Backstage Video

This is my final backstage video which shows what equipment I used, the positions and props, costumes, etc.

Complete Draft Real

Model Releases

 

 

 

 

It is important to get the signed permission of my models' because I now have the authority to take as many pictures as I need of them as well as the fact that they are my own photographs.

Production Diary 9 - Finishing touches, Photoshoot, Subscription.

This week has been very busy, as the deadline for finishing our draft magazines is December 19^th. This week I have continued to work through my magazine, making little touches here and there. I have finished all the text for the contents page and the front cover – all I need now is the photos. I am also in the process of transferring the content of my article over to the final article, and I decided that as I am most likely going to go over the limited space that I gave myself, but do not wish to remove any of the words, I have created another page of my article. It now consists of 5 pages – 2 double page spreads and one single page. Creating another single page has proven to be quite helpful, as it means I can incorporate more pull quotes, images, and my box out text, which is going to be the details for the 2014 Tour of my band.

Recently I held my photoshoot, which I think was a success. Though we had a late start, we finished earlier than I expected, and got a good variety of shots. I will put up a contact sheet later. The models were good and patient and did what I asked of them, and their change of outfits, combined with the contrasting colours of the background gave me the spooky atmospheric effect that I desired.

Having now done my photoshoot, it has allowed me to do many more things with my magazine; I can now complete some of the tasks that I have been prevented from doing previously due to having no photos.

Next I plan to sift through the photoshoot, picking out the best photos that I think would be appropriate for my magazine and edit them to what I had pictured in my head. I have already created three ‘subscriber’ magazines, each with a different member’s face on them; so that the subscribers can pick and choose their favourite or even make a collection. I got this idea from the One Direction issues of Q magazine – though there was controversy about it, I think it is a good idea as then the fans will be able to pick their favourite themselves, and it will also convince other readers to become a subscriber and thus boost the magazine’s reputation, sales, readership and circulation.

Equipment

Cover Lines

Box Out

DETAILS FOR THE 'BEWARE OF THE MOON' UK TOUR 2014
CONFIRMED DATES AND VENUES

DATE	VENUE	SUPPORTING ACT
4/04/14	Hammersmith Apollo	A Rocket to the Moon
5/04/14	London Roundhouse	Bastille
19/04/14	MEN Arena, Manchester	30 Seconds to Mars
20/04/14	MEN Arena, Manchester	Two Door Cinema Club
25/04/14	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff	Biffy Clyro
2/05/14	London 02 Arena	Vampire Weekend
3/05/14	London 02 Arena	The Vaccines
4/05/14	Wembley Stadium	TBC
23/05/14	TBC	TBC
24/05/14	TBC	TBC

This is my box out text, I decided to do a tour date to draw the readers in further and to get them excited about my band. Fans will be able to interact more and since the tour takes place in more than one part of England, more people will be attracted to it. It also fits in with the educational aspect of the Uses and Gratifications theory but the actual event will fit into the entertainment side. I have incldued support acts of the same genre to boost their reputation and make them seem popular and well liked by other famous artists. The box out will be tinted purple in order to fit in with the house colour scheme.

Production Diary 8 - Image Ideas, Logo and Text.

This past week or so I have been continuing to create my magazine using various programs such as Powerpoint, InDesign and Photoshop.

I have finished all my image ideas, the costumes and props, which I drew out and uploaded as two videos on my blog, and sorted out the kinds of images I would like to include in my magazine. I would ideally like to sort of create an eerie, spooky like atmosphere using dim and dark lighting with black background so that the only thing in focus is my subjects, the models. I would also love to able to incorporate a smoke machine and try and curl it around the instruments and models to add to the creepy but sophisicated atmosphere. As you can see from my blog I have displayed how my magazine is coming along and the different parts of the construction.

I also decided as an extra thing to do, to create a logo for my band. As you can see from the powerpoint I had lots of options to choose from. To make the logos I used the website DaFont, and provided lots of logos so I had a lot of choice. My teacher and my peers helped my choose the final logo.

