Organisation

This is my improved contents page so far. Obviously I still need to add in my regulars and another story and I am going to plan my time so I can have it done by the end of the week. I have decided to base my contents on a mixture of Q magazines and NME. I have used the same colour scheme as NME, but used two main stories as the center in the center of the page. I also changed the image of Jake to a close up. This look's much better however I still need to work on the cropping and maybe keeping the background in. I have included the page number which is a simple but key thing to include in a contents page. I also added in a subscription ad, date line and a website link. I also used a link to the Youtube link and a top 5 songs you need to listen to. This will help pull in my target audience as they will want to listen to the songs. I have kept the fonts and colour scheme simple. I plan to add in a masthead on the 'inside' bit as well as another main story and a regulars list which I am making the list for currently.

Organisation: How to improve

I asked my teachers on how I can improve on my drafting of LGM's front cover, contents page and double page spread and this was his feedback!

Front Cover
There are three areas I need to improve on to make my front cover look better. The first area is something I picked up on myself in which the picture of my artist 'Jake' needs to be scaled up more. This is because it does leave a bit of blank space and he looks a bit distance from the masthead. The second reason is that my cover lines look uneven in space. This is because of the image of Jake and doing some 'experimental work' I have found that the cover lines are more equally spread after I have dragged Jake up. Finally my masthead needs to be a bit bolder as I am basing my magazine on NME. Due to this I have already started to make a new masthead. Overall the work on the layout needs improving. However I have already started to work on it and the front cover is looking much better.

Contents Page
As I have pointed out my contents page simply is not good enough as there is not much content and the fonts are to big. My teacher has basically agreed on these points and said it needs more content. To fix this I have already started looking at Q magazine contents page as shown in my previous blog (lewisglennonmediawork.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/organisation-how-to-improve-my-contents.html). I will use this as a template when making my real contents page and I will also redo my photo shoot of Jake for better quality contents page pictures, as my one of Jake is not the best, but I think the other images look good, but I will tweak them.

Double-Page Spread
On my double page spread I have just made a few basic errors. My first error is simply my spelling and grammar in some areas of the interview. Obviously I need to fix this as this is a huge interview in a big music magazine. My second error is that I have put my two pull quotes in different fonts and I should of kept them the same as most music magazines don't vary their fonts to much. However these errors can be fixed quite easily so my real double page spread should look like a proper interview.

This feedback has really helped me show some of the errors I failed to see in my front cover, contents page and double page spread draft. This will help provide a checklist and template for me when making my real front cover, contents page and double page spread, so they will look as best as I can make them!

Organisation: Double Page Spread improvements

When making my real double page spread I need to consider where I need to improve. I need to improve two key parts. First of for my draft of in my double page spread (lewisglennonmediawork.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/organisationdouble-page-spread.html), I think that I had a good quality picture and used both pull quotes effectively. I also think I used the right size text and showed the reader the questions by putting them in bold, however there are areas for me to improve. Firstly I need to use a secondary image to support the pull quote in the middle of the text. This would show the reader what the artist is like and would complement the pull quote. Secondly my double page spread is just the simple image on one side, and text on the other. While I think this looks good I will try and merge the text around the image for my real thing as I believe this will look better and more like a proper double page spread you would see in Q or NME. However both of these ideas might not look as good as my double page spread does now, so I will make a draft to see what it looks like. I also need to look at basic errors I have made and sort them as well so my double page spread looks like a proper double page spread. The basic errors I have picked up on myself is that I have miss spelt  some words I have used in my interview and I my page numbers are not that clear to see. Therefore I need to sort out these improvements first, before experimenting with text layout and the use of a secondary image on my double page spread. To do this I will need to organize my time so I will be able to make an 'experimental' double page spread to see if it looks better than my current draft.

Organisation: How to Improve my contents page

I have recently finished my front cover, contents page, and double page spread for my music magazine LGM. However it was clear that the contents page was my weakest element so I have looked at  Q's contents pages to help me improve mine.

