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1. Fanzine Research
Hannah McNeill

2. Sunlight peaks through the curtains
Sunlight peaks through the curtains is a A5 size fanzine, the fanzine is only a few pages long and mainly consists of photographs. The
photographs are environmental feature photos, they capture still life, e.g. flowers, trees or settings.
I think the title of the fanzine is very clever because it is very descriptive and poetic. The title is delicate and quite warm and welcoming
for the reader, it would need to take a specific
audience to be interested to the magazine
because a lot of people would read it and just
simply not understand it’s deeper meaning.
But I interpret the meaning of the title to be
like
Curtains represent being hidden inside, out of
reach but the sunlight (which symbolizes
happiness and life) is peaking through
signifying hope and growth. Which relates well
to the nature theme of the magazine, also
refers to the fact that some of the photographs
are taken in daylight, sunset or at night. The
title is made to look less important because it
is just stuck on the front cover with no
capitalization and using tape. This is meant to
look relaxed and simplistic to create the
handmade, cheap aesthetic, like someone has
just wrote and stuck it on with no additional
thought. The curly ’g’s and the un symmetrical
way the letters are wrote make the font seem
youthful and carefree. Which suits the airy-
carefree vibe the photos in the fanzine portray.
The fanzine’s photos all have the same hazy effect added to give them a honey glaze which
makes them look authentic, and creating a light aired atmosphere. I like the photos in the fanzine because in my opinion there is no
deep meaning/story behind the photos, the photos are simply to look at and appreciate. However they do support the title, showing
a crack of sunlight seeping through each photo.

3. Sunlight peaks through the curtains
Fanzines stereotypically have a worn down and authentic
style. It differs from a normal magazine because fanzine
have very different requirements. A magazine usually adapts
a formulaic structure with all the pages sharing a certain
look. Also, the pages are always glossy and polished in a
magazine whereas a fanzine adopts a different style, a
fanzine prefers to follow no rules or structure. This is
because fanzines were originally created in the 1930s by the
outcasts of society who weren’t interested in the kind of
topics in mainstream magazines, usually because they were
centered around only male interests or just makeup and
household products for women. So, people decided to
create their own, low budget fanzines. Fanzines also differ to
standard magazines because they don’t feature long articles,
in a lot of magazines you’ll find long articles and interviews
however fanzines concentrate on artwork to support the
magazine.
I like the format of the fanzine and the way it’s structured. I
like that the pages all have an off white bolder around, I
think this is very effective because it gives the subject in the
middle a sense of importance, however it isn’t
overpowering, it’s still simplistic and humble. The fact that
the color is off white instead of pure white makes it less
intense and also adds to the DIY aesthetic. I also appreciate
the fact that the entire fanzine features photos apart from a
singular poem in the middle. This makes the poem stand out
and shows that it is very significant to the creator of the
fanzine. Reading the poem, it is quite difficult to understand
but obviously holds a lot of meaning. The poem isn’t a
stereotypical poem as it doesn’t rhyme or come in couplets.

4. Colouring Outside The Lines
Front cover Double Page Spread

5. The next fanzine I researched was called ‘colouring outside the lines’ and I had to associations with this name when I first read it,
first I thought it could be a play on the phrase ‘thinking outside the box’ because they both have similar syllables and follow the
same sentence structure. And it would match well with the theme of the fanzine because all fanzines are thinking outside the
box with abstract and original ideas, and would also compliment the fact that the fanzine contains a wide range of wild colours
throughout the fanzine, showing that Then, as well as this I thought it could be a play on when children used to have colouring
books, it would be contradicting itself because the
fanzine is obviously not for children. In this fanzine
the pages are primarily just filled with text and
articles, this fanzine is more factual then the first
fanzine I researched. For a lot of the pages there are
no pictures and just size 11 font in a bland font, I
don’t think this is an effective way to interest
readers and encourage them to read the fanzine.
However, an argument would be that fanzines are
created specifically for a niche audience who were
interested in the topic, so they would like there to
be a lot of text in the fanzine.
I like the colours and mosaic patterns used in the
fanzine because it fits in with the theme of magazine
which is colours. I like the abstract and bright choice
in colours, and the fact that these pages seem so
random compared to the pages filled with bulk text.
I think it is quite an effective technique to have very
contradicting pages next to each other because it
leads the reader wanting to read more.
This fanzine is very different to the first example because the first fanzine was based on photography and only included real
photos, however the second follows a structure more like a standard fanzine, with cartoon/animations. The first magazine is
quite symmetrical with white borders and the photos are all the same size, however the second is more like a fanzine and
doesn’t have an obvious structure to the layout, the photos are just placed on the page. In my fanzine I think I will follow the
same structure as the first fanzine because I prefer a neat layout, I think it makes it easier and more enjoyable to read. I also
prefer the lack of writing, I think in the second fanzine there is too much block writing which as a reader I would find too boring.
I like the work from Caroline Paquita on the left using vivid colours and the heritage, llama, hunters theme.
Colouring Outside The Lines

