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.