The Simpsons Movie Photoshop Task

For this poster I made it on photoshop. I started this poster by adding a background from The Simpsons which is a cartoon sky. On my checklist I had to include an image of Homer, the movie title and the release date so I added these next by using layers so I could easily edit and move these objects. I also then added some cartoon donuts to fit with the theme of the poster. To get rid of the white background around Homer I used the magnetic lasso tool and the magic wand and chose the option of 'new layer via copy' to create the image without the white outlines and this made it look much better. It was really difficult to get rid of the white background on the release date though so I couldn't do this very well.

Next time to improve my work I could try and remove the white background better by spending more time trying to remove them or seeing if there are any more options to do so on photoshop. I have learnt a lot doing this task and it will help me to do my music magazine cover and preliminary task.

Magazine Institutions

Magazine Institutions

I have researched popular magazine institutions and this is the information I have found:

• IPC Media-This is one of the UK's leading magazines institutions and was founded in 1958. It sells over 350 million copies a year of its magazines and supplies magazine titles including NME, Marie Claire, TV Times and Pick Me Up. This shows that within magazine institutions they cover a lot of different themed magazines from music, womens, tv and fashion magazines so this magazine institution helps provide magazines for a lot of different target audiences.

• Bauer Media Group-This is a German company and is based in Hamburg. It operates in 15 countries worldwide and was founded in 1875.This magazine institution is mainly music and provides for Kerrang!, MOJO and Q. They annually turn over €2.129 Billion and produce 38 million copies of magazines a week.

• Emap-This was the second largest magazine institution in the UK and provided for names such as Kiss,Magic and Smash Hits but the company sold these magazines to Bauer and the company split up in December 2007.

• BBC-They offer a large range of different magazines and they vary from music to gardening to children's. They have provided for magazines such as Top Of The Pops and other pop magazines so this doesn't really fit my target audience as it's for children mainly age 11-15.

The magazine institution I would most like to produce my magazine would be Bauer as it is a very well-known institution and provides for rock music magazines such as Kerrang! which is my biggest inspiration for my music magazine. My magazine has a USP because it includes both bands that both Kerrang! and NME or Q would include so it would attract a large range of people depending on the content of that specific issue.

My magazine could be distributed in a lot of different ways too. It could be available at supermarkets and corner shops, available as an online download or to view on a website, the internet would be a good choice as I know my target audience are frequent internet users as I have carried out a reader profile, survey and looked at other magazines reader profiles. It could also be distributed as an app to use on a smartphone, this is also really popular with my target audience. The last idea I had is that it could be gave away for free at gigs that fit with the rock theme as the people there will be interested in that music and might really enjoy reading my magazine.

http://prezi.com/tosk5ymfou_e/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy</a>

My Reader Profile

My Reader Profile

To find out more about my target audience I need to create a reader profile. I created two surveys using survey monkey and to collect information from teenagers I put a link on twitter as the people who follow me are the same age as me and also like rock music like me so I thought this would be a good idea. I also got my friends to fill in a printed of version of my survey and went and asked around college too. I thought the most helpful way of collecting target audience information was by using social media so I will use this method again if I need to. 

 My first survey I created was about the magazine itself and this included questions such as 'What music magazines do you read?" and "How much money do you spend on a music magazine on average?" these questions helped me to understand what features my magazine needs to have to attract the readers. My second survey was about the actual reader and included questions such as "What do you do in your spare time?" and "Do you enjoy going to gigs or festivals in your spare time?"

 After I had collected all this information, I could now make my reader profile.

Here is a link to my survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XTXHH7Z

I asked a range of questions on my survey that I felt were most appropriate, I asked both qualitative questions such as "how often do you go to gigs" and "what features of a magazine do you find most appealing?" and quantitive questions like "how old are you?" and "how much money would you pay for a music magazine?" too. This gave me a larger range of results and feedback and all contribute to me gathering a better understanding of my target audience and will allow me to construct my magazine even better. I planned what questions to ask really carefully as I needed each question to be necessary and appropriate to give me valid responses to help construct my magazine well.

My reader profile has helped me a lot in now realising what themes and articles I could include. I know what movies, gigs, food and shows are most popular so this could be an idea to write an article about in my magazine or to create a puff for free tickets to a certain festival I now know my target audience would be interested in. My target audience really like logos with reds, blacks and blues I've noticed so I know I need to include these colours a lot in the scheme. The gender is mainly female but it also appeals to males too so I need my magazine to be gender neutral but can focus on mainly females though. My readers would also mainly be students so I could offer something such as student discount off my magazine price to help them out and make it stand out and be different compared to a popular magazine such as Kerrang! who don't offer this, I could use this as an USP.

Reader Profiles

Proposal Forms - Potential Problems

Proposal Form - Advanced

Proposal Form - Basic

My First Double Page Spread Deconstruction

My First Contents Page Deconstruction

Contents Page Deconstruction

The contents page overall has a very messy layout; this shows that it appeals to the target audience of teenagers. It lays the articles out really well into sections so it’s really easy for the readers to find. The masthead is located across the top third and says, “In Rock Sound this Month.”  The masthead isn’t particularly large or eye-catching but it’s in capitals and in bold white.

