Production Diary - Week 12

In my last lesson, I entirely changed the article layout to test out other designs as I had been quite unsure about the layout I originally had planned to use. I removed one of the pages and plan to convert it to a page which showcases another act (following a photoshoot that I am going to host next month). As one of my original aims was to feature as many artists as I could, I planned to maybe test this by making another article about another artist or band. I also changed up the first article by playing around a bit with the design; changing images around as well as lengthening the article a bit. I am still unsure as to whether or not use two articles or just stick to one, however with contingency time I am going to create a draft of two articles so that I can choose which looks better and follow through with that.
I also found it quite difficult to lengthen my article by a great amount so by creating another article about a different musician or act, I am able to avoid unnecessary rambling in my first article by creating another instead. I hope that this will make my magazine successful and all go to plan.
In my next lesson, I plan on designing this secon article in more detail and creating the basic scaffolding for it whilst also creating the text that is going to be featured inside, and the sooner that I do this, the sooner I am able to establish whether or not I will stick with my original scaffolding or the new one, as I am still quite undecided.

Production Diary - Week 11

In the past few lessons, I continued to use my contingency time to finish constructing my magazine and filling in the rest of my article. I also used Photoshop to edit some photos that I would like to include in my magazine as well as planning the shots that I plan to take sometime next month. I created another drafting of my magazine which includes the two main covers, the contents page and the article. I have made minor changes as I am still unsure on the definite house style that I would like to follow, and I have thought about whether or not to add a double page spread with a quote and am still undecided on whether or not to do so as I have quite a lot of images as it is. Next lesson, I plan on continuing to improve my magazine, lengthening my article and adding in more images.

Production diary - Week 10

During this week, I continued to create my magazine scaffolding and completed my box text to put into the article. I also finished creating my subscription cover, however I still plan on using any contingency time that I may have to make the cover to the best of my ability. I've added sell lines to my cover and have applied the colour scheme throughout, as well as adding more photos to my contents page and adding the subtitles and captions for the articles. This will help me to save a lot of time as everything is pretty much in place, so I only have to lengthen my article and add photos as well as slightly improve anything that I do not like and I will have almost completed the project.

Production Diary - Week 9

Throughout this week I have completed a lot of work, including my coverlines, box out text and continuing to improve and design the scaffolding of the magazine.

As I have chosen to use two covers for my magazine, a main cover and a special fan/subscriber edition, I have had to balance time between the covers in order to create them both. For the main cover, I added a masthead as well as the full bleed image which includes the coverline and band names on the front. I plan on adding other coverlines in my next lesson where I also plan on improving the design again as I still feel as though it needs a bit of improvement. I have chosen this image of my model, Ruth (Aurora Storm) for the front cover as she is giving direct address of eye contact to the audience which draws them in, and her bold eyes and red lips connote her danger and seductiveness which appeals to the target audience of the magazine as well as matching the house style of the magazine. Ruth is portrayed as bare which indicates how she's being honest in the article as well as moreso attracting the target audience.


For the special fan/subscriber edition of the magazine, I first used a special device where I had to draw on a pad with a pen which was connected to the computer, so that when I drew on the pad it would appear on Photoshop and transfer the writing to the cover image of that edition of the magazine. I struggled whilst using this device, so instead I wrote various lyrics and quotes from the aritcle on a piece of paper, scanned it into the computer and used Photoshop to brighten and remove the background from the text to later add it to the image. This worked quite successfully and I am happy with the outcome of this cover of the magazine, however next time I need to bring the image in front of the text as I ran out of time to do this. I plan on using any contingency time on improving this cover as it was quite difficult and time-consuming to create, however I think it was worth it as it will overall increase the readership and circulation of the magazine.

For the coverlines and box out text, I simply did some research as to what my audience would like to read about and reflected this in the articles featured, such as the 'Top 50' and various band and artist reviews. The content in the magazine is especially important as it is essentially the main purpose of the magazine, therefore choosing the correct coverlines was important as it could make or break the magazine however I feel that the coverlines that I have used appeal to the audience quite well as they want to hear about arists and new, upcoming music within the indie genre. The box out text was also important as it gives the article an exciting twist which creates a personal relationship with the audience as it impacts hugely on their views and perceptions of the music industry and other artists.

In my next lesson, I plan on continuing to construct my scaffolding and replace the placement texts with my article and images to begin slowly constructing my magazine.

Production Diary - Week 8

Production Diary - Week 7

In the last lesson, we began to create our magazine on InDesign. We created simple, black squares to indicate where our images would be placed as well as including title names and placeholder texts. This makes the project a lot more quick and easy to make when I have all of my materials ready as everything will be in place already. I have started to create my contents and article spreads as these are very significant parts of my magazine with a lot of text and images featured inside them. I have used he colour scheme of red, black and white as this is a very classic and professional colour scheme which is gender neutral and fits well within my target audience. This colour scheme is also used by Q, a very successful music magazine. I have enjoyed creating the template for my magazine as it is very practical and fun, and I look forward to continuing to make this in the next few lessons.

Production Diary - Week 6

Throughout this week, I have completed many things in the project.

I started bycreating a Prezi on photoshoot ideas. This helped influence me on what makeup, poses, hair and props to use for my photoshoot which I was going to do later on in the week. I wrote briefly about each and included photos as well as including the song 'Chocolate' by The 1975, which is an indie band of whom I believe represent the indie genre well. After I had created this Prezi, I held my first photoshoot with my main model, Ruth, who signed a model release form to confirm that she is happy with taking part in the photoshoot and is able to participate in a re-shoot if necessary. I used bold hair and makeup techniques as well as her clothes and overall look to make Ruth look appealing towards the audience of the magazine, and to also fit within the dynamics of the magazine as it is very individual and unique. I also have backstage videos and images of the photoshoot.

