Contents page: Editing my second image

The deadline for my contents page is at the end of this week so I decided to start manipulating images that are going to be used in my contents page. Down below is a screenshot of the original image with no edit. The image came out dark and my aim was to brighten it up and make it stand out more. 

 I used the website www.befunky.com to play around with the level of brightness and contrast. I ended up increasing the brightness and lowering the contrast so it didn't look to edited at the end.

Here is the final image edited that I created. As you can see, I also cropped the picture which got rid of the unneeded background props. I think the photo did come out brighter and more appealing as there is more colour in the picture now which makes it not look dull.

My front cover so far..

I've been working on my front cover within the last week and this is how it looks like so far! I still need to adjust a few things for example the size of each font. I could improve by choosing more effective fonts that relate to rock. I found cutting out the background of the whole main image difficult as it was time consuming and I had to use different tools like the lasso tool to make it look more professional with no visible errors. 

Written Interview

Here's the interview that I will be featuring on my double page spread. To improve, I still need to add a stand-first and a conclusion at the end which I will be blogging about soon.

Which artist/band has been the main inspiration for your music?

Andre: Everyone has a different answer to that question, Simon likes The Damned and I prefer The Cure! The Cure are my favorite, they are actually the inspiration that has made me actually want to create my own music and write my own lyrics.

At which age were you certain that you wanted to do music?

Andre: I was literally born with it; my mother and father both played. My father made a living out of it. So there were always musical instruments around the house and I just picked them up and experimented with them. So I’ve had a lot of practice you can say with different instruments!

Is image important for rock stars?

James: Urmm yes, because the best thing about being in a band is playing on stage but it’s more important for some rather than others though. For us it is important, as we all believe by the clothing we wear when we play on stage, it expresses the music we play.

How did you guys form as a band?

James: We all have history in other bands as well. Nico, Andre and I all used to be in a band and Andre and Simon were in another band. We all knew that we could take ourselves forward by forming together as one band, which we decided to call The Drej.

Simon: I like the thing you said the other day James, about picking the best people with all the bands you’ve been in (laughs)…

Andre: The best musicians have it all!

Have you considered doing anything else?

James: We’re all concentrating on this, I mean I have a little studio in my house and I enjoy making electronic music at home but that’s just for fun really; this is more serious and that’s why we put all our focus on our music.

When was the first time you ever performed in front of a live crowd?

Andre: In mid January, last year at The Unicorn in Camden. We had a great time because we learnt and experienced new things by performing for the first time in front of a live crowd. It was a big deal to us and it still is to get people to actually come to a gig and to listen to our music.

Would you trade your current genre for a major record deal?

Andre: No we wouldn’t change what we do. This is the reason why we haven’t got a deal yet! (Laughs) We’re adamant that we’re making noise but we enjoy it. Writing our own songs and being able to express our thoughts and feelings is just great, especially towards people that actually agree with you.

Nico: You also have to enjoy what you do with what you got.

James: Record deals; you have to pay back the money that they give you; you’re not rich; you’re just going to be in more debt. We chose this style because we like it.

So what does the future hold for you?

James: The immediate future is getting our album out within the next few weeks, I guess. Then promoting that and see how it goes.  We’re going to try to get a few more gigs and push the record really and then after that it’s album number two!

Andre: We’re working on album number two already; we’ve just started to write songs for it.

How will you realise that you have reached success?

James: When we get to hand our notices in at our jobs (Laughs)

Simon: And we actually get paid for making our music.

Andre: It would also be nice to hear somebody else that I have never met before whistling one of our tunes. 

What has been the biggest challenge for you guys so far?

Andre: Getting to rehearsal (Laughs)

James: Well obviously we are based in London, so there are a lot of opportunities to play around but the only thing is that there is a huge amount of competition so you’re fighting against all the other bands to be noticed. The biggest challenge is probably getting our album together, sorted and done. We started to record it last March and it’s just about ready now! But it will be worth it once we see the end result, I’m sure we will all be pleased with our work.

Andre: For me, it was a challenge finding other musicians who wanted to play with me!

Just to finish off, tell us something you've never told an interviewer before?

James: The hardest question out of all of them! (Laughs)

Simon: I once came home drunk and went into the wrong house and watched somebody else’s television! (Laughs)

Nico: I’ve had man panties thrown at me whilst I was on stage!

It was a pleasure interviewing you all; thank you for your time!

James: No problem, thank you for having us all. 

Response for feedback on interview..

Here's the feedback which I received from my teacher about my written interview.

I had to:

-Extend my answers on the questions to make sure the whole interview is longer or ask more questions to take up space

- Look for a suitable font which reflects the genre Rock

- Correct grammer mistakes

- Add a stand-first and conclusion

- See how my interview is set out with a proper layout including columns

Idea change - No glow!

When creating my front cover I faced a few ideas that I had to change.

Above are screenshots that were some potential ideas that I had for the main image on my front cover. By adding the glow effect, I thought it made my front cover look more appealing but then I realised that it was unconventional in most Rock magazines as it is not commonly used. The glow effect also covered some mistakes that I made from cutting the background out. From noticing this, I had to take the glow effect off and ended up having to work with different fonts to make the main image stand out. Also, I amended my mistakes by carefully cutting around the image again and fixing any obvious mistakes.

