unit g321: foundation portfolio in media how

8/14/2019 Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media How

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Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio In Media

How To Research Music Magazines

Preliminary Exercise: Produce the front page of a new school/collegemagazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriatelylaid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a mock-up of the layout of

the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of Desk Top Publishing.

Main Task: The front page, contents and double page spread of a new musicmagazine.

All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum offour images per candidate.

In order to produce a replica music magazine you first have to learn what ingredients to

include. We call these ingredients the Generic Elements of the magazine. The word

Generic comes from the word Genre which means Type so when we study the generic

elements of a Music Magazine we are actually studying the type of things, which appear in

this type of magazine.

So in order to produce a Music Magazine we first need to study other Music Magazines. Todo this you need to follow the instructions below.

Studying Music Magazines

You should study as many magazines that are aimed at your key audience as you can.

As such you must collect as many Music Magazines as you possibly can. To start off

with you need to obtain at least Two Music Magazine aimed at the same (or similar)

audiences.

Your magazine should look as much like

the real thing as possible without being a

direct copy. (Remember that your project

needs to be 100% original.)

The cover on the left, Zero, is a real car

magazine. The cover on the left, Dream

Cars, is one I created using Adobe

Photoshop Elements 2.0. It is similar

enough to be convincing but different

enough to be original.

Worksheet For Analysing Magazines

When studying magazines there are a number of different elements that you can analyse.Use this information to create your Annotated Pages. The elements to consider include:

The Title Of The Magazine:

What is denoted?: What is it called? What significant words are used?

What is connoted?: Why is it called that? What meanings/suggestions do the wordshave? The name Kerrang!, for example connotes the crash of a cymbal. This isappropriate for a heavy metal magazine.

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The Target Audience For The Magazine:

Who is the target demographic for the magazine?

What gender/s is the magazine aimed at?

How old are the readers?

Is it a mainstream or niche audience?

Mise-en-Scne

Analyse the images on the cover and inside the magazine; the types of facialexpressions, body language, clothing, etc. used.

What do they tell us about the target audience for the magazine?

What else is denoted on the cover?

Why are particular items in the magazine features?

Explain why particular typefaces, types of graphics, colours, etc. used?

The Mode Of Address Of The Magazine:

How does it address (i.e. talk to) its readers? Does it use a peer to peer, teacher pupil, parent child or fluctuating mode of address?

How and when are readers allowed to address the magazine? (Letters pages, etc.)

That types of articles/features does it contain? (Check the contents pages)

What subjects are covered?

What does this tell us about the ideal self being created by the magazine?

Representation In The Magazine:

How is gender represented? (Look at both the image and the text). What kind ofmen and women appear in the magazine?

How are different subcultures represented? How, for example, does Kerrang!

Represent rock/metal fans.

How do these representations relate to the readership? Ideal self or Ideal Partner?

Is there a limited range of representations for men and women? If so, what are theyand why?

What kinds of celebrities/musicians/bands featured in the magazine? Why have they

been chosen?

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How To Illustrate Your Magazine Research

Illustrate your research of similar media texts by annotatingOne example of a

magazine front cover, One example of a contents page and One example of

magazine double page spread.


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Measuring Your Magazine

In order to create your own magazine you have to study how they are laid out. To do this you

need to take a real magazine and measure it.

First you need to record the magazines dimensions. Take a 30cm ruler and measure the

magazines height and width.

You need to analyse how the magazines pages are laid out. To do this you should divide

you magazines pages into a grid in order to determine what proportion of the page is

filled by elements such as mastheads, sell lines, banners, gutters, border etc. Use your

ruler to measure these key dimensions and use this data to create a rough layout for

your magazine.

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Magazine Design Elements To Take Into Account

House style

Selection of typefaces, i.e. font (serif/sans serif), Text Size, Use of Drop Capitals,

Use of colour, Ratio of White Space to colour,

Use of language, mode of address,

Use of images (relationship between pictures and text),

Use of sell lines, captions, headlines, banners, etc.

Other elements, e.g. bar codes, legal information, publisher information, Page

numbers, etc.

Page layout, Use of borders, and gutters,

Highlighting techniques,

Width of columns,

Justification of text,

Variations in leading, (the space between lines of text) and kerning, (the space

between letters)

Flow,

Use of adverts

Use of Strap Lines,

Use of By-lines (name of the person who wrote the article) and Picture Credits,

(where did the photos come from, or who took them)

Integration of text and image. How do Captions and Anchorage give meaning to

images?

What is the Cover Story? What makes it the lead article?

What kind of articles does the magazine contain? What genre do they fit into? Are

they topical, fresh, seasonal, follow-up stories, promotional?

Try to research as wide a variety of music magazines as you can but include at least one or

two from a similar genre to the one you intend to produce. Compare and contrast them to

one another. Dont just comment on what is included in the images but what is missing.

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Some Key Terms

Masthead The name and logo of the magazine.

The Lead the introductory paragraph of an article. Usually written in bold or

capitals.

Body copyrefers to the text of your written articles, which should be produced as a

printed presentation to accepted industry standards, e.g. correct use of language, font

size, word limits etc. Usually written in columns.