Currently I am working on my magazine and putting in all the text so that the final thing left to do is my photoshoot and then add in the photos. My photoshoot is on the 2nd of December, so I have time to put in all the text and work out the fonts and sizes. It will take time to work out where my article should go because I feel I have over exceded the word limit.
As well as this, I have yet to complete the new media task and how I will use it and how I will distribute (promote) my music magazine.

Construction part 2

This is the second part of my magazine construction. It is basically like the first part but this time I have added in sample photos so I can see what I am doing and where to put them as well as seeing what kind of photos should be included. This will help me hugely when taking my own photos.

Contents Outline Draft with words

This is my scaffolding for my contents page with the text that I'm using for this page. I made this replica on Powerpoint which proved easy when creating the shapes and lines, but difficult when it came to the text - sometimes there were either too much text or too little, and also positioning the text was difficult because Powerpoint is not InDesign and its alignment tools are standard.
However, creating this will help me in the future because I know have a small understanding of what my magazine will look like.

Logo ideas for my band

Props and Costumes

Props and costumes from sophiemaiboston

Blank Template for magazine

This is the first stage of my real magazine construction. I have constructed all the scaffolding for all the pages of my magazine. I have decided to create 9 pages - 1 single page (front cover) and 4 double page spreads for my contents, a poster, and 2 double page spreads for the actual article. Though this means more work, I think it will be more effective and appealing to my audience. It did take a while, a couple of lessons and staying after school but I feel that doing it this way will help organise the layout better and it will be easier to fill in the missing products - I can see clearly where everything is meant to go, and I can easily change it around. Though it is only the scaffolding stage, I have still tried to keep within my colour scheme to help me see if it's appropriate or not. As you can see, most of the construction is green, black, white and purple- however I think I am just going to use purple as my main bold colour. The next stage in my production is to fill in some of the boxes e.g. getting sample pictures and filling in some of the text properly, not just using placeholder text.

Article Draft

Article Draft

Image Ideas

Production Diary 7- 10th November- Research, Name Ideas, Construction of Preliminary Task.

These past couple of works I have been extremely busy working on my planning and research for my magazine.

I have come up with a list of possible Masthead Name ideas, and as stated previously as going to use an Acronym for my music magazine and call it MM Music Matters. As you can see from my blog I did have a lot of ideas written down and have written next to them which of the four main types of masthead they are - acronym, phrase, connotation or compound. Also this week I have been busy designing some ideas for the creation of my masthead. The colours I think I will be using, which you can also see clearly from my colour samples swatch that I have made is black, purple and or green. I have yet to decide which colour I am going to use, as when I was given advice, it was to pick one of them, not both, otherwise it won't look as professional. I created a load of different ways I could design my MM logo, changing the colour, the position, the depth of a bevel, if it had a glow etc. At the bottom as you can see I also experimented with other names I was thinking of using. I did this just in case I change my mind and do not like the masthead name MM. Also this week I created my second mood board on which I have included images of what artists my audience would like, what clothes they'd wear, what festivals they'd got to, what gadgets and technology they would own, right down to the type of alcohol and food they would consume.

As well as this I managed to create and upload two videos of my construction of my preliminary task, which I made using the program CamStudio. It took a long time, as all my items were on one layer so I had to go back and rearrange everything, plus CanStudio would keep crashing and not working, and so was a very tiresome task, but finally I managed to get it to work.

Currently I am working on my Image Designs, which will include all my ideas for the photos I am going to use in the magazine, as well as the costumes and props I intend to include in the photoshoot, which is set to commence on the 25th November.

Sketches

 

Processes: Front Cover sketch ideas: Wolf

This is the 'Only By the Night' album by Kings of Leon. I really like how the cover artists have morphed together the band members and the eagle together to say how the represent the bird of prey. This is what appealed to me most and actually made me look at the songs on the album, and I was hoping to try and do this with my front magazine.

 

 

As every image we have on our magazine has to be our own and it is virtually impossible to get a picture of a wolf close up, I had to draw one to make it my own photo. I choose to do a wolf because it is meant to reflect my band's supernatural mood as well trying to tie it in with the album name 'Beware Of The Moon' - the first thing that come to many people's minds is a wolf. I did try and play around with the scanned drawing to create an eerie and unusual look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

However I have decided that merging the two together (i.e. Karishma and the wolf) don't really work together as the proportions are too different.



