Planning

To ensure that I took my photos correctly I had to plan what I was doing and make sure I had any permissions needed when taking the photos. 

Risk Assessment

Before I could take the photos I had to carry out a risk assessment so that I could see the risks I was taking when leaving the classroom to take the pictures.

First initial Photos

These are the photos I have taken for my magazine, I may not use all of them but these are to give me a rough idea of the magazines image.

Rough Sketches of Ideas

Here are my sketches of my front cover and contents page, I hope to make the final magazine similar to these drawings.

Appealing to my Target Audience

In order for my magazine to appeal to the audience I will need to use a model that fits the criteria of a young student who is interested in music, I will use Photoshop in order to produce a defined (blemish free) image and one that stands out above any other student magazine. They will be posed in a strong fun position holding a guitar or with headphones on both will show it is a music magazine. They will also have a happy face which shows interest in the topic. The audience will be interested in the model as they are a likeness of them and the happiness will reflect onto the reader and show that they will be happy too when reading the magazine. It will be a medium close up and this means a very detailed image.
There will be strong colours on the cover such as reds and blues, these will stand out, I will also use white to go with the colour of the models T-shirt. I will use San Serif font which is bold and I will overlap some of the letters to make it more unusual and different. The layout will be very structured and appealing to the eye as you will be able to tell different cover lines from the next and also the picture boost will stand out like a statement for the magazine. My target audience would be fun and I aim to make the cover look as exciting as possible which will connote the audience. 
The Masthead will be in San Serif and bold with overlapped letters to make a statement to the reader and this connotes strong personality, which the audience will be as they have a lot of will power to do well in music and with their careers. The language will be less formal as its aimed for students who will have a sense of humour and be fun as they like to listen to all sorts of music. This connotes a younger audience and people who come from all different backgrounds, as anyone can play music and anyone can listen to music. The puff will show its the BEST music magazine for students.
The cover lines will be about different events that are happening in music and stories about people who have been successful in the industry, this will interest the reader as they will be striving for that success. Will add some quotes from stories that will shock people, ones that will interest the audience and I will put a cover line that is about buying instruments or add in the top 10 songs of the month. All of the cover lines have a uniqueness about them and will capture the audience's attention.

My Target Audience

My target audience for the Student magazine is Music Students, they would be interested in all kinds of music and would be Aspirers in the music industry. They would be individualists and benefit from uniqueness and their own ideas. Students would feature lower on the Jicnar scale about D or E yet some would be more upper class and play in the orchestra. They would age between 16-19 and would be male and female as music is an interest of both.  They would aspire to be great musicians or have a great career in music whether it be producing or writing etc.. However it could just be a hobby they are interested in. My audience are going to be people who spend their time at home playing or listening to music, they are people who socialise with their friends rather than family. They will enjoy Bob Marley for his musical success rather than anything else. The target audience will be interested in going to concerts rather than watching TV. They will spend their mornings practising a music composition rather than focussing their looks. Unique style of dress rather than following fashions.

Initial Research 2

The conventions of the four magazines are all linked to the student/college magazine theme. The San serif font for  magazine 2 and 3 show boldness and the mastheads stand out more. However the Serif font on magazine 1 and 4 is more defining and this brings out the contrast of the four magazines. The clean cut images of the students are well presented and the audience are well aware of the age range of the students and who the magazine is for. The use of a range of different colours show that it will attract a certain audience and in magazine 3 there is a use of bright yellow and white contrast which draws attention to the huge bold font. Magazine 2 has a picture boost which is very unique and stands out as the model is posing in a much different way to the other models in the magazines. The white and black contrast on magazine 2 will appeal as its striking. Magazine 4 has a image of a man raising his hands like he is celebrating and is relieved.. this shows strong posture and it would interest the audience as they would want to know what he is doing and what the point is in the stance, also who the man actually is. Magazine 1 will attract the students as it looks like a very intellect magazine and the structured cover lines on the side tell the reader what the issue is about in a lot of detail. All four magazines have its own way in attracting the audience and these are unique to them yet they all have appealing models and contents to them.

Initial Research (Magazine Covers)

Here is my initial research of four magazine covers. All magazines seem to have mastheads and cover lines which appeal to their target audience, also the picture boost (model) used interests the reader so that it appeals to them.

Preliminary Exercise

Hello my name is Isobel Hatch and I am studying AS Media Studies. Welcome to my Media Blog. I'll be putting all my coursework on my blog for everyone to see. My first task in AS Media is to create a Student magazine cover and contents page and I will be blogging all the information I find as well as the project.