Patrick’s Weblog

SMART Targets

The next stage in my print production is to choose locations, props and people to include into the photos.

S pecific
M easurable
A chievable
R elevant
T ime-bound

I will write my targets in paragraph form to give me a good idea what the stages will be through process of planning through to production since they are more in-depth.

1. I will create design sketches and decide weather to stick with generic design format or see how different designs look and put these forward to a focus group who will give me feed back on my initial ideas and which parts I should move forward with and some ideas which should be left out.

2. The feedback from the focus group will help me develop my ideas further. I will then create designs from what they have said about my ideas and combine then to create a final idea.

3. From creating the final design ideas I will go out and use the available resources I have to look at locations (like local gigs and venues), participants and organise props for the photos to be taken. If it is a live gig then some things are out of my control like props but that gives a good live feel to the article. I can choose to do some location shots with local bands or musicians.

4. After this I will choose the best and most appropriate photos to go onto the magazine, I will be using PhotoShop to design the pages, this enables me to edit images and the easiest way to create the layout.

5. Along with this I will be creating written content to include with the photos, like reviews and ratings. I will be taking a notepad with me during the location shots and live shots to allow me create a review on the photos and text to put with them. I will be arranging the content with the photos and page layout.

6. I will show the stages through the design stage and look at the different draft versions and explain why I did not use certain things in my product and analyse the final product and why I chose what I did.

7. After this I will create a feedback form for my product to give to the intended audience of the product and give views and opinions and looks at final changes that I could make to my product.

8. Evaluation of final product.

I will be looking into current music magazines and breaing down their front covers, contets page and a double page article

Kerrang! Is a popular rock music magazine. On this feature it includes a band called “Blink 182″ across the middle of the page in a font which looks worn away and messy, which gives effect to the title. The main focus of the front cover is the heads of the band members poking above the title and the lower half of their bodies are covered in text, that have serious bit with a hint of cheekiness behind the expressions.

The name of the magazine is in the top left hand corner with a red background which is continued through the page, with red text and other titles in a red background. The main colours featured on this page are reds, blacks and whites with some yellows. Many images have been included on this pages of close up on faces and a medium close up in the bottom left hand corner.

I have noticed on this page that it has included many names of bands everywhere, at the top, bottom and in the middle of the page. This is for someone to notice a band they like and pick up the magazine and read the article and may convince a person to buy that magazine, this is a great way to get people to look at the magazine.
It also includes a WIN! title, this can also convince a person to pick up this magazine, but this is less important than the main article because it is in a smaller font but it is noticeable because the title font is in yellow rather than white or red.

It has also included photos at the bottom of the page with white borders, this is to divide the pictures from the main image and other text, it also gives the impression of snapshots taken on a Polaroid camera, since the pictures come out with a white background.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

This is a double page spread also from the Kerrang! magazine, it keeps to the house style of the red and whites fonts and text. This is good example of a double page photo since if we took away either the left or right side page, the picture would look incomplete and inconsistent with the page. This page has included a review about a bands performance it states where and when the event took place, it includes a 200-300 word review on the performance of the band, it also states what happened and what gave it the rating it received.

The rating system for this magazine is in “K”s and it gives a small legend at the top of the page giving the ratings:
K – Rubbish
KK – Poor
KKK – Good
KKKK – Great
KKKKK – Incredible

At the bottom left page in the red box it also gives opinions of the audience of the performance, it gives names and ages of them. This gives also the feel of the audience as well as the reviewer on the event, this gives a good contrast since the audience may feel differently to the reviewer.

The large white title on the top right hand corner feels the empty space left in the corner, and the sub-title text is written around the guitar, this gives importance to the picture. The main title is in clear bold white font whereas the sub-title has a font of a typewriter, this is a great use of space.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

The first thing i noticed about this contents page is the “Contents” title in broken and faded font similar to the font on the front cover of the page, so it is keeping to the house style. It include a small editors note of about 100 – 150 words of what is included in the issue and refers back to last weeks issue and it also gives pages references. At the end of the editors note, it is signed personally signed by him giving a personal touch.

The page contains one large image and smaller images, there are one word captions to illustrate the picture with page references to pages. This pages has very little blank spaces, filled with text and pictures.

