This week in media I completed the drafts for the contents, double page spread and front cover. I did these tasks firstly by drawing them out on plain paper with rough ideas of what I would want my final product to look like. I believed this task to be relatively easy, because of my past experience of creating a music magazine last year in Media Studies. However, this also adds pressure onto me as I want to further myself and do better than I did previously. Moreover, I got the ideas for each of the pages from the magazines in the same genre and how they create each of these pages. I could then see the generic factors that had to be included on each one of these pages and decided to draft them into my rough sketches. I feel that is vital that I include all of the common codes and conventions of the indie genre in my magazine as it is what defines your magazine as to being from that genre and also separates it from looking like a comic.

       Plus, I also completed my slideshow on the mise-en-scen from my photoshoot, which highlights what props and clothing I used and why I chose to do so. I think that the clothing used in the photoshoots is essential as the clothes need to have a link to the genre so that the audience can have a relationship with it. Additionally, indie magazines are known for being stylish and having a close link with fashion. Therefore, the clothes worn need to be stylish and sleek in order to keep a strong relationship growing between the reader and my magazine.

        Finally, I created my article draft this week and this was to display what kind of interviews are going to feature inside of my magazine. I chose to take great care with my article so that when it came to adding the article to my real magazine, I can either crop parts out or add more to the backbone of the article, saving me both time and effort. I asked questions that the audience are more than likely going to want to know; this makes my article seem more appealing and the fact that I would advertise it as being an ‘exclusive’ adheres to this thought.

Lastly, I had to draft out a double page spread and this again was to give me an insight into what sort of double page spread I was looking into creating. Then, after this was done I could plan about how I was going to achieve these goals and how I was going to make my ideas a reality.
       On one A4 side of the double page spread, I was going to have an introductory page which would simply have a full bleed image of the interviewed artist, with their name in large bold font but also importantly, the word 'Exclusive' contributes vasts amounts to this page as it clearly implies that my magazine is offering something that others cannot, and it is this uniqueness that will help most in selling the magazine.
       Moreover, on the second page I am going to use a variety of images where the model will be in different outfits, but the range of photographs will be from different angles. This will be done so that it will add change to my magazine and keep the readers entertained; but also to simply keep the style of the magazine constant. Additionally, the text used on the page will be neat, clear to read and also layed out in columns. I have chosen this style as it will keep a clear and simple layout throughout my magazine and reflect professionalism but simply keep it easy to read also.

Before I started the draft of my magazine, I had a vague idea of what I wanted to create and this therefore saved me a fair bit of time. Firstly, it is essential that all magazines have a large, and gripping cover image and this is what I attempted to convey in my poor drawing. Moreover, I made sure that the main sell-line linked tightly with the main image to therefore signify the importance of the main artist but also drive into the reader that my magazine can get the biggest artists that other magazines cannot offer. Next, the additional sell-lines were places along the left hand side of the page and the box around them draws attention to them and further highlight what major artists are going to be included in my magazine. Similarly, the masthead comes of great importance as it is pivotal that it is large, bold but also recognisable. I believe that I adhered with the common connotations of the word 'Heritage' because my font was old looking but also formal. Finally, information like the web-site, price and email as this is the key information needed to fulfill the needs of the reader and also to keep them informed on how to stay in contact and up to date with the magzine.

For my contents page draft, I made sure that I highlighted that I wanted to have a busy and informative as this is the key page for finding information about the artists which appeal most to the audience. However, I also want to include some compelling images as these will adhere to the busy theme of the page but also grab the audiences attention and keep them on the page. Furthermore, it will clearly signify who is going to be involved in this issue. Also, I am going to make sure that the main sell-lines from the front cover will be the boldest and most noticable as these are the biggest articles we have, and will therefore be the most compelling and interesting to the reader. Finally, the offer of subscriptions and a 'WIN' sell line gives the readers an exciting offer to win a trip or item that they dream of, but also to highlight how if they subscribe to the magazine; they will receive the magzine for a cheaper price and will also begin to create a relationship with the magazine.

