Star Radio

We have re planned our meeting with Ryan Taylor as I (leanne) was really ill. I thought as it be best for the person who organised and knew about the meeting needs to be there. It is now organised for next Wednesday at 12.

Finished!

All the pages are finished and have been checked over for spelling mistakes and missing items. We sent to the printers as a PDF which we did by opening a FTP file. I made a running theme through out the pages with the bottom line and making sure all the right fonts were on the pages. We are very please on how it all worked out and hopeing it all goes well with the printers.

Promotion

Last week I (Holly) did some promotion for the magazine, I volunteer on a local radio station called Cambridge 105. As we promoted the station when we had our interview with Cambridge evening we mention the station, so they gave me 10 minutes air time to explain what we were doing and where people could buy the magazine. I promoted us on their drivetime show as this is when they have their most listeners and they have a mixed audince and age range so we could get different people interested in the magazine. We had some repose back from the listerners and they congratled us for what we were doing. From this we got more followers on Twitter as the Cambridge 105 team and some listners are now following us on Twitter and spreading the word. Hopefully when the magazine is out I will be able to get Amber and Leanne to come in to the studio and talk more about the magazine and we can hopefully bring in a copy so we can put pictures up on the studio's website as well as ours.

Proofreading

Before we sent off our magazine I (Holly) proof read through the whole magazine, what I did was look for any spelling mistakes and any grammar problems. These were the main two things I was looking for. However I did look to see if all the images and text where lined up in the right place and if the adverts where all correct. If I found a problem I would highlight it on a hard copy of the magazine I had and then show leanne who then changed any problems on the Indesgin file. One problem that kept coming up was the font we were using kept taking away letters from words. This was a large issue, however from proofreading magazine we sorted this out. When I had read through it all the small problems were sorted and it was ready to send to the printers. Im glad I overall look it as if we had sent the text to the printer how it was we could of been a big problem. This is one thing I have really learnt from doing the magazine is to check everything more than once and make sure more than one person as overlook it.

Money collecting

We have already made a profit on the magazine without even distributing it yet. Our printers are costing us £500, we have £550 which has come from advertisers, the bake sale and a few small donations. So we have £50 profit already. I have £320 in my bank at the moment which has been payed in by the advertisers either by direct debit or cheque. We are now only waiting for 3 more payments, one from the Cambridge Cookery School, Professional Academy and The Removal Company. We are waiting for a cheque from the Cambridge Cookery School, a direct debit payment from The Professional Academy and cash from The Removal Company as it's Leanne's dads company.

Cambridge Tour Guide

I (Leanne) contacted Cambridge Tour Guide on twitter asking if they put magazines on there website, they asked more about it and I explained what we were and got interested. They left us an email to contact them and I explained more about it all. However I got a weird email back and is not sure now what is going on. Hopeing that they gave us an weird email they will have to put us in.

Online updates

The online pages (facebook and twitter) are slowly getting more likes and followers however its coming up strong with getting the word out and helping us on the way! Facebook is helping us get the word across to friends and people we didnt know about. Twitter is helping us contact people we wouldnt of been able to chat to otherwise.


The numbers are rising in followers and like which is postive out look and when things are written on the pages people retweet and like.

Radio!

On twitter I (Leanne) decided to contact one of the presenters of Star Radio, Ryan Taylor. I thought I would be cheeky and come up front and ask to be on his show, he got interested and said he would meet us to talk about it. I was so happy for the chance to able to get a wide audience to talk about our magazine and have our hard work showcased to 100s of people!

Star Radio

I (Leanne) contacted Ryan Taylor from Star Radio via Twitter saying we should be on his show. It was a direct approach but I believed he would see the funny side to it and it would attract him in. He replied laughing and asking what it was all about, so I explained the whole idea and what it is. Then we got his email and arranged a meeting for friday. This is to show him what we are all about and if he would be interested to show case us on there.

We are sending a magazine over before hand so he can see it with out us there. This can not happen until we receive the magazines.

Advertisers

To be able to get the magazine printed we need money, and to get the money we needed advertisers. We worked extremely hard, pestering people to get the advertisements we needed to get the magazine printed. Many people were interested and we even had to turn people down once we had filled all the pages. 

