Editing the cover star picture

I have started to edit my cover star photo on paint.net.
This is my original photo:

One of the first things I wanted to do was delete the background and especially the date line on it. I find that after removing the background on the picture it fits onto different background easier.

I then wanted to add an elbow onto the left arm as I chopped it of when taking the photo, so I copied the right elbow and flipped it over and re sized it to be the left elbow. The problem was then that the colours were different

I adjusted the colour using the colour filter on paint.net so it looked more realistic.

This is how it came out, although it is not perfect if I have the main cover line in that area you shouldn't be able to notice it.

This is the edited photo with the masthead, I wanted to change the lighting and edit it a bit as I felt it looked to much like an unprofessional photo at the moment.

I used 'soften portrait' on paint.net to change the colour slightly and soften the picture.

I like how the colour is a little darker as I feel her features, especially her eyes stand out more now. This means the direct eye contact with the reader is stronger. Also I think it softens the outline of the picture making it look more professional.

Drafts

I have done drafts for my cover, double page spread and contents page to help my when I start creating my final product.

Cover:

This is a draft drawing but it has the main features of a front cover and sets out the layout of my front cover.

My masthead is at the top as I want this to be one of the first things the reader notices. I have put the date line and price going up the B so that it doesn't take away from the other features of the cover but it is still noticeable as this is information customers will want to know. Underneath the masthead is the selling line "UK's leading pop magazine", I have placed it here as it will be the next things the reader looks at after the masthead. In the middle is my cover star picture, this is a convention of magazines as all front covers have their cover star dominating the page. The main cover story will be overlapping the picture so the reader knows that this links with the cover star it will also be in bigger font then the other cover storeys as this is the main article and my research shows me this influences people to buy the magazine the most.

Contents:

 I kept the masthead of my magazine in the top left so that it is still noticeable and creates a house style. Also along the top in a date line again, by keeping somethings the same it links the front cover and contents together. Down the left hand side is the UK Top 20 chart, this was an idea I had already came up with and posted on my blog, I think it will make my pop magazine unique, and alot of my readers will be interested in which songs are popular at the moment and it will also know what new songs are out for them to listen to. The main image will be my cover star as I have noticed a lot of contents pages also feature the cover star. Along the bottom will be 2 more pictures with the page numbers, this will give an insight into what the article will be about. One picture will be of a male artist performing live and the other will be a girl band. Down the right hand side I have separated my articles into 4 sections, I noticed that most contents pages do this, the one above also does this. This helps the reader find particular articles easier.

The draft is in black and white as I have yet to decide a colour scheme, I will need to make my contents and front cover colour scheme link as this is a convention of magazines.

Double Page:

I have taken the pictures for the double page spread and the nine pictures will be of my cover star showing different emotions. The masthead is in the middle of the text to split the pictures so there is an even balance. I haven't decided what the masthead will say yet, but it will be something alone the lines on the one of the draft. On the other side will be the interview, which will be a question and answer session.

 

More Masthead ideas

I had another look at my masthead ideas and decided that I wasn't that's happy with the designs I had already created as I didn't think they looked professional enough and I especially didn't like the fonts I had used. As the masthead is one of the most important things as it will be on every magazine and people will relate the masthead to the magazine, I need to take time to make sure it is the best it can be. I  create some other ideas in hope they will be more successful.

I stayed with the idea of the red background with this masthead, as I do like the idea of the banner masthead. However I changed the font to something a bit more unique and noticeable, I think this font is slightly more original and the reader would link the font to the magazine.

This time though I used aberation on paint.net

This makes the pink and yellow shadow, I thought this gave more character to it and the colours pink and yellow are bright and pop music is usually linked to bright, happy colours.

This time I got rid of the red background as I had a look at other mastheads and noticed most music magazines do not have a colour behind their masthead expect for Q magazine. Although I do think it works well I wanted to see what it looked like without the background. I kept the same font as I do like this font as its different but still quite professional. However this time instead of making the pink and yellow as the shadow I filled in the B and A on Paint.Net

I changed the pink so it is a mix of red and pink because my target audience is both females and males so I didn't want it too look to feminine, I also made the yellow slightly gold, as gold has connotations of being of good quality and award winning which would suggest my magazine is an award winning magazine.

I really like the second beat logo so I wanted to try it out on the same template as i used for my other mastheads

I think this could would better then the banner type masthead as it would be more versatile, I could have different colour backgrounds on my front cover without having to worry about it not going with the read banner.

