Magazine Research - The Family Handyman

The second magazine we decided to look at is called The Family Handyman. The cover of this magazine is similar to that of the HGTV magazine. It consists of a dark grey background with some white shelves that house the focus of the picture. Each shelf contains some picture frames of varying sizes as well as some other home decor items. On the page, there are arrows pointing to some of the different aspect of the picture are related to different articles in the magazine. The table of contents is arranged by sections with the actual contents arranged under around three pictures that are edited to be different colors. This magazine has articles that are centered aorund DIY projects around the house including many repair projects. It also had an article on how to make a DIY stone waterfall for your backyard on page 44. Page 48 advises the reader on how to make a bench out of pressure-treated landscape timbers. Unlike the HGTV magazine, this one contains a lot fewer ads. On page 17 there is a page of different coupons for many home-related products and some industrial tools as well. Page 42 contains an add for waterproofing your shower and gives all of the different options that the company offers. There are only a total of 4 ads throughout the magazine. The final ad is located on the last page and it is advertising a pressure washer. The distribution number for this magazine is 1,158,743 copies per month. It doesn't appear to have won any awards as of now.

Magazine Research - HGTV

The first magazine we chose to study is HGTV. The magazine goes along with the theme of our magazine so it will give us a good indication of how our magazine should be laid out. The first thing you see when you look at the cover of this magazine is bright colors contrasting with a white background of shelves. It appears to be more holiday themed so many of the items on the cover either relate to a holiday or are reminiscent of a holiday. The colors a re bright but a more muted version so they stay more in the pastel range of colors. It is a very organized picture that has empty spaces where there is writing or titles, with all the fonts being bold and big. This magazine included articles about renovating houses, it also contained an article that outlined how to create a DIY forest mobile. In total, there were around 12 articles in the entire magazine. It showed DIY photo stands as well as some decorating guides and renovated house tours. At the end of the magazine thy also included a DIY recipe that readers could try at home. The ads featured in this magazine vary greatly. There is one for extra gum on page 50, one for eczema on page 67, an ad for Sun Chips on page 70, one for Yogi tea on page 91 and Rocket Mortgage on the opposite side of the page and more related ads throughout the magazine. There are ads from pages 1-22 but on average there were around five to seven pages of ads between different articles. The distribution number of the magazine is 1,761,517. The magazine won a special interests award for its June 2014 issue but as of now, it doesn't appear to boast any other awards.

Project Selection - My Decision

I have chosen to pursue the magazine option for my project. I feel that this will be the best use of my skills because it incorporates organization and creativity. The film project also includes these aspects, but it requires the gathering of actors and I don't know anyone with those skills. Overall, it would be a better use of my skills to complete the magazine project. My project will be focused on creativity and art but more specifically arts and crafts as well as home decor. It will probably be centered around do-it-yourself style activities that could also include creating crafts or cooking how-to's. This will mean that the theme of the magazine will be more centered around crafting and decoration ideas. This will be a good topic for my group because we both have readily available resources within the genre of magazine we have chosen. I will be working in a group of two people. It will consist of my friend Bella and I. Bella is also very creative and is exceptionally good at organizing and designing projects which will prove very beneficial for this project. Between us we known quite a few local artists and just everyday people who love to create all different forms of art. We should have no problems creating a well-thought through and professional product with out combined skill set.

Project Selection - Film

So far we have watched a number of well-made and popular films and TV shows. Towards the beginning of the year we got to watch "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." The comedy is one of the first to have the main character talking directly to the camera/audience. After watching the film we got to watch the directors cut. This really helped to explain how the film was made and what goes into the creation of a movie. We also watched the TV show "The Newsroom." This show focused on how TV news is created and what goes into the news each night. We also got to watch the directors cut for this show which really helped to illustrate the process of creating and writing a TV show. The filming project could be a good choice for my group and I, but it may not be the best. We are organized and creative but acting would prove to be difficult and may not turn out as good as we want it to.

Project Selection - Magazine

So far this year, we have learned a lot about print media from movies, TV shows, and magazine analysis. We studied movies such as "All the Presidents Men" and "Nixon" and watched the TV show, "The Newsroom." The two movies primarily covered the topic of print media. "All the President's Men" went in depth on the topic of print media and how they have to confirm stories with reputable sources before they publish them. "The Newsroom" focused more on television but they still covered some important topics that apply to print media as well. In one episode they were faced with a problem when they aired a negative story about one of their top contributors. They learned not to portray financial contributors in a negative way. We also completed an assignment that had us bring in a magazine of our choice to answer some questions on. Some of the questions included how the magazines were laid out and  also asked questions about some of the advertising techniques that were used in our magazine. It really got us thinking about how a magazine is created and what goes into just the cover and layout. Creating a magazine will work well with my organizational skills and creativity, but I may have some difficulty in transferring my ideas to the computer as I don't have much experience with using a computer to design projects.