Chosen Images.

Editing Images.

Once I had chosen all the images out of the 142 that I had taken, I used 'Photo shop' to edit the pictures to make them look more professional. Using new technology like photo shop is very hard to get used too, and is very time consuming, but ends up making the pictures even better than the original images.

Step 1

I really love this image, as the positioning of the models, really emphasises the theme of a group band, creating a unique effect, as they are almost scattered in the frame instead of all being side by side, which creates an'edgy' look to the image. The downfall to the picture is the left side of the image contains part of the school building, instead of carrying on with the brick wall, which really lets the image down, so I decided to try and use photo shop to insert part of the brick wall to cover the unwanted gap.

Step 2

I uploaded the image to photo shop, and used the 'crop' tool, and took a copy of the brick wall on the right side of the image. I then dragged it over to the area I wanted the copy to fill. Unfortunately I didn't get further than that as I wanted the brick wall to sit behind the model instead of overlapping the model.

Step 3

I decided to try and create a 'Vignette' effect around the image to blur out the unwanted image of the school building in the gap. After trying this effect i began to really like it, as it makes you focus more to the image of the four silhouettes of the models. This effect also brings out the vintage 60's effect, but also modernising it as the shape is almost like the shape of an eye, to create focus.

Photo Shoot.

I had arranged to do my photo shoot of Friday 18th March. Like I had imagined I asked for of my friends, one blond, one red head, and the other two brunettes to model as four female band members with a 60's and slight gothic twist. I based my photo shoot in the drama studio, which was a perfect place to do a photo shoot, and the room is black and there were black blinds to cover the windows. I borrowed music equipment from the music department, which was a drum kit, keyboard, and stand, acoustic guitar, and a microphone and singing stand, just how I had pictured the set to be like. As my theme was based around a modern/gothic/60's style, Marlwood drama department is known for its costumes, so I picked out all the 60's style clothing that I could find, but bought in my own clothing to portray the modern feel. I bought in four pairs of fake eyelashes, as eyelashes are a strong feminine feature, also they were very popular in the 60's. To create the lighting effect, I set up two stage lights in the studio, and directed them to face towards the centre of the set as there were was two so I had to make use of them, so that the light slightly covered all four models.

Setting up

Flat Plan Idea(1)

From researching current magazine, the majority of them had images of the bands in concert, so I decided to design my first flat plan, with this idea of band in concert, with lead singer at the front, the keyboard player, and the guitarist behind the singer opposite each other, and the drummer in the back ground, like I have spoken about before. Except on this design, I have made the title, 'RUSH', which is one of my ideas for the magazine masthead, overlap the drummer, so you can just only see the three drums, and name of the band. From my research I have always really liked the effect of a tilted caption across the main image, to back up the image for additional information about the band. I really liked the idea of having page numbers on the front cover, as its quicker access for the reader to find the page they want, but also the use of numbers have a meaning of 'Chart singles', the font of the numbers would be almost like bubble writing, to portray a 60's effect, which is shown below on my improved coloured version. I have tried out a montage of pictures at the bottom, to convey what else is included inside the magazine, but I am uncertain whether I will include this at the bottom of the page. Like all magazines i have included a Bar code, but looking back at my research most bar codes are on the bottom left side of the front covers.

Flat Plat (1) Improved.

I decided to create a more detailed, coloured, copy on my flat plan, to really get a clearer understanding of what my idea might end up looking like. As I have spoken about before, my inspiration came from the band, 'The Like' so I used one of their band concert pictures to convey what I might end up going for, when I come to my photo shoot. Lucky enough from the picture I have chosen the yellow and dark lighting, almost 'dusty' fits really well into my '60's' theme. My colour scheme for my masthead, 'RUSH', and the 3D circle, '60' are similar to the colour scheme of one of my researched magazines, 'ROLLING STONES', again to portray the 60's effect. I decided to add a reflection to the masthead, to make it look more modernised and to help it to stand out, I also did this for the 3D circle that overlaps the masthead for the same reason. Like I have mentioned in my sketched flat plan, i have included the 'numbers' at the top left of the page. As above, I have included a tilted caption, to make the cover have more of a 'Rock chic' feel, as I would like to include elements of that style, "PRESENTING NEW BAND: 'THE LIKE' OCT3RD: ALBUM RELEASES. To help gain element of 'Rock' the font that I have chose for this caption portrays the style well, again co-ordinating colours with the masthead. As I have said above that I had made a mistake with the bar code, well on this improved version I have moved the bar code to the bottom left of the page, which looks much more professional. To improve this practise cover, I would include more images and information of what else would be included inside the magazine, this would also make the cover more crowded, which is a techniques that I have noticed whilst researching.

