Contructing the Contents page

After constructing my Front page I then had to produce a contents page. One thing was for certain, and that was that it had to link to my front page. This could be achieved by using the same colour scheme. Also I used a different font to that of the title, I used the same one as the tag line. One of the things I was criticised for in the preliminary task was the that my fonts looked too similar. So this time around I used a clearer and distinct fonts. For the background of the contents page I added effects to give it a Punk/Gothic look to it. I divided the page into two. The bottom half contained the magazine exclusive and it took up the whole of the bottom half of the page. I placed a picture of the band and added some lighting effects and out glows. I also wrote the words 'STAGE EXCLUSIVE' in clear lettering so it was obvious what the main story was about. I also placed a picture of the band as articles normally have a picture next to them about showing who it is about. I decided to place the word Contents in a slanted position in the top left hand corner and bigger than the rest of text as it is the title of the page. In the rest of the top half of the page i put other stories and articles that would be included in this magazine.

After receiving feedback on my contents page I then made some minor adjustments to it. For example I made 'Stage Exclusive' in even bigger lettering and I also added some more text. One thing that I haven't mentioned is the the reason for the choice of font colour. I chose to do white on black and white on black. I did this for the obvious reason that they are two contrasting colours and stand out.

Constructing the front page

The very first thing I did for my front cover was to think of a colour scheme that would fit the theme of my magazine which was, punk rock. I was thinking about what colour go well and when put together stand out. After thinking about it for a while I thought that two complementary and suitable colours for my magazine would be black and white.

Although, one thing I had to be careful with was not to over use these colours as they can sometimes come across as quite dull. After thinking of the schemes I then thought about the positioning, font and colour of the font. 'Stage' was my title and I decided to make my title black with a white outer glow to make it leap off the page and noticeable. When I was happy with how my title looked I then had to add the tag line to it which was 'Where music is expressed'. I played around with the positioning of the tag line and thought it would be a good idea to place it on top of the title and made it white so it contrasted with the title and was also noticeable. In the top right hand corner I put the price and issue number. After my research of existing magazines I Put the price of my magazine as '3.20'.

Other features I included in this top quarter of the front page was the issue number and price of the magazine. Once I created the top quarter of the magazine front cover, I introduced the pictures form my photo shoot. Another reason why I chose the black and white colour scheme was that my model, were wearing black and white so I thought it would be appropriate to choose the colour scheme that I did.

After, choosing and editing appropriate images of my models, I placed them so they took up most of the page. I also added effects to the pictures, so that they looked like they were part of the front page. After adding my models to the page I then put the band name and logo on it. The top half of my magazine was now pretty much finished and then i has to work on the bottom half. One of the first things I did on the bottom half of the front cover was to create an 'also inside' bar. I made it glow at the top so it was noticeable and faded it a bit so the bottom half of the models could be seen faintly.

Free poster, Exclusive and also inside have all been written in very magazine cut out like writing. This was done as it fits in with the genre of my magazine, Punk rock and they are big and stand out as the main things that dominate this issue of my magaizne. I've decided to choose about 3 or 4 different fonts to use on my front cover as , form my research, it seems to be the magazine convention to use different fonts for differetn purposes. My front page also Contains the pyramid formation as the bulk of the magazxine is at the bottom magazine, leaving the top half quite textless as form research again seems to be another convention of music magazines.

After some feedback on my original front cover I made ammedmends by making the tagline clearer and making Exclusive and Free poster clearer.

Plan for 30/11/09

Choose and edit pictures- I have to choose the pictures i want to use for my magazine and edit them to satisfy myself and to be appropriate and gives an impact on the page for the construction of the production.

Construct front page- Using Desktop publishing I will merge all my ideas and create my front page. Once I've chosen appropriate images I can then create a front page. Also, I need to keep in mind the magazine conventions and research.

Construct contents page- Same applies for the contents page. I need to come up with other stories that I can include on the contents page. Also choosing appropriate fonts, font sizes and photos are also important.

Ask for feedback- Asking for feedback after my first attempt is important as it allows me to improve and receive constructive criticism to make my work better. Also it will allow me to see if I've met my own personal objectives, such as quality.

Make amendments- After receiving construct e criticism i can edit my pages based on what I have been told I can do to make it better or what isn't clear.

Of course apart form this I need to blog all my findings whilst I'm doing this.

Photoshoot...

