Production Diary: 02/12/13 - Dawn of the Dead(line)

The past week I have been making more work on my contents. I was able to produce an effective layout that will be readable but also visually exciting - however I am lacking a lot of the text and imagery. When I first produced the contents page text I wasn't certain on my layout or how it would look as it hadn't been finished so I have had to recreate it.

I consider my contents page to be nearly finished. I looked up magazines for effective layouts and I took a lot of inspiration from an NME cover as I deemed it to be an effective layout which mirrored the tone I wished to create. I am yet to recieve feedback (aside from my Mum saying cheerfully "Oh that looks nice!") so I am anticipating making improvements but I feel that I have done as much as I can to make it look effective and I am able to focus my attention on the other pages that need completing.

This week I hope to take some more photos of other musicians for use on my contents page so I can finish that off before the Final Draft deadline on the 16th!

Production Diary: 11/11/13 - Progress

This is a draft of the cover I have been developing. As you can see, there are a few examples of placeholder texts but due to having taken my photos already I was able to select the image I wanted to use and work around that.

The image I went for was a rather plain close up, which means all the attention is drawn to his face and the text so there aren't many distractions - this is regularly done on music magazines and by doing the same I've created a professional look, meaning it wouldn't seem out of place on a newsagent's stall. I'm very proud of my front cover and I'm enjoying developing it.



Production Diary: 11/10/13 - Research and Planning

This week in media I have been primarily researching and analysing names and mastheads for use in my music magazine. I have looked at different types of names and considering what worked and what I will be able to use in my magazine.

I have begun to plan my photoshoot which will be on Wednesday and confirming models and their props. I believe for variation I need two artists, allowing me to have different features in the contents pages and generating more opertunities for articles. One will be an established, exciting artist who is likely to be my cover star, the other an independent artist who is yet to attract the attention they deserve.

Production Diary: 04/10/13 - Scott and Surveys

I've spent this week uploading and updating projects that were not completed.

After creating "Scott" I was able to devise the full proposal for the music magazine and I feel I have created something new yet feasable, covering a market that is only just emerging.

However, examining my survey results, I am considering including well-known artists as cover stars, the ones telling their story of how they reached fame as it is almost unanimous in my results that readers want established artists to attract them. Research has also proven that sales are higher when artists with their own fanbase are featured.

Bring in the Beliebers

I have also looked into the Key Concepts of music magazines - (see my presentation in the previous post) and examined what the Audience look for in a magazine and what they feature. I will be able to utilise this information within my magazine and make it more conventional.

Production Diary: 27/09/13 - Proposal Development

This week we have worked on our Proposal and creating a profile on our target audience.

For me, this has actually been very enjoyable, as I like creating the sort of character who would read my magazine. It’s a lot of fun imagining who would be the kind of person who would read this magazine, and come production I can see myself tailoring the needs for “Scott”.

The Proposal is a bit more difficult. Finding a Unique selling point is very hard and the one thing I thought was original - weekly, but artistic and high quality - is actually being covered by NME. I now have the choice of developing something entirely new (and potentially not as successful) or working on something similar and risk covering the same ground.

I am contemplating appealing to the obscure-indie side of things, so obscure; they're only artists on YouTube. This could add to a higher focus on the digital side of things as this audience are more likely to want to access it like that. Digital also means an option for a cheaper copy as it doesn't have to be printed.

Overall, I am still enjoying this topic. On Monday I will be posting a video of my analysis of Double Page Spreads inside established music magazines using different software not yet seen on my blog, so stay tuned!

Production Diary: 20/09/13 - Preliminary Task

This week I put the finishing touches on my preliminary task and typed up the evaluation.

We have also produced a survey for product research for our music magazines. I can see how beneficial this will be for the final product, assuming the people who fill in the survey are the target audience. 

This will help me understand what the audience is looking for in a music magazine and what features it will include. I hope to get a good number of people looking at my Survey in order to receive the optimum amount of input.

Once more, I have been considering possible genre of music magazine to create. I had briefly considered a very childish pop magazine in the vain of Top of the Pops, but I have become aware that it will be problematic to photograph as it'd be rare to have a photo of the models where they look like anything other than a sixth-former attempting to be a Pop-Star.

I have settled on an Indie-Rock magazine, and I am considering outfits as it is likely to lend itself to the colour scheme. One possibility is using a countries' flag, such as the Union Flag as that is a very recognisably iconic set of colours and reinforces the Indie or Lesser Known aspect as it suggests it's focusing on the British music industry.

Production Diary: 13/09/13 - New Softwares

This week I have been introduced to the E-Design software, which I have been using to create the preliminary task.

Initially I am finding the software slightly confusing (I have issue with the framing of images) but I know that it will be better than photoshop once I have mastered it. I have found it especially useful when it has come to choosing the colour for the text, I am able to use a tool to take a colour from a photo I have used - this is very beneficial when developing a colour scheme or house style.

I believe my prelimnary task to be complete, I just need to evaluate it. Despite it not being marked, I have enjoyed myself creating the school magazine and I've put a lot of thought into it.

I have also put more thought into the music magazine I will create for the final task. While I previously considered creating a musician's music magazine (with focus on the development of music as opposed to what is being released) but as proven in my post where I discussed the covers - there isn't much I feel I could evaluate. Therefore I will begin putting thought into a music magazine covering rock as that is the genre I feel most comfortable discussing.