Contents Page Scaffolding

This week, I finished creating the scaffolding for my contents page of my magazine. I started by adding where I would want images to be placed and then added in the contents sub headings telling the readers what will be included in that issue of the magazine, I think that setting up the layout before actually making the magazine will make it a lot easier when it comes to putting in the images and other information that I want to include. The black boxes represent where I will put images.

Production Diary - Contents Page

This week I have finished off creating the layout of my content page by addind in the sell lines and the subheadings which tells the readership of the magazine what they should expect in that issue of the magazine. It is important that the sell lines are short yet effective and punchy otherwise they might not want to read the magazine.

I have chosen a colour scheme of teal, black, white and grey because I think it is quite common to see magazines with the basic monochromic colour scheme with one bright colour and because this is something that is successful, it would be a good idea to use this as a possible idea for my magazine.

I have also posted two posts showing the scaffolding of the magazine which is where I highlight to the examiner the basic outline of the magazine I am trying to create. It also makes it a lot easier when it comes to actually putting the magazine together because I can just paste everything in to the places that I have set up for them already.

Box Out

I have chosen on doing a variety of box outs because otherwise it might get a bit repetitive and boring - seeing as I have included a small amount of detail on her favourite artists and opinions of them in the double page spread article. I also thought that it was in the interest of the audience to include information about tour dates because they will be able to watch performances live if they wish. Finally adding ten quick, fun facts highlights to the audience how she is just like any other person - normal.

Cover Lines

The cover lines are the text that the audience will see on the front cover of my magazine. I want to keep the amount of cover lines on the front cover of my magazine very minimalistic because I want to create an enigmatic feeling - obviously I will need to add enough detail which will attract the audience, however I do not want to detract their attention away from the image on the front. Another reasons for this is that if they are left wondering a little about what the magazine will feature, they're more likely to want to buy the magazine.

Double Page Spread Scaffolding

This week, I have started to create the layout of what I want my magazine to look like - also known as the scaffolding. I started with how I wanted my double page spread to look because I thought that this would be the easiest part to design as it will have quite a basic layout that can easily be adjusted and my text and images can easily be applied to it.

The blue boxes represent where images will go and the black boxes highlight where I will be putting in text.

Contents Page Ideas

This week, I started to make the scaffolding for my music magazine and for homework we were set the task of thinking up some ideas of what I would want to include on the contents page of my magazine. I chose a variety of sell lines; regulars and features - I also decided that I wanted to have a band index, therefore I wrote up a list of different artists who I would want to include.

Obviously I will not be including all of these ideas on my contents page, as I might decide to adjust a couple and there might not be enough space to include all of them - however these are a few of the ideas for the style of sell lines I would want to include.

Underneath each possible idea for these headings that will go on my contents page subheading ideas, I will add a brief explanation as to what will be included on each of the pages. I will not be too detailed as I want the reader to have to go to that page to find out what is included.

Production Diary - Writing the Article

This week I have completed multiple tasks which will go towards my planning part of my coursework:

1. Planning the layout for the Front Page, Contents Page and Double Page Spreads
2. Feature Article
3. What will be on my Contents Page

Planning the layout for where you want everything to go is a good idea because it makes it a lot easier for when you want to make the actual task. For example, where I have put pictures, there are blue boxes - so when it comes to putting the whole thing together, I have the layout all worked out making the task less menial.

The feature article took me 6 hours to write out and consisted of a large 1700 words. I found it quite hard to start the article off, restarting the opening paragraph about ten times. However, once I had got it started, it got a lot easier and I really got into the flow of writing in this style and really enjoyed it. Sometimes when reading things over for mistakes after staring at the screen all day, you miss silly little things. So I asked my mum to read over it who said she thought it was a really nice style of writing and enjoyed reading it and only noticed a couple of grammatical errors.

The planning of what my contents page would consist of was not as time consuming as the feature article. I came up with some ideas of what would be regulars, features of this months issue and a band index.

