29th of January 2014,

29th of January 2014,

I decided my blog needed a change so I decided to change the colours of my labels so after you have visited them they will change to a different colour. I have been so busy still making a front cover, contents page and double page spread for two of my draft music magazines. I have finished both the front covers but have not finished the contents page or double page spread for draft 2 yet as Indesign has many tools and I am aiming to use more skills with in it to make my double page spread look like a double page spread and my contents page look like a contents page.

Construction of my music magazine front covers using photoshop

MUSIC MAGAZINE DRAFT 1

To start of my front cover I inserted the image I wanted as my whole background.

I then used the magnetic lasso tool to cut around the girls and delete the background this brings the focus more on the girls poses and body language. I then turned the image black and white to relate to my magazine being about old cover songs, black and white images are seen as 'old'.

To represent bringing the old with the new and bring a nice contrast in my image I made their lips red. I done this my carefully colouring their lips and making the colour opaque so you can see their lips through it.

For my masthead I used a record for the 'o' in 'modern' this relates again to my theme of cover songs, old songs with new artists.

I then went on to add typical elements of a music magazine front cover, the date and a slugline 'bringing the old with the new'

I then inserted text-boxes of coverlines to intrigue my audience to read my magazine with puffs including buzz words such as 'free Ipod' and the price.

Finally I added a bar-code in the bottom right corner as every magazine needs a bar-code.

MUSIC MAGAZINE DRAFT 2

Much like my first draft, I have used an image of the band from my main story to be the whole of the background.

Unlike my first front cover I want to leave this image in colour to be very different so I am able to compare for my final construction.

Because this image I will leave in colour I edited the girls faces and gave them more make-up to draw more attentions to their eye contact. 

For my masthead I wanted again to have originality to make my music magazine recognisable, So for the 'dated' part of my masthead (dated representing the old cover songs my magazine will feature) I spelt it out with the tape from a cassette tape again relating to my magazine 'bringing old with the new' , I explain in more detail how I made the 'dated' in my previous posts.

 Again like my first draft I finished off with cover lines and a bar-code, typical elements of a music magazine.

20th January 2014,

20th January 2014,

This month has been super busy. Since the beginning of January I have been using photoshop and even Indesign for the first time. Now I have finished my research and planning I have a better idea of what to include in my magazine I know what conventions and elements to include now but struggle with making my magazine stick out and look original. I have now done to drafts and I am still unhappy with them both. I have organised a focus group and hope to get some feedback to help me improve these for my final product.

Making an original 'Masthead' using a cassette tape

To make my masthead for my music magazine original and memorable I used an old cassette tape to relate to how my magazine covers old fashioned songs, cassette tapes are associated with old fashioned music, so from one glance readers can see this magazine will be about music and know it is probably old fashioned music as it is a cassette tape and in modern day we mainly use iTunes.

What I done was pulled out tape from the cassette tape and pinned it with blue-tac  to a sheet of paper to spell out the word 'dated, I will then edit to fit on my front cover and look professional.


January 16th, Added it to my masthead on my front cover.

15th of January 2014,

15th of January 2014,

I have finally came up with a good idea for my mast head to make it memorable, I was given a old cassette tape from a friend, so I took this apart, pulled out the tape and stuck it down in the right way that it spelt out the word dated with the tape. This is very original and very memorable and will grab my audiences attention while making my magazine masthead recognisable and unlike any other. The fact I used a cassette tape also relates to my genre of older songs so my target audience know what to expect from my magazine.

Photoshoot

Images for my double page spread

I started of by taking images I wanted to use for my double page spread. Due to the fact a double page spread is more in depth and mine is a interview I wanted my artists body language to represent that, this is why I positioned them in a sitting down pose as it makes them look more relaxed. This body language also makes them look more normal and down to earth making them more relatable to my target audience, appropriate for a double page spread but contrasting the body language that should be used for a front cover. I used long full length shots, to show their body language, and asked them to pull different facial expressions from natural facial expressions(looking as though they are talking to one another), serious facial expression with eye contact at the camera, or smiling while keeping eye contact with the camera again.

sitting on the floor - Video Maker

Next I changed from the body language of sitting on the floor to sitting on a couch, this still gives a more down to earth and relatable vibe in the image, it also looks very student like relating to my target audience, like friends sitting on a normal couch, not fancy or anything. I chose to make them sit on the couch as sitting on the floor looked more child like. The poses varied from direct eye contact to natural poses just looking at each other, similar to that on the floor.

On the couch - Video Maker

Finally for my double page spread I took images of the individuals in the band, I done this to represent how because the double page spread will have details and focus on each band member individually therefore the images should show them individually. For these photos I got the artists to pull a serious pose and chose a mid shot, this was so my audience could see props such as a guitar and the costume relating to the genre.

Individual band members - Video Maker

Images for my front cover

For my front cover I chose a very different body language from my double page spread images. I made my artists stand in a strong pose, keeping eye contact with the camera, a important feature for the front cover to draw in readers to buy the magazine. I also took midshots as this is the best shot to use for my front cover. I took these images in a indoor setting against the wall so it would be easy to cut out the background if I wanted that. I also used props such as a guitar to make it obvious it is a music magazine image.

Front cover poses - Video Maker

Next for images on my front cover, I chose to change the background, I done this with an outside background could provide prettier scenery, it also helped changing the lighting and how the artists appear, I tried both with and without flash, I prefer the ones with flash as the background is darker and the artists look brighter bringing more focus to the artists. Because it is a front cover image I have again chosen for the artists to stand pulling strong body language. For facial expressions it varied between smiling and a serious pose, but always keeping eye contact as this is a key element for a front cover to draw the audience in. Also when striking their strong poses I took a few photos of them changing levels, in some photos i would make the girl in the centre stand on the wall behind to make her stand higher to show contrast but also took images with the artists all at the same height to show unity.

Change in environment - Video Maker

For my contents page or other features in my magazine

For my contents page I used a different model to just the band, an individual artist, for this I took a variety of midshots, extreme close ups and establishing shots as I wanted to see which would look best as for the contents page Any type of shot can suit it. I also got her to pose with props, musical ones such as  the guitar but also to relate to my genre of old fashioned music I also got her to stand with background images of icons from decades ago such as an image of Audrey Hepburn to give a old fashioned feel to the image.

Emilie - Video Maker

As well as planned and posed shots I also wanted more natural looking shots for my other features on things like concerts or festivals a more natural image would be better suited. I took mainly midshots and establishing shots to show the atmosphere as well as the artist. I took this images at real live performances.

Bands - Video Maker

Organising a Photoshoot for my Front Cover

FLATPLAN FOR; FRONT COVER, CONTENTS PAGE AND DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD- MUSIC MAGAZINE

FRONT COVER AND CONTENTS PAGE

 DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

2nd of January 2014,

2nd of January 2014,

I finally got round to uploading my flat plan I created this to give me a good idea of how my music magazine will look, it helped me plan the fonts, the layout of all my pages the front cover, the contents page and the double page spread.