While I was showing one of my peers my magazine, I asked them to give me some feedback of how they think I could improve it.
I showed them my front cover and double page spread and asked them to give me some general feedback.
Me peer said that on my front cover, I have a photo of model (X) with the name 'Abi Sparks' underneath (him presuming that model (X) on the front cover was Abi Sparks) but then when looking at my double page spread, there was a photo of a model (Y), which was slightly confusing.
I took his advice on board and decided that when I retake my photos, I will discard of Model (Y) and only use model (X) on both my front cover and double page spread.
After reading through the verbal feedback my teacher and class left me on my magazine, I have decided that the photos (on all my pages..) needed taking again as I feel like this was given the most constructive criticism out of all the conventions on my pages.
Tonight I am going to take my photos, and to make this a easier job, I have decided to do extra planning as to how I am going to take the photos. To do this, I have created a photo planning sheet, in which I have written instructions of what I want my model to wear (regarding clothing, hair, make-up and pose), where I want the photos taken and what type of shot I am going to take.
Due to the style of my magazine, I have decided that I am going to take 1 photo for my front cover, 1 photo for my double page spread and 4 photos for my contents page.
Here is a screen shot of the table I used when taking my photos, I printed this out and used to as a guide for how I want my photos to look.
I also gave my model a criteria regarding what type of make up I wanted them to wear, what clothing and what facial expression they need to pull.
From feed back (from my self, my teacher and the class as a whole) I now know that I need to retake my front cover photo, and not use sun glasses, as not many indie music magazines use this approach when taking photos.
Indie magazines are there to bring out people's real personality, and I feel like the sun glasses hide the reals personality behind the model/singer.
This lesson I decided to do some further research into the type of facial expression and type of shot that music magazine photographers use when taking photos of solo female artists.
In conclusion, I have realised that the type of shot is a close up- medium close up, in which I have already used, and the model needs to be pulling a 'shocked' look, instead of the more moody expression and sun glasses look that I have used on my front cover.
Tomorrow I am planning on re-taking my photos for my all my pages.
Today, I had a look at my contents page & realised that I had put at the top of the contents page 'Inside this week' instead of 'Inside this month.'- Following my audience research of how the majority of people buy magazines monthly instead of weekly.
Teacher feed back
Front cover
- Photo needs to be re taken-sun glasses aren't really used on front covers, this suggest the artist is making them self (not what the indie genre is wanting to show, indie artist express themselves and if they're hiding behind sun glasses it is showing they possibly aren't confident and don't want to revel too much)
- Line below the masthead need to be moved- randomly placed
- The pacing between the articles is irregular.
Contents page
- Slightly bare, add more content
- Needs more articles and a smaller font
Doubloe page spread
- Photo looks slightly negative and aggressive, change facial expression.
- Move quote from the top of the image as it looks a bit random
Personal self feedback
Front cover
- Photo needs to be done, use a planning sheet when taking next photos showing the background colour I want, mise-en-scene, lighting, shot type...
- Name of atrist needs ot be bigger
- Name of artist sounds to much like a pop star name- change name to a more indie style name
- Masthead is too large
- Barcode missing- wesbite, price?
- Not enough story's
Contents page
- Articles need to match the front cover
- Change 'Indie this week' to 'Inside this month' as m,y magazine is being published monthly not weekly
- More content
- More indie relevent images
- More variety of images instead of just being 2 different people
Double page spread
- Change artist name as it sounds too 'pop' like
- Change photo (to a photo of the model on the front cover) or change the artist name as it looks like the model on the front cover is 'Abi Sparks' but when you go to the article, it is a different model.
- Use rulers to ensure that the text columns are equal
Like I've done for the double page spread, I've made a checklist for a contents page so I get a deeper understanding of the coded and conventions and what makes a successful contents page.
To get a deeper understanding of double page spreads and house style, today in lessons we matched up 5 front covers to 5 double page spreads. This task was to see the house style between the pages, weather this be the colour scheme used, the font or distinctive feature such as a line at the bottom of the page with the date, magazine and page number under.
