Box Out Text

 

Pull Quotes

Contents Page Text

 

Sell lines

 

Editing Images

This is one of the pictures I selected for the double page spread of my magazine. I edited the picture using the programme Photoshop and altered parts of the photo using a selection of different tools. I began by changing the picture to black and white as after researching different conventions of music magazines I found the most successful double page spreads to include an image with a black and white effect. I also used the burn tool and applied it to the lips and eyes of my model to make her features stand out and appear more bold. I found this tool to very useful as it helped me to emphasise on the smoky eye look - a factor I most definitely wanted to include. The healing tool brush also played a big part in the editing process as I used this tool to produce a smooth effect on the model's face and to cover all crease lines and marks. I also used the colour range tool which enabled me to produce a nice and clean edit. I used the tool to select the focal point of my photo - the model and then used the eyedropper tool to select similar colours to the model and coloured in all necessary areas. I decided I didn't want to include the piece of hair sticking up and used the colour range tool to remove the hair. I had to be careful when using this tool as at first I made a few mistakes by colouring outside of the selected shape and including the white background. However, after a little help from my teacher I soon found this tool easy and simple to use.

Final image

Here is the picture I chose for the front cover of my magazine.  I edited the picture using the programme Photoshop and used a variation of different tools including the burn tool and the spot healing brush tool to enhance the quality of my image. I found the burn tool very useful and effective as it made my image appear darker and made the features of my model stand out. I had to be careful when using this tool as at first I made a few mistakes of pressing too hard and making the image too dark. I applied the tool to the eyes to emphasise on the smoky eye look, I also applied this tool to her lips and nail varnish to make the red seem more classy and elegant. The healing brush tool helped me to produce a smooth effect as I used this tool on the model's face to cover crease lines and marks. I believe these improvements suit my target audience as the bold and vibrant features would be more appealing to the male audience as they are typically attracted by beauty and would be persuaded to buy my magazine.

Choosen images

 

Production Log 19/12/13

This video shows the deconstruction of my first double page spread. As you can see I have included a big image of my model on the left hand side of the page. I decided to set my page out in this manner as after looking at a variety of different double page spreads I believed the most successful was Q magazine. I also edited my photo for it to be shown in black and white as I believe this contrasts well with the red font of the 'A' shown in the background and red border around my article. I tried  to imitate the style of Q magazine and included a large letter in the background of my article. I decided to include the letter 'A' as this is the first initial of the artists name 'Alexandra'. At the bottom of the page I have also included the magazine's website, page number, date and masthead as these are seen to be key conventions of music magazines. To finish, I have also included a red border around the outside of my article to make the page look more organised and structured.

Photoshoot Behind the Scenes

Project log 17/12/13

 

Today I had my photo-shoot after school involving my model Sophie. Before starting the photo-shoot I presented my model with image ideas to give her a clear brief of the different poses I wanted her to include. I believe this was very helpful as we did not waste time coming up with new ideas for different stances and poses. At first, my photos were coming out quite dark which resulted in me asking the teacher to change the brightness and contrast on the camera. I found this very helpful as from then on my pictures looked more professional and sophisticated. I also used a microphone for some of my pictures to convey to the audience that my magazine involves music. However, unfortunately I could not find the electric guitar or amp and so therefore did not use these props in my photo-shoot. I also got my sister to come to the photo-shoot as I wanted her to take pictures and videos to hopefully use for a video of  behind the scenes. Overall I believe my photo-shoot was a success with pictures I can use for my magazine.

Contact sheet

 

Model Release Form

This is the model release form for my photo shoot. The document clarifies that my model, Sophie has agreed and is happy to participate in my photo shoot for my coursework. The document is important as it is a legal form which states that an identifiable published photo of a person without a model release can result in civil liability by the publisher of the photograph. The use of the model release also restrains the public from using and publishing the photo. The act of taking a photo of someone in a public setting without a model release or showing a photo in private acts against the purpose of the model release form as the form creates liability for the photo as they are kept separate from copyright. There are also different types of release forms including a model release form which is also referred to as an ‘adult release’ which states that the form is normally intended for use by models over the age of 18. Other types of release forms include a minor release form which requires a signature by a parent or other legal guardian of the model and a group release which is a modified version of the adult release which includes an additional signature to be used by multiple models or subjects in a single image.

