Progress Update

Here is my first magazine cover, which I got feedback on.

Since my last progress post, I have been given feedback from all of the people in my class on what I should keep and what I can improve on my magazine cover. With this feedback I have changed some things on my magazine, here below are the two magazine covers, the second one being the one I have changed.

Here is my magazine cover now, with development.

The feedback I received was really helpful, I received positive comments and also constructive criticism which has helped me develop my cover. I have changed the button on the top to a banner, this looks more professional as I was told that the button didn't look very good. Looking at both covers I am glad that I have changed this because it looks neater and better with the overall layout. As you can see I have checked out different fonts for my sell-lines and made them different. I like the thinner fonts, although I am aware that as sell-lines they should stand out a bit more. The main sell-line 'Bryony Lily' has been changed in terms of colour, placement and size. To make it stand out more I have also placed a drop shadow on it, the red colour I have chosen also goes with my colour scheme of red, white and blue which I stated in a previous post was going to be the main colours in my magazine.
I have struggled quite a bit with fonts, this is because I had to cut them out on photoshop and fill them in with the fill tool. It has taken a long time to do them, this is because I have screen grabbed them from a font generator, cut them out in Photoshop and had to fill in the pixels with my chosen colour. I have also been trying to find a font for the main sell-line which is quite difficult, as I am trying to make them look as though it all matches and belongs together.
To develop my magazine even further, I need to change the fonts to make them slightly bolder and stand out more on the page, also I need to change the font on the main sell-line, I think I need to think about the colour usage because it blends in too much with the vinyl, but it may look fine if I use more effects (e.g.. Drop Shadow.)

Looking at previous work

In todays class we looked at past magazine designs from previous students and graded them in terms of their weak and strong points. Some of the products were outstanding in terms of fonts and colour schemes and also the strength of the image contributed to make a really good magazine which looked as though it could be on the news-stands. On the other hand some designs used images which werent originally taken by them, which immediately knocked down their mark.
From looking at the different examples of past coursework I have gained ideas for my own product and learned what I need to do to make a good piece of work. I have also learned different ways I could have my layout to make my magazine look really professional.

I will apply this to my work by playing around with various different colours and editing my images in a certain way to make them fit more and make them higher quality. I will also make sure that my images aren't distorted because some of the images on the magazines were out of focus.

Jarvis Cocker Practise Task

As part of my research and planning, my task was to create my own front cover using Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker as a coverstar. I created this front cover on Adobe Photoshop, using sell-lines and colours which applied to the Britpop genre which Jarvis is associated with.

The layout is basic and matches a normal magazine layout, I made the magazine a bit different by making it as though it was a 90's issue. I feel as though I included all of the relevant conventions of a magazine cover; I have a masthead, strap-line, sell-lines and the barcode. I have also included the main image, pull quote and main sell-line.

When I finished this project I handed it in to my lecturer and she gave me feedback which would be useful if I was to do the task again, it has made me aware of what I need to include and what I could leave out. I have also added on this sheet what I would do to improve my grade and how I will do this.

Progress Post

Since my last progress post I have been to the Sunderland University photo studio to take my images. On Monday 4th November myself, my friends Courtnie, Bryony and Michelle all went to the studio to take our images. I was Courtnies model, Bryony was my model and Michelle was Bryonys model. We booked a four hour slot so we could get all of the images done and also help each other if anyone needed anything. Everything went really well on the day and the photographs turned out really high quality and exactly how we wanted them. 

I have now edited the photographs I would like to use for my magazine, I showed my lecturer the selection of shots I had taken and she gave me some guidance on which ones would be effective to use.

Here below is the image I am using for my front cover and how I have edited it.

The image before it was edited, it needed to
be cropped and have a few tweaks done
to it, for example lighting and marks on
the image that were visible. 

The image after it was edited, I used photoshop
to edit blemishes and marks using
the magic wand tool on the photograph.
I also made the photograph lighter using the
brightness and contrast tools.

This image below is of my front cover which I have designed on photoshop. I understand that some things aren't clear, for example the main sell-line needs to be a different colour. I also feel as though I could use a few more fonts to differ the sell lines from the main sell line, also the pull quote could be in a different font. I am happy with my sell lines and feel they are relevant to my genre, I've also used puns and references to bands songs in the sell lines. My lecturer and class have helped me a lot by giving me feedback on how I can improve this front cover. In one lesson, my work was displayed on the board and my class filled in a sheet to say what they liked/disliked and also what I could improve on.

Font ideas - Masthead

I have checked out a website called dafont.com in order to find a range of different fonts for my masthead and sell lines.

