Questionnaire

Questionnaire

 

Today in Media, I created a questionnaire to send out to other Year 12 and Year 13 sixth formers. This is the questionnaire I sent out: 

I am going to send the questionnaire out to around 15 - 20 sixth formers, I will then collect and analise the results. I will take the answers that most people have ticked/ suggested and apply/put them in to my magazine, this will then help my magazine to suit my target audience and will also help me know what to put on my contents page. It may also help me to develop more ideas of what to put on the contents page of my magazine and what else I would need as props in my front cover and contents page photographs. I feel that sending this questionnaire out will help bridge the gap of what to include in my magazine.

 

My next post will include my results from my questionnaire and what I plan to do with them, I hope to be able to post this next week.

 

 



Locations around the School

Locations around the School

 

 

I am going to anaylise three locations around the school that I thought appeared to be suitable for the front cover of my magazine that I am going to create. I took a photograph of each of them so I could refer back to it.

 

The Quad

This is the first location I took a photograph of and is the one that I would most like to use on my cover, this is because I like the tree that stands on the middle of the quad, I feel that it represents alot for my school as it is as old as the building itself. I also feel that it would be a great location as it has the school building in the background; highlighting to the reader of the magazine that it is definitely about/ for a school. I feel that this looks like a perfect study place for students and will portray this idea to the reader.
I would like to have my student as a sixth former so I would need to have her holding a text book with the school logo on the front, to make it clearer to the reader that it is for Beaver wood school- not any other school. I will also have to make sure that there are no bins in the area where I take the photo (There are bins around the quad, however they can`t be seen in this photograph).
I also want my theme of my magazine to be Christmas, so I will need to take the photo when there is no sun, to create the effect that it is nearing end of term and Christmas is coming. Also I will have to be careful not to get any of the green leaves in the image, as this would destroy the idea of the magazine being Christmas themed as the tree would change colour and drop its leaves before the end of term.

The Sixth form Block



This is the second location that I took a photograph of. I like this location as it has the beaver wood logo on the wall, this would show that the magazine is for beaver wood without having to worry about getting a textbook with the logo on. It will also compliment my model, who will be a sixth former. However other sixth formers may be walking in and out of the block whilst I try and take the photograph, this could compliment the image in one way, but I feel it would take the main focus off of my model.
I could use the stairs for my model to sit on and take the photograph there, however I might not be able to get the logo in from the wall as the photograph has to be a medium shot of a student/ sixth former.
I will also have to be careful of bins being within the shot; I would have to move them so they were out of shot. I want my theme to be Christmas, so I would have to use tinsel with my model to show this as there would not be any Christmas decorations up at this time of the year and I will also have to be careful at what time of day I take the photograph as I do not want to get bright sunlight in the image as this would portray that it wasn`t Christmas to the readers.

Inside the main Building

This is the third location that I took a photograph of. I do not like this location very much although I may use it within my other photographs for my magazine. I will have to move the bins out of the way when/if I took a photograph in this location and I would have to take it after school or when I have a free period as otherwise there would be students everywhere in the corridor and it would make it impossible to take an image.
The theme I want to use for my magazine is Christmas and I feel that this location has a more halloweeny feel to it as it is an empty corridor.  If I took my front cover photograph here I would have my model standing to one side, so that the viewers/ readers could see down the hall.

Other Locations

I could also use the front of the school for photographs as it would then show what school the magazine was for, however it would be difficult to get the whole of the school within the background of the photograph.

    * * *

Overall my favourite location is The Quad, I feel that this would be the best location to take my front cover image and I could still incorporate the other locations in to my other photographs that I will need to take for inside the magazine.



 



School Magazine research continued...

School Magazine research continued...

This is another school magazine that I found on google images, I am unsure of what school it is from, however there appears to be a school logo in the top right hand corner of the page. This is more of what I would expect a school magazine to look like; with students clearly on the front. The date can also clearly be seen, I feel that the date on the cover of a magazine is extremely important for the readers, I will make sure my cover has a date which can clearly be seen.

I find that this magazine cover is telling the reader that inside there is text about a new building, and I also think that the photograph behind the students may be the new building, as it reads 'New Humanities Building'.

I overall like this front cover as I feel that it is telling the readers about what is inside and the photographs and the on the front clearly show that it is a school magazine. I like how they have overlayed a two images and how they have cut and pasted the two students on to the cover; I feel that this further helps showing that this is a school magazine. However the two students are cut out and pasted on to the cover badly; I feel that this takes away the professional look of the cover.

 

The colours used for the text also stand out extremely well, contrasting with the background, I will take this in to mind when creating my own front cover. I also find that the bright colours help make it eye catching.

I also like the idea of the school logo being in one of the top corners, I feel that this clearly tells the reader/viewer before they even pick it up, that it is from/ for that certain school. I am going to also take this in to mind and maybe add it into my cover.

 

I feel that this magazine cover is alot better than the first magazine cover I looked at, as I feel that this gives off more information about what is inside without having to open it and look at the contents page.