6. Movimiento
This fanzine is called Movimiento published on October 28, 2018 it is
an online fanzine I found through a website called ISSU, ISSU publishes
peoples work for free, therefore the website features a range of
different skilled and a range of varied topics. This one stood out to me
because I was drawn to the front cover. And obviously as the cover is
the first part of the fanzine you see it is very important. It varies from a
magazine because a magazine has a lot of different features and
information it has to include but a fanzine doesn’t have to include any
elements as it follows it’s own rules. So when creating the front cover
of a fanzine you should just concentrate on what you want to see. The
front cover is a collage of a vary of interesting images. The magazine is
Spanish, Portuguese, however I would of interpreted the cover photos
as being French because of the Mona Lisa, and grapes which I interpret
as an association with France making their own wine through grape
vineyards.
I think the pictures chosen for the cover make the magazine seem
cultured. There are different parts of society included in the cover, for
example; the Mona Lisa artwork, parts of astrology, and a bird, all very
random aspects of life. The colours on the cover are all dark green,
‘grunge’ colours, ’grunge’ is a is a rock music genre and subculture that
emerged during the mid-1980s, so when it is used to describe colours
etc. it means they are dark, dirty colour. This suits the category of
fanzine, as outcasts.
Movimiento is Portuguese for movement, I think is a very effective title
for this fanzine because throughout the fanzine there is a lot of
movement through different aspects of life through the pages, for
example there are strong references to 60s style through animations
and cartoons, they played on the domestic women with a fake perfect
smile and happy life character.

7. Movimiento
Front cover Double Page Spread

8. One of my ideas for my fanzine is to create a fanzine centered around the TV series 'Friends'. I think this is a good
idea for my fanzine because I am a big fan of the TV show and therefore know a lot about the program. It is useful to
know a lot about it because I can use my background knowledge to my advantage and write interesting article. Also,
because I am a fan of the show it gives me a personal reason to do the show justice and make the fanzine
impressive highlighting the shows best qualities.
There are loads of different significant aspects of the shows that I can incorporate into my fanzine. Because the show
has 10 series through that time there is a lot of inside jokes and references that I can include in my fanzine that friends
fan should recognize. For example, I can use the same font as the friends because the font is a key characteristic to
friends and if anything is wrote with it then the readers will immediately associate it with the TV show. Also, the same
with the door, with the purple door and the golden frame, this is an important part as it is how the series comes to an
end.
Friends

9. Audience
The audience for the magazine would be aimed at anyone who watched or was interested in Friends. I needed to
gage a wider knowledge about what kind of audience watches friends so that I could plan my magazine style and
others attributes around who most likely would be buying it. So, through a website called YouGov I found out what the
publics thoughts about friends was.
97% of people had heard of the TV show, with only 21% having a negative opinion of the show. The show is the 28th
most popular all-time TV program and the 14th most favorite. Following its recent arrival on Netflix in the UK, the TV
show Friends is undergoing something of a revival at the moment. More than a decade after the finale aired (and
more than two decades since the show began). New YouGov Omnibus research finds that two thirds of Brits (67%)
have watched at least a few episodes of Friends, with 25-44 year olds being the most likely to have watched the show
(at 85-87%).
I started to look into the demographics behind the ratings of the show. I looked into whether more men or women
watched/like the show. I think TV series are interpreted usually to be stereotypically quite a girly thing. And the
statistics prove this as well, according to YouGov 61% of women had a positive opinion of Friends in comparison to
only 50% of men having a positive opinion of it. Therefore, my fanzine will be shaped more for women then men
because that is the demanding audience. As well as researching the gender I researched which age group Friends
was most popular with. Through my research I found out that Friends is most popular with the Millennials with
67% having a positive opinion of the show, which is people born from 1981 - 1996. This is what I expected because
friends was released in 1994 so the two overlap. Following the millennials Generation X has a 58% positive opinion
for friends. So, for my fanzine I will aim my focus on people aged 25 - 44 ( as I said earlier they were most likely to
watch the show.)

