Photos for preliminary task

I took two photos to put on the cover of my preliminary task, at the time I wasn't completely sure of the final look of my cover so I took a couple of mid shots to give me a choice.

This shot is of two people posing at the end of the sixth form corridor, I tried to get both of them with a shot with the view all the way along down the sixth form corridor. I thought this would make the main models seem bigger as all the people and computers in the background would look small. Although I couldn't quite make this to work as I couldn't get as much of the sixth form corridor as I would have liked. This is probably one of the factors that led me not to choose this photo for the front cover. I would most probably have run this with the headline of Meet the Head Boy candidates.

The second photo I took was down in the sport corridor as I thought the article on the cover could be related to sport. I looked at the wall and I saw some blank space next to the high jump record . The idea for the photo then popped into my head. With this only being a preliminary task I didn't have the props to allow me to take a photo of someone in a sports kit as I do think it's a bit strange my model is wearing a suit. I would also have taken a few more of the same shot if this was the real thing as the quality of this photo is not great. I did think this was the better photo though as it was easier to fit the text round and it was staged better . 

Front cover-preliminary task

I have now completed the front cover for my school magazine for the preliminary task.

I feel that I've stuck to my own goal of making my front cover relevant to the main article of my magazine even though I won't actually be producing it. I really thought about my photo to give my cover the best chance of looking professional. I deliberately took the photo in the sport corridor as they are suitable surroundings for a photo celebrating sporting achievement, but I wanted to go one step further and I took a photo of my model standing up against a piece of wall art about the high jump. The 2.45m that can be seen in the background is the high jump world record. Although looking back at the photo it's not of the best quality and that's something I want to address in my real piece. On my front cover I chose to stick to the basic font of Arial Black. I think as it is a school magazine the purpose is to give out information and perhaps not as much thought is put into the appearance. I also feel that Arial Black makes it easier to read which will give the impression the magazine inside is easy to read. I chose to stick to black and white colours for the text on my cover, I thought it was best as if there are too many colours it would look too busy and the cover wouldn't be interesting for people to look at and read.

Contents page mock up-preliminary task

I have created this mock up of a contents page for my preliminary task. I remembered that the brief was a school magazine, this is one of the reasons why I chose pictures to feature so prominently. As this is most likely to be handed to students who may not want to spend their time reading about school I represented the main articles with pictures. This is in the hope they will look at the pictures and decide they will want to read the article. I only did this to the main articles as they are the main articles for a reason, you want them to be read. I also tried to tailor the articles to the scenario, 3 of my 4 main articles are about extra curricular activities. One of the purposes of a school magazine is to advertise the school and the extra curricular activities in the hope to inspire other pupils to get involved. This is why chose a range of articles to appeal to everyone there is performing arts, sport and a charitable cause. This has helped me to understand that it is important to select an audience but appeal to everyone within that audience type. I thought long and hard about the design of this contents page and i think this will be the design I use in my music magazine.

Preliminary task research

I had trouble finding a school magazine I could analyse as many of them are produced by students and were quite amateurish. Although as my preliminary task is a school newspaper for TDA I chose to analyse the school's own magazine.

Analysis 

• Coloured boxes help to promote the school and instill a sense of pride. As they tell of positive things going on around the school.
• The theme of pride is continued with the slogan near the top. It promotes the school and is aimed to impress any external readers
• The month and year makes it easy to tell issues apart and organise them if you have many
• The 6 coloured boxes help to create a consistent and appropriate house style as they are the college colours of the school. This is supported by the badge
•  The large word 'news' tells you straight away exactly what you're reading and helps you to make a judgement on whether you want to read it straight away
• The low angle establishing shot emphasises the enormity of the school and makes it seem more impressive this helps to attract people's attentions to the cover
• There is a link to the school's website to try and advertise it and get more people to visit it

Although...

• There is a lot of grey used on the header and footer and in the main picture itself, although there are blocks of colour the cover is quite dim and unattractive to look at
• The TDA logo doesn't fit on the page I can't see the effect it is trying to create so I think it should be shrunk so it all fits
• The photo is a general photo of the school, it doesn't link to any article inside the magazine which isn't what you'd expect to see. In my magazine I want my front cover to be relevant to the main article inside 

Candidate Information

Name: Benjamin Jones

Candidate Number: 2163

Centre Name: Thomas Deacon Academy

Centre Number: 22321

Foundation Portfolio Brief: To construct the front page, contents page and a double page spread of a new music magazine