Contents Page Draft

Cutting out double page spread image

Double Page spread draft

Cover Draft

In todays media lesson I have been working on a basic draft of my magazine cover, I like the masthead so far, but obviously the sell lines need updating so that the are mor relevant and realistic.

Photo shoot Contact sheet

Here is my contagct sheet featuring all of the images taken in my photoshoot for the front cover model and double page spreads. displaying the images in the contact sheet makes it easier to decide which of the images are of the highest quality and which ones will look best to use in the magazine.

Time Lapse of Photo shoot

Design Sketches

Article Draft

Here is a draft for the article that I will be featuring on my double page spread. It is a fairly informal interview with the star featured on the cover of the magazine, about her splitting up with her former band, and embarking on a solo musical career.

You may have heard of her as being a part of one of Britain’s biggest selling and most popular girl bands of all time, the Brit award winning, chart topping and Grammy award nominated ‘Spotlights.’ But after the shock announcement of the bands split, the world was left grieving for the fun yet original styling’s of the girls. We were lucky enough to catch lead singer Charlotte Brown, in her only exclusive interview, where she discusses everything from life within the band and dealing with fame, to reasons why the band split up, and rumours of a possible solo project that she may soon be taking part in. 

Hi Charlotte, it is really good to meet you, how are you, and how is life since the shock announcement of the split of your band. ‘Spotlights’?

Hello, it is really good to meet you  too, and I am really well thank you, life has been really hectic recently, I thought that it was mad all of the press attention that we got when we  were a band and were always hanging around together in public. But, since we announced the split to the general public, I haven’t been able to go anywhere without at least five paparazzi following me, and that’s on a good day, the other day I went to Tesco’s to do the food shopping with my mum, and there was a crowd of them around my car asking questions.

So are you getting annoyed at all of the press attention?

Well, I suppose that I am in a way, but then I have been in this business and the music industry for around five years now, and I know what it involves, so I am used to cameras following me wherever I go and people questioning all of my actions and even sometimes the outfits that I wear, but it’s the moments when they start harassing my friends and my family and getting to them that annoys me, it’s not fair for them that just because they know me they get hassled wherever they go as well.

Do you think all this attention will die down at some point?

Oh yes of course I do, the press will soon get bored of this story when they realise that there are no more juicy gossip and details to spill to the public, I’ve been thinking about taking a little break, maybe going on holiday to somewhere nice and hot and sunny, and hopefully by the time that I get back to England everybody will have forgotten all about me and all of the Spotlights drama and moved on to the next new thing to gossip about.

So, as you say this is going to be the only interview that you do speaking exclusively about your split with the Spotlights, are you going to tell us why it happened?

Well, I don’t really think that there was a specific reason for us splitting up it was a mutual thing between the three of us and we just decided that at this time it was right for us to be apart ant not carry on as a band and possibly pursue different career ideas ad opportunities.

So it wasn’t because you had a big band argument?

No, it really wasn’t, I know the press have speculated about this a lot over the past month or so, but it wasn’t an argument that caused us to split. Of course we have had arguments; we have been together as a band for the past three and a half years and spend a lot of time together on tour etc. And we have obviously had our fair share of arguments rows and tiffs, about a whole range of things, but it wasn’t because of this that we split up but it was a combination of lots of different reasons, and the fact that as a group we didn’t feel as happy as we once did when we first started out, and we decided that it would be a good time to end things so that we didn’t ruin our friendship.

So how are you girls getting on now, do you still see each other?

Yes of course we do, all of the time and its actually really nice now, because when we used to have to spend every minute of every single day together we used to get on each other’s nerves and get very easily annoyed at each other, but now that we see each other only once or twice a week we really enjoy it and its really nice to all see each other, catch up and have a laugh.  

So we have heard rumours about you possible embarking on a solo career, is that true? 

Well yes I suppose that it is true, I have always played the guitar and written music since I was a teenager, but   when we were in spotlights, I was never really given the opportunity to experiment with my own sound or my own music, because all of our songs were written for us, I have been writing a lot recently, and I hope to in future release a solo album of all of these tracks, but that is a long way off yet, they need a lot of work and at the moment they are very personal and private to me and I would not be confident sharing them with my fans just yet. 

Well Charlotte, thank you for taking the time out to speak to use to today, and we wish you the best of luck in your future career and any future solo projects.  Thank You.  And you can catch Charlotte and all the other girls From Spotlights in the documentary ‘Stars of the Noughties’ on 27th February on channel 4 at seven o’clock.

Masthead Designs

Here are some designs that I created as possible mastheads to use on my final music magazine, I first sketched out some initial designs and then used Adobe photoshop to create some digital designs, I have decided that my masthead should be clear and quite bold letters so that it is noticeable and easy to read, and stands out from other music magazines.

Model Release Form

Here are the release forms signed by the models featured in my magazine. The release forms allow me the producer to use the pictures that I have taken in my publication and wherever else I need to for advertising, distribution and promotion of the magazine. The model has to sign the form in order to give away the rights the pictures, by doing this it means that they cannot then at a later date decide that they do not like the images that have been taken and decide that they do not want them used. Model release forms are extremely useful in insuring that magazines are completely within the law when they publish images, and making sure that the magazine does not have to lose money from having to take new images.

