Magazine Conventions

6B - Magazine Conventions (Students))

Investigating Professional Photography

6A - Professional Photography Students)

College Magazine Evaluation

Photography

The photography aspect didn't go so well, as noone wanted to be the focus of the photo. We found it quite awkward getting our photo taken in front of people we knew, and as we all didn't know each other that well, it wasn't something we wanted to do. Also, we didn't take a lot of the correct kind of shot, but photographed more images for our contents page, and the medium shots we did take weren't very professional looking. All the images were more about showing the person than the building, leading to no variety of where the pictures were taken which was outside in the courtyard, not showing the full college building.

 This image shows two students having fun throwing leaves around - great for the autumn edition, but it couldn't be the front cover shot. Also, there are people in the background, showing college life, but also distracting from the image.

This image has a good use of framing, but as you can see there is a person in the background who shouldn't be there, therefore the image doesn't look professional enough.

This image is a medium close up, but it is just a random photo taken infront of one of the college buildings, but it doesn't show the college building in full, therefore people might not know what it is. There is also alot of space between the head and the edge of the photo, so the proportions are not quite right.



Software - Photoshop and InDesign

In photoshop, I learnt how to use the magic eraser, which removes any unwanted background. This is useful if I wanted to remove the background on the image, so I could just focus on the person in the image. I would like to improve parts of this, to make sure I remove all unwanted background so the images look professional.
I also learnt how to use the spot healing brush tool and the clone stamp tool together, which removed unwanted blemishes, spots and dark circles from the person in the image. The clone tool helped to copy the skin tone and make the skin an even colour, making the appearance natural before I placed the photo into InDesign to make my magazine.
In InDesign, I learnt how to use the rectangle tool to make a stamp which stood out on my magazine cover and the text tool to add text to my cover for the headlines, stories and kickers.
I also learnt how to make my magazine look professional, making sure I proportionally dragged my photo out so it didn't go pixelated.

What do I think of what was produced?

Overall I think my magazine cover and contents page came out very strongly. I used the correct type of image on my front cover (medium close up) which filled the whole of the cover space, with the magazine name on top of it. I think I could improve the quality of this image which has pixelated as it doesn't look as professional or clear as it was if I had just placed the image, rather than photoshopping it first. I also think that the colour scheme was consistant throughout, using autumn tones for an autumn issue. I think I could find a better background for my main image and try not to get my contents page images pixelated, although I had to put it in photoshop to cut it.

This example of a magazine cover includes a background specific to the magazine edition, and its stories and features are about wider issues, rather than like mine which are just specific to the college.







My Final College Magazine

Questionnaire and results

1) Gender:          Male - 2            Female - 5

2) Do you read magazines?   Yes - 3                  No - 4


3) If yes, which one? Company, Heat, OK!, GQ


4) What is your limit on how much you would pay for a magazine? £2 - 2, £3 - 1, £4 - 3, £3.50 - 1


5) How often do you buy magazines? Once a month - 2, Rarely - 2, Now and again - 1, Never - 2

6) What bands have you seen live? My Chemical Romance, 30 Seconds to Mars, JLS, Pussycat Dolls, Frankie and the Heartstrings, Leeds 2011, Evolution 2009/2010, Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, The Vaccines
None - 2

7) Age: Below 15   

              16-24 - 7          

              25-35           

         35-54               

         55+  

8) What music genre do you mostly listen to?

              Pop - 6

              Rock - 1

 Rnb - 3

 Indie - 5

 Rap - 3

 Other -1 - Northern Soul

9) What could I include in my magazine that will make you more likely to buy it?
Fashion - 1
Music - 2
Horoscopes - 1
Free Gifts - 1
Advice - 1
Pictures - 1

10) Is fashion important to you? Yes - 7

11) What is you ethnicity? White British - 7


12) How many pages do you think we should devote to:

University information? 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 0

College information? 2, 2, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0

Music and film reviews? 5, 4, 2, 3, 2, 1, 12

13) Do you feel like you belong at college? Yes - 7

14) Do you and your friends have similar music tastes? Yes - 5       Some - 2


15) What are you parent’s professions?
Works for the NHS, Drives cars
Carpet Specialist
Carer, Plater
Fraud Inspector, Probation Officer
Cleaner
Electrician, Director of Travel Company
Diesel Company

16) What class do you think you are?

Upper middle class

Middle class - 1

Lower middle class - 1

Skilled working class - 4

Working class - 1

17) Do you buy the same brand of products after you’ve bought them once? Yes - 7


18) Which is more important to you?

Popularity

Wealth - 4

Being environmentally friendly

Being successful - 2

Making the world a better place - 1

Being impulsive

19) Describe your personality in three words?

Evaluation of results

The results show that people believe their friends have similar music tastes, yet when asked what bands they had seen live, there was a range of genres, suggesting a difference in tastes.
Within the people I asked, 4/7 said they didn't read magazines, but when asked how often they read them, only 2 said never, suggesting that that was not true.
Overall, more people said they listened to pop than any other genre of music, however with the increase in people listening to indie music, 5/7 said they listened to that genre.
All the people asked were white british and aged 16 - 24, and as they were all friends, lead me to believe they might have a similar music taste, however when asked which music genre they listened to, there was a wide variety of results, some listening to more than one genre such as rap and rnb.
Question 15 was designed to find out people's social grades, and question 16 was where I asked them what social grade they thought they were, and it was interesting to see what people thought they were, as some people didn't know or were way off. Below is the link I used to make these questions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NRS_social_grade
Also, using psychographics I determined what type of person each participant in my questionnaire was. The majority would rather have wealth, which shows that they were the achiever type.
http://www.northcrossing.com/PsychographicMarketing.html

College Magazine

I have come up with some ideas for my college magazine:

Names
-Prior News
-College Life
-Prior Pursglove
-Pursglove Times

Edition
-Winter
-Autumn
-New Students
-Summer
-Performing Arts
-English

Colour Scheme (Depending on the edition)
-Winter - Warm colours such as red, orange, green
-Autumn - Autumnal colours such as red, orange, brown
-New Students - Something bright which will attract their attention
-Summer - Yellow, blue, green
-Performing arts - Black, pink
-English - any colours

Headlines/Kickers
-20 hot college outfits for 2011
-Entertaining Enrichments - come try them out
-Grease the Musical - singing, dancing, acting! Get involved today
-NEW Resource Centre - many more facilities at your fingertips
-Kelly Rowland visits college!!! who could be the newest star

Contents
-Cover Stories(go into more detail)
-Subject Features
-Reviews
-Important News
-Fashion
-Music

Photography
-Image relating to autumn (leaves being thrown)

Some examples of what I may go on to produce: