Conception, Framing and shot distance

School Magazine:

For the front cover of my school magazine I want to get either an eye height or high angle shot of the front of the school, I want to include a student in the image, possibly in uniform because it will reinforce the school image. I will probably play around with the contrast of the student against the background to get the best effect and to make the student stand out from the background. I am also going to have a mid-shot of a student over the main photo, but a small photo, maybe in the corner of the pare or above/next to a story 'headline'. This image would be associated with the main story and the student will be looking away from the camera.

Music Magazine:

For the front cover of my music magazine I want a picture of the main 'artist'/'band' in mid-range shot with their instruments. I want to have the image as a high angle shot, with the frontperson of the band standing slightly forward from the rest of the band to show their authority over the band. They will all be dressed in a similar way, possibly all wearing a corresponding item of clothing or jewellery, a jacket or necklace for example. I will have them either on a grassy field or stood against a wall. This image will then be the ground for the main title.

Preliminary task - 2nd draft

This is my second draft of my school magazine front cover.

Obviously I wouldn't use this image because it is off the internet. Also I will use a camera with higher megapixels so that it doesn't pixellate like this image has done when I stretched it.

I don't think I will use this font either as although it looks good, I don't particularly like it so I will have to change it.

I am probably going to use a high angle shot of the front of the school as the main image and then I may add an image of some students at work over the top.

I'll have to change the colour of the font where the photo is darker but not use too many colours as this would confuse the eye and make the magazine less appealing.

I am also going to re-design the 'logo' for the title to make it more interesting.

Dinner with The Blackout anyone?

Emo rockers 'The Blackout' are selling various experiences to their fans to fund their next album. The welsh rockers have teamed up with 'Pledge Music' to sell the experiences in order to make the money they need to fund their next album.

Some of the 'experiences' and items available include:

Hand Written Birthday Cards
£10
Exclusive Riot Squad t-shirt
£15
Signed Album
£15
Play Xbox with The Blackout
£30
2x VIP Passes to Show of your choice
£80
Spend a day at Bristol Zoo with The Blackout
£100
Spend a day at Thorpe Park with The Blackout
£100
Christmas dinner with The Blackout
£150
Smashed Guitar
£200
Acoustic gig at your house
£500
House party gig
£1,500

Many people have critisised this move including rapper 'Example' who commented that "I don't think the future of music industry is 'Have dinner with me and my Nan for £75'."

The band have 'justified' this move by claiming that they owe so much to the fans and they couldn't wait to start work on the next album until next year, "without the fans we wouldn't make another record so we owe them so much' says Lead singer Gavin Butler. They have heard the criticism and accept that there will be those who won't agree with their reliance on their fans but that they remain defiant on their plans, saying that "Everyone gets what they want - the band gets to make a record and the fans get to listen to that record."

So, apparently, Operation Riot Squad is go...

First Draft of School Magazine Front Cover [research and planning - pre-production]

This is a screenshot of my first attempt at a school magazine front cover.

I have used different colours in the boxes to separate them but obviously I wouldn't do this on the actual magazine.

VMA's - Gaga Triumph

Lady Gaga Triumphed at last weekends MTV's Video Music Awards, stealing the show with 8 awards out of the 13 she was nominated for, 7 of these being for her No. 1 single 'Bad Romance' including Video of the year. She also won the best collaberation award for her single 'Telephone' where she dueted with Beyonce.

Once again she caused controversy with her outfits as she wore a dress and shoes made of fresh red meat to collect one of the awards, and changing 3 times during the ceremony.

Other winners included, Muse [Special Effects], Florence and the machine [Art Direction], Eminem [Male Video and Hip-Hop Video], 30 Seconds to Mars [Rock Video], and Jay-Z & Alicia Keys [Cinematography]

Now that she's conquered the VMA's, Lady Gaga is seemingly unstoppable...

Mercury Prize 2010

The mercury prize is one of the most sought after awards in music, so it comes as no surprise that The XX were so overjoyed when presented with the award last Tuesday night [07-09-10]

It also comes as no shock the sales of the winning album [entitled 'xx'] have gone up by over 400% since then.

The London Based 3 piece formed in 2005 and released their debut album in August last year [2009]
They beat the 11 other shortlisted acts including Dizzee Rascal, Foals, Biffy Clyro and late favourite Paul Weller.

Accepting the award onstage the bands frontman Oliver Sim said "I don't know what we were expecting, but we weren't expecting this."

Radio 1 DJ Jo Wiley said that they were worthy winners.

They were originally favourite to win the prize but after a flurry of bets on Monday, Paul Weller became late favourite to win.

Winning the prize has done great things for their popularity and hopefully they will go on to be even more successful in the future.