As my theme for my magazine is 'retro', to find inspiration on more types of front covers. I found that the majority of bands were positioned almost in a 'diamond shape',with the singer at the front, sat on a chair guitarist and key board player side by side, and the drummer at the back, on a higher level, all facing towards the camera. As I was caught between the two masthead titles for my cover, I tried out 'Remedy' on this plan, to try and see which title works best. I have decided that I want an small image of an album cover somewhere in the corner of the page, with an image of the band, and the title of the album cover in a small font. Under the main centre image of the 'diamond shape', I like the effect of the name of the band in a cool, funky font to match the personality of the band, e.g. Gothic 60's girl band'. Again from researching current music magazines, most covers are crowded with small writing and subheadings of additional information of what else will be included inside the magazine, as shown writing is filling up spare space on the cover. I like the idea of including a small montage of famous bands/singer almost scattered on the page. Again like most magazine I have placed the bar code in the bottom right of the page.

Improved Flat Plan(2)

As my main inspiration for a female band come from the orignal band, 'The like', I decided to find an image of the band in a diamond shape, to get closer to what my magazine may look like. After seeing this image, I really liked the black and white stripes in the background of the image, which had inspired me to use stripes in the background of one of my images, as it matches in with the '60's theme. To contrast with the black and white, I used a 'sandy' colour for the masthead, 'Remedy', which again was a common colour used in the 60's. To help portray the gothic edge, I used a font called 'Cracked'. Again, from researching current magazines, I found that a lot of the covers had circular boxes to help make whatever they were saying stand out. So I decided to try one one out, I used red as it stood out from the other colours. Like I have mentioned above, I have included a famous singer, Jay Z, and as small subheading to back up the image. I love the effect of including addition symbols '+' as it's a nice easy shape to fit in small corners. I have included an album cover at the bottom, with a little shadowing to create a 3d effect. I have co-ordinated colours to match the masthead, but I purposely did not make it too similar as the masthead has to stand out from everything else!

Magazine and Band name title...

Magazine Title Ideas...

• Rumour
• Unified
• Pistol
• Look Out!
• Tweaked
• Ridge
• Rush
• Remedy

I decided to create a 'Public Vote', like I used for my 'Foundation Project', as I feel that I needed other opinions, as the title for my Music Magazine cover, is one of the most important features of the front cover, as it has to be catchy, rememberable, and associated with music. The vote was taken by friends of my age, as my final magazine will be targeted to a young, teenage audience. The most popular names were....

Rumour, Rush, and Remedy. I decided not to use 'Rumour', as the word can be seen as a 'Lie', and that's not really what the audience want to read, so it came down too Rush and Remedy, and I am still undecided.

Female Band Names...

As I have decided that my magazine cover will include an image of four members of a female band, with a slight 60's edge, to help me think of an original, new, slightly different band name, I needed some inspiration. From my research the band 'Florence and the Machine" popped up in my mind as quite an indie, new, popular band, which is sort of the route I was heading for, so I decided a long worded band name like 'Florence and the Machine, would be quite unique, and could catch on to a younger audience. Instead of another 'Public Vote', I decided to chose a name myself. I really liked 'Petals of the cellar', as I related the name to the image of four attractive, young female musicians (petals), with a slight dark, gothic, 60's edge (cellar), I though this oxymoron really suited the image that I had come up with.

• Mystic
• Rain of Hope
• The project
• On Route
• Only4
• Petals of the Cellar

Double Page Spread Practise.

