MUSIC MAGAZINE COURSEWORK FINAL HANDIN - ALL IN ONE

 Please find below my Music Magazine coursework in full. This includes my:
- Project planning
- Final Product (Front cover/Contents page/Double page spread)
- Evaluation

PLANNING

INSPIRATIONS/SOURCES

Inspirations

PROG magazine

(Prog - Home | Facebook)

Random nose glasses holder (Became pseudo-mascot)

Sources

PUPPET SHOW discography and reviews (progarchives.com)

Puppet Show | Discography | Discogs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_progressive_rock_artists

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/the-persistence-of-prog-rock

https://www.instagram.com/progressiverockcommunity/?hl=en

This Prog Rock Instagram post was the inspiration for my cover (partly)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbqRxQ3IbkO/?hl=en

Free Online Barcode Generator: Create Barcodes for Free! (tec-it.com)

Google images (None of the images used are mine besides the Nose and the Hand featured on the font cover of the magazine) (Image of Puppet Show band comes from the PROGARCHIVES post on them) (Purple thundery background is a cropped version of Puppet Show's 'Trauma' album cover.) (QR code is from google (Don't scan it, it's a generic one taken from Google.)

Sources (Editing software)

Remove Background from Image – remove.bg

PhotoMosh

https://www.kapwing.com

Home - Canva

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF AN EXISTING MEDIA MAGAZINE

Textual Analysis THE PROG COLLECTION.docx

LAYOUT PLAN (EARLY CONCEPTUALS)

LOCATION RECCE AND RISK ASSESSMENT

RECCE & RISK

Models not required to be in any sort of specific environment due to them needing to have their backgrounds removed and a substantial amount of editing be done to be ready to place onto the front cover. Specific angles have been planned already, all that is needed is execution.

Similarly, since the models required for the shoot are inorganic figures, many risks are dampened already. Allergy, privacy, environmental risks etc. do not apply.

As the environment is a controlled and private space, lighting is configurable. There is no risk of non-consenting persons appearing in any related image, as the space is entirely controlled and private, and even if someone was, the idea was to remove the background from each photo to leave only the figurines, so they would be removed in any event.

MOOD BOARD(S) (MOOD BOARDS/VARIOUS MOOD BOARDS FOR DIFFERENT IDEAS)

PROG ROCK MOOD BOARD.pptx

PRODUCTION

MAGAZINE - FULL (FINAL PRODUCT)

(Click on each image to enlarge to original size)

POST-PRODUCTION

EVALUATION OF YOUR FINAL PRODUCT

I feel as if I have personally done this magazine justice. Apart from a few details that could have in hindsight have been improved, the magazine is done to a good (in my opinion) standard. 

WWW (WHAT WENT WELL)
Some think limitation leads to creativity, and I feel as if that's absolutely true in this regard. I love what I've done with the front cover especially. I feel as if the chosen angles for the nose and the hand were the best they could have been.

EBI (EVEN BETTER IF...)

Even better if I had done all this work as soon as possible. The reason for the strapped-ness of time was because of my own lack of time-management skills. Though, this coursework might prove to be a valuable lesson on such a mistake. 

In terms of the magazine, the image of the band is just sort of slapped there awkwardly, the background on the front cover is low quality due to being stretched out, and the second page (Contents page) might have benefitted from more design elements, for example, band photography. I am ultimately proud of what I have now, and this will serve as basis for improvement.

If I were to start this project over from scratch, I would have liked to explore use of more tools in terms of photography, for example, a photography Light Box.

ADDITIONAL INCLUSIONS (WHAT YOU COULD INCLUDE)

SHOT LIST/FRAMING DECISIONS (ORIGINAL IMAGES BEFORE AND AFTER EDITING)

GOLDENHAND (BACKGROUND REMOVED)

GOLDENHAND (ORIGINAL)

JESTER (BACKGROUND REMOVED)

JESTER (ORIGINAL) (NOT TAKEN BY ME)

JESTER (EDITED) (THE IMAGE SPLIT BETWEEN THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD)

PURPLEHAND (EDITED GOLDENHAND) (ONE OF THE IMAGES ON THE FRONT COVER)

PURPLENOSE (EDITED NOSE) (ONE OF THE IMAGES ON THE FRONT COVER)

SPACEROCKING (UNUSED)

NOSE (BACKGROUND REMOVED)*

NOSE (ORIGINAL)

NOSE (BACKGROUND REMOVED) (BEFORE IMAGE WAS CROPPED AND BACKGROUND WAS REMOVED AGAIN TO OBTAIN 'NOSE (BACKGROUND REMOVED)*'

NOSE (ORIGINAL ORIGINAL)

(I have not included a drafting or redrafting of my double page feature article as my research was very strong and therefore I created this in one draft.)

EXPERIMENTING WITH EDITING IMAGES

(I love this one)

FONT RESEARCH

FONT RESEARCH.docx

(Do please inquire if any of the .docx links don't work, I'll be happy to send them via other means)

REFLECTION

 

REFLECTION

This blog post is a reflection of my thoughts about the school Magazine project I did as a part of my media coursework, what I have done well and what could be done differently in my next media project, the Music Magazine. This will be structured somewhat around the 'WHAT I WILL BE ASSESSING' page in one of the media PowerPoints. Number 12 (Reflection) Will not be included, as this blog post IS that.