This font on the left hand side would be good to use for my masthead, I like the shape of it and it also looks quite retro just like the theme of my magazine. It looks quite sophisticated and also readable. The only thing I do not like about this font is I would prefer a block font for my masthead, this is because it would stand out more because of the shape. This font is quite thin and might not be eye catching on the cover of my magazine.

This font is called Lemondrop and is quite bold, I could imagine it being used for a masthead and might consider using it myself. Although Ideally I would really like a sharp font, this could work as it is different to what I have seen on certain magazines. The whole point of my magazine is to present individual music so using a unusual font for the masthead could perfectly work.

 

This font is exactly what I have been looking for to present my masthead. It's very bold and easy to read, it is the same type of font as the NME logo which is very famous and recognisable. I will definitely consider using this font. The name of the font is Old Sans Black. Yes it is basic but I think it could be very effective as a masthead depending on the colour and layers I use on photoshop.

 

 

This font is called Fundamental Brigade. Just like the font above it is bold and readable, it also looks proffessional. I like the style more on this font because the R's are a different shape which makes it look more and it is also thinner in width, which means it look neater in my opinion.

 

Potential Problems with my coursework

Here below is a table of potential problems which I might find when completing parts of my courseowor and how I will deal with them;

My Proposal Form

This is my proposal for my project:

My idea for the brief: I am going to create a music magazine which will be based on the genre of rock and roll, with a sixties/ mod theme. I will promote the theme through costume and also the music which I include in the magazine.

Genre/ sub genre: Magazines such as NME, MOJO and Q include artists that I would feature in my magazine, such as Oasis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Stone Roses. I was inspired to do this genre because it is what I listen to so I have a lot of knowledge on it and how to present it.

Target audience: My target audience for my magazine is males and females aged 16-25. They will either be students or working full time. They like to be individual in terms of the music they listen to and the clothes they wear and prefer to be kept away from the mainstream pop music. They enjoy going out and socialising, going to gigs and spending their money on clothes

Major conventions I will use a red white and blue colour scheme to reflect the union jack, giving the indication that the magazine is based on the British rock and roll genre. I will also represent the genre through the clothing, hairstyle, make-up and props. The costume will be 60’s styled; beehives, big eye make-up and a retro style mini dress to reflect the era through image. I have also chosen the red, white and blue colour scheme because it is unisex and will attract both men and women to buy the magazine, instead of choosing a colour such as pink which would specifically attract women. I will use props such as CDs and records which will create a vintage feel and will also tie with the music theme.

Conventions I may decide to add more props, or I may change elements of my outfit if I feel as though it does not look right on the model. Totally depending on the way the images look and turn out I may change my colour scheme to match the contrast of the images.

Original images: I will be taking all of my images at Sunderland University in the photo studio, I feel as though these will be really high quality and would be perfect for the magazine I am creating. I will be able to dress and do my models make-up there to resist any weather problems. I am going to the university on Monday the 4th November and will be taking all costume there. Here I will also be able to get before and after shots of the make-up and hair styles.

Action Plan

This is my first action plan, it will be later updated as I progress:

All of the blank spaces in the action plan have now been completed.

Preliminary task- Images I didn't use

For my Preliminary task my group and I had a camera between us, on the camera we took a range of different shots that we could use on our college magazine design. Some of the images I used but other ones I didn't use for different reasons. Here are the ones I didn't use below and the explanations why;

The reason I didn't use this image is because you could not see the face of the model in the shot. I thought the angle was accurate but the image wasn't at it's best quality because of the way the pose was.

The reason I didn't use this shot is because the model was not looking at the camera, also the lighting wasn't very good and there was a slight reflection which lowered the quality of the image. I liked that the image against the white background and if I was to take this image again I would make sure that the pose was better. 

I liked the lighting of this image and I thought that the angle and height was very good. The reason I didn't use this shot is because of the pose, it wasn't serious and looked quite unproffessional.

I did not use this image because I didn't think that there was very much meaning behind it. I thought I could have used it on my contents page as one of my sell lines, but in the end I decided to use text instead of an image because it looked better
 rather than have varied amounts of image and text.

 

I did not use this image because the models were not looking at the camera and one had her head turned away which wasn't acceptable to put on the magazine. Again I thought the lighting was very good and the angle was clear.

 

Main Task Photographs- What I will and will not use.

After looking through my final photographs which I have taken to feature in my product, I have decided which ones I will/will not use and why.

The two images here are ones I will not to use. The reasons I will not use them is because in the first, the model's face is dark from the shadow of the prop. I have tried to edit this and it still looks very dark even though I have increased the lighting. I will not use the image on the right because the eye-line match was not correct and I don't like the angle of it.