Here's a screenshot of my front cover without the glow effect. This is a basic layout of how my front cover is going to be set out. As you can see, I need to edit my masthead with the right colour (red) and I need to place more text in the right position. From looking at my front cover, I need to remember typical conventions that all rock magazines carry out on their front covers which I need to represent in my front cover.

Editing photos

Here's a presentation which highlights the difference of my original photo and my completed edited photo. I used the website www.picmonkey.com and Photoshop to help me manipulate my image. The edited photo will be featured on my contents page and by editing the photo before hand, it will make it easier for me to complete my contents page once I start it as my photo's will already be done.

Editing contents pic from afreens10

The Drej: Recorded Interview

Here is the final finished interview video that I had conducted with The Drej! The interview will be featured on my double page spread. I edited the video on iMovie to cut out certain bits that wasn't necessary. By recording the interview, it has made it easier for me to write up the interview as it has allowed me to look back at the video and expand specific responses. The written interview will be posted soon, once I have finished adjusting it by following the feedback that I got from my teacher.

Front cover - Using the magnetic lasso tool!

I have started to create my front cover for my magazine and below are screenshots to show how my original image has adapted to a potential front cover.

I started off with my already edited image which was in black and white and I chose to use this edit as my final because it stood out more then the other edits I created with the same image. I also believe it will work well with my chosen colour scheme which is red, green white and black.

In this screenshot, you can see my progress of cutting out the background which I did by using the magnetic lasso tool. By cutting out the background, it made it easier for me as I didn't really need to cut around 'The Drej' which would of been more complicated and it would of been more time consuming.

Here is a screenshot of how the main image would look without a black background. With this in mind, I chose the background to be black because it would make my masthead stand out more as my chosen colour for my masthead is red. Also as you can see, I still need to tweak the picture and still cut around the edges to give the whole photo a more professional look.

"Unplugged" - Possible fonts

By looking at different fonts used on mastheads in Rock magazines, I picked out the fonts that represented the genre of my magazine. Below is a collage which I tested out different fonts that follow the typical "Rock" conventions.

I will be selecting one of these fonts to use on my masthead which is "Unplugged". I have also decided to have the colour red as it would make the masthead stand out more with a black background and by experimenting different fonts, it has allowed me to see which font works the best.

Using Indesign

In class, we practised using Indesign by creating templates for our contents page. We are using Indesign for our contents and double page spread and by practising and experimenting different layouts for my contents page, it has helped me a lot as I need to get used to the program. Indesign also allows text to be aligned properly so it gives a more professional look towards it as it is accurate.

The screenshot shows my process of creating my template for my contents page as you can see I am already planning an accurate layout for my images and text. By creating a template, it will make it easier for me when I start creating my contents page.

Here is the tutorial video we watched in class which is based on the first basic steps creating our magazines:

Improved flatplans..

By receiving feedback from a classmate, I decided to create updated flat plans to improve my magazine overall. Also, I recreated my flat plans because I know what images I am definitely going to include in my magazine which is helpful as it will make my flat plans more precise and I can easily follow them when creating my magazine this week!

Front Cover

On my front cover, I decided to change my chosen colours (Red, Green, Black, White) around on different fonts. This helps my magazine follow typical conventions because in most Rock magazines, red is a very common colour used. Also, I decided to not include the freebies (+2 posters) as I wanted my magazine to look more simple and not too busy.

 Contents Page

I decided to use the colour scheme (red, green, white & black) repetitively to make the whole magazine look more professional. Additionally by knowing definitely what images I am going to include, It gave me a chance to add more sub-headings to the page in which will be beneficial as it will save time when I am creating my contents page.

 Double Page Spread

On my double page spread, I changed the layout completely as I think this layout is more effective than the other layout I had considered because I have included more columns with two different appealing images. This layout is also simple which links with the contents page and front cover as it is not busy or crowded which makes the magazine overall achieve the "professional" look.

Editing my images!

I decided to play around with my potential front cover image using photoshop. I tested different effects on the image by adjusting the brightness and contrast and using different effects like black and white. I also cropped the bottom of the picture which helped as you can see some irrelevant items.

Original Image of The Drej

Down below are the screenshots in which you can see the development of my edits!

Black and White 

In this edit, I decided to change the picture to black and white which I believe makes it look more effective as it relates to the genre rock. Additionally, the different tones also make it look more appealing because it looks more natural as it is not too edited!

Black and White #2

In this edit, I adjusted the brightness to a little which makes the picture look more eye-catching because the tone of the colours are much more darker which make The Drej stand out. I think the black and white edit does really give a rock feel to my target audience as this will allow my coloured masthead and text to be noticed easily with a simple front cover image.

 Faded

I decided to play around with the colours of the picture which resulted in a faded effect. I think this is effective as it is not to bright which makes an image look unnatural. 

Images I captured!

Here are the selected original photos that I am going to include in my magazine. It was hard trying to decide which photos would overall look more better in the magazine on specific pages. By uploading my pictures on sliderocket, it has helped me find some problems with my photo's which need to be edited for example items at the background could be cropped!

The Drej Performing!

On the day I went to interview and photograph my chosen band (The Drej) who are obviously going to be featured in my magazine, they kindly performed one of their songs which I recorded. Here it is!