Serif font fonts like Times New Roman, orBaskerville Old Face, which have little

bars (serifs) on the end of the letters.

Sans serif font fonts like Impact, orAgency FB, which do not have little bars

(serifs) on the end of the letters.

Drop Capitals Really big letter, which start off an article.

Cross Head Small sub-heading used to split up a large block of text.

White Space white parts of a page other than text or pictures.

Mode Of Address How the magazine talks to the audience. Sell Lines Text on the cover that helps to sell the magazine to the audience.

Kerrang!s sell line is life is loud.

Banners text, which stands out because its on a coloured background.

House Style a magazines distinctive design that distinguishes it from its

competitors.

Borders the gaps at the edges of the page.

Gutters the gaps between the columns of text.

Leading - the space between lines of text.

Kerning - the space between letters.

Strap Lines a smaller headline, printed above the main headline.

By-lines - name of the person who wrote the article. Picture Credits - where did thephotos come from, or who took them.

Anchorage The way in which text helps to pin down the meaning of a picture and

visa versa.

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How To Use Microsoft Word To Annotate MagazinePages

In order to illustrate your research of similar media texts, i.e. music magazines, you should

include some Annotated Pages into your appendix.

Annotation simply means to add explanatory notes. In this case you should annotate

magazine covers, double page spreads and a contents page by pointing out the key

elements of the page. The following instructions will tell you how to do this using Microsoft

Word.

Remember to Save Your Workat regular intervals and keep a USB Key or Other Suitable

Storage Medium!

This work must then be uploaded to your blog.

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Annotating Pages

Example of An Annotated Front Cover

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Bar Code

Pull Quote: seriffont and yellow

colour to make itstand out. Tiltedat a slight angle.

Courier font

resemblestypewriter text,

which highlightsjournalistic

content.Sensationalist

subject matter(drugs) draws theviewers attention.

Pugs are the earsor top left and

right of the page,which attract the

readers attention.As such, they are

used forinformation such

as the magazinesCover Price andDate Of Publish

Banner:

Slanted At An Angle Left To Right.

Yellow/white writingstands out from

background

Masthead: Special font with a high impact red colour andshadow effect. Onomatopoeia connotes the sound of acymbal crashing. Main Picture Covers Masthead

Competition:round box withyellow boarder

and yellow orwhite text to

make it standout.

Sans Serif ArialFont, BlockCapitals, shadoweffect,

Arrowhead suggeststhat these features can

be found inside themagazine.

Band Names to attractattention of one-offbuyers.

Cover Lines,especially worldexclusive, whichis highlighted in ahouse styleblack box withbold yellow text.

Anchored by pullquotes

Yellow dots to separate bandnames. Part of House Style

Exclamationmarks connoteexcitement butare also part of

house style as thetitle of themagazineincludes anexclamationmark, i.e.Kerrang!

Main cover pictureis of a major

international starand relates to main

article topic. It isanchored by themain coverline.

Main Coverline: has muchlarger font size and runs

across the middle of thepage. Has an underlineeffect separating it fromits subheading.White writing stands outfrom dark background.

Cover Picture:overlaps and anchorsbanner. The subjecthas a typical rock and

roll pose and punkstyling.

Cover Picture:overlaps and anchorsbanner

Direct Gazelooks out at

reader.


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Annotating Pages

Example of An Annotated Double Page Spread

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Page Number And Magazine Name inblack box with page boarder. This helpsto create a House Style.

By-line And Picture Credit:within a box as part of the

House Style

Picture covers bothpages with right

hand pageconsisting of

nothing but pictureand all of the textappearing on the

left hand page,although the text

still wraps aroundthe image.

The imageconforms to the

Rule Of Thirds andhas plenty of

negative space onthe left hand side to

act as abackground for the

text.

Picture overlapsboarder

Headline: Latin, Serif Font(Varies from article to article)

Band namehighlighted withbold, capitalletters.

Pull Quote: attributed tointerviewee

Light coloured, uncluttered picturebackground no white space.

Two main text columns

with a third block of text.Text blocks are leftjustified/ranged butplaced towards the righthand side of the page.

All text is in Arial (sansserif)Font.

Mode of address peer-to-peer style with aGonzo influenced

interview style.

First twowords ofarticle are inmuch largeruppercaseletters nodrop capitals.

Feature Headline Part Of House Style Black background with special font. Boardercontinues over both pages.

First two words of eacharticle section are inlarger capitals

The Lead: Same fontas the rest of the

article but in a largertext size.

Story relates tocover article

The boarderline has an

arrow at one

end toindicate thatthe story

continuesover the

page.

Picture: Reznor is gazing off page into the distance connoting thoughtfulness. Whilst the strongshadow effect connotes a duel personality, i.e. apublic side and a private side. All black clothingreflects dark sound of his music (but looks fairlynormal in contrast to the band pictures over thepage) and contrasts well with bright earth-tonebackground colours. His posture is supposed to

look natural but is clearly posed. The positioning ofReznor on the right hand side of the page with

negative space to his left balances the image withthe text. The picture is taken in the late afternoon to

create the long shadows; this also creates a soft,wistful light that adds to the pictures thoughtful

mood.

Gutters

Verso Page Recto Page

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