Under the title “This Week” it has red sub-titles separating the different sections of the magazine. Underneath it has black font giving page numbers and article headings

The largest image takes up over a quarter of the page, this gives the implication that this is the featured article of the magazine, it also gives a page reference.
On this page, there is very little textual content. I think this is to push viewers into the magazine, read further on since the contents page does not much textual content, people are barely looking at this page.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

NME (New Music Express) is a music magazine for alternate or mainstream music. It has a shortened name which rolls of your tongue rather than New Music Express. It has similar features to Kerrang! magazine with the house colours of red, white, black and yellow.The main title spreads across the main page showing “Killers” with a questions as a sub-title which makes the reader find out the answer to the question and read further on into the magazine.

It has a clear magazine title in the top left, which is also a reoccurring pattern similar to Kerrang! also. The title is in red with a white border keeping with the house style.

It also lists band that will feature in this magazine at the top of the page with “Preview Special”, stating this is a special edition of the magazine, more reason to buy it.

Also at the bottom of the page is like a new banner is also stating what else is featuring in the magazine, like this magazine has the inside story and best review of the of what happened.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Also keeping with the house style of red, whites and black keeps contingency with the front cover of the magazine. The main picture also takes over quarter of a page with smaller images places around the page. The picture at the bottom of the page has a red border with text next to it, also stating a page number, this is a little snippet of a article which gives great effect the the contents being able to read an out line of an article, this also implies this is a feature article.

On the contents page, there are many different font sizes, this can represent importance of articles, the one in larger bolder fonts are better reads than those in smaller fonts and a white background. The page numbers are illustrated in coloured circles which look like they are still wet and dripping, black circles represent featured articles where as red represents the rest of the magazine.

The text is broken into sections of different colours, like smaller versions of the article giving an outline what is going to bee in the magazine, this allows quick reading and also for people picking up the magazine, reading what is featured in it, they are able to get a brief view what is in the magazine and be more likely to buy it.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

This page has a blue theme with the title of “Radar” in the top left of the page which may mean a different section of the magazine, for instance “New Music” or “Latest Talent”.

The main image takes up half a page showing the band members in a teenagers bedroom surrounding and ironically called “The Teenagers”. It gives a small section of information about them in the bottom left, about who they are, where they come from and what is their latest album called. On the right hand side is broken up in to two sections, one is a long article about the band, with enlarged quotations from the article in blue.

Also the title include “NME Loves” means this may be a popular band or the featured new talent, which means that the magazine highly rates this band.

On the far right hand side of the page is in a black background to divide that article from a different off-topic one. This is a “Everyone is Talking About…” section which are small articles of bands that are popular at the time and what have they done to be so talked about but it also keeps with the blue page style.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

“Q” Magazine slogan is “Britain’s Biggest Music Magazine” this is aimed at British audience. It has a notice red Q logo in the top left hand corner a reoccurring pattern of in the top left corner and having a red background. Red, white and black are also the house colours. The main feature “Madonna” is covering up some of the title and slogan given her importance. Her name is stretch across the main page in beg red font and you instantly know she is Madonna and this magazine has an exclusive interview with her.

Also with the main feature there is little text covering her face, all text is surrounding her, so she is the main focus of the cover.

The bottom of the magazine includes a free item with the magazine of women in music, offering something free with a magazine may arouse interest in buying it, because it may catch interest or since it include free material that other magazines do not offer.

Also like other magazine it includes a list of artists that are going to feature in the magazine, the more important ones like Rolling Stones, Robert Plant and Arctic Monkeys are in a red font, also implying that they are an important feature in the magazine. It also includes “The 50 Best British Albums” also aiming this at the British audience because this is known for being a British magazine.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

With this contents page it has an obvious Q logo in the top left hand corner of the page, stating it as the contents page and the date. It is broken up into two sections “Features” and “Every Month”. This is a great way to divide new features from the usual features included in the magazine. It also has sections off “The Lennon Issue” as another special section of the magazine.

It keeps to the house style of red, black and white corresponding with the colours of the magazine. Colour of the page number are in red (apart from the feature) and the pages titles are in black with a small line or two explaining what the article is about

There is a large image of James Blunt’s head covering over half the page, it has that in small writing in the top left of the image with a small paragraph about the picture.