Project log 10/12/13

During today’s lesson, I focused on producing a plan for the contents page of my magazine. I first began by finding a suitable magazine and looked through the contents to see the appropriate layout for my magazine. I decided to look at Q magazine as I believe this is best suited to the genre of pop/rock.  After looking for ideas and inspiration I began producing the draft on the programme Adobe InDesign. At first I found the programme to be quite time consuming as I was unaware of how to use the programme, but after a while I soon got the hang of it and found it to be easy and quick. I began by creating different coloured squares to suit the key I was going to include at the end of the document. I made sure to create the boxes on different layers so I could create a video of my progress at the end using CamStudio. As you can see I also started my draft for my front cover page but unfortunately I did not have enough time to finish the draft. The red boxes indicate the main text/ titles, the blue boxes represent  pictures and the black boxes show where I will include the titles for each page and the information on what is going to shown on every page. The page is full with blue boxes which show the majority of my page will include images of various different artists. I will make sure my contents page looks as realistic as possible and take pictures of different people to symbolise the different artists portrayed in my magazine. While designing my draft, I also looked back at my contents ideas and stuck to this as I also created boxes to go with the different sections of what I will include in my contents

 

Magazine Templates

Ideas for Magazine Layout

I decided to make a collage of different pages from a selection of different issues from Q magazine to get ideas from. I want my magazine to look as professional and realistic  and I believe by looking at a magazine that is already popular in the magazine industry will help me to gain a better understanding on the successes of music magazines. However,  I also believe it is important to not entirely base my magazine on one particular music magazine and I will therefore think about this in the process of creating my magazine. I will also include elements such as box out texts and social media which are not shown in this magazine to make my music magazine 'TMM' look more original.

Sketches

Front Cover:

 

 

Contents Page:

 

 Double Page Spread:

 

 

 Second Double Page Spread:

 

Extended Article Draft

This is my extended article draft I have written following my previous article draft. I decided to include a Q & A article as I had not included this in my first article which will help create a variety between my work.


 

Project Log – 3/12/13

Today in lesson, I began working on location ideas ready for my photo shoot in a couple of weeks. I began by drafting out ideas for the different locations I was going to revolve my photo shoot around. One of my first ideas was the school stage, I thought this was a good location as the stage replicates the location of a real concert and gives the effect that my artist is a famous singer who is attending one of her concerts.  I found myself stuck for ideas and turned to look back to my image ideas. I found an image I liked and decided to imitate the style and decided on the location of Ruislip woods.  I thought this location would help make my photos look effective and interesting, creating contrasts in the different locations I will involve for the photo shoot for my magazine.  I finally decided on a café for another location of my photo shoot.  I thought this location would link to my article as I will include a question and answer interview. I was also thinking about the location of a guitar shop to emphasis the genre of pop rock as the presence of electric guitars behind will make the audience aware of the genre.

Location Ideas

 

This is a video I created using the website Animoto. The video illustrates the different locations I will use for my photo shoots.

The first location I will use for my photo shoot is the media room which is available at school. The media room also includes a white and black backdrop which is useful for the background. I hope to use the white background as my model will be wearing a dark, black leather jacket, which will contrast with the white background behind.  The media room also includes props such as guitars, microphones and amps which is suitable for the genre of my magazine as electric guitars are typically associated with the genre of rock. This will link to my target audience as they have the money to spend on expensive musical equipment as they generally work full time.

 I will also incorporate the school stage in one of my photo shoots as I believe this location would be ideal for the photos displayed on my contents page as the school stage will make my photos look more professional and realistic.  I will darken the background of the stage so it will look like a live concert with my artist – Alexandra Flume as the main act of the stage. I will also include an electric guitar, drunk kit and microphone on stage to reinforce the idea of this being a live concert. If possible I will use smoke to create a cool effective and add to the atmosphere. The school stage is conveyed to the main feature of the school which is used for the key events for example Haydon's Got Talent – this is a talent show where children from younger years perform in front of students and parents. The show also involves musicians which proves it is accessible to use the school stage for my photo shoot.  Therefore, the school stage will be a great location to take pictures that are music related.