Here is a list of the advertisers we have; 

Burwash Manor

White House Arts

Hair Care Bunch

The Dressing Room

Learn to Cook

Cambridge Professional Academy

Stabo

Removal Company

Anglia Ruskin Fashion

Alliance Francaise 

Articles

I (Amber) was given the article about Leanne's business Lelly Jewellery to write. I thought of a few questions to ask Leanne and I then sent them to her in an email, Leanne then answered all the questions and sent them back to me so I could start on the article. I had asked quite a few questions and therefore got a lot of text for the answers. I started writing the article and realised that it was going to be extremely lengthy, once I had completed the magazine I sent it to Leanne to proof read and to put it onto the page layout. Once Leanne had proof read it she emailed me saying it was too long and that it needed shortening. I got straight to work shortening the article and sent it back, unfortunately it was still to long, I ended up shortening it 5-6 times. I really didn't think I could shorten it anymore without taking a question out so Leanne had the idea of getting Tom (Leanne's boyfriend) to have a look at it. Tom then had a go of writing the article again with the information and text I had sent to them. 

First Try

Last Try

Re shoot

Once after the front cover shoot, the pictures were just not up to scratch. They were weak and did not like the lighting, it was a tough choice to see if I could Photoshop them to make them any better but it was not possible. So we decided to try a different model and try different locations and take a risk, as playing safe did not work for us. Even though the clothes we used in the 1st shoot were from mayhem and wanted to show them off it just could not happen.




The new shoot came out amazing, we used a plain t-shirt and then tons of beaded necklaces that I (leanne) have in my workshop. We tried 4 differnt locations, my house allyway, wall, graffti and by a lake. She was not a confident model and not done it before however I knew once she relaxed and got in to it I would find a gem in the rough. I spoke to her and said just mess about before and then get in to it which worked well as she started moving in different ways and giving an awesome look down the camera.


There was a few I wanted to use however there was one that stood out so much stronger. Now edited and ready to be a front cover!

Invoices

 As we have gone out to find advertisers to pay for our magazine to get printed we have to send them an invoice which acts as an receipt for their business. I (Amber) asked Nick and Dave about creating invoices, they told me to have a look on the internet which I did, when looking on the internet for ideas on how to create an invoice, once having a look and getting an idea, I started creating my own, I added our company logo and all the appropriate text that I thought it needed. Once creating the invoice I showed Nick and Dave the finished piece, they suggested that I took it down the college shop to get some feedback. I took it to the college shop and asked for their opinions, Caroline the college finance assistant found one of their invoices we then compared the two to see what differences they had and if their was anything that I needed to add. The only thing I had missed off was some text that needed to be at the bottom on the invoice, "Not VAT registered". Once I had completed the invoice I printed a few off so we could start sending them to the companies, we decided that we would send on to the company and also keep one for ourselves so we can keep track on who has paid and who hasn't. 

Pages so far

Over the past few days I (leanne) have been creating the new drafts of the pages. It is working out a lot better compare to the last pages and looks a lot more professional. I have sent them out to advertisers to show its all real and getting very good feed back. Many people have also been commenting on the photo shoot photos that are on our facebook page. I have now created a master document with all the pages on to slowly build it up and have it all flow together, flicking through to see if it still looks all the same magazine.

Budget Problem

When I (Leanne) was creating the master document of the magazine I started to add all the adverts and found out that we had not got all the replies for our adverts and are sure of 1 and half pages worth. I contacted back to people who wanted space but we thought we had run out and hopefully we could get it all back on track. When re thinking this we should of had some one head of budget as its very worrying and not ideal when getting to the art and finding out things are missing. However I think it has made us learn with money mangement and good way to realise its not easy.

The Interview

As I said in an earlier blog we had an interview with Ella from the Cambridge Evening News we were all very excited to see it on the website, Ella told us she would email us to let us know when the article would be on the website. We patiently waited and last night (the 28th) we got an email telling us it would be on the website the next day.

As soon as we got to college today we raced to our laptops to read the article, we were all so excited and proud!

Here is the article:

The link to this article is:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Education-and-Training/Higher-Education/Taking-on-the-magazine-industry-at-Long-Road-28032012.htm

Deadline Day

Today was the dreaded DEADLINE DAY, we have worked so hard and put so much effort into this magazine, and we actually had the PDF's to send to the printers. In the second lesson Nick explained that only Holly, Leanne and I as a team and Jacob had the PDF's to send to the printers and that we would be given an extension till after the easter half term to finish our magazines. Knowing this we took a look at our magazine content and asked Dave to take a look at it. He gave us a few tips and we decided the half term would be a great time to re think the magazine lay out. Holly is off to Mexico on Sunday but will be logging onto Facebook to have a look what we've been doing and Leanne and I are both going to take laptops home and meet up in the half term to work on the magazine.