After researching the three Double Page magazine spread pages, I decided to try one myself to gain practise for when I come to making my final one. As I have spoken that I got my inspiration for my theme, from a new modernised 60's band called 'The Like', I decided to look on google at some of the pictures of the band, and turn them into a double page spread. First of all, I outlined the pages with a funky, gothic thick line, to help convey that it was double page. I chose a close up picture of the band, with the singer at the front, the keyboard player and guitarist side by side, and the drummer at the back, just like I have written about during my research on real magazines. Overlapping the large image, I have made a large title' LIKE', as the band are called 'The Like'. I picked a colour that would contrast with the black and white, but also kept with the vintage colour scheme of a deep wine red, also with some slight shadowing to create a slight 3D effect to stand out and catch the readers eye. The next page could have had some more text, but as it was a practise, I was more focused on the layout. I really like the structured image of the four members in each corner of the page, with a large prop, '&' with the text in the middle, that is a layout I will consider maybe using. I also liked how the first page looked quite busy with the four member of the band taking up most of the room, with a B&W striped background, contrasting nicely with the plain white back ground, and black colour scheme to again co -ordinated with the stripes on the page before. To improve this 'Practise Double Page Spread' I realised from looking at real magazines that the pages are the wrong way round, as the text should be on the left side of the page, with the large images on the rights side. Also the title should be higher than the image instead of being below, so that it attracts the audience more clearly.

Research Double Spread Pages.

This double page spread, really conveys a cool, slightly gothic edge to the page, which is sort of the look I am heading for. The gothic feature is created due to the newspaper cuttings of words, which is a feature that I would love to involve on my double spread page. The black usage of colouring used on the font and the colour of 'Lilly Allen's' hair is to create contrast from the white background. I love how the style of writing and the colouring reflects the singer and her personality which I really feel is a nice touch to the page. I really like that the two pages strike you with speech and a large image, as at the end of the day most people buy magazines just for the images. The pages still contain context but written in a tiny font, to back up the image and speech. The double page spread is cleverly made to look like its just one large page, as the speech is overlapping onto the other page, and the large image of Lilly Allen is overlapping slightly onto the page before, I really like this effect, and I hope to use this when I come to making my final Double Page Spread. Like most magazine pages, the first capital letter is always a much larger font than the rest of the context, 'Drop cap', "I'm the only girl.."I will definitely be using this effect.

This double page spread really caught my eye, as I was flicking through some magazines for research, due to the 'Simplicity' on the layout, and the monochromatic shade, which I really like as my theme is 60's gothic, this black and white colouring would really work. Again, the casual, relaxed look to the pages, reflects the singer and her personality. Again the double page spread is made to look like one large page, which is shown by the large image of the 'Bed&Pillows', which is cleverly done, as the singer is led on the other side of the bed taking up the whole side of the page, which is commonly used in magazines the context will normally be on the left side of the page, with an image of the singer/band on the right side. Again, the pages contain a large image and large masthead, but contains small font. To improve this double spread page, I would use a 'Drop cap', to help attract the readers eye into reading the small context.

"Amy Winhouse...."

This double page spread contrasts nicely to the other two, as both pages contain a large amount of context, but still remains in a tiny font. Again, like most magazines the title/speech, and font is written on the left side, and the image of the singer is taking up most of the room on the right side of the page, but still contains writing on the side. I really like how the pages 'play with colour', as the main image is bright and vibrant, with a purpose to attract the readers eye. I really like the black&white pictures in the back ground, as they have a purpose not to stand out to give the 'lime light' to the main image, but they are their just as extra images to show the singers personality, and by the looks of it the singer seems 'Fun', just from the images portrayed of her, which is a feature I will definitely include, when I come to taking pictures of my models. I like how the black&white images are almost like a 'Film roll', it looks like it could carry on off the page. I also spotted 6 bold lines under the B&W images, which I thought was used as a clever way to separate the text and the image, but then I came up with the image of a music 'Stave', which I thought was very clever, especially as it is a 'Music Magazine'.