Examples of Rock magazines

Kerrang:

This is my first example of a rock magainze i want to use.

This is the link for the website for Kerrang:

http://www.kerrang.com/

And this is the link for the picture that I got off the kerrang website:http://www.kerrang.com/blog/newissue/

This is my first example of a magazine:

Kerrang publishes 51 issues each year

Kerrang releases a new magazine every 7 days.

The price is around £2.20

It has regular content and feature articles of bands interviews

My second magazine I used to look at for the code and conventions was Rock sound.

This is also the type of magazine I want to create, in the same genre as Kerrang.

This is the link for their website for their magazine:

http://www.rocksound.tv/

and this is the link for the picture I got of an example magazine off their website:http://www.rocksound.tv/magazine/article/issue-140-october-10

This magazine is issue 140 on the 10th October.

The price of this magazine is £4.80 

My third magazine choice is 'NME'

The link for their website is:

http://www.nme.com/

This is also the link for the magazine front cover I choose:

http://www.nme.com/magazine

NME comes out every Wednesday

It costs £2.30

The regular and featured articles it is about Klaxons meeting God via drugs, Bombay Bicycle Club unsuccessfully busking in Ibiza, Jack White's war on the internet, Arcade Fire's financial woes, Liam Gallagher revealing his Beady Eye.

MAIN TASK - Initial ideas

This lesson I was told I now have to think of the genre and target audience for my magazine that I want. 
The genre of music magazine that I want to do is rock.
My target audience will be from the ages of 15 - 30. It will be targeted mostly for British teenagers and for both boys and girls. 

Evaluation

I am pleased with certain aspects of my magazine front cover and contents page. My magazine follows the conventions of a real magazine. I did this by looking at magazines that were well known before I did mine. Looking at the code and conventions of magazine’s that I would need to include on mine. Such as a bar code, price of the magazine, issue date, headlines etc. I also looked at the codes and conventions for a contents page. This gave me an idea of what I wanted my magazine to look like.

The media technologies I used to create this new media were learning to use Photoshop and QuarkXPress. Also I became more familiar using the cameras and what types of shots I needed for a conventional magazine. The shot I used was a medium close up, so you could see the top part of the girl and it was close and clear. This was because I had to enlarge it so it fit the magazine. 

My strengths of using the new media was I learnt it rather quickly and enjoyed editing my magazine, so I would teach myself some effects, which helped the outcome of my magazine. Also I think that I handled the camera shots well, as I had planned my magazine and knew what type of shot I wanted (medium close up) and the pose and type of girl (in school uniform) I wanted. I had never used QuarkXPress before, so that was completely new. However I enjoyed learning how to use QuarkXPress and after I had had an introduction I came to grips with it. 

My weaknesses for using the new media, was that I think I could have done better on my magazine if I had known more about the software I was using. However after I got used to it and experimented, it did help the outcome. But I would have liked longer to use the new media so I could have learnt more and made it even better. Also I think that when I used to cropping tools, I could have cropped her hair better as I think it looks a bit messy. However as I have not used Photoshop for a while everything seemed new again, so I had to start from the beginning. I feel that if I had more time to do my front cover and contents page it would have been a lot better. But I did spend a lot of my spare time correcting my magazine and I am overall happy with the my front cover and contents page.

Contents Page

In this lesson I learnt how to edit on QuarkXpress passport.
I then used this to make my contents page.

Magazine front cover

After 3 lessons I have completed my magazine
These are the steps I took to get my end result.

Editing my magazine

Now I had taken my pictures for my front cover and contents page, I know had to edit them to create my magazine.
These are the steps I took to create my magazine:

This is when I added my picture

I used the tool 'lasso' to cut the image out

I clicked the mouse with the plus sign on, to move my image onto the background

I used ctrl + t to resize my image onto my background to make it fit better

Here I used the blur tool to make her skin more even.

                                         

Here I changed the background using gradiant so it changed from purple to pink

I inserted an image of a barcode and cut it out, then dragged it onto the main image of the magazine

Here I inserted the mast head saying 'FAB' in an eye catching vibrant green, so it stands out

Image for my magazine and contents page

In this lesson I was told I needed to take a photograph for my magazine.
I had already made a draft of what I wanted it to look like so now all I had to do was find a picture that was similar or better than the draft I had drew.
I found a girl and gave her a folder like the one in my draft.

Also I got pictures for my contents page.

Content

For this lesson we were briefed on planning our contents page.

