Prelim products layout

 

Semiotics

Semiotics - the study of signs and signals. (a way of understanding the literal and possible meanings of images and words).

Denotation - The actual meaning of words

Connotation - An association with a word (emotional)

negative

There are over 2,000 vagrants in the city.

neutral

There are over 2,000 people with no fixed address in the city.

positive

There are over 2,000 homeless in the city.

Another example of this would be the colour red. The colour red is red but gives of the emotional feeling of love or danger.

Image plan

Model:	Ben Simpson
Camera height/angle/distance:	Medium close up / straight ahead / approximately ½ a metre away.
Location:	ICT room.
Lighting:	Room lights above head.
Mise-en-scene (including props, costume) :	School uniform, computers.
Attempted connotation:	Moving around in class room, free, hardworking.
Planned denotation:	School boy in class room wearing correct uniform.
Contingency (in case of model absence/weather):	Use another member of the school, weather would not affect the shoot.
Alternate angle:	High angle making the student look like he is being looked over/after and or being tutored.

Colour Scheme for prelim

In order to produce the right colour scheme for my target audience for my school magazine I took the colours currently used by the school and use Adobe Kuler in order to get the correct complimentary shades.

Colour Schemes for Preliminary task

I have chosen to use blue as the main colour scheme for my preliminary task, I have decided to use this as my main colour scheme as from my research I found that it was the main colour on our school website. This would be a good idea to follow this colour scheme as it would be recognizable and attractiing to the pupils wo attend the school.

Font reviews for magazine cover

 

I have considered using this font on my front cover as it is very attractive and represents hand written text which resembles school work. It is easy to read and could make a very good font for the mast head as it does not loose attractiveness as it gets bigger.

 

 

I have also considered using this font because is stands out alot and could highlight a big story or a section of the cover. The font is very original and will give the cover a look of more class.

 

 

I chose this one lastly to consider to use as my masthead as it represents and old school font and would make it easily recognizeable to the students. The font is a plain black and white colour so that it is easily readable and should blend into any background nicely.

 

 

 

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Typical Cover for school magazine

 

This is a typical school magazine cover highlighting the main events happening around the building. The cover isnt very detailed and the person has used alot of colours and fonts. It has the basic masthead, subtitles, main picture and logo. There is some simple layering with the subtitle and the main picture all in all it is a very simple, basic cover.

Double page spread reviews

 

 

 This double page spread on the hit film avatar uses alot of different fonts and colours to make the spread seem more exciting and appealing. The red and white blends well with the blue and green used for the pictures from the film. The main picture highlights the two main characters in the film and straight away makes you recognize the adverts on the TV. The fonts used are very simple and easy to read, they also blend in well with the house style. The kicker is also used well as is takes up an otherwise usless part of the spread this makes it also more eye catching.

This double page spread is from a music magazine, the artical is on a heavy metal band. The housestyle and colour theme goes along with this genre as the background is dark red and black
other than a side article that is on top of a white box making it stand out more. The fonts used is also very relative to the genre as it is very gothic, this relates to the reader. One page is used for the main picture that is overlapped by the title of the article and the kicker on the left hand side. This spread is mainly picture orientated to interest the reader in the article and very genre based.



 

This double page spread is different to the other two as one side of the spread is dedicated to on person/picture. The picture is a medium close up as you can see his shoulders and face this focuses on the artist not the background. The housestyle and theme of the spread is a more olden days look in the 1900's, the colours are all black and white other than the big "D" overlapping all of the text, this is to represent the name of the magazine.

Magazine contents page reviews

On this contents page the sections are sepereated by different fonts and large number to make it easy for the reader to find the page for the most interesting story. It  keeps the same theme throughout as it makes it more simple and easier on the eyes. The subtitles in bold are followed by a small paragraph that is used to describe the story and draw the reader in to want to read more. The use of red draws the audience towards the main contents on the page. One picture is used for the background to keep it simple, the image is also used to promote a main story in the subtitles.



This contents page from the magazine Vibe uses a more complicated contents page as there is alot going on with the fonts of the subtitles and the jacket being worn by kanye west. The title of "Contents" is a regular and there for can get away with its more complicated layout. The subtitles are in the same bigger, bolder font that is followed by another list of numbered pages to advertise news and stories. The colour scheme used is very plain/grey, other than the red heart over the picture this brings the audience's attention to it.


This contents page again follows a specific colour scheme (black,red and white). The subtitles are
split up into different sections, one in a red box and the other section blended into the background. the fonts used are all the same other than the size and colour which varies from the title, subtitles, the information and the page numbers. The red box is used to attract the audiences attention and to want to read into in this case the 100 greatest albums ever. The background is used as it is very plain and advertises one of the singers in the stories.

Analasys of existing magazine covers of my music genre

The colour, font and size of the masthead show the dominance and power the company believes to have over other magazines. The deep dark colours shown all over the cover link back to the masthead as they are the same colours but lighter shown again the dominance of the title and the company. The fact that eminem is covering the title therefore suggets he is bigger than the magazine and music its self, nothing is shown covering any image of him. The subtitles around the picture and the center of the screen this shows how they are less important than the main story or stories, they are also in a more plain/bland shades than the title. The kicker in the top right of the magazine cover is advertising something else inside the magazine the fact that it stands out from everything else shows how it may be another big thing of the magazine but is not as important as the main story. The whole image created by the picture of eminem and the fonts/colours is that he is a criminal that can not be touched by anyone, due to none of the fonts over lapping him, coming clean. This is shown by the tattoos and black, dark clothing and the facial expression from the long medium shot. The font sizes on the cover vary to the relavance and to the importance of the story, for example the main story linking to eminem is in big bold writing over shadowing everything else. This has the effect of attracting the potential buyer to the story that they will be more interested in.




The mast head in this magazine cover is more simple compared to others of its type, this suggests a simplicity to the stories inside and to the main story about wiz khalifa. The medium close up image of Wiz shows him to be very cocky and confident, but at the same time the fact that one of the subtitles crosses over part of his face in a big, bold font suggest she may not be the biggest story in the magazine. The fonts used on the subtitles are all the same in each section following the same colour scheme, the fact that Wiz Khalifa's name is completely different from the rest shows he is different and important. The clothes he is wearing also suggests a back story is present and there is more to him and the story than what is on the cover. Also the subtitles on the cover are only on one side of the page, the side it is on links with the eye Wiz Khalifa has shut. This suggests there could be two different sides to the story and or even the magazine. Lastly the fonts used on the subtitles are all straight standard fonts which represent a more formal side of the magazine, this is changed when at the bottom of the cover "Wiz Khalifa" is written in a more informal font linking again to the cockyness shown by the picture and mise en scene.



The masthead in this magazine is very poor and blends into the background making it hard to read. This could suggest that the page is not very important and the picture is bigger than the story itself. The fact that the girl in the cover is blowing up a comdom suggests that she is very seductive which aims the magazine more at men than women as their target audience. Also there is no other stories or subtitles other than the small print at the bottom which suggests the magazine could be a special edition. The colour scheme suggests that the magazine is aimed at a younger target audience as the colours are very bright and not very sophisticated. The font the main story is in is spread out, this suggests that it is meant to be big and dragged out.

Introductory Post

Hello, my name is Ryan Scragg and this is an introduction to my AS media study blog. Through out this course I will be researching and designing a musis magazine. To start off with I will create a new school magazine for my school, this will lead me to researching relevant, well known music magazines in the genre I will be choosing to create. I will follow, adapt and create conventions shown in these magazines in order to create my own.

From right to left: Me (Ryan Scragg), Callum Morgan.