Front Cover Photo Shoot

Today the photo shoot took place, Leanne brought her camera and light reflecter so we would have some decent shots and Holly had collected the clothes from Mayhem yesterday. At 1:55 Leanne collected the keys to the green room from Nick, While Holly went to meet the models Leanne and I made our way over to the green room. Once we got in we had a look about to see what we were working with. There was three rooms, a green room, a white room and a black room. We used the green room to get the models hair and make done and the black room for them to get changed as the white and green room have glass doors. Holly the model was ready first, so while Holly was getting Beth (Model) ready, Leanne and I got started taking photos of Holly, to get some nice light we had to open the glass doors and I had to stand outside and direct the sunlight into the room onto the model. As we were on a tight schedule we had to make sure we got all the shots we needed and to the standard we wanted. We spent just over 10 minutes with Holly and then when Beth was ready, we had just over 10 minutes getting the shots we wanted. Now it was our turn to get our pictures taken, It was my (Amber) go first to have a few pictures taken, I'm a very out going person but as soon as a camera comes out I don't know what to do, I had a bit of fun, didn't want to look to serious. After me was Holly, Holly too pulled a few faces agreeing that we wanted to give people an insight to our personalities, Leanne went after and also went with pulling a few fun faces. We then decided to do a few shots of us all together, this was great fun and we evan had a go at doing some modelling poses!  

Background Making

I (Leanne) decided we needed more different backgrounds that will not need permission and will tie in well with the page. I thought about scanning in items.

I thought for the hair I could place lots of hair bands, bows and a comb on the scanner and see how it comes through. As I could not close it I tired it with just the lid up then next coverd it with a scarf. Next was make up, I thought use all sorts of make up as if it was paint however I realised this could not be scanned as it would damage the scanner. Then had the idea of using just eye shadow to colour the paper and use eyeliner to make a pattern on the page( I 
did one before pencil then with). From the pencil 
shavings I had one with no background then added the paper that had been coloured. For the nail page I thought of once again using nail vanish as paint. I made it drip down the page and made it thicker in place to give it depth. To dry and help the drips I hung it on the washing line, this really helped the effect.

My other ideas was that I get all my handmade jewellery and place it on the scanner to create the background for the Accessories page. I did this a few times however kept changing the placement of the items.

There was other pages such as the photoshoot and beach body which do not have a background that we had already thought to use. So I thought it be great to use scarfs, fabrics and jeans to be some more background ideas. I did the same item about 3 times in different ways to get different looks.

Front Cover Photo Shoot Planning

As our deadline is fast approaching we have a few things left to do, we have planned a photo shoot for the front cover of the magazine and also a picture of each of us for the editorial page. As Mayhem (Clothing Shop) let us borrow clothes for a photo shoot for a feature in our magazine, we wondered if they would let us borrow a few items to use to dress our models for the front cover. I (Amber) soon got to work emailing them to ask if they would be willing to help us out a bit more than they already had, I simply asked if they would be willing to let us borrow two dresses, to dress our models in for the front page of our magazine, I said we would leave a deposit if they had any worries. We soon got an email back saying they were happy to help us and asked us which items we would like and said not to worry about a deposit. 

Holly then got to work planning it with the models and emailing back Mayhem arranging when to go as she was picking the clothing up. 

The plan was to go to Holly's house on sunday as she has a white back drop for the photo shoot with the models, I thought it would be easier if we used the green room at the college which also has a room which is painted white, as the models also attend Long Road, so we decided that we would do the photo shoot on tuesday at 2pm, Nick said gave us permission to use the room but said we could only have 30 minutes. 

So Holly arranged it with the models to go with her to Mayhem on monday to try on the dresses and also made sure they were free to do the photo shoot on tuesday.  

Interview Time

Today we had our interview with the Cambridge Evening News, we were greeted by a young girl, Ella who couldn't of been much older than myself (Amber) we took her to room C122 where the interview would be held. The interview started with the basic questions of name and ages and then we moved on to the magazine it self. We explained what the subject of the magazine was, which is to showcase independent clothing stores around the Cambridge area as Cambridge is known for it's chain stores like New Look, River Island and Topshop for example. Ella agreