Friday, 23 September 2011

Selection Process

To make sure that i get the best possible pictures i will be taking a selection of photographs which i will then pick the ones that i feel represent the school well and would look good on a school magazine.

These are the pictures i have to choose from:
1

2

3

4

5

The pictures i have chosen to go onto my preliminary task are the two with the students (3&4) i have chosen these because i feel like it makes the magazine more personal as they are students from the school, rather than pictures taken around the school.

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Preliminary Task



This is my rough sketch of what my school magazine front cover will look like. I will be taking photographs of the school and the pupils which i will then put onto my magazine as it will give it a personal touch.
The photographs i am planning to take are of the students within the school.

Monday, 12 September 2011

Magazine Research

I chose this magazine as i found that i could relate to it, because of the cover lines. I also like that they're giving you a free calendar once you buy the magazine. I also like their use of bold as it singles out the title. I also like that they have used a picture of a student from that school as it makes it personal. However i think the title needs improving as it is very boring to look at and it should be more catchy, in my opinion.

Magazine Research

I chose to analyze this magazine because i was attracted to the layout straight away and then went onto read the articles and found them quite interesting. I also like the celebrity that this magazine has used and i would be interested in reading about her so i would be likely to buy this magazine if i saw it in a shop. I like that the magazine uses different fonts and sizes as it make the overall magazine look very eye catching.

Friday, 9 September 2011

Coursework Diary

Week 1:
So far on the AS Media course i have made a blog which i will be updating every week and talk about what I've been doing and what i will be doing in the near future.


Week 2:
This week we were given the task to look up previous magazines which would give us a rough idea of what we would have to include when we design our own. We learnt about: masthead, feature article photo, plug, main cover line, point sizes, typeface and puffs. As well as doing this we also looked at school magazine front covers as for our preliminary task we will be designing a front cover of a magazine for St. Gregory's. During this week we also got use to using CorelDraw as it will be the program that we use to produce our magazine covers and before i was not familiar with CorelDraw so i learnt a lot and also found it moderately easy to use. During the next week i hope to produce a draft of my preliminary task and then go on to produce.


Week 3:
This week so far i have designed my preliminary task and uploaded it. As well as this we have also learnt about semiotics and the 5 different kinds:
  • Linguistic- Which consists of different aspects such as: vocabulary, generic structure and the grammar of oral and written language.
  • Visual- This consists of: colour, vectors and viewpoints in still and moving images.
  • Audio- This consists of: volume, pitch and rhythm of music and sound affects.
  • Gestural- This consists of: movement, speed and stillness in facial expression and body language.
  • Spatial- This consists of: proximity, direction, position of layout and organisation of objects in space.
During this week i will also be taking pictures of St. Gregory's and the pupils which i will then go onto use in my preliminary task.


Week 4:This week we analysed a magazine and included all of the forms and conventions such as: Masthead, Feature Article Photo, Feature Article, Coverlines, Plugs, Issue Numbers and Barcode. I also focused on Icons, Index and Symbols of a white dove and a black raven. As well as doing this i also designed my preliminary task and included all of the things i did in my mock up, which consisted of: head boy and girl interviews, grease auditions and photographs of students and more. I've also made a photo selection to show the processes i went through as to which photo i would include in my school magazine. I have also done an analysis of a music magazine so that i my understanding of what to include within a magazine is better.

Week 5
This week i hope to do an analysis of the school magazine that i designed last week. As well as this i also hope to do a contents page for my school magazine, including all of the articles that you would be likely to see within the magazine, this is important as if there is a specific article that you want to read instead of looking through all of the magazine you are told what page it is that you will find the article and go straight to that page.


Week 6
This week i have made a mock up design of my music magazine, i have decided on a name (What's Hot?) and i have included articles that i believe that the target audience will enjoy and would be encouraged to buy the magazine because of. As well as doing this i have learnt about representations, which go though a process of mediation. This week i hope to of finished my mock up and then start to fully design it on CorelDraw. I have also made a Lifestyle Profile questionnaire which i have answered myself as my target audience.

