Blog 15 - Digipack

A digipack is a type of packaging that enables 2 or more C.D's or DVD's to be stored in one case. It is often made of card and has images and information about the artist and what is in the case on the inside and outside.

This is an example of an Album cover from

our chosen artist, Florence and the Machine. No digipack examples were available.

The front and back CD cover have a similar colour theme of mostly brown and then pink and yellow rectangles in the corner. The background behind Florence on the cover is a woodland setting with yellow birds and pink flowers which is then repeated on the back cover. The list of tracks on the back cover are written in the traditional Times New Roman font. This is in keeping with the traditional and earthy feel of the group. The name of the band however is written in a font that looks like handwriting which gives the cover a unique, quirky and personal vibe. The quirky nature impression given from the front and back CD cover relates to the indie genre of the music, as well as the quirky stereotype of 'indie' fans.

The album cover also appeals to the largely female target audience for Florence and the machine as the cover involves feminine details such as bird and flowers and has a picture of the lead female singer, Florence Welsh.

This picture is an example of Indie Fashion, these detailed head scarves would therefore be very appropriate for and costumes Worn in a video by Florence and the Machine.

The cover of the case for the single 'Rabbit Heart' by Florence and the Machine also appeals to the largely female target audience of the group. This is through the continuous use of pink and white as the main colours. The photo for the cover is taken in a feminine bathroom with lots of flowers around the mirror and on the tiles. The bathroom appears quite retro as if its from the 70s, this relates to her fashion - (in general and featured on this cover).

This overall retro theme is echoed throughout her music in her use of more traditional instruments, contrasting to any techno or drum and base genre music. Florence is making eye contact with the camera whilst covering up the rest of her face and wearing dark eye make up. This immediately makes the audience make eye contact with her and create a connection, and because she is hiding her face it gives the impression that she is keeping something secret which can entice the audience in to buy her CD and find out more about her and her music. Florence is holding a white rabbit which relates to the song title and is also considered feminine. The white rabbit is also symbolic of the story; Alice in Wonderland. This therefore links with the quirky and surreal nature of the music and when combined with the unusual setting makes it an intriguing and eye catching CD to buy.

This is a still from the blog section of the bands website. this has a very old, quirky and slightly disturbing theme. The page is very interactive as when you move the mouse over the lungs they expand as if breathing and when you move the mouse over the the doll face it blinks and the eyebrows move. This is slightly startling for the page user making the page more iconic than other band websites such as mumford and sons: This webpage has a black background and one symbol at the top.

The font is very traditional and although this is he font they use whenever writing their name (i.e on CD covers), when combined with the plain background and lack of images or interaction when a mouse is moved over any parts, it makes the whole page less appealing and not as eye catching as Florence and The Machine's page.

The White Stripes have a different genre of alternative rock and punk blues. The overall style of their digipack is however similar in many aspects to Florence and the Machine's Album cover. Both give a slightly

old fashioned appearance; The White Stripes through there Victorian style of font and the back of their digipack is also set out in the style of a Victorian poster, listing a performance date and the names of the two band members. Florence and the Machine's CD cover give an old fashioned appearance through the clothes Florence Welsh is pictured wearing on the cover. Both covers also have a dark brown colour theme suggesting an earthy and non- materialistic attitude of the groups and their music. Ironically one of the White Stripes songs on this Digipack is called 'Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground'.

This is one of my Flat Plans I used to create my Digipack. I chose a yellow and purple theme, and although I liked the use of purple I felt that the yellow background made it appear too childish. I also wanted to us an image of

Florence on the Digipack but though it would have more of an impact on the front cover after analysing this flat plan. When experimenting with different pictures I also discovered that a full shot of her body doing an action related better

to her inquisitive persona. I also chose to move the list of songs from aligned to centre. This was to create

a less conformative appearance, relating to the indie genre. I like the idea of having a coffin feature on the Digipack but it was unrealistic for me to be able to take a picture of a real coffin.

This is another one of my Flat plans.

The elements I took from this was the use of detail. I felt that the different detailed patterns on both the front and back cover looked old fashioned and the cracks on the coffin made it appear antique. This relates to our research of the indie genre in our pitch. This proved impractical also as I would not be able to take a photo of a coffin or create a realistic looking one using photoshop. I like the use of bold colours in certain areas of this digipack and chose to take this into my final digipack by having her and the font stand out whilst the background and her clothes were neutral colours.

