Rough Layout of Contents Page

Task 4 was to produce a rough sketch of my magazine contents page using the plan I'd created in task 3.

Planning Content

Task 3 involved deciding the contents of the school magazine. I had to come up with a list of regular content which will appear in the new school magazine, a list of ten feature articles which will also appear in the magazine and a list of the image which will be used on the contents page.

Regular Content:
-Extra Curriculum
-Horoscopes
-Date for the Diary
-Charity News
-Agony Aunt Janet

Feature Articles:
-Cakes Save Lives
-Top GCSE & A-Level Results
-Elephant Ears= Back!
-Competition Time.
-Beauty & The Beast: Revealed
-This Years Trips
-Media Arts Week
-Interview with Alice Sebold!
-Ashley Cole visits Weatherhead
-Trampolining Champion!

Images:
-Image of student holding advertisement poster
-Beauty & The Beast
-Student with top results
-Elephant ears group

Rough Layout of Front Cover

For task 2, I had to produce a rough sketch of my magazine front cover. This includes the title, issue date, price and the coverlines.
The main image shows a girl from just below her waist, however the actual photo will be from half way up the torso to fit the codes and conventions.

Plans for Front Cover

For the first task of my preliminary exercise I had to plan my front cover, this involved deciding a title for my new school magazine, details of the mise-en-scene of the front covers main image and coming up with coverlines for the cover.

Title: The Craic
I have chosen this as my title as it is Irish for what's going on. However, it could have subliminal connotatiosn of addictions, suggesting the magazine is addictive.
Mise-en-scene: Image of student holding cakes, background will be a book case. This will be faded so that the image of the student stands out and emphasises the story.


Main story line: Cakes Saves Lives


Coverlines:
-Elephant Ears is Back!
-Outstanding Exam Success.
-This years trip list
-Beauty and the Beast: Cast Exclusive
-WinWinWin

Practice Photos

For this task, we were given a sheet with a list of shots. In our groups, we had to capture these specific shots, upload them to a computer and then put them on a word document with the shot description next to the image:

Shot Types and Camera Movement

In todays lesson we matched the shot to the shot type. We then described what each shot contained. These are the brief descriptions I came up with: 

Shot Types

• Mid shot- Shot from the waist up 
• Close up- Shot from half the chest and upwards
• Medium close up- Shot of the head and shoulders
• Big close up- Shot of just the whole face
• Extreme close up- Close up of only the eyes and nose
• Medium long shot
• High angle- Shot taken above head height
• Low angle- Shot taken below head height
• Tilted frame- Shot taken from an angle
• Over the shoulder shot- Shot taken from over the shoulder
• Two shot- Two people in one shot
• Long shot- Shot of a person and the background as a close up
• Very long shot- Shot of a person and the background as a wide shot

Camera Movement

• Pan- Movement of the camera from left to right, or vice versa
• Tracking- Camera is on a dolly, following the action
• Zoom- Allows the camera to view closer up and further away 

Codes and Conventions of a Music Magazine Contents Page

After analysing eight different contents pages, I came to the conclusion that the codes and conventions of a magazine's contents page are:

      

      

• Magazine name
• Date
• Issue number
• Magazine website- This is included so the reader can access the website for more information about the magazine. The website is usually situated at the bottom of the page in small font as it is not the most important information on the page
• Contact details- Website, email address, phone number, fax number etc
• Feature articles
• Columns- 2/3 columns maximum
• Main image- One main image which relates to the main story of magazine. Must match the genre of the magazine
• All picture must relate to featured articles
• Colour scheme- Consistent and similar to that of the front cover
• Page numbers in the corner of images, these number direct the reader to the appropriate page
• Editors letter- Explain what's in the issue and must welcome any new readers
• Captions
• Page number- Different colour font to rest
• Regulars and Feature Articles- Around 20, unless it's a small magazine
• Buzzwords
• Index- All same font
• Logo- Magazine contents page must contain the logo of  the magazine
• Genre- The genre of the magazine will be shown by the masthead
• Title- Not always in the left, often across the top, and has 'contents' in a different font
• Different sections- Columns will be separated by
• Font- Must be a size of 11 pt, the font should be consistent and easy on the eye
• Credits to photographers- Credit photographer of the cover photo
• Subscription details
• Masthead- Will be the same as the masthead on the front cover in order for the audience to familiarise themselves with the rest of the magazine. The masthead will also reinforce the brand
• Headings
• Central image links to the band featured- The main image must have links to the main story and band featured
• Page number followed by list of content- The page numbers of all articles are stated in a list on the contents page, these are then followed by a few words explaining the article. These will be in bold or capitals to entice the reader and the average font size is 12/13 pt

Codes and Conventions of a Magazine Front Cover

The analysis of several magazine front covers led me to the conclusion that the codes and conventions of a magazine front cover are:

      

• Slogans- Positioning statement, allocated above or below title
• Bar code- This will be positioned at the bottom right, or up the right side. Along with it will be the date/month of edition, price, website and issue number
• Masthead- Across the top of the magazine, title uses bold font
• Positioning statement- used to attract attention and gives the magazine an edge for it's target audience 
• Main picture- Close up, medium close up
• No blank space
• Colour schemes- 3/4 simple colours which don't clash
• Title- Uses a unique font which is larger than any other text throughout the magazine. Must be eye-catching
• Cover lines- These must represent the stories inside. Must only be around 5/6 and are positioned down the sides so that the main image is not covered. These must all be in the same font
• Text around main image- Text will be around the main image so that it does not cause distraction. Small parts of text may cover any part of the image, but must never go onto the face
• Buzzwords- these are used to attract attention and are persuasive to the reader (e.g. plus, free, exclusive)
• Picture text cohesion
• Text anchoring image
• Smaller pictures correspond to smaller stories
• Main cover line- goes with main story and has a bigger point size
• Aesthetically pleasing- Should be easy on the eye otherwise magazine will not sell
• Genre- Shown by masthead
• Plain background- Shows formality of the magazine
• Only a few fonts are used- Either sariff (with hooks)