would want IPC media to publish my magazine. IPC is a small UK based publishing company and i feel this would be better to start off with rather than Bauer who is large and across seas. IPC's main focus is magazines whereas Bauer also produce radio, television and online and i think to go for such a big company straight away would be a risk as it might not sell well. Also IPC does not produce a dance magazine so i think it could focus on my magazine more.

I looked at two other dance magazine publishers. However both of these were small company's with their dance magazine being their main focus. Development hell only produces two magazines monthly one of which is mixmag, the bestselling dance music magazine in the UK and so i feel they would be more interested in that magazine as they create it and its the bestseller.

DJ Mag Ltd would be a good company as the publishers also produce Music Industry Manual (MIM) which is the main contacts directory for the dance music industry and so they have good experience of this section of the market however DJ Magazine is their only magazine and again i feel they will be more focused on this.

Magazine Distribution - Part 2

In class we looked mainy at Bauer and IPC as you can see below. However although they both publish music magazines none of them published dance music magazines, so i thoguht ti would be a good idea to look at the publishers of the two main dance music magazines who i would be competing against, DJ Mag and Mixmag.

DJ magazine was published by future publishing alongside 11 puzzle titles. However future publishing announced the sale of these titles and so DJ magazine was snapped up by the publishers of Music Industry Manual Ltd (MIM), the main contacts directory for the dance music industry. James Robertson and Martin Carvell, the founders of MIM have formed a stand alone company DJ Mag Ltd, to publish the magazine. DJ Mag is aimed at dance music fans and professional DJs. The title recorded a year on year drop of sales by 6.4%. According to mediaweek.co.uk (http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/604568/Future-streamlines-sale-DJ-puzzle-titles/) James Robertson, who will be the magazines publisher has said he wanted to attract younger readers in the 15 to 30-year-old bracket and is planning more sponsorship of tours and club nights, as well as expanding its presence online at www.djmag.com. DJ Magazine is published fortnightly

Mixmag is published by a small publishing company called Development Hell.

http://www.developmenthell.co.uk/

Development hell is an independent media company based in Islington, London. They currently publish two monthly magazines, mixmag and The Word along with their websites.

They have just acquired DontStayIn.com, the worlds biggest clubbing social network and have provided consultancy for some of Britain’s biggest publishers such as Dennis, Future and IPC and were hired by Paul McCartney to produce the souvenir magazine for his 2002 World Tour.

Magazine Distribution

Today in class we discussed two different magazine publishers, IPC and Bauer and what magazines they produce.

IPC Media is one of the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher. Almost two in every three women read an IPC magazine and over 44% of men. Thats almost 26 million adults in the UK. IPC has 80 magazines. They have a print and digital portfolio. One of their digital propeties is NME.com, the third largest commercial music website in the UK. IPC also owns other magazines such as Marie Claire, LOOK, Now, Nuts, Loaded and world soccer. It focuses on five core markets - TV, women, men's lifestyle & entertainment, home & garden and leisure . Many of its magazines are well know household names.

IPC would be a good publisher to go with because it has only three music magazines, none of which are dance. This means my magazine would not be competing against many others.

Bauer is the largest privately owned publisher in europe, publishing in Germany, France, Spain, Portugl and of course the UK. Bauer is a worldwide publishing empire, publishing 282 magazines in 15 different countries with a staff number of 6,600 and an annual turnover of €1.79 billion. Over 26 million adults read a Bauer title, 11 million of which are women. Approximately 9 Bauer titles are sold every second in the UK. Bauer publications are in print, online on television and radio. Bauer own KissFm, MagicFm, FHM Magazine and in 1996 they acquired the music television channel, The Box.

