1st-4th December

Following up from my last post I have been viewing some pictures of photo shoots on www.pbase.com and I am using a photo shoot from the band 'Radiohead'. I then found the picture I wanted to use on the front cover and put one of my designs of my magazine name on it, but changed some of its settings slightly.

Next I will be designing a double page spread with more pictures from the same photo shoot, keeping in mind my grid system I designed for my double page.
Below is my first draft of a double page spread keeping in mind my grid systems, my layouts and what I wanted where, such as the close up picture on the right with a quote over the top and the band members name. On the other side is a page of interview questions and answers with a main mast head which on the one below is just copied from a magazine and will not be used in my final design. Also to break the page up I have used the inspiration from the Q magazine from an article and I have simply put a picture of 'radioheads' (who are features on the front cover and the picture across the page) recent album cover and below the details about it.

November 25th

Today I have been brainstorming some ideas that I could use for some extra pages in my magazine, here are some of the ideas I have come up with.

1. History of Rock.
Information about famous rock stars that made it to the top, not so recently.
2. Five who stayed, Five who didn't.
This idea has been taken from an idea I have recently found in a magazine article but changed slightly. It will be about five famous artists that managed to break through, and five that didn't.
3. Festivals.
Information on the ideal items to take to this years festivals.
4. Advertisement.
Many magazines have advertisement pages, I may include the advertisement of a new CD or music DVD.
5. Editors Notes.
Editors plans for the magazine in the near future.

November

Throughout November I have been doing a number of different things, I started off by drawing some design drafts for my front cover. I used these four designs, the last of which i used on my practice exercise. At the moment i haven't decided which design I'm going to use but most likely to use the first design as it is simple and can use a big imagine for the centre.

I then went on to designing some simple and different grid systems that I could use for the pages inside my magazine. Im only using the grid system for my inside pages because the front cover does not need one because a front cover has so many conventions of it's own. I then went on to choosing one of the four of the grid systems which was a three column grid system, I chose this because it looked for structured than a two column grid system and if I wanted to split different articles up I have the advantage of splitting them up into three instead of two or one. Here are some pictures of my grid systems, the bottom one being my final chosen systems for my contents page and my double page spread.

I then went on to choosing a magazine name, I designed a brain storm by thinking of different ideas related to my magazine and the name I finally decided on was 'RISE' which stands for 'Rock, Indie, Soul, Electro'. Below is the brain storm that I designed.

Finally after choosing the name of my magazine I have been doing some designs for it, below are my first few draft designs that i came up with.

After designing these I went on too more designs using an internet programme named...

15th-21st October

My last few days I have been planning for the rest of my magazine procedure. I have decided on a location which is Le Hocq beach because of the different images I can take, such as a tower, the beach, boats and a bus shelter. Here are a few photos of the scene.

My other location is a studio in which is located in my school media room, I chose this location as i want a plain background so that the people acting in front stand out boldly in comparison to the clear background. Below are a few photos of the studio itself (I will be using the white background, not the green).

10th October -

The next few days i will be doing some more planning towards my final product by planning things such as the location my pictures will be taken and the actors that will be in my pictures and also the equipment that i will need on the day of the photo shoot. When i no where my photo shoot is taking place i will therefore then go on to planning my schedule up to my final product.

27th September - 8th October

The last few days i have been continuing my preliminary exercise by starting my contents page i decided to not cut out the background because the background of the picture i chose made the picture more effective and made the picture look more relevant for what it was about. I worked with different fonts and different sizes whilst checking which font looked better for a contents page and the style of my magazine. I used the main picture as a teaser for inside the magazine by using it as a page number about exam results. I then started naming my pages down the side of my page but realized the writing was not clear enough against the background so i put a bow behind it that was grey and changed the opacity so it wasn't as bold and the writing was shown clearly on top of it.

Carrying on with my preliminary exercise i started working towards a front cover of a school magazine. I decided to keep it quite simple with not to much on it because it was a school magazine and needs to be quite clean to look more professional although i did make the background white but changed the opacity so you can faintly see what's happening in the background. I decided not to take the background so it didn't differ to much from my contents page and tried to make it give off the same kind of style. I added some different effects to the writing such as dropping the shadow and giving the writing an outer glow to make the school motto stand out. Here is the picture before i made it my front cover and below the picture is my finished design.

