Analysis of Prelin Task

Front Cover and Contents Page of Pre-lin Task:

Overall I think the pre-lin task gave me a better understanding of the final outcome that I have to complete of the music magazine. I have found out that it is very important that I have a magazine that is relatable and appeals to to my target audience. I have to create a magazine that entertains and forfills there needs when they read a music magazine.

As a Pre-lin task I had to create a school Magazine which will be read by Teachers, Pupils and their parents.  It was a long process because I have to make many decisions of what will attract Readers to the magazine. I firstly created my font which I made on Photoshop.  I chose a font that stood out and this font was very fun and unique and it have an edger appeal to the Magazine. I then changed the effect of the Writing by adding an outer glow, with a darker bolder line around the font. I then added the color Blue, as Blue is a versatile color as it appeals both Boys and Girls.  While creating the font, there was servail layers of the font, as I was continuously changing the Bold-ness and outer flow of the Font until I found the perfect Balance of Boldness and outer Glow. 

I then had to go around Acland Burghley School to take servial pictures that could be featured in my school Magazine.  I wanted to get images of pupils in their normal school environment; therefore I took pictures of Pupils in Class rooms doing work. Then I wanted to get pictures of the school to show where lessons and other fun activities are taken place and this is why I took photographs of the School Hall and the Football pitch. While taking pictures I also had to get a range of different shots such as Long shots and mid shots to give more of an effect to each of the pictures by taking a range of different shots. 

Once all my photos had been taken, I then uploaded all the photos onto Iphoto, this allowed me to view and inspect the photos I took to determine the best ones to use on my blog.  On Iphoto I got the chance to edit the photos. On some photos I cropped the background of the image as it was not needed. On other photos I edited the photo by lightening the photo or darking the photo to give the photo a better image. 

Once my photos were uploading I then had to make my front cover. To do this I had to add my font which I had already chosen and make this my Masterhead. Then I had to add one of the images as my main image. I chosen my mid shot image because this type of image is better as it gives the audience a closer look to the image.  I then added the strapline to the top of the magazine which additional information such as the school website. Once All the edits had been made my font cover was completed.

Once my font cover was completed, I then had to create my contents page. To do so I had to add the same master head to show consistency to the magazine. This also adds a professional feel. I then labelled the pages with the numbers, this is so it is easier for the audience to navigate around the magazine and to find specific pages they want. If the audience cannot find pages that they want because it doesnt have a clear structure of heading and numbered pages it will cause annoyance tothe audience. This may result in the audience not buying the magazine again. Once this was complete I then added images to give the magazine a lighter feel so that it wasnt all text based, this part of the process appeals more to the pupils.

Orginal Phots of Primlin task

For this Task, we had to go around Acland Burghley School to take pictures for our Prelin Task which is creating the Front cover and Contents page for a school magazine. We took photos in different locations around the school so that the target audience of the magazine which are teachers, students and parents can see images which are relatable and be identified to the school.

While taking different photos there where many things that I had to take into consideration in order to get a shot that represents and gives an image of the school. These things were:

• Lighting: In order for my picture to be of a good quality the light balance had to be clear in order for the focus of the photo to be seen.  Also, if I wanted a photo to have a specific effect I had to create it. For example, if I wanted a shadow in my picture I would have to get an angle of the shot that represents a shadow being inside the photo.
• Angle: While taking these photos I wanted to get each photo at different angle shots to make each shot look different and for each shot to give of different view points. To help me do this I used Close up, Mid-shots and Long shots to create a different feeling for each photo. By having a long Shot it allowed more of the shot to be in my picture giving the audience more in the picture by showing surrounding. I have used a close up shot of the Acland Burghley sign because I wanted to get the specific details on the board so that the audience can see it and also because Acland Burghley is the main focus of my task, I have to get an apropiate shot of the school name and sign as this is relevant. Also I took photos from different angles such as straight on angle and at side angles.

In some of the photos I found that the lighting came out a little dark, therefore in some of the shots were lightened in order to make the images have a better quality of light in them. As having a dark effect on the photo's gives of a different feel. I wanted the pictures of Acland Burghley to represent the school postively and having dark photos gives a dark negative feel.