This is a Flat Plan of an Album cover that I would use if the above Digipack was my finial design. They are very similar so that the consumer can immediately visually associate them to each other.

This is a Flat plan for the inside of my digpack. I wanted to carry on the detail used on the cover so chose to use detailed swirls in the corners. This detailed effect would have been less effective however if I had artificially

created it in photoshop so I instead decided in my final digipack to use a picture with a detailed background that relates to the cover, I therefore chose the forest setting. I thought that by having the lyrics on the inside cover, the consumer would be able to read them slowly and take their own meaning from the song. This is something I continued in

my finial digipack.

This is the digipack I created.

The background picture is set in the woodland setting that the video and advert picture were both taken in. This enables the audience to directly associate all three items together. I chose to feature Florence in on the cover of the digipack waving a piece of material. This is an eye catching movement that takes up the front and back cover. I feel this movement is a connotation of her free spirited nature, and as the wind is making the piece of material move it relates to the nature element of the music video.

The font I used for the album title and song list is called 'Journal'. I thought this was appropriate as its is sketchy to symbolise handwriting, however it was still thick enough for me to use an outer glow on it. I did this in photoshop and by using a bright colour (white) for the outer glow the font is easier to read. For the rest of the font I used white as this would stand out but be less obvious than the more important title of the album. When experimenting with the background picture I changed the different levels of brightness and contrast until it eventually gave a slightly more yellow glow than the original. I did this to give the picture a more antique look as this relates to the dated fashion and other dated elements of Florence and the Machine's style. Yellow is also a contrasting colour to the purple font. The indie genre of Florence and the machine's music is reflected through the use of natural and contrasting colours, the ambiguous movement and the setting of the picture. The delicate material also relates to the largely feminine target audience.

This is the original photograph taken for the digipack cover background, before editing.

This is the feed back I recieved for my Digipack cover:

This is the inside of my digipack.

For this I chose to use another picture set in the woods to stay consistent with the cover. I also used the same brightness and contrast for the inside that I used for the cover, this was again to remain consistent, thus looking more professional. I used the lyrics of the song as part of the inside cover, this was to give the song clarity and more meaning for the audience, in case they couldn't hear every lyric in the song. To make the lyrics able to read I used a white font colour and the burn tool on photoshop to darken the background. I chose to have 'Florence' featured standing barefoot on a log to show her closeness to nature. She is also standing with her arms in the air as if praising or acknowledging the sun. This relates to our video in which a sunset and sun rise are featured as the opening and closing shots. This picture also relates to the natural authenticity theme of Florence and the Machine and her music and the all black costume demonstrates simplicity but is more mysterious than an all white costume.

This is the photograph taken for the inside of the digipack, before editing.

This is the feedback received for the inside of my digipack:

Blog 10 - Mise-en-scene

To try and stay in keeping with the general spiritual theme that runs throughout Florence and the Machines videos we have chosen to go with a woodland setting. We will shoot our video in friston forest in sussex. To create a more varied atmosphere we will shoot some scenes in daylight in the afternoon and then shoot other scenes at sunset and in the evening, this will also give a timeline to the video.

We have chosen to use extravagant costumes in our video that are similar to those used in period dramas. By ripping the costumes and making them look more distressed as the video goes on and daylight changes to sunset, it will add an exciting element to the video and make the viewer curious to the exact narrative.

Due to the greater female fan base Florence and the machine has we have chosen to feature only females in the video, another reason for this is that we want the cast of the video to dance for part of it and the only dancers able to be part of our video are female.

To help create the old-fashioned and slightly dated feel to our video we will use mostly pastel colours such as green (hence the woodland setting) and light yellows and pastel pinks. We are also considering using camera effects such as black and white and sepia as this will also give to feeling of watching an old movie.

By combining all the different elements mentioned it will create a mysterious feel to the video as well as being connected to nature. To relate our video back to the theme of death that is present throughout the song lyrics we will keep cutting back to an old movie of a man building coffins. As the day progresses in the video and the day changes to night we will make the cast look more aged and tired as well as the distressed costumes. This will by symbolic of a persons lifetime in just one day and how quickly it is over, therefore needing someone to build coffins.

