I created a plan to ensure that I construct my media product within the given time.
The first weeks back in December 2012 will be dedicated to creating my front cover. If I make this first then I will be able to get an idea of the house style of my magazine.
I will spend roughly the first two weeks of January creating my contents page and my feature page will be assigned the remaining weeks of January. This includes shooting the photographs.
If I go by this plan I will then have an extra week to tweak anything and do re-shoots if necessary.
Showing posts with label I. Appendix: Main Task Planning Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I. Appendix: Main Task Planning Work. Show all posts
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Magazine Publishers
Anthem publishers are a slightly smaller publishing company. Although they are growing rapidly, they were only founded in 2002. This company seem as though they would be suitable for my magazine as they have a quite a wide range of music-based titles in their collection. None of the magazines are "glossy" magazine titles; they publish magazines that teach people about instruments, music and technology. They also publish magazines on cooking, sport and travelling. This suggests that they magazines they publish are ones that demonstrate a passion and knowledge for the subject they are talking about and I think that this would work well for my magazine. The first title Anthem Publishing ever released was Music Tech Magazine. This works in my favour as it shows that this company have been dealing with music magazines for longer (they have an understanding on how to get these kinds of magazines to reach their audiences). Because their titles are specialised within the area they are focusing on I feel that it would be beneficial for both JAKD and Athem to welcome my magazine into their company as my magazine would act as a breather in between all of the information-heavy and technical titles they already publish.
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Overview of Magazine Industry
The magazine industry creates, or at least exaggerates, the stories that go around in everyday societies. The 8000+ titles that are published in Britain form the basis of the consumers' beliefs, values and ideologies; these magazines either conform to the ideas behind society or create them.
The biggest magazine publishers are Bauer, IPC, BBC Magazines and National Magazines. Between these publishers they sell 1.4 billion magazines a year to the 85% of our population that buys and reads them. £745 million is spent by advertisers on magazines and consumers spend £2 billion on these magazines every year. The magazine industry is built up in categories: the most popular and common category is consumer. These consumer magazines are the ones that are available in newsagents and online and they contain either general or specialist articles (Gardener's World, Total Film, Loaded, Elle). There are business / trade magazines that are sold to people in the work place, customer magazines (a form of advertising), staff magazines, newspaper supplements, part works and academic journals. In the UK there are more than 3,200 consumer magazine titles alone. For the past decade there has been an average of 500 new magazines a year however, only 3 in 10 of them survive for more than 4 years.
Magazines become successful if they pick up and recreate the spirit and hype of the time in which they are being created. Every magazine and media product is born from a certain cultural context however some are there to challenge the more dominant ideologies in society, whereas others just reinforce them.
The biggest magazine publishers are Bauer, IPC, BBC Magazines and National Magazines. Between these publishers they sell 1.4 billion magazines a year to the 85% of our population that buys and reads them. £745 million is spent by advertisers on magazines and consumers spend £2 billion on these magazines every year. The magazine industry is built up in categories: the most popular and common category is consumer. These consumer magazines are the ones that are available in newsagents and online and they contain either general or specialist articles (Gardener's World, Total Film, Loaded, Elle). There are business / trade magazines that are sold to people in the work place, customer magazines (a form of advertising), staff magazines, newspaper supplements, part works and academic journals. In the UK there are more than 3,200 consumer magazine titles alone. For the past decade there has been an average of 500 new magazines a year however, only 3 in 10 of them survive for more than 4 years.
Magazines become successful if they pick up and recreate the spirit and hype of the time in which they are being created. Every magazine and media product is born from a certain cultural context however some are there to challenge the more dominant ideologies in society, whereas others just reinforce them.
Monday, 18 February 2013
Drafts
These are my first designs; my initial ideas. These designs took inspiration from those found the front covers of Kerrang! magazine in the way that they have free posters advertised, big mastheads and main cover lines and a large quantity of other cover lines. I didn't take time and care with getting proportions, drawings and fonts right because these drawings were just to allow me to display the ideas I had in a visual way. I think that it is clear from these images that I was hoping to create a front cover that had a busy appearance with "fun" and bold cover lines. I think that having these features on the front cover will mean that my magazine won't conform to specific genre requirements and won't give away an signs of the kinds of music and lifestyle the magazine represents. The magazine covers have strap lines that include things like "FREE POSTERS" to make the magazine seem like it's giving away more than just it's knowledge on music. They include buzz words to exaggerate the amazing content found in the magazine.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Location, Props and Costume Report
These three photos are the photos I used on my front cover. I didn't plan a photoshoot with a specific setting and dress code because I wanted the magazein to have a natural and realistic approach to give the impression that we, as a magazine, know the people we are talking about. I picked out of my friends the people that I thought had suitable clothing on, but because my magazine is aimed at a wide variety of genres, I didn't feel the need to worry about this so much. The first image was taken as part of a photoshoot as I was planning on using these on my feature page however when I decided to make a review my feature article, I felt that I didn't need these photos on there.