During this task, I came over many challenges as children would not behave while taking the shot as they would do funny faces which depurpose the use of the photo as we wanted to catch children in there natural working environment. Therefore we had to take less photos with children in as many children did misbehave which was very disppointing as We wanted childen in most of our shots however over-all I believe we took good images of the school as my images shows a variety of different places in school giving the audience of the magazine a better pictures of what the school has to offer them.

Masterhead Research

This is my masthead researched. As there are many popular music magazines, I wanted to researched the different ones and how the typography that is used for the masthead resembles what is inside the magazine. Each masthead is used from different typography as each magazine appeals to a different type of audience. Also if all magazine's used the same typography all magazines will be the same as none will have a unique sense of style to them.  From the mastheads I researched, there are many different designs that make each one of the mastheads unique and this includes:

• Fonts- The font is usually based on who the magazine is targeted too. This is because if the magazine is aimed at women, the font will be very feminine and soft. However if the magazine was aimed at men the font would be very masculine and very over-powering to the feminine text. If the text is very childlike with many twirls, the font represents that the magazine is based at a younger audience.
• Colour- The colour of the  font can also represent who the magazine is targeted to as and this is due to the type of colour being used. If a music magazine font is pink it is most likely that the magazine is based at girls as pink is seen to be a "girly" colour, and if the font is a darker colour such as blue it is seen to be targeted at men as blue is seen to be a "masculine" colour.

Uses and Gratifications

Content Analysis of NME and Top of the Pops

As part of the Content Analysis, I had to research what was inside the magazines to see how they were advertising products for the target audience of the magazine. In order for the advertising to be successful, the magazine must advertise and market the correct products so that the target market is attracted. This is important because if it is a product that not many people in the target audience is attracted to then it will not sell. This will show that the advertising has been unsuccessful due the lack of demand for the product. For example, selling sports wear in 'Top Of the Pops' magazine is a product that doesnt appeal to younger girls who have interests in Justin Bieber and makeup. Sport wears beign advertised can be deemed unnapropiate for the target audience the magazine appeals to.

Top of the Pops: 

As the genre for Tops of the pops is young teens, the advertisement price of products is considerably low due to the target audience not having a lot of money as they are still in education. Therefore the products that are advertised must be within the price range so the target audience are able to buy.  “Always” period pads is the leading advertisement and this is because young girls need this product. I believe this is a good product to advertise because it is apropriate product that relates to young girls, it also isnt very expensive.

Comparison Of NME and Tops of the Pops front covers

I want to find existing music magazines to see how they have designed there front cover  to appeal to there target audience. This is so I can get ideas and inspirations for my front cover. There are many ways in which music magazines can appeal to there targeted audience and this can be by the use of images that are used, typography and colours. Therefore by researching a existing music magazine, I will gain a better understand on how they attracted there target audience.

I researched the popular music magazines called NME and Top of the Pops. Both are very popular magazines which attract a different type ofaudience to each magazine. NME promotes Rock and Punk music while Top of the Pops mostly promotes Pop music to the younger generation. I have created a table for the similarities and differences for both contents and Front cover page.

Differences and Similarities on The front cover:

