Plan of my photo shoot

I want my images to be taken on a blank white background. I will arrange a time at Sunderland university when I can go into their studios and take these images. I have chose this location because it will fit in with the layout and design of my magazine. I am going for a very simplistic and calm vibe, so the colours will work well together to create this mood, hence why I have chose indoors, and a model wearing dark colours, against a blank background. 

I done some additional planning on Padlet, this allowed me to add more images and explain a bit more.

I also emailed someone from the university studio to see if we could use their studio to take our images for my magazine.

Colin then emailed me the availability times and we chose Thursday 3:00 - 4:00. As me and a couple of friends are all using the same model, we arranged to book it together as we all wanted the same types of images. 

First draft of my double page spread (marked image)

This is the image i took of my first draft that had been marked by my teacher. She has marked on some improvements that i need to make. This image shows evidence of my work being marked, and then i can look back on my first draft and see how i have improved.

Redraft of my marked double page spread article

My teacher gave me feedback on my first draft that she had marked, and gave me a few improvement i needed to make. So here is my second draft.  I have made the improvements. 

Rebecca Volt

                              "Dreams do come true"

"I walked the streets of Sunderland. Thinking about what my life could be. Was I good enough? How can I reach my goals? Those are the questions that I asked myself every single night. I was always a lover of music ever since I was a young girl. I would be singing from morning until night. Everything I aspired to do would always relate to music or singing. My first time playing a guitar was at a music lesson in school. As soon as a began to learn how to play, I didn't ever want to let go. The only problem was that my parents couldn't afford any instruments for me at the time. So any time I got the opportunity to play, I was always in the music room with my teacher Mr Watson. He would learn me new songs every week and we would play them together, signing along. As i progressed, my teacher noticed I had a talent. That talent brought me to where I am today. I started playing in my school assembily with other pupils. Because of this, my school would lend me a guitar to use while I practice. Performing gave me a lot of confidence in myself, and I always feel at my best when I am playing the guitar and singing. I started busking just to earn a bit of extra money. Then I went onto events across the city.  More and more people started to come to my little gigs.

                                           "You will never make it"  - what i was always told. 

That is what i was always told. I will never for fill my dream on becoming a professional singer. I was always told to change and do something that may actually be possible. But in my eyes, it was possible, I was going to be famous and follow my dreams. 

The journey starts...
I made a Youtube channel so that i could post videos of me singing and playing guitar. I couldn't believe my eyes when i started to see thousands of people subscribing to my channel and liking my videos. My very first video got over 1 million views. I was so overwhelmed with happiness. My journey had begun. Big organizations wanted me to play at their events, and companies started to recognise me. By this time I was only 17 years old and millions of people wanted to hear my music. I started writing my own songs, posting them on my channel, and each time I would get more views. I couldn't believe my eyes when one day I had an email from a music company saying they wanted me to go to their studio and record some music. A few days after that i went down to the studio and they came up with a few song ideas, and then they offered me a signing contract with them! I was so amazed at how far i had came. I was living my dream. I began to travel the world doing concerts and doing signings. I had became a well known artist who had thousands of fans.

If you have a dream. Go for it! do anything you can, be positive, get experience. No one is stopping you from doing what you dream to do. I started off with a guitar I would lend from school, to traveling the world doing gigs. I was always told "oh keep dreaming" and "that isn't real life, you will never become a pop-star". And look where I am now. Do what you love and follow your dreams, don't let anyone bring you down.

- Rebecca Volt

Time managment

From week 7, I do feel like i have got a lot done, but i have had a few problems with the organization of my model. I had problems with the whole email situation. Rebecca sent me an email, but it didn't come through. Because of this i am going to compete this task at home. But overall, i do think i am caught up with work, i just have a few odd things that i need to compete for week 7.

Organisation of my model

I emailed by friend Rebecca who is my target audience, and asked her if she would be my model as she would fit in with the style I am going for. Here is a screenshot of the message that I had sent to her. I made sure i included the costume i wanted her to wear so that she is prepared and will fit in with my target audience.

And this is the reply that i got. 

Rationale for target audience feedback

From my interview with someone from my target audience, I asked Rebecca (target audience) what would encourage her to buy the magazine. Her reply was that she would like to see free posters and coupons. She said that it would become more appealing to her. From this, I see that my target audience do like posters and coupons for places such as the cinema etc. So this also gives a bit of background of my target audience. I also asked Rebecca what sort of colour scheme she would like to see, she told me that she would like to see dark colours. These dark colours emphasize the mood of a magazine. From this feedback, I will use darker colours but I want my magazine to look attractive, so I will also use very light colours to make my magazine stand out. Also, I don't want my magazine to look depressive and dark, I want it to look quiet simplistic.

