Friday 30th September:
This is my first diary entry! So far I've finished my preliminary task which was to create draft magazine front cover and contents page. I found it difficult at first because it's been a while since I'd used photoshop. However once I remembered the basics it became easier. With my magazine I tried ot stick to the typical conventions of house style and other areas on what you'd expect to see in a magazine. I also tried to keep my theme consistant.
I've also completed my analysis of three front covers, three contents pages and three double page spreads. This was a usefuk task as it helped me remember the key conventions of a magazine and to also teach me new ones. It also highlighted how the style changes to fit to the type of music the
magazine represents.
Monday 10th October:
I have created a poll on my blog to help gather information on what my friends and others expect from music magazines. My results will help me when it comes to me making my own magazine. I'm also starting my proposal, I think I'm going to do it in movie maker with a voice over as all my posts so far have mostly been written. I need to book my photo shoot but I'm not sure what type of magazine I want to do yet.
Monday 17th October:
I have written the script to my proposal and intend to make it into a premier document to highlight the use of different programmes and ways of presenting posts. My proposal discusses how I will create my magazine and presents my idea of how I want my magazine to look. I have also been adding to my codes and conventions prezi so when it's complete I can upload it to my blog. I also extended my poll dates to try and encourage more people vote htis way my results will be easier to analyse and I can draw a conclusion from them.
Thursday 27th October:
Today I created a mood board and uploaded a video on the analysis of my reader profile. My mood board highlights inspirations to my magazine hence the Nirvana, Strokes, Vaccines, A Day To Remember and Mumford and Sons album artwork and icons. I also included famous faces such as Dave Grohl and Travis Barker which are role models and very influential musicians to anyone with a passion for music. My mood board also shows different iconic fashion items which are iconic to the genre of music. The skinny jeans; worn by everyone but very popular within indie music. As well as the doc martens boots which highlight the care free nature of the genre.
I also did a video analysing the results of my polls. I chose to do it in the format of a video as I wanted to highlight the use of different presentation materials. My video displays what I expect my target audience to be and how I made these assumptions based on the results. Before recording my video I wrote a script so that I wasn't nervous or making it up as I went along. This made it easier and helped the recording to run smoothly.
Sunday 29th October:
I have looked up colour connotations to see the meaning behind the colours used and how they can effect the audience. I have learnt the connection our brain makes with certain colours without us consciously doing anything. The colours I will use for my magazine will be iconic towards the genre of music.
Furthermore I drafted titles for my magazine and decided on the name 'Amplified' instantly as it has connotations of loud music and I think it relates well to the genre of music suited to my magazine. The Holes in the letters will be filled with speakers and the 'i's will be guitar necks. These iconic features will instantly give away what my type of magazine mine is.
Monday 7th November:
I have added my name ideas to my blog which shows that I considered other options before picking my title. Originally the format was in photoshop and then jpeg, however there was a problem uploading so I had to print screen and then crop it in to a powerpoint slide before uploading it via scribd. I presented the names inside a drum to maintain the theme of music. I've also updated my colour connotations and have started designing my front cover, contents and double page spread so hopefully I will have them finished and scanned in soon.
Tuesday 8th November:
I have a copy of the contract needed for my model to sign. This means that I can now plan and book my photoshoot and start the production of my magazine. I've also edited my proposal in premiere this means that it'll be more eyecatching and thoroughly presented. The name of my artist is 'Mia Shaw' and her music has no limitations which will be the name of her first album.
Monday 14th November:
I have added my sell lines to my blog this means I know what to put on my front cover and what to put in my contents page. I made my sell line ideas page on prezi the online presentation software as its easy to create a spider diagram layout. I chose this layout as it's easy to read.
Tuesday 15th November:
I have added my schedule done in the format of a table in microsoft word. This denotes the work I have done and still need to do in order to complete the planning for my magazine. I have also scanned in my front cover draft so now I have a guideline to work off when I start producing my work on adobe photoshoot. I updated my proposal on premiere and have uploaded it to my blog. This is a better way of presenting a proposal as it also displays to the audience a visual idea as well as a spoken piece about what I want to achieve.
Tuesday 22nd November:
I have added my front cover draft for my magazine, this means I have something to work from when I come to making my front cover on adobe photoshop. I have also uploaded my contents page and I have been using it as a guide to make my own page on adobe photoshoot. However I have already made some changes to make it more origninal and differ from other magazines, as before it looked too similar to NME. I have also uploaded my 3 drafts for my double page spread as I intend to create a long article on my artist inside my magazine.
Monday 28th November:
I have made a camtasia video on how I made a logo for my magazine. It's a iconic feature which I will use to help my audience to recognise my magazine. It will also be the button for Smart phone apps! I have added it to my contents page in the suscription box at the bottom. I got inspiration to make this button by looking at the Facebook logo.
Tuesday 29th November:
I have added my model release and re-made my button as photoshop froze yersterday deleting my progress. I'm now focusing on finishing my contents page before my photoshoot. I shall also start the layout for my front cover and double page spreads so that all I have to put in is the pictures.
Monday 5th December:
Today I added the pictures to my contents page. I staggered them through the centre of the page sort of like a staircase, with the smallest story at the bottom and the biggest story at the top. This signifies the hierarchy of importance and recognition for my audience. On the left side of my page I added a band index, which states what bands will be in my magazine. It's easy to follow and a quicker way for my audience to reach the stories they'll be interested in.