Blog 9 - Pitch

This is the slide show created for our pitch: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1ixV9FyemaZZmYzMDFlMjgtNzc3MC00ZjEyLTk5MzEtMjBkZjYyYzk5MzY3&hl=en This is the film of us presenting our slideshow: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B0DnGj06WOfoMjkxMzBjNDgtZjc2MS00ZTEzLWIxOWEtYzJhM2UwOTk1MTJi&hl=en

Blog 8 - Initial Ideas

This is a powerpoint of our initial ideas: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1ixV9FyemaZNGFjZmU4NzAtMWQ4NS00OTA4LThlNDUtMjY3ZmE2ODc2ZGZh&hl=en

Blog 7 - Copying an existing video

As a group we created a copy of the video for 'Teenage Dirtbag' by Wheatus. This involved analysis of each shot of the video in detail, enabling us to create an accurate reenactment. Each group was given a shooting script for different shots of the video. On this shooting script were details of; the shot type, description of action and camera movement/direction. we were also told to make notes on the different takes for each shot to state how successful they were.
During our first session of filming as a small group my role was the director. This included giving instructions to the camera man and the cast. From directing these shots I learnt how important it is to make sure everyone understands their role and that it is very important for people to communicate on set if they are unsure at any point what they are meant to be doing.

To create the remake video to the best of our abilities it was important to understand fully how all the camera equipment worked and how to utilise this best. This involved learning how to mount the camera using the tripod and make it stable. The tripod was useful when creating shots that involved a steady zoom, panning and tiliting. The tripods we used also had a spirit level on them which helped to get the camera exactly horizontal. Another important element was setting the white balance. As the shots we filmed were outside we set the camera to 'Daytime Filming', this avoided the footage having a blue tinge to it. By manually adjusting the exposure we were able to experiment with the shutter speed, apeture and gain. The composition we chose to use was a widescreen 16:9 ratio, this was recommended by our teacher as giving a more cinematic effect. We then applied the rule of thirds to this ratio when positioning the actors and extras.

An essential part in the planning of our music video will be the storyboard, we practised using this in the Wheatus video as shown here.

For our storyboard we will take photographs as apposed to drawing the shots. this is because if we were to draw stickmen it would not give a clear impression of how the frame should be composed or show the correct proportions.

Blog 6 - Video Analysis

To help us create a video for Florence and the machine it is important to understand the type and style of videos that they produce.

Video 1 - Florence and the Machine: Rabbit Heart.
This video give the feeling of being set back in medieval times, this is mostly shown through costume and props. The males featured are wearing velvet waistcoats and frilly shirts whilst the females are wearing very feminine floaty dresses. Florence's costume is the most extravagent as she is wearing a long pale green dress and a jewelled headband.

The props shown are all made from wood such as a coffin and a table, there is no metal or plastic furniture which is a further indicator of the time period. Due to the nature of the song (Rabbit heart) the filming is slightly erratic with lots of close ups jump cutting to long shots. This makes the narrative harder to decifer, however the general story line given appears to be a celebration and banquet followed by a funeral which suggests a ritual theme throughout the video. The genre of the video seems quite indie and unique as it gives a mystical vibe. The natural setting of woodland and a river compliments all the greens in the costumes and helps portray the closeness to nature and lack of man made items. The camera also uses a blurred effect on some close ups which again helps to achieve the dated feeling. The audience I think this video is aimed at is a mainly older female audience 17+ as I don't think younger children would be able to fully appreciate how the nature theme is consistently represented in different ways.
This is a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nxO-yPQesA

Video 2 - Florence and the machine: Drumming Song

This video has less of a nature vibe as it is set in a church hall/ dance studio. The costumes are also more modern, black sequin leotards, but the long sleeves and cape again create a floaty quality. This costume contrasts with the previous costume

of a blue felt cape, this is portrayed as the more religious aspect of video as in the section Florence is very composed and holding her hands together as if praying. Although the narrative is not clear for the video it does show her breaking out of her composed religious stance into very energetic dance.
The shots are again quite fast and jumpy but blurred effects are not used as it is clearly set in modern times.
This song would have the same audience as 'Rabbit Heart' as I don't think younger children or a bigger male audience would fully be able to appreciate the emotion show through areas such as her dancing.

