Mock School Magazine Contents Page DONE

Clearly, this is a mock up of my contents page for the school magazine. I now realise how plain it is and it doesn't really have any interesting information on it whatsoever. However, it is ONLY a mock-up so in theory, this will be how the features are placed on the real school magazine. I have made the headline bold as it is an important part of the magazine because it allows the readers to skip to features they think they will enjoy the most.

In the real thing I think I will add a lot more colour to the contents page and quite a few pictures as well; this is because, after looking at magazine contents pages online, they usually have a few pictures to make the magazine more eye-catching; or even one main picture that the writing is based around.

These are two pictures that represent the magazine covers that I spoke about previously in the post. The left is one of which shows a contents page that is filled with writing and pictures making it very attractive to look at. The right is also eye-catching, however the creator has achieved this in a different way. The main picture if plain, yet mysterious, with a well-known actress in a strange situation which makes the reader wonder why. This will entice the reader to buy the magazine as they will want to know more about this feature. This is why, in my real school magazine, I think I may opt for one of these two layouts. This is because they are exciting and show professionalism, which is important when trying to get the attention of the target audience and potential advertisers.

27th November 2015

School Magazine Contents Page Inspiration

School Contents Page Annotations

School Magazine Final Front Cover

At last! After some hard work figuring out how to use the Serif software, I managed to create my very own magazine front cover! I have to say I am quite satisfied with how it turned out as I had no idea how to even use the programme at the start! It has taught me a lot about making a magazine however... I'm not too sure I would even consider buying a magazine with this as the front cover; mainly because I think it could still look a lot more professional. Hopefully my skills will get better over time so that the end product will be one that I can be so proud of making myself.

13th November 2015

Since my last diary post, I have looked at cover images on other school magazines and planned the photoshoot for my own magazine. In addition to this, I asked my model for my main image to take part in the photoshoot; we then shot the pictures. Finally, after taking various amount of photos I chose my final ones which I will use on my school magazine front cover. I have learnt that it is necessary to take as many photos as possible so that there is a large amount of content to analyse and choose from.

Final Photos

There we have it. The final photos that I have chosen to be on my school magazine's front cover! It took some time to work out what would work best to attract the right readers but I think I got there in the end. The pictures represent a fun and happy school as the picture on the right shows that Daniel is extremely happy to go to school! I think the most interesting part about the preliminary task is the fact that it taught me so many things I needed to know about the way a magazine cover is made and what the best features to use are when trying to attract a huge audience!

Finally, I really think that this task has taught me a huge amount as when I go on to make my magazine I will have learnt the basics on how to use the programmes such as Serif and simple editing software's online.

Photoshoot For My School Magazine

My photo-shoot went well as I took many pictures and in a range of different lightings. I did the photo-shoot at a time when the outside lighting was best as at first I tried taking the photos inside and the lighting was very dim and so the picture quality was not very good. 

 

 I took this first picture at around 5 o'clock in the evening when the lighting was very un-natural and dim. I chose my brother to be in his school clothes to portray that he was enthusiastic about school, however due to the way he is standing in this photo, this image has not been shown very well. The colours in this photo are not very bright due to the low-lighting so this would not be a good picture to use for my school magazine colour. My school magazine is targeted towards school students so not having bright colours may stop them from choosing this magazine out of all the others.

The pictures shown above are examples of good lighting as they were taken very early in the morning to emphasise the colours in the tie. I took these photos of my brother because my magazine is targeted towards older students that are in year 10 or 11 as they are just about to do their GCSE's. He is smiling in the photos to show to the readers that he is happy about school and wants to do well.

 

 What was the inspiration for my photo-shoot?

 

Personally, I believe that these two pictures were the inspiration for my pictures in the photo-shoot. This is because both magazines show mid-shots of men in stern positions creating the image of them being powerful. This draws the reader towards the magazine as it shows a sense of mystery within the from page leading the target audience to wonder what is inside; therefore, they will want to buy the magazine. I tried my hardest to imitate these pictures and adapting them to the needs of the magazine that I will be creating. However, the lighting was not the best as it was only natural lighting so I will need to consider this in my next photo-shoot.

 

Planning My School Magazine Photoshoot

As my magazine is aimed towards children that go to school aged 12 - 16 my photo-shoot's cover model will be a male and female of around the age of 14 to represent school children that are starting their GCSE's in year 10 and would like advise on how to do well in their exams. I have carefully chosen this age range as I feel these children will be able to relate to my school magazine when there is an image of another child of their age. I will do this by using my Canon camera; this is because it takes high quality photos, very quickly and I feel that this will benefit the quality of my whole magazine as readers will think it is more professional. This may be a process that takes a long time, but as I am passionate about producing the best product I can, I will ensure that I put my best efforts into gathering the brilliant photos to use for my magazine.

I have considered the location on my photos carefully and decided that to gain the best quality pictures I will take a mid-shot photo for my central image. The person will have an excited, happy expression so that the target audience can relate to the cover model. This is because if the cover model is happy and just a regular school student, then the target audience will be more inclined to buying the magazine, as they feel they can relate to the articles inside. Mt photo-shoot will consist of photos of happy 14 year old school children, with the background of their classroom with other students working too. I will do this because I think it will create the atmosphere of happiness within the school environment which is what my target audience want to see in the magazine.

To use for my secondary photos and other photos in the magazine I will take pictures of students who have passed their exams, holding their results whilst smiling. This will shows that by following the steps that are included in the magazine all the students in our school will be able to ensure they get good grades that they are also happy with. Furthermore, by doing this my target audience will be drawn to the magazine.

Finally, my photo-shoot will consist of children during sporting activities such as football or netball. This is because it promotes a sense of belonging in the school and the target audience will want to read the magazine to find out how they can get involved with the range of activities that St Gregory's school provides. This will be taken during day-time when all the students are in mid-play to show how passionate and determined the students at school are.

School Magazine Mock Front Cover

                                                                                        

 

  Before creating our final school magazine cover we decided to try out the program Serif Page PlusX5 to get used to how it operates. The background cover that I have chosen relates to the colours of the school; the colours on the tie are blue, white and red. I put a puff on the cover in a different colour to make it stand out from the rest of the cover and draw attention to the magazine. I have put a cover-line in a bigger font to aid the reader in understanding how the central image relates to the articles inside .

 

When I do my final magazine cover I am going to make it look more professional by using common conventions. This will make my magazine look more appealing to my target audience of school students. I would also  make the Masthead stand out more by making it a different colour. All the colours used will be relevant to the school and my pictures will be of higher quality and better presented. Furthermore, I will add in more secondary images to make the magazine cover more exciting and stand out from the other magazine's. The cutting of the image will be more efficient as I did it quickly to save time, however when I do my final piece it will be precise and look more eye-catching.

Semiotic Analysis of Magazine Covers

Sketch Of School Magazine Cover

This is a rough sketch of how I would like the front cover of my school magazine to look. I have a main image of three school children with smiles to make the reader feel that the magazine has a positive vibe about school. In addition to this I have a large amount of text; this is because it will make the magazine cover look busy and this will persuade the target audience to buy the magazine.

To add to the large amounts of text I have many images to show the readers what they can expect to see inside the magazine; this will make them curious about the content, willing them to buy the product.