Research - Pt 2

I felt i should look at some more magazines before continuing with my magazine. This time i decided to not look at just dance magazines. I'd looked art dance magazines before, this time i looked at NME - New Musical Express. Whilst this magazine is predominantly and indie/rock magazine it does stray into other areas, hence the title New Musical Express. Dance acts such as the prodigy have featured on their front cover so i knew it would would be a good magazine to look at. I liked what i saw and felt that the look of some of their front covers was the look of what i was going for. One or two small images on features within the magazine but it was mainly the main feature and that's i wanted my magazine cover to be. As you can see below i have inserted some images of NME:

I looked on google images and also the NME magazine website itself:

http://www.nme-magazine.com/

http://images.google.co.uk/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=nme+magazine+2009&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=21

Front Cover

I have finally decided upon which photo i am going to use for my front cover. It was a toss up between two different photos. The first one (pictured below) seemed a good picture to use. I thought it looked fun. However i didn't like the background. Behind my models right shoulder you can see a group of people who was walking towards us and the window fronts and advertisements that are typical of a Town centre. I dint like this, and i so i attempted to cut out the model and the car and use it against a coloured or patterned background. This proved more difficult than i thought it would of been. The cutting out was easy however as there are leads from the machine and the bottom corner is cut off it didn't look right once cut out. Also once against a plain background it looked very obviously cut and pasted. This made the front cover look unprofessional and too simple and boring for my liking. My whole vision for my front cover was the image to be bold and eye catching and i didn't feel this picture gave me that.

(click to enlarge image)

I felt out of all my images this was really the perfect one for my front cover. The other picture had a warmer feel to it but i realised that to make it bold and stand out a warm look wouldn't work. The happy look didn't work. It needed to look cold as this would give me more room to play with text and colours. I had already played around with this image before, using it to stick to my original idea for my layout. It was because i was trying to stick to this layout that at first this image didn't work. But i realised that my layout plan wasn't right and wouldn't give the effect i was looking for. Once id got rid of that layout plan out of my head i felt more creative and felt i could and have made a better front cover than originally planned. There are some faults with the image, such as in the right hand corner next to the steps you can see what i imagine is a plastic carrier bag on the gravel. At first i tried to correct this by doing some image replacement. I did this by using the rectangular marquee tool to select the gravel above it, i then copied the selection via a new layer. This gave me a piece of gravel to place over the top of the plastic bag. This did work well and it looked like it was naturally like that. However upon thinking about the image more i felt the gravel and the wall and the lights from the parking lot beside it introduced those warm tones into the picture again and this is what i didn't want. So i scrapped the idea of correcting the fault and just cropped the image so that it only included my model and the stairs. I am now very pleased with this. The stairs are silver/grey metal and my model is wearing a black jacket with dark jeans, so it really contrasted against the stairs and made him stand out more. This was the look i was going for. At first i wasn't sure as it was a cold evening he had to wear a jacket and i at first felt it didn't work very well. However upon thinking about it more i prefer it this way. You can see his neon green t-shirt poking through and i feel it gives the look that this bold and contrasting and cold looking but i feel the poking through of the green is still bringing that fun, dance element through. I also had to do some red eye correction on the model, but i shall go through this in more detail on my next post.

(click to enlarge)

Photoshoot - Review

Overall im happy with my photos. They all look really good and i have picked the ones i am going to use for my magazine. One problem i found was that the camera kept taking blurry pictures. I realised later that because as it was night time it was rather cold and cold temperatures can effect the quality of the pictures taken and the battery life. I also expreienced this, having to change the batteries 3 times! It was a good job that i went prepared with more batteries. Other than this it went well. As you can see below here are some of the images i did not use:

(Click image to enlarge)

These are four images im will not be using. This is because they are either blurry or too dark. If i was too do this again i tihnk it would be a good idea to take the camera manual along with me as it tells you what the best settings for which situation are.

Photoshoot

I am going to do my photo shoot for the main article of my magazine. I am going to use my friend who actually produces music. I felt this would be a good idea as he has just been signed to a record label and i feel it would give a real and truthful feel to it all. He also makes music on the dance side so it is perfect for my magazine. I have decided to do the shoot at night and in the town centre. This is because at night the town has some really good places with some good lighting effects, there will also be less people around, making the shots less messy.