Tuesday 13th December:
My contents page is finished and I have startedn my front cover. The main image is from my model for my double page spread. I have included sell lines. The masthead for my magazine is different from my design and is likely to change as I am still not convinced about whether I like it or not. I have stuck to the colour scheme of red and grey as they're connotations of indie music magazine.
Friday 16th December:
Today I finished my double page spreads and have uploaded all my pages on to the blog. My article is not yet complete and wish to add another double page spread to give further information about my artist. I will add further drafts after Christmas.
Monday 9th January:
First lesson back after Christmas. I spent a majority of the lesson creating my third double page. I drafted teh rest of my article in microsoft opposed to typing it straight into adbe photoshop. I did this because I wanted to avoid spelling and grammatical errors. We have been set our first evaluation question so I need to start considering how I'm going to answer this question. I will need to look back over my research task and look through my planning stages to help me answer it.
Tuesday 17th January:
This lesson I decided to change the colour scheme of my whole magazine as I didn't think it complemented my front cover as much as it could have. I removed the red lines and the gradient from the background. Now behind my model there is white and a shadow spreads towards the corners of my magazine. I think this looks effective as it is like there is a spotlight on my artist which really emphasises the fact that she is a iconic star. I have deleted lots of my sell lines and have moved them all to one side of my page. The colour of my sell lines is now a plum-ish colour. We have also been set evaluation question two to do throughout the week therefore this will involve thining about my audience and the social group that I think will be influence and influence the production of my magazine the most.
Monday 23rd January:
I updated the rest of my magazine to conform to the colour scheme of my front cover. This way magazine has a consistency. I also asked a few teachers if I could take there picture so that I could add an editors note. I chose a teacher to do this job as I needed someone to look realistic and of the right age. I updated the subscription box accordingly. I also added a small line under my article titles so that the audience know what the story is about. After today my contents page is now complete.
Tuesday 6th February:
I received audience feedback on the updated parts of my magazine page and asked them to compare my previous work to see which they preferred. Luckily my changes were seen as improvments so I knew I was going in the right direction when re-creating my magazine. Some things I was reluctant to change like the colour scheme as I figured it did hold strong conventions of Indie Rock. However I do think the darker plum colour complements my front cover better than the vibrant red. The vibrant red still features across my contents page and double page spreads as well as the plum colour as I didn't want my magazine to look gothic. It did still need to hol the indie and rock vibe.
Monday13th February:
Today is the first day of the half term and deadline for final draft is a week from today therefore I am trying to complete my pages. My 3rd double page spread needs the most work as I am still writing a lot of the article and need to decide on what pictures suit the page. Finding pictures will be difficult as I've already used quite a lot of my favourites throughout the magazine. For a double page spread pictures help to split up the text so positioning of them is also really important.
Monday 20th February:
Today I printed my final piece and started working on recreating my evaluations. I had a problem with one of my double page spread as it didn't save on my USB so I've had to re-do my improvments in my spare time and hope to submit it along with my other pieces when it's complete. Once my main article was printed a friend proof-read my article as after looking at it for so long things tend to blur together. There are a few small errors and repeated questions therefore I will need to go over my work and change some questions. I've also been advised to add more pull quotes as the text is all quite together.
Tuesday 21st February:
I started making prezis of my evaluations as this is a better way of presenting them. Above is a prezi which helps to display what audience my piece is aimed at. I chose to do a prezi as they're easy to create and to use afterwards. Prezi is a online and interactive software which makes it more beneficial and fun for the audience as they get to participate in the presentation. For my media music magazine coursework evaluation task I thought it was important to try and answer teach and every question as detailed as I possibly could and I found that prezi is a good way to do this. This is because you can choose your own layout and set the paths to where you want them to go. This is why I feel it's better then powerpoint.
Monday 27th February:
I continued to edit my magazine as I still wasn't completely satified. I also decided to make a video using the software cam studio which basically records every move you make on screen. My video was displaying how to cut out a image from a back ground. I thought this would be useful to show the audience what to do. However when it came to posting it on my blog the file was apparently too big. I am currently working on a way to resolve this problem.
Monday 5th March:
Today I uploaded my audience feedback slides. Audience feedback is an important part of my music magazine coursework this is because it allows me to get a insight in to what improvements needs to be made. I collected this feedback by leavuing my magazine pages on screen and asking members of my class to comment by using the post note tool. I got some constructive criticism as well as some complements for my work.
Monday 12th March:
Today I uploaded my final piece which means that my big final changes to my magazine have been made. Although I think there are still some small things I shall edit it will not be extremly noticable. Looking back at my preliminary task I can see that my skills and confidence has grown which means I have been successful in completing the ASDAN side course which will help me get UCAS points when applying for unis. I measured my ASDAN work by collecting screenshots from my work.
Monday 19th March:
Today I focused on improving my evaluations. I recorded a voiceover so that I could make one of my music magazine evaluation question tasks on the programme adobe premiere. I am only going to do one evaluation question on adobe as I am not very confident with the programme and feel I will generate better work by using other softwares. I have created a few slides within the premiere document which will relate to what I am saying in the voice over which I need to record.
Monday 26th March:
Today I recorded my voice over for my adobe premiere video. I added it in and edited what I was saying. I then focused on zooming in on focus points so that the audience new which specific part of my music magazine I was talking about. I also finished my final evaluation which was a microsoft powerpoint presentation. It consists of images as well as texts which will help the audience.
Monday 2nd April:
Today I updated my blog and added all my evaluations. I organised by posts and made sure everything was as detailed as I could possibly make it. I will most likely check my blog again and go over and update my really old posts. However for now my work is complete. My last task is to print out my final copy of the magazine.
