Tuesday 30th September

The past few lessons I have been designing my preliminary contents page. I have now finished the contents page in a design similar to magazines I looked through in the past. I am really proud of the contents page I have produced because  it is exactly how I imagined it.

This is my preliminary contents page... 

Wednesday 24th September

This lesson I gained feedback for my practice school magazine cover from other students in my class.
Stacey: I like the layout because it is simple and easy to understand, yet it is interesting to look at.
Courtney: The white background is very affective and it makes the main image stand out. Although the writing could be a bit clearer.
Poppy: The white background makes it look simple and clean but effective at the same time. The use of the girls head as the 'C' looks very creative.

I then went around the school to collect images of lower students at work, art work and other areas of the school for my preliminary school magazine cover.
Here are a few of my favorite images.

Monday 22nd & Tuesday 23rd September

These two lessons I have been playing around on PhotoShopCS2 to see how I can change my picture to have the features of the magazine cover. I deleted the background using the rubber and the magic wand tool. I then coloured the background in as white and did the text similar to the magazine cover. 
This is a magazine cover for a school magazine.

 

I like this cover because its simple but eye catching. It has interesting and bold teasers which could attract any age to the magazine. 

Friday 19th September

This lesson I have continued to play around with PhotoShopCS2. I have worked on my picture so that it will look like the original magazine.

This is what it looks like at the start of the lesson...

I want to make this picture look like this cover...

Also I have been thinking about the audience I am aiming for. Since it is a school magazine, I am going to present to all ages in the school.

Thursday 18th September

Today I have started to work on ideas for my preliminary exercise. I have looked through the pictures we took yesterday and have decided on one of them as my cover.
I opened up this picture in PhotoShopCS2 with an additional image of one of my orginal magazine covers that I liked. Then I decided to re-create the orginal cover into my style on my picture. By doing this I learn't how to use PhotoShopCS2 properly.
I feel as if I have used this lesson very effciently, as I have learn't so many new skills.

Wednesday 18th September

This lesson I spent my time around the school area getting used to the cameras. I worked in a group of 3. We took pictures of areas, people and positions that we liked. Here are a fewexamples of what we did.

Tuesday 16th September

This lesson I have focused on the contents page and who my audience will be.
I have looked though magazines and found two pages which are contents pages. They are very similar and simple.
This page seems more of a 'Nuts' print. I would prefer if this had the same layout however a person with more clothes on and maybe singing into a mike or holding a instument. This image has helped me on my research for who my magazine audience would be aimed at, as this image seems to be only aimedto the male audience.

I found this page one much more appealing than the last because its seems very simple but unbelievablely eye catching. I would love to

use this sort of image in my contents page however change it to still symbolise the artist.

My main idea was to create a magazine which was only targeted to young females. Now I feel that many people read music magazines and that targeting to a larger audience would be more effective. I have decided to target my audience to teenagers, unisex. I have chosen this because at that age, most people buy magazines to keep up with the gossip on celebs and music artists. Plus there the cover may even attracted early 20's. 

Monday 15th September

Over the weekend I have continued to look through magazines for the double page spread about the artist on the cover. I looked for a style of writing and ways in which I can present the information about the music artist.
I like this style of writing because its stands out and looks professional.

I also like this layout. It is eye catching and because of the different coloured backgrounds, it looks like there is different importance to each section.


Also over the weekend I though of where and who will be in the photo shot. I thought about what the person should wear, if there should be an object; if so, what object, where the shot should take place and what angels should it be shot at.

IDEAS
Clothes; Indie style, Ball gown style, Smart(suits)
Places; Spiral staircase, bedroom, lounge, garden, beach, white background
Object(s); guitar, drums, drum sticks, mike
People; solo singer, solo singer/guitarist, duo, a group of 4, (all girls)

I decided to try a few ideas out and take a few sample pictures.
Clothes; Indie style
Places; Spiral staircase
Object(s); guitar
People; solo singer/guitarist


I like they way the picture on the right has used a different angel, it makes the image look much more interesting. However the focus is mainly on the person and not on the object. It looks as if the object and the person are seperate and I would prefer the focus to be in the middle and to look as if the person and object are connected. This would give more emotion to the image.
In the picture on the left, the person looks like they are posing too much for the shot. Also i find that sitting on the stairs it seems awkward and uncomfortable.

Taking and now looking at these pictures, I have had second thoughts on having my final product with an image of the spiral staircase. However, the idea is still in my mind.

Tuesday 9th September

I have been searching the Internet for appropriate images that caught my eye. So far I have found this picture (right), which i find really dramatic and stands out to the public. The long dress gives me an idea of having fabric draping over the banister and stairs. This would emphasise the stairs in the middle of the page.
I would like to use a spiral staircase in my final product because i find that it takes the focus towards the middle where the objects/people would be.
While looking through magazines I found some images and landscapes which could give me my idea for the final production.
This image (below) stood out to me because of the contrasting colours and the central image was bold and simple. I found that I was instantly attracted to this cover page and would also like to do a cover or an image that is similar.
I also like the way 'Gallery Magazine' is very simple and just black and white. I also looked at a different style of magazine that was busy and full, 'NME', however, I found that this didn't seem to catch my eye as well as the other magazine covers and photos.

Monday 8th September

For the first few lessons we have been looking at previous media film productions from JCG and other schools. We have also looked at the beginings' of thriller/horror movies for example; SE7EN and Panic Room. These examples gave me many ideas for a film production and also gave me examples of how i do and do not want a film production to be like.
Also this lesson I have searched on the internet for magazine covers and spreads to give me an idea of what the music magazine product would be like. I also looked through music based magazines and tore out pages and pictures of people and landscapes that attracted me.

I have now decided to continue searching for magazine examples as I would like to do the music magazine as my production.