Constructing my double page spread

I started off by creating an A3 document with a green background because I knew I wanted to use white font and  chose green so that I could see the writing

I then added the text for the feature article.

I the  added the photo onto the background instead of the green background.

I then added an overlay onto the image to improve the overall look of the image.

I then added the masthead around the model.

Finally I added the magazine master and a page number applying a black stroke around this.

I then receive audience feedback on the previous double page spread and they felt that it was too plain and that the image was badly lighten and had to much greenery for the urban environment which I aimed for. I have changed the main image for the one in an urban environment to the one seen above. Have also change the colour palette so that it matches the one included on my cover and my contents page. Finally, I also increased the amount of text on my feature article to fit this new layout.

Constructing my contents page

I started by making a blank A4 document and then added a grey fill down the left hand side and a separator using the rectangular selection tool and then using the fill tool.

I then added the masthead, the date and the title for the column on the left hand side.

I then filled in the content for the chart section on the left hand side of the page.

Then I filled in the contents for the stories as shown above.

Then I added separators to improve the look and use up some of the blank space.

Then I added the photos and scaled them to the size that I left for them.

Finally I used overlays to improve the look of the images

Finally I changed one of the images to one of the person included in my main feature article and on the front cover. I made this image change because it linked the contents page better to the other two products produced as part of my magazine.

Constructing my front cover

I started off using a blue gradient as my background colour because blue is a popular colour to use on the cover of a pop music magazine. I used the gradient tool and selected a blue and white gradient and got the style as shown above.

I then on a separate layer added my original masthead and scaled it to size which was around an eighth of the page, which follow the conventions set by the majority of music magazines.

Then on separate layers I added the text and a logo for the V festival. This is shown above.

I then decide to add a separator between "Jess Barber" and the story below. I did this by using the rectangular selection tool in Photoshop and then the fill tool and filled it with white.

I then  decided to change the blue gradient background for the blue sky background on the main image as shown above. I thought this would be more effective and look better.

I then decide to follow the conventions set by Billboard magazine and decided to bring the top of the model used and bring it infant of the masthead, as shown above.

I decide to change the masthead to a plain white title because it was simpler and looked better as it worked well with the rest of the white on my cover. I made this masthead using the text tool on Photoshop and then I added the black outline using the stroke tool.

I decided to put a red backdrop behind the name of Sam Smith in order to make him stand out like the other artists used on my cover. 

Finally I made a barcode in a separate Photoshop document and copied and pasted it onto a separate layer on my cover.

Creating my Masthead

For my masthead we came up with a few ideas, these are as follows

Simply Pop

Poppers

Total Pop

I chose to use the name Poppers as it represented my target audiences better through the representation stereotypes. For example young people are meant to be rebellious and the Poppers is the name of a drug, which connotes rebellion.

My first try for a masthead is as follows:

This is how I made this:

I started off by adding a black and white gradient onto the background layer.

Then I used the Filter>Distort>Wave tool to make the pattern shown above.

I used the gradient tool agin to change the colour to this.

 To get to this stage I used the vertical flip tool, changed the opacity and then used the blur tool to get the affect see above.

 I got to this stage by adding a gradient to the top of the screen and then I used the distort wave tool to get the wave effect. Then I merge the layers down and scaled them down to this size.

I got to this stage by adding an overlay on the stage above and then I added a thin rectangle and used the distort wave tool to get the electric wave effect shown above. 

I got to this final stage by typing Poppers over the background in the picture above and then used the magic wand tool to select each letter and copied them and pasted them to get the effect shown.

I chose not to use this because the colours didn't look right on the sky blue background as they looked too false and it didn't stand out as a background.

I chose to use this masthead as it was simple and the white went well the the colour pallet used on the rest of the cover

Editing research

Photoshop

To create a good looking masthead I used some on the Photoshop text tutorials like the one shown above. However with the one shown above I followed the tutorial down to the end but unlike shown on the tutorial I made the text have the sound wave effect rather than put the text on  a layer on top of the wave effect.

I felt that this tutorial made the best masthead for my magazine as the wave effect resembled sound waves which i thought was a good theme for a pop music magazine.

Illustrator

I used this tutorial to see if I could get a better text design than I could in Photoshop. I don't use Illustrator as much as I use Photoshop so I chose to watch a basic text tutorial rather than a more complicated one. After watching this tutorial I though I would be better off using the text tutorial as shown above under the Photoshop heading because I felt that the text looked better and would therefore be more suitable for my magazine masthead.

Budget

Canon 5D-£2024.95
Canon 6D- £1249.95
Canon 600D- £325.95
Canon 50mm Lense- £74
Canon 300mm Lense- £219
Imac 21inch- £899
Adobe CS5- £600

Original images

This is a medium close up of my model but I didn't set the aperture wrong so the image turned out too bright.

Another medium close up however this time I got the focus wrong and the image was too blurry.

Long shot, I didn't use this image because you were unable to see the model clearly and the metal bars casts shadows on him.

This is a medium close up of a teenage model. I chose not to use this image in my coursework because the lighting seemed too bright.

This is a medium shot of another model. I chose not to use this image in my coursework because the bars cast heavy shadows on the models face which I felt I could not edit out.

This is a close up of another model. I chose not to use this image in my products because the image is out of focus.

This is a media  long shot of a model. I chose not to use this image because of the way the lighting was and how the trees to the left of this photo affected this.

This is a medium shot of two models. I chose not to use this because the positioning of the sun cast a heavy shadow on their faces.

This is a medium close up of a model. I chose to use this image on my contents page of my magazine. This is because the image is well focused and the light levels look fine.

here is a close up of the same model. Again I chose to use the=is because of the focus and light conditions.

This is a long shot of a model. I chose not to use this as part of my magazine because the camera is out of focus and the metal wires obscured the model more than I wanted.

This is a close up of a model. I chose not to use this in my magazine because the model seems to be starting to blink in his right eye.

This is a medium shot of a model. I chose to use this image because it is well focused and light levels were effective as they were so the image required little editing.

This is a medium close up of a model. I chose to use this image in my coursework because it was well focused.

This is a medium long shot of the model. I chose not to use this image because she is blinking a her hair is all over the place.

This again is a medium long shot of the model. I chose to use this for my double page spread because the image is well focussed and the pose she is in worked well with what I was aiming for when I designed by double page spread.

This is a medium shot of a model. I chose not to use this image because her hair was causing a heavy shadow to be cast onto her face.

This is a medium shot of a model. I chose to use this image because it is well focused and her positioning I thought would be good for my cover. The rise-en-scene of this image is good at attracting a male target audience because as Mulvey said in 1975 females in the media can be used as "objects for desire by the audience."

I chose not to use this medium shot of my model because the lighting was wrong and the neck of the guitar was pointed at an angle which would have been difficult to work with especially with the layout of my front cover.

This is another medium shot of the same model. This is a much better image to use on the front cover of my magazine. This is because the image is well focused and has good lighting. Also the neck of the guitar is at a much better angle to work with.

This is a medium long shot of the same model sitting down. This is a poor image as the model is blinking as the shot is taken. This is why I chose not to use this image on my double page spread of my magazine.

This is a similar image to the one above. This image is well focused, the lighting is good and unlike in the image above the model is looking directly at the camera and is not looking. This is why I chose to use this image to use as the main image for the main article on my double page spread of my magazine.