 



School Magazine Location and Thoughts

School Magazine Location and Thoughts

 

In media, today, we started to discuss the themes and locations that we could use in our school magazine preliminary task.

The themes that we came up with, were,

-Halloween

-Bomb fire night

-Christmas

-Easter, and

-Summer

 

I feel that I would like to theme my magazine themed around Christmas, as this is my favourite holiday. I have many ideas of how to show that my magazine is themed around Christmas;

-Have my model interacting with tinsel i.e. Wrapped around her neck, shoulders or in her hair.

-Have my model wearing a hat or a scarf to show that it is getting colder

-Have my model wearing Christmas earrings or a Christmas necklace

-I could also have her holding a present.

 

 

We were taken around the school to view different locations that we could use to take our photographs in, these locations featured;

-The front of the school

-The sixth form block

-Inside the school main building itself, and

-The quad

 

I would like to take my front cover photograph in the quad, as I feel that this location gives me many options in how to lay the photograph out. I would like to have my model leaning against the tree in the quad, perhaps holding a text book to show that she is at school, as I would like to do a sixth form magazine, and as I want Christmas as my magazine theme, I could have her with tinsel in her hair or draped around her shoulders.

I would also have to think about the lighting in the photograph, as because I want to do an Christmas themed magazine, it would not make sense if there was alot of sunlight within the image; I would have to take the photo on a cloudy day; this would help portray that it was nearing Christmas.

The photograph also has to be a medium head shot of a student, so I will have to take this in to mind when taking the photograph. I will also have to make sure that there are no bins or litter in the background when composing the photograph as this would destroy the main purpose of the image and take the main focus away from the student and on to the litter/ litter bin behind.

I will also take photographs in other locations, to give me a wide range of images to chose from; in case I do not like the image I have taken at the quad.

 

We also have been told to think of colours that people associated with or chosen theme;

I have chosen Christmas so I feel that the main colours associated with that holiday are;

-Red and Green

I could then use these colours for my font or for a border around the photographs I take. I feel that then this would instantly tell the readers/viewers that my magazine was around the theme of Christmas instead of them having to guess.

 

I currently have in mind a photograph I would like to have as my front cover;

A sixth former sitting/ standing by the tree (location; the Quad) holding a textbook(perhaps with the Beaver wood symbol on the front) with tinsel around her neck. I would like to use a shallow depth of field when taking the image. My ideas may change when I actually come to taking the photographs as I may find a more suitable location that appeals to the magazine more.

 

I am looking forward to taking the photographs as I can use my photography skills and I also enjoy taking photographs as well.

 

 

 

 

 

School Magazine Annotation

 

School Magazine Annotation

Beaverwood Times - Issue 4

This is the Beaverwood school times magazine, it was published during May 2012. My first overall impression of the magazine is that it is eye catching. The colours use are very bright and also fit with the theme of 'spring', I also noticed the 'B' of Beaverwood and the 'T' of times has been put into a font that also fits with the theme.

The magazine also has two sub headings which lead onto articles about things that have happened in the world. I feel that they have used this information because then the pupils can get up to date on what is going on in the world; even if they do not watch the news or read the paper.

However I have realised that there is nothing about things that are going on at school on the front of the paper, although there may be some on the inside, and feel that pupils and teachers may not pick up the magazine because of this. 

The layout of the magazine is very organised; making it easy to read and understand, I feel that this is essential in a magazine as if the readers/viewers cannot understand it, they will not buy it.

However, overall I feel that this magazine cover looks more like something that you would find on the inside pages of a magazine. I feel that the cover should have a small line or two about all of the stories on the inside; I feel that this would make it easy for the reader to understand what was on the inside without having to look through the magazine.

My thoughts on the tasks ahead

My thoughts on the tasks ahead

 

 

Today in Media I discovered that I have to complete a preliminary task; which is creating a front and contents page of a school magazine and that my main task (which is 50% of my grade) is to create a front cover, a content page and a double page spread of a music magazine, which has a genre of my choice.

 

I am looking forward to creating these magazines and I know that my photography skills will help me in doing this as I have created a music magazine cover (etc.) before. I am looking forward to the music magazine alot more because I get to chose the genre of the music and therefore I feel that it becomes more personal as I get to chose something that I am 'in to'. I have alot of ideas for the front cover of this page, as I feel that I want to do a 'Punk-Rock' genre of magazine although I know this could change;

-A photograph of one of my friends playing the guitar dressed in 'emo/punk' clothing

-I could research 'Kerrang' as they are a well known music magazine and do alot of different punk/rock genre magazines.

 

I also think that I may find creating a school magazine harder to create as I haven`t yet read, or seen one so I do not know what to include inside it however I feel this can be cleaned up by a little research e.g. Beaverwood has its own school magazine; 'The Beaverwood Times' I feel that looking into this may give me more ideas and will clear up my concerns about what will need to go on the contents and front page.

 
Overall I'm excited about the tasks ahead and at the moment I do not have any concerns about completing them.