Constructing My Double Page Spread

To create my double page spread I first looked at ones from other magazine to find out the common conventions. I then created some flat plans to come up with the style I wanted. 

To begin I first took my image and edited it like on the cover and contents pages. I the placed it onto one half of the page, leaving the other side plain white.

Next I added on the actual article in two columns on the page. For the first letter I made it a large bold one, as this is a common thing in these magazines. I made it the size of the first paragraph. I then made the questions red and bold to stand out from the answers. 

Next I added a quote from the article in a gap on the second column. This was made much larger to stand out from the rest of the article as it would give clues to the article and so people may commonly look at it first  and so it must be able to draw them in. 

I then added a thin black bar at the bottom of the right hand side. Below that I added the page number and the title of the magazine, 'rNr'. I also added a caption on the image and a page number beside that. This one was done in white as it would stand out through reversal, much like the black number on the white page.

Lastly I added the title at the top of the right hand side page. This is a large bold title as it has to stand out when people are quickly looking through the magazine to find something they like and want to read.

Constructing My Contents Page

To create my contents page I, like the cover page, looked at some style models and then created some flat plans.

I then followed these flat plans to create the basic layout. I started off adding the stories in the place i wanted them. This turned out as so:

I then placed some lines, with my masthead, along the top of the page. This clearly showed the magazine that the audience were reading and gave the page a more interesting look with this masthead located in the top corner, on of the first places someone may look:

Next, I added my image over where their image is. To give it its look, I did the same as I did on the cover page.

Along the bottom I then added a letter from the editor and a subscription advertisement, I then moved all the stories up to fit it in. This was done to make sure it all fit in  and would not overlap. Before writing the editors letter, I had considered some photos along the bottom, however I felt that the letter would fit and look better here.This is how it ended up:

Constructing My Front Cover

To create my front cover I first looked at some style models that were similar to what I had wanted to do and then i designed my flat plans before creating this final product.

I started off by adding the text onto the page. I first added my main story which I put centrally as this is where I wanted. I put it centrally as this would be one of the main places that someone would look early on. I also used bold typography with the bright colours so that it would attract and draw in the audience. I used a black background temporarily so it would stand out and be of a similar colour to the image that I will later put on.

I also did the same for all of the smaller stories, again using the black background with the same colour scheme as used for the main story. I placed them around the page in a similar way to how I had designed in the flat plans. This is here, as shown:

To make the stories not look too hard and to make the cover look with more depth and better style. I did this by changing the opacity of the text. I did this so that they would not look as hard and would be much more professional and so would draw int he audience. This is like shown:

I then added on my final masthead. I placed it centrally to start with as this is where the common conventions say they should be found.  I will later move this around so that it would fit in with the image I had wanted to use. 

I then added my own image on the cover. The look of the image meant I have to change around the layout a little. However, the final image ended up looking like this:

This is the final look of the image. The image I started off with looked like this:

I created this image look, by taking the normal colour image and copying it and changing that second image into black and white. I changed the shadows and highlights, as well as brightness and other such things. I then lowered the opacity so it would create the look as above, I did the same for the contents page and double page spread too. It was done as shown:

Once this was done, I moved the layout around to fit around the image, and the masthead. This ended up looking like this:

Then the final thing I did was to add a barcode at the bottom, along with the issue number and date to create the covers final look, which follows the conventions found on existing magazines. This is as shown:

After looking at this, I started to work on it, moving some pieces around, and changed the masthead to my original one,  to make it look even better in its final form.

My Original Images

For my cover I knew that I had wanted a clear image which is both a good photo and an interesting one to look at. Because of this, I took a variety of photos with my model in different poses. After looking through them I found some that would not be usable as some were much too out of focus and these images would not appeal to the target audience as I knew they would want images that were in focus and clear.
After looking through all the photos, I chose this one to be used on my cover page:

I chose this image because out of all of them, it was the most interesting that was in the best focus, on the model, and so would work well attracting the target audience. His eye is also close to the camera and is well in focus, and near the center, so that it will look as though he was looking at the reader which would then draw them in and become interested in it. I also decided it would be best for use on the cover as it allows for a lot of space to the side and the bottom half to add content meaning nothing much, of little interest, would have to overlap with the text. However, to fit this the way I wanted it, I had to flip it so his arm would be on the other side of the page. This still worked and made the image look just as good as it would've normally. 

