Production Process

I have created these three aspects of my magazine with my research of the rock magazine industry and focusing on my target audience which would be people generally in their teens and people in their twenties. I have created aspects of my magazine which would meet the needs of my target audience, i.e. the colour scheme isn't dull, it is very appealing to the people in my target audience, who generally have very exuberant personalities etc.



Creating My Front Cover

Here is my finished Rock magazine cover, which I created using Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop.



 

I decided to use a colour palette of a burgundy-red, white and black as the main consistent colours and I think that they went really well together. I incorporated the single person as my central image and I edited the picture to get the results that I wanted. I also edited the puffs of other artists, down the left-hand side, to make them brighter and more colourful, I then placed them each in a box to keep them all neat and the same shape. I also added captions of the band names underneath each, I edited the text to give them drop-shadows. I added two banners to my cover, one at the top and one at the bottom, by adding these I was able to add the popular competition (usually found inside a rock magazine) and a list of featured articles also often found on rock magazine covers. I decided to keep my masthead unedited, I found the font on http://www.dafont.com/ I thought it fit really well with the rock genre as it looks decayed. I added a strapline of ‘Make Life Loud’ underneath my masthead and the price above and to the right.  I decided to place my lead article and anchorage text on a strip of white with torn paper-like edges. I did this by scanning a piece of ripped paper and then on Photoshop CS3 I made it all white so that no lines were visible. I created a barcode on http://www.dafont.com/ and placed this in the bottom right-hand corner. The text inside my flash I added a drop shadow to in Photoshop and the number I gave an inner-shadow, making them seem as if they are coming out of the paper. I made all of the letters on the cover capitals so that the words stood out more.

Editing My Photographs

 

 

Here is my central image before and after editing it in Photoshop, it is a medium long shot. I got the model to pose in an effective way and with a happy facial expression. I then edited the background out of the shot, lightened the image, got rid of any imperfections with the spot-healing tool on content aware and I used the dodge tool to highlight parts on the top to make the white stand out. 

This photograph is a two shot and it is a medium close-up. I edited this picture in Photoshop by taking away the background, I then liquified the image to make their skin appear smoother. I increased the brightness and the saturation to make the colours appear brighter, I used the spot-healing tool to diminish any imperfections and I used the sharpen tool to make certain aspects such as the hair sharper. I like the pose I got the models to do as it is not a typical pose for a rock magazine, however I decided to still use it because rock magazines are more relaxed magazines in relation to their photographs in comparison to the glossy magazines.

 

This photograph is a medium long shot. I edited this photograph by erasing the background, I then used the sharpen tool to sharpen the make-up around the eyes and the the arms of her top. I then duplicated my picture, this enabled me to paint the lips white (mask) and then made the lips red and brought the opacity down so that the lines around the lips weren't harsh. I really like the composition of the model, I made her arms become the leading lines, placing the focus onto her face, the way she's leaning forward also helps to place the focus on her face.

 

 

This photograph is a medium shot. I made the model stand with her hands placed on her hips, this makes her stand out as it gives her a larger area of the picture and your eyes get lead from the bright lettering on the top up her arms towards her face. I didn't edit a lot in this photograph, I increased the brightness and erased the background.

Creating Other Aspects

 

  Here is the lead article for my cover, I found the font on http://www.dafont.com/ I chose it as the font looks like it is eroding, fitting in with the theme of rock. I then edited this is photoshop by duplicating the font and then decreased the opacity of one of them and moved it slightly to the left and down slightly to give my lead article a drop-shadow. I think this looks very effective on top of the ripped paper.

This is the flash that I created to advertise the extra three free posters. I created this in photoshop by making a burgundy-red rectangle using the shape tool, then by using various sizes of the brush tool made the edges less straight, the corners rounded and by using a larger brush size I created a circle in the bottom right-hand corner. I then drew small splashes coming out of the circle so that it made it look like it was splattered paint, then using a thicker brush, I drew longer lines coming down, away from the circle making the 'paint splatter' look as if it was dripping. I then chose a shape from the eraser options and decreased the opacity so that it didn't rub away all of the edge, but made it look more decaying, I did this effect to some parts along the edges of the shape.

