Foundation Portfolio Evaluation
View more presentations from Anne Horne.
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Monday, 29 March 2010
INTRODUCTION
I was determined to choose the Print task for my coursework from the start as web and magazine design has interested me for the past few years, so when the option came up it wasn’t a difficult decision.
MY PRINT BASED PRELIMINARY MAGAZINE
Displayed in post above.
PRELIMINARY EVALUATION
For both preliminary media tasks I worked as one third of a very successful team, consisting of Amy Rushmer, Isabel Gamble and myself. There was a positive and hard working atmosphere throughout the entire two weeks we had to complete the tasks, with no arguments involved whatsoever. Each of us put an awful lot into creating our two media products, and managed to distribute our work out evenly to each other.
Personally, I enjoyed composing the video the best as it is something I haven’t done before, and we had a lot of fun making it. The magazine task was enjoyable, but I’d done that sort of thing before at GCSE.
For the real coursework however I have chosen to do the magazine task, as the attraction of having fun making videos would soon wear off, and the end product will be much more important. I’d also feel more confident in producing a quality magazine cover, contents and double page spread than I would creating a video, as I’d have to heavily rely on others which although wasn’t an issue this time; could easily be next time round.
During the video task, we used two different hand held motion cameras, one with a usb connecting it to a school Apple Mac computer, and one with a cable. On the computer the only program we used was iMovie, which was completely new to all three of us. As Amy had filmed the video whilst Isabel and I acted in it, to be fair, we both took more control over linking together each clip to form one video instead of a series of smaller ones. At first everything was alien to us all, but once our teacher explained to us how to crop a video clip – we were away! Starting off slowly, we became more and more confident in ordering our videos and cropping out bits we didn’t need. Next, we altered the sound and speed then added credits and outtakes. Little did we know, that as we attempted to insert transitions some of our work disappeared! Panicked, we thought we’d deleted all of our work, but later discovered that we hadn’t, so we saved it and left it there – luckily!
Each of us used Publisher and Photoshop to produce our magazines; Publisher being an old friend and Photoshop being brand new. Amy caught on to how it worked almost instantly, whereas Isabel and I struggled a little. We managed to use is successfully after a while, but I could still do with more practice before starting my real coursework, to get my magazine as professional as it can be.
For my coursework I’m going to try to form my entire magazine in Photoshop, to get a more realistic and professional feel to my work.
As we made our magazines separately I can only comment on my own, which matched the brief - meeting all the criteria. It had a cover and a contents page and included a medium headshot of Isabel on the cover. It was also the required school magazine.
Our magazines targeted adolescents from the start, and managed to capture their attention by using images of teenagers themselves and by have socially acceptable graphology. Conversely, we did not consider our target audience for the video, which was a big mistake! We could not tell how far we could push certain boundaries as we didn’t know who it was supposed to appeal to. We’ll definitely have to remember to choose a target audience for our real piece.
I wasn’t fully satisfied with either task’s result. Our video didn’t flow, didn’t look professional and our costumes changed in each take as they were filmed on different days. My magazine could have been planned out more and therefore could have turned out better than it did.
As I have chosen the paper based task for my real coursework, I plan to work on my own rather than in a group. I am very controlling about the fonts and colours I use, as are Amy and Isabel. We all want it to be our best work, and we couldn’t have different frames if we were working together, so we’ve agreed to take control of our own work, and work individually.
TARGET AUDIENCE
I believe that I will be able to develop my next magazine in a unique way that would involve adding something a little different to the shelves if it were reality.
To do this, I had to decide on a target audience. After considering it, I chose 15-19 year olds, primarily females; as I fit snugly into this category myself and should be able to relate to this range better than any other. The characteristics in people I will target, depends on the genre I will choose.
In order to figure out how to grasp my targeted audience’s attention, I knew I had to figure out which genre of music would have the broadest market for my magazine to achieve highly. I had to find the most popular genre of music among current older teenagers. To do this, I designed a short questionnaire:
Which genre do you prefer out of the following? (please circle only one)
Rock
Classical
Indie
Pop
Hip Hop
RnB
Jazz
Rap
Other
If other; please state what genre you prefer listening to.
__________________________________________________________
Would you buy a magazine focusing solely on that one gender, or would you prefer a mixed genre magazine?
One genre / Mixed genres
Having printed and handed out 50 copies of this questionnaire I can confidently say that the most popular choice of genre was indie. People also stated that they'd prefer to buy a magazine that focuses on indie; their more desired genre, rather than having to flick through genres they have little or no interest in.
Consequentially, I shall make my magazine cover have an indie vibe to it, and not merge with any other genres. The contents page and double page spread will remain purely indie and continue to stick consistently to the indie fonts and colour theme I will later decide on.
Indie as a genre is most popular amongst adolescent, creative, rebellious individuals. So this is who I will target. 15-19 year old girls, who are either creative, rebellious or a mixture of both.
INDIE??
What is indie??
Indie is a type of rock that ultimately originated from the UK and USA. Indie artists often have independent record labels, meaning that they have total control and responsibility over their own music career - from tours; to selling music - they have to promote it all usually via the internet or word of mouth. They therefore find themselves heavily relying on the support of their fans: so how do they go about winning them over??The target audience I have decided on is: 15-19 year old girls. As I fit snugly into this category myself, I should be able to relate to this audience more easily than any other.
PHOTOSHOOT PLAN
In order to create the best cover, I knew I had to include; a strong, reliable photo - well-suited to the indie genre, through the costume, makeup, camera angle, colour, body language and facial expressions. It should also link with the 'plug', which should link to indie music.
To make sure I thought about all of the above but still had that unique selling point; I planned everything about this image. I did this in Paint.
After settling on the photo, the rest of the cover fell into place. Having taken note of all the conventions of music covers prior to taking the photo, I knew what to include. The left wall I instantly decided would become the background, supporting other images and subheadings. With an edited-in white background behind the image, I knew I could have the main heading there, and the title of my magazine and its strapline had to be closely underneath it. I'd taken a selection of different images suitable for small cover stories recently, so by adding them in the headings and captions to go with them wasn't very difficult.
EDITING IMAGES
CONTENTS PAGE
I studied closely many different examples of purely indie contents pages, and selected the one I felt was best suited for its purpose, and most professional. Here is an analysis of it:
Masthead- It is situated at the top left of the page as the reader’s eyes tend to get drawn to that area out of habit. This is assisted by; bold, noticeable colours and an understandable font, in uppercase-allowing it to stand out from all else on the page.
Features- These are displayed through the means of a column. It sums up each page to aid the reader in selecting individual pages they’re most interested in. Certain words are in bold, demanding extra attention.
Image: This helps to continue the indie feel onto the contents page. It also lightens the sometimes daunting amount of text. The photograph displays artists with costumes typical of that genre. In this case the band is placed on a hill, raising their status, subtly making them come across as being inspirational.
Page numbers- are in a different colour to their descriptions. The Oasis Special section is in a completely separate colour to the rest of the page, forming a divide, making the contents feel like less of an effort to read.
Colour theme- plain in order to not steal any focus from the text or images.
Other information- date at the top-right of the page, in line with the title. There is also a review under the main image, this isn’t a feature of all contents pages in music magazines, but it adds an extra something to the page.
Having studied this successful contents page example, I formed a rough plan for my own contents page to guide me in creating it for real.
In more detail:
• Next to it will be a black bar with the date and issue of the magazine displayed on it.
• The features subheading is next important so it will be placed just below the main heading.
• The page numbers will be under this, and dispersed down the left hand side, with descriptions next to them.
• Monthly will be below this in a similar format.
• To the right of the features section there will be a main image of seductive, rebellious male singers.
• Below this will be a slightly rotated image of some indie females.
• This added together should form a busy yet professional-looking contents page for my indie magazine.
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
I used Google to see some indie magazine double page spread examples, and came across three very different ones I decided to depict in more detail.• To the top and bottom right of the entire page will be individual indie singers, looking seductive.
In this first one the text is compact and to one side, so that the image obtains the most attention. The photograph has uniquely been taken sideways on, and has been heavily edited to suit the magazine’s colour theme and style. The text although black, has some red to tie in nicely with the image. The title is in capitals – is top-left again and also remains solely to the page’s colour theme.
This double page spread forms a massive contrast from the first one. The red black and white theme is present again, and the text is compact. However, the title is more to the right and there are four reasonably large images, all related to music. There is also an isolated column to the right; which gives the impression that the page isn’t completely focused on MCR.
The busier vibe received from the second A3 page works successfully, conversely, the sense of everything working together to focus purely on one artist worked well for the first double page spread. Would the best both, combined, work?
This cover has the busy feel of the second example, but the one strong purpose as shown in the first one. Does it work? In a way these complement each other, but it also makes the page more boring, and cliché. I think for my magazine, I’ll steer away from this predictable style of page.
Out of these three examples I would choose the first one as it is simple yet different - in other words; indie.
To try to make my double page spread similar to the one I thought was styled in the best way, I formed a plan for my double page spread; incorporating everything I liked about it.
COLOUR SCHEME
In order to get immediate attention from my targeted potential readers; the colour scheme has to be striking.
Of course there are those colours that work well together, a bold colour with a softening neutral one – but teenagers generally try to stand out and be unique. Therefore, bright colours such as the popular indie combo of black, white and red could prove to form the best result. Some greys could be added depending.
FONTS
The most successful font for indie magazines seems to be the simple yet most popular fonts. I typed using four different fonts to see which I thought looked more professional. I asked some girls (as I’m primarily targeting girls) who took media to tell me what they thought about each font in the list, to select the most appropriate for my magazine. I made it clear that the choices were for ordinary text, not headings or subheadings.
Lucinda Bright –simple and easy to read –received the most votes.
Bauhaus 93 –a stylish font, but some found it a challenge to read.
Haettenschweiler –simple to read but a bit too compact –unprofessional-looking.
Lucinda Calligraphy –clear but old fashioned.
Rosewood STD Regular –couldn’t read it!
Wide Latin –words are too long.
Apple Chancery –too fancy.
Words or headings that need to stand out should be much bolder than the rest of the text, so I asked the same people which font out of a selection they’d prefer for headings and subheadings, in an indie frame of mind.
SO..
My colour scheme and font choice has been decided.
Colour scheme: Red, white, black, possible grey.
Font choice: Lucinda Bright for the text, WordArt displayed above for the headings.
INSTITUTION
Who would publish my magazine??
International Publishing Company is one of the top magazine publishers in the UK to date. Founded in 1963 it now sells 350 million copies per year, so it is obvious that this is the institution to be with. With offices all across the world in cities such as New York and Paris; making JUMP a universal magazine is within reach.
IPC Media work in publishing internationally cherished; Now and Look Magazine, Inspire, Ignite! SouthBank and TX. It also works with NME; so indie is in the mix and therefore a possibility.
CREATING AN ARTIST
Each indie artist displayed left either has a plain background, or a wall. Perhaps my artist could combine both of these aspects. My artist could lean her back on one wall, and have her feet up on the other, and have a plain background behind her.
The female artists look seductive yet full of attitude and rebellion; I will try to incorporate this in my images. All the females are also staring directly into the camera lens so I will make this a must. Their costuming is unique, with large accessories.
Lady Gaga’s pose works for her, so I will try to adapt this slightly and use it on one of my made-up artists. Using all these feminine indie artist conventions and combining them should merge to create an artist capable of sharing all of their fan groups.
All of these artists are prominent artists of indie; Ashlie Bowes is fictionally the same as this.
IMAGES I TOOK AND EDITED FOR:
MY MAGAZINE COVER
Louise Linehan.
This high angle image instantly lowers her status, creating the vibe that she's been up to no good. This should appeal to potential rebellious readers.
I added blue highlights to her hair, using the tint tool, and altered the saturation and temperature to brighten the picture up.
I edited out any imperfections.