I have told my model to wear bright clothes and we picked out a neon green t-shirt with jeans and black and neon green trainers, very dance feel colours. As it will be at night he will have to wear a jacket/coat in most shots but it will give a more street and real feel to it. I haven't really thought about particular locations where i definitely want to take pictures, i have a few ideas of where might be good spots and i think we will go there and take a few test shots to get a feel of it. I like the thought of roaming around trying to find a good location as i think a good location will really grab you.

Magazine Name

I have decided to call my magazine acid. It is a term that is well known to the dance culture, with many oldskool tracks sampling a vocal piece singing "aciiiiiiiiiiiiid". The smiley face which fronted the rave scene back in the early 90's was also know as the acid smiley face as acid house was a genre of music which this smiley represented. I sat down with a friend and discussed my name ideas with them. This helped because as i would tell them my idea they would use it in a sentence to see which name really clicked and had the better impact. My other name ideas included names such as: Bassline, SO(strictly oldskool), Strobe and Mix. In then end Acid felt best to me.

Magazine Plan

I have decided to make my magazine a dance magazine. I have chosen this genre as this i looked at a dance magazine in lesson and also dance music is my favourite so i think i will be able to produce a magazine that targets the audience as i know what other people will want to see.

Plan

On my front cover i plan to advertise at least 3 small stories with smaller images and one main image with a large image taking up most of the front cover.

I am going to use bold headings with bright colours, my front cover will also include a bar code, a date, a price and an issue number. The main picture should be bold and stand out.

For my contents i plan to use at least 3 pictures, one of which will be a picture of the "editor" alongside an editors note. I will use symbols next to the story's that are on the front cover to indicate this. the magazine itself should have a bright fresh look.

For the double page spread i plan to use at least four images, one of which will be a large image spreading over the two pages. It will have a bold heading with a paragraph or two of information about the artist and then a question and answer piece with the artist. The double page spread will also feature a CD plug of the artists album/EP.

For the magazine in general i MUST remember to use the same fonts throughout with the same styled headings to maintain a house style and make the magazine recognisable.

Magzine Plan

(Click to enlarge images)

As You Can see here is my drawn up plan for my magazine. I think this will work well. However i am aware that as i begin to create my product i may feel that the plan does not work quite as well and so i am prepared that my magazine may not end up looking like this.

Magazine research

As research for my magazine I've looked at mix mag, as it targets the same audience I'm looking to target, Clubbers in their late teens to early 20's and Dj's or people who are inters ted in how the music is made. All the covers are bright and stand out, i especially like the cover with moby and the "20 years of acid house" cover, as i think they really stand out and they give the effect that I'm hoping i can get my magazine to give. I have not yet decided on a name for my magazine but I'm going to read some dance magazines and use a term that is common to the audiences of theses type of magazines, such as "rave" for example.

Music magazines

When looking at a dance magazine i would expect to see alot of things relating to that music, i wouldn't really be sure what age market it was targeted at but i would presume it would be teens. I'd expect to see bright colours and adverts for clubs and raves/gigs. I think the cover would be appealing to the eye and really stand out. I'd also expect to see images of things relating to the clubbing culture such as glowsticks, whistles alcohol, lasers etc. I think there may be a fashion page or maybe even a section but it would be clothes relating to dance music, such as t-shirts with bright colours and slogans, i wouldn't expect to see fashion as you would in a fashion magazine for example.
After looking at the magazine mixmag i wasn't really surprised at what i saw, alot of it was pretty much what i expected, bright colours, alot of photographs from events at clubs, and the use of club lights in these photographs. There were lots of adverts raves/events and a section on the best clubs in London, Manchester, Glasgow etc. There was a small fashion section and as i predicted it wasn't typical fashion it was clothes and accessories relating to the music. The main feature of the magazine was the front cover article with the dance group The Prodigy. The front cover also featured a large picture of them taking up a majority of the cover and again as i expected this cover was really bold and stands out. The one thing that did surprise me was that the magazine was more aimed at ages 18 and above. When i thinking about i should of expected it because of the legal drinking age and any of the clubs advertised would not be suitable for under 18's. The language used wasn't simple, not that it was difficult to read but it used proper English and not many terms that a reader who didn't know much about the dance scene wouldn't understand. The magazine it self was layed out well. There was alot of information but it was layed out neatly and so it was easy to read, it didn't appear cluttered and if there were more than one articles on a page relating to a different subject then the articles were separated by lines, the magazine was easy on the eye.

