Questionnaire

    In todays lesson we had to make a questionnaire about music magazines. The questions were about our particular genre of music magazine. Mine is Pop/Rock so the questions are linked to this. We had to give it out to 20 people and tally up the results.
This is a copy of my questionnaire.

Analysing Double Page Spreads

    In today's lesson we looked at double page spreads in music magazines and analyzed the codes and conventions they share. I found that they all have:
. A main images that takes up at least a full page and often bleeds across to the other page.
. Drop caps are used to start paragraphs.
. The font used for normal text is ariel in size 11.
. To lay the page out 3-4 columns are used.
. Drop quotes are used out of context so you have read the whole article to find out. They are often in a bigger font.
. By-lines are written to give credit to the photographer or writer.
. A stand first is used in bigger size font and always placed near the top of the page.
. The main title is in a bigger size font to the rest of the writing and is often in a different colour.
. a consistent colour theme of around 3 colours is used on this page and throughout the magazine.
. At the bottom of the page the magazine name, issue date and page number are written in a small size font.
. In the text an artists name is always highlighted in a different colour or in italics.
. An informal mode of address is used to make the text seem more friendly for the reader.
.  there is white space in between each section so that it does not look over crowded.

This is an example of a double page spread from 'Kerrang'.

Annotated Contents Page

    In todays lesson we had to annotate a contents page on Word and the upload the picture to a website caled Prezi and make a presentation on it about what we did. This is the link to my presentation.

http://prezi.com/5ggvyu9sad3p/analysing-contents-pages/

Annotating Front Covers

    In todays lesson we had to get three front covers for different magazines and annotate the codes and conventions on them.

Initial Plans 2

    My initial ideas for the magazine are:
. Price - £3.99
. Frequency of magazine - monthly
. Average issue size - 60 pages
. Regular content - Gigs, reviews, bands
. feature articles - interview with band

Research For Music Magazine

     In today's lesson we had to go online and find out about music magazines to do with the same genre of music our magazines will be about.

NME costs around £2.30 and has around 60 pages of contents. The website for the magazine is www.nme-magazine.com. The strapline is New musical express. The magazine regularly contains articles on famous band and interviews with them. It also has reviews on new bands and songs. The publishers address is http://www.ipcmedia.com/

Q costs around £3.90 and contains around 160 pages. The website is www.qthemusic.com. The strapline is The Uk's biggest music magazine. It's regular contents included reviews, interviews and new music. Its publisher adress is http://www.bauemedia.com/

Kerrang costs around £2.75 and has around 80 pages of contents. The stapline is Life is loud. The magazines website is www.kerrang.com. Like other magazines it regularly included reviews and interviews with bands. The publisher website is http://www.bauemedia.com/

Mojo costs around £4.30 and contains about 150 pages. The website for the magazine is www.mojo4music.com. Its regulars include reviews on songs and interviews with bands. The strapline is The music magazine. It also has an ask fred section. The publisher website is http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

Main Task: Initial ideas

    The type of music magazine I think I am going to produce is pop/rock. I think that the target audience for my magazine will be mainly males around 16 - mid 30's.

School Magazine Evaluation

    I have designed my media product to follow the codes and conventions of a real magazine. To do this I have laid out the the different objects on the page in similar way to which a real magazine would, such as having the name of the magazine at the top of the page and in a large font. One way in which I have differed my magazine to others is by having the main image not covering a section of the title. I have done this because my magazine is not well known unlike others whose name can be understand even when covered.
  
    The new media technology I used to produce my magazine was Quark.  I used it to create columns on my page which helped me with the layout of my contents page. It also helped me add effects to my page such as changing the opacity of certain objects. This gave my magazine a more professional look to it.

    The strengths of my magazine are that it uses a colour theme well and this helps it look professional and like a real magazine. Also I feel that I have placed everything in the right place to stick with the codes and conventions of a real magazine. The weaknesses of my magazine are that due to the time in which I had to complete the Magazine I rushed the written information on the page and did not come up with the best feature articles to advertise in my magazine.

    The strengths of the new technology I have used are the way in which i can lay out my magazine using the guidelines it places on the page. The weaknesses of this new technology are that I am still learning how to use it and therefore am not using it to the best of its abilities.

School Magazine Contents Page: Final Design

    I designed my page on Quark. To make it look professional I set it out in 3 columns. I have placed the words contents at the top of the page in a large font. I have kept to the same colour theme as the front cover. My articles run down the left hand side of the page and use size 11 font. The page numbers have been highlighted by the use of a bigger size font and in a different colour. Smaller pictures have been placed at the bottom of the page and have also been numbered, these are my feature articles. A border has been placed at the bottom of the page with the name of the magazine showing. I have also included a letter from the head teacher to welcome the readers. The issue date and website have again been placed on the page in a small font.

This is my contents page.

School Magazine Front Cover: Final Design

    To produce the front cover of my magazine i used Adobe Photoshop. The reason my front cover looks the way it does is because i stuck to the codes and convention of a magazine front cover. The title 'GeeK' takes up around 25% of the front cover, and it at the top of the page. My main image links in with School and is a Medium Close up. I have used the colours: white, black and red as the theme for my magazine. Puffs run down the left hand side of the page to advertise my feature articles. The issue date and website are placed in the bottom left of the page and in a smaller font.

This is my front cover.

QuarkXPress

    In today's lesson we were given a demonstration of Quark. This is the software we will be using to make our contents pages and other work from now on. We were shown how to create new pages, import images and text and also how to distort and move objects around the page.

This is a screen shot of me editing an image and some text on Quark