This image I decided to use for my double page spread as it fit well into the space that I had. It was also used as it was an interesting image, however it is not of as good quality as the one that I had used for the cover as his had is much more in focus than his face and eyes, although these are in focus. I liked this photo as it shows a common pose that would be found in many music magazines from artists from the rock genre, the same genre as the one I am creating. 

This image I used for the contents page. This photo was not as in focus as the one used on the cover page, but still it is pretty clear. Just not clear enough for the cover as it may not appeal to some people and so they may not read it if they see the cover had an image of such quality. This image also fit well onto the space I had for it on the contents page, however, I don't think the look of it would have fit into the cover page. For this image I had to edit it slightly, using the clone tool, to cover up his actual hair which is showing through his black wig. This was done to make him look much more in the style of the rock genre, meaning people would be more attracted. Using the guitar adds more depth and feeling as it is being swung towards the camera. 

During the photo shoot, many different photos and looks were taken. However, after looking through them, I found many of them would not be good enough, or appropriate enough, to use on any of my creations. Such examples are:

These images, I found, did not really fit anywhere into my magazine and its design. Some images I took, like the third one, I would have liked to have used somewhere, however I could not find a place for it to fit where it would look could. The only place it really could have gone is on the double page spread as the top of his head is cut off, so it would have to be at the top of the page, However it wouldn't work as it is landscape and this would not have fit into the spread's design.

Planning My Photoshoot

To create my magazine, I need multiple photos which can be used across the magazine. To do this I must first have a photo shoot to get these multiple images of a wide variety.

Shots
 For this photo shoot I knew I would need a mid shot for my cover, mid shot for my contents page and a mid shot or close up for my spread. These would all be of my artist who would be talked about in the article.

Locations
For the location of my photo shoot, I decided to do it all in a studio, using a green screen as the background. This is what I did for all the photos on the cover, contents and spread.

Cast
For my photo shoot I only required a single person, a teenage male aged around 17.

Equipment
For the photo shoot, I required much equipment to successfully make good, professional looking images. For this photo shoot, I used:
Canon 6D SLR
50 mm lens
64 GB memory card
Lighting kit
A green screen, with stands
Apple Mac computer
Photoshop
The model's costume/clothing
A guitar
Make-up

Budget
For the photo shoot, a lot of equipment is required, this would mean that there would be high budget for this. These are approximations for the budget of my photo shoot:
The camera would cost around £1399
The lens would cost around £240
The memory card would cost around £40
The lighting equipment would cost about £120
The green screen would cost about £50
The Mac would cost around £1,149 for the cheapest
Photoshop would cost around £700 depending on which version is bought, and from where
Clothing would cost around £100 depending on the brand which is being worn
The guitar would cost about £100 depending on the brand
The make-up would cost about £30
Altogether this would come to around £3,928

This photo shows me applying the make-up to the model before my photo shoot:

For this make-up I had looked at that of other popular rock artists, such as Alice Cooper, to get an idea of the make-up look that is common, and to come up with a make-up which I liked and wanted to use for my own photo shoot.

Drafting My Feature Article

For my magazine I would have to create a double page spread, for this double page spread an article is needed. To write this article I looked at others in a similar style that I wanted to follow before writing my first draft. Here is the draft I eventually created:

Darkest Days: Darkest Heavens

It has been three years since their fourth album, Darkest Heavens, was first announced. And this month the album is finally going to be released. We talk with Darkest Days’ lead singer, Matt Hall, on the tragic production of their long awaited album.

