Evaluation

Research into Double page spread

The NME one has a HUGE title and I like this one because again it represent the rebellious side of lily allen with the title. It also had quite a big picture of her which dominates the article and makes it quite visual. For my double page spread I think I would like to have quite a dominating image but possible do another page so that I could have some extra text.

Kerrangs magazine spread is mainly dominated by a large image of them playing live, with smaller pictures of the band at the bottom. The whole article is very visual. It has very little text and is dominated by pictures and at the side it has reviews of the album. I like this because it is very visual but I would like my article to have a bit more text in it. What I also like is how they have a huge title and clearly in the corner it says exclusive news.

The Contents page

This is the final contents page, I realised that the arrow was to small and there was quite a lot of dead space around it so the final change I made was that I added an extra news article and made the arrow slightly bigger and lost the tail to it. I am also very happy with this page of my magazine as well.




Most magazines have an editors note on the contents page of there magazine, so I decided to do one but make myself the editor. I used the colour orange so that it would keep in with my colour scheme. I also had the title Band index placed over the list of bands, so that the readers would no this was the band index.



I felt like the middle part of my magazine was a bit empty so I decided to add some pictures to it. These pictures were pictures I took of my friend’s band at a live gig. I also took pictures of the audience when I was there and I used it for the contents page also. I thought that these would be pictures about bands that would later on be in the magazine. I also added a boarder to the pictures and but text on the arrow at the bottom of the contents page.



For my contents page I stuck with the traditional contents page of having the big bold title at the top introducing what would be in “Blaze this week”. I also followed the convention of having a band index at the side as my favourite contents page was NME, I also included the page numbers at the side so that my readers would be able to see where the bands would be in my magazine. I also stuck with my colour scheme to red orange but had black for the contents page. I also decided to have the subscribe to the magazine box at the bottom of the magazine as this is a convention that most magazines to have. I also added a website here and a number that you would have to ring. On the opposite side of the page I decided to have the features and the news and reviews. I also thought about having an arrow at the bottom of the page that would have some information at the side that would make the readers want to turn over and look at it. So the page wasn’t plain white I added as a layer on photo shop crumpled paper to give my magazine that rough edge.

Research into Contents pages

With Q which is also an Indi magazine which is what I wanted my magazine to be like they had similar things to NME. They had all the features down one side of the magazine. With a few lines of information about what would be In the magazine. They also had at the bottom of the magazine some reviews. I didn’t like this very much as I didn’t feel it was really needed on a contents page so I don’t think I will be using this on the contents page. They also have a huge picture of another band on the contents page which I like but feel because of the picture there isn’t enough information on the page about what is in the magazine.

What I liked about this contents page was they had the strong title at the top that made it obvious this was the contents page. I also liked the fact that they had the band index at the side of the page which showed all the bands that were in the magazine that issue. I also like how on the opposite side of the page you can see the features, news and live issues and more information that is in the magazine. Also it has information how you can subscribe to the magazine at the bottom of the page. These are three things that I would defiantly want in my magazine as i feel they are huge things that most magazines have.

The Cover

After more feedback people decided that it looked edgier for the posters to be as they were wonky. They also said the Leeds ticket looked better how it was before also. I personally felt like the title was better off to the left of the magazine so I moved it back to the side. Something else that I changed was that they felt the third poster was to poppy and didn’t really fit in with they style of my magazine so I replaced it with another member of the previous band. This would also not make it a femal dominated magazine. I was very happy with the end product and this was the final magazine cover.





I asked people what they thought of my magazine and after feedback; they said that there was too much information on the plus part of my magazine so I shortened it to about one line sentences. So it was quick information that the readers would be able to easily digest. I also moved the Leeds ticket so that it was straight and looked neater. I also did this with my posters and put a border around them. I also added a third poster of a female singer. I also made the Hannah Williamson longer so that it covered most of the magazine and stood out more.



There was a lot of unused space on my magazine so I decided to extend what information was in the plus section of the cover of my magazine, so that the readers would get more information about what was inside the magazine. I also got rid of one of the posters and added a poster or a live band that I have taken pictures of. I also added a male poster as this would attract the male side of my audience better than another girl would as the magazine would be dominated by girls, which would not appeal to the male audience. I also used the logo that that band uses for the title of the band “Poker Friday”. I also added a website address and an issue date and date the magazine was printed around the barcode which is a convention that most magazines follow so I felt I should also do this.





I felt like the Hannah Williamson wasn’t big enough and didn’t stand out, I felt it wouldn’t really catch the audience’s attention so I made that bigger and moved it to the side under the plus information. I also put the line “I love fame life would be boring without it” under the article. This line would be part of my article. I also started playing about the idea of having posters on my magazine and used a friend’s band and took a few pictures of them. I also used the design that they have for there band and placed that at the side of the picture.




After looking at other magazines I felt that the space at the side of the image would be better used for placing the "plus" information that would be in the magazine. I also started designing my “Hannah Williamson” that would be on the front of the magazine showing the readers who this person is and what it is about. I also decided on a colour scheme of red orange and white, which I felt were gender neutral colours because again I wanted my audience to be males and females.