It has an arrow at the bottom of the magazine pointing in towards the magazine, making people want to turn over the page to see what in the rest of the magazine is about. The bottom of the page has a news banner sending the reader to the page of another featured article.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

This is a double page article from Q magazine. You notice that they have a purple banner on each side of the page, this shows that a different section of the magazine “Lives”. I keeps to the house style with the text of red, black and white and is broken up into and article format. The image spreads one third of the page and shaped like an reversed L, breaking up the textual content. The magazine has a star rating which is default for reviewing a magazine, so one star being poor and 5 star being excellent.

This is quite an in-depth expanded article with several hundred words, compared to Kerrang and NME. This may be the selling point of this magazine of having longer reviews than other music magazines to approach to the intellectual audience rather than looking at picture like superficial magazines.

At the top left of the page it gives a time, date and location of the event and has a sub-title in red giving a small overview of the gig.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Conclusion of features

I have noticed from each front cover that they all have similar features. The house colour is usually red and it has a close up of one person or a medium close up of a group or band. This seems to be a generic feature. It has a large heading of the name of the magazine with usually a large title in the middle of the page, with many smaller texts placed around the main image, keeping in with the house style, which is usually red, white and black (also some yellow).

Contents pages consists of sections of text, breaking up the different pages of the magazine. It has a picture usually taking up between half and three quarters of the page. It makes page numbers obvious and has little description, like a blurb of that will be included in the page, this is a great way for readers to use as a reference This page may contain smaller pictures to illustrate articles.

The double page spread also features a very large picture which may take up a whole page or spread across the middle of the page taking up a large amount of space, the reviews are not very long consisting of several hundred words but includes rating of gigs or a band and is usually set up in article template.

1. Origins of Disney

During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was under age, only sixteen years old at the time. Instead, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas to France, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with Disney cartoons.

Once Walt returned from France, he began to pursue a career in commercial art. He started a small company called Laugh-O-Grams, which eventually fell bankrupt. With his suitcase, and twenty dollars, Walt headed to Hollywood to start anew.

After making a success of his “Alice Comedies,” Walt became a recognized Hollywood figure. On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. Later on they would be blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon .

In 1932, the production entitled Flowers and Trees(the first color cartoon) won Walt the first of his studio’s Academy Awards. In 1937, he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multi-plane camera technique.

On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Theater in Los Angeles. The film produced at the unheard cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Depression, the film is still considered one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. During the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed other full-length animated classics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi.

Source: http://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/biography/w_bio_short.html

2. Scope of operations/Key areas of business/Turnover/Profits

Beating Wall Street expectations, it made a net profit of $734m (£420m) in the three months to 31 December 2005, up from $686m a year earlier.Quarterly revenue rose to $8.9bn from the $8.7bn seen 12 months previously, the entertainment giant announced.Disney also says it will merge its ABC Radio arm with Citadel Broadcasting. The new firm – Citadel Communications – will become the third largest radio group in the US.Disney will have a 52% majority stake in the business.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4687324.stm

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company

Comparing these 2 sources, in 2007 Disney employed 150,00 people where as 2008 they employed 137,00 people.

3. Competition

Fox, Dreamworks and Warner Brothers.
Fox’s “Ice Age,” a computer-generated feature, is making the company think maybe there is a future in animation after all. “Ice Age” set a record for a March debut, making $46.3 million its first weekend.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B995A4641-A987-4911-9BAB-04D2A0D90B95%7D&siteid=yhoo

What does the Disney Brand Mean?
It represents childhood memories and aspirations to have a life like Disney films, with happy endings by reenacting the scenery and being part of the positive and perfect environment.

How does Disney represent reality?

Characters that feature in Disney cartoons usually are in a fantasy world but other branches of Disney are represented to attract different audience like TouchStone and Mirrormax are more for small audience. The perception is that there is always going to be a happy ending and there will adventures along the what bringing the story back around to the beginning again.

Disney and Pixar

Pixar is a subsidiary of Disney. Disney brought Pixar for $9 Billion. The reasons for this could possibly be that Disney found Pixar a threat and wanted to eliminate this competition and use it to their advantage. Pixar opened Disney to a new era of animation and most released movies from Disney are CGI animated cartoons rather than hand drawn.