Your finally releasing your album, how does it feel?

It’s great. Yeah. We’ve waited a long time for this day. And it feels great!

You had a hard time working on the album, you even stopped all together for a whole year, how much did this affect the album, do you think?

We didn’t stop for a whole year. I think it was almost ten months. But, yeah, it’s true, the album was greatly affected by [Ian] Harper’s passing a year into production. A few of the songs were written after in [his] memory.

How much of the album features Ian’s work?

About half of the songs were recorded before he died. So, about five… six?

This album is the first of yours which feature covers of people like AC/DC and Def Leppard.

That’s true, yes. Harper was our major writer. He wrote most of our classics. We kinda ran out of ideas. [Laughs]

So, will this affect you next album?

Next album? I don’t know if we’re going to get that far. We’ll see how this year’s tour goes.

This could be the end of Darkest Days then?

I would hope not. But, Harper is irreplaceable, it’ll be hard but we’ll have to find someone permanent eventually if we want to carry on.

You had guest bassist on the album after Ian.

We did, yeah. And they were great. They were very supportive and respected all our music. They worked hard to not make the album sound very differently than Harper would’ve.

You have your new tour coming up at the end of the year. Who’s going to be in Ian’s place?

No one. No one will be in Ian’s place. They’ll have their own stop. Guests in the band.

Guests? Do you have multiple people?

We have a couple of the guest on the album, but nothing’s set yet.

You’ve been absent from touring for five years now, what will it be like to start again?

It’s hard work. We are all gonna have to work hard to get to the same standards as our last tour. It’s exhausting work. We are all getting older now as well. It almost feels like a natural end to our music, actually.

If this is the end for you, are there any plans to go solo?

Personally, no. But I know a couple of the others have been thinking about it. We always knew that if we lost one of us then we wouldn’t want to go on without them. Maybe an anniversary tour or album in, like, twenty years. But, we’ve all thought about solo careers sometime over the last year.

This album is called Darkest Heavens, it, like all the others, uses the word Dark. Was this planned?

No, I don’t think so. It sort of just happened. I don’t come up with titles though. You’d have to ask someone else.

So you don’t have any input into the titles.

Well we can suggest ideas. I just can’t come up with anything half as good as the other guy’s do. Darkest Heavens was Ian’s idea. I wouldn’t say it was the best. But it was his best. And we wanted to respect his ideas. He still had a lot of input after his death.

Well, good luck with anything you and the band decide to do in the future.

Thank you. We shall see what happens and do what we feel is best.

Creating a Masthead

To create my masthead I first looked at existing ones to get an idea of what mine should feel like. After I knew how it should feel I began to create something that fits into this.

I first started by creating the actual text. I did this by writing each letter separately and then flipping one of the rs and then the N. I then put them together to look like this.

After doing this, I added some effects onto the text. I started with adding a drop shadow as shown in this image:

I then added a bevel on the text to give it depth and make it look much more interesting than if it were flat. I did this as shown in this image:

Lastly, I added a stroke to, again, give it more depth and make it feel and look much more interesting, this was done as shown:

After doing this text, I added the image of some iron, as shown here:

I then tried around changing the opacity and other such things to make this look more interesting. In the end I added a vivid light to it. This is as shown:

This then ended up looking as below:

I then tried out the masthead on my cover and I found that it did not fit with both the style and the colour palette. I also tried it without the image of iron, and in black as opposed to gold, and without all the effects. This did not quite fit either.  I then decided to play around it with some more, changing the N and capitalising the Rs. I then also took away the iron and stylised the N in the centre. This ended up as shown here:

I tried this style however, it did not fit as well as the other one did and so I decided to change it around. 

When coming up with a title I first came up with some ideas and then narrowed them down to the three I thought best. I then did a SurveyMonkey for my target audience so they could choose their favorite. The results are as follows:

These results show that the title RNR was the most popular and so I decided to go with this as I know it would represent the target audience as this is their chosen title for my magazine.

Flat Plans

To create the different pages for my magazine, I first looked at some style images for each page before creating the flat plans for the pages. These are the first designs for the magazines which I later used to help create and know what I wanted for my final design which I then made in photoshop. Some of these designs got changed slightly when creating the final pieces, however they are all very similar to the final product.

This first flat plan is the one for my cover page. It is slightly different from the final product as I was not quite sure of the photo I had wanted on it. This is the same for the others as well.

This next flat plan is for my contents page.

This last flat plan is the one of my double page spread.

I also created an alternative design for each of the pages. I did one for the cover, contents page and double page spread. These are as featured below:

I then presented them to the target audience and asked which they preferred, through SurveyMonkey, below are the results: 

I presented the first set, on this page, as Set A and the alternatives as Set B.

These results show that overall the target audience preferred the designs in Set A as opposed to Set B. This allowed me to know what my audience wanted and so I could create something that would well represent them. 

Institution Research

IPC Media-



IPC Media is a British publishing company which was formed in 1963 after three of Britain's leading publishing companies merged together. IPC Magazines was then formed in 1968. This was part of a reorganisation which created IPC Newspapers, IPC Magazines, IPC Books, IPC Printing, IPC Trade and Technical and IPC New Products.

 In 1970 IPC-Mirror Group was taken over by Albert E Reed, a paper-making company. This was later renamed to Reed International. In 1974 this was later spilt into IPC Magazines LTD and then into Mirror Group Newspapers. The second was then sold to Pergamon Holdings Ltd. IPC Magazines was then sold to Time Inc. in 1998, this was then renamed IPC Media. This allowed both IPC and Time Inc. to expand and grow with this buyout.

IPC Media Magzaine Examples-

The top three competitors for IPC are: Advance Magazine Publishers Inc., Lagardere Active and H. Bauer Publishing Ltd.

For my own magazine, I think I would have IPC Media as my distributors as they do not have many music magazines, apart from NME and so would have a slight gap within there market. 

Photography Reasearch

To help me to create a good photoshoot and so good photos I will first need to look at professional techniques and gets some creative ideas to use to allow me to create photos which look professional. I will do this by having a look at some videos on YouTube.

Lighting:

The first video that I looked at was this one which explains how to use three different lights to to effectively light a single subject within a smaller studio area. From this I have learnt how best to set up the lights for this situation as well as giving the subjects shadows and highlights.

Mise-en-scene:

This second video explains mise-en-scene. I learnt from this video how best to position the subjects within the framing and the image.I also learnt what different positioning mean or connote like being high up or low down in the image.

Posing and Framing:

This video I found good at explaining how the models should best stand and what to be doing with their bodies to make an good and effective photo.

Photographer Case Study

One photographer whose music, particularly rock photography which interests and inspires me is Mick Hutson. He takes photos  for Q magazine as well as Metal Hammer. He has worked with many bands such as: Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Coldplay. This has helped him to become one of the most respected photographers in his line of work. He has a website which is: http://www.mickhutson.com/

Some of the photos that inspire me for my own work are photos such as:

I like these photos because many of them are very simple and basic like the first two, however they are all very effective in what they are doing and they are all very appealing and interesting to look at. I also like the positioning of all of the different subjects as well as the lighting being used to effectively create a good looking image.

The first image is a close up of a man who has a very sterotypical rock look, with long hair and facial hair. It is also an image of an older man, this would be more of the popular artists found within the rock genre. The image also shows a large amount of smoke in the lower right hand corner. This follows with common ideas and conventions of the rock genre as many rock stars would sterotypically smoke, both normally and drugs. This helps the image to fit into a sterotypical veiw of rock music.

The second image uses a wide shot of the entire band. This shows them wearing sterotypical clothes of this genre such as leathers and lots of blacks. This image, unlike the firs one, has a large background of a long road, possibly in an industrial area. This would add to this sterotypical image of the rock genre being rough and possibly going around places like this.