Research #2 V Magazine

For my next magazine, I am going to analyze the 110 Winter 2017 V Magazine. This magazine cover is very unique and minimal. The cover of this magazine features Daisy Ridley, an English actress that was in the 2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Like the previous magazine I analyzed, the GQ magazine featuring Chance the Rapper, Daisy Ridley also takes up most of the cover. Layered over the picture of Daisy Ridley is a big V about the length and width of the magazine in an oil slick silver color. The text on the cover also has an oil slick finish. The content in this magazine is mostly advertisement showing off brands of clothing, such as a brand named Saint Laurent that occupies four pages and Louis Vuitton which takes up two pages. In this magazine there are very few articles. the first article that I came across was title Abbey Road. The article is spread through two pages and displays two pictures of Abbey Lee, an Australian actress, one picture on each page covering about half the pages from the top to bottom. Below the images is the text of the article. This article is about Abbey Lee's acting career on how she became popular after debuting in the the movie called Mad Max. Although there are a few articles in this magazine, most of the articles are about different fashion senses and opinion by famous fashion designers. The V Magazine releases four issues a year, one for each season. As of 2010, the V Magazine has a readership of 315,000.

Research #1 GQ

For this magazine project I am going to start analyzing different magazines to look for conventions and get inspiration for when I create my own magazine. For my first magazine it is the GQ magazine for the month of February 2017. The cover of this magazine features Chance the Rapper, a famous United States musician, standing with his hands at his hips, smiling, taking up most of the space on the cover. The background of the cover is yellow and half the "Q" in the GQ logo in the top left corner is being covered by Chance's head. At the corners of the magazine there are title summaries of article in the magazine in the text colors of black and red. Turning to the first page there is an advertisement about a Chevrolet car where the image of the car takes up both pages. Turning to the next page there is another advertisement advertising Dolce and Gabbana clothing -again, taking up both pages from left to right. Being a fashion magazine, most of the ads are about high end fashion brands along with some deodorant, perfume and cologne advertisements. The first article I ran into in the magazine is about skin-care treatment and mens grooming. In this GQ magazine there is a page that recognizes all the editors, publishers, designers, and directors of different department of the magazine. the U.S GQ magazine has an average paid circulation of 824,334 issues per month, of which 609,238 were subscriptions.

Project Selection - Decision

I have decided to create a magazine instead of a film for my project. Creating a magazine is best fit for me because I already have a background in graphic designing in the classes I've taken in the past and I have brainstormed a lot more ideas about a magazine than a film. Graphic designing is also a job that I've been think about pursuing and making a magazine will be a good way to see if the job will be right for me. Ideas that I have thought about for a magazine are a baseball, fitness, or a fashion magazine. I am leaning towards a baseball magazine because I currently play baseball, and I am able to interview my coaches, my teammates, and take pictures where we practice and play games. I am also leaning towards a fashion magazine because there is more options to be more creative. In a fashion magazine, I am able to have photo shoots to display outfits I create. For this project I will be working alone. 

Project Selection - Film

What I have learned so far about film production are all the different shots, lighting, and music editing used to produce a film. I learned that all of these aspects have meaning in them to convey a specific emotion in a scene of a film. In class we watched the movie called Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which was about three teens skipping a day of school to have the best day of their life. This movie taught us what was called, "breaking the fourth wall." Breaking the fourth wall in a film is when the actor or actress speaks to the audience, Ferris Bueller's Day Off was one of the first movies to do this. What interest me on making a film is that it is something I have never done before and I am able to create my own edits. Creating a film maybe challenging to me because I am not the best actor and I'm a bit soft spoken, this can affect the overall outcome of the film by making lines in the film sound awkward and hard to hear.

Project Selection - Magazine

Graphic designing was always something that interested me. I specifically enjoy designing my own logos with shapes and text offered on Microsoft Word. Before taking AICE media studies, I took a class called DIT (digital information technology), this class took me through the steps on how to use the Microsoft programs such as Word, Powerpoint, and Excel, into mastery levels. Since taking this class, I've been able to create more complex designs which will help me create a magazine in media studies. The first exposure I had to print journalism in this class was by watching the movie All the President's Men. This movie was about two men, who work for the Washington Post, search for credible sources to crack the code on the Watergate scandal. This movie showed the environment of how a big newspaper company operated and the process on how they put out their articles. I learned that there are many steps in publishing an article in the newspaper; first, you have to back up what you claim with credible, on the record, sources and second, be the first to give out the information. These points were also presented in the series we watched in class called the Newsroom. A challenge in this project might be the process of getting uses to new editing programs such as Photoshop, however, once I learn the techniques, it will become easier.