Midterm Submission

Photo Shoot

The wrestling coach invited me to watch a practice and take pictures during one of their practices. The first day I came he said that I can't take pictures that day because they were doing only conditioning drills, so i rescheduled for the following day and got these pictures.

Schedule interviews and Develop questions

The most important interview I have is with the wrestling coach. I have a foot in the door luckily because he was my old football coach, which helped me extremely throughout. The interview questions I made were:

What experience do you have in the fitness and coaching field?

What made you decide to coach this team?

What changes have you made to the team as a hole?

Where do you plan to take the team in the future?

I thought it was also important to get the perspective of a member of the team, preferably one that has been wrestling for a few years at my school and around to experience both old and new coaches. One member, Carlos Sosa, Junior agreed to have an interview with me after practice at the same time with his coach. I also developed some questions for him:

What changes has this new coach made for your wrestling team?

What is one thing that he [the coach] changed that you are most happy with?

Scouting locations for photo shoots

Upon meeting with the wrestling coach, he informed me that if I were to take pictures of the wrestling team, It would have to be in this room. This limits me extremely in what I am trying to do, however, when framing my shots I must be up close to avoid showing as much background as I can.

Flat plan

When designing a flat plan I wanted to include stories that appeal to my target audience, which is athletes. Not only writing stories that inform athletes of their competition, but also informing them on ordeals that effect them and their respective sports. It was my idea to have the "state champion ____" in our respective sports for each season throughout each issue. This is useful because it appeals to the sports viewer, not just athlete.

Cover Template

Continuing with the black/orange/white color scheme, influenced by my school colors, we have 3 different fonts. The top font is designed to appeal to the boldness of athletes. I see similar font used within the football locker room and weight room. The stories on the side are meant to consume and blank space not in focus for the picture, and give athletes a hint of what is inside, perhaps peaking interest. The arrow I used to create originality was inspiration drawn from one of the magazines I researched in the past. It draws even more attention to the picture and directs the readers eyes in an exact location. Someone in my group came up with the title of the magazine which makes sense because all other issues of this magazine are seasonal, along with our mascot being a sailor.

Table of Contents Template

In order to establish our color scheme, orange and black is my group's school colors which means that these colors will be most prominent in our pictures most likely. The black X's is where i plan to add in pictures. Once I add pictures, i may change the background from white in order to make the page more interesting, however I may consequentially have to change the color of all my pages. I created the "state champions" portion which will be in every issue, also the "extra points" category which will as well. I created the "changes for competitors" grouping because at the time of creation for this magazine, most organizations change their standards for the new year. I will use these fonts on the front cover as well in order to establish a sense of a brand throughout.

Research Post 5

Similar to Sports Illustrated, is the kids version of the magazine. This is obliviously meant to appeal to a smaller, younger target audience. This is achieved by simple headings, not a lot of text, and larger blank spaces. Inside, ads consist of video games and sporting equipment. The stories within the magazine are not very long and use very simple language to convey a point. Sports Illustrated Kids utilizes large pictures to fill up blank space caused by short articles. This appeals to their target audience because few kids will read an entire article.

Research Post 4

In this magazine has 4 different font colors on the front, the most out of any magazine I had seen so far. The target audience is football coaches, most likely at the high school level. Most advertisements are for football gear (shoulder pads, helmets, sideline headsets, etc.) this is because football coaches are the only kind of people who buy these items. Articles are made up of coaching tips and tricks to give a team an edge on their competitor. The magazine has no awards, but that us most likely due to the fact that they are a very new magazine. FNF Coaches also has a website where most of the magazine articles appear as well.

Research Post 2

The colors of this magazine focused on football showcase a football player in his uniform. The theme of colors and background match the uniform of the shown. The issue focuses on a position in football, wide receivers. Showing Antonio Brown with his flashy watch and crazy hair style on the cover makes sense because not only is he eye-catching for those who do not recognize his face, but also he is the face of wide receivers in the NFL at that time. (November, 2015) ESPN has also used other big names at the time to entice the target audience (or those that recognize those names) to buy a copy. The "plus" section in the bottom right corner consists of other articles not relation to the cover, but also included into the issue in an attempt to appeal to those interested in other sports other than football.

Project Selection- Film

Today I weighed the possibilities of preforming a film for my final project for media studies. It appears interesting because it requires more creativity than a magazine. I am most interested in horror movies. Films that make provoke thought are extremely interesting, if I were to attempt a magazine, it would have to be in that genre. A horror movie would be attainable due to the large city I live in with a lot of places to film. I believe that I could successfully convey the beauty of where I live with dark alleys and crowded streets.

Research Post 3

Unlike previous magazines, the person on the cover (Carson Wentz) is not in any photo shoot, however this picture was taken from a game the player was in and the background cut out. This is probably cheaper than bringing in the athlete into a studio and highlighting a professional studio to take the cover picture. The reason why the Eagles quarterback was chosen to be on the cover most likely is because  after being a super bowl champion, and apart of one of the most talked about offenses in the league, has earned name recognition along with being a hot topic in sports at the moment of print. This appeals to the target audience almost all readers of this magazine watched the past super bowl where the Eagles won. There seem to be more ads in this magazine, taking away from the flow of the print and detracting from the overall quality of the magazine.

Research post 1

The first magazine I chose uses red text which matches nicely with the uniform of both the athletes shown. The shade of red is a darker, almost rust color which also matches nicely with the background that matches the athlete's uniforms as well. Pages pertaining to the cover do not appear first, but somewhere in the middle of the magazine. I imagine this is done to make readers look at the articles that normally would be overlooked or flipped through. Full page ads exist most consistently near the very beginning and the end of the magazine. Most ads are for athletic supplies or equipment. This most likely is because this is a sports magazine, and all athletes care about sports, otherwise they wouldn't be playing. The photos showcase talent at the high school level from these two athletes, one of Jt Daniels, (QB) throwing a perfectly placed pass to a receiver downfield. Another picture is of Katelyn Tudhy (Track Athlete) breaking the national record for fastest mile. Sports Illustrated has won an Emmy for outstanding digital innovation, and has efficiently stayed relevant as a paper magazine in the digital age.

My Decision

After weighing the possibilities of the two project options, I have decided to choose the magazine option. I can accomplish this task by creating a high school sports magazine. The plan of this topic will work well with three members. This way, the workload throughout the course of the project can be equally divided. We chose this topic because we all play sports t the high school level and already have many pictures of the sports at our school. Also, because the portion of the United States we live in, high school sports are of more important than in other states.

Project Selection- Magazine

Today I weighed the probability of completing a magazine for my final project. It seems interesting to me because I believe that I am one of the few teenagers that still actually reads magazines. I am most interested in sportsman magazines or sports magazines; if I did choose magazine, I may create it on one of those topics. although a sports magazine would be more attainable because I go to most of my school's sports games. At these games I could take the pictures needed for the magazine. Because Florida is a very competitive state athletically, I believe an athletic magazine would accurately represent sports in Sarasota. Based on the geographical location of Florida, it naturally is a hot spot for sports based on the warm climate year round, offering fall seasons for sports like football.