Blog Post 9

I've finished the project in its entirety:

Blog Post 8

I have completed both the title page and table of contents.

I think this matches the idea I'm trying to represent and appeals to groups of people I believe are interested in this.

Blog Post 7

I've gotten a lot of work done on my magazine, and decided upon the name for it: Sun Music. I think it fits pretty well since I'm focusing on local music from South Florida. The design and color palette I've chosen for it is fitting as well, which is deep orange, black and white. Next time I'm going to have a finished product for the title page and table of contents.

Blog Post 6

I'm beginning to schedule when I will be getting images for the double-page spread. Essentially, my mix of photos will be personal photos I already possess and have taken myself, as well as photos from upcoming gigs.

Fortunately for me, many of the bands on my list (Deep Seas, Castafellas, The Hey Fellows) have upcoming gigs, such as The Hey Fellows' Rosco EP Release Party on April 1st. For the meantime, I'll be using photos from shows I've already been to, like this:

(photos from Castafellas' performance at Walk in the Park at Markham Park)

Blog Post 5

I'd like to next discuss what I've decided to write the main article of my magazine about. The choice I made to decide what subjects I'd be doing for the article is based on what I'd like to see in a local music magazine.

I've decided that the subject of my magazine will be local bands that I try to actively support, based on how much I enjoy the work of the musicians and how much I respect them. But because I don't want to make it about artists people know extremely well, that means I will not be highlighting Isaiah's band Vincent Mango. Instead, I will be documenting the following bands and artists:

• Wallace
• Deep Seas
• Frog Zapper
• Castafellas
• The Hey Fellows
• Natsuki
• Nico Raimont

Blog Post 4

This time I am focusing on the images within my magazine. Personally, although I think everybody likes to make themselves look good by saying they read magazines purely for the content of the articles themselves. Obviously, this isn't true. There's a sort-of catharsis when it comes to sitting down and looking at a magazine's pictures for a solid hour. And I can very confidently say that I really enjoy looking at the images in guitar magazines. Looking at and appreciating the artistry and natural look of musical instruments, and I want to recreate that in my magazine.

This image from Guitarist magazine is very beautiful and I'd like to be able to document gear from artists like this:

Blog Post 3

This time, I've looked into the way that a double-page spread is structured in music magazines. The way a music magazine structures its double-page spread, unsurprisingly, contains very little information, and the story itself continues on proceeding pages. The double page-spread is typically the main story or headline in a magazine release.

Here are a few different Rolling Stone double page spread (be warned: the uninspiredness of this is palpable):

It's a little off-putting to see how similarly they are structured, but this gives me a decent idea of what I can do with this, and what I can deviate from. Personally, I find the amount of sameness of this structure to be a bit claustrophobic, and I'm going to be using a similar style to that of a guitar magazine, where the artist is highlighted in a photograph, but the focus is on the interview or article itself.

These are a couple of examples of how I'd rather build my double-page spread:

This way of structuring the article gives a lot more focus on the actual article or interview itself, and it gives me a better feeling of integrity, rather than judging the publishers and authors for being uninspired and sparse on information.

Blog Post 2

I've begun a lot of research on the magazine itself. A lot of what I've been researching includes a lot of online music programs and some pop culture magazines, such as Rolling Stone and Billboard as well as more specialized magazines, such as Premier Guitar and Guitar World (I'm a guitarist, what can I say?)

There are a variety of mainstream music magazines that cover music news and give plenty of attention to popular artists and bands. This, however, does not fully encompass the ideas that I intend to enact. I believe the best way to go about this is to apply the methods of showing off bands and artists and interviewing them, but with less mainstream bands and artists, including local ones.

My next bit of research includes the structuring of the front page cover. Typically, you see music magazines like this:

This style of magazine almost always depicts the main artist of the issue in front of a blank background, which has become a staple of the music magazine medium. I'm going to try to achieve this in a similar way through a green-screen, which I have access to from one of my artist friends. This should (hopefully) provide a similar desired effect.

Next time, I'm going to be looking into the way in which the 2-page spread is laid out and how the actual article itself is structured.

Until next time.

Blog Post 1

This is the first blog post for my final project in my AICE Media Studies AS class, and this consists of creating a magazine spread, a well as this corresponding blog. I chose this medium because it is a medium I feel comfortable doing on my own, rather than helming a film opening in solitude. This style of media generation feels a lot more natural to me when it comes to creative vision, especially in an individual basis. Don't get me wrong, I love the visual arts. I thoroughly enjoy (good) films and TV shows and have participated in filming and acting in online sketches and videos, which are somewhat successful. I simply have a soft spot in my heart for the written word and the romanticization of a magazine or publication writer, creating articles on the virtue of their own merit.

This connection is also convenient in the way that I am completely invested in creating and performing music as a career. This is why I am focusing on creating a band-focused magazine spread. I would also state that the creation of music-related visual mediums, particularly band-focused projects, are a lot harder to make well. Barring groundbreaking comedies such as The Blues Brothers, This Is Spinal Tap, A Hard Day's Night, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Wayne's World, which I love unabashedly, musically band-related movies are difficult to pull off well (see The Blues Brothers 2000, Ricki and the Flash, etc.). Personally, I find a written medium to be preferable to that of a film, especially in an individual basis.

At the moment, my number one concern is the subject of the magazine, but this is an easy decision. I know many different local bands in the area, who all have ranging levels of success, including Castafellas, Deep Seas, Vincent Mango, Wallace, The Hey Fellows, Natsuki, and many others. Any of these bands could be a good choice to be the subject of the article, and accessing photos and live performances of these bands is easy and openly available, and all these bands gig regularly.

I suspect this will be a very interesting project, and I will be very satisfied with the work I'm producing, since I have the choice to do something I am passionate and knowledgeable about.