In this one I thought about having the PLUS information at the bottom of the magazine but felt that is didn’t look very professional. I also picked the picture for my cover. I chose one where she had an angry expression on her face to again show this rebellious side. I also had the picture quite big and followed the convention where part of her head is hiding the title of the magazine. Something I defiantly new I wanted on my magazine was something about festivals as they are soon approaching and I thought magazines would be talking about this soon, so I decided to make it stand out by using the Leeds logo which is bright yellow and having it slightly wonky so it looked like a ticket.

Best Cover

I Chose my favourite magazine cover and decided to base my cover on them. The reason I liked the cover of the kerrang cover was that kerrangs target audience was males and female 16 -18 year olds and it was able to do this even though it still had a strong female on the front cover. I also liked how she had her fingers up to the camera, it represented that she was a strong e-mail that clearly didn’t care what people thought. It showed a rebellious attitude which is what I wanted my female singer to show. I also liked how her head which covered part of the title. This is a convention which most magazines follow so I felt I should also follow this. I also liked how they had the posters at the bottom and some information at the side of the magazine leaving the focus completely on her.

The Real Photoshoot

My real photo shoot went a lot better than the last one; I had the advantage of using a real studio with good equipment so my photos were a lot better quality than the photos before here are some of the photos that could possibly be used.

Test Shoot.

Before i started my real photoshoot i thought it would be best to do some test shots in the studio. To get used to the camera. Some of the were very good and i may consider using them in the real magazine.

Youtube Video

This is a video i found on youtube of a photoshoot of Cheryl cole for Q magazine and as i wanted to do an indi magazine like Q Magazine, and as also i am basing my magazine on a female singer i thought it would be interesting to take a look at this.

NME Research

As NME was the one I favoured most it thought I would do some more research into the Indi magazine before I decided that this would be the one I wanted to do my magazine like. The one of the wombats is very colourful and bright. And doesn’t really stick to a colour scheme apart from having blue as the one that lets the reader know the inside information. it shows the gig lists that would be in the magazine and has different pictures of other bands that would be in the magazine at the front.

Magazine Research

Magazine research

I thought as I already new that my model would be a girl I found it best to look at magazines that focused on a female singer. One of my favourite bands at the moment is paramore and as the leader of this is a young singer who is still in her teens I thought it would be fitting to start doing some research on her.
These are three different magazines that the band has been in. In the magazine called “rock one” all its focus is on the lead singer who has been place in front of all the writing that seems to be on the cover. The have gone for a colour scheme or white yellow and orange. The background of this cover is very busy with lots of writing all over it with most of it apart form the title going off at a slant. This is not one of my favourite magazine covers as the title isn’t as bold as I would want to be and it doesn’t stand out very much. Also I think the background is to busy. The other magazine I find it extremely hard to read the title as the have the whole band in front of it but so much that it makes it very difficult to read. They have a colour scheme of red white and black with the background being bold green. I don’t really like this one as well as I think the font they have used isn’t a very good one and doesn’t seem very sophisticated. The final one from NME magazine is my favourite one I like how they have the lead singer in front of the title and the rest of the band is behind the title. The band name is in big bold letters in front of the main picture with a bit or writing above it and underneath it with a question underneath it which I quite like “everyone has fallen for them will you to”. There are also other little bits of information on the page as well but it doesn’t overcrowd it so the txt doesn’t take away from the photo.

The Title.

I was thinking of names that could be used for my magazine and eventually came up with the name BLAZE. The whole thing would be in capitals and i thought i slogan could go with it such as BLAZE.. blazing music first. or something along those lines.

To Start...

As soon as we were told it was a music magazine we were creating I instantly pictured who I could feature as my model. My friend Hannah Williamson is a very talented singer and guitar player. She is in a band and has performed at some charity gigs and on many college events such as “winblam” She has also done some solo stuff for the college as well. She knows a lot about music herself and I think this would be quite useful when I am writing about her and interviewing her as she will be able to correct any information I have written wrong about some aspects of music. I think it would also seem more realistic if some of my writing has actually come from her mouth and not made up. Hannah is a very photogenic person and feels extremely comfortable in front of the camera so I am not too worried about the photo shoot. The style of clothes that she dresses in is quite Indi which would go in my favour if this is the style of magazine I chose to do.

Prelim

Before we started our main projects we had to do prelims in the following areas Print, radio, and film. This gave me the opportunity to explore using cameras, Photoshop and using programs such as Adobe premiere pro.

I worked on my own in the prelim and decided to do a fashion magazine. I fist did some research and looked at other fashion magazines and saw that most of the covers had a main focus mainly their main model or celebrity at the time. This is why I have the main girl as the focus, with smaller pictures around it, because I chose to do fashion magazine it allowed me to experiment with colour and different types of font, there wasn’t much restriction. As you can see my prelim isn’t as impressive as I would like it to be and doesn’t look as professional as most music magazines however this is something I can work on.

AS Group 10

AS Group 10