The pictures for my coursework had to be original, which meant that I had to take them myself. So, this being a music magazine and all I had to take pictures which related to my music convention genre, Punk rock. For ,my photo shoot I had to make sure the models I was using dressed up to look like a Punk rocker. I chose a girl for my photo shoot and asked if she could dress and look like someone who was part of a punk band. I was using the same person to make a twin band but each character would be dressed differently and would have a different style, this is key as they cannot look identical as it wouldn't show much diversity. For my first character, Sam ,my model dressed up in a black and white clothing which included high heels, a skirt, a black top and a black and white stripy tie, she also had very glamorous make up as Sam is the more glamorous out of the two sisters. For this photo shoot I had to graphic match both of my characters so every shot i made with one character I had to match it with a similar one for the next character. For my second of the sisters, Izzy, I made my same model dress up differently by making her wear jeans, a cross, blazer and her hair and make up were messy and looked slightly Gothic. This was done purposely to make Izzy look like the tough one out of the two. One thing that was crucial to this photo shoot was that my model put herself int he shoes of my characters as it would allow the best quality pictures to be produced.

Sam



Izzy

These are the pictures I am going to use for my magazine. I'm not going to do any hard editing on these photos. I am probably going to take away red eye and airbrush them. The reason that the background is so plain is so it is easier to crop the picture out of the frame so it looks cleanly cut around the edges.

This photo shoot was very productive as I managed to take enough photos for the production of my magazine.

Considering OBJECTS, SETTING and FIGURE

After looking at theme, colour and lighting we then had to look at the objects, setting and figures surrounding our magaiznes. In a nutshell, we had to think about the mise-en-scene of the images we choose for our magazine.



Again, my photo shoot was the perfect chance to consider and to put into practiuse all these things:



Objects- What objects could be in each shot?. This can include from jewellery to guitars, every single thing in the shot shot be noticed. I was thinking more along the llines of wearting symbolic things like a cross and wearing objects of identity such as make up



Setting- What is the set going to look like? It could be plain or be have a realy busy set. I was thinking of not having such a busy background as it will draw attention away from he model.



Figure- How are my models goign to pose? This is important as their poses will say alot about them and will also allow interpretation of their expressions and body language. I want my models to pose wildly and free spirited as it would allow genuine photos to be produced.



Also considering semiotics and my photoshoot i wanted most of my pictures to be iconic so they show exactly what they show and they are what they represent.

Considering THEME, LIGHTING and COLOUR

In today's lesson our group were split into groups of three and looked at an article from a music magazine. After skimming through he magazine article we had to look at 3 different things: Theme, lighting and colour.

The magazine my group given was Classic rock and we focused on the main article which was on 'The mysterious death of Jimi Hendrix'. First of all, my group looked at the dominant colours of the article, which were black, whites, greys, purples. Jimi Hendrix was written in multicolour which could have been done to show the charisma and personality that Hendrix had. There was also suttle reds throughout the article.

In addition to this, the pictures in this article were very iconic images and the majority of them were in black and white, showing that Hendrix was from a past time era and the lighting on each of the photos focused on his face. Another reason to why the photos might of been edited and presented in this way links back to the main issue in the article, 'the mysterious death of Jimi Hendrix'. Although there are dominant black and white images right at the end of the article is a coloured picture of the rock star, suggesting that we should remember him for his true personality and nature instead of all the negative vibes and conspiracies that surround him.

After this task, individually we had to go through the same process for our task, thinking about ideas for our front covers and what colours to use. Also when having the photoshop, thkning about the lighting. Overall, after thinkning of these things the most important thing of all is that it has to link to the theme of our magazines. The theme of punk rock so baring this in mind i had to use my photoshoot as a chance to think carefully about the colour and lighhting of the photos.

Thinking about a band...

For this music magazine one of the crucial elements was to come up with a band that would be included on the front page and be the basis of my magazine (interview etc.)

After storming up ideas in my head i thought of a unique and different idea. I decided to create a twin sister punk rock band. Now that I got the basis of my band I had to generate a story behind them, this is key as I am compiling and interview as well. Before I created a story behind my band I had to create a name for it, this was very tricky. I wanted a totally original and unique band name. After, looking at a thesaurus and dictionary for a very long time I came up with a name, 'Sacramental liaison'. After creating a story I then created a bit of a story.

My band are made up of twin sisters that are rebellious, young, revolutionary Punk rockers that have been through a lot and have seen it all. their journey to the top has truly been a roller coaster ride. They've done drugs, kicked a band member out and were kicked out of their house, their lives have been filled with violence. They were found at a young age by a legendary Punk rocker/ Manager , Gaz. Sam and Izzy are the two members. Sam is the more glamorous and neater one of the sisters. Izzy is the tough nut, messy sister that has a short temper.