This is a link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwsg3Czyl78&feature=channel

Blog 5 - Target Audience of Artist/Band

Florence and the machine were recently featured on the cover of Q magazine as well as being nominated for the Q awards 2010 along with lady gaga for best female artist. This shows her popularity with the readers of Q magazine whose target audience statistics are;
M/F: 70/30
ABC1:74%
Median age:28
Under 35:70%

The socio-econimoic classification shows the types of proffessions that this particular audience has are; A: high ranking professionals; lawyers, doctors etc
B: middle ranking professional; middle managers in businesses, teachers etc
C1: “white-collar” (office) workers; junior managers, office clerks, bank clerks, nurses etc.


The NRS website (National Readership survey) gave further detail on the audience of Q magazine, their statistics showed that;
- 444,000 people who read Q are in the ABC1 category as opposed to the 222,000 people that are in the C2DE category. This category consists of; C2: skilled manual workers; carpenters, electricians etc
D: semi and unskilled manual workers; drivers, post sorters, labourers etc
E: people subsisting on state benefits; the unemployed, pensioners etc


Contradictory to the Q magazine readers, Florence and the machine have a mostly female dominated fan base which is targeted through the feminine nature of her videos. This will threrfore be something we have to consider when creating our video. The bands popularity is also coverd by a wide range of ages from teens to 30's. The popularity of the indie pop genre that Florence and the machine falls under has grown considerably over the past few years. Florence and the machine's popularity can be shown by their album 'Lungs' being in the charts for 64 weeks and currently holding 23rd position.

NME recently gave a mixed review of her album 'Lungs' with mixed comments also on the review. http://www.nme.com/reviews/florence-and-the-machine/10635
This was featured on the NME webpage whose audience is made up of key demographic groups that can be difficult to target through other media: -
65% Male
50% 16-24
23% 25-34
79% ABC1




Florence and the machine's fan page has comments daily from fans showing their admiration and sharing deatils of the latest concerts coming up. When researching the bands audience I left a comment on this page asking for fans' age and gender. Two comments were left, one of which was a 16 year old male and the other was a 22 year old female, this shows already a mixture of ages and gender.

Blog 4 - Permission

This is a print screen of an email i would send to the record company to ask for their copyright permission.

It is important to gain copyright permission from the record label as this avoids the explaoitation of their music and helps to make sure other people aren't making money from their work.

Blog 3 Song Choice

The Song we have chosen for creating our music video is Florence and the Machine - My boy builds coffins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7baoTqocJs

One of the reasons we chose this song is because Florence and the Machine have a very unique look of vintage clothing and being very close to nature.
We thought this strong theme would be a good stimulus as an idea for what our video should look like as it will allow us to have a woodland setting which is accessible for where we live. To achieve the vintage and old fashioned style we are considering using old style black and white filming as well as appropriate costumes.
When listening to our chosen song we were immediately getting possible ideas, when listening to other songs however we were finding it difficult to visualise possible ideas for our video. Another problem we encountered when choosing a song was that a lot of them already had videos, for example when looking through Mumford & Sons and Marina and the Diamonds there were very few songs that didn't have a video. Also when looking through some of 3Oh!3's songs we realised there was some inappropriate language which ruled out using those particular songs.

The lyrics to our chosen song are as follows:
"My Boy Builds Coffins"

My boy builds coffins with hammers and nails
He doesn't build ships, he has no use for sails
He doesn't make tables, dresses or chairs
He can't carve a whistle cause he just doesn't care

My boy builds coffins for the rich and the poor
Kings and queens them all knocked on his door
Beggars and liars, gypsies and thieves
They all come to him 'cause he's so eager to please

My boy builds coffins he makes them all day
But it's not just for work and it isn't for play
He's made one for himself
One for me too
One of these days he'll make one for you

My boy builds coffins for better or worse
Some say its a blessing, some say its a curse
He fits them together in sunshine or rain
Each one is unique, no two are the same

My boy builds coffins and I think it's a shame
That when each ones been made, he can't see it again
He crafts everyone with love and with care
Then its thrown in the ground, it just isn't fair