After doing this I also have a few ideas of how I could around this masthead

On this one I have moved the date line so it up going up the B, I think this makes everything fit together better and looks as though everything works around the masthead, which makes the masthead stand out more. Where the dateline used to be I have put a selling line, pointing out that the magazine is the leading pop magazine suggest this is the bets magazine for that genre which will encourage people to buy it. Also having under the masthead makes it still noticeable to the reader but doesn't distract away from the masthead. Although the font used in this draft may differ from when i do the final cover, the idea will be the same.

Final decision

After doing a few drafts with different mastheads I have decided that I am going to use this one:

I think this is the most versatile masthead, which will enable me to change the background of the cover and change the layout so the texts fits around it. With the red mastheads I was worried that It would not look as good with grey or black grounds, but with this masthead the text is black which will go with everything. I also like this font the best as I think it is different from the simple fonts such as 'Ariel' which means through the font alone readers should be able to link the masthead to be magazine. I also like the block colours used as some of the effects on my other mastheads are a little to much as magazine mastheads are often quite simple.

Main coverline ideas

Now I have decided what my theme for my double page spread will be (an interview with an artist discussing how they are not a "robot" controlled by their record label) I can start generating ideas for my main cover line.
I had a look at other magazines that fit my genre to see if there was a noticeable pattern for the types of cover lines used. I noticed with Billboard especially that the front cover often has the artists name and then a bit of speech, usually a snippet of the interview that would intrigue the reader and make them want to find out the rest of the interview. For example:

This cover line has the artists name "Rihanna" in the centre and in bigger font so that it is the main feature and then has a small part of the interview. By saying the fans don't really know who she is suggests she is going to reveal her true self in the interview, encouraging people to buy the magazine to find out what the real Rihanna is like.

With this is mind I have created a few main cover lines for my magazine:

• Selena "I'll never play the game" - there is a mysterious side to this as it doesn't mention what "the game" is, the reader will have the read the interview to understand that she is implying many artist treat the industry as a game and try and cheat their way to the top by pretending to be something they are not.
• Selena "the music industry is ugly" - although this gives more of an insight into what the article is about then others it still only mentions enough to get the reader curious as to why the industry is ugly, they will be hoping the interview will explain.
• Selena "How can they lie to their fans?" - this suggests a certain artist/band is lying to their fans so people will want to read the article to find out who this is and what the lie is
• exclusive Selena "the truth is shocking" - an exclusive makes the reader think there is information they can not read anywhere else which persuades them to buy this magazine as it will be different. Also this again this cover line is mysterious as they will want to know what she is referring to

Contents Page articles ideas

I have started to look at music magazine contents pages to get some ideas on what type of articles I can include in my magazine, I have looked at Q, Billboard, NME for inspiration.

I am going to split my articles up into sections: Features, Interviews, reviews and every issue. I decided this because these are the typical things you would see in a music magazine.

If you look at these two contents pages from NME and Q you can see that they split their articles up to make it easier to follow for the reader. Also on both contents pages the section 'Features' and 'Review' is on both this suggests these are two key features that should feature in my magazine. NME is a weekly magazine as that may be the reason why they do not have a section for regular articles, as if they were to put them in every week it could get boring for the reader. However Q is a monthly magazine like mine will be and they have a 'every month' feature which has regular features that readers enjoy in it. Also as my target audience questionair highlighted the need for interviews I decided I wouldhave a section based on artist interviews.

potiental ideas

Features:

• Woman in pop - this will be an article on how females are dominating the pop genre at the moment
• Festival Decisions - an articles about which music festival is right for you and how to decide.
• 'band name' picture special - this is an exclusive article featuring behind the scene pictures from a bands tour
• In the studio - explains the day in an atrists life when recording

Interviews:

• The new boy - an interview with the new boy of pop
• Selena exclusive - my double page spread with the cover artist
• The first lady of pop - an inteview with the woman who is taking over the pop industery
• The USA take over - the hottest boy band discuss their trip to america
• Quick fire - A quick fire questionaire with an artist

Reviews:

• Albums - Reviewing the new albums out this month
• Conor Live - articles reviewing how good a male artist is live
• The Book of shame - negative review of an atrists biography

Every Month:

• Access all areas - monthly diary with a artist
• What I think - monthly articles written by the editor on what she thinks about this months news in pop
• Beat Mail - Answering questions that are sent in by readers

Photoshoot decisions

Outfit decision:
I asked my cover star to bring two outfits of my choice so that I could take a range of photos.
The first is a black and grey dress that is glamourus and fashionable which reflects her fashion icon status which has helped her pop career grow.

This is a picture of the dress, as you can see it isnt a typical 'red carpet' dress that is very formal and girly, the gems and the part that goes across the neck make it abit more edgey which represents her personality.