Creating My Contents Page

 

This is my finished contents page for my rock magazine. I created it using Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe InDesign CS3. I continued using the colour palette of burgundy-red, white and black as I did on my front cover, by doing this I created a theme for the magazine, making them appeal to belong together and making it more believable that they would be in a magazine together. I placed the pictures in boxes to keep them neat and I then decided to change the shape of two of the pictures to make them look less organised and more ‘edgy’. I decided to use the separating line between the pictures and the contents list like I had seen on the contents page that I analysed, I think this worked very well, however I changed it slightly by overlapping one picture into the contents page, this also makes the page look less organised as rock magazines, although they have to be organise so they can be read easily, usually try to add small details to keep their magazines alternative to glossy magazines. The font that I used for the sub-headings of each section of pages, I found on http://www.dafont.com/ it is very similar to the bigger ‘Contents’ heading at the top, I think by keeping them similar it makes the page look better. All of the writing is in capital letters making the words stand out and I added the issue number and cover date at the bottom of the page in a banner as this makes the magazine more professional looking as magazines I looked at all had this.

Editing My Photographs

 

 This photograph is a medium close-up. I edited this picture by cropping it to place the focus more on his face than his arms, I used the spot-healing tool a little to erase a couple of imperfections, such as spots. I then decided to increase the contrast very slightly and decrease the saturation to make it almost black and white. By doing this I find that it makes the picture stand out from the other contrasting, brightly coloured pictures, this is what I wanted as this is relating to the lead article inside of the magazine. I chose a model with piercings and swishing hair as these are aspects that you see on people in rock bands and are a connotation of rebellion, relating to the theme of rock. I made the model wear a red, white and blue checked top (these are very popular among rock band members) and the colours also match my colour palette. I made the model wear a flat-peak hat, as these are a connotation for ‘coolness’.

In this medium close-up shot I chose models with brightly coloured hair, this is a connotation of rebellion. I chose for them to wear more relaxed clothing than some of the other band pictures I took, I did this because all rock bands, although they have many similar aspects, are different and I have already portrayed this band as laid-back and happy by the types of pictures I have already taken of them and used on my front cover, so I thought that a more relaxed picture would fit the band’s portrayed personality better. I edited this photograph by increasing the brightness and contrast.

 

For this medium close-up shot I chose a model both dark and bright coloured hair as this portrays rock band members well. I made the model wear a striped top as striped patterns are commonly seen on members of rock bands, unlike other patterns such as flowers. I didn’t do much to edit this photograph I increased the brightness and contrast a lot, I was going to use the spot-healing tool under the eyes, however by increasing the brightness and contrast, the lines weren’t very noticeable any more so I left the photograph like that.

 

In this photograph the model is wearing the same as in the photo I took of her for my cover.  I noticed that the attention in that photograph went to the t-shirt, I managed to bring the focus up to her face by using her arms and I decided to do the same in this medium shot. I made the model pose in an ‘eerie’ pose, she looks a little bewitching but that fits into the corruption related to the rock genre. I decreased the saturation of the picture as it makes the colours of her hair, face and clothing less distracting, I then blurred slightly the t-shirt to make it less noticeable.

 

Creating Other Aspects

 

 

I got this font off of http://www.dafont.com/ it is another eroding font, I like using similar fonts as it makes the magazine constant throughout. I then edited the text in Photoshop by duplicating the text, decreasing the opacity on one and moving it very slightly downwards, this gave me a different drop-shadow effect to moving it right or left.