Although the majority of my photographs will be taken inside I want to create a diverse between my photo’s and take some outside. I decided on the location of Ruislip Woods as I believe the nature effect followed by the shadows created by the leaves of the tree will enable me to  picture good quality photos.  Furthermore, my model will be wearing red lipstick which will help contrast with the dark setting of the woods behind. Following my image ideas, I quite like the image of the model posed by the leaves of a tree.  The photos link to the genre of my magazine as the image is portrayed to very dark and  gloomy. I will try and imitate this style of work and  take photos of my artist  when it is dark in the evenings. I will perhaps bring a big light with me to highlight the face of my artist in among the pitch black background.  I will also bring another friend to video my photo shoot for a backstage video.

Examples of promotional methods

 

Equipment

 

Promotional Methods

 Promotional Methods are an important process in the development of my magazine as a range of different promotional methods will help to increase the readership and circulation of my magazine.
My magazine needs to have a big readership in order for it to be successful, to do this I must promote it effectively by using a range of different methods including traditional and modern ideas. Although advertising will result in the company investing a lot of money I believe this is a key component for any magazine as without promotion I wouldn't receive any revenue. Furthermore, my magazine is new and will need the help of promotion to make it well known.

New media

 

Project Log 26/11/13

This is a video version  describing what I worked on during today's lesson. The written version of this project log can be found below:

In today’s lesson, I caught up on documents for the research stage of my magazine.  I decided to do representation research of the artist Cheryl Cole as she is portrayed in the media to be a sex symbol for men.  I began by finding an image and annotating it following body language, facial expressions, accessory, style and overall representation in the media. I found this to be very helpful and effective as it gave me a clear idea of the different things I needed to address in my photo shoot.

Project Log 24/11/13

For homework, I continued to work on documents for the planning stage of my magazine. Firstly, I finished off my colour connotations; I found this very useful as this gave me clear understanding of the different colours and meanings associated with colours.  After I had finished the connotations, I developed ideas for the colour of my magazine.I decided on the colours –red, black and grey for the house style for my magazine as they follow strong, powerful and dominant connotations. I also finished the target audience research and adapted  on to prezi as I thought I had too many documents displayed on powerpoint or word.

Article Draft

 

Target Audience

Colour ideas

These are my differen choices of colour ideas for my magazine. As you can see, I included the colour red within my design - ~I believe this is a key colour of my magazine to represent the genre of pop/rock.

Colour connotations

 

 

Image ideas

 

 

Magazine Research: Q

 

Q magazine ideally appeals to young adults and both genders male and female. The use of the colour scheme – red, black and white appeals to the target audience and makes the magazine appropriate for mixed gender. From first looking at the magazine we are welcomed by the big bright company logo ‘Q’ this immediately brings the reader’s attention and would make the magazine stand out from the others when displayed on a magazine rack.  The magazine is followed by a well organised and sophisticated layout; this makes the product much easier to read and gives the idea of a professional look. The colour scheme – red, black and white is repeated through a series of Q magazines and makes the reader aware this is a product made by Q.  Furthermore, we are introduced to a main image of a popular music artist, the artist is portrayed to have a serious look and has been not been captured smiling.

The popular music artist Cheryl Cole displayed on the front cover is viewed by many girls to be their ‘role model’ and is depicted by young guys to be a ‘sexual icon’ therefore her presence within the magazine is suited to the dual gender target audience. The image portrays Cheryl Cole to be classy and elegant through the use of her body language. Her facial expressions convey her to not be smiling emphasising her seductive image for men. The use of her red lipstick reinforces this idea and contrasts with the red coloured masthead and sell lines pictured around the around cover of the page. The colour red is a key element of the image as red has strong connotations of love, romance and passion as well as wealth, superiority and importance. The use of this colour indicates her dominance and suggests her popularity within the music industry. She is presented to be standing in the rain against a black all and is captured from a front angle to emphasise her beauty. Her chest is shown to be partly bare as her jacket separates from the front– this again reinforces the idea of her being a sex symbol for the male audience.  Overall, I believe looking at this particular front cover has helped me to develop my ideas in the design of my magazine. 