The left image will be used on my front cover because there is an excellent eye-line match which matches the conventions of a front cover image. I want to use the image on the right for my double page spread article, but I think that the pose is quite repetitive and also I might not have room to feature it. With the shot being a long shot, I think the pose restricts the audience view of the model a little bit.






I will not use the image on the left because the models eyes were closed. I do wonder whether it would be a good image to use to represent the eye make-up but I've decided that there are stronger images that I can use. Again the pose is quite repetitive and there is not much of an expression on the models face. The right image might be used as the main image for my double page spread, I love this image because of the use of props, the pose of the model using a 'super smiler' expression and also the lighting. I will edit it slightly for my double page spread but I think it represents the genre of the magazine really well with the records and looks quite relaxed and casual which is why I might decide to use it.

Photo-shoot: hair, make-up and costume

Today I went to Sunderland University to go ahead with my photo shoot. This was in order to get my photographs for my magazine front cover, contents and double page spread. First of all I did my model, Bryony's hair and make-up. I thought personally it went really well and according to plan. I did change my make-up around a little bit and asked bryony to do her foundation before-hand. I used a white eye pencil to colour in the eye-lids and added the dark eye crease to give a real sixties effect. I added false eyelashes to emphasise the eyes on camera and of course to add length to the eyelashes. This is a close up of the eye make-up;

I styled Bryony's hair in a beehive, instead of back-combing it all, I used a sponge hair donut underneath, this saved time too! It took a lot of hair grips and hairspray but we got there in the end. Here are a few images of Bryony in full costume;

Overall I could not have been happier with how the photo shoot went. Everything went according to plan and I felt as though I organised everything really well, my model was also amazing. Colin from the uni was such a big help and and I can't wait to have a look at the professional images! 

Types of Photography

Shot distance types

Extreme Long Shot/ Long Shot - Good for showing the insignificance of character or for showing characters as powerless within an overpowering environment. Also establishes location.

Medium Long Shot/ Medium Shot - Shows movement or tracks characters and their environment.


Medium Close Up/ Close Up - Good for portraiture or for moving image interviews.

Extreme Close Up - Shows the significance of character and shows them as powerful. Also highly useful for drawing attention to emotions.

For the front cover of my magazine, I would most likely use a medium close up to show significance of my model.

Tilt shots

Tilt up shot (at a low angle) - This shot is normally used to present power and dominance and sometimes looks threatening to the viewer.

Tilt down shot (at a high angle) - Opposite of low angle, makes the character look weak and powerless.It can also demonstrate point of view.

Tone

• Control of tones can set the mood of the photograph, by emphasising important colour.
• It can emphasise important elements of the image.

Composition

• I will need to think carefully about how I place my model in the shot. I may use the centre of the image because it will draw audiences attention to her.

Lines

• Lines can emphasise the viewer towards a specific area or subject, by dividing the image into segments it can strongly influence the mood of the image. I can do this by controlling the camera viewpoint.

Using colour

• Taking control of colour is a key way of improving images, I will make sure I consider using very bright colours to attract audience attention and also make sure I use bold colours on my magazine covers.
• To achieve a picture with vivid colours I will have to emphasise objects with strong colours.

Textures

• Looking at the textures in an image can make it extra effective, and can be extremely powerful when used in a close-up. The direction, height and lighting can make a huge difference to the appearance of textures.

Posed Photos

• This image below is posed and would most likely be seen in a magazine. I think this image is extremely effective because of the way the make-up has been done and also the use of props. The lighting of the image really emphasises the different textures, for example her hair and lines of her lips can clearly be seen, along with the texture of the bees wings. 

Progress to date

I have completed all of my research and planning which is a huge part of progression. I feel as though I have done my best to find out institutional research, not only this but also my quantitive and qualitative research to find out exactly what my target audience would like in a magazine. I now have an idea of my colour scheme, price, layout and genre. I have looked into costumes, make-up and hairstyles and also props which will go with my theme. I feel as though I have progressed a lot since I started my blog and I have a clear idea of what I want to present my model like. I also have designed the layout of my magazine cover, contents page and double page spread and practised writing and designing by creating my own college magazine and the front cover of a magazine including Jarvis Cocker. I have looked at different magazines such as NME and Q over the past few weeks and analysed the things I do and do not like about them to get ideas for my own product. As well as doing assigned work for my blog, I have done independent research which has contributed to giving me new ideas. I feel a lot more specific than I did a few months ago when I first created my moodboard. I had an idea of what genre I was doing but now I have something exact which I will represent through my model and how I dress her. I have also booked my photoshoot so I am now up to date with my work.