Planning My Music Magazine Front Cover

PlanningPhotoshoot planAgency Name Future Magazine Model Michael KnowlesCamera Height/ Angle/ Distance Long shot to capture whole body, 10 metres away from model, shoulder height.Location Highbury FieldsLighting Dim, dark. To create a moody, nighttime atmosphere.Mise En Scene Denim jacket with collar turned up to create a 'hard boiled' feel, trees, railings. Attempted Connotation Back to the viewer - suggests mystery and mood. Dark colours and lighting suggests mystery and secrecy - this draws the reader in who wants to find out more.Planned Denotation Masthead 'FTR' or 'Future' initiates the future-music theme within the magazine, so that readers know what they are going to get.Contingency If model is absent I will use my other friend Christian who is a similar height so it won't affect the image much. If we cannot use the park at night, if it is closed, I will take the picture off of a balcony overlooking London.Alternative Angle Low Shot (Worms Eye Shot) looking up towards the model, conveys power and importance.

Front Cover Mock Up Sketch

Masthead, big and bold, abbreviated.

Selling Line.

Article boxes.Barcode space.I want my magazine cover to be very simple, just a masthead, an image and possibly one or two article boxes. This simple design is what I'm aiming for, I think it will end up looking minimalistic, but in a polished, professional way. This will also work with the image as it will emphasise the mystery and suspense behind the magazine.

FTRSOUND OF THE NIGHT

Photo Shoot

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As it got darker I started experimenting with the pictures, trying to create silhouettes and shadows to try and portray the moody atmosphere. I found that putting the main source of light directly behind and directly in front of the subject created interesting results. Also, I found that adding smaller light sources such as fairy lights in the picture above creates a mysterious, fantasy-like ambience.

As it got fully dark i realised that the unnatural light coming from street lamps was eerily useful in creating a mysterious atmosphere. Additionally, having the light directly in front of the model cast a very nice shadow towards the camera. And the moonlight created some very nice moody colours for the picture.

Alternative Images

I decided to experiment with the time that I took my images. I took some more photos in the day time to see if I liked the results more than the night time ones. I took this picture off Marylebone High Street as the sun was just rising. Although I liked the image,I decided it was not the look I wasgoing for, it was too bright and ligh-t as well as being too washed outwith too many warm colours.

Chosen Image

This is my chosen image, I have decided it is my favourite and that it encapsulates the mood that I most wanted through it's lighting, positioning and colours. Also, because I took this on my phone, the camera wasn't the best quality and consequently helped me end up with this rather grainy image, this is useful as it will help me edit it successfully.

Fonts

I experimented with a lot of different fonts for the masthead of my cover. I was looking for a futuristic looking, bold font. Although there were many that caught my eye I settled on the sans serif font: REBOARD. It is what I am looking for stylistically, I like the filled in spaces of the letters as well as the all-capital style. I think this is just the kind of font I needed for my masthead. I don't think it would work if it were a serif font as the ascending and descending letters would not fit with the style.

Cover Draft 1

This is my initial first draft for my music magazine cover. It contains the masthead, the cover line and article stories.

Draft 1 FeedbackAfter finishing draft 1 of my music magazine cover and getting feedback, the general consensus was that:1) The article stories are too distracting, this took away from the minimalistic style.2) The cover line is too cheesy as well as being too distracting.This is my second draft in reaction to the feedback.

Alternative Design

I decided to try an alternative design for my cover to see if a different approach looked better than what I had been previously trying. Although it presented a different style, I did not like the new look, it was too bland and boring with too much white space.

Final DesignAfter much deliberation and editing I settled on this final design, I took on the improvements by making the masthead bigger, getting rid of the cluttering article stories and by improving the strap line.