I am hoping to express all this in my interview and show their characters and personalities through the photos i take in my photo shoot.

Templates...

Here are the templates of what I hope my magazine layout will look like. I will try and stick to them as accurately as possible as they look like quite professionally laid out pages, in accordance to my research and music magazine conventions.

Coming up with a title and tagline...

Coming up with a title for my magazine was probably one of the hardest tasks in this coursework, and along with the title has to come a punch line. From my research i found that one thing for definite was that all titles link with the genre and style of the magazine. For example, Classic rock is the title of a famous rock magazine, terrorize is the title of a heavy metal magazine. So they all link in with their themes and styles. As I was thinking of a title I also made sure that the title is very clear and does what it says on the tin. The title I thought of in the end was 'Stage'. I chose this because music and bands are normally expressed or presented on stages. This then lead to me thinking of the tag line :'Where music is expressed' as it links in with the title and complements it very well. Below is the design for my title and thought it was appropriate to make it black with a white outer glow as it makes it clear and stands out, through its size that it is the title of my music magazine. I have chosen this messy, splattered font as I feel that it lets off a very 'Punk' feel to it and is clearly fit for purpose. However, one thing I was criticised for was calling a heavy punk rock magazine 'Stage'. My reason for choosing this title was purely because my magazine is a generic punk magazine that covers different areas of 'Punk'.

Magazine theme...

For the theme of my magazine i have decided to do a punk rock magazine as i believe it is open to imagine about what punk is. Also, using existing punk rock magazine and punk rock bands will allow me to build around the genre with my ideas.



Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. They created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY (do it yourself) ethic, with many bands self-producing their recordings and distributing them through informal channels- Wikipedia.org



This is the definition of punk rock and i have to make sure this is reflected in my production of this project. I am aiming for a rebel, energetic, modern punk rock magazine.

Picking an ideal reader...

This is Stacy Goldman, a typical 16 year old rebel that doesn't like to do what she's told and just for being her, she will do the opposite. Stacy attends a normal typical state school in London, where she also lives. She lives with her Mum and Dad and older sister. Her perfect Friday night is to sleep round her friends house and drink to the early hours of the morning to Punk music. Her other interests include hanging around with friends in parks and hanging out with her boyfriend, Robert. She never comes home before 10, she hates staying indoors, especially being indoors with her annoying older sister who always criticises her for her 'different' style. She has a very distinct and unique way of dressing because she IS a very unique character. Her favourite place to shop is Camden and Soho. She is a very social person. She enjoys watching and listening to Music channels such as Kerrang! as she shares a passion for punk and rock music, she loves singing along to these channels. Her favourite bands are the sex pistols, The Ramones and Bullet For My Valentine. She watches programmes like Miami ink and loves horror films like paranormal activity as she loves the feeling of knowing that your going to get scared. She is a bit of a rebel and has been kicked out of a school before for having a very vicious fight. She hates going out with the family and wants to be left in her room with her music. In a nutshell, she is a cocky rebellious, young teenager into her music.

Plan for 13/11/09

As I began on my main coursework task I first needed to become

-Research magazine covers online- The is the basis of my task, researching magazine covers will allow me to get a feel around the topic of music magazines. Researching magazines of different genres and components will allow me to devise ideas and think about what will go into my magazine.

-Come up with ideas for layouts of front cover, contents and interview pages- Compiling layouts of all components of my magazine will be vital as it will guide me into how my magazine will come together and look like.

-Come up with title ideas for magazine- Come up with different titles for my magazine and survey titles to see which one packs more of an impact. Afterwards, I will have to do the same process for my slogan/punchline

-Come up with an ideal reader for my magazine- I will need to distinguish the 'ideal' readership for my magazine, so I could build around it to make up the contents of my ideas around this information.

-Plan photo shoot and choose models- This will require me planning out what type of photos i want and the different shots i want to be included in my magazine. Also choosing colleagues for my photo shoot will need to be done as well, to create my own made up band.

Introduction to coursework and music magazine research

In this double media lesson on Thursday 5th November. We began to look at the areas needed for our main task of the coursework, Creating a music magazine with a contents and two page spread interview.