Creating My Double-Page Article

Here’s my finished article, which I made using Adobe InDesign CS3 and Adobe Photoshop CS3. Although it is an article and didn’t need to have as many similarities as the cover and contents page did, I decided to still keep certain aspects slightly similar, by making my background a faded dirty burgundy colour, putting a drop shadow onto my lifted quote and using an eroded font for my heading. I got inspiration for my double-page article from the articles I researched. I decided to place the photographs of my models inside boxes with thick black borders and a black to white fade gradient, I then, inspired by photographs on an article I researched, placed my models slightly outside of the boxes to make it appear as if they were rebelling against being placed inside of a box, I thought this represented the genre well. I placed two small columns of copy, as seen on researched articles, underneath my first picture on the left-hand page.  I then split the remainder of the copy into two tall, slim columns, placing them on either side of the split between the two pages, equal distance from the gap. I made all of the writing on the pages white as it was the easiest colour to read from against the darker background. I used a lifted quote on the right-hand page opposite my heading, I did this as it give you a small insight into the article, I kept this in mind whilst I was choosing which part would be best for me to lift form the text for the quotation. My copy on the article was carefully planned, I looked into many types of writing in different rock magazines I then took the types of subjects the bands talked about and using my own creative flair, produced an article about subjects a rock band might talk about and issues that could arise in a rock band, by doing this it made my article believeable.

Creating Other Aspects

This is the background created for my article I altered the brightness on Photoshop to make it a little brighter, I then made the colour a dirty, burgundy shade, this was done to make it relate more to the contents page and cover of the magazine. I really like the scratched, worn-away look of the background and I chose it as it was similar to one I noticed when researching into rock magazine articles.

Editing My Photographs

 

This long shot is of a model with both bright and dark coloured hair, I brightened this by using the sponge tool on the saturate setting and brushing it carefully on the red areas of the hair. I erased the background so that when I place it onto my article it would be just the figure and no background.  Made the model stand with hands on hips, I did this as it looks more ‘edgy’ and less innocent than standing with her arms down. I dressed her in dark slashed clothing as this is a connotation of rebellion and is commonly seen on rock fans/band members. I made the model thinner by pinching in the waist, lifting the underarms and thinning the arms and legs with the pucker tool in the liquefy filter. I used the spot-healing tool to diminish any blemishes and the bruise on the model’s right arm. I duplicated the image and applied the hard light blending option.

 

This medium shot is of a model with a flat-peak hat on, which is a connotation of ‘coolness’ and wearing a band t-shirt which is showing death and destruction this is related to the genre of rock. I made the model stand in direct mode of address, however I made him face slightly away from the camera this was inspired by a picture I saw when researching rock magazine articles. I got the model to pull at the neck of his top to contrast with the way his head is facing. I edited this picture by erasing the background, I used the spot-healing tool on content aware, to replace the missing parts of his skin and top, where the date and time details overlapped the model’s arm and also used it to replace areas where imperfections were visible. I duplicated the photograph and applied a black and white filter to the extra picture, I then set the blend mode to hard light.

This medium shot is of a model in plain clothing pointing upwards, I chose for the model to stand like this as his arms pointing upwards will direct the reader’s eyes back up to the main part of the article, which is why I placed it in the bottom right-hand corner of the article. I edited this photograph by erasing the background, I found an image of a band logo and placed it onto the photo, I cropped this to make it able to fit the t-shirt worn by the model, I then warped the logo to make it appear that it is actually on the t-shirt and I then set the blend mode to multiply. I did this to make the clothing worn by the model more rock-related. Using the lasso tool I chose the area of the model that was clothing and copied the clothing to a new layer, I changed the blend mode to hard light and then increased the contrast. I then used the burn tool on midtones to darken his eyes and increased the contrast on his hands, face and neck, I selected these with the lasso tool. I used the pucker tool on the liquefy filter to make his t-shirt more crinkled at the bottom.

Creating Other Aspects

 

This is the lifted quote that I chose to place on the top of the left-hand page opposite the heading. I chose a simple font as this would contrast against the eroded font of the heading. I made the font white so that it stood out against the dark background and then added a drop-shadow to it in Photoshop by duplicating the text, making one a grey colour, decreasing the opacity of it and moving it slightly to the left.

 

I got the font for my heading off of http://www.dafont.com/ I chose again, the eroded style font , this works well as the rest of the copy on the page is in a simple font. I added a drop shadow to this as well by duplicating it and making one layer a grey colour, decreased the opacity and moved it slightly to the left.