My boy builds coffins he makes them all day
But it's not just for work and it isn't for play
He's made one for himself
One for me too
One of these days he'll make one for you

Blog 2 - Exploring Music Video

As part of the research before creating the media it is important to analyse other music videos of different genres.
The Music Video for Eminem ft. DiDo - Stan, has a clear narrative throughout the rap song. Both the song and Video are of a serious nature about an obsessive fan. The tone of the video is very tense throughout as the audience are waiting for something to cause the character Stan to snap and this eery and tense atmosphere is portrayed in details such as the low key lighting. The ending of the video involves Stan killing himself and his pregnant girlfriend. This makes the video and song very emotional for the audience and has the desired effect of drawing them in as they want to see how the story unfolds. This represents the serious and meaningful nature of the lyrics and would not be aimed at a young audience, possibly 17-18+.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMhN-hfMtY


Michael Jackson's music video for Thriller is similar to the video for Stan as both have clear narratives throughout. The video for Thriller however is not narrated as such by the lyrics but more by the theme. The video could be described as a short film as it is over 13 minutes long and has acting before and after the song. The video has a spoof horror genre and can slightly show the comedy behind irrational fears. The video is aimed at a wide audience excluding young children though as it may be too scary for them. The representation of gender is stereotypical throughout as it is the female how has the scary encounters and screaming whereas the male at the beginning laughs them off and appears protective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_MuUcxHATo

The Music video for Britney Spears' Hit me baby one more time mainly consists of a montage of Britney Spears dancing in different areas of a school. Each of her costumes is specifically chosen to represent her school girl character whilst still giving her the icon image to young girls (roughly 13+). A younger audience is also able to relate to the school setting of the music video, for example the lesson at the beginning was represented as boring as noone was paying attention. The lyrics are also to do with the struggles of love and relationships which also appeals to the teenage girl audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CMzH18IjHA

Beyonce's video Single Ladies would be the most basic of the four in terms of different settings and costumes etc as the entire video consists of just her and two other females dancing. The video has a very simplistic style with just a white backdrop and black leotards for costumes. This forces the audience to focus entirely on the dancing and therefore would have been an opportunity for Beyonce to show her dancing ability as well as singing talents. The video is also all in black and white so the audience isn't even distracted by colour. When the dancing is combined with the lyrics it can give off a very feminist vibe and i think would therefore appeal mostly to women 17/18 +.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyHVQT8aIBM

Blog 1 - Introduction

For this years A2 coursework I will be undergoing the task of creating a music video as part of a group. This will involve selecting the music and then requesting copyright permission from the record label as well as creating, casting and shooting the video.
This task will be a development of my skills learnt in AS Media when creating a music magazine, especially when selecting what is appropriate for the target audience as well as a wider understanding of the music industry.
http://sdcmediaashannahlivings.blogspot.com/

My magazine

Feddback Questionnaire

Coursework Feedback

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Evaluation of the Finished magazine

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I think the main area that my magazine stands out from other media conventions is the way in which I want the subjects in my pictures to come across as people their fans could admire and respect but in the same way I wanted them to seem like real people as well. I tried to do this by not editing or airbrushing the pictures other than lighting. This was because I didn't want the subjects to come across as plastic models but as genuine people who were just talented in their profession. As I think my target audience would admire people more if they appeared in a photo shoot looking normal as apposed to wearing lots of make-up.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

By using these techniques I wanted my media product to represent people who were genuinely interested in music and the latest news within this music industry. This includes quite a few genres of music from pop to indie to rock, and although I wanted to increase my female audience I didn't want to relate it too much to appearance and commercial mediums, but instead just for people who loved music.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Taking all this into account I would still choose to stock my magazine in chain outlets such as WH Smiths as well as smaller independent record shops and would use a company such as IPC Media to publish it as they a large well-known company and also publish magazines from a similar genre such as NME. A down-side to this would be that using IPC Media would be more expensive than using a smaller publishing company.

Who would be the audience for you media product?

