Plan

In order to carry out my coursework i need to create a rough plan which i can follow.

The Preliminary Task.

I need to create a front page cover of a school/college magazine, which needs to feature a image of a student in a medium close up plus appropriately laid out text and a masthead. I also need to create a mock up of a contents page.

Analysis of Existing Products:

In order to get a rough idea of the kind of cover i need to create i will have to look at and analyse the following magazines:

1. Spin

2. Q

3. NME

Audience Research:

I will also carry out some audience research which will consist of asking random members of the public a range of questions which will include the following:

Do you read magazines? If so, which ones?

Why do you read these magazines?

If you were to read a music/fashion magazine what kind of thing would you like to be featured on the front cover and within the magazine itself.

etc

Research - Magazines

In order to carry out my research i aim to pose questions to consumers of the magazine industry. To do this i'm going to create a short list of questions to ask and those who respond with in depth answers, i plan to delve deeper and find out why they like/think how they do and what they do and don't like about the magazine industry.

I will also try to use different methods of gathering information whether it be using my Facebook account and asking my friends on there or approaching random people on the street.

I believe this will give me a diverse range of answers of which i can then use to aid me in my project.

Do you buy magazines? If so, what magazine do you buy?

Rating myself as an Interviewer.

I didn't really ask that many questions but the ones that i did i believe i managed quite well. It would have been easier if i weren't interviewing with another person as we both had ideas and questions we wanted to put across. I used my initiative and where an answer could be extended i asked further questions to extend the interviewees input.

Overall, i think that i did reasonably well.

Target Audience For Own Courswork

Alyssa is your average 18 year old teenage girl who enjoys partying, drinking and keeping up to date on the latest fashion and music. She spends most of her time listening to her music via her ipod and ipod dock, blasting out her favourite songs for the whole house to hear. She studies fashion at sixth form which is a keen interest of hers. Although she studies hard, Alyssa enjoys the occasional night out, drinking, socialising or just generally not being able to remember what happened the night before. Her room is covered in pictures of herself and her friends, film posters featuring good looking A list celebrities.

Audience Research (Music Magazine)

MOJO (The music magazine)

April 2006 - £3.95

This magazine is aimed towards a typical punk rocker or for someone interested in the history of rock music. The magazine itself has quite a few 'old' musicians featured inside such as Van Morrison and Morrissey.

The front cover suggests that it can be purchased by either males or females but i think it is more directed towards men. Although this is so, there is a lot of pink inside the magazine itself and on the front cover (all of the main stories are in pink down the sides).

However, the kind of people that will buy it will depend on whats on the front. On this particular issue, at the top of the front cover there is a story about Morrissey which has a quotation of "YES, IT'S TRUE I AM IN LOVE...". Which i believe males may not be particularly interested in reading so could be bought by the female population.

Quite a lot of the pictures featured inside the magazine are in monochrome black and white. This suggests that perhaps the image is timeless and that what is in the picture is classic.

I think that target age of the reader would be 20+ as the stories featured include quite a lot of old artists that perhaps a younger generation may not have heard of.

Brainstorming Ideas - Practical

I want to be able to expand my media vocabulary and to be able to use it effectively in a piece of writing.

I would like to work alone.

From the example that we watched (voices from the past) we have come to the conclusion that it is at about a level 3 mark so about 41 out of 60. This is because the beginning was a tad slow. Whereas the ending added tension.

Media Ownership

oligopoly - means a very small elite owning a large global company. The people that own these are known as 'oligarchs'.

synergy - to market a particular film/celebrity in order to maximise the profit and audience size.

The potential disadvantages for the consumer:

• higher prices as the market is owned by the same people (Prices Too Full Just Like The Pages)
• similar layouts, stories and ways in which they advertise (Baa Baa Baa Boring)

The audience as both consumer and producer (the internet is a good example of this e.g. wikipedia)

regional representation of Liverpool

looks like a cult with children burning wood, like a little bonfire.

music creates a sad feel!

loads of children

looks like a run down city

harassing an old man! crucifix?

crazyman with crss

running towards window.. music changes when title comes on.

dark colours

phone ringing

lots of silverware

wealthy?

loads of cleaner walking somewhere

downbeat

preist working with congregation for years, hes having a breakdown now though

crisis point and cant take it anymore.. thats the man with the crucifix

sound -

bells ringing

gloomy' music then starts and you can hear ot over the bell ringing

can hear the children playing with one another.. music sounds a bit more 'upbeat' although i would still class the music as gloomy

quite churchy music with the bells ringing in the song

then hear a man screaming as he runs towards the church.. can hear his scream echoing and then title 'crashes' onto the screen.

different music starts as cleaners come onto the screen.

mise en scene -

gloom - in church

slow moving shots to express the mans feelings and mood.

can see that hes been in a church as, as he walks out he has a crucifix in his hands nd the church is in the background/

children burning wood outside the church

dark 'shadowed lighting'

man is central of shot the majority of the time. maybe to emphasise his importance in the clip.

when the music stops.. it gets a tad brighter.

dark colours used, maybe because theyre in a church.

screaming doesn't match with the visuals