I made a plan using:
- A list of the regular content which will appear in my new school magazine.
-A list of at least 10 feature articles
-A list of the images which I want to use on my contents page
-An editor’s letter

My featured articles are:
33 Interview with Ms Barrass
55 -Authors week
25 -VIP acess to 'Beauty and the Beast'
41 -University choices
11 -Award for thebest attendance

My regular articles are:
2 - How the year 7's are fitting in
10 -Sixthform common room
14 -How being healthy is important
20 -What students think about there new uniform
23 -Elephant ears
40 -Why students should not litter

I also want an editors letter. For this letter I will write:


 Hello!
 Welcome to ‘FAB’ magazine, if you are new to this magazine we are a magazine that report all the new exciting things that are happening in Weatherhead Media Arts College.
Have fun reading all our new exciting articles about what is going on at Weather Media Arts College . This magazine will keep you up to date with all the latest news and events happening around the school!
Sincerly,

              J.Croft

Then I designed a rough layout of the contents page.

Magazine Front cover

Today we had a brief to plan a magazine front cover for Weatherhead.
Plans for a front cover:
-Ttile: FAB
-Mise-en-scene of our front imagine: Green, purple and pink
-cover lines:
-Try our new quiz with new prizes
-New healthy eating machines
- VIP acess for the new Beauty and the Beast
The main imagine had to be a medium close up

Then we had to do a rough sketch of my magazine front cover, including the title, issue date and price and the cover lines.I decided the call the magazine 'fab' and have a girl holding books smiling.
Also I want the theme of the magazine to be similar to the purple and dark blue colours the school uses.

Camera Angles

In this lesson we learnt about the different types of camera angels and shot types used.

Such as:
Medium shot (head to waist),Medium close up (Face and shoulders),Close up (Face), extreme close up (eyes and nose), ,medium long shot (all of the body up to the knees), high angle (see top of head), low angle (lower of head), titled frame, over the shoulder shot, two shot (Two people in a shot), extreme long shot (body and background), long shot (all of body).

We did a sheet to have examples of this and then we took our own pictures.

An over the shoulder shot of someone writing.

A close up of someone in ‘nature’.

                                         A photograph which has connotations of stress

                                                                       A long shot.   

                                             

Low angle meduim close up

                                                  A very long shot conveying isolation.                        

A high angle long shot

                     

                                                        A two shot in medium long shot

                                                                    A medium close up.

                                                 

                                                      An extreme close up of the time.                            .

                                         A photograph which has connation’s of friendship


Also we learnt about camera movement.


Pan : Camera going left to right
Tracking: On a dollie that follows the action
Zoom: goes closer to the image

Codes and Conventions of Content Page's

In this lesson we analysed 7 magazine content pages.

Mast head
The title is smaller than the contents page but is similar to the same font and colour of the title on the front cover. Also it refers the brands. The title is not always at the top and it is larger and bold. It is always bolder than the other texts on the content page.

Colour scheme
We saw that each content page had a similar colour scheme as the front page

Images
There is a main image or small featured images to show who s going to be in it. This anchors with the story. Also little pictures are linked to the article of the magazine. These have page numbers on them.

Layout
The contents pages normally have 2 to 3 columns. It also has featured articles and a message from the editor. This message from the editor also welcomes new readers to the magazine and what it is about. It has regular features, editor’s features. Normally a magazine will have 20 features and 20 regular articles. However this can vary depending on the size of the magazine. The text is size 11 point always and this is content throughout the contents page. This makes it easier to read and more eye catching. Between each section there is a space (line gap)

Credits/Contact information
Also the magazine has credits on the contents page such as credits for the photographer for taking the image on the front page of the magazine. Also it has a website/email/phone number/address. These are all contact details for a reader to get in touch if necessary. The website is usually located on the bottom of the contents page because it is the least important.

Page number
The page number always comes before the text.  Followed by a few words for example the artists name or the ambigious texts to intingue the reader in either bold or capitals, the average font size is 12/13 point.

A subline is after this, this tells you a more specific detail about the article in a samller and roman font (no bigger than 11 point)

Codes and Conventions of Magazine Front Covers

In today's lesson we were given 5 magazine to analysis the code and conventions such as:

Mast head

The magazine title, In an Unique font.
Top left/Along the top - This is the positioning statement. 

If it is a well known magazine the title can be partly covered. 

Bar code 

bottom right

price/date/website/issue number

Buzz word

Advertising free new gifts

Puffs

Are located near the bottom of the magazine.

Images

Central, big image with plain background. The picture text cohesion, this uses same colour as text. The text ankers the image and goes around the image

Cover-lines

Cover-lines are down the side and small pictures correspond other text. The main coverline goes with main image to cover the main text

Colour scheme

The colour scheme is simple. There is 4 to 5 different colours used. The colours do not clash and they are eye catching.The colour also helps clarify the genre of the magazine and makes it clear to the reader. 

Positioning statement
The statement beneath the header.

Coverlines all in the same style of font

Most music magazines have the same colour scheme of 3/4 main colours. This makes the magazine stand out to its target audience.

Only a few fonts are used:

Serfs (with hooks)

Times new roman (without hooks)

Arial

Logo's
Sometimes logo's are placed partially behind the main picture which can make the magazine look better however, only magazines with very well known logos can do this because everyone will already know what the logo looks like.