Although I decided the target audience before creating my magazine I decided to add the phsychographic group of succeeders to the audience as I don't think my audience should have to want to be the artists featured to appreciate them.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I tried to attract my audience to my magazine with aspects such as the large picture of 'Lilly Jackson' which makes eye-contact with the consumer. I also used bands relating to the genre of magazine - so I used a new indie band as apposed to a new pop singer as these are the type of artists my target audience would want to read about. I tried to use moderately formal language (no text language/ abbreviations) so as to make sure I was aiming at the correct target audience age and not to patronise them. I chose to give my magazine the title 'FIX' because i wanted something that was short and simple and also slightly ambiguous because I wrote 'Get Yours' down the side of the 'F' suggesting that the magazine was like getting a fix of drugs that you needed, without making it obvious. I chose to design the name like this as it is similar to other magazine with a similar target audience, e.g 'NME' and 'Q' are both quite short names and 'Q' is quite mysterious as to what it means.
I had the subject on the front cover slightly smiling as i wanted her to be respected as an artist but still have her personality coming through as a person who doesn't feel the need to pout and pose in pictures. Q has also featured well-known artists smiling on their covers:

When making colour choices for my magazine I tried to stick with a red and purple theme so that it wasn't dull but not bright loud pinks so it was similar to a or cheesy pop magazine.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I picked up lots of different techniques and skills when using Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop to create my magazine. Using photoshop helped me to create and experiment with lots of different effects on my pictures. The particular area of photoshop I used a lot was the lighting affects:

As well as changing the way the picture was lit (spotlight, omni etc) I could also change things such as how strong the lighting was and the colour of the lighting. when trying to cut out the background of my picture or change the colour of it, I used the lasso tool:

By using InDesign I was able to edit the size and shape of boxes and texts, I could also create a shadow effect for my contents page to help give the look of paper actually being pinned to a cork board:
When changing the colour and size of the different things on my magazine I could then arrange them to have them over-lapping, I also used this tool when creating the background.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel that I have dramatically improved my technically skills of editing and designing the magazine since doing the preliminary task. The preliminary task helped improve my creativity when deciding things such as the layout, colours and fonts. It also helped me to understand more how much every small detail can affect the magazine's appeal to the target audience. For example when experimenting with mt cover pictures I realised that It was better to have someone smiling on the cover of a college magazine and have a more thoughtful expression on the cover of my music magazine, rather than the other way round as they are both aiming at different markets and want to create a different mood with the reader. So the smiling college magazine would want to make the readers feel happy about college whereas the more thoughtful expression of the music magazine would want to interest the readers more in who the person is on the cover. The preliminary task also helped me to understand the importance of having eye-contact between the subject on the cover a dn the consumer to establish a connection.

Planning and Evaluation of the Article

When writing my article I chose to do it as an interview which would relate to the picture of the band had featured on the contents page. I wanted to make the interview lighthearted and funny but also interesting and insightful to what the band is actually like.

When reading an interview from 'Q' magazine I noticed that the questions asked are in relevance to the specific interviewee - (mostly leading questions) rather than random questions that they ask to everyone. This made the interview seem more relevant and interesting. I tried to take this into consideration when writing my article.

The article in Q also had a picture taken from the interview taking up one side of the page but I decided against this as I was only doing a double page spread and not a whole magazine I wanted to feature more writing.

When drafting my interview, the type of language I used was aimed at an audience of a lower age than I wanted as it was quite fun with jokes aimed at a younger generation, I noticed this when reading another Q article that read more in depth about how the band worked and further into the music industry and it didn't need to ask questions about each of the band members personality as they came out and were clear when the other questions were answered. This was something I altered a lot in my draft as i tried to make the choice of questions and language used more formal.

When I had decided on the final draft of my article I put everything in place and compared mine to the two articles from Q and I noticed that one of the articles had a quote from the interview outside of the article, this would be a humorous or revealing line to draw the reader in so I tried it with my double page spread but then felt there was too much text over the two pages.

Another interesting aspects of the second article I noticed was the giant 'J' used in the introduction which I hadn't written out fully so I then decided to include an introduction with this idea.

Draft Interview

Q) So you must be pretty pleased with the bands sudden success, but our readers want to know a bit more about what you're really like - (Lew lets out a nervous laugh), don't worry I won't be too mean! So how long does it take each of you to get ready in the morning - who is the most vain?

A) C: Well I definitely take the least time, I barely wear any makeup and a lot of the time I'm not to fussed about what I'm wearing.