Music magazine interview

This is the video we took to show an interview. Our interview questions will relate to our genre. The questions asked will also help me when i come to looking at the design of my magazine. I did feel nervous being filmed, but once it had been done and edited, i do feel like it helped with research. The questions i asked helped me gain information to help towards design ideas for my own product. It could have been filmed better but considering we didn't have much time to film, i think it turned out ok. 

Time management post

I feel like i have managed my time really well this lesson. I have created some spider diagrams to show my double page spread research and this has been put onto my blog. These will help me develop ideas and can help me create my own designs. I have wrote my first draft for the article that will go on my double page spread. This will then be marked by my teacher and i will use the feedback to improve on any faults. I also feel like i am up to date with the work that needs to be completed.

Double page spread draft

I want the article for my double page spread to be very inspirational. I want my target audience to be able to relate to some of the things included. This will make a great connection between the writer (artist) and the target audience. Below, i will include my first draft article for my double page spread.

Rebecca Volt

                              Dreams do come true

"I walked the streets of Sunderland. Thinking about what my life could be. Was I good enough? How can I reach my goals? Those are the questions that I asked myself every single night. I was always a lover of music ever since i was a young girl. I would be singing from morning until night. Everything i aspired to do would always relate to music or singing. My first time playing a guitar was at a music lesson in school. As soon as a began to learn how to play, i didn't ever want to let go. The only problem was that my parents couldn't afford any instruments for me at the time. So any time I got the opportunity to play, i was always in the music room with my teacher Mr Watson. He would learn me new songs every week and we would play them together, signing along. As i progressed, my teacher noticed i had a talent. That talent brought me to where i am today. I started playing in my school assembily with other pupils. Because of this, my school would lend me a guitar to use while I practice. Performing gave me a lot of confidence in myself, and I always feel at my best when i am playing the guitar and singing. I started busking just to earn bait of extra money. Then i went onto events across the city.  More and more people started to come to my little gigs.

                                           "You will never make it" 
The journey starts...
I made a Youtube channel so that i could post videos of me singing and playing guitar. I couldn't believe my eyes when i started to see thousands of people subscribing to my channel and liking my videos. My very first video got over 1 million views. I was so overwhelmed with happiness. My journey had begun. Big organizations wanted me to play at there events, and companies started to recognise me. By this time I was only 17 years old and millions of people wanted to hear my music. I started writing my own songs, posting them on my channel, and each time I would get more views. I couldn't believe my eyes when one day I had an email from a music company saying they wanted me to go to their studio and record some music. A few days after that i went down to the studio and they came up with a few song ideas, and then they offered me a signing contract with them! I was so amazed at how far i had came. I was living my dream. I began to travel the work doing concerts and doing signings. I had became a well known artist who had thousands of fans.

If you have a dream. Go for it! do anything you can, be positive, get experience. No one is stopping you from doing what you dream to do. I started off with a guitar I would lend from school, to traveling the world doing gigs. I was always told "oh keep dreaming" and "that isn't real life, you will never become a pop-star". And look where i am now. Do what you love and follow your dreams, don't let anyone bring you down.

- Rebecca volt

Double page spread research

Here, i have created some spider diagrams that show some features that inspire me. I have lablled some areas that i personally liked, and have said why i like them. these double page spreads have gave me some ideas that i can use for my own double page spread.  

This is the full size of the image. I can see from this double page spread that it is aimed to women, simply because it says 'the women who oak 2012'. And the main image is taking up one full side, and the image is a woman.


Below, is the text cropped from the double page spread above. I done this to look at the text/language in more detail. From this piece of text, i can see that it is aimed at more mature young adults due to the explicit language used. It is very sarcastic swell, words are quoted to show the sarcasm. So this article is quiet humorous and relatable to an artist called Adele, who will say what she wants. This shows that the target audience might also use the same sort of language.

Flat plans

Front cover

This is my flat plan for my front cover. The colors i am using are light grey and light blue, the will be the color theme throughout my magazine designs. I think these colors will appeal to both male and female because they are neutral. I will use these colors for text, background and masthead, this will make my magazine look tidy and it will all match. 