These are the photos I used on my contents page (the image of Nik is not included as this got deleted). The first and last image are pictures I used for my Photography A level. As my magazine plans to be one that inflicts a certain type of lifestyle on it's readers, I felt that having artisitic images would be quite fitting. The first image works well as the girl is holding a guitar. This suggests the love of music that both the magazine and the artists featured in it have. The centre image is one of the photos that was taken on my set-up photoshoot. I felt that it would be okay to add this to my contents page because it looks more professional than the images I had on the front cover which suggests that, although there are informal elements to my magazine, the contents within the magazine is still trustworthy. The last image was taken outside. I felt that this image would have been nice to incorperate because it acts as a break from the heavy music features.
These photos are the ones that I used on my feautre article. Because my feature article was a countdown review through the best albums, it was obvious that the images I needed to include on this page were of the albums I had mentioned.
Original Ideas Statement
When thinking of how to make a music magazine, my original
idea was to base the design and contents around Kerrang! magazine. However after realising how heavily imaged-based
Kerrang! magazine was, I thought that
NME would be more appropriate.
Capturing photos for my front cover, contents and feature page would have been
easier as well because I don’t know many people whose look would appear on the
front of a Kerrang! style magazine. I
hope to create a magazine front cover that has a wide range of headings, images
and sub-headings to make it look busy and exciting; I plan to incorporate bright
colours such as yellow and red, but I
will only use these in small doses because I don’t want my magazine to give off
the ‘pop culture’ vibe. I will use big font types that don’t have any real
genre-specific connotations because I hope that my magazine will appeal to a
wide range of audiences. My contents page will be more ‘professional’ and
compact to imply that the features in the magazine, despite being informal and
colloquial, are factual and well thought through. My feature page will reflect
my front cover in the way that it will be bright and full of quirky texts and
images. I hope to create a feature page that contains a review in some way or
another- to make my magazine stand out in the market I’m planning on making it
have a USP of constant and trust-worthy reviews. I hope to make the written
element of my magazine quite informal so that my young(ish) audience can relate
to it. Because of this I will make the reviews quite opinionated so that the
beliefs of the ‘editors’ of my magazine are suited to those of my audience.
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Questionnaire Results Analysis
"What is your gender?"
These results show that the majority of the people who answered my questionnaire are female. This is a bit concerning considering I was planning on making a magazine based more around the male population than the female. However, my magazine will be for both genders so parts of the upcoming results can be useful.
Despite the large amount of female responses, my questionnaire targeted the right aged audience. I hoped to create a magazine for people around the age bracket of 17 - 21 and seeing as 85% of my responses were from people in this age range (with the exception of the 16 year olds among them) I feel my results will help me in creating a magazine suitable for these people.
These results show that only 5% of people by magazines as often as my one will be published. The majority of the population purchase magazines "whenever they feel like it" which means my later questions of appearance and contents will come in a lot more useful as I will need them to help me make a magazine that people 'feel' like buying.
Seeing as 45% of people are willing to spend £2.00 - £2.99 on a magazine, I felt this would be an appropriate price range for my magazine. Considering 40% would pay £1.00 - £1.99, if i was to cater for my audience really well by taking into consideration their responses on content etc, the price may not be as much of an issue and the people that responded with a price lower that £2.00 won't mind.
"What makes you buy a magazine? E.g: boredom, entertainment, the need for knowledge / gossip etc.."
The most common answers given in response to this question were entertainment and knowledge, which were said 6 times, and gossip which was mentioned 7 times. This suggests that the magazine I am creating needs to be up to date with the celebrity / musical world to supply its audience with both the facts and gossip that they want. 5 people said that they buy a magazine due to boredom. This means that I need to make my magazine front cover look as interesting as possible and that I need to include various different articles and features that other magazines won't have to ensure that my magazine is the one people buy when they are bored.
"What is your preferred music genre?"
These results show that the majority of people prefer Indie music thus making it the most popular style of music to have in a magazine. Almost half of the people like acoustic music as well and these two genres of music seem to go quite well together. Given the fact that I was planning on making a magazine similar to NME I would need to include both indie and acoustic music, but also some (punk) rock and alternative. This gives the magazine a wide variety of genres to cover thus giving the magazine a wider audience.
"What would you most like to see in a music magazine? E.g: posters, interviews, quizzes, reviews etc.."
In the responses to this question, 'interviews' were the most common answer as it had been suggested 12 times. 'Posters' were the next most popular answer then followed by 'reviews'. To enable sales for my magazine I will need to combine these features to make them suit the genre of my magazine, however making posters a regular thing could wear the novelty factor of them off. In this case I will only include them every so often so they are more of a feature than a regular.
Over half of the responses to this question say they find fashion-based images more important than live images, text and other features within a magazine. This suggests that my magazine will need to be music and fashion based with photos that have been taken and edited due to a shoot rather than photos that have been taken at live events. Judging by these results it would seem that my magazine would do better by being more image based than fact based however when looking at the reasons why people buy magazines, having 'knowledge' as a popular response suggests otherwise.
"What kind of language would you like to read?"
These results show that in order for my magazine to have a reliable set of buyers, the language has to be informal to ensure that they enjoy the magazine and will buy again.
"What features of a magazine front cover attract you the most?"
| Female |  | 80.0% | 16 |
| Male | | 20.0% | 4 |
"How old are you?"
| Less than 16 | 0.0% | 0 | |
| 16 - 21 | | 85.0% | 17 |
| 22 - 27 | | 10.0% | 2 |
| 28 - 33 | 0.0% | 0 | |
| 34 - 39 | 0.0% | 0 | |
| 40+ | | 5.0% | 1 |
"How often do you buy a magazine?"
| Weekly | | 5.0% | 1 |
| Fortnightly | | 5.0% | 1 |
| Monthly | | 10.0% | 2 |
| Yearly | 0.0% | 0 | |
| Whenever I feel like it | | 50.0% | 10 |
| Never | | 30.0% | 6 |
| Other (please specify) | 0 | ||
"How much are you willing to pay for a magazine?"
| Less than £1 | 0.0% | 0 | |
| £1.00 - £1.99 | | 40.0% | 8 |
| £2.00 - £2.99 | | 45.0% | 9 |
| £3.00 - £3.99 | | 15.0% | 3 |
| £4.00+ | 0.0% | 0 |
"What makes you buy a magazine? E.g: boredom, entertainment, the need for knowledge / gossip etc.."
The most common answers given in response to this question were entertainment and knowledge, which were said 6 times, and gossip which was mentioned 7 times. This suggests that the magazine I am creating needs to be up to date with the celebrity / musical world to supply its audience with both the facts and gossip that they want. 5 people said that they buy a magazine due to boredom. This means that I need to make my magazine front cover look as interesting as possible and that I need to include various different articles and features that other magazines won't have to ensure that my magazine is the one people buy when they are bored.
"What is your preferred music genre?"
| Classical | 0.0% | 0 | |
| Indie | | 84.2% | 16 |
| Pop | | 36.8% | 7 |
| Rock | | 26.3% | 5 |
| Metal | | 5.3% | 1 |
| Punk Rock / Pop | | 15.8% | 3 |
| Alternative | | 36.8% | 7 |
| R'n'B | | 21.1% | 4 |
| Hip Hop | | 10.5% | 2 |
| Reggae | | 10.5% | 2 |
| Country and Western | | 5.3% | 1 |
| Urban | | 5.3% | 1 |
| Jazz | | 10.5% | 2 |
| Blues | 0.0% | 0 | |
| Dance | | 10.5% | 2 |
| Swing | | 10.5% | 2 |
| Rap | | 10.5% | 2 |
| Dubstep | | 5.3% | 1 |
| Electronic | 0.0% | 0 | |
| Acoustic | | 47.4% | 9 |
"What would you most like to see in a music magazine? E.g: posters, interviews, quizzes, reviews etc.."
In the responses to this question, 'interviews' were the most common answer as it had been suggested 12 times. 'Posters' were the next most popular answer then followed by 'reviews'. To enable sales for my magazine I will need to combine these features to make them suit the genre of my magazine, however making posters a regular thing could wear the novelty factor of them off. In this case I will only include them every so often so they are more of a feature than a regular.
"What is more important to you in a magazine?"
| Images of live events | | 5.0% | 1 |
| Fashion-based images | | 55.0% | 11 |
| Text | | 20.0% | 4 |
| Gifts / Freebies | | 10.0% | 2 |
| Dates and events | | 10.0% | 2 |
"What kind of language would you like to read?"
| Formal | 0.0% | 0 | |
| Informal | | 85.0% | 17 |
| Factual | 0.0% | 0 | |
| Statistical | 0.0% | 0 | |
| Cynical | | 5.0% | 1 |
| Colloquial | | 10.0% | 2 |
"What features of a magazine front cover attract you the most?"
The most common response for this question was pictures. Having a good image or selection of images on the front cover of the magazine attracts an audience and hopefully encourages them to buy it. Having a well-known or liked celebrity / musician / band on the front is also important and was mentioned 5 times in the responses. Other things like colour, text and layout were mentioned and so when coming to design my front cover I need to think carefully about how aesthetically pleasing it is.
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