It includes some necessary information on the page. It has a website link on the bottom of the page (rocksound.tv) and includes the page number (5); these are both situated on the bottom right third. However no information such as an issue number or date are included on the contents page which is unusual.

There is a lot of text and numbers used on the contents page; this is good because it lays out exactly where the articles are. The colour of the text is yellow, black and white; these contrast really well with the red background. It is laid out in sections that include subheadings, for example, there is a section located in the top third just including articles that were featured on the front cover. Down the right third there are articles all about new bands and along the bottom third there is a section all about live reviews and album reviews.

There are various fonts and sizes used across the contents page; this is so certain articles and areas of the page stand out more than others. There are larger sized fonts used for subheadings and then much smaller fronts used in places for things such as website links; they also aren’t in bold unlike the main text.

There are five images used on this page and they are all of bands that are featured in this issue of the magazine; some pictures larger than others.  The size of the image suggests how important a certain band is to this issue. There is text on the pictures that tells us who the band on that picture is and includes captions; so these images are anchored.

The composition is very messy overall but this appeals to teenagers. There is framing used around the images and subheadings; some square and the others circular.  Layering is used for the images; they are laid over each other. The text sections are very organised and neat however. The images have a lot of relation to the text so they are used well.

There are many puns and jokes used; this relates back to the target audience. It’s good that puns are used as it makes the magazine more enjoyable and light-hearted to read too. There is no use of alliteration or assonance however.  

The colours used make the magazine really stand out and the effect of these colours is to draw attention to articles from the reader and can even encourage them to buy the magazine.

The same four colours, (red, yellow, black and white) are used on the contents page. The colours of the images aren’t particularly bold; they feature quite dull colours but the bold colours of the frame are what attracts people to look at them. 

My Rock Magazine Moodboard

My Moodboard

This is my moodboard that I created. This shows key images and themes that will be displayed in my genre of magazine. It includes bands who are popular with my target audience such as Bring Me The Horizon, All Time Low etc. It includes band logos who they will like such as Nirvana as well as music festival names such as Reading and Leeds which a lot of my readers would have attended this summer or previous years. I also included fashion items popular with teenagers as well as social media sites such as Twitter and Tumblr which I know are very popular with my target audience of teenagers as I use them very frequently every day. Finally I also included a picture of a gig as I know my readers will go to gigs and festivals a lot and enjoy doing that in their free time. I chose these images as I thought that this collection sums up my magazine very well and gives a really good general feel to what it will be like overall.

My First Front Cover Deconstruction

You Tube Videos Of Bands I Want To Feature In My Magazine

You Tube videos:

Here are five examples of popular bands that I know my target audience will like. My magazine genre is rock but this also includes varying styles of that music genre from screamo to punk rock. I think rock is a really good genre to choose because it can include so many different types of rock and appeal to so many. This is what magazines such as Kerrang! do. These examples below show how my magazine will vary a lot in music style so will hopefully appeal to more people but reach out to my target audience as a whole. Hopefully watching these will help you understand my magazine genre more:

Initial ideas

I need to start thinking of ideas for my music magazine, so I decided to google similar music magazines or find magazine styles that I liked. I found a couple of examples and doing this has given me a lot of inspiration for my front cover.

The magazine that has inspired me the most for my music magazine is Kerrang! This is because the music genre is the same as mine, (Rock) and I know it is a very popular music magazine with people my age which is my target audience so I want to use it to give me inspiration for my magazine. I also really like the bold colours used such as black, whites, reds and yellows and I think they really stand out to attract the reader. The text is mostly all in capitals too so it is really in your face which is what teenagers prefer. I think this works really well. The messy style layout looks really good too and it shows a similar layout to the one I am thinking of using too.


                                       


Another really good example of a magazine I found is Rocksound. I am the age of my target audience and I find this magazine appealing myself. Like Kerrang!, it also has a very chaotic style layout with text and images all over. It uses varied text sizes and font styles which is very eye-catching and works very well. It uses a lot of blues and whites which contrast very well. Unlike Kerrang, not a lot of this text is particularly bold or in capitals so I think the text on the Kerrang cover stands out much more. It doesn't really feature many pictures on the front cover though; I think using a lot of pictures like the Kerrang! one is more appealing. I do really like the main image though, I like the staged, photo shoot style. The most helpful thing about looking at this cover is the text styles and layout.






The final magazine I looked at was NME. This overall looks much more professional compared to the other two magazines I have looked at. I really like the colour scheme used for this issue with the white and pink; it really works well in highlighting certain areas of the page and text. I really like the pose The Strokes are doing on this cover; it covers the full page and is really eye-catching and they are all dressed in black so this makes the pink text pop even more. One thing I don't like about this cover is the way the other articles are laid out in the columns of text underneath. I think the messy layout with more images works a lot better especially for my target audience. The other two magazines were for my exact target audience but NME is also for adults so it would be more sensible to go with more of a theme from the other two but the colour scheme and main photo of this NME cover has helped me a lot.

Introduction

I will be using this blog to show how my coursework is progressing throughout the year. I will include relevant research and ideas for my music magazine too.

The aims of my AS Media Studies course are to: 

• Enhance candidates enjoyment and appreciation of the media and its role in their daily lives;
• Develop critical understanding of the media through engagement with media products and concepts and through the creative application of practical skills;
• Explore production processes, technologies and contexts.
• Become independent in research skills and their application.