1: There is a blog. 

Nuff said

2: 1st blog post researching a topic of your choice

My first blogpost was about the Ori series, and I feel as if I did a good job on it. I got my point across well, balanced my examples out, compared Ori's emotion with games unlike it to show how most games get their immersion across differently, and overall, after reviewing it I think it's by far the best blog post in this Blog.

3: Your primary research: Questionnaire

The Questionnaire was okay, but I feel as if it could have used some improvements. It's not bad by any stretch of the word, but it could have done with a little extra, for example the number of participants was the exact bare minimum, and a few more questions could have been added in order to influence the magazine a little more. Apart from those two gripes, it's fine.

4: The results from your questionnaire in data form (Pie chart)

The results were enough to shape the resulting magazine cover, so I consider this one to be a success. 

5: Textual analysis from an existing school magazine

The textual analysis was of a school magazine named 'Hear me out' (This actually semi-inspired the name of my school magazine 'FYI'.), a magazine created by the students at Plymouth High School for All Girls. A decent job was done on it, but I think things like it in the future could be improved by avoiding this one's flaws. The same point was repeated over and over (Their focus on the environment and having small but right voices heard.) These are not bad points, it's just the way i've repeated them over and over which detracts from the quality a little. I also feel as if not enough work has been done on it in terms of quantity, the size of the article and the paragraph density is quite small.

6: Sketch of potential magazine layout/Sketch of concept

I feel like this is one of the best pieces of coursework I've done in this collection (Second only to the actual magazine cover). I put a lot of effort into the second sketch (the first being mainly a rough plan of where the elements were going to be placed and whatnot). The sketch was very high quality for a simple concept sketch (admittedly some of the work I placed into that could have been spent elsewhere). 

7: Font research

The font research task was one that I was very unsure about the entirety of the way through, I didn't seem to understand the somewhat vague(?) instructions. I did the best that I could with the information I was given.

8: Image planning sheet with decisions and risk assessment

The images were taken on short notice, decisions were made shortly before the shoot and the risk assessment wasn't necessary. In my eyes, that defeats the whole purpose of this piece existing. Though, next time I do wholly intend to create an image planning sheet like this for the music magazine if required.

9: Images taken

The images taken were all of satisfactory quality, I do not think I needed any more for the purpose I was intending to use them, they were as high quality as I wanted them to be, and they looked nice. They also fit onto the front cover and contents page, which was very nice.

10: Front cover of your school magazine

The front cover of my school magazine, in my eyes, couldn't have gone better. I perfectly replicated my own version of a mainstream magazine cover, it was completely unique, I loved what I had done with it.

11: Blog post justifying your choices for your magazine

(Included in the same blog post as the front cover) I think most of the reasons were explained well.

Kieran Cawood  

Font Post, Textual analysis, Information and Concept Sketch - Combined

 Font Blog Post

I used the default font for my blog. This is for a multitude of reasons.

The first reason that can be thought of when thinking about this is the fact that it's the first font that appears when you type something into blogger, switching out of it wouldn't make sense if it already fits the purpose and does a job.

Secondly, compared to the other seven fonts available for use in blogger, I honestly just prefer it. Arial is just thinner Default, Helvetica is just thinner Arial, Verdana is just smoother Arial, Courier doesn't seem like the type of font used for a blog, Times/Trebuchet are almost indistinguishable from each other, and are just pointier Arial. They're barely different, so it would make sense to use the one you started with.

Kieran Cawood 

Plymouth High School for All Girls’ school magazine: ‘Hear me out’ 

Layout/Patterns 

Hear me out’s pages tend to have one illustrator and one writer each. A pattern I’ve spotted in most of the issues of the magazine is that more often than not text will be separated into two columns, split vertically instead of horizontally, each paragraph taking up one column. Though, they can be split both ways. More often or not there are images created by the illustrator/s, placed most commonly on the right side of the page, though some sections do exist including a page full of text and an image taking up a full page placed after it. Though I feel like the prior trend seems to die down as the issues get more modern, with images being spread around whole pages as the writers, and by extension the illustrators improve their craft. 

Themes: 

The general themes of ‘Hear me out’ are of illumination of the world’s issues, like equality, inclusivity, and most commonly climate change. Though there are occasional breaks from this theme by way of things like a photography competition, an interview with a baker, and other topics that interest the writers, which aren’t general themes, I’ll include them here anyway, as they aren’t any less important. 

Subtext: 

This magazine has continuous themes of wishing for change, some of the values above are also subtexts including worries about and wishes to avert manmade crises like climate change, inequality, and so on. Other themes include the voices of the youth and women needing to be heard, hence the name. 

Symbolism: 

The illustrations in this magazine represent a variety of things, so the symbolism in the images is directly connected to which page they lie on, and I couldn’t fit the entire image catalogue of the magazine in this short analysis. Though, some of the more common images displayed include the sun, nature, and the earth, reflecting the environmentally-minded nature of a good majority of the magazine. 

Values it reveals: 

The values of the writers seem to be around the same, to talk about and spread awareness about current issues that need fixing, to spread inclusivity, to make voices heard, and to overall better the planet.

Questionnaire data that has influenced my magazine production decisions

Concept sketch for front cover