During this week, I also created name ideas from a spider diagram around the four main types of words: acronym, connotative, phrase and compound. I found a few names that I liked, such as inD and Unsigned as I feel as though they represent my magazine well, although I am still undecided on which name to use. I also created a document on In Design which is dedicated to the masthead designs. I downloaded various fonts from ReFont and DaFont and transferred them over to In Design to decide which was the most effective and suitable font for my magazine. I liked 'Blackout' and 'Broken74'. Lastly, I created another document and In Design which was based on colour schemes. I simply created a row of 9 blocks, consisting of 4 different colours which I think would be a good colour scheme for the magazine. My favourite colour scheme was the red, matched with the monochrome black and white with grey. I like this colour scheme as it is simplistic yet powerful. I enjoyed these tasks as they helped me to develop more ideas about my magazine and were quite fun to play around with.

Production Diary - Week 5

In the last lesson, I begun to create name ideas and masthead designs. I did this by simply creating a spider diagram; featuring four different sectors of words to use for my name ideas for the magazine. These included acronyms, phrases, connotative and compound words. I chose around 35 name ideas - I liked the name inD and Unsigned as I feel as though they represent the magazine very well and are a key signified of what the magazine stands for. I'm still undecided on which name to use as I was to be 100% sure on the name and I feel as though I'm not quite there yet. After I had created name ideas, I went onto DaFont and ReFont to select fonts that I like to use for the masthead. I downloaded these fonts and transferred them onto InDesign where I created a long list of the fonts and compared which one I like most. Again, I'm still quite undecided as I want the masthead to be to the best of my ability as it is one of the most important factors of a magazine as it can make or break it. 

In the next lesson, I plan on possibly choosing my final name and masthead design so that I can effectively move on to the next task, and select shots of what images I would like to feature in my magazine to help influence me. 

Production Diary Week 5

Production Diary Week 4

In this weeks lesson, I edited my target audience profile and added images which represent the audience of which my magazine is targeted at. I created this on Prezi as it is an interactive and fun way of portraying my work in a different way on my blog. I also made a summary to my survey results and explained what I am going to do with my magazine which is helped by the results that I have gained from the survey. I created this on PowerPoint and I uploaded it onto SlideShare to upload to my blog. I provided pictures of the results to prove evidence of my results and then briefly concluded the results.
I also created my preliminary film video on CamStudio which illustrated my magazine step-by-step of what I had added to the magazine. I used InDesign to portray my magazine in the video, and briefly highlighted what I had made. I found this task quite fun as it was quick and easy to complete, and I gained new skills whilst doing it so it's a win-win situation!

Production Diary Week 3

In today's lesson, I created my proposal. My proposal contains all of the ideas that I have come up with for the production of my magazine. Some of the ideas that I came up with were:

• Genre
• Frequency
• Target audience
• Content
• Mood
• Unique selling point

These factors are significant for my magazine as they are in the general conventions of a magazine and are what will make my magazine stand out amongst the crowd and sit upon the pedestal of music magazines. It is also important that I created this before creating my actual magazine because I can develop these ideas further and make the magazine to the best of my ability.

I now need to gain feedback from my peers to see what I have done well and to also see what I could improve on. This is vital for the project because I can pick up extra marks and generally make the magazine more appealing towards the target audience.

Production Diary Week 2

Part 1: Part 2:

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This week, I finished creating the preliminary material for my school magazine. I followed my plan and created it exactly how I had imagined. I like the front page and the contents page however I have found many things that I could improve on for next time (see Evaluation post). Using this preliminary material, I feel, will help me in the future with creating an improved magazine so I felt that creating this magazine was mandatory for my learning to develop.

After I had created my preliminary material and evaluation, I then moved on to the next task of creating a survey. I plan to gather information about what people would like to see on my magazine. I have created a few questions about what they would like it to look like as well as the content that will be inside the magazine, as well as magazines in general. I have also developed ideas about what I want my front cover to look like, for example I have chosen my model and come up with a few destinations to hold a photoshoot. Outside of class, I finished my survey and gave it to people to fill in so that I could gain knowledge on what to include in my magazine and get general information about what people like a magazine to include. I posted this survey on many different social media platforms so I could get varied opinions.

Production Diary Week 1

This week, I began to create all of the relevant information and work for my preliminary task. For the preliminary task, we must create a magazine for our school (Haydon School). I started by making a PowerPoint presentation which contained all of my ideas including masthead ideas, colour schemes and the main headlines. After I had created my PowerPoint presentation I went on and sketched out what I wanted my front page and contents page to look like. I plan to feature a headline on the Prom Queen of Haydon so I made the full bleed background image a photo of the Prom Queen to portray her significance to the magazine. I also included photos of the new school canteen and happy students after they had received their GCSE results because these too are both very important headlines in the school at the moment and it needs to be a relevant, up to date and fun magazine, and I think that it ticks all of the boxes! I also included the Haydon Stag on the contents page in my sketch as well as the masthead simply being "HaydonMag" so that it grabs attention and the audience immediately know what the magazine is about. I also plan to use social networking as the Internet is taking the world by storm and it means that we can communicate with the audience in a more private way which helps the students not only gain more of an interest in the magazine but it attracts more readers too. I have began to also create the front page on InDesign on the computer, and in the upcoming days I plan to finish my cover and move on to the contents page to completely finish it. After this, my magazine will be complete and will hopefully contain all of the aspects I had originally planned!