Here is an example of an unconventional magazine cover. I would rather use an unconventional cover for my ,magazine, as it is more likely to be unique, and perhaps it will draw more peoples attention. The only problem with this is that i will have to spend a lot of time making this look professional, as often unconventional magazine covers do not look professional. 

Here i have found a picture similar to the style of the one i want to use on my front cover, and designed a mock layout of a front cover. This is quite a conventional, basic, normal style of front cover, but i want to make my magazine look different. 

After being shown a good website with some nice tutorials in photoshop (http://www.tutorial9.net/photoshop/colorful-glowing-text-effect/)

i had a go at one of the tutorials, and this is what i made: 

Then i tried playing with some photoshop effects, here i used the smudge tool, which ws very effective, and made the reflection look like it was being reflected in rippling water. 
And here i added another gradient layer, which looks kind of like there is a big light coming from behind. 

Above are some contact sheets of the photos i took of Nicole Wall. 

Above are some contact sheets, of the photos i took of Poppy Larbalestier, at Havre Des Pas. I am hoping to use some of these photos in my final magazine. 

This is an example of the grid system i am going to use:

These are my layouts for my front page, my contents page, and my double page spread. i have put a couple of good examples, as well as the one's that i am going to use. I have also drawn out some examples of grid systems. All magazines use grid systems, and they use the same grid system throughout the magazine, apart from the contents page. I have drawn out 2 grid systems for my contents page and my double page spread. I do not have one for the front page, as a magazine front cover has so many of its own conventions to adhere to, that it is not necessary for one. 

I have now finished my preliminary task. I have spent a lot of time producing, what i think, is a professional front cover for a school magazine, and contents page for a school magazine. The first thing i did was take a photo of one of my classmates for my front cover. I then uploaded the photo in to photoshop. Then i spent time looking through different fonts and sizes, until i found one that i thought suitable. I thought of some text that i could display on the front cover, and again experimented with fonts and so on. Then i moved on to my contents page. I found an example of one in an ELLE magazine from 2004. I uploaded that page in to photoshop, and edited the whole thing. I put pictures of subjects from the school website, and on each of the pictures, i put the subject name, and the page it would appear on. I then listed each page and what was on it, with the mast head at the top. 

I have been spending some time editing a photo in photoshop. I have basically made a very basic front cover. For my first attempt i think it isn't bad, but obviously i will spend a lot more time on it. I think i have managed to grasp the basic aspects of photoshop, but with more practise i think my final piece has potential to look quite professional. When the photo was taken, i had a hairtye around my wrist, i wanted to get rid of this as it made the photo look quite tacky. I used the clone tool, to take the colour of other parts of my skin that were the same colour, and placed these bits of colour over the hairtye until you couldn't see it anymore. i thought the the picture would better in black and white, so i changed the colour format of the picture to grayscale. i added a little bit of text, just to get used to using the tool, and imported a barcode.

As i previously mentioned, i have been looking at some Classic Rock front covers. The first thing that i noticed about this front cover, is the mast head. I like the way it is symmetric, and spreads right across the top of the page. This magazine cover is very powerful, and is likely to encourage people to buy it. The image is very powerful, of an incredible artist, who likes to make a statement. I like the white background, and will probably use a white background for my magazine cover. 

In the past couple of lessons, i have spent a lot of time playing with photoshop, and trying to get the hang of using it. I used one of the photos that we took in  previous lesson, and spent time editing it, and trying to make it look like a magazine front cover. 

Below is a link to a website that i have found, which is showing some statistics for the sales of popular music magazines. Hopefully from this i will be able to choose a best selling magazine, to give me some good ideas about how i can make my magazine look professional. Here are the main figures. 

Classic Rock 66,632 (67,399)
Kerrang! 60,294 (76,937)
Metal Hammer 48,540 (45,809)
Mixmag 34,073 (35,817)
Mojo 106,367 (106,218 )
NME 56,284 (64,033)
Q 113,174 (131,330)
Rock Sound 22,527 (23,021)
Terrorizer no figures (14,952)
The Fly 105,212 (103,051)
Uncut 86,925 (91,028 )
Word 33,775 (33,217)

http://dezji.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/uk-music-magazine-circulation-figures-2/

From these figures i can see that Classic Rock is a magazine that sells very well. I am now going to look at some covers and hopefully contents pages for this magazine to see what sort of thing i should be aiming for. 

in yesterdays lesson, the people who are doing a magazine, went around the school and took lots of photos, trying to firstly get the hang of using the cameras, and also, trying to see which sort of photos we think would look good as our front covers. The people doing a film, made some small video clips. Both of the groups then were shown how they can edit their video's or photos, and begin to prepare them for their final pieces. 

When i found this magazine front cover, i just thought it was funny, but after looking at it, i realised that it had a very good basic layout. It has a plain simple masthead, that still looks good, with a big picture of a ferret, which is obviously what the magazine is about. 

I am going to spend this lesson looking at the things which make up a front cover, for example, the mast head, the barcode, the date and issue number, possibly a web link, a big bold main picture, and lots of information about what is inside. It is important that i look at these things, so i can try and find things that i like to include on my magazine front cover. 

As yo can see i have found on the internet, a page showing a variety of different mastheads. None of these particularly attract me, but they are all good examples. The new york times one, is an example of a very common style of masthead, in newspapers. 

I can't describe what it is that i like about this front cover. Perhaps it is how in your face it is, or the way that there is a lot going on. It could be the fact that the cover is showing one of the most famous people in the music industry. Madonna is quite an attractive woman, so it is pleasant to look at as well. 

Although i spent the lesson yesterday looking for adverts that was attracted too, i have realised that my magazine needs to attract boys my age, not just girls my age. Therefore today i have been looking for adverts that would hopefully appeal to boys.

I have been looking through some magazines, trying to select adverts, or pictures, that i think would be suitable to go in to my magazine. What i mean by 'suitable' for my magazine, is that they appeal to the right audience. For example my music magazine will hopefully attract a younger audience, so i wouldn't have adverts for thing that an older generation would buy. So far i have found one which i am going to scan on to the computer. I have decided that i like this advert as i love the colours, black, grey, white, and purple. The purple really looks good and attracts you to the advert. The advert is for paco rabanne, ultraviolet perfume, hence the purple colouring. 

In my first couple of lessons, i have been watching some good, and bad, introductions for thriller films, both from real produced films, and other final pieces from AS media students. I have also looked at some magazines, to look for ideas as to what i need to do if i want to do a magazine for my piece.