L: I'm probably the next quickest because obviously I never have to bother with makeup or anything and the only thing i get really picky about is my hair.

A: Ok yeah I do take quite a while in the mornings, especially when I'm trying to pick an outfit.

Q) You all live together don't you, who is the biggest 'neat freak' out of all of you would you say?

A) L: Ha! 100% Amy! If you even leave a sock out of place she'll go crazy.

C: Very true!

Q) So are there any weird habbits or phobias you think Fix readers should know about?

A) C: Haha Amy do you want to do the honours or shall I?

L: Nooo! It's not even that big a deal!

A: Lew has a phobia of skittles!

Q) As in the sweets? Care to explain anymore Lew?

L: I nearly choked on one when I was younger so ever since I don't really like them.

Q) Any new romances then after meeting so many new people?

A) (Both look straight to Chloe)

C: Haha why are you both looking at me?! Nothing is going on!

A: Let's just say Chloe seemed to be getting on pretty well with Jack Johnson.

Photos and photo editing

I chose to have a white background for all my photos so as not to distract from the person/people featured in it. I used Adobe Photoshop when experimenting with the lighting for the background of my cover. This was to try and make the image more dramatic and to make the subject look more exciting and powerful. This was because I wanted the subject to be an artsist of around the same standard and reputation as Alicia Keys and by looking at previous covers of Q magazine when Alicia Keys was featured on the front she was wearing her hood up looking slightly dangerous and powerful. This was different to all the other times a female artist was featured on the coer of Q. This is because the magazine has a bigger male audience than female so female artists were rarely featured on the front and when they were they were in quite revealing and suggestive shoots. By doing a cover of a female with her hood up I think it helped to widen my female target audience. I also gave her slightly smokey eye make up and lots of jewellery to help make her look more glamorous, like an icon. When editing the lighting i used the 'render' section and then had the lighting coming from the top left corner to alo enhance the glamour and status so she would appear possibly on stage.

On the contents page I did a couple of passport size pictures of the female artist again. These related to an article that was to be featurede in my magazine that was supposed to be an in-depth and revealing interview with her. These shots were of her with different expressions and posses which were supposed to start showing the differnt sides to her and be like a preview of the article. I also featured a picture of the band 'The Koalas' which were going to be used for my double page spread, I chose not to do any lighting affects in this phto but I just made the background white again .

On my double page spread - an interview with the band, I chose to use five pictures. these were two group shots and 3 single shots (one of each menver). For the three single shots i used a passport style photo again, similar to the photos i used on the contents of Lilly Jackson. these were medium close up's (much like real passport photos) and had each member pulling a different silly expression. Each member was wearing casual but stylish clothing and pulling a funny face or bemused expression. This was all to try and show the nature and personalities of each band member. The only affects I used on these pictures were to increase the pixelation as I didn't want the pictures to look air brushed as the band members were meant to be very down to earth people.

need to upload pics

Flat Plans

• When designing the flat plan for my front cover I chose to draw out two ideas. One had a medium close up shot of a female artist on the front with a hood up. The other front cover shot I did was a full shot of a band of 3 males, they were standing in a diagonal line at different heights all pulling a different facial expression to give a quirky effect to the cover. I chose to use the cover with the female artist on the front as I thought it would help to appeal to a bigger female audience. The only other main difference between the two covers was the amount of space taken up by the title. The cover with the female on the front had a smaller title and I thought this would be another reason to choose it as I didn't want all the attention drawn away from the main sells as the title would be the same on every issue.











• When designing the flat plan of my contents page I tried to make it similar to a cork board/scrap book. I chose to do it this way because when I looked at other contents pages for similar target audiences (Q and MOJO) they seemed to have lots of different sections on the contents page and as I am aiming for a younger target audience I thought I would exaggerate this more.











• I tried to keep within my target when doing the flat plan for a double page spread, I did this by looking at magazines such as 'Q' and then adapting their style to make it appeal to a more female and younger target audience. I did this by making sure the article was broken up with pictures and that the pictures were all different sizes and styles to make it more interesting to look at. I also tried to make sure the double page spread was set out in a more creative way with different parts a different angles so it wouldn't be like a newspaper article.

cant find other cover at the moment? :S