This video shows the process through which I went to produce a verity of abstract shapes for use in my final covers background and to mask the models face. The video is vastly sped up so as to prevent any boredom and provide a full insight into the creation of my magazine features. To create these, I used 'Cinema 4D' and a plugin called 'Thrausi'.
Despite the results of my survey, I decided to create all of the titles I had come up with in a high quality 3D format via the use of a piece of software called Cinema 4D (I also used this software as part of the creation of my practise preliminary cover, however it did not turn out as I had planned). I am very aware that this is unnecessary effort, but I have decided to do so because it shall improve my skill and will provide me with other options if I do not like what I create for 'Ephemera' (the title I planned to use)
Here is a video showing the creation process of my 3D titles and their rendering:
1) Here are my renders for the title 'Aether'. They look beautiful but I do not think they would be fitting for what I have plan on creating for my front cover.
2) These are the renders for 'Elixir'. The top design is my personal favourite out of the three. I am strongly considering using it in the front cover as it seems as though it would be very appealing to my target demographic. This is because it has a graffiti like feel to it, something likely to attract a large audience of young people as it is relatable to the urban environment and was widely publicised by London 2012 Olympic Games.
3) These are my two renders for 'Ephemera', the title which gained the most votes in my survey. Thankfully I am delighted my outcome of these renders as I feel they would look rather professional if used in a magazines front cover. I prefer the top render as it has a nicely contrasting colour palette than the bottom one and overall looks better. Adding to this, the render below seems too crime/gang related as its colours and font seem too similar to those of the logo of the popular television show 'Pimp my ride' (video link to their theme tune)
4) This is my render of the title 'Harbinger'. I shall not be using it as it looks as though it is intended for use in a heavy mental genre magazine, not the electronic dance music one I intent to create.
5) Here is the render of 'Nemesis'. I shall not be using this either as it seems to be far too cheap and tacky looking.
6) This is my render for 'Overture'. It looks hideous, boring and shall definitely not be used as the masthead for my magazine.
7) These are my 'reflux' renders, they are all fairly dull looking and shall therefore not be used in the creation of the final front cover.
8) This is the render I did for 'Paragon'. It looks exceptionally good but is unlikely to be used in the final product as the colours do not seem fitting for the genre.
Music magazine names generally consist of one or two memorable words (notable examples include: Vibe, NME, Kerrang, Rolling Stone and Q). These names often have little meaning and are there simply to mark the brand and allow their audiences to find them easily in shopping locations. Due to my magazine being focused primarily on electronic dance music I selected eight powerful and unique words, which I believe capture both the spirit and passion of the music as well as sounding similar to song titles of the genre, to be my potential magazine names. These words are as follows:
1- Elixir
(Definition: A magical or medicinal potion)
2- Reflux
(Definition: The flowing back of a liquid)
3- Paragon
(Definition: A model of excellence or perfection of a kind)
4- Nemesis
(Definition: The inescapable or implacable agent of someone's or something's downfall)
5- Overture
(Definition: An introduction to something more substantial)
6- Harbinger
(Definition: A forerunner or herald)
7- Ephemera
(Definition: Things lasting no more than a day)
8- Aether
(Definition: "pure, fresh air" or "clear sky", imagined in Greek mythology to be the pure essence where the gods lived and which they breathed)
To determine which of these titles I would use I held a survey asking people the question: ‘Which of these titles would you prefer to see on a magazine focusing primarily on electronic dance music?’ with a choice of the eight words I had selected. A total of fifty people answered this survey, the results are as follows:
Elixir = 8
Reflux = 1
Paragon = 5
Nemesis = 3
Overture = 6
Harbinger = 0
Ephemera = 15
Aether = 12
Because of this survey I decided to use Ephemera as my magazines’ title. I am happy with this choice because it signifies that although music is a wonderful thing, it is an experience shortly lasted; therefore my magazine can provide its users with the latest news, recent releases and hidden musical gems so as to keep the experience fresh and full of passion.
These are the pictures that I took for my third photoshoot. This time I was able take plenty of photographs. Many of which were taken in front of a whiteboard or plain brick wall. The reason I took so many in front of bare backgrounds was so that I had many easily editable pictures, the bareness was to act as almost as a 'greenscreen' which could be removed and replaced with minimal effort required to do so. It also provided a great contrast to the models and caused little to no negative effects to the lighting of the room. It would have been ideal to use a well lit white canvas (such as those used by many professional photographers), but this was all that was available to me at the time. Despite this I believe that this photoshoot was hugely successful and will thus have provided me with many usable pictures of a high quality and standard. I also think that my photography skills have increase significantly since my first attempt at a photoshoot.
(this is an image of the conditions we were attempting to emulate in our photoshoot)
Here are some of the pictures from the photoshoot which I am possibly considering to use in my final front cover (most of them are far from being usable as they are currently but I believe that with some editing they shall look fantastic):
Here is what I intend my target demographic to be:
Age: I intend to aim my magazine to people between 13 to 25 as I myself am between those age boundaries and shall therefore be far more comfortable writing for people of similar ages. As well as this, electronic music is a very lively and new genre of music which is extremely popular in clubs and therefore it currently mainly attracts the younger generation.
(picture of a person DJing to a young audience)
Gender: Female 50% and Male 50%, I have decided to refrain from focusing on a single gender (e.g. via using photographs of semi naked ladies so as to attract a large male audience) so that my magazine can appeal to everyone and become something that is easily shareable among peoples friends. Due to this approach I believe that my potential influence will be vastly expanded and thus draw in a far bigger audience. Economic Group:
Primarily the middle or lower classes as I intend to make my magazine relatively cheap and affordable (£3 or less hopefully). Musical Preference: Electronic music, mainly focusing on EDM (electronic dance music), house and dubstep as they currently seem to be the most popular of the sub-genres of the music.
After analysing many magazine layouts I have produced this generic layout plan for use in my front cover. I have drawn inspiration from a vast source of other music magazines because I wish my front cover to be as authentic and professional looking as I am able to produce. This is only a rough guideline I have set for myself however and slight variations may be made to the design in the final product. The boxes shown are set simply to provide a visible guideline for where the majority of the content shall be seen, in the final design it is more than likely that sections shall overlap each other (for example, the main image shall be overlaid with the main cover line and barcode). As well as this there is no plug shown as I have not yet decided where I would like to place it, I intend to do so once I have produced an early copy of the final design.
This is the second photoshoot I did. The image and lighting quality has improved significantly since the last one as I have expanded my knowledge of photography and taken the time to set up the environment so as to best suit photographs. I have also taken a verity of different shots, including CDs, pianos, keyboards and various different models so that I have a far larger range of pictures to chose from when making my magazine cover, contents page and double page spread.
As one may have noticed, the models are wearing hats and glasses. This has been done so as to mask their identities and emulate the feeling of mystery and the unknown. The idea to this came from various masked musicians and DJs such as 'Deadmau5', 'Daft Punk' and 'The Bloody Beetroots' (see images below).
This is the first photoshoot I did. It was rather unsuccessful and far fewer pictures were taken than I would have liked there to be. Adding to this, the room lighting was poor thus resulting in slightly blurry and low quality photos. For my next photoshoot I aim to improve the lighting quality and if possible, take a wider verity of shots.
