Preliminary Task: School Magazine Front Cover Actual Final.

This actually is my final front cover now.

I took away the image of the school as I wanted my front cover to feature a mid-shot of a student.

I took this picture myself on my own camera and uploaded it onto the computer.

I then opened it into Photoshop and cut out the image. I also airbrushed the image to get rid of any blemishes or imperfections, and also gave it a more even looking skin tone. This way the picture looks more professional and is a more typical image that you would find on the front of a magazine.

Because of the new photo I chose to use as my main image, I had to change the colour of the font overlapping it as the main headline 'Shock Horror! The loos finally have some soap!' because white was difficult to see over the image.

Everything else is the same.

Preliminary Task - Mock Up Contents Page.

This is my mock up contents page for my preliminary task.
The yellow boxes indicate where I would want my images to go which will be related to the main stories being featured on the contents page.
There will also be a slanted maybe 'explosion' type box saying 'cover story' next to the stories which are being advertised on the front cover, in this case it is the stories 'Loo's have soap, shock horror', 'Is the Hag Lady too much?' and 'Sainsbury's sales'.
It will also obviously feature the page numbers each story will be on and it has to be corresponding to the amount of pages each feature will take up.

100 Club Threatened with Closure.

The legendry venue has witnessed the West End debuts of Oasis, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Buzzcocks, while Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Paul Weller still tread the sacred boards.
Aerosmith's Joe Perry described the Oxford Street downstairs night spot as "the finest rock'n'roll club in the world" but unfortunately as the world grows evermore expensive, it could close within a few months because of soaring overheads unless a buyer can be found. Its rates bill has hit £4,000 per month and landlord Lazari Investments now demands a rent of £166,000 a year reports the London Evening Standard.
The cellar club's owner, Jeff Horton, said "It makes me so angry. The Government, Westminster council and even some of the commercial landlords say they want to help small businesses, they say they want to preserve London's uniqueness, they want to help multi-cultural venues. Yet we're all that and all these organisations have all dumped on us from a great height."
100 Club was originally owned by his father who started running the venue in 1964, but it opened in 1942 as a jazz club.
Mr Horton sees few alternatives to closure after Lazari raised the rent by 45 per cent. "In 1985, when I took over, the rent was barely £11,000 In the US the rents are frozen at certain venues that have a bit of heritage. Here it's a total free-for-all."
He also added "What the 100 Club needs is a buyer or major sponsor to step forward. Barring that, we're closing at Christmas despite being as popular as ever. It really is insane."
So, it seems to me that the old types of music they used to have play here is either on the decline, or the club just isn't on such a popular demand like it used to be. The apparent future closure of this establishment could also be a sign that they either can't attract big day popular bands to play at their venue, or they are living in the past and only want to stick to 'old school' bands which aren't in the forefront as much nowadays.
Either which way, this seems like lovers of 100 Club will be experiencing the same tragic feeling they did when Woolworths closed. It's something we don't want to happen, but unfortunately the greed and hunger for money is tearing down yet another loved establishment.

Preliminary Task: School Magazine Front Cover Final.

This is my final Front Cover for my preliminary task. I have added my main image which is a photograph I took myself of the school from the field perspective.

I tried many different distances and angles whilst taking a picture of the school to see which one looked the best, as well as being eye catching and different. I didn't just want a dull, standard straight image of the school that wouldn't stand out.

I liked this image as it was at an interesting angle which draws you in. It is also, I think, a good picture of the school building. It also captures a small section of the grass.

The image was initially bigger, but I cropped it slightly so it would fit in better. Also, it looks better this way as I only cropped out the edge of the building and a bit of the grass.

I think the image contrasts well with not only the background image and the smaller image, but the text aswell. It doesn't blend the text in and the colours don't clash.