Week 7
This week i hope to take photographs for the front cover of my music magazine, the ideas i have are: a close up of a person listening to headphones/ earphones as i believe that will initially tell you what the magazine will entail without even stating that it is a music magazine. And then when i take my pictures and decide on a final image that i believe is the best for my music magazine i hope to complete my magazine.

Week 8
This week we have had a first try and answering an exam question, the exam question being: disgust the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of age. We watched a clip 3 times, simply watching it the first time and then for the next two times we had to write notes which we would interpret in our answers. We had to right about: camera shots, editing, sound and mise en scene. As well as doing this we learnt about Social Construction On Age.

Biological Process - age labels social construction
Social Construction - society not biology

As well as doing these we worked on our front pages and got a lot more done.

Week 9
This week we received our marks back from the mock exam and i received a D which i am happy with as a first mark. We also had to fill out 3 life style profile questionnaires for other people, filling them out as the person who would buy the magazine, this was to make sure that it was at the correct standard. As well as this we did some more work on our front covers to make sure that they were going to reach their target audience.

Week 10
This week we learnt about the magazine industry and that it is the advertising within the magazine that makes the money and if the magazine didn't have advertisement in it, they wouldn't gain as much money.


Circulation: ABC (Audit, Bureau, Circulation)

NRS (National Readership Survey) is independent and finds out how many people buy the magazine and how old they are and what social class they fall under. With the use of this information you can make sure that you are able to appeal to them and make sure that they like what you include in your magazine. The encoder ensures the target audience, and then you are able to keep each magazine similar to the last, which will ensure that your target audience continues to buy your magazine.

We also learnt about Representaions of Disability and that prejudice is the thought whereas discrimination is the act. We also learnt that there are different stereotypes which would include: Pitiable and Pathetic, Sweet and Innocent, Victim or Object of violence and Sinister or Evil.

Week 11

This week we learnt about representations of disabilities as we would be doing another exam so we learnt about them and then we would have to pick which one it was and make sure that you know what it means so that you are able to explain what it is rather than just stating what one you think it was.

1. Pitiable
2. Victim
3. Sinister
4. Freak
5. Heroic
6. Butt of Humour
7. Burden
8. Non - Participatory
9. Chip on the shoulder

We then did the exam which was of a short clip from a Spanish film, which is about a man who is in a wheelchair and a man who is very athletic and the rivalry between them as the man with the disability thinks the able bodied man is stealing his wife

Week 12

This week we learnt exam points for the exam which were:
1) always introduce typology in exam
2) able bodied people usually play disabled people
3) disability is not homogeneous

We then had to think about improvements that we would make if we were to re do our exam mine would be:
1) use more examples and to explain things in more detail
2) make sure to include the 4 codes
3) explain the typology in more detail to show that i understand what it is.

Week 13

This week we got our marks back from our cover pages and i will need to make some improvements to mine as i am not happy with the result that i received.

This week we also made a start on our double page spread, making the measurements right and learning how to do simple things like: drop caps and placing an image in the middle of the text and then and then making the text go around the picture which will be very useful. We also learnt how to make text transparent so that it can barely be seen but it is there so it could just be a lyric.

As well as this we we learnt about 'contemporary challenges to the magazine industry' - David Hepworth.

1) New technology - 25% of my class regularly buy a magazine - they are under threat of new technology
2) Environmentalism - magazine and consumerism
3) Illiteracy - this is when people struggle to read and write. However in this case it is more to do with people not wanting to read rather than not being able to
4) Distribution costs - it costs a lot to deliver the magazine

5) Recession - because of this there is major unemployment so no one is earning money so they can't spend money
6) Division of advertising budget -







E-Zine
this in an online magazine so therefore it is better for the environment and so it would have cheaper distribution costs.

Illiteracy
to make sure that illiteracy isn't the problem if it was online, they could read the magazine to you. Other than this would be able to add videos to the magazine if it was online instead of just having pictures.

