Christmas holidays: Up to now.

Below is my podcast for November.

I am currently half way through the Christmas holidays. Whilst being away from college I have come across several problems:

1. I don't have the resources at home to continue with my modelling.
2. Due to the weather and the boys' busy working schedules, I haven't been able to get any re-takes for my magazine.

Research and Planning: Making my double page spread 2

Today, I have rearranged the text around, added a question and added a pull quote. Next I plan to add an image in the top corner, either of the boys individually in the park, or of Daniel writing the band's name on a bench of frost.

Research and Planning: Making my double page spread

At the moment, I am half way through my second lesson on creating my double page spread. It currently looks like this:

While creating the page, I realised I didn't have enough text. My two options were to enlarge the text to fill the page more, or add more questions. I have opted for the latter, as increasing the size of the text past size 11 will look bad in terms of professionalism, and will look like the writer could not be bothered. I am going to include more questions and answers, such as:

'How do you like your eggs in the morning?'

I have also edited the picture, to make the boys look better. Whereas before it looked like this:

it now looks like this:

Although the change is tiny, the boys can now be seen more than they could on the original, as I have adjusted the brightness levels.

Research and Planning: Band poses

The lack of success I had in taking a decent photo for my front cover page means that I'll need to organise another date with the band for one to be taken. This is unfortunate, because the lads are hardly local, and travelling isn't always easy for them. I'll also have to wait for all of the recent snow to go away so that I can achieve my desired effect.

To make sure that we get perfect shots this time around, I have researched pictures taken of famous bands of a similar genre, and how they pose. I will take them with me to help myself and the boys to make the photos more suitable.

The photos I found are below:

Research and Planning: Plan for this week

Sadly, I was incredibly over ambitious with my plan for last week.

This week, I plan to do the following:
Make the final decision as to whether or not I need to retake my front page photo.
Arrange and start on double page spread

Research and Planning: Double spread content

Below is a quick draft of the interview with the band for my double page spread.

'Sat in a little coffee house near their homes, the new indie sensation Arterix sit laughing and chatting away, drinking mugs of a variety of coffees. I walk over, and the lads look up, smiling warmly at me. They invite me to sit, before filling me in on what they were talking about, and in no time at all, it's like I've known them for years. Today, we're travelling a little, to a park a few miles away where lead singer, Daniel Lowery used to play as a child. This, he tells us, is the perfect place for a photo shoot, and the excitement obvious in his eyes means that we can't help but believe every word he says.

As we pull in to the car park, Daniel literally jumps out of the car, engine still running. The child in him is very clear now, and as he convinces the other lads to race him to the swings, the camera comes out, ready to take some amazing shots.

Two hours later, we return to the coffee house, hands frozen, in great need of a hot drink.

Drinks in hand, we sat down for a chat.

So boys! These are pretty busy times for you!
Danny: Yeah, pretty much. First single's out, album's on the way..it's exciting stuff!

Ooh! An album? Tell me more!
Niall: Yeah, we've been in the studio a lot recently, laying down the tracks and things, it's tiring stuff, but it'll all be worth it when it's done.
Daniel: It's sounding really good.

That's great! When can we expect to hear this then?
Niall: It's out just after Christmas. 13th January. And it's great, cause there's something for all of our fans on there. We can't wait for you all to hear it.
Danny: Yeah, we've noticed what goes down well at our gigs and stuff, and it's going to be amazing.
Daniel: Talking of gigs, we've got a few Christmas ones lined up. There'll be a bit of a sneak peek at the albums if you come and see us (winks)

Okay, I've had a few questions sent in from fans.. and the main question is about your name. Is there any particular story behind it?
Daniel: (laughs) Yeah, well he (Danny) was in a supermarket (whispers to Niall) can I say which? Yeah? Danny was in Tesco. And he's a little dim sometimes, anyway, he picked up a copy of one of my favourite films of all time..Asterix..you know, that French comic dude? So he text me about it, but he spelt it wrong! Fool. At the time, it was really funny, and when it came to naming our band, there was only one option, really.
Niall: It's one of those 'you had to be there' moments, I think. I didn't get it when they explained it all to me. But it's a cool name.
Danny: And the name kinda says a lot about us! We set out to do something, something else happens by accident, but we find that it couldn't have a better outcome. It's nice not knowing exactly what will happen all the time.

And the next one is from Holly and Lucy in Manchester: Have any of you ever thought about becoming solo artists, maybe before the band was formed?
Danny: I can't sing! That wouldn't be a major success to be honest.
Daniel: I think I like being in a band way more than I would like being on my own. Cause we do this together. And we're all really good friends too, so it's fun. In a couple of years, when we're winning every single music award there is out there, it'll be good as well to go out and party as a band, rather than with just a group of people, all celebrating one person's success. There's something nice about it all. And I'd hate the thought of either of these two being more successful than me, anyway! Sorry guys!

Alright. That's all we  have time for I'm afraid! But quickly, what's next?
Niall: Album, obviously, then a tour. That's gunna be good. Our first city tour. Yeah! But other than that, watch this space!

Research and Planning: Analysis of photo shoot (group 1)

Now that I've taken my photos for the front page and double page spread, I need to look at them all and decide which will work best.

For my front cover, I am thinking of using the photo below:

The problem I have with this however is that the background is a bit busy and would not fit with the house style of my magazine. I may have to look at taking another photo that will work better. If not, I will have to do a lot of experimenting to see if I can edit this photo to make it suitable.

For my double page spread, I think the images below will be suitable:

 With this one, I will have to edit it to make the boys lighter, as the light in this tunnel wasn't very good. Other than that, I think this is a very good photo.

There are different variations of this picture, from different angles which I will consider. However, with the others, the sun is shining onto the front of the boys' faces, and there are some shadows. I will use photoshop for all three of the pictures and see which looks better at the end.

Photo Shoot images: 27th November 2010