I have, like many popular magazines, stuck to a simple colour scheme. My main colours are black, red and white. These colours go quite well together and do not clash, but are also quite bold. Red is a 'stop' colour and I think the whites and blacks help bring it out more. I also think these are relatively sophisticated colours and aren't too 'in your face'. Also, they are similar to the school colour scheme, which was an added bonus.

I will put my different distances and angle images in a seperate blog explaining why I did each one and my explanation on why I chose not to use those images.

In my main task I will use Photoshop and/or GIMP 2 as this will enable me to manipulate the images on the front cover. This way it will look more professional and I can use more effects etc.

Preliminary Task: Research & Planning.

For my research I am looking at what techniques and methods different magazines use to grab readers attention.
For this particular part of my research, I am using the popular magazines 'More', 'Kerrang' and 'Company'. They are 3 quite different magazines, 'More' is very gossip and celebrity based, where 'Company' has the odd interview, and the rest is mainly stories or advice collumns on things such as sex and health, etc. Kerrang is completely different, as it is a music magazines concentrating on advertising gigs, tours and promotions, whilst featuring some interviews along with posters inside. Although they are all quite different, they all use similar techniques in catching us as an audience's attention.
They all have one big main image on the front cover advertising the main story being featured within the magazine, with a white background, and a small piece of text hinting what the main feature is about. They also all have a large, eye-catching masthead at the top of the page, which in all 3 magazine's cases, the main image slightly overlaps the text of the masthead.
Another similarity I have noticed is that they all stick to a 3 colour colour-scheme. 'More' uses mainly black, yellow and pink. 'Kerrang' uses mainly black, yellow and red. 'Company' uses mainly black, white and pink. So not only have they all used a 3 main colour colour-scheme, they have used relatively the same colours. Black, red and yellow are all very 'alertive', eye-catching colours which make you stop and notice. Red is also a very good colour to use as it is usually associated with 'stop' or a 'warning' colour, instantly grabbing people's attention.
Both 'More' and 'Kerrang' have smaller images and other features within the magazine around the main image, though it does not look crowded. They both also have snippets of text around the main image detailing other features of the magazine such as quotes from interviews or advertisements.
'Company' on the otherhand, doesn't display any other images on the front apart from the main image. Although, it does have a lot more text than the other two. It displays many features of the magazine, quoting stories and advertisements, but it does not look too busy. I think the reason why 'Company' has more text on the front than the other two is because it is not only a thicker magazine with more pages, but it is also a much more text based magazine with more stories and advice collumns.
Typically of all magazines, they all present us with the date, price and a barcode. The date and price are usually hidden away somewhere near the top, so it doesn't take up too much space but it is still visible to the reader. The barcode is usually somewhere near the bottom, out of the way of the main feature.
To conclude, most magazines are generally similar in their efforts to attract us to their product. Main image, basic 3-4 bold colour-schemes and catchy features.

Using this, when planning my Preliminary and Main Task I will have to consider all of these popular techniques as well as the media codes and conventions, which are split into 3 main groups:
- Technical (camera techniques and shots, ie distance/angle of shot.)
- Symbolic (clothing, colours. Has to be appropriate to the features of the magazine.)
- Written and Audio (music etc.)
In order to recieve a positive response from the viewers and for my projects to be an overall success, I need to pay attention to these codes and conventions, as they determine the reaction my products will get.
I have made my Mock Ups on Microsoft Publisher, but my final piece will be created/edited in either Photoshop or GIMP 2, or any other useful Image Manipulating Programme.

Preliminary Task: School Magazine Front Cover.