24th & 25th September

Next I have been using a camera around the school and starting my preliminary exercise which is a front cover of a school magazine along with a two page spread and contents page. I now know how to use photoshop and the camera I will be using and therefore will be carrying on testing new and different things out on the programme. Today I have been taking pictures of medium close up shots around school, some with people in and others not of people. Depending on the background of the picture I am not sure if I will take the background out and make it one colour like I did in my practice exercise using photoshop. I will start my preliminary exercise with my contents page and then move on to my front cover.

PICTURES!!!!!

22nd & 23rd September

Continuing my research the last few lessons I have been starting using the programme 'Photoshop' to get used to it to be able to begin my preliminary exercise. I started with this picture below just to get used to the programme and test some things out.

I made the background of the photo white to see what the ending effect would look like. I found that it made the two people stand out more and look bolder but also I found it hard to make the background white because some bits of the two girls blended into the background and wasn't so easy to take out and will take this on board with my preliminary exercise. Overall this was the photo that was easiest out of the ones I tried out because all of the others were of people but they were on similar coloured backgrounds to the main focus of the photo but in the end I decided my first attempt was the favourite because it gave it a nice effect and I used it to carry on with my cover. This is what it looked like after doing so.

After making the background white I found a 'Q' Magazine front cover that I really liked and continued the exercise by getting inspiration from the magazine but by changing different information which was related to the school and not the music. I used different fonts and in different sizes to try and create a similar effect to the 'Q' magazine front cover. This front cover started off quite simple but quite fiddly. In my preliminary exercise I'm am hoping to be able to use a lot more different effects on photoshop to make my school front cover for the exercise more busy but not too cramped. Here is my finished piece for a school magazine.

18th September

Overall I have put together plans and information to be able to give me enough ideas to carry out the rest of my work. I have decided for my front cover I would rather it be busy and full other than plain. On my cover I will advertise things in the magazine and a close up photo of a band member, I don't quite yet have the correct people to shoot but by the end of the week I should be know who and where the shots will be taken. In this lesson I will be taking some photos for my preliminary exercise for the front cover, I will be testing out different camera angles and effects and then starting to work towards the start of my front cover using photoshop. Above are a few of the pictures. The picture on the left shows a medium close up shot of two faces, the top right photo shows a far away photo of two people crouching with scenery in the background and the bottom photo shows a quite far away photo with two girls with their whole bodies in the photo. I chose to show these three photo's because they show a medium close up shot and a medium far shot. There are a few other photo's that I may choose to take on board during my preliminary exercise.

15th & 16th September

Next I have been looking at double page spreads, keeping the idea of the large picture in mind I have been looking at two page spreads with one page of interview and the other side a page with a bold picture on, above is one of the two that stood out to me and were what I was looking for, one being a picture and writing about a band member and the other being a picture with writing about the groups new albums and songs. This first one is in black and white with a quote in the middle in gold writing making it the main focus of the page along with the picture, it's trying to get the point across that the band member is as important as the others.

I chose this above others because I am using the the idea of the picture on one side and write up on the other. Also I would like to keep in mind the idea that on the page of the big picture I would like to have a quote from the other page on the interview to emphasise the interview and encourage people to read it.

9th & 10th September

In contrast to the other front cover this one is very crowded, it introduces what the reader will be reading and also things you get in addition to buying the magazine. Even though the surroundings are very busy the 4 main faces whom are Coldplay still manage to stand out clearly. The creator has used the effect of a black background which makes the faces of the band stand out a lot better but also makes the page look a bit dull. The writing around the band is very busy but is all bold, eye-catching and manageable to read. This magazine advertises up to date festivals such as glastonbury and uses recent bands like coldplay and is therefore attracted to 16-25 year olds.

