Music Magazine Final Cut

Front Cover Final Cut

I am very happy with the outcome of my magazine. I have taken influence from magazines NME, Rolling Stone and Q. I believe that the conventions of a magazine are clear. I chose to stick to a three colour house theme of white, blue and black. I used a stamp to fill an empty space on the left and made the featured artist name large. I had large artist names down the side to show that they will also be featuring in the magazine. 
A feature I have used, and what is used throughout real magazines, is the range of fonts, font sizes, and font colours. The colours used all have to be a part of the same scheme so that it is aesthetically pleasing, but the font sizes can be different to add variation and interest to the front cover.

Contents Page Final Cut

I am very happy with how my contents page has turned out and I believe it looks professional. I have taken large inspiration from a Rolling Stone contents page, and that is one of the reason why I believe it to be a success. I included a small image of the front cover to verify that it is the same issue of magazine and to inform the reader of which page the main article is on.
I have used lines to split up the sections of the contents page and I believe it creates a sleek look to it and makes it look smart and professional. Once again a range of fonts and font sizes fits the conventions of a music magazine and I am happy with how this page has finished. 
I am particularly fond of the chart on the left side as it is small and simple but easy to read and aesthetically pleasing.

Double Page Spread Final Cut

My Double Page Spread is a mix of Mojo, NME and Q. I think the layout of it is very tidy and everything is in a sensible place, creating an aesthetically pleasing effect for my DPS. The range of photographs add a professional effect as it is very rare to see a music artist in the same clothes more than once in a photo shoot. The large initials behind the text adds a sophisticated look to the article. I am also fond of the 'TMN Issue 94' as that is what you tend to see on a professional magazine.

Diary Entry 6

This week, my main focus has been getting my Front Cover to the best possible standard.
I tried moving things around quite drastically and took a survey to find out which layout my target audience preferred. This proved very useful and I appreciate their verdict, using it to my advantage.
My other focus has been tidying up my contents page. I believed the headings to be oddly spaced and the article summaries were too short. Firstly, I cut down the size of the summaries and then left aligned all of the headings, so that they did not interfere with the center aligned 'Features', ' Regulars' and 'Extra'.
As well as this, I moved the page numbers so that they were in line with the artists name, rather than the article summary. This made the feature look more polished, in my opinion.

Front Cover Discussion with target audience

After discussing my magazine Front Cover with my teacher, we decided I needed something on both sides of 'Vita', as the left side was previously blank. Due to this I moved the writing at the bottom to the side and moved 'Vita Wardle' down, then for another copy I added a stamp of a new album release to fill the space.



I showed both copies to 15 boys and 15 girls of the age range 15-25 and asked their opinion on which they preferred. 


Some people believed that the 'Vita Wardle' further down looked better but the artists on the left side made the cover too crammed. The overriding judgement was that the right cover was the better as it stopped the cover from looking too busy but necessarily filled the space on the left side of the 'Vita'.  

Final 'Vita Wardle' Photos Final Cut

Front Cover

This is the photograph I am using for my front cover. I have not changed it from my rough cut as I believed it was a good photograph, not in need of change. In Photoshop, I extended her eyelashes and made her eye makeup darker. I also had to edit some of the wall behind her. To do this I used the clone stamp to remove unwanted parts of the wall, and make it seem that there was never anything wrong there. The clone stamp was also used when I had to get rid of some windswept hair behind her, also changing part of the wall whilst doing this. The back of her leopard print shirt was also clone stamped to get rid of this unwanted hair. I had to 'burn' the gaps between her fingers so that the skin tone matched the rest of the photograph, giving off a Mediterranean look, to match what is said in the article.
The healing brush was used to remove any blemishes that were visible, but if any were visible, they were very small and the healing brush was not needed a lot.

Main Double Page Spread Photograph

Although this photograph, which is used for my Double Page Spread, does not look very photo-shopped, this photograph has had the most work done to it.
The original photograph did not have any skirt between her legs and I believed this would be far too revealing to put in a magazine so I spent a lot of timing trying to cover this up by creating an artificial skirt that looked as though it belonged to the real one. To do this I had to use many layers, clone stamp, patch tools and the pen tool to line up the skirt correctly.
I am happy with how this has turned out as my target audience, and those not in the target audience, have not been able to tell that this part of the skirt is actually photo-shopped in.

