OCR Media Studies – AS Level

Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media

Planning & Research

Name: Jonathan SheehanCandidate Number: 2127Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

Set Brief - Print

Music Magazine – Production

Preliminary Task Progression and Planning & Research

Section 1 – Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task Progression– EvidenceFront CoverStep-by-step

I started with a yellow gradient background to match the school colours.

Next I added all of the small features such as the barcode and the social networking information, the barcode also held the date and the issue.

The next lesson I Created and added my masthead with the sub heading, I also made the main story heading and the sub heading to that.

This was quite a big step for me, adding the photo and using the quick selection tool, inverting and rasterizing the layer so that the individual in the photo could be placed without the background.

There were the final stages to my preliminary front cover, I added the puff promotion And exclusive story as space fillers to also make the magazine seem more vibrant and busy. I am happy with the finished product.

In this lesson I created my cover lines and matched them to the school colours, using the St. Andrews logo efficiently, I also added the price and school website.

Fini

shed

Pre

limin

ary

Fron

t Cov

er

Preliminary Task Progression– EvidenceContents PageStep-by-step

I started with the same canvas as my front cover to make everything match.

Then I added the basic features, such as the title and information at the bottom.

Afterwards I put one of the main contents features, the editorial, onto the page. This took me quite a long time due the large amount of writing and features to coincide around the image using the ‘pen tool’ carefully for this.

I added the main image to show off of the interesting stories in more detail.

This was almost half the pages content and took quite a long time to write and think of all the cover stories. Formatting each one with white text and a blue background was quite a lot of effort.

These were the finishing touches which needed to be on the page mostly as space fillers, this includes some of the cover stories’ images and the puff promotion and annual subscription.

Fini

shed

Pre

limin

ary

Cont

ents

Pag

e

Section 2 – Log Book

Music Magazine – Process• Date of Publication – The first thing that is done it to set the date the magazine will be published to the

general public. This will help with setting a schedule for the development.• Managing the Schedule – You must have enough space in the schedule to fix any mistakes before the

deadline.• Editorial and Budgetary Decision – It is the editorial decisions which involved the content that is covered

in the next issue of the magazine. Once they have made the decisions they look at how much money is available for them and how much should be spent in the production of the magazine.

• Content Acquisition – Probably the most important step because without content there would be no magazine. There is in-house staff writers for the magazine and external writers that write about a specialist nature. There is also artwork and illustrations and pictures in the magazine.

• Sub-Editing – This focuses on the quality control, it involves checking the accuracy of the facts, making sure words are spelt correctly, property grammar and punctuation are used, make sure that the articles follow the house style and work on the page layout.

• Page Layout – This person will correctly lay the articles out to put it together as a magazine using powerful programs such as Desktop Publishing (DTP) or InDesign or PageMaker to do this. The advertisers are also placed into the content.

• Proof Reading – The editorial department will print a hardcopy of the magazine in order to read through it and to find any mistakes. Any mistake that is spotted is quickly corrected, the editorial keeps proof reading until all the team is satisfied there is no mistakes.

• Printing – The entire magazine is send to the printer, Pre-Press’ are printed to check all the colours and layout is fine before printing hundreds or thousands of copies.

• Distribution – It is the final stage where the company packs the magazines and go to a warehouse to go to the general public.

Source From: http://hosbeg.com/the-magazine-production-process/

Established Magazine for my ResearchMain Image & Colour Scheme - Cheryl Ann Fernandez-Versini, known professionally as Cheryl, is an English recording artist, dancer, and television personality. She rose to fame in late 2002 when she auditioned for the reality television show Popstars. The colour scheme of this front cover is very simplistic as it sticks to three main colours – Black, Red and White. Cheryl’s face is the main centre piece of the cover as she is the background to what the writing sits upon. Cheryl’s makeup in this photo also fits in with the colour scheme as she has smoky eyes which looks as if it has been drenched with water and a bold red shade of lips, the rest of the make up is simplistic much like the rest of the colour scheme which has been used.

Cover Lines – Many different types of fonts have been used, along with different sizes and shades of white. One reason to this being used is to break up the repetitive pattern and to make it generally more aesthetically pleasing. The red fonts match with Cheryl’s lips, the red may demonstrate passion, danger and lust.

Barcode – There is no obvious barcode displayed which allows there to be more space on the front cover.

Overlay - The magazine has chosen to take a different route than most. Many magazines display the star of the magazine over the masthead and some of the texts out of respect and to show dominance of the star. However, ‘Q’ have chosen to express Cheryl underneath which some may see as disrespect. However they have made up for it by complimenting her in may other ways, such as devoting the sub heading to her ‘CHERYL COLE ROCKS’.

Advertisement – The advertisement is in a different style to the main feature to stand out catch the audiences eye.

Convergents – The convergents follow the same colour theme but in a sort of random pattern, which works well with the title and sub-headings.