I will use an image that will fill the full front page, but it will focus on just one person, this is to have a good eye-line match, and it still enables you to see the sell lines/cover lines. I want the person to be very 'model' like, and look directly in the camera. This will make the magazine look appealing/attractive and draw the target audience into buying it. I want the model to be in front of a plain bold background, so that they stand out. this will also make my front cover look professional. the model will also have relaxed body language, because that is the mood of my genre (relaxing music) and this also fits in with the plain and simple theme, my chosen genre has all similar types of music. This all fits into muse-en-scene, they all link in with each other to show the mood of my genre.

My text will be very relatable to my target audience. I will use words that link in with my genre. The image will link in with my main sell line, the connotations will be understood by the target audience who have good knowledge into indie-pop. My target audiences age will also be linked in with my main image. I will take the image so that it will appeal to 16-20 year olds by the dress code, colors etc. 

My layout is going to be very simplistic. All of my fonts will match and i am using a same front for the titles, and a same font for the text. This will make my magazine look professional and will all match. The key focal points in my text will be highlighted so they will stand out, and the title will always be bold black on my front cover, content page and double page spread. 

This is the flat plan of my contents page. Again, the colours co-ordinate with my front cover. The colors blend well together because they are both neutral and the contrast gives of quiet a nice vibe. This also links in with the mood of my magazine again - slow and relaxing music. 

Here, i am using an additional image as well as my main image. this is to make it look more interesting to viewers who might not read as much, and it gives you an idea on what will be inside of the magazine. I want my main image to be an picture of a 'band' and a part of the text will link in with the image. It will also have the page number on the picture to show where the article will in the magazine. On the main image, the dress code will be very similar to the one on the front cover. This is because the fashion is very casual. I may have a background behind these people to make it look a bit more detailed. The background will also have a setting, this setting won't be as detailed, to enable you to see the people clearly. 

The use of text will be laid out to that it is understandable and easy to read. I have different sections on this contact page, one being named 'in this issue', 'music', and 'viewers comments'. These will all be black and bold, so that they stand out. The font of these titles will also be different to the text, this is to make it clear. On the other hand, the text will be a little smaller, it has a simple font that is understandable to read and the text will be in boxes against a darker background.  I have made the layout simple. This makes it easy to read, and it isn't over crowded. I made this layout so that it would be nice to look at, but also simple to understand. 

Finally, there is my double page spread. I am using the same colours but changing them around a bit. I have made the background grey, and i might make the text light blue. I like the way this double page spread is going to look because on the left hand side i am using one big image to fit the page, and then on the right page, i am going to have an attractive title and then some text underneath. This will look really good against a grey background. I want the title to be in bold black, and to be quiet big (half page), because it will be a quote from an artist (who the double page spread page is based about) and it can be used as a poster for a reader of my magazine. This also makes my magazine useful for crafting etc. This might also make the magazine more appealing to my target audience and could be used in every one of my magazines.  The text that will be under the title will be a story about an artist that i will be using (not real), and it will be about what is happening in that artists life. the language that will bus used, will be written by that artist as first person, this might also emotionally engage a reader because they might be able to relate to that article and use it as advice/guidance. 

I haven't fully decided on these designs, but it is an idea of what i want my magazine to look like. I might just change some of the layouts and colours. This is something that i can look back on and give myself feedback and see how i have improved. 

Overall, i am quiet confident that my magazine will look the way i want it to. And the colours will compliment the mood of my magazine which is relaxing.

Proposal form

Proposal Form

Describe your idea for the brief: I am basing my music magazine on indie-pop aimed at 16-20 year olds, i have chose this age group because i have researched into my target audience.

Genre/ sub genre: list similar texts which have inspired your thoughts I have gained inspiration from magazines such as Billboard, Q magazine and Acoustic. All of these magazines also link in with my chosen genre, which is ideal because it also gives me inspiration on what that target audience are into and what they like to read.

Target audience: gender/ age/ characteristics/ behavior My target audience are male and female and ages vary from 16-20. This is because my music genre is appealing to those sort of people. I would say that the people who listen to indie-pop are quiet calm because the mood of the music is quiet slow and relaxing. They will also be quite mainstream with the fashion trends and the top music charts.