This is my final front cover, minus the main image of the school as I have not taken that yet. The smaller image featured on this front cover is my chosen final image for that area, as it is my own picture that I have taken myself. I chose this one as I thought it was an appropriate photo of students working in a class room.
The background featured on this cover is also, my own image that I have chosen to enlarge and set as the background. I did not want a plain background and did not want to stretch an image of the school and use as the background because I would rather use an image of the school where the yellow box is, so I chose to use this image. I think the colours of the image work well the colour of the font and the smaller image. Hopefully it will work well with my main image once I get it uploaded, aswell.
I have chosen the font 'Tahoma' as I think it is an easy to read text and looks quite smart. I decided that I wanted the font to be white, as it stands out well in contrast to the background, and I think it also gives it quite a sophisticated look which I like.
In the text box where it is displaying the feature story 'Is the Hag Lady too much?' it is a mixture of black and white font because in some areas it was difficult to see the text in either colour due to the background image.
The logo featured near the masthead is my own design, which I made in a programme called 'GIMP 2'. Whether I use this when I have my final images and put it all together I am not yet sure. I may make another one and compare, and decide which one looks best.
I have also put a barcode towards the bottom of the page.
Once I have taken my main image of the school and uploaded it, I will put it on and make sure that everything looks in place and looks a good standard, and then print screen it and put it in another blog as my final piece.

VMA's Rocking it Out. 13th September 2010.

Rock sensations 30 Seconds to Mars and Muse brought back the bacon last weekend at the MTV Video Music Awards, which was held at Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.

Representing LA, 30 Seconds to Mars stole the title for Best Rock Video with their massive hit 'Kings and Queens', battling alongside tough competitors such as Paramore, with their 2009 hit single 'Ignorance'.

Also stealing the lime light, British rockers Muse were rock's other big winner of the night, claiming the award for Best Special Effects for their outstanding hit 'Uprising'. They put on a good show for us Brits.

In related news, Paramore's frontwoman Hayley Williams failed to steal the title for Video of the Year for her collaboration with rapper B.o.B and their recent release 'Airplanes', Lady GaGa and Beyonce's catchy hit 'Telephone' swiped it away from under their noses.

Manchester feels the Muse. 9th September 2010

On Saturday 4th September 2010, Manchester experienced Muse's first of their three UK Stadium shows at Manchester's Lancashire County Cricket Ground.
The band expressed their thoughts on the up-coming show on their twitter in the afternoon stating that they were "Very nervous today. Big gig. Gonna have a bowl in the nets later. Hope Freddie Flintoff shows up to give me a few pointers" before adding after the show "Wow! That was pretty f***ing amazing! You Mancs are nuts."
The Teignmouth trio, who are set to play London's Wembley Stadium this Friday and Saturday (September 10 and 11), played a 21-song career-spanning set.
Muse's full setlist was as follows:

01 Uprising
02 Supermassive Black Hole
03 New Born
04 Map Of The Problematique
05 Butterflies And Hurricanes
06 Guiding Light
07 Hysteria
08 Citizen Erased
09 Nishe
10 United States Of Eurasia
11 Feeling Good
12 Undisclosed Desires
13 Resistance
14 Starlight
15 Time Is Running Out
16 Unnatural Selection
17 Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 (Overture)
18 Stockholm Syndrome
19 Take A Bow
20 Plug In Baby
21 Knights Of Cydonia

Overall, it sounded like a huge success.

Preliminary First Mock Up Print Screen. 07.09.10

This is my first mock up for my preliminary task, which is to produce a front cover for a school or college magazine.

I would first like to point out that these are not the colours I will be using, as it is too much. I simply used the different variety of colour to seperate the text boxes so I could view the layout much more clearly.

I made the font in the masthead red because our audiences associate red as a 'stop' colour, and it will hopefully grab their attention. Whether I will actually use a red font for my final preliminary I have not yet decided.

I intend to have a large image which will be the background in order to put the information in the foreground, hopefully with a logo and another smaller image overlapping.

Also, there will obviously be a barcode featured somewhere near the bottom of the page, as it is needed but shouldn't take up too much space.

For this mock up I have used Desktop Publisher, however I plan to use Photoshop for the main task.

For my next screenshot I will perhaps look into different fonts, as this font is not my finalised decision. I need to think about what font will appropriately represent the school. The font also needs to be clear, easy to read and eye catching. If it just a dull and mundane text it won't grab readers attention, and I would like professional results.