Similarities	Differences
Both Magazines have quite a plain background colour to not over-power the Main image and main Headline. White is a balanced colour, and is very simple and gives off clean cut images of both magazines. White is not a bias colour, and can work with any type of image which is on the front colour of the Magazine.	Colours: Tops of the Pops uses a variety of bright and colorful colours to attract there audience who is young teenage girls. The colours are symbolic to the target audience because most teenage girls likes the colours pink and purple, and this attracts them to read the magazine However NME uses Bold appeal to symbolizes the range of different artists which are shown in the magazine. Red, black and white are contrast colours which attract the readers to read the headlines which are on the Magazine. Red is used as it is a bold colour which indicates maturity to its readers and this corresponds to the magazines target audience who are of an older audience.  Black and white fonts are use to  the magazine so that font is easy readable so this makes there target audience buy the Magazine.
Both magazines uses Main images to attract there readers into buying the magazine. Tops of the pops has a large image of Teen pop sensation Justin Bieber. I think that having Justin on the front of the cover attracts the audience but his fan base is mainly of teenage girls, therefore the image will attract teenage girls reading this specific magazine. NME uses a main image of 2 people from the Group Oasis. Oasis is an older generation band whose main audience is off the older generation, therefore NME know that there target audience are more likely to read this magazine, and not Pick top of the Pops due to there audience not relating to a new generation of newer pop stars. I think both magazines uses images of a different generation pop stars because they have different audiences, and there audience will like who the Magazine is interviewing. I think that both pop stars relates to the Magazines audience because both there target audience are at ages of the Pop stars and they find the stars relatable.	Both magazines uses one main image, however Top of the Pops has a variety of different Artists pictures around the magazine. These images are a lot smaller then the main image, as these images are slotted around the magazine.  This is used so that there target audience can look at the pictures and know that there is an article about that Artist inside the magazine. However NME only has the main image on the front, and this is because the older generation of the magazines likes to read articles, however the younger generation prefers to look at pictures with a small amount of text.  Both magazines cater’s to the audience by doing this, and this keeps there audience enjoying what is inside both magazines.

Content Analysis and Target Audience

This week we have been analysing two magazines, each of which we have been analsying the front covers and the context thats inside. My group Analysed 'Tops of the Pops' and 'NME'.

The first magazine we analysed was Top of the Pops. The front Cover has a main image which is of Teen pop sensation Justin Bieber. Then around the main image, there are many different features which are included in this weeks issue. This is to give an insight to the audience of whats inside the magazine. Inside the magazine there are plenty of articles and images to keep Audeince entertained. The main article is based on Justin Bieber, and this article is a 2 page spread. The articles also   includes several images of Justin.

 All magazines have advertising and in this particular magazine it is advertising Make-up  and "Always" period pads.From this it is easy to identify that the target Audience is young girls - young adults. There are also 3 letter pages which girls can right into with any problems or worries that they are suffering from, which helps the target audience solve these issues. This is relatable to the target audience as young girls of 17 have many personal issues that they may not be able to confide in anyone and therefore find it easier to ask the magazine for help.

However apart from advertising Make-up and Period Pads, there are only a few more advertising pages which consist of Cinema tickets, A computer game and the lastest ringtones to dowload. The reason for the limited advertising is because Top of the Pops know that there target Audience will not have a lot of money and cannot afford to buy all these products, therefore there is no need to advertise other products which they will not buy.

I think this magazine is benefical to young girls because it gives them the latest celebrity news which they could be interested in. It also has a segment of the latest fashion Trends and useful tips of applying makeup. An additional extra for the Audience is stickers of the latest celebrities and quotes. I would say that this magazine satisfies the audiences requirments.

The next magazine we analyzed was NME. The main attractive feature of this magazine is the interview with the band Oasis. This is because it is the biggest feature on the page and believes that this is what people will be attracted to and want to read about so therefore they buy the magazine. I think that this is quite a boring front cover because it doesnt not mention other features of the magazine. It also lacks a range of colours which doesnt add excitment or enjoyment to the magazine.

However, inside the magazine is full of articles, images, advertisements and other features. In these magazine there are a variety of different advertisements such as; Games, Music concerts, soundtracks and new technology. From this I feel that the target audience is 16+ as they may be interested in it. Also from the captions on the front cover which say "Rocks, Messiest and Bust-ups" appeal to an older audience.

In this magazine there are a variety of different types of music from Oasis, Florence and The machine and The killers. This shows the diverse mix of music they are advertising. I like the fact they publish a range of music because it appeals to more people to buy the magazine instead of the magazine focusing on a specific genre type of music and only attracting a certain type of audience.

I think this magazine benefits its Target Audience because it informs the audience when the latest Gigs are and the newest Albums which are being realeased. This is what the target audience is interested in. I also feel that the magazine has lots to give audience because there are plenty of different articles and informations about these different bands and solo singers.