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Starting the Preliminary Task
This was the first step of starting the research for music magazines, so I started off by looking at versions of other pupils magazines on the school's blog, chose what I liked about them and what I disliked about them. From this, I found out the basic codes and conventions of my magazines such as how they are usually laid out and what they need to include. -
Preliminary Task Final Product
My final preliminary task front cover definitely had a lot of room for improvement, but from doing this I was able to refine my skills using a mac which helped greatly when I finally got round to making my own magazine. -
General Research
This is when I started to carry out research on other real life music magazines. This included researching media institutions who could publish a music magazine, the history of music magazines and all the different genres that music magazines cover. -
Construction Planning
The construction planning started with me at many other different music magazines currently on sale. At the end of this process, I came to the decision that I would make a Rock magazine loosely based on others such as Kerrang! and Rocksound. During my research, I studied Kerrang! and Rocksound's flat plans, front covers, contents pages, double page spreads, articles, colour schemes, fonts and photos. I learnt how to lay out music magazines and what to include in them from doing this task. -
Rate Cards and Surveys
This is what I based my target audience on. I took multiple surveys asking people about my magazine, and compiled the results into a rate card. I refered to this multiple times when I needed any information about my audience. -
Article Drafts
I did not complete an article in my preliminary task so this was a new experience for me. I wrote this about the main artist in the magazine's upcoming album and overall I think it went quite well. -
First Shoot Plan
This was the date I started planning for my first photo shoots. I first decided that I wanted reasonably young models for my magazine as the magazine was originally going to be mainly focused on up and coming bands who are usually of the younger generation. I sorted out a date and whereabouts quickly and the shoot went ahead on schedule. -
Layout Planning
This is when I started to plan the layout of my magazine. My preliminary task's layout was quite cluttered and crowded, so I knew from my research how to solve this problem. -
Beginning of Construction
When I started putting together my magazine, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to include in it because of the extensive research and plannong which I completed. I also carried on doing some research on the side whilst constructing my magazine by looking at the high quality photos that are used in real life magazines and eventually managed to base my own shoots around them. -
Second Photo Shoot
For my second photoshoot, I wanted to use an older model as I thought that the model which I was originally using looked too young for the genre. I then decided to change the genre of my magazine and give it a more 'Classic Rock' approach. I decided to use my dad for this photoshoot as it was easy to organise and I thought the shoot went very well overall. -
Change of genre
After doing a second photoshoot with an older model, I completely changed the layout and colour scheme of my front cover so it looks more like a classic rock magazine. I think that doing this really made my magazine look a lot more professional and high quality which will hopefully help me bump up my grade. -
Final Contents Page
My final contents page was a huge improvement over my preliminary task which you can eaisly tell just by looking at the layout of the magazine and the quality of the photos. I feel that I wouldn't have been able to produce a contents page to this quality if I had not done the extensive planning and research which I did prior to this. -
Final Double Page Spread
The layout for my double page spread is a lot better than it was for my preliminary task. The colours, fonts and layout are all significantly improve. -
Article Change
As I changed the genre of my magazine during the construction process, I had to the change the article so that it was relevant to the new target audience. I feel that the written quality of the article was a lot better than the original and overall made my double page look more professional. -
Final Front Cover
This is my final front cover which is a huge improvement over the preliminary task and the photo was one which I got from the first shoot I did with the new model. From experience and research, my final front cover shows how much I have learnt since my preliminary task.
