Select a current article and explain what it expresses.

I chose to read an article on Biffy Clyro in my music magazine. The article talks about how the band got together, their musical influence and their success.

The band came together in 1995 in a school just outside Glasgow, when childhood friends Simon Neil (vocals/guitar) and twins James (bass/vocals) and Ben Johnston (drums/vocals) started playing music together.

The band were 'united' by their musical inspiration/love for underground, experimental rock and post-hardcore bands such as Guns N' Roses and Metallica. The band have developed their own style of sound; a mixture of soulful choruses, off-kilter tempos and unpredictable guitars. They find the band Red House Painters a major inspiration to them.

Their usual touring brought about more and more fans, The well known band U2 even supported them at a 'Noise Session' at London's Union Chapel. One of their album named 'Only Revolutions' helped the band Biffy Clyro take a major leap forward in success; reaching half a million sales in the UK alone.

Preliminary Task Evaluation.

My Preliminary Tast was to create a front cover and a contents page for a school magazine. I decided my audience for my magazine would be aimed at students in year 11 looking for A level choices and 6th form students.

Firstly I made a flat plan to sketch my ideas for the front page and contents. Now that I have finished my front cover, the picture has changed from the original flat plan idea, however I managed to keep the masthead the same, the teasers and the black and red colour scheme. The angle of gaze for my cutout is a medium shot. The student in my front cover is sitting down outside smiling while revising, my main reason for this is to re-assure students looking to study A levels that A levels are not as stressful as they imagine or have heard it to be. I have used the black and red colour scheme because it represents the colour of NMBEC's  logo. I have used the font "Felix Titling" for the teasers which is a serif font; giving the effect of making the text look smart and easy to read. I used the "vrinda" font for the text underneath which is san serif making it distinguishable against the teaser titles. For the actual photo taken, I hardly edited it since the lighting was very good, all I done was adjust the brightness and contrast to make the colours stronger to stand out to the reader. At the bottom of the front cover I added a tag line at the bottom which read "It's New, It's Young, It's You!" which i felt could help the reader to understand the magazine is new and who the magazine is directed at; young people such as themselves. I like the finished result of my magazine, it has got alot of eye catching features and the colour scheme works.

My flat plan for the contents page and the finished result are very similar, I have carried out my idea of having an extra long shot of two students walking underneath the canopy. I have also made sure that the picture is only along the right hand side of the page, not actually taking up the whole of the page so that I can have space for the page title's and numbers etc... In photoshop I have cropped down the picture to get rid of anything disturbing the picture e.g bins, but also I have cropped it so that the supporting wooden beams create a sort of pattern. I have made the picture black and white apart from the students and the words at the top reading "IT WILL ECHO". I have done this so that the picture does not look too busy, also to help the students stand out. The Title "CONTENTS" is also in "Felix Titling" font and is red (as well as the page numbers) so that it matches the front page. I have made use of the two pictures I took with the camera in the common room, I edited them separately making a white border to stand out from the black and white extra long shot picture on the side. The background behind the text on the side is of a notebook page and the page titles are in "Lucida Handwriting", I have done this so that it can relate to work and/or revision.

I am pleased with my overall result of my Preliminary task and I feel I have met the needs of my profile reader. However for future improvements I will take much more pictures so that I can have more space on the sides to add teasers which can be readable on my front cover. In addition I could of used a pull quote for the Front Page. For my contents I would improve my outcome by planning in more depth what the structure of the page will be to save more time.

Magazine cover research

NME magazine is my main inspiration for my ideas and designs for my front cover of my magazine. I have used the same colour scheme of red and black which I regard as quite eye catching and it does not clash at all.

Shot list

For my front cover of my magazine "Inside NM" i will use a medium shot of Rukhsana Lachhana hoding books with a brick wall of the school as the background.

For my contents page i will take shots of Karwin and Cleo walking together through the veranda outside the common room, the picture will make it obvious that they are interacting with speech and hand gestures. I will also take a picture of Cleo or Karwin reading/revising inside the common room.

(UPDATE: added picture)

We have used these pictures to present as part of our group project, the outside building was taken by me, the other two by Bianca but edited by me.

The name of my magazine is going to be named "Inside NM" the 'NM' is short for Norbury Manor. I am planning to have the person who will be on the front cover of my magazine will be against a brick wall holding books. The shot will be a medium shot so that they can see she is a students because she has got books. I will have a teaser in the top right hand corner to attract the reader's attention and a pull quote on the side of the cut out.

Reader Profile

Louis is an average 15 year old boy who is studying at a secondary school in South Norwood. He is coming to the end of his GCSEs and is looking for a college which will suit his A level options. He is very interested in biology and would want to study it as an A level. He would also want to know what facilities the college has to offer such as the common room, new sixth form building and the science department. However he is not sure about which career pathway is the right one for him and wants to know which subjects could help him with future careers. My magazine will suit him because I will be mainly focusing on the sixth form and its subjects, facilities and pupils. My magazine will be introducing the different subjects and its advantages in life, also which subjects could open up different career pathways for him. My Magazine will also have a section of someone's thoughts on the science department who has studied there for AS and why they have chosen Biology as an As subject.