Major conventions I will use In my magazine i want to keep my magazine very simple, so it doesn't look too complicated. I want my masthead to be landscape across the top of the screen so that i have room fro main sell line etc, and i want to keep it like that on each magazine so my target audience can identify the magazine. I want the cover lines to be in the first 3rd, and the last 3rd, so that they are on the sides, and the main image will be effective. I want the eyeliner match to also be eye level so that it will attract people to the magazine. The main sell line will be going across the middle of the front cover and will be bold so that it stands out from the cover lines. This may not be a convention, but i want to use some sort of color theme throughout my magazine design.

Conventions I may subvert/ change/ not use On my front cover i won't use additional images as i want my front cover to look very simple. I may use additional images on my double page spread and content page. I may change the position of the masthead by making it go down the left hand side (which makes my magazine look unique).

Original images: what/ where/ what I want my main image to be a medium close up of a person. I may take a image of a friend or it may be myself (target audiences of my genre), this will also make my magazine unique and individual.

Potential difficulties/ Plan B: For a plan B, i might take some new images all together, and use an image of a few or more people (depending on how it will go against the text/font on my front cover).

Evaluation of preliminary task

The sole point of this preliminary ask was to prepare me for making my final product. It was about practicing how to create a front cover and contents page instead of just going into making the final product straight away. I feel like if I didn't do this preliminary task, I wouldn't be prepared to create a magazine. This task helped me a lot as I was able to use software such as Photoshop and research other magazines. 

While making my front cover, I feel like I have progressed well. I was really happy with the way it turned out because I liked how I kept a color theme which was a cranberry red, and this made the design look neat and it all blends in together. My front cover is very detailed but simplistic, I really like this idea because it makes the front cover look organized. The fonts are all the same too, which makes it look tidy and in my masthead I used a 3D affect which makes the front cover just that bit more appealing. I chose to do these conventions because they will appeal to my target audience. I was inspired to have a  cranberry red and grey color scheme through magazines such as NME and Q. The magazines i have looked at match my genre and the designs and colours they used just looked good with the sort of content i will be including inside my magazine. Also this color isn't too dark or too bright which sets a mood. It is a calm sort of colours as  don't want my magazine to look overpowering. 

I do feel like I could make my contents page better and more detailed. This is something I will look back on when it comes to do my final design and look back at the mistakes I made. The thing I don't really like about my contents page is the layout, and how the font is used because it doesn't really fit in with my front cover. I could have put more text my contents page as-well to make it more informative. I don't want to have too much text on my front cover because it will look too unorganized and from previous magazines i have looked at, I want my magazine to look professional. 

I faced some challenges while creating my practice magazine. One including using Photoshop. I had only used it a few times in school, so I still had uncertainties. Because of this, Helen paired me up with another student who did know how to use it and could show me how to use the basics. This really helped me get an idea and knowledge about the basic ways of using Photoshop. Now I am able to use Photoshop while designing my practice magazine. We also had some problems with the camera because it wouldn't focus, so some of our pictures came out really blurry. To resolve this problem I used some tools on Photoshop that could make the pictures look better. Next time I take pictures for my final magazine, I will be able to get the camera working properly to enable the pictures I take to be in focus. I wanted to take pictures on a good quality camera to make my magazine look more professional. And I wanted to use photoshop because it would help me make alterations to my designs and I can use this software as part of my research. 

What I found easy during my preliminary task was taking the actual photos (even though they came out blurry) but I enjoyed taking them. This will help me then take my final images for my three designs and I have had practice with the cameras so I now know what to do with the camera. Also, once I got the hang of Photoshop, I enjoyed using it. It helped me improve my magazine, and make the designs better so that they made my magazine look professional.

This preliminary task has helped me with my main design because I now know how to use Photoshop, which will be very useful when it comes to my final magazine designs. I now have confidence with the software, which is also a good skill to have. When I create my front cover and double page spread for my final piece, I now have the skills to use Photoshop, and these practice pieces will help me improve and learn from my mistakes. I have also tested out different tools that Photoshop has and I can practice on photos before my final design. 
And I can see how i have gained skills from creating this preliminary task to my final design now. 

College contents page

I do feel like my fort cover was better. This is something I can improve on when it comes to my actual design.

My facebook posts

This is my first post on the group I made via Facebook. I created a group called 'Shantelle Bowman AS media studies', to ask friends questions on my upcoming designs. This will help me decide on what to do but also give me ideas from friends.

Time management post

While doing my preliminary task, I have completed my front cover, I am now focusing on my contents page. I do feel like I am doing well with my designs, and I feel like I can get my content page done in time. I am starting to get the hang of what magazine front cover and content pages look like, as I have researched and looked at ideas from the Internet.