Feature Article

As we are sat around waiting out the back of her London based recording studio, Delilah Rose is running late, yet again. Well known for her not so punctual punctuality, the nation’s sweetheart still has everyone waiting around for her. After what seems like hours, the fresh faced solo artist comes running through the door – Starbucks in hand – apologising profusely because of the so called “bad traffic”.  This down to earth Brit Award winner really doesn’t know what’s about to hit her.

Born and bred in rural Dorset, London is a completely new experience for this not so typical country girl. With her ‘I’m so relaxed I might as well be lying down’ attitude, she really knows how to make you feel at ease when you are in her presence. When saying that she has “never wanted to be one of those uptight, bitchy celebrities who has everyone running around after her” we can see why the UK and the rest of the world has fallen head over heels in love with this level-headed singer songwriter.

One thing that stands out against the rest is her passion and love for music – telling us about one of her most prominent memories of when she used to visit her Nana every Sunday. She would sit on her knee listening to all the old records whilst her Nana would tell her about her life experiences. “The one Sunday that stood out against the rest for me was when I was about 5 or 6, and the rest of the family were out of the room, and I remember her telling me one thing, and that was no matter how many problems you face, music will always be the rock you can cling to that helps you stay anchored to reality.”

Carrying on our conversation about what family life was like for her as a child and in her teens, we get a deep and meaningful understanding of the hurdles that she had to overcome to get to the place she is today. When asking about her parents she tells us “whenever I get onto that topic it always ends in tears so please bear with me.” She takes a couple of minutes to contain her emotions and then starts to relay to us the story which is obviously something which is extremely difficult for her to talk about. “My mother tragically passed away when I was a young girl, and sadly I know very little about her. Her death led to my father being a bit of a recluse, which I think is the reason why I am so close to my Nana – I definitely would not be the strong and independent girl I am today if it wasn’t for her.”  We can see that Family is something that has instilled some strong morals in this easy–going singer after hearing about some of the tough times she has had to go through. “Sometimes I feel like I am on a rollercoaster at one of the world’s biggest theme parks, and for me music is always there to alleviate the pain. You find people visiting psychiatrists and counsellors to deal with their problems, but I like to write mine down and share them with the world through song.”

After talking about this we decided that we wanted to talk about something a little bit more light-hearted, which Delilah is more than happy with as she laughs and tells us that “serious is too mainstream for me, music is supposed to be something enjoyable – not something that makes me want to cry 24/7.” So we thought we would get on to the topic of musical inspirations. “Artists inspire you for many different reasons - from the type of music you produce to the clothes you wear.” We can tell that this girl has a wise head set on those shoulders with all of these inspirational quotes that she has been throwing at us! “It might seem strange but one person, who when looking at me you wouldn’t think I would listen to, is Etta James. The music that woman produces is just legendary. The soulful and raspy tone to her voice just sends shiver down my spine every time I hear her sing one of her sensational songs.” For those of you who don’t know Etta James was a singer-songwriter whose style spanned from Jazz and Blues to R&B and Rock and Roll and in 2003, she won the Grammy’s lifetime achievement award which is an accolade any artist would want to achieve. “I also aspire to be like artists such as Adele – she is such a strong and independent woman, and I admire the amount of emotion that is portrayed through her songs. One performance that really stands out to me is when she performed someone like you at the Brit Awards 2011. The amount of passion that was behind her performance was sensational, and I hope that one day I will be as high class of a performer as she is today.”