Evaluation

Above is my final front cover and contents page of my school magazine. I am quite pleased with my final piece. With my front cover i think it is how i wanted it to look, however as i used the front doors to the school as the back ground there is refelctions of feet and puddles, which makes it look a little messy. I did not think of this at the time as i would of edited the refelctions out. Also with thr headlines, looking at them now they look a bit merged together and look as thoguh they are all one story, this iis in effect a good thing thoguh as it has made me aware of it and to look for thing like this befroe i decide that my music magazine is final. Other than that with the front cover i am quite happy. With the contents i am relatively happy, i think it does looka bit empty, and whilst i tried to keep a house style with the same font for contents i relaised that it only half worked, as i should of kept the text the same size. I used different colours for story titles on the fron than i did in the contents whereas i think i should of stuck to the same colour on both pages. All in all, as a practice i am quite happy with how my school magazine turned out.

Images for School Magazine

Above are the images i have taken for use with my school magazine. I am not going to use all of them and have decided on using images 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8. I do not like images 2 as you cannot see the students face. Images for doesnt look like a smart photo, the student is leaning to the side and it doesnt look very professional. I prefer images 7 rather than image 6 as you can see more of the piano and i like image 8 because you can the see students face and the work he is doing quite clearly.

School Magazine

I have looked at various school magazines/newspapers. Many of the magazines i have looked at dont seem to be very colourful, and use grey black and white throghout. Because of this its not very appealing to the eye. I want my magazine to be colourful and eye catching. I understand that other scool magazines and newspapers have used mainly black and white because of publishing costs. My magazine would hold fundraising events to raise the funds for the magazine making it a "free" magazine. I am going to use a font for the title that is similar to the school logo, making it recogniseable to the school.
My school magazine is aimed at students of the school in years 10+11, who are preapring for and sitting their exams. My front cover will be eye catching and bold.

School Magazine

For my homework i looked at "the rocket" a school magazine for the George Stephenson high school. The content of this magazine was very school based, it was informative of everything that had happened in the school, with images and articles on topics such as school trips, decoration work to the school etc. It also features a "poets corner" where students could have a poem they had written published in the magazine. It is 16 pages long and very school based, suitable for both the students and the parents. The layout is very simple and easy on the eye. Although the images are in colour the magazine/newsletter isn't very colourful in terms of text and headings. It has the usually front page layout you would expect with a masthead, a main story with bold headline, an image etc.

http://www.gshs.org.uk/school-newsletters/archive-of-old-rocket-issues/the-last-edition-of-the-rocket

Group Mock Up

Today we got together in our groups and started to draw up a mock up of our school magazine. This gave me some thoguhts on what i might put on my front cover and where abouts to get the full effect of them. Also it has given me an idea of how i want my magazine to look, bold, colourful, a youthful look about it.

Lesson One: The Sheaf

In our first lesson on the preliminary task we looked at The Sheaf. The sheaf is a college magazine and although is aimed at a different target audience it gave me a few ideas at what i should look at for my piece. I know that the picture on the front cover should be eye catching as it is usually a bold picture that captures the attention of younger audiences. After looking at this newspaper i am going to try and make the front page of my piece bold and eye catching, possibly through using a large and colourful image.

http://www.thesheaf.com