Project Log 11/11/13

For homework, I finished off my double page spread article analysis as I was behind in classwork. I found this task easy and quick to do as I had previously written about front covers and contents pages for the following magazines: Q, NME and Kerrang. I also completed the following documents; props and costumes, contents ideas and cover lines. I found the document props and costumes useful for my photo-shoot as they gave me a clear idea of what things I should include to represent the theme of pop/rock.  I then completed the contents ideas, this document is vital for creating my contents page as the document includes details of the different sub-headings I will include within my contents page. Before starting this document, I looked back to my contents page analysis and found contents pages that were suitable for my magazine. I then decided to plan out my contents ideas in the style of Q and NME magazine including sub-headings such as features, regulars, reviews and news. Afterwards, I came up with several different cover lines relating to the different sub-headings. I found this task much harder than the other two as I could not be certain of the cover lines I will use until I write my article for my magazine.

Contents ideas

Props and Costumes

This is my mood board displaying the different props and costumes I will include in my photo-shoot. I have selected specific clothes, footwear, accessories and props that I believe will suit my magazine genre of pop rock. I want my magazine to looks professional and refined and the clothes I have chosen reinforce this idea. It is important for me to think of how I want my model to look in images so that I can ensure I take the pictures right the first time around, enabling myself to move and work quicker.

The type and colour of the models clothing are an important element to my magazine as they will need to relate to the theme of my music magazine - pop rock. In addition to this, the magazine images must interest the target audience which is men. I plan on including dark clothing as I want my images to look sophisticated and professional. Furthermore, the colour black has connotations of rock which relates to my genre. The type of clothing will range from leather skirts to leather jackets and tight black jeans to dark blouses. The clothing will be simple and basic to covey the typical clothing the audience of my magazine might wear. The model for my magazine will wear black footwear such as black boots or high heels to show a consistency between images. I will use a selection of close up shots, mid- shots and long shots from a variation of different angles so the pictures will alter with each other. The long shots are effective when conveying the footwear of the model as this type of shot will enable the audience to see a full length view of my model.

The model for my magazine will wear bold and vibrant make-up to interest the male target audience. I will include red-lipstick as red is conveyed to be a very powerful and dominant colour signifying importance and superior. Furthermore, the colour red adds sexiness and elegance and will help engage male attention. The cover model will also have dark, smoky eye-make up and white, pale foundation to introduce the idea of her being a sex symbol. The pale foundation will help emphasis these features and make them stand out from her dark clothing. I plan to include bold, vibrant make-up to my model to represent a change in her personality as she has gone from a sweet, innocent girl to a sexy, classy sex icon for men.

The model will also wear accessories including silver necklaces and earrings to create a diverse amongst my images. The silver jewellery will show up against the black and dark clothing making the outfit look more interesting and creative. After looking at a range of jewellery in shops such as Topshop, River Island and Zara I noticed these shops to include jewellery which involves studs, spikes and skulls. I plan to involve spikes in my models jewellery as this portrays the style of rock. Overall,  I do not want too much jewellery as I want the make-up of the model to be the main focal point of the photograph.

I will include props in my photo-shoot for the images displayed on my contents page and double page spread. I will feature musical props such as electric guitars, amps and microphones to represent the genre of pop rock. The use of props are an important feature to my magazine as they help create a variety in my photos and enable the audience to interact with my magazine as the audience will already be interested in music.

Project Log 06/11/13

At home, I went on the website 'dafont' and looked at all the different fonts available. I began looking in the basic section as I wanted a plain, simple title for my masthead.I also found a few interesting and unique fonts which I thought would suit my genre of magazine. I then typed in the word 'masthead' in preview to see  the style of writing. After experimenting with different fonts, I print screened the fonts I liked and added them to a word document. I then saved the list as an image and uploaded it to my blog.

Masthead designs

These are my different masthead designs for the masthead of my magazine.

Project log 02/11/13

During the half term, I caught up on all the work which was set as our class were behind schedule in comparison to the other class. I began researching into the conventions of music magazines as I believed this was a vital document in the step up to creating my magazine. This document would give me clear ideas of what made a good magazine and the kind of features I should include in my own. I talked about the key concepts, audiences, representations and institutions of music magazines.  I then continued to work on existing names and mastheads, I found this task really useful and effective as it gave me clear ideas of what I should and shouldn't involve in my masthead design. I looked at a range of different genres of magazines to display how the style and design of mastheads connect to the specific genre being presented.