 

Colour ideas

These are 4 ideas that I have for my colour/house scheme. Whichever one I choose I intend to carry it on all throughout the production, the front page, the contents page and the double page spread and article.

The first one though it can be effective, just using both ends of the colour spectrum with black and white, to me is too boring to use, and that is why I prefer the second one, with the added grey and red included. Colour schemes like the second one have worked well for magazines such as Q and NME, but because these two magazines already have them, I want to try and make my magazine as unique as I can. This is why I think my colour scheme will either be colour scheme 3 or 4, because not only do they include the basic black, white and grey, they also have a ‘punch’ of colour, in this case, purple and green/turquoise. However, if I do choose to do these colours I will have to be very careful I do not go overkill with them, and have to think carefully about where I’m using them. 

Preliminary Video

Moodboard

This is my moodboard for the project, I have also made another detailed one on my MM Reader Profile, which looks at what my audience would be interested in, whereas this one leans more towards the who they're interested in side.

Masthead Designs

This is my ideas for my masthead designs. I have chosen to design MM Music Matters, as I think this may be the one I choose to do, along with the colour scheme of purple and green but I have also done a couple of other ideas that I came up with for my masthead ideas, including Shockwave and Electri-city.

Magazine Masthead Ideas

These are my ideas for my masthead name for my alternative rock magazine. I have tried to come up with various names, from each of the four types of mastheads: Acronym, Connotative, Compound and Phrase. The one I think I am going to do is called MM ( Music Matters ) This is an acronym and I like this because it is short but simple and initals have seemed to work for other music magazines such as Q and NME. Though I like it at the moment, I may change my mind later in the production process if I feel it does not fit with my work.

Production Diary 6 - Names, Research, Mastheads.

Production Diary 6

 

This week we are continuing to research into music magazines and therefore continuing to think about our own music magazines. As said previously, I am going to call my music magazine MM music matters. This week I created all my ideas for the name of my music magazine - I had done this previously at home but brought my ideas in to properly outline my ideas. I chose a variety of masthead ideas, including the four main types: acronym, phrase, connotative and compound. The one I chose is acronym. I choose this because it is unique and it has seemed to work for magazines like Q magazine and NME. 

With my other teacher, Mr Daley we have been studying semiotics the study of signs, and we have been looking at connotations and what symbols mean. This could be images or text. This is helping us to carefully decide what to put our magazines- everything has a meaning. 

This week's homework was to look at a few mastheads of different mastheads and to break down what has actually been done to them and are they appropriate for the music magazine genre and target audience. I am also starting to think about the mood board that is going to help chose what to put into my magazine, I can help the MM reader profile to help me with this- looking at it will help me attract readers if I can include things they're into. 

The other thing I am currently organising is my photo shoot. Ideally I want to form a band of three people, and I would like 2 boys and 1 girl to mix it up a bit. The female would be the lead singer with the two boys acting as support instruments. I have already thought of some designs that I could apply to the front cover. I have found my girl and one of my boys and am seeking out the other boy I think would be appropriate for my band. I have also thought of a name for my formed band - 'The Mundanes'. I like this name because its quirky and eerie sounding and links in with my genre of alternative rock - mundane means humanly, and it gives out connotations of earth, hell, heaven and inhumane beings. 

Mastheads and music magazines

Production Diary 5 - Masthead, Analysis, Magazine Key Concepts.

This week in Media Studies we are starting to look at creating our own music magazine. I have come up with a name for my magazine – I am going to call it MM (Music Matters). I chose this name because I think it is quite quirky and the initials relate with the popular music magazine, Q. The alliteration of the two words flow together well, and I feel that I can design and create an interesting logo with these initials.