  This is my contents page for LGM. I have used a good colour scheme and pictures as well as used good fonts. However there are some errors on here. The most basic error I made was not including Glastanbury 2015 review, and Katy Perry's interview (which was on my front cover) in the contents as I focused to much on my made up stars. Secondly my fonts are a bit big and need trimming down, and this makes it all look packed in and crammed which I wanted to do but use a better effect. Finally I think I need a better shot of my main interview Jake. I think a mid shot would work well here with the prop as the long shot makes him look stretched out.








This is a contents page from Q magazine which I am basing LGM magazine on. As you can see there are some similarities with the main interview taking up much of the page to imply it the main interview. Also the colours are similar as are the boxes which single each category. However Q use much smaller fonts then me which helps the fits more around the image of Adele and make her the star.  It is also separated a lot more equally which each category getting an equal amount of space making it easy to read, also the fact that some boxes have a grey background makes it look very effective and I will contemplate using this on my real contents page.










CONCLUSION
In conclusion I think it is clear that my contents page needs a lot of work to be anywhere near as good as Q's. I am going to keep to the style Ive set of the main interview taking up the page and the colour scheme. However I will make my font size smaller, to accommodate more room and equal category. I will also contemplate using a coloured background in a box for the 'features' bit to make it look more professional and effective. I will cut out the basic errors I made in this draft and include everyone in the contents, but for me the biggest change I need to make is either using a mid shot or a close up, as Q have done, of the main cover star before basing everything around that image. This blog has helped me a lot and has let me make a plan on how to improve my contents page when it comes to the real thing.

drafting and planning: Feedback to first draft.

Today I got feedback from my classmate on how to improve my drafts for LGM which I have uploaded over the last few days.

 Overall my weakest draft was my contents page. It is not consistent as it does not contain some artists I used on my cover line, and my photo is not the best as it looks stretched out. I also need to make the fonts shorter and spread it out more as it is all crammed in. Also there simply is not enough content involved for a weekly music magazine. However I did use a good colour scheme and have stuck to the codes and conventions and used a subscription ad.

 On my double page spread the main thing was that I needed to use a secondary image and perhaps pull down the boldness of the font, to create a harmony of the pull quotes and the interview. This is useful as it shows me how I can create a double page spread which looks like an actual one for a music magazine. I was also told to maybe try and put the text around my image. This is used in a few music magazine's such as Q and I will experiment using this to see how well it looks.

Finally my front cover was my strongest element of my drafts. I was praised for the quality of my photo and my masthead as well as sticking to the codes and conventions of a typical music magazine by using a dateline, barcode, website and price. I was also praised for my layout of the cover lines, pugs and screamer. However I need to perhaps use less fonts as I have to many and I need to link it with my contents page as I left out a star (Katy Perry) from the contents page.

This task will help me when I make my final piece as it has shown me what basic errors I have made and how I could make my magazine look better. It has also shown me a new insight into how I could lay my magazine out for example on the double page spread I could put the text around the image instead of having the traditional image on one side, text on the other. Overall I am pleased with my drafts but this feedback has helped me show how to improve my weak elements and also straighten other element's to help me create a good strong music magazine.

drafting and palnning:Double Page Spread

This is my double page spread for LGM. I have based it on NME's double page spread by not directly asking my cover star questions, but explaining his career mixed in with his views. I only used part of my interview because when I wrote it I planned for two more pages after you have turned over. I made the writing red to go with my colour scheme and the bits Jake does not say are in bold to show the audience who's talking. I used to pull quotes, one on the image and one in the article to show the audience why Jake is retiring and I think both quotes, used in the interview, fit that perfectly. The pull quote I used on the image I put in white to complement the gry background, and for the same reason I put the other pull quote in black on the white background. I really like the image used as the hands in pockets, direct address, and slanted head shows that Jake does not really care anymore and his attitude really complements the grey dull background of the picture. For my real double page spread I think I need to improve on two things. Firstly I need to make the page numbers clear, because you can see the number '24' on one page but can't really see '23' due to the colour of the picture. I will also need to experiment with PagePlus for the real thing and try and base the text around the image which is more centered. This might not look as good but it will be good to see which two look the best as this one is the typical one image on one side and text on the other.