Schedule

Here is a schedule that I created detailing all of the tasks that I have to complete during my media AS coursework task. As well as the main tasks there are also a list of subtasks included, making sure that everything that I need to to is detailed in the plan. The Schedule will help me keep on top of my workload, and make sure that I don't miss any tasks out, or forget to complete any.

Mood Board

  

Here is a mood board that I have created to signify the mood and feeling that I want my magazine to have, and the way in which I want it to come across to my target audience. Initially I made a list of images that I thought would work well depicting the mood of my magazine, and then used search engine websites such as Google Images and Pic Search to find the images. I then used Microsoft PowerPoint to bring the images together as the mood board.

Initial List of moodboard ideas.

Colour Connotations

Here are the different connotations of colour that i may include in my magazine, i created this image my typing the information on to Microsoft Powerpoint, then exporting the slide as a JPEG image so that i could place it here on my blog.

Audience Profile

I posted a series of seven questions on to my blog, relating to the target audience of my music magazine and their preferences when reading magazines, I asked some of my peers to answer the questions, in order to give me an accurate representation of the views of my target audience, allowing we do make decisions about the production based on their opinions, in order to appeal directly to my target audience, and persuade them to purchase my magazine. Above I have published the results of my audience questionnaire in a video format using Adobe Premiere CS3.



Name Ideas

I came up with some intitial ideas that I could possibly use as the title of my music magazine, they are all music related words or phrases. I put the words on to a slide on Microsoft Powerpoint, and made a spider diagram, I then exported the slide as a JPEG image as you can see below.

Proposal (Draft Task)

Proposal

Key Concepts Research

Contents Analysis

Contents Anlaysis


Double Page Spread Analysis



DPS ANALYSIssssssssssssss

Front Cover Analysis


Front Covers Analysis

Preliminary Task



For my preliminary task, I was required to create a front cover and contents page of a ‘school magazine,’ named: ‘The Haydon news.’ Firstly I sketched my initial design ideas on to A4 paper; I used my knowledge of other magazines and publications to design an appropriate layout for my magazine. Once I was happy with my initial designs I took some images that I could use on the cover of my magazine, and on my contents page.



Once I had uploaded the images on to the computer, I began creating my front cover using Adobe Photoshop, I chose the image that I thought was most appropriate for the cover, I then used the ‘select colour range’ and ‘quick mask’ tools, to select my model in the foreground, and cut her out from the background.  I chose this particular cover image, because it’s clear and bright and the model is staring straight at the camera, which is really useful at catching the audience’s eyes. I then created the masthead for my magazine, I chose to keep it clear and simple, in order to attract audiences that are both young and slightly older, in keeping with this objective, I also chose a simple colour scheme of blue and yellow, I chose these colours because they are bright and noticeable primary colours, that appeal to both genders and again stand out to younger audiences who will be attracted by the simple primary colours.

I added various different sell lines around the page, informing the audience about different articles within the magazine, and further encouraging them to read it. I used the font ‘Impact’ for all the text in my magazine, because it is a bold, clear font that stands out and grasps the audience’s attention, whilst still being clear and easy to read. Using the rectangle tool, I created a large blue bar at the bottom of my cover, Inside in large capital letters I wrote the sell line ‘FREE RULER INSIDE.’ Giving out free gifts is a technique that many successful magazines use to encourage people to purchase their products, so I decided to use it in order to try and entice more people to read the magazine. I also decided to use the fact that it was the first ever issue of ‘The Haydon News’ To persuade audiences to read the magazine, I did this by using ‘the circle tool’ and creating a circle,  I then clicked on the ‘FX’ tools and gave it a ‘drop shadow’ as well as using the ‘bevel and emboss’ tool which really helped make the circle stand out and look like a 3D button, inside the ‘Button’ I included the text ‘FIRST EVER ISSUE’ in the colour yellow, because it is bright, interesting and stands out.

 After I had completed my front cover, I began to start creating my contents page, again using Adobe Photoshop. I started by designing the title for the contents page, I used the design from the cover of my magazine, so as to create the feel of an ‘in house’ style, and keep a level of consistency between the two pages. I then made a list of articles that could be included in the magazine, and gave them page numbers, so that the audience could locate the articles that they want to read. To make the contents page more interesting and aesthetically pleasing I chose some images that I thought would be appropriate to include on the contents page and added them around the list of articles using the ‘Place’ and ‘Resize’ tools. I kept the design of my contents quite simple, in order to make it easier for the audience to understand, and navigate to different articles within the magazine.



Images used on the Contents Page

 I think that completing this preliminary task has been really helpful to me, it’s been useful to make me think about magazines, ad refresh my memory about the magazine industry, and what is needed to create a successful publication, as well as preparing me and giving me some initial ideas for the music magazine that I will need to create over the course of this year.

VIDEO OF PRELIMINARY PRODUCTION TASK- FRONT COVER