10. -Audience
Also, I conducted some research about which character was the publics favorite. I thought this would be useful because
it meant that I would be able to cater the magazine and subtly include the most popular characters in the magazine
more often, which would appeal to the audience, making the fanzine more successful. I found some data from a poll in
January 2018 showing what order the friends cast were rated. The most popular friend was Chandler, then Joey,
Phoebe, Rachel, Ross and then Monica. I was also able to find another poll explaining what attributes everyone thought
the friends acquired. The Geller siblings are the two least liked friends and only score highly on the negative attributes –
Monica is seen as the least nice of the Friends (19%) while brother Ross is seen as the most annoying (26%). So,
through my fanzine I will be less likely to include articles about Monica or Ross as it won't interest my audience.

11. Ideas for articles

12. Iconic Friends logos Etc.
- fonts and colours that I should include in the fanzine for symbolic reference.

13. Pictures of the cast past vs present

14. Fashion Inspiration from Monica and rachel

15. The structure of the pages;
The pages in the fanzine will be size A5, I’m not used to working on pages so small as I usually work with A4 pages
which are quite spacious and usually have the perfect amount of space for the projects I’m completing. With an A5
piece of paper you can fit 500 words in a size 12 font but this is with no pictures of break on the page, with 250 words I
can fit in pictures. So, it should be interesting to see how I adjust to a small page. This will mean I have a lot less
opportunity to write large articles or having pictures to support them. E.g. For my character ID articles on an A4 page I
would be able to fir 2/3 characters quite comfortably, however with A5 I will only be able to fit 1, maybe 2 at a stretch.
This is useful because it means that my fanzine will be longer, more pages will make the fanzine flow more and feel
more realistic. However, I think A5 might be too small for me personally because I like to fit in photographs and writing.
I don’t think I will have a page that is just a block of writing, the only exception for this would be if the article topic was
something serious and intense, obviously for a Friends fanzine I can’t imagine it will be necessary. But for the authentic
fanzine style I’m going to produce my fanzine with A5 pages.
In my last fanzine project it was centered around photography, I conducted a lot of shoots for the project, I really
enjoyed these shoots and think it would be effective and to my advantage if I could incorporate photography into this
fanzine, I think it would be to my advantage because I know that it could improve the quality of my fanzine, making it
more interesting, also it would help me have more practice with the camera for my final project at the end of the year.
However, it will be difficult to include photographs because for the topic there isn’t many photos I can take myself,
because I cant take pictures of the cast or the set, and there isn’t many other aspects that I can take photos of, this
fanzine will be primarily articles and edits created in Photoshop.
I don’t think I will have a specific order for the articles in the fanzine. I might start of with the character ID’s because it is
a nice way to introduce the fanzine, also it re jogs the readers memory before diving into background information when
readers might not even know the basics of the series. From then on I don’t think I will there will be a strict order. For
articles that are about specific episodes through the magazine ill situate them in chronological order. I think having no
specific order is part of the fanzine style, as it’s meant to look roughly put together with a DIY aesthetic instead of being
planned, this is another aspect where a fanzine differs from a magazine.

16. Pagination:
A plan for the pages of your book. What will be the cover? What will be the running order? What will go in it? How many
pages for each item? This is important to get right if you want it to print correctly later on. It will also help you plan the space
you have.

17. Production schedule:
You have 2 weeks to generate content and 3 weeks to produce your book along with any improvements. You need to plan
this. What will you be doing each week? How long should you spend on each task? How will you know if you are head or
behind schedule?

19. Interview Questions
1.Why did you start watching friends?
2. Do you watch a lot of sitcoms?
3. Do you know a lot about friends?
4. How many times have you watched it?
5. Who’s your favourite character and why?
6. If you’d like to be any of the characters who would it be?