First Promotional Poster

I was very happy with this photograph when I took it, and, mainly because it will be very small on my front cover, I did not feel any need to photo-shop this. The lighting and mise-en-scene of the photograph is very aesthetically pleasing, and the pose shows that 'Vita Wardle' is willing to stare directly at the camera, showing strength in her personality.

Second Double Page Spread Photograph

In my feedback after my rough cut, I was told that I am in need of a close up of my artist as all of my photographs used are long or mid shots, not truly showing the artists face. For this close up, focusing on her face, I thought it best that my artist wore a different outfit from the previous shoot to make it seem more professional, as it is rare that a magazine has their artist in the same outfit for all of the photographs.
When editing this photograph I had to increase the brightness. I wanted the photograph to be white so that it blended into the white background of the Double Page Spread article. I ended up erasing the background of the photograph and placing it into the article as a Photoshop image so that it blended perfectly with the white article background. Under her left arm, I selected the wall space, added it as a new layer and increased the brightness so that it was all white, matching the rest photographs background.
Once again I slightly edited the make up to make it darker and stand out more. 

Album Cover

For this photograph, I wanted the focus to solely be on my artist. To create this effect I had to use the blur tool on the leaves in the background, leaving my artist the only thing in focus. I added a sepia effect as I wished to vary the use of colours on my artists photographs, and believed the album cover would be the appropriate time to do this, without looking out of place.
The font used for 'Vita Wardle' is her signature font and I have used it both on the front cover, DPS article and this album cover, for continuity.

Second Promotional Poster

On my front cover, I believed the two 'free posters' looked strange being from the exact same shoot as it showed no diversity in the artist. Due to this, I used a photo from the same shoot as the second DPS photograph, another close up. Similarly to the second DPS photograph, I used the select tool to make the background a new layer and increased the brightness to make it a definite white.  

Diary Entry 5

Over the last two weeks I have printed off copies of my latest version of Front Cover, Contents Page & Double Page Spread. This allowed me to closely analyse them and mark on any errors I have found for when I am able to access them at school to correct.


One that I found was a spelling error on the front page, and an issue with one of the photos on the DPS. I simply circled these and will ensure I have them for when I return to school in order to correct them.


Another thing that I have done is thoroughly checked my blog and made sure that I had done every possible for the stage I am at on the course. This required carefully reading through my analysis' of other magazines to make sure they are the best I can make them, and ensure that I have fully analysed my own photographs and rough cuts in the most detail possible.

Diary Entry 4

One comment in my teacher analysis was that I needed a close up of my artist, Vita Wardle. Over the weekend I took more photos and eventually chose to include two of them in my magazine.In the lesson time I had to edit these photos and make them look as though they are from a professional shoot. I chose to use a blank background for the close ups as I have a range of scenery in my other photos of the artist. Once I had chosen which photographs I was to use, I edited them so that the background was white and they blended into the white background of my article.


As well as these close ups I took some photographs in an plant area to use for the 'album cover' I have made for my artist. Once choosing which photograph to use I edited it to a sepia colour and made the edges darker, adding an old look to the photograph. This makes your eyes focus on the face in the middle of the picture, and then the white writing stands out against the dark colours of the photograph.


After adding these photographs to my article, a much needed move around of my Double Page Spread was in order. I decided to move the title and the placing of the album cover. I moved the album cover to the bottom of the article so that it would be the last thing that the reader would read, having a lasting impact. After moving the title to only go on the photograph page, there was a large gap at the top of my article side of the page. To fill this space I included a 'The TMN Interview' to add to the importance of the article in the magazine.

Diary Entry 3

We had our deadline for the rough cut this week on Tuesday 22nd. I spent a lot of extra time, after school and lunchtimes, before this to ensure that I had the rough cut finished to the best quality I could, before getting feedback from peers and teachers.
The lesson after the deadline we gave and received peer analysis' as well as feedback from the teacher.
This gave me many ideas of how I could improve my magazine and I got straight to work. 
I started with my front cover as there was quite a few issues there that I had to sort out. The main problem on my contents page was my 'chart' so I spent a lot of time improving that to the highest possible standard.