On one of the days in half term I came in to school and created my audience survey. At first I found this task quite hard and confusing as I had never used the programme Survey Monkey before and was  a little unsure of how to create a questionnaire, however with a little help from my friend I soon gathered the just of it. I decided to include a mixture of questions varying from choice questions to one word answers as I believed this was more effective for the reader to understand. After my survey was completed, I decided to re-design my mood board as I noticed my blog was lacking creativity. After researching for good video websites, I found the website PowToon which included everything I needed. I quickly began copying and pasting images and re-adjusting the layout to create an animated effect. I included a range of images varying from artists to bands and from make-up designs to costumes ideas for my front cover model. After I was happy with my video, I uploaded it to YouTube and then embedded it onto my blog.

Institution Research

Audience Profile

This is my audience profile


 

Existing names and mastheads

 

 

Audience Survey Results

Audience survey

Conventions of music magazines

 

 

 

Feedback about proposal

 

Proposal

 This is my proposal for my magazine. I found the proposal to be an important step in creating my magazine as it gave me basic outline of what I wanted to include. I included details of the genre, target audience, frequency, freebies and competitions of my magazine

Name ideas

After analysing different music magazines for a previous homework task, I quite liked the idea of having an acronym for the name of my magazine - for example the magazine New Music Express is shortened down to the initials NME. Q magazine also uses an acronym in their title as the name of the magazine is simply shortened to the very basic and simple letter of Q. I believe this is more effective as it makes the magazine easy to remember and recognise. I decided to imitate this idea and came up with acronym 'TMM' which stands for 'The Music Magazine'. I believe this name is effective and good as the title is very simple and easily recognisable. I also liked the name 'ME' also known as 'Music Express' but believed this was too similar to the name of the original magazine of NME. After some discussion, I found myself disliking the phrase 'Number 1' as the name for my magazine as I thought it sounded like a typical name in the music industry and conveyed the genre of R'n'B rather than the genre of my magazine - pop rock. Furthermore, I believed the names 'Dynamic' and 'Strings' would sound too obvious making the magazine seem less professional in comparison to the acronymic name 'TMM'.

 

 

I also created a selection of different mastheads for each individual word and phrase from my name ideas to see which design would be most appropriate for my magazine. Before creating these designs, I decided to look back at a range of different music magazines to see what I believed were the most successful mastheads. I really liked the idea of having a box around the outside of my masthead as I believe this makes my design look more organised and structured. Overall, I really like the design of 'TMM' masthead with the red box around it as I believe this masthead looks professional and sophisticated. I will perhaps think about using this design for my final product.

 

Project Log 16.10.13

During today's lesson, I began generating name ideas for my magazine. Before starting this task I looked back at other magazines and thought an acronym as my title would be more creative and imaginative than a simple phrase such as 'Top of the Pops'. Although I ideally wanted an acronym as the name for my magazine I also came up with different names of a compound, phrase and connotative. After I came up with a long list of names I decided to add different fonts and texts to see what they would look like if they were designed differently. I found this task to be quick and easy as I already had an idea of the type of names I already liked. After I completed this task, I uploaded it to scribd and my blog.

Double page spread analysis

 

Analysis of contents pages

 

Mood board

 

 

This is my mood board I created using the programme PowToon.

 

After researching different magazine covers, I quite like the idea of having a close up shot of the music artist as my main image. I noticed from Q magazine, the female artists shown on the front cover pages are conveyed in quite a seductive way, this is to appeal to the primary audience of men aged between 16-30.  I ideally wanted a female artist on my front cover, however I would have to take into consideration the target audience  and design the magazine so it would appeal to men. I also noticed how the artists displayed on the front cover are depicted in quite a serious manner as they give direct eye contact to the reader and are shown to not smile. I like this idea as it makes the magazine look more professional.  The cover models are also dressed in black in some way to emphasise the genre of the magazine – pop rock. For example the use of body language by Florence Welch on the front cover of Q shows her to have black nail varnish whereas the lead singer from NME magazine is dressed in a black top. I hope to include the colour black in my cover model . I also plan to have a house style of the colours red, white and black shown from both magazines as these colours are simple but give the magazine a sophisticated look. In addition, I quite like the logo’s of the two very popular magazines Q and NME as they are very simple yet effective.  Furthermore, the sell lines displayed to both sides of the magazine are positioned so they don’t overlay the main image and are highlighted in white which makes it more noticeable for the reader. The link for my moodboard is http://www.youtube.com/v/pMQ2U4o-jG8?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata"

