Production Diary: 02/12/13 - Dawn of the Dead(line)

The past week I have been making more work on my contents. I was able to produce an effective layout that will be readable but also visually exciting - however I am lacking a lot of the text and imagery. When I first produced the contents page text I wasn't certain on my layout or how it would look as it hadn't been finished so I have had to recreate it.

I consider my contents page to be nearly finished. I looked up magazines for effective layouts and I took a lot of inspiration from an NME cover as I deemed it to be an effective layout which mirrored the tone I wished to create. I am yet to recieve feedback (aside from my Mum saying cheerfully "Oh that looks nice!") so I am anticipating making improvements but I feel that I have done as much as I can to make it look effective and I am able to focus my attention on the other pages that need completing.

This week I hope to take some more photos of other musicians for use on my contents page so I can finish that off before the Final Draft deadline on the 16th!

Equipment

In the production of my music magazine I have been utilising different kinds of equipment to achieve a professional look. This blog post will be looking at some of them.
To take the actual photos I had to book a photo-shoot in my school where the media department provided the backdrops, cameras and lightings.

The backdrops were three different rolls of paper of different colours – white, black and green. The one I used most was the white roll as it presented clear, crisp professional photos with attention drawn to my model. Near the end I chose to use the black roll as I thought it would look great with the style of my model who was wearing black and white. The end results were very professional and visually exciting photos. Unfortunately there were many inconveniences when using these rolls as the chain used to roll them down broke on a couple occasions forcing the model and I to put our photo-shoot on hold while we sorted out the chain.

Luckily, the camera we used was a lot more reliable. It was a High-Tec Canon SLR which produced great quality photos inside and out of the studio. We used artificial lighting to create the most effective images in the studio which flashed when I took the photo. The quality of the photos was essential for creating an effective music magazine and I think I achieved this.

For the production of the magazine we opted to use InDesign as opposed to Photoshop which we used when creating a magazine last year. I have so far found InDesign to be much more effective – especially as it seems designed for developing magazines – and I have made great use of the column feature which is especially evident in my contents page. However I am still using Photoshop for work on individual images such as removing the background for photos and altering the colours. I have needed to familiarise myself with Photoshop as it has been a while since I used it.

Penultimate Draft

http://www.slideshare.net/byrnemedia/magamagazine-2

Article Box Out Text

The One to Watch – 2012

Before we printed, we were a blog. Here is an extract from an article from a year ago where we (quite rightly) pointed to Nick Decruz as an artist to watch before he took over the world.

By this point you’ve heard Imagine Dragon’s hit song Radioactive. Background song to many a video game trailer and almost always played on the radio. It’s a fantastic song but people are already beginning to feel it’s overplayed.

How refreshing this Acoustic Cover is then.

(On the blog we had a link to the video. Scan this page with the POLARIS MAG APP for a link - Edd)

Nick DeCruz from North West London picked up a guitar and played one of his favourite songs. While the techno sounds that have become synonymous with Imagine Dragons are lacking, their presence isn’t missed due to the powerful guitar’s melody and powerful vocals.

Nick’s suggested the option of recording more songs, something we’d love to hear.

Give it a year and he’ll start writing his own songs.

Drafting update 25/11/13

 

Here you can see my music magazine well underway. I have outlined the contents page and have begun inserting the text. The bottom picture is my full bleed image - a high quality photo I took taking up two pages as an introduction to my magazine.

Promotional Methods

When it comes to launching a new magazine, the early promotion could be what determins whether it sinks or swims. This is why I've developed a variation of promotional methods in order to spread the awareness of my magazine.

Polaris oriinally existed as an online blog which gained enough attention to justify print publishing. While the existing online readership wouldn't be enough to carry to selling of the magazine, these readers will serve to promote the magazine efficiently.

Polaris will create accounts on many prominent social media and networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud nd Tumblr. All of these (aside from Youtube) provide a newsfeed where users can follow other users and share their posts. Those who share/reblog/retweet Some of Polaris' posts/tweets will be promised a follow (where possible) and a feature in the digital magazine which could include a shoutout to their twitter or an embedded video they've produced. The nature of a professional music magazine offering readers the chance to be featured as musicians will become very popular and I feel it is guaranteed to become viral amongst the music making comunity very quickly.