drafting and planning: Front cover analysis

This is my front cover for my magazine LGM. Like the contents page I had done a draft before this but decided to make one on Paint.Net with a better picture to produce a better product. I decided to organize another photo shoot and this time used a plain background. I got my cover star Jake to put his hands in his pockets and give direct address to show the audience his attitude but also to show that he is tired with music, which fits in with my interview about him retiring. I also put the main cover line in red, and the other cover lines in black to show that Jake is the main story. I kept the fonts nice and simple and included the made up backup stars in the cover lines. However I used a screamer by using Katy Perry at the bottom. This will help get in my target audience who like more than just indie rock. I also used a pug to lure in my target audience. I kept to the codes and conventions of a music magazine by including a dateline, price, website, and barcode at the top. I decided to add in a limited edition sign to also pull in my target audience as it shows that this is a big issue.Finally I made the masthead bold and black to stand out and positioned it so the left third could be used.

drafting and planning: New contents page analysis

This is my finished contents page for my music magazine LGM. I have already made another contents page in another blog but decided to make one on Paint.Net and this looks more like a music magazine contents page.  I have included all the artists I have made in it and imported 4 pictures, including the one of my main cover star Jake, into Paint.Net and wrote the text around it. I decided to keep my colour scheme simple, just red and black as those colours are usually seen in indie rock magazines. The colours also complement well giving off a professional effect. I also gave one side competently dedicated to my main cover star to let the audience know that Jake is the main interview. The use of the guitar will also help pull in target audience as it shows how devoted to his music he is even though he is retiring. I made the page numbers go over 40 as other weekly indie rock music magazine usually have about 45 pages, and as LGM is a weekly music magazine I decided to use the same amount of pages. Finally I added in a subscription box to let my target audience know where they can subscribe to LGM. This pulls in my target audience as they may want to take the opportunity to get LGM every week.

Organisation

For my main cover star Jake I have decided to make up some songs from his album 'Crawling Back To You'. I think that these songs suit the Indie Rock genre of Jake. I have looked at albums by Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters to give me some ideas.

1. Crawling back To You
2.Nothing to Lose
3.Forever is not for everyone
4. Vodka shots and cigarettes
5. Jackie
6. Play it on repeat
7. Roman Bells calling
8. Sky Indoor Smoke
9. Baby Red
10.Paradise world
11.I just want to be yours
12. Leather Jacket and sky blue Lacoste

These are song titles which are similar to the ones used in indie rock. You can have love and pain as shown by I just want to be yours', and 'Jackie', but can also feature songs which are not sad such as 'Vodka shots and cigarettes' and 'Nothing to lose'. I also included the album name 'Crawling Back To You' as a song on there because most artists do this for example Coldplay's album Vida La Vida. This blog has helped me build on my character/cover star Jake and I can use this when writing the interview.

Target Audience

I have deiced to research more into NME's target audience and realized that it is not all indie based. It has broad variety of music artist staring in it, it just that Indie music stars appear most often in it. I then looked at my survey monkeys questions which showed me that my target audience is 15-24 year old's. While my music magazine will stay Indie based I realized that I will not be able to get in a fair bit of my target audience with just Indie based musicians as not everyone in that age group likes Indie music. Therefore I have decided to include another artist on my front cover, but they will not be a made up artist as I don't have time to do another photo-shoot, so I will probably use someone like Jay-Z or Katy Perry on my front cover so I can bring in more of my target audience who don't like Indie music! This will increase the popularity of my magazine as I am spreading out my target audience. This was an important aspect I needed to address as not everyone is into Indie rock and NME and Q also feature artists who are non indie.