This week I also finished off my Analysis of 3 double page spreads, and this helps me because I now know what a music magazine should consist of. I also finished off the MM (Music Matters) Reader profile. I really enjoyed creating this because it allowed to create my own ‘character’ that I could choose what she does, what she likes etc – it’s like creating my own imaginary Sim! What it also did was to allow me to see what kind of things I would want my audience to be attracted to, and this in turn can help me to decide what kind of freebies and reviews I should include in my magazine. Also to help me I created a mini mood board, like the one in the NME reader profile, consisting of all the things, the clothes, accessories, drink, festivals, gaming models that I think would apply to my target audience. This will help me decipher what kind of clothing I need my models to wear for the front cover, as well as any props I might include.

Moreover, I have started to think about the layout of my front cover, and I have decided that the colour scheme will be black, green and purple. These are quite contrasting colours which will be illuminated even more against the black, as well as being unique and quirky – colours that my target audience will be attracted to.

The last thing I have been working on is my PowerPoint on Magazine Key Concepts. I have researched representation, institution, codes and conventions and audience. This is going to be helpful in the future because it will help me what kind of aspects I should be considering when choosing for my magazine. 

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

This is my finished preliminary task. This task is going to help me because it will allow to get an idea of how to create my own music magazine, and it also allowed me to find a good layout for the magazine. As well as this, we were introduced to a new program called InDesign, which is quite similar to PhotoShop, but better suited for magazines; however at this point in time I still prefer PhotoShop. The preliminary task took about 3 lessons to create.

Magazine: Key Concepts

This research of the key concepts will help me identify what to put on my magazine to make it look professional and realistic.

Survey: Analysis

Production Diary 4 - Preliminary Task, Programs.

Production diary 4

This week we finished off our preliminary task, which was the design a magazine for the school. I have yet to evaluate it, but I have completed the initial design, and choose to call it The Golden Stag- and with the house colour scheme of navy blue and golden yellow I have tried to keep the consistency going. I choose the name The Golden Stag because not only does it sound a bit more serious and professional but it also ties in with the logo of Haydon School. I have uploaded sketches of my preliminary design and I think I need to annotate them a bit because they're not entirely clear. There is not much difference between my sketches for the preliminary task and the finished product because I was quite happy with my sketches. To actually create the preliminary task, I used the program InDesign, which I found to be very similar to PhotoShop. At the moment I prefer using PhotoShop as I find it slightly easier to use, but this is the first time I've used InDesign, so maybe when I've used it more I'll get more used to it. It was quite easy to create as the magazine had basic shapes and colours on it which I could create on InDesign or on Microsoft PowerPoint and then copy and paste it in. It took me roughly 2 lessons and a bit after school to finish off the preliminary task. You can see it on my blog. The other task this week was to analyse three magazine double spreads. This was easier than analyzing three magazine contents because it's not easy to get pictures of contents pages. I used the program Prezi to create this, and attempted to try and make it creative.

Analysis of 3 Double Page Spreads

30-10-13
This is a Prezi presentation showing my 3 magazine double page spreads from Q magazine, Kerrang! and Top of the Pops magazine. Doing this analysis of the double page spreads helped me decide a lot of things when I'm doing my own magazine. There's a lot of things to consider; everything is placed there for a reason, from the position of the picture to the size of the font.

Some of the things I need to really consider are:

FONT	COLOUR	IMAGE
-colours of the font	-make a house colour scheme	-have one full bleed image at least
-postion of the font	-make them stand out	-use a couple of smaller images as well.
-the type of font	-keep in with these chosen colours/be consistent	-make them appropriate for the genre/audience
-size of the font	-make them appropriate for the genre/audience
-make sure the language is appropriate for the audience

           

MM Questionnaire

MM Survey/ Questionnaire

Click here to take survey

This is a survey I created on the site Survey Monkey, designed to collect results from anonymous participants about questions I have asked to help me create my magazine. These questions have been specifically asked to help me decide what to include and what to not include on my magazine, what is going to be effective, what isn't, whether to add freebies, etc. Some of the questions included are: "What is the best gig to view alternative rock artists?" and "Would you download an app by your favourite music magazine?" This will help me gain an insight into what the target audience really want.  

By creating this survey, I can then later analyze the results, and judging by the outcome, hope to produce a successful music magazine. 