In the magazine exercise a contents page has to be included. To continue my research I have been looking at contents pages and pictures that are along side interviews of bands and also what sort of information is included in the interviews. Below I have the contents page from the magazine Q. It clearly states the features in the magazine in clear colours like red and black and you can see that they have shown the parts that people are most likely to be interested in with a picture alongside with a famous person whom is Bon Jovi and a statement that he has made which imediatley attracts people to read the magazine. The page number and headline is show in bolder writing and underneath is a brief explanation of what will be shown within the page.


The next picture is a picture of a band member from Coldplay, this pictures stood out to me bcause it was together with an exclusive interview with the band and is a close up shot of the main singer. It's unusual but eye catching. Also they have enlarged an important quote from the bands exclusive interview, I like this idea and am going to take it on board when designing my two page spread which will include a picture similar to this one.

8th September

As I decided to create the music magazine I started viewing different covers and interviews in different magazines that stood out and caught my eye. Below is a design which I found on the internet which was bold and stood out more than the others i am continuing my research by looking at local magazines and international magazines and also will be looking at enlarged pictures inside the magazines which also I may be able to add to my two page spread. Here is a front cover of the magazine that stoof out and explanations of why I have chosen this cover.

This photo mainly stood out above all because the background is clear and therefore doesn't make the cover look as busy, even though the cover is quite plain it still gives off a good effect. The title is still bold and is easy to read. Also because the background is clear it brings out madonna as she as the main focus on the cover. I also like the way they have used the technique or splitting the writing either side of her and the writing is still easy to make sense of.

4th & 5th September

Our first few media studies lessons we watched clips of recent AS film productions all of C-E grade level, none of the films particularly stood out to anybody and therefore we learnt that these were average standard level and most of the things included in the films could be expanded on to make a better film. We also watched the starts of films such as Seven (aka. SE7EN) to show how much the start of a film has an affect on the rest of it. We also looked at things such as lighting, camera angles and sound effects. Given the choice of being able to create the front cover, contents page and two page spread of a music magazine we also looked through some magazines studying the layout and designs of the different magazines. I have some designs in mind that i would like to develop on and will continue focusing on the magazine exercise and not the film production.

Firstly I started looking into different music magazines, looking into the different genre's and the different conventions each magazine has. I picked out some good and bad points, some things that I liked and some things I wasn't so sure on, giving me some kind of ideas to put forward when it comes to creating my own magazine.

Firstly, after having an indie/pop style genre in my mind, I looked into front covers of the magazine 'Q'. 'Q' have their own conventions such as bold writing that stands out and there header of 'Q' in which is used on every magazine cover produced by them. In the near future I will be thinking of a name for my music magazine and designing it to fit the needs of the magazine cover i produce.

I carried on looking in to music magazine covers. On this cover I focused more on the picture and detail on the front of the page. I particularly chose this one as the picture overlaps the header which makes the  page look a lot more crowded and busy. Even though I like the picture and the use of the bold writing, I think by overlapping the picture makes the page looks too crowded and when I am producing my own, I will want a less busy and more plain front cover.

 I then moved on to looking into NME, comparing the different conventions between different genre magazines.

I started to notice NME front covers are very overloaded with a lot of detail. I did not like this because information that may be use to consumers may be lost by the  boldness of the other information. Although on this front cover I do like the picture and it is a medium shot of the band all together which I will look to be using when i make my own cover, as the shot allows all the band members to be seen and allows their style to be shown to fit the genre of the magazine.

I moved on to looking in to just POP magazines. I realized the conventions of these types of magazines were not very similar as the pop magazines use a lot more bolder colours. These kind of magazines look a lot like they are aimed at a younger age range and this is not the type of image I will be looking for when making my own. After researching in to pop magazines I realized that I was going to sway more towards the indie genre than the pop, maybe using indie/pop styled music groups but using more indie conventions when putting the magazine together.

I looked into the magazine dazed, although this was one of the only front covers I could find, this one is not the very best. I looked into this magazine because it was a lot more indie/rock based than pop. My first reaction from this magazine was that it is very dull and bleak, I think this may be down to the rock element of the magazine. Due to this I think keeping some conventions of the pop magazine is a must as my magazine will be aimed at a younger target audience and I think the reaction from this front cover does not appeal to the people of my age group.