This week I did my second photoshoot and decided to do a shoot outdoors instead of another studio shoot. I believe that this added variety to my wide selection of images and therefore gives me a greater choice of images for when I come to create my magazine, and will be able to use a variety of shots on numerous pages.
             The second shoot took place at my brother's house in Southampton but also around where he lives as there is a lot of scenery that made for a very entertaining, but ultimately successful photoshoot.
               I began the shoot in the garden of my brothers house as it has interesting foliage and shapes in the fencing which I was able to use to create intreging images and poses upon. I believe it is most important to generate an image that will trap the viewers attention and draw them into reading the magazine by having an abstract image. During the shoot I used a lens which blurred the background but still brought the clear focus onto the model. This again added a variety of shots to my arsenal compared to the last shoot, but also added to the quality of creating an image that will be unusual. I think the lens was successful in doing this as it brought out some great images that I am undoubtedly going to use.
               After I had taken a good quality of images in the garden, we decided to move out to the local park. The park seemed to be produce a catalogue of great images as there is a vast amount of scenery to work with. I took shots alongside a bench, playground toys and some without props to yet again provide a variety to the shots I produce. I feel as though this shoot was largely successful as it revealed some jaw-dropping images that will generate the exact feeling I want to out of the audience: shock.
                To conclude, I feel as if so far I have collected enough images to produce a good magazine, but I do not want to just settle for a 'good' magazine and instead want to push myself as far as I can in order to get the greatest results out of it. Therefore, I am more than likely going to do another photoshoot at some point with different models again and different scenery in order to keep my wide-spread choice of iamges growing.

Mise en-scene

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The mise-en-scen powerpoint which I shared on my blog via slideshare highlighted which items I used during my photoshoot and what importance they had. Firstly, I took a photo of the wires used to operate the equipment I had used which spelled out the name of one of the artist which was to be included in my magazine. I believe that this had an artistic feel and was creative and if it was to be included in the magazine, it would represent how my magazine is unique, but also creative and up to date with technoology. After this, I continued to take images of items which I had used throughout the shoot which were generically conventional to the genre. In these images you could see that I had used: a guitar amp, synthesizers and headphones. Through the use of all of these, the audiene could clearly see how my magazine was constructed to be an indie magazine as all of these have connotations of being in indie magazines but also how my magazine is going to follow the conventions of most magazines and ultimately fulfill their needs and wants. Finally, I took individual photographs of both of the people who were included in the photoshoot and explained what they had wore and what the importance of they clothes were and also what it symbolised. I made sure that each of the models clothing was relevant to the genre so that the audience will form a relationship with the magazine because of the choice of their clothing, and will therefore feel influenced to dress the same as the successful bands in the magazine.

Article Draft

My article draft was completed prior to the actual production of my magazine on Microsoft Word so that I could make use of the spell-check property which is not present on Adobe Photoshop CS3. I believe this to be a key factor for the reason why using Microsoft Word would be more beneficial than Adobe, because if I were to make multiple spelling mistakes and grammatical errors on my draft, it would make my magazine look unprofessional and as if someone inexperienced had produced it. I cannot afford for this to happen as I want my magazine to look professional and errors are something that are never present in well established magazines. Additionally, I believe that this is where the previously knowledge gained by the analysis of double page spreads comes in useful, as I now know exactly what needs to be included in order to produce not only a successful magazine, but also what the audience wants from my magazine in order to keep them choosing my magazine over competitors. Finally, I will easily be able to copy and paste this draft over onto my magazine which will be time efficicent. Photoshop will then be used to pick an appealing font and wrap the text around images if it is needed to. This is why I believe that Photoshop is much more effective for the design and layout of the article, but in comparison to Microsoft Word, it is a lot weaker for the use of the actual text.