Analysis of a range of front cover magazines

 

 

I found this task to be very useful as it helped me gain a better understanding of the different layouts, images, colours and mastheads I could incorporate into my own magazine. This task also helped me to develop my ideas further into the style of magazine I should create - do I want a multi genre magazine such as Q magazine which includes pop and rock artists or do I want a heavy rock based magazine such as Kerrang? While researching for different front cover magazines I decided to choose these three; Q, NME and Kerrang! as they all look professional and follow the typical conventions of a front cover page. Out of the three front covers I most like Q as the layout of the page is much more simple in contrast to Kerrang! In addition, Q magazines includes a variation of different text sizes, fonts and subtitles. I believe this task will help me for future tasks to develop my magazine further.

Preliminary Task Project Log

 

 

This is a video version  illustrating the different steps I took during the preliminary task. The written version of this project log can be found below:

At the beginning of the course we were welcomed by this year’s theme – a music magazine, having not done media before I was rather excited about the prospect of creating and designing my own magazine.  To begin with, we were set a preliminary task which involved creating a magazine for the school.  In our first lesson, we went around the school and took a variety of pictures including portrait and landscape shots using a DSLR camera. I decided to take a picture of my two peers Natalie and Oscar with the background of the school behind to represent student life. I later chose this photo to be displayed on my cover page. I also took photographs of the demolishing of the old sports gym and used these for my contents page.

In the second lesson, we sketched out our draft designs for the cover page and contents page of our magazines. I began drawing my design in pencil as I was still unsure on a name for the magazine. I originally liked the name ‘Haydonews’ however I believed it was a little too boring and confusing as there would only be one n. After some debate, I changed the name to ‘Haydon Times’ and believed the simplicity and straightforwardness of the name was suitable for the theme and genre of my magazine.  I also sketched out the main image and headlines I was going to incorporate on the front cover page. I kept the layout of my contents page simple and easy to read to attract the reader’s attention. I also made it visible that I was going to include two images within the page. After I was happy with my decisions I used a finer liner to outline the pencil markings. I found the draft designs to be very useful as they gave me a clear idea on the layout and the different features I was going to include when designing my magazine in Adobe InDesign

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

 

 

This is an evaluation of my final front cover and contents page of my magazine for the preliminary task. I found this task to be very enjoyable as I like designing and creating things. Furthermore,  this was the first time I had created a magazine cover and was a little anxious on where to start. However after looking at a selection of different magazines I felt confident about the layout and how I wanted my magazine to look. The evaluation includes more information on my reasons for these design choices and discusses the good and bad of my finished magazine for the preliminary task.

 

Preliminary Task Video

Front Cover

 

 

Contents Page

 

 

Here are the pages of my cover and contents page for the Preliminary Task. I decided to use the programme Cam Studio to record my finished pages for my school magazine 'Haydon Times'. At first, I found the programme quite hard and tricky to use as  I had not used this programme before and was unsure on what the region did but after a little help from one of my peers I soon found how to work the basics of the programme. Overall, I believe this is a great programme to show off your work in InDesign and I will perhaps use this programme more often for other tasks later in this project.

Preliminary Task

 The image below is my finished front cover for the Preliminary task:

 

The image below is my finished contents page for the Preliminary task:

 

 

These are the finished images of the my cover and contents page for the preliminary task. I tried to incorporate professional features to the cover page to make the magazine look more sophisticated and stylish. However, I didn't want to over crowd the page with masses and masses of information and therefore kept the sell lines to a minimum. In addition, the contents page is portrayed to be simple and plain as I was running out of time at the end to add extra images and text to the page. I decided on one big image to dominate the page as I believe the image is quite effective. Futhermore, I included social networking sites at the top of the page as this is seen as a typical convention of magazines This also gives the reader the option to go online and find out more information about the magazine.

Preliminary task sketches

Preliminary task ideas