AS Media Studies Preliminary Task – School Magazine Front Page Proposal Form Target audience: (age range, interests) Although it is a school newsletter you still have to think about your audience and how to appeal to them. With my magazine I’m going to be aiming at 6 th formers so that is teenagers aged 16 to 18. This is quite a small age range but I think it would be easiest for me as I am within that age range so I have a large understanding of interests and styles that are expressed by people in this age range. People this age that are in the 6 th form are generally fairly academic so I will be able to make my magazine relatively mature as the academic people will be well spoken. Possible title ideas: (masthead / title block) What is your magazine going to be called? I have chosen to call my magazine ‘XI’ which is the number 6 in roman numerals. I have chosen this because the magazine is aimed at 6 th formers (hence the XI) and matches the ‘mature’ theme of the magazine that I am aiming for. Also the students in the 6 th form should be academic enough to be able to read the roman numerals. Main image: What will be the focal point of your front page, remember, your work “must include a photograph of a student in a medium close-up” The main photograph of the front page will be a medium shot of a student that will link to the main article of the magazine. Main cover line: What will be the main story? The main story will be about the success of one of the students of the school. Whether it is an academic achievement or an out of school achievement is yet to be decided. Additional key images: What other images will be on your front cover? Remember, it is a school magazine. On the front cover I am also going to have the logo of the school so that people who read it that are external to the school know what school’s magazine it is. I will not have any other pictures on the front cover as I do not want to over crowd it. Additional cover lines: Other features, stories or selling points which will be inside the magazine, these need to be audience appropriate. I will have 2 or 3 extra features on the front cover which will be the headlines of other main articles of the magazine. Typography: (style, size, colour of copy) Think about the writing and the style of the writing on your front page. The font I use will be Myriad pro as I think it is a nice professional font and easy to fill in. For the title and sub titles I will make the text bold and fill the text in with images of the school and students. I will try to keep a grey theme throughout the magazine. Background colour/image: What will be in the background, remember you don’t want to take the focus away from the main image. The background image will be a medium shot of a student with a plain background behind the student because the main focus of the cover will be of the student, not the background. Technical considerations: (equipment, setting, props, costume, lighting) Be realistic and creative, think about what you have access to and how you could use it. I will be keeping the front cover fairly simplistic so the background will be a simple colour or a slight gradient behind the picture of the student.
Transcript
AS Media Studies Preliminary Task – School Magazine Front Page Proposal Form
Target audience: (age range, interests)Although it is a school newsletter you still have to think about your audience and how to appeal to them.
With my magazine I’m going to be aiming at 6th formers so that is teenagers aged 16 to 18. This is quite a small age range but I think it would be easiest for me as I am within that age range so I have a large understanding of interests and styles that are expressed by people in this age range. People this age that are in the 6th form are generally fairly academic so I will be able to make my magazine relatively mature as the academic people will be well spoken.
Possible title ideas: (masthead / title block)What is your magazine going to be called?
I have chosen to call my magazine ‘XI’ which is the number 6 in roman numerals. I have chosen this because the magazine is aimed at 6th formers (hence the XI) and matches the ‘mature’ theme of the magazine that I am aiming for. Also the students in the 6th form should be academic enough to be able to read the roman numerals.
Main image:What will be the focal point of your front page, remember, your work “must include a photograph of a student in a medium close-up”
The main photograph of the front page will be a medium shot of a student that will link to the main article of the magazine.
Main cover line:What will be the main story?
The main story will be about the success of one of the students of the school. Whether it is an academic achievement or an out of school achievement is yet to be decided.
Additional key images:What other images will be on your front cover?Remember, it is a school magazine.
On the front cover I am also going to have the logo of the school so that people who read it that are external to the school know what school’s magazine it is. I will not have any other pictures on the front cover as I do not want to over crowd it.
Additional cover lines:Other features, stories or selling points which will be inside the magazine, these need to be audience appropriate.
I will have 2 or 3 extra features on the front cover which will be the headlines of other main articles of the magazine.
Typography: (style, size, colour of copy)Think about the writing and the style of the writing on your front page.
