For the third draft of my contents page I made the barcode smaller and added another cover line. I also added the cover star’s name to his cover line.

For the third draft of my contents page I made the page numbers the same size and added a name to the poster. I also added a little more variety to the fonts.

For the third draft of my double page spread I added a silhouette of the model with a white outline behind the text. I also fixed the text wrap around the fretboard and added a little more colour to some of the text.

Targets

• Front Cover
  • Make model and masthead bigger
  • Align cover lines
  • Add another coverline
  • Add something to the top right corner

• Contents Page
  • Overlap poster
  • Link model caption to article

• Double Page Spread
  • Add colour to quote

I chose these adverts because I think they would mesh well with the target audience.

Download Festival is popular with listeners of my magazine’s genre.

Fender is a popular guitar brand and a lot of people who are enthusiastic about music especially in my genre would be interested in this ad as they often play instruments or want to play instruments.

Marshall is a popular brand and people in bands in my genre need amps. A lot of people who are interested in music play instruments or are in their own bands.

I chose the Bose advert because a lot of people who are interested in music want to listen with good quality headphones.

I think that these adverts will fit my audience’s demographic of mostly millennial males well.

For the second draft of my double page spread I have improved the cut-out of the model. I made the headline smaller so it fit on one page and didn’t cross over the stapling area. I then made the quote smaller so that the headline was still the biggest text on the page. I removed the hyphenation from the article and improved the text wrap.

Targets for final draft:

• Make him bigger and over the background so that he goes over the background at the top more i.e. overlaps the black onto the white more.
• Make the columns more interesting, colours, quotes, etc by adding some design graphics? a Guitar logo opaque in the background behind the copy?
• Fix text wrap under the fretboard needs aligning better.
• Could the page numbers be in a colour?

Contents Draft 2

For the second draft of my contents page, I improved the cut-out of the model and added the poster to fill up space. I also added a drop shadow to the main image. I added another cover line to be consistent with the front page and make it less empty. I tried aligning the text to the left but found that it looked better aligned to the centre the way it was.

Targets for final draft:

• Caption the poster
• More font variety
• Make all the numbers the same size
• Make the model bigger?

For my second draft I have heavily improved the image using Photoshop. I used the clone stamp tool to remove the reflection from the bass guitar, improved the cut-out around his hair, removed spots and blemishes from the model’s skin and brightened the model’s irises.

I replaced the poster image with a photo from my location shoot, and captioned it with the name of the artist. I also added another cover line to fill up empty space and changed some of the fonts.

Targets for final draft:

• Another coverline for another artist
• Fill empty space in the top right
• Say who the “bassist” is
• Make the barcode smaller

 

The first draft of my double page spread went okay. For my second draft I have five clear targets.

• Fill up some of the empty space on the left page
• Improve the cut-out to get rid of the white parts around the model
• Get rid of the hyphenation and refit the text on the page
• Make it so that the page fold doesn’t conflict with the headline
• Change page numbers to match the contents page

For my double page spread I had to write an article. I chose one of the cover lines and wrote about live music in the face of the pandemic. First I used a planning table.

I then moved it into a separate document and wrote my first draft.

I then recorded myself reading it out and listened to it to hear how it read.

I also put it in a text to speech generator to hear how it would be read by someone who didn’t already know how it was meant to read.

 

It sounded fine so I was able to move on and put it in my double page spread.

I think that reading a lot of articles by music magazines (specifically metal magazines) has helped me to construct this article as I know how they usually are.

These are the contact sheets for the location shoot that I previously planned. We had a larger selection of props than anticipated, I chose the dynamite (two candles tapes together) and the police tape (but I didn’t end up using it). I took photos under the market, in alleys and on steps.

These were my three favourite photos, I will use some if not all of them in my magazine. I will still probably do my double page spread on Geraint as that is who I’ve planned it for but I could change it if the photos don’t work.

To add variety to my magazine I need to take more photos of different models. This meant I had to make a production meeting agenda for a second shoot.

Before writing my own article to go on my double page spread, I decided to analyse an interview from Billboard Magazine to see what sort of language and structure they used.

The Article

The article is an interview with Adam Lambert called “Adam Lambert: Don’t Look Back” from Billboard Magazine written by Shirley Halperin. The article is from June 20th, 2015 and it is over 1000 words long. The interview is about what’s going on in his life and with his new album (at the time). 

Structure

The article opens with a description of Lambert and what he is wearing. The first quote after the description is “it’s hard for me to be happy”, and Lambert opens up a little about his “inability to be content”. The article then talks about his past successes, and his split from his label RCA due to “creative distances”, and his break up. It then switches gear and starts talking about his new deal with Warner Bros and his upcoming album, changing from despair to hope. As well as Lambert, the interview includes a quote from the CEO of Warner Bros, it is unclear if this was directly to the journalist or a public statement made by the CEO. The article then starts talking about other openly LGBTQ+ celebrities, which in 2015 was a rarer thing than today in 2020. It then closes on a quote by Lambert saying how we all need to keep moving forward and looking for the next thing. 

Presence of Journalist

Surprisingly, other than the implication of the journalist interviewing him, there is zero presence of the journalist. The interview may as well have been a livestream or a speech, as the interviewer is not mentioned once, the only dialogue comes from Lambert. The journalist also doesn’t give much opinion, acting as more of a neutral narrator to the events talked about in the interview than a person with their own opinion. Despite the fact that it is an interview, it seems to be more from Lambert’s point of view than anyone else really, the only opinion being his. 

Language and Aim

The language seems to aim to inspire hope for the future. The article seems to slightly gloss over Lambert’s problems, really focusing on the new album and hope. There is occasionally humour as well. The quotes are well chosen to be mostly short but impactful. Phrases like “there was just one problem:” build suspense for incoming information. Language like “media spectacle” and “vocal sensation” (about Caitlyn Jenner and Sam Smith respectively) make them seem extraordinary and exciting. 

Representation of the Performer

The article seems to paint Adam Lambert in a positive, progressive light, promoting his new album as a blend of multiple genres and promoting his message to keep moving forward.

After analysing this interview, I now have a better idea of how I should write mine to make it a good and successful article.