This is the contact sheet created from my photoshoot which I did with a class-mate. However, I also decided to get involved throughout the shhot so that my magazine could potentially include a wide-spread variety of images, therefore appealing to the general conventions of a music magazine but also ultimately keeping the reader entertained. Also, I decided to include various props into my photoshoot again to add diversity to my images, but also to highlight the genre of my magazine and simply suggest to the reader that this is the artist. Finally, I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to compile my images into the contact sheet. I did this by selecting file, automate and then contact sheet. I think this was a very simple but efficient process which made my images simple to view, and will be useful when I start the selection process of which images I am going to use for my magazine.

Contact Sheet

Below is my list of possible sell lines ideas which I then analysed to say why I chose them, and the effect they will have. The majority of my sell-lines were to include field specific lexis and play-on-words that are common to the genre. I made sure to use interesting and insightful sell-lines as I believe that they are key to pushing the article onto the audience but also luring them into the magazine as a whole. Additionally, I started to draft my contents page and what I would want to include on it. I started by drafting what are the common conventions of a contents page which would then determine what I will place on my contents. Yet again, I believe that I had previous knowledge from analysing the contents pages in my task. This meant that I knew exactly what I had to include and what it was expected to look like.

Sell Lines+Contents Ideas

I began this week by deciding on which name I was going to use for my magazine from the previous task of streaming mast-head ideas I had completed last week. I settled on the name 'Heritage' as I believe it reflects sophistication from the common connotations of royalty but also familiarity because of the common ideology of heritage being some that we gain naturally. Therefore, I think my name choice is successful and that I just need to make the logo and font iconic so that people can build a relationship with my magazine, but also recognize it just by seeing the logo.
       As I had picked a mast-head that I was now happy with and was appropriate, I could now start deciding on how I would want it to appear on my magazine by drafting up some ideas on Adobe Photoshop. I began by selecting which font I wanted to use. I believe the font to be vitally important as it needs to be both eye-catching, but still recognizable and iconic. I selected a wide range of fonts to play around with to give myself of ideas. The fonts were also put into different colours to see what they would look like in the house colours of my magazine. Finally, I used 'Blending options' on the texts in order to apply effects like strokes and bevels to trial what designs I could possibly use for my mast-head. I think the task of drafting up possible logo's is useful as it gave me an idea of what I need to do when creating my final product.
       Finally, during this week it was my turn to do the photoshoot, and make sure I gained the appropriate images for when it came around to the time of creating my magazine. It was pivitol that I created a variety of images but also interesting ones too, which I noticed through my task where I looked for 'Inspirational photos' which guided me to what kind of image I wanted to have. I had a range of props and clothing to add diversity to the pictures. The use of a time-lapse camera was also a good idea to reflect how the shoot when and to highlight to the audience what I had done to create the images.

Name Designs

The design and experimenting of mastheads was a vital part of the production of my magazine as the masthead has to be eye-catching and significant as it is what the audience will recognise you by and they will then gain a personal relationship with not only the name, but also the text. Therefore, I took time in creating a variety of fonts but also effects using Photoshop CS3. I attempted using both drop and interior shadows, strokes, but also bevels and emboss. Although, before I started any of my designs it was necessary to decide on a name, and I chose to use 'Heritage' as my name as it has common ideology of being powerful, class and superiority. These positive and strong connotations adhere to the ultimate aim of my magazine, which is to be successful. Overall, I believed this process to be useful as it has not only given me a name for my magazine, but also what I want my masthead to look like and what conventions are needed in order for it to be effective and appealing to the audience.

Model Release

The model release was a document that I had created in order to create a sense of formality and professionalism around my photoshoot. The model release was to display that I had gained permission of my model for me to take photographs of them and so that they could not sue me in the future if they did not agree with the use of the photos. Furthermore, the use of a model release also states that the model must be able to make themselves available for the re-shoot of any photoshoots, and I believe this to be a key beneficial factor for using the model release, because if I do not gain any successful or useful images that I want to use; I can recall the same model and under-go a new shoot which will hopefully be more successful.