The MM Reader Profile

Proposal

Proposal for my music magazine

 

Hello and welcome to my presentation.

I know you’ve heard the same thing over and over, “I propose a brand new this” and a “brand new that”- so I really do appreciate your time.

The media industry is rapidly rising, but there are still a few gaps in it. And I believe that I can fill that gap with my suggestion.

And so I give you – “MM” which simply stands for “Music Matters.”

This masthead is simple because that’s what I think looks best – simple. Simple and minimalistic. And that’s what I hope to portray all throughout my magazine – simplicity that is more than effective.

What’s the genre, I hear you ask? Well I’ve decided on quite a niche market, as I don’t think this genre gets the attention it deserves, and that’s alternative rock. You can have so much fun playing around with this genre, and since there is a rise of upcoming artists in this particularly type of music, you can always introduce these potential new stars into the glossy pages of the magazine, which is what I intend to do.

Artists I would include would be acts like Imagine Dragons, Bastille, Rolling Stones, 30 Seconds to Mars, Arctic Monkeys, Two Door Cinema Club, Biffy Clyro, The Libertines and Lana Del Ray.

I intend to have both currently famous stars as well as submitting new and upcoming acts. This can mean that if these new stars do break the music industry, recognition will go back to the original music magazine that announced their arrival first.

I would also display current artists to show the world how they’re doing, and so that fans will be attracted to my magazine, if they can see their idols splashed across my front covers.

 

My colour scheme will be fairly eccentric, with the primary and secondary colours of green, purple and black. I believe these colours are quite quirky, which will fit into the characteristics of my target audience. The font will however be quite simple and professional as to make the audience feel a little more mature and grown up. If you put a childish font like the ones used in Top of the Pops onto a magazine like this, the target audience might feel belittled. This colour scheme will be continued all throughout the magazine, as I believe consistency is best.

These colours are also quite unusual, which would make it a unique selling point.

 

My target audience would be people that are aged around 16-25. There wouldn’t particularly be a direct aim towards the gender of my audience either; both females and males will be targeted.

 

I would of course include things like the regular features, the reviews, the interviews, posters, news, etc, but I would try and include competitions and prizes. These prizes might include a free download of an unreleased track or free download of an album, or the chance to have a meet and greet with their favourite artists.

 

Artists I would include would be acts like Imagine Dragons, Bastille, Rolling Stones, 30 Seconds to Mars, Arctic Monkeys, Two Door Cinema Club, Biffy Clyro, The Libertines and Lana Del Ray.   

 

The frequency of this music magazine would be once fortnightly, so the readers can get all the latest gossip faster than magazines that are published monthly. The price is going to be £2.60, as I think the age of my target audience would suggest that they are beginning to work now and so will be able to afford this.

 

In addition to all the features I stated I would have in my magazine, I am also going outside of the printed pages and going to expand “MM” onto the internet. I am going to have my own “MM” website as well as a place on a radio station. I will even try to produce my own “MM” merchandise shop that is available online. As well as this, I will include my readers even more and make them feel more connected as I will set up social media for my magazine, for example a Facebook, Twitter accounts and a YouTube channel.

 

To push the launch I will team up with YouTube and one of the mobile phone companies, maybe O2, to create a viral campaign.

I will also design my own special edition covers, as well as producing free gifts and promotions. Lastly, I will display promotional subscriptions on my magazine, with maybe an offer of a free subscription when you first sign up.

 

Thank you for listening and for your time.

 

Proposal Feedback

This feedback was critical and helpful to me, as I can now see from another's point of view what I did well in my proposal and therefore future ideas, as well as seeing what could be included and improved upon.

Analysing 3 contents pages

Analysing Contents Pages by SophieMaiBoston

Production Diary 3 - Research of Contents Pages.

Production Diary 3

Reseach for 3 front covers and production diary 2

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my blog, Sophie Boston's AS Level Media G321.

This blog will eventually contain all the work I am going to do for this side of the course.

If you would like to see my blog for Mr Daley's side of the course, click the following link below:

http://sophiebostong322.blogspot.co.uk/

Production Diary - Preliminary Task

Production Diary 1