Photoshoot Ideas

For my photoshoot, I want a shot of someone in action. My idea is that they will be playing the guitar and be concentrating on that rather then the camera. I want this so the photos seem more natural rather than posed. One of my magazine covers I researched presents the members of a band each doing a different action, rather than simply posing.

This cover photo will have to tie in with my double page spread, so I think the photo should be similar in style to the photos used in that article. Since the shots will be in action, I will use long shot framing to draw attention to their entire body rather than just focusing on their face.

I want to set the photoshoot somewhere that looks the opposite of pre-set and professional photoshoots. I want a natural feeling because this symbolises the carefree and rebellious feeling I want in my magazine.

This is the kind of pose I will try and capture, more zoomed out than this so it is a long shot. Clothing does not matter because i'm trying to be as natural as possible. 
I will set in an outside urban environment because the lighting will be better than inside and the background will be more interesting.

Progress report

First off, i finally managed to breach the obstacle of finding people to give me a feedback video. With that out of the way, I was able to make some real progress with the other components. I managed to complete my style sheet quickly and put it in place on my blog. I finished the mock ups of both my cover and contents page, and I've finalised the design of my masthead. Of course, there is still much catching up to do. I must finish the mock up of my double page spread and begin planning my photo-shoot. The photo-shoot is extra important because that was the weakest aspect of my preliminary task, so I am determined to make and improvement.

And maybe, just maybe, get that B.

Masthead design process

 First off, I started by picking a suitable font for the masthead. I chose this font which is the same font the metal band Megadeth use for their logo, instantly making a connection with my chosen genre.

 I then moved the masthead further down the page and made it larger so it has a bigger appearance on the cover.

 After i was happy with the position of the masthead, I had to decide on the colours. I used the conventional red and black colours as this is what my research shows as a popular scheme

Finally, to make my masthead stand out and look extra original, I layered a second copy of the masthead text over the first. I then inverted the colours of the outline and the fill. This gave the text a 3D effect and also made it much more eye-catching thanks to the extra colour.

Style Sheet

This is my style sheet, it covers basically the ideas for the style i will use throughout my magazine.

Magazine Mock-ups

Cover: This is the mock layout which i will use when designing my magazine cover. From my research I gathered that the masthead should have a dominating presence on the cover, especially on the top half. I also found that my audience prefers a less formal layout, so everything on the page will overlap the central image and the splash will be rotated slightly to give it that "non-conforming" feel. These colours in the mock up are just so you can easily tell each part from one another, they are NOT a representation of the colour scheme I will use in my design, this is purely for layout purposes.

Contents: My contents page has a heavy focus on the double page spread article, the image to the left which will relate to this article takes up about a third of the entire contents page. The layout, while perhaps appearing more formal than the front cover, still follows an informal apprach. Many things will overlap, as you can see in the image above the word contents overlaps the actual contents box.

Double page spread to follow soon

Magazine pitch and Video feedback

Time Management

My time management has been poor. This is due to the fact I am not doing enough work in my own time to keep up with what I have missed in lesson. To fix this, I will need to improve on my effort to work during my own time at home, as well as staying at college to get work done.

I absolutely must finish my pitch and receive feedback on it, as this feedback is vital for future work on the design of my magazine. Therefore, finishing the pitch is my top priority. However, due to a recent lack of access to the necessary tools to finish this, such as the internet, I have been unable to do this. This could have been avoided if I put the extra work in, but it is too late for that now. I skipped ahead and began my mock up plans, I finished the front cover using InDesign and will continue on to the contents and double page spread in free periods.

1. Complete pitch done
2. Receive feedback for pitch done
3. Complete Style sheet done
4. Continue with mock-ups

Double Page Spread Analysis

Contents Page Analysis

Tc analysis from Tommuz