InDesign Layout

To start the creation of my music magazine, I had to decide on how my pages would be laid out. This would make the actual creation and putting together of the elements a lot easier. I was able to do this through a programme on the computer called InDesign.
 This programme allows me to use the column tool it has to section different parts of the pages and give me a guideline of where to place features on the page.
 Below are some screenshots of how I set out to lay out my magazine. This is only a first draft, once items are placed onto the page I may decide to change the arrangement of some.

 



Front Cover



Double page spread

Contents

Font testing

Today, I was looking for a suitable font that not only goes with the name "Composure", but will also fit into the style I would like my magazine to be. After looking at a few different styles of text I had decided to use a fairly simple font to go along with the simplicity of the magazines name. I had also decided on the colouring that I should have the text white as it goes with the colour scheme I have been using throughout my magazine front cover. The magazine front cover is still in progress, however the first draft of the cover will be posted shortly.
The fonts that I had narrowed my choices down to are those below. I liked these two as they seemed fairly simplistic, however they both stand out because of their boldness. After many trials on my magazine cover aswell as asking the opinions of some of my classmates I have came to the conclusion that I will use the second font as my masthead.

Naming my magazine

Today I decided to chose the name my music magazine. This name had to be a creative idea that also portrayed the style of naming related to my genre. After looking at the names of multiple indie magazines I discovered that most of the time the names were simple one or two words that seemed fairly random or that they have nothing to do with what the magazine is trying to sell. Names like 'Spin', 'Trace' and 'Foam' seem to have no relation to what their magazines want to sell to the public. So after thoughts of what word that I could use I came up with the word "Composure"

This word seems random enough to be called an indie magazine name, but can also be seen as a description to what some indie music can portray, this feeling of calming and being relaxed. I feel as though the name sounds quite professional and I would consider buying a magazine if it had a name such as 'composure' and I am hoping that the audience would agree.
 The word however was not thought up randomly as such, there was some meaning behind the choice.
Compose; is to put together/create. This term is referred to a lot when an artist creates a new piece of music.
Composure; is a state of calm and in control of ones self. The state in which some people go into whilst listening to music.
Thus my selection of this name.

questionnaire feedback

Near the start of my blog, I uploaded a questionnaire that people could answer to help me in the production of my music magazine. The questions helped me gauge a basic outline for how I should set up my magazine. I created this questionnaire through Google Drive and recently collected the feedback I was given.

The main questions that I though was the question:
Do you read music magazines?
This question was followed up with why the person does or doesn't depending on their previous answer. By doing this I was able to see how i could change my magazine to make people who already buy music magazines to buy my magazine, or to get people who do not read music magazines to be interested in my magazine.

Some of the answers I received for this question were as follows:
Pictures 
Articles
Interviews
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boring x 6
Not interested in music
No time
Too expensive

I also asked how much these people would be willing to spend on a music magazine, this is to see what price I should place on my cover. Even though this magazine will not be sold, i would like to make it as specific to the audience as I can.
These prices consisted of and average of around £3 for those who do not buy magazines and about £4-5 for those who do. This means I will probably price the magazine at about £3-4.

Another key question i asked was the genre of magazine/music they like. This will be influential as to what house style, fonts, colours and many other features I use in the creation of my magazine. The answers were a mix of; Rap, Indie, Hip-hop, R&B, rock and metal. Because of this wide mix of genres i have decided to create a mixed genre magazine to tend to as many genres as I can.

Camera Filters

I made this blog showing the differences between the different filters available for use on my mobile phone. I started by taking a picture of my Sixth Form ID badge and scrolled through each filter looking at how they can effect a picture.
 These are the different filters available:

http://prezi.com/anymgovg0bqc/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

(Images on Prezi are not currently working, I am trying to fix the problem)

Inspiration For Mock Pictures

One of my pictures that I took on Friday shows Connor (my classmate) singing into a microphone. The shot was captured from a low angle to give the feel that the artist is standing on a stage looking and singing downwards toward fans in an audience. (right). I feel as though I captured this concept fairly well and with the addition of a different background could look like a fairly realistic setting. However to create this for my final draft of the picture I would prefer that Connor wore more casual attire rather than a shirt and tie. Apart from that I have no other problems with the image.

However I did not come up with this concept on my own, some of the ideas came from watching an Imagine Dragons music video of the song Demons. As a band I listen to regularly I had branched the idea from and image I had saw taken from the video. This image involves lead singer Dan Reynolds from a lower angle singing loudly into the microphone, Before taking the picture I had shown Connor this image to base his pose and facial expressions off. I think the concept works quite well and with some work could look like a professional picture which I could use on my double page spread.

  (I could not find a still image of this shot without the vevo logo in the bottom corner)

*You can view Connor's blog by clicking on his name further up the page*




Click to watch the Imagine Dragons- Demons video
Or here to view their Wikipedia page

Camera Phone Editing

While messing around with the camera on my phone whilst shooting the mock up images for my music magazine, I came across a feature which allowed me to create deeper and shallow focus between images. After discovering this feature I was able to take better, more professional looking pictures. I am yet to use this feature in an actual picture for my magazine, however I took an image of the camera I used to take the mock up pictures, this is the result.
As you can see, I was able to create an image where the foreground of the image is clear, yet the background and other  mise-en-scene is left slightly blurry to bring attention to the main focal point, the camera. This creates multiple more opportunities as to the images I can take on my camera phone.

The quality of images that some smartphones are able to capture with modern technology can even sometimes be of better standard than most cameras. Newer technology in phones can now do things such as stabilise images to decrease blurring of moving pictures, "burst mode"- which allows users to take continuous bursts of pictures within the space of a few seconds, and some phones can even take panoramic shots which allow the photographer to capture a larger frame, typically used for large areas or to capture the surrounding area.


Another feature that phones can use is the addition of filters. There are a wide variety of filters for people to use and can help enhance or give the picture a different look. I took the picture above, and decided to try out a few filters. For me the best filter I could find was called "process" this was not too drastic of a change, however was able to subtly change the screen a blueish colour giving the picture a more professional feel. The picture can be seen below.

Photoshoot analysis

Today is the day that I took the mock pictures for the music magazine I will be making. These pictures will not be my final images that I will use, however the the ideas, such as poses and the dress codes of the individuals along with facial expressions and lighting.

The first picture I took was a picture of Nathan Kearns (classmate) standing on his own in a plain t-shirt. This I had decided this type of image would be used as my contents page picture because of its simplicity. Some things that I would have to change are that  the background is green rather than the white, which I had originally planned. I will be able to do this through photoshop possibly, This however may clash with the white t-shirt that he is wearing and he may blend into the background. I could counter this by telling him to wear a different coloured t-shirt, possibly black to contrast with the background. 

Nathan also has a piece of hair sticking out from the rest of his head, I could fix this by using the erase tool to get rid of the hair.

The second picture I took was the group picture. I had planned to use this image as the image for my double page spread. This will hold information about the 'band' and i will also make up a story about them. One problem with this image is that Lewis ( far left) isn't looking towards the camera. this means he isn't giving direct address to the audience or reader. Not having this eye contact causes a lack of connection between reader and model. 

Mock picture results

production log

This is my production log for everything i need, or what could could wrong during our shoot.

Risk Assessment 2

Here is the risk assessment form after the shoot.

Risk assesment

This is my risk assessment for tomorrows photoshoot. This is how we will try to overcome and prevent any accidents or problems that may occur during the photoshoot. I shall upload another table with the completed "issues" column after the shoot, as this is where I will state any problems we faced.

Plan For Mock Photoshoot

This is my plan for the mock pictures I will take in order to complete my music magazine I will be creating. I will be taking these pictures on Friday 17th of January.

Camera
I shall try different apparatus for taking the photos from:

• My mobile phone
• A camera from the media department
• My personal camera

 By using 3 different devices to take pictures on, I will be able to compare the quality of each device, and also make a final decision on which camera I will be using to take my final images.

Location
I will also need an area to take these pictures, luckily my school media department has a green screen room which we have been given access to, so that we can capture these images. Using this green screen I am able to change the background of the image to whatever image I would like.

Casting
I am planning on having a group/ band on the front of my magazine. For this I will need multiple people to be a part of the image. I have chosen 4 people to star on the front cover of my issue. These people are; Connor Burgess, Michael Hickey, Nathan Kearns and Lewis Webster. All of whom are classmates of mine and have agreed to have their image taken and to be used on my magazine cover

My contents page analysis

This blog post is dedicated to pointing out errors in my contents page that I have recently posted. I will also be making a list of improvements, or things that I can work on in an attempt to create a professional looking contents page for my music magazine.

 
Firstly, the page seems rather filled with text and other things. This can sometimes be hard on the readers eyes, or possibly be distracting whilst the reader is trying to read the page. The 4 different main colours used on the page; Red, Yellow, Black and White, all contrast and don't mix well together.

Another thing that I did not like about this contents page, is that I have used some pictures and text for no reason other than to fill some space on the page. This was a bad tactic to use as I feel it makes the page look really unprofessional and slightly cheap. I could counteract this by sticking to my origional plan of having a rather simple contents page

Mock up contents page

To go with the mock up front cover of a school magazine I previously made, I have created a contents page to go with it. This is what I came up with.


In this this cover I used the colour red a lot, this is because it is the one of the colours mostly used in our school badge, and also goes well with the front cover as red was used there also. The colour yellow is also used in some text and the main titles of the both pages. This is also a common colour used in the schools badges, and is also used on a lot of the walls, and the chairs used around the sixth form building.
Both the school, and the sixth form badges have both been placed in the top right hand corner, to show a personal feel to the school, but also can show others not familiar to the school that as students, that we are proud of our school.
This point is also backed up by the use of the key words from our schools mission statement, "Respect, Believe, Achieve" placed in the central left of the page. All of the page numbers and guides are linked to our school, and the school life, and have also been coloured red.

Analysing a contents page

In this blog post I will be answering questions about the magazine contents page to the right. The contents page belongs to a 'Q' magazine. I have chose this cover as I would like to produce a contents page fairly

similar for my magazine. 

•  How many images does the cover use; what does this mean for your own planning?  

The cover consists of one main image covering almost the entirety of the page. The contents page contains no other pictures, to emphasise the importance of this artist. This means that i should consider inserting a smaller amount of pictures or just one big picture. Rather than a variety of smaller images.

• How would you describe the layout? Would you say it was organised? Sleak? Uniform? Chaotic? Ordered? Boring? Interesting? Colourful?

The contents page is very organised and tidy. While the picture covers most of the page, the text at the side of the page looks very neat. The masthead has also been included in Q magazines usual position of the top left of the page giving the page a familiar look. 

• What kinds of images are on the contents page? How have they been manipulated if they have been?

The only image on the page is the large image. It does not look to have any obvious photoshop skills used. However some subtle changes may have occurred such as smoothing/re-clolouring skin. 

Contents Pages

Contents Pages

This is a break down of what contents pages are and what they do. i have explained this through the Voki below. However I have added the speech in text form lower down the page if you would rather receive the information that way.


Contents pages are used in almost all magazines and books. This page is dedicated to telling the reader the order of the pages and different articles inside. This helps the reader navigate through the text to reach the article they would like to read.