Our first task was to look., in depth, at certain readership and how the can say a lot about the type of person who reads a particular type of magazine. We were put in pairs and given a magazine between us to answer particular questions on. I was paired with Jake and we were given 'Junior' magazine. The questions we answered were:

What does this reader eat for breakfast?

What car/ mode of transport do they use?

What accommodation do they live in?

What do they drink?

What music do they like?

What sport do they play or watch?

Where do they go on holiday?

Are they married or single?

After answering these questions we gave feedback to the class about the magazine we were given. After this brief discussion we then researched existing music magazines, baring in mind these questions. Junior magazine seemed like a magazine that is aimed at couples with a lot of money that live in a house and have a fancy car. Also this magazine is aimed at people that go on expensive holidays and spend a lot on the image of their children.

The music magazine I researched was Classic rock magazine and found that the main article was on Metallica. I only assumed this from the front cover of the magazine and it had an iconic picture of the lead guitarist, and I was right. In addition to this, the title was in big, white, bold lettering and stood out form the page. The font of the title is very Also, around the bottom of the page it had other stories that were in the magazine and. The choice in colours with the black and whites and golds are used brilliantly to show that everything is clear and thought about carefully with a purpose. Another thing I noticed was that the top half of the page is left pretty bare, in comparison to the bottom half, creating a pyramid shape. There are about 3/4 different fonts on this page sand they are all used for different things. The other fonts are used for article titles, tag line, and freebies.Everything on this front cover is also appropriate to their ideal reader and genre of music. Everything on this fornt cover screams out rock: memorable title, snappy tag line, Iconic rock image, relevant rock articles and stories. From my research I found that the conventions of a music magazine are very clear. Everything from the title to the positioning images and texts are all thoguth about and done on purpose by the editor to make the magazine appealing.

Feedback on premiliminary task

Today I was given feedback on my preliminary task and I got a chance to see what it could have done better on my preliminary task so I could make sure I could develop and avoid any problems in my main coursework task. For my preliminary task School/College magazine I got 42/50. I was given both positive and constructive criticism for my magazine cover.

Firstly I will start with the positives of my final product. I was told by my teacher that the colour schemes on the front page were good. The mix of blues, blacks and whites fitted the purpose of the task. Also, the highlighting of the title and images on the front page was effective and created an impact. Generally, the actual task itself was produced to a satisfactory level. However, there were minor faults in my work that were highlighted in order for me to know so i didnt commit the same faults in my main task. One fault was the Lack of variation of fonts and font sizes. They were very similiar and it was clear that it did not follow the industry conventions. Also, for the pictures, there wasnt a variation of shot distances and types. Tghis is something important to include and adjust in my main task to get the highest mark possible. In a nutshell, my layout and text choices for my main task have to be thought about very carefully and constant surveying of my work has to be done to ensure everything is spotted and for my work to be the best it can.

Prem coursework- Preliminary task evaluation

Throughout this preliminary task of my coursework I have come across some challenges but the task itself has been quite straight forward, with the hard work and effort put in. When i was given the task, I must admit, it was quite hard to come up with an idea for it as I didn't know whether or not to make it a focused on a department magazine (like the exemplar shown) or a more generic magazine. It took me a good week to finalise my idea after discussions with my teacher and weighing up the pros and cons. I found that if it is more generic you can include a variety of things, whereas if it was focused on one department it would require accuracy on what is written as it cannot be off the main focus.

Throughout my front cover production I came across some problems that were not too hard to cross. Ior example, I found it quite tricky to change the lighting on the faces of the front cover. It required alot of playing around on photoshop for it to finally look retouched and slightly more professional than my first go. Also another problem encountered with the front cover, that was mentioned by peers was a spacious area that was empty. This made me have to think about what could go in this space and after a while I came up with an idea for it. These, I guess, were quite minor problems as I managed to overcome these problems.

For the production of my contents page, ideas for layouts was my main problem as I didn't know how to lay out my contents. I eventually came up with an idea after visualising and playing with areas of the contents page and pictures to compile my contents page. I also had to be accurate in trying to link my contents page with my front cover so they complimented each other.

On the other hand, I found that this preliminary task went quite smoothly and I did not encounter any big problems that could not be overcome. I believe that my product was a success as I kept to deadlines and did everything to the best of my ability and with he resources provided.

If I had a chance to re do this preliminary task all over again I would of probably would've taken more exciting pictures and I might of changed the topic of the magazine. other than this I do not think I would have changed much.

I hope that the problems I encountered are Something i later to hope on to improve and consider spending detailed time on when i do my main coursework task.