Here will include a feature of Polaris' Twitter account.

 

I also feel that Polaris is responsible for the rise of many artists due to its days on the blog. These artists will likely be persuaded to film a brief advertisment to be shown on related videos on Youtube.

 

Here's a transcript I've written which would star the cover star of Polaris' first issue which would be delievered in a very cheeky but humble way. Clicking on the video would send the viewer to the website.

 

Nick DeCruz

 

Hey, I'm Nick DeCruz. Yeah, that one. You may know me from... everywhere. I'm kinda a big deal right now. But, I wouldn't be where I am now if it wasn't for Polaris. These guys shared my video with thousands of readers, stuff happened and.. Well, Hello. Look out for the first print issue of Polaris in your newsagents the first week of November and get involved online.

 

(Video shows website address, Twitter handle, "Like us on Facebook" and "Follow us on Tumblr")

 

Polaris, finding tomorrow today.

 

(Nick gives a big grin as the video ends)

 

 

Article Text

It’s not every day when you get to interview one of the greatest breakthrough acts in recent years – Unless of course you work for a music magazine. We’ve opted to pass the reins to one of you (details on the contents page) to speak to the uprising revolution that is Nicholas DECRUZ.

The first time my path crosses with DeCruz is in Brighton. He had arranged a meet up on the beach through Twitter, and I, like many of his followers took this opportunity to meet him. This was when I realised what appeal he had. People of different genders with an age range from eleven (with their parents nearby) to early twenties had turned up, some bringing their own instruments.

This was never going to be a prophet and his disciples, before long DeCruz was playing instruments with everyone there – he and I did a wonderful rendition of The Rolling Stones’ Street Fighting Man with him managing to find an accompanying harmonica melody while I played his guitar.

It’s a Testament, then, that seven months later, soon after his album’s release on ITunes and subsequent rise in the charts (almost unheard of from someone who’s previous primary output a year ago were just acoustic covers of Imagine Dragons) that the first thing he asks after I enter the coffee shop we arranged to meet – ten minutes late – was if I was “The Rolling Stones guy from Brighton”.

“Why wouldn’t I remember people from that day?” He says. “It was fantastic being with everyone on that beach. I remember loads of people.” Nick smiles, remembering. “I had never done anything like that before. I was worried no one was going to turn up.” Unlikely to happen now, since his sudden rise in fame. Nick nods in bewildered agreement, as if he isn’t quite able to believe it himself.

“All I did was start posting videos on YouTube. I had a guitar, I was practising with it and when I heard songs I liked I played them myself and put them on YouTube. I just wanted to see if anyone would listen.”

And they did. So what caused the jump from covers to writing your own songs? I asked him.

“I had never found it easy to write songs,” Nick admits. “I just felt I was trying to force them to be something they weren’t. Then… I didn’t. I just decided to write, play and sing and I never looked back. I just devised them naturally. From the…” He stops himself with a grin before he unleashes a cliché.

“Sorry, I’m pretty new to this interview thing.” I remind him that I am too. I have to steer the conversation back to him as he attempts to ask me how I got to write this interview, reminding who people want to read about.

“That is unbelievable too.” He adds. “It’s gone from listening to my music to wanting to know things about me! I’ve never been in that position before.”

On his first album release, The Light at The End, Nick has this to say: “Well, some friends bought me a session in a recording studio for my birthday. They all pitched in together and it was one of the best things I’d ever got. This was when I started writing songs so I spent the rest of the holidays working on producing the best songs possible that I could record. It was intense, but great fun. With the digital copies it was just the matter of pressing a few buttons to release some of my songs as free podcasts before the reception offered me the possibility of selling an album.

In this time, it is so incredibly easy for musicians to put out music. Unfortunately it means that the Small Fish in a Big Pond finds himself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you know? And it’s just the hope that people will fish you out and serve you with chips.”

So why did people take to the music so much? Nick pauses, considering this.

“I already had people who would listen to my music.” He notes, “I was releasing my covers on SoundCloud and YouTube. I suppose word of mouth had something to do with it.” He suggests. “And, I guess it is just proper old-fashioned music. I love Pop Music; Lady Gaga is a god amongst us, but you don’t get as much music with people just… playing.”