As well as doing this i have researched two double page spreads and said why i like and dislike things about them and what it is that i would be likely to interpret that they have done. i took two different magazines which aim at an older and younger audience than i am so that i would be able to take different things from each of them to make one that is for my target audience that will be in between the two.

I also wrote a plan in which i will be caring out when i do my double page spread and wrote about the things in which i would want to include when i start it. I will be adding to my plan when i get more ideas and even when i start designing the double page spread and i will also need to write up about the images that i am going to use and how it is that i came to the conclusion of using the pictures that i end up using.

Week 14

This week we learnt about Instributions and Audience:

1) The issues raised by media ownership in comtemporary media practice


2) The importance of cross media in convegence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing.

Convergence:

iPlayer, camera, phone call, music, print media, radio, internet, satnav, video, film.

There are two types of convergence: technical and industry coming together (cross media ownership)

convergence makes the distinction between different media industries liess clear - blurring boundries.

Synergy

Interconnection marketing and distribution of media products across a range of platforms and sectors

Technical

The ability of a single device to operate a variety of communication technologies

Industries

The rise of big corporations who are both vertically and horizontally intergrated (c.m.o)

We also had to work in small groups and come up with answers to a couple of questions:

how have synergy and convergence impacted..

Production
- speed of production
- the form in which you are able to buy the magazine

Distribution and Marketing
- online advertisment
- broarden the area in which people can buy it

Week 14

This week i made more progress on my double page spread, i started on making my interview which would be between my magazine "Beats" and Fiona, who is a new to the music idustry. This week we also did some revision on things we have been doing on Ethinicity as we would be having an exam.

Week 15

This week we had the exam on Ethnicity and we will be getting are marks back later on in the week. I will also be working on my double page spread some more and working out where i will be putting things and what it is exactly i am going to have on my double page spread. I will also have to decide if i want a colour background or whether i am just going to keep it blank.

Week 16

This week i continued with my double page spread and completed it however i might still do some slight changes to it. I have also this week changed my cover page a bit, and i've changed the picture that is on the front page as i believe it will appeal to my audience more that the one i previously had. We also had a theory lesson where we spoke about the 7 questions which we will be doing for our evaluation.

Also this week we learnt about the Representations of Gender/ Sexuality. We learnt that Gender is: Feminine and Masculine and Sexuality is: Woman and Man. However a Man can be fiminine and a Woman can be Mascuine. We also learnt that it is more likely for a Female to be in a magazine and they Cant - which means tilting their head, or they are in the recumbent position which is situated on the floor.

Week 17

This week i started on my contents page because i struggled particulaly with this part of my preliminary task i wanted to do better and so i made sure that i knew exactly what it was that i wanted to include within my contents page. What colours i was going to use, what images i was going to use and even what articles i was going to use which i was able to conclude from my life profile.

Week 18

This week we did some work on the digital side of the course and learnt about how people read magazines online however, it is only 1% of reading. This week i also started to do my evaluation as i had completed all 3 of the media pieces (front cover, double page spread and contents page) I found this task to be relitevely easy as i was just evaluating the work that i had done and explaining why i made the decisions i made.

Week 19

This week we did work on the representations of sexuality and gender

Gender: feminine or masculine
Sex: woman or man

Gender is socially constucted
Encoders are male, they look from a males perspective

Patriachal: men are dominant

1) tomboy - masculine woman
2) good wife - loving and caring
3) bitch: liar
4) victim: rape
5) decoy: red herin
6) siren: lure men in to kill them
7) courtesan: prostitute
8) witch: evil and dark
9) matriach: mother, older advisor.

Week 20

This week we had another practice exam to do which was about the representations of sexuality, this was our 4th try at completing an exam. As well as doing another exam for the first time which was about the distributions of magazines.

Week 21

This week we got our results back from the exams we did and i got 2 D's. I am happy with these results although i would have liked to get a better mark on the first paper. As well as doing this i continued with my contents page and made all of the final touches before completeing it and putting it on my blog.

Week 22

This week i spent my time making sure that all of my posts were labled with a relevant title and i also made sure that they all had the corresponding label so that the post would be easy to find as it would be in the right place.