Target Audience‘Q’ magazine could be denoted to Inform and Educate, seeking a target audience of 18-45 year olds, due to the artists involved inside. Much of the description about the artists is quite factual, revealing up to date information about what is occurring with their lives and music career. Influenced by Maslow's hierarchy of needs I would state the magazine is searching for survivors – people who want security in what they read; because ‘Q’ magazine has a range of artists for everyone and isn't specifically targeted, for example the ‘Rock’ genre. The vast majority of readers are men (70%) however there is a small percentage of women readers (30%). ‘Q’ Is targeted at middle class audience, priced at £3.99 it is available to most anyone to purchase.

The USP of this magazine? I think the main unique selling point of the magazine is the color scheme – the immense red ‘Q’ masthead in the top left corner is located on every copy; this applies to the sub headings, cover lines and main headlines which follow the same patters of red and different shades of white. Also one aspect which ‘Q’ uses differently to other magazines is the that they display all the information on the front cover over the top of the artist featured, which most others either display around or print the text hidden behind to create a 3D effect, which is also another feature not present.

Publisher researchThe institution that publishes ‘Q’ magazine is ‘Bauer Media’ – a multi platform UK based group entailing of many companies. Today Bauer Media spans over 300 brand names covering a wide range of audience, examples would be ‘Heat’ ‘Kerrang!’ ‘MOJO’ ‘Closer’ and many more. The company was founded in 1875 and now operates in 15 different countries. Their wide portfolio of influential brands gives them an advantage over magazine or radio. Their magazine tradition stretches back to 1953 with the introduction of Angling Times and the purchase in 1956 of Motor Cycle News. The seeds of the company’s radio business were planted in 1990 with the acquisition of London dance station Kiss FM (now called Kiss 100), followed by the acquisition of Liverpool's Radio City and later by TWC and the Metro Group.

Overlay – The magazine has chosen to choose the traditional route which is displaying the star over the masthead. The sub heading and cover lines are hovering over the star however this is necessary as they wouldn’t be readable otherwise. Cover Lines & Convergents - The

simplistic approach has been carried out with the cover lines, all being in the same font and colour. This is the same with almost every CLASH magazine and they have decided to keep this as a pattern. The cover lines have an array of famous artists which will automatically draw the attention of the readers. This is a good small promotion method – displaying all the best parts of the magazine. No stories apart from the artists have been mentioned this could be because the audience of CLASH are mostly artist based.

Barcode – is not obviously on show and is conspicuously in the bottom left corner with the price underneath. This shows that the other features on the page are more important such as the star.

Established Magazine for my Research

Advertisement – There is no advertisement on show, again keeping the simplistic approach and not cluttering the free space. Advertisement wouldn’t suit the magazine either. I would like to have this feature and place the advertisement somewhere inside the magazine.

Main Image & Colour Scheme - Rita Sahatçiu Ora is a British singer, songwriter and actress. Her debut studio album, Ora, debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, and spawned the number-one singles "R.I.P." and "How We Do". Rita’s body is quite revealed as she is only in a short dress, however she has a lot of jewellery as shown on her wrists and neck along with her hand tattoo. Rita looks extremely modern and her make up is simplistic which suits the colour scheme. The colour scheme sticks to two colours pink and white. I aim to copy this style (not the colour).

Target AudienceThe target audience for CLASH magazine is 18-35 year olds which is described as the ‘download generation’. They achieve this target audience by alternating between bands and solo artists ranging from The 1975 to Lana Del Rey to Rita Ora. Also audiences that are attracted to film and fashion can be lured into the magazine it covers almost 1/3. Most of the text is easy to read, meaning that the magazine is casual and doesn’t use complicated language, which is why they achieve their young audience. According to statistics the male to female readership is 50/50 which is present within the magazine as it caters for both sexes.

The USP of this magazine?CLASH magazine has some very clear unique selling points, one being the simplistic view, shown throughout the magazine, displayed clearly through most inside pages consisting of a picture filling most of the space, with small font text in the corners or to the sides – the front cover also has a small amount of information, only consisting of the masthead, main headline and cover lines, no promotion or coverage. Another feature is the vintage approach they have on each picture, which has become very popular in photo edits within the past 3 years; this appears very individual. Lastly, CLASH uses a black typewriter style front exhibited with a white highlight creating a retro feel to the magazine, fitting in with the quirkiness of the genre of music.

Source from: http://www.slideshare.net/laurenbarrettphotography/textual-analysis-clash-magazine-new

Publisher research• Publisher - John O'Rourke• Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine and website based in the United

Kingdom. It is published 10 times a year by Music Republic Ltd• The brand's content alternates between modern bands as well and hip-hop artists.• Editor: Simon Harper• Categories: Music magazine• Frequency: monthly• First issue: 2004• Country: United Kingdom• Language: English

Source from: http://www.slideshare.net/BeatriceYates/clash-magazine-analysis-29820674