The font I use will be Myriad pro as I think it is a nice professional font and easy to fill in. For the title and sub titles I will make the text bold and fill the text in with images of the school and students. I will try to keep a grey theme throughout the magazine.
Background colour/image:What will be in the background, remember you don’t want to take the focus away from the main image.
The background image will be a medium shot of a student with a plain background behind the student because the main focus of the cover will be of the student, not the background.
Technical considerations:(equipment, setting, props, costume, lighting)Be realistic and creative, think about what you have access to and how you could use it.
I will be keeping the front cover fairly simplistic so the background will be a simple colour or a slight gradient behind the picture of the student.
Date line / issue number
Large main image of successful students to show people that they are a successful school in competitions.
Teaser story uses grabbing vocabulary to draw the audience in and want to read the article.
Secondary story also has adventurous vocabulary to draw audience in and
Address of the school in case someone out of the school reads it and wants to get in contact with the school.
Bright title to grab people’s attention. Bold so that everyone knows the name of the magazine.
Preliminary exercise: produce a front page and contents page of a school magazine. Front covers must include a
photograph of a student in a medium close-up with appropriately laid out text and use of an image manipulation program
(Photoshop).
Below start to sketch what the front cover of your newsletter will look like.
School logo
Portrait of Student.
Preliminary exercise: produce a front page and contents page of a school magazine. Front covers must include a
photograph of a student in a medium close-up with appropriately laid out text and use of an image manipulation program
(Photoshop).
Below start to sketch what the contents page of your newsletter will look like.
Large portrait image of school here.
Edited image of school logo.
Page numbers and contents of pages.
Extreme Close-Up (ECU)
Big Close-Up (BCU)
Close-Up (CU)
Medium Shot (MS)
Medium Close-Up (MCU)
Medium Long Shot (MLS)
Long Shot (LS)
Very Long Shot (VLS)
‘Over the Shoulder Shot’
Two Shot (any shot with two characters or objects equally framed)
Interviewee looks into space in the frame
Moving Subject Walks into Space
High Angle Shot (looking down)
Tilted Frame (Canted/Dutch Angle)
Low Angle Shot (looking up)
Front Cover
Contents
Brief
I was asked to create a front cover and contents page of a school magazine. It took me about 4 hours to make both of them and I had to take photos around the school and use these photos to effect when creating the two pages. I took 3 medium shots of a fellow Year 12 student and chose which one was best for the front cover. Overall I am please with my pages as I put a lot of effort into them and I think they meet my Target Audience. I intended to create two pages that looked quite professional as they were aimed at 6th formers who are generally quite professional and I think the outcome matches my target.
Research
For research I looked at another school’s magazine and analysed it and looked for features that I liked about it and I also looked for features that I didn’t think I should have put in my own magazine. From the research I had found out that the nicest magazines are fairly simplistic and the pages aren’t overloaded with information and images, especially loads of colours to avoid colour clash which is why I kept a fairly simplistic colour scheme and what images I did include, I would make some of them black and white.
Audience Research
For my Audience research I performed a questionnaire to 20 people within my Target Market of what they wanted to see in a School Magazine aimed at them. The results are below.
30%
20%10%
20%
20%
What is the most important factor of a School Magazine?
Very Informative
A Professional Design
Fun with Games andCrosswords
Event Information
Latest School Successes
How I edited my Images
I edited all of my images in different ways but for most of them I just made them black and white but here is what I did to a couple of them.
For this images I cropped it to the shape of my text and then made it black and white and added a white stroke to it which can’t be seen in this PowerPoint but can be on The Prospectus because of the grey background.
How I edited my Images
I did something more simple with this image as I just cropped around the edges and cut around the student and then placed in front of the background of my Front Cover but behind the text.
Conclusion
In conclusion I have learned a lot from creating these pages. I have learned a lot more features of Photoshop that I used to help me create my Magazine and I have also learned that making magazines takes a lot more time than I thought it would. I have learned that sometimes the simplest things are the best and I also learned that simple colour schemes look great against colour photos.