After talking about who inspires her, Delilah starts to tell us about what life at school was like for this talented young star. ”School for me was pretty basic. I never had the privileges of attending one of those high costing performing art schools – even though it was a passion of mine – because of how bloody expensive they are! I attended a normal secondary school – Shaftesbury School – and I never was one of those ‘popular girls’ but I wasn’t someone who didn’t have any friends either. I had a good group of friends who supported me and who I could talk to.”  Do your friends still support you now, even though you are always in the limelight? “The majority of my friends treat me exactly the same, some ditched me at the word go because apparently the thought that I was going to turn into one of those conceited, supercilious celebrities” – well you definitely aren’t one of them! “haha, thanks, but any way, I can see why they might have thought that would happen but I think they should have given me a chance first. They have always known that this is the one dream that I wished to follow, right from the very start, and I supported them when they were telling me that they wanted to become doctors or teachers – they just couldn’t be bothered to stick around and support me. I do thank them in some ways now though, because even though I find it harder to trust people, I find it easier to work out who my true friends really are.” You come across as someone who thinks quite logically, especially when it comes to life and those around you. “Well I think it’s important because otherwise, you would just become one of those celebrities who goes off the rails and becomes uncontrollable – I definitely don’t want that to happen with me.”

Her debut album is called Hold On, filled with 13 emotional and meaningful ballads which Delilah has written herself, it is expected to head straight to the top of the charts when it is released on the 1^st December, just in time for Christmas. At the mention of the album a glowing aura illuminates Delilah which really confirms the fact that music is what this girl is meant to be doing. “This album holds a lot of meaning for me,” says Delilah, “the album was named after one of my tracks ‘Hold On’ which relates back to the saying that my Nana always used to tell me when I was finding something difficult – It’s the one that I mentioned at the beginning of this interview.” She tells us that the album was completed about a month and a half ago, and after attending the listening party last Thursday evening we can see that there is a new generation of music on its way. “The songs that are currently hitting the top of the charts feel to me as if there is not a lot of meaning behind them, I wanted to change that, produce songs that people would be able to relate to. The world has listened to enough cliché love songs, it’s time for something different and that is what I plan on bringing.” Delilah wrote the album herself, with the input from people such as Tom Fletcher who stated that “this girl has talent – she definitely will go far,” and Greg Kurstin who helped the likes of P!nk and Kelly Clarkson. With talented people like these helping and guiding her along the way – this will definitely be a hit. “I loved working with all these talented song writers and producers – they were amazing. Since working with them, my writing and song producing has come on leaps and bounds. I really can’t wait to start producing my next album – I haven’t even had my first one out yet!” she says whilst laughing.

 Talking about what’s up next for this vivacious young star – we can see that there is a lot coming her way. With invites to perform at multiple venues and festivals in 2014, she also plans to head over to America, which we are sure she’d be able to crack after her debut single Helpless was released their two months ago and went to number 2 in the billboard charts. “I did a couple of promotional tours for a couple of weeks at the end of summer this year when I went to your generic Florida, New York, and LA. But I would love to go over there for a good couple of months and travel through the whole of North America with my team – I’d like to take my Dad and Nana too!” she says with a little giggle at the end. We just wish Delilah the best of luck with this album, and that America sees as much in her as we do. At the end of the interview, we ask her to finish off with a few words on what advice she would give someone who was starting out just like she was 18 months ago – “Just stay true to yourself and don’t forget where you come from. We see artists whose fame just goes to their heads and that’s just not cool. My nana has always told me to stay grounded, and that is what I’m going to tell you.”

Social Media

 

 

The social media is an extremely important aspect for when it comes to promoting a magazine, or any other medium. This is because there are millions of social networking users who actively use these sites daily, therefore, by having pages on various social networking sites we are reaching out to those who are using these new technologies.

 

I believe that four of the most commonly used and popular social networking sites are twitter, instagram, facebook and pinterest, another being tumblr which is a photo blogging site where various images are share and is extremely similar to pinterest.

 

Facebook and Twitter are networking sites where people are able to share different news, songs and other various things. We commonly see 'trends' and advertisements of what they believe that we would possibly be interested in.

 

I believe that it is extremely important for me to use social media as a form of promotion because of the young audience I am targeting my magazine at because of teenagers using their android and smartphones.

Props and Costumes