_______________________
I took this image of a dummy when I visited Madam Tusuads in London. In order to pull the focus more to the camera (as it's advertising a competition involving cameras), I blurred the background, and with the camera in front of the woman's face, she doesn't require much attention. Again, I made the colours brighter, as the magazine cover needs to be bold.
_______________________
Ashlie Bowes.
Another high angle shot, this time to highlight vulnerability and traumer. I edited her to make her costume much brighter - an indie convention, and I made her 'size zero' skinny. The walls appear wonky in the picture; it isn't all lined up properly - again, to emphasise the rebellious, unique theme indie has going on.
_______________________
Amy Langschied.
This image is supposed to be a part of an album cover. The pink and red clash, portraying an independent and rebellious style - going against the fashion norms. By Amy looking at the heart cusion in her hand, it is obvious that the album revolves around love, this isn't always the case with indie music - making her one of the more different indie artists. I boosted the colours and warmed the saturation. I also sharpened it to give the image an edge. Her heavy make-up and pink colours enforce her femininity on the image. Her facial expression - biting her lip - is a form of titilation - yet another convention of indie artists.
_______________________
_______________________
FOR: MY CONTENTS PAGE
Amy Langschied.
In this photograph Amy is looking into the camera, using slight titilation and a serious face to capture her audience. It is there to tempt her audience into wanting to turn the page; therefore buying the magazine. Her costume is bright red yet simple, and the glasses make her stand out as being different. The camera angle is to the side of her, causing Amy to turn; hence giving the camera/audience-reader, her full attention.
_______________________
_______________________
I was determined to choose the Print task for my coursework from the start as web and magazine design has interested me for the past few years, so when the option came up it wasn’t a difficult decision.
MY PRINT BASED PRELIMINARY MAGAZINE
Displayed in post above.
PRELIMINARY EVALUATION
For both preliminary media tasks I worked as one third of a very successful team, consisting of Amy Rushmer, Isabel Gamble and myself. There was a positive and hard working atmosphere throughout the entire two weeks we had to complete the tasks, with no arguments involved whatsoever. Each of us put an awful lot into creating our two media products, and managed to distribute our work out evenly to each other.
Personally, I enjoyed composing the video the best as it is something I haven’t done before, and we had a lot of fun making it. The magazine task was enjoyable, but I’d done that sort of thing before at GCSE.
For the real coursework however I have chosen to do the magazine task, as the attraction of having fun making videos would soon wear off, and the end product will be much more important. I’d also feel more confident in producing a quality magazine cover, contents and double page spread than I would creating a video, as I’d have to heavily rely on others which although wasn’t an issue this time; could easily be next time round.
During the video task, we used two different hand held motion cameras, one with a usb connecting it to a school Apple Mac computer, and one with a cable. On the computer the only program we used was iMovie, which was completely new to all three of us. As Amy had filmed the video whilst Isabel and I acted in it, to be fair, we both took more control over linking together each clip to form one video instead of a series of smaller ones. At first everything was alien to us all, but once our teacher explained to us how to crop a video clip – we were away! Starting off slowly, we became more and more confident in ordering our videos and cropping out bits we didn’t need. Next, we altered the sound and speed then added credits and outtakes. Little did we know, that as we attempted to insert transitions some of our work disappeared! Panicked, we thought we’d deleted all of our work, but later discovered that we hadn’t, so we saved it and left it there – luckily!
Each of us used Publisher and Photoshop to produce our magazines; Publisher being an old friend and Photoshop being brand new. Amy caught on to how it worked almost instantly, whereas Isabel and I struggled a little. We managed to use is successfully after a while, but I could still do with more practice before starting my real coursework, to get my magazine as professional as it can be.
For my coursework I’m going to try to form my entire magazine in Photoshop, to get a more realistic and professional feel to my work.
As we made our magazines separately I can only comment on my own, which matched the brief - meeting all the criteria. It had a cover and a contents page and included a medium headshot of Isabel on the cover. It was also the required school magazine.
Our magazines targeted adolescents from the start, and managed to capture their attention by using images of teenagers themselves and by have socially acceptable graphology. Conversely, we did not consider our target audience for the video, which was a big mistake! We could not tell how far we could push certain boundaries as we didn’t know who it was supposed to appeal to. We’ll definitely have to remember to choose a target audience for our real piece.
I wasn’t fully satisfied with either task’s result. Our video didn’t flow, didn’t look professional and our costumes changed in each take as they were filmed on different days. My magazine could have been planned out more and therefore could have turned out better than it did.
As I have chosen the paper based task for my real coursework, I plan to work on my own rather than in a group. I am very controlling about the fonts and colours I use, as are Amy and Isabel. We all want it to be our best work, and we couldn’t have different frames if we were working together, so we’ve agreed to take control of our own work, and work individually.
TARGET AUDIENCE
I believe that I will be able to develop my next magazine in a unique way that would involve adding something a little different to the shelves if it were reality.
To do this, I had to decide on a target audience. After considering it, I chose 15-19 year olds, primarily females; as I fit snugly into this category myself and should be able to relate to this range better than any other. The characteristics in people I will target, depends on the genre I will choose.
In order to figure out how to grasp my targeted audience’s attention, I knew I had to figure out which genre of music would have the broadest market for my magazine to achieve highly. I had to find the most popular genre of music among current older teenagers. To do this, I designed a short questionnaire:
Which genre do you prefer out of the following? (please circle only one)
Rock
Classical
Indie
Pop
Hip Hop
RnB
Jazz
Rap
Other
If other; please state what genre you prefer listening to.
__________________________________________________________
Would you buy a magazine focusing solely on that one gender, or would you prefer a mixed genre magazine?
One genre / Mixed genres
Having printed and handed out 50 copies of this questionnaire I can confidently say that the most popular choice of genre was indie. People also stated that they'd prefer to buy a magazine that focuses on indie; their more desired genre, rather than having to flick through genres they have little or no interest in.
Consequentially, I shall make my magazine cover have an indie vibe to it, and not merge with any other genres. The contents page and double page spread will remain purely indie and continue to stick consistently to the indie fonts and colour theme I will later decide on.
Indie as a genre is most popular amongst adolescent, creative, rebellious individuals. So this is who I will target. 15-19 year old girls, who are either creative, rebellious or a mixture of both.
INDIE??
What is indie??
Indie is a type of rock that ultimately originated from the UK and USA. Indie artists often have independent record labels, meaning that they have total control and responsibility over their own music career - from tours; to selling music - they have to promote it all usually via the internet or word of mouth. They therefore find themselves heavily relying on the support of their fans: so how do they go about winning them over??The target audience I have decided on is: 15-19 year old girls. As I fit snugly into this category myself, I should be able to relate to this audience more easily than any other.
To begin with, I looked at the construction of the covers (left) to see how they are represented.
•The models - none of them smile - they have serious/and suggestive expressions. It's not totally smouldering though, more natural and able to relate to - forming a reader-model bond.
•Camera angles - the INDIE magazine has their models in medium close ups, conversely NME have theirs at a slight high angle view. It seems that the angle doesn't really matter, so long as all models face and look into the camera
•Costume - their fashion choices must be bold and colourful, exaggerated and unique. Large unusual accessories seem to be popular on all of the covers
•Magazine names - are in strong, clear, easy-to-read capitals - they sometimes overlap the image, or vice versa
•Colour themes - VERY BRIGHT. Reds, whites and blacks appear to be popular choices for the fonts and costumes must not clash with this
•Fonts - clear. powerful. not fancy at all. they get to the point. they make an impact instantly.
There aren't so many indie based magazines about as it is a newer genre of music than most others, meaning there are less examples to work from - though this could make creating a USP less challenging.
COVER PAGE
•Camera angles - the INDIE magazine has their models in medium close ups, conversely NME have theirs at a slight high angle view. It seems that the angle doesn't really matter, so long as all models face and look into the camera
•Costume - their fashion choices must be bold and colourful, exaggerated and unique. Large unusual accessories seem to be popular on all of the covers
•Magazine names - are in strong, clear, easy-to-read capitals - they sometimes overlap the image, or vice versa
•Colour themes - VERY BRIGHT. Reds, whites and blacks appear to be popular choices for the fonts and costumes must not clash with this
•Fonts - clear. powerful. not fancy at all. they get to the point. they make an impact instantly.
There aren't so many indie based magazines about as it is a newer genre of music than most others, meaning there are less examples to work from - though this could make creating a USP less challenging.
COVER PAGE
ANALYSIS
PHOTOSHOOT PLAN
In order to create the best cover, I knew I had to include; a strong, reliable photo - well-suited to the indie genre, through the costume, makeup, camera angle, colour, body language and facial expressions. It should also link with the 'plug', which should link to indie music.
To make sure I thought about all of the above but still had that unique selling point; I planned everything about this image. I did this in Paint.
After settling on the photo, the rest of the cover fell into place. Having taken note of all the conventions of music covers prior to taking the photo, I knew what to include. The left wall I instantly decided would become the background, supporting other images and subheadings. With an edited-in white background behind the image, I knew I could have the main heading there, and the title of my magazine and its strapline had to be closely underneath it. I'd taken a selection of different images suitable for small cover stories recently, so by adding them in the headings and captions to go with them wasn't very difficult.
EDITING IMAGES
CONTENTS PAGE
I studied closely many different examples of purely indie contents pages, and selected the one I felt was best suited for its purpose, and most professional. Here is an analysis of it:
Features- These are displayed through the means of a column. It sums up each page to aid the reader in selecting individual pages they’re most interested in. Certain words are in bold, demanding extra attention.
Image: This helps to continue the indie feel onto the contents page. It also lightens the sometimes daunting amount of text. The photograph displays artists with costumes typical of that genre. In this case the band is placed on a hill, raising their status, subtly making them come across as being inspirational.
Page numbers- are in a different colour to their descriptions. The Oasis Special section is in a completely separate colour to the rest of the page, forming a divide, making the contents feel like less of an effort to read.
Colour theme- plain in order to not steal any focus from the text or images.
Other information- date at the top-right of the page, in line with the title. There is also a review under the main image, this isn’t a feature of all contents pages in music magazines, but it adds an extra something to the page.
Having studied this successful contents page example, I formed a rough plan for my own contents page to guide me in creating it for real.
• Next to it will be a black bar with the date and issue of the magazine displayed on it.
• The features subheading is next important so it will be placed just below the main heading.
• The page numbers will be under this, and dispersed down the left hand side, with descriptions next to them.
• Monthly will be below this in a similar format.
• To the right of the features section there will be a main image of seductive, rebellious male singers.
• Below this will be a slightly rotated image of some indie females.
• This added together should form a busy yet professional-looking contents page for my indie magazine.
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
I used Google to see some indie magazine double page spread examples, and came across three very different ones I decided to depict in more detail.• To the top and bottom right of the entire page will be individual indie singers, looking seductive.
In this first one the text is compact and to one side, so that the image obtains the most attention. The photograph has uniquely been taken sideways on, and has been heavily edited to suit the magazine’s colour theme and style. The text although black, has some red to tie in nicely with the image. The title is in capitals – is top-left again and also remains solely to the page’s colour theme.
This double page spread forms a massive contrast from the first one. The red black and white theme is present again, and the text is compact. However, the title is more to the right and there are four reasonably large images, all related to music. There is also an isolated column to the right; which gives the impression that the page isn’t completely focused on MCR.
Out of these three examples I would choose the first one as it is simple yet different - in other words; indie.
To try to make my double page spread similar to the one I thought was styled in the best way, I formed a plan for my double page spread; incorporating everything I liked about it.
COLOUR SCHEME
In order to get immediate attention from my targeted potential readers; the colour scheme has to be striking.
Of course there are those colours that work well together, a bold colour with a softening neutral one – but teenagers generally try to stand out and be unique. Therefore, bright colours such as the popular indie combo of black, white and red could prove to form the best result. Some greys could be added depending.
FONTS
The most successful font for indie magazines seems to be the simple yet most popular fonts. I typed using four different fonts to see which I thought looked more professional. I asked some girls (as I’m primarily targeting girls) who took media to tell me what they thought about each font in the list, to select the most appropriate for my magazine. I made it clear that the choices were for ordinary text, not headings or subheadings.
Lucinda Bright –simple and easy to read –received the most votes.
Bauhaus 93 –a stylish font, but some found it a challenge to read.
Haettenschweiler –simple to read but a bit too compact –unprofessional-looking.
Lucinda Calligraphy –clear but old fashioned.
Rosewood STD Regular –couldn’t read it!
Wide Latin –words are too long.
Apple Chancery –too fancy.
Words or headings that need to stand out should be much bolder than the rest of the text, so I asked the same people which font out of a selection they’d prefer for headings and subheadings, in an indie frame of mind.
The most popular was: Tight black WordArt.
SO..
My colour scheme and font choice has been decided.
Colour scheme: Red, white, black, possible grey.
Font choice: Lucinda Bright for the text, WordArt displayed above for the headings.
INSTITUTION
Who would publish my magazine??
International Publishing Company is one of the top magazine publishers in the UK to date. Founded in 1963 it now sells 350 million copies per year, so it is obvious that this is the institution to be with. With offices all across the world in cities such as New York and Paris; making JUMP a universal magazine is within reach.
IPC Media work in publishing internationally cherished; Now and Look Magazine, Inspire, Ignite! SouthBank and TX. It also works with NME; so indie is in the mix and therefore a possibility.
CREATING AN ARTIST
The female artists look seductive yet full of attitude and rebellion; I will try to incorporate this in my images. All the females are also staring directly into the camera lens so I will make this a must. Their costuming is unique, with large accessories.
Lady Gaga’s pose works for her, so I will try to adapt this slightly and use it on one of my made-up artists. Using all these feminine indie artist conventions and combining them should merge to create an artist capable of sharing all of their fan groups.
All of these artists are prominent artists of indie; Ashlie Bowes is fictionally the same as this.
IMAGES I TOOK AND EDITED FOR:
MY MAGAZINE COVER
Louise Linehan.
This high angle image instantly lowers her status, creating the vibe that she's been up to no good. This should appeal to potential rebellious readers.
I added blue highlights to her hair, using the tint tool, and altered the saturation and temperature to brighten the picture up.
I edited out any imperfections.
_______________________
I took this image of a dummy when I visited Madam Tusuads in London. In order to pull the focus more to the camera (as it's advertising a competition involving cameras), I blurred the background, and with the camera in front of the woman's face, she doesn't require much attention. Again, I made the colours brighter, as the magazine cover needs to be bold.
_______________________
Ashlie Bowes.
Another high angle shot, this time to highlight vulnerability and traumer. I edited her to make her costume much brighter - an indie convention, and I made her 'size zero' skinny. The walls appear wonky in the picture; it isn't all lined up properly - again, to emphasise the rebellious, unique theme indie has going on.
_______________________
Amy Langschied.
This image is supposed to be a part of an album cover. The pink and red clash, portraying an independent and rebellious style - going against the fashion norms. By Amy looking at the heart cusion in her hand, it is obvious that the album revolves around love, this isn't always the case with indie music - making her one of the more different indie artists. I boosted the colours and warmed the saturation. I also sharpened it to give the image an edge. Her heavy make-up and pink colours enforce her femininity on the image. Her facial expression - biting her lip - is a form of titilation - yet another convention of indie artists.
_______________________
Main image.
Featuring: (left) Chris Routledge, Natalie Rodney, Alex Bawden & (bottom) Ashlie Bowes.
Chris- Agressive body language, hands in pockets, serious expression, head slightly tilted. Dominant use of black and some red. This displays his stereotypical rebellious nature and masculinity.
Natalie- Is standing in a similar position to LadyGaga's recent pose. Again she is all in black, with seductive red lipstick, and her mouth slightly ajar. She looks serious, deep and diffenent. Her hands are on her hips, giving her power and she's in the centre giving the picture a good shape.
Alex- Again, all in dramatic black. His thumbs are in his pockets and he's making no effort to look friendly. Despite this, he looks together and masculine.
Ashlie- Ashlie is the main singer in the group. Her status is made clear as she is at a different level to the others, and is more colourful- not primarily in black. She's half smiling, allowing the audience to connect with her more than the other three. Her facial expression is similar to Natalie's. Ashlie is slouched with her feet against the wall, portraying a rebellious side. She has chunky accessories- a convention of indie outfits.
Camera angle- The angle appears to be unique, with it being front-on to those in the background, and sideways-on to Ashlie. The camera was held at Ashlie's eye level to allow the audience to connect with her more than the others, whilst giving everyone else the impression that they're looking down at the camera- maintaining their high, important status'.
Over all- Everybody is looking into the camera with seductive facial expressions and relaxed though powerful body language. The costume is bold, with Ashlie's bolder still giving her a more central role.
FOR: MY CONTENTS PAGE
Amy Langschied.
In this photograph Amy is looking into the camera, using slight titilation and a serious face to capture her audience. It is there to tempt her audience into wanting to turn the page; therefore buying the magazine. Her costume is bright red yet simple, and the glasses make her stand out as being different. The camera angle is to the side of her, causing Amy to turn; hence giving the camera/audience-reader, her full attention.
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Featuring: Adam Brewer, Chris Routledge and Alex Bawden.
This image is more naturally coloured, with the red colour theme continued via the walls and accessories. The positioning is different to that of the cover, giving the central person the highest role, allowing them to be central and higher up physically, rather than keeping them all equal. The facial expressions are masculine and almost intimidating; demanding respect.
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Featuring: Ashlie Bowes, Becca Ford and Natalie Rodney.
This image is brighter and bolder. It will appear smaller in my magazine, so it has to stand out. I edited the contrast on the whole picture, though mainly the costumes. I also made them all thinner, as this is what magazines dominantly present in the twenty first century. The females are in unusual, striking positions - pushing on the walls creating a sense of them breaking free, pushing the boundaries, being individuals. This is all a heavy part in indie music.
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Ashlie Bowes.
This image is seductive and sets Ashlie up with a high status. The picture has been taken from the side, causing her to turn her head to the camera, showing the readers' eyes; the camera, attention. She isn't smiling, suggesting that she's confident enough in herself and her looks to remain natural. She is dressed in pink and white, portraying her femininity. Her eyes are behind glasses, creating a sense of mystery and lust. I boosted the colours so make the pink parts brighter, and I brightened the background to make the cream coloured wall more white; to appear how a professionally taken photo would. Her dark hair frames her face, allowing her to stand out that tiny bit more.
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Becca Ford.
This image copies the style of the previous image of Ashlie. Becca conversely, is smiling and looking into the camera. She's less famous than Ashlie, so it would be more difficult to pull off mysterious. The bright green makes her stand out, and I edited her hair to make it more of a brighter blonde. The shadow to her right, acts as a right frame to the image, and with the similar pictures being placed together, it permits Becca to go to the right of the page.
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Natalie Rodney.
Similarly to before, Natalie is surrounded by a white background, has a twisted smile and is looking into the camera seductively. Uniquely, she is dressed in all black, making her image more dramatic and a contrast to the white behind her. The green bow in her hair adds a little colour to the image, drawing in the brightness of indie.
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FOR: MY DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
Amy Langschied.
Amy has been placed uniquely in a bath, instantly creating an entertaining and different feel to the artist. She is dressed in a bright red dress which is accompanied by a black feather boa; framing the top part of her body, and sticking to the conventional colour scheme. Her left arm frames the other side of her body, as well as the whole picture, and the sides of the bath add to this. The white tiles reflect the flash of the camera, and once brightened reenforces the idea of show business.
THE END
By using everything I'd researched and the ideas I collected, I maganged to form my cover, contents and double page spread. I did some of this in Word, some in Paint.NET and some in Photoshop.
MY COVER PAGE
MY CONTENTS PAGE
MY DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
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