This is a picture of the other outfit choosen

This is a different outfit but again is very up to date but I feel the top works alot better as its a bright blue catching the readers attention.  Also the fact it isnt a dress makes her look even more edgey and as if she is breaking the conventions.

After doing my photoshoot last week I have cut my photos down to a small selection that I think I could use.

Cover Star:

This picture is using direct eye contact, which is an important code and convention of magazines, I like how she is not face on to the camera but it still catching the readers eye. Its as if she has turned around to look at the reader making them feel involved. The down side to this picture is that the arm is dominating the picture when it should be the face.

Again there is direct eye contact in this picture but she looks alot happier as her smile is alot bigger, I do feel that maybe the smile is to broad as looking at front cover such as blender and although they do look happy it is rare they are smiling like this. However if i was to use a picture for my contents page this could be used as looking as other magazine the contents page sometimes do have a more serious front cover and then a happy contents page:

This is an example of a contents page that uses a smiley picture.

I really like some aspects of this picture, I think the eye contact with the reader is very direct and it feels as though she is looking at you personally, I also think this picture could dominate a front cover. I also think there is a nice amount of attitude, she looks quite sassy. I think this would fit in with my article as she is explaining how she wont be controlled by her record label like other artists, so the article will be quite fiesty and I think the picture relects this. I have slightly cut of some of the elbow in this picture however as I do quite like the picture I could balance it out and cut some of the other elbow off.

I am going to use this photo as I think it will link in with my double page article well.

Double Page Spread:

For my double page spread I need 9 medium close up photos, showing a range of emotions.

In this photo is showing her happy side and in this photo she is smiling broadly and looks like she is enjoying herself.

 In this photo she is laughing which shows her fun side and makes her look as though she is enjoying herself. She is not using direct eye contact because it makes it seem more natural as though she is really laughing and it was not just staged for the photo.

I have changed the top in the following pictures to have a variety, however I have since decided I am going to crop the picture to the shoulders anyway so it looks consistant. This photo shows her flirty side, I had some good feed back on this pose when I used it to create a practice magazine so I thought I would be useful to use.

 This picture shows her confident side as she has her head slightly tilted up as if she is higher then the others and her smirk makes her appear as though she is happy with herself. In order to be a successfull artists it is ensential to be confident.

This picture shows her sad side, reflecting the negative side of being a successfull pop artists as the press can often be negative.

  These two photos show her playful side as she is doing funny poses. The audience will like the fact she can make fun of herself and doesnt take herself to serious

Although this is a slightly exaggerated expression of shocked I think it works well as it makes it less serious.

This picture makes her seem as though she is michevious and she is smirking looking pleases with herself and the hand makes he look as though she has been planning something

With these images I am going to crop then to shoulder length so there is emphasise on the facial expression and have them black and white so the colour text in the middle stands out, this is an examlple:

Contents page - Pop band:

In this image I wanted it too look as though the band were breaking up. I used blocking so that the the one who is no longer in the group is at the front, clearly showing the divide from the other two. Also the fact the girl is in pink contrasts the black from the other two band mates, this shows how different they are suggesting this is why they have broke up.

Furthermore the facial expressions of the two band mates help to emphaises the split as they look quite pleased with themselves as they are smirking. Where as the other band mmemeber is looking distant and sad as though she has almost been forced out of the band. I think my target audience would be interested in a article which explains why a big girl band have decided they are going to break up

In this picture the article would just be about the girl band in general. Blocking is used again but this time the girl in front looks as though she is the lead singer as most bands have a main singer, the contrast in clothes also shows this. This time they are all smiling showing a united girl band.

Contents Page - Live picture:

I recently went to a concert and took some photos for my magazine, as I will have a section about live reviews:

I decided To use this photo:

As he looks like he is really getting into the song and the review will be a posstive one.

practice masthead

I wanted to try out the beat masthead on a practise front cover, although its quite a basic front cover it will still give me a feel for how it will look. I don't really like how this sits on the page, I don't think it looks that professional and it would be hard to choice a good layout with this type of logo.

I looked at 'Instyle' magazine and it gave me some influence on how to edit the logo abit:

I like how the masthead is like a banner and goes all the way across the page, I think it stands out from the rest of page as it dominates the top of the page.

This is my improved beat masthead but on the same template. I changed the colour of the background so its slightly lighter as I felt for a pop magazine the red before was a bit dark as usually pop is related to brighter colours. Also the font is different, its softer than the first logo again because I think for a pop audience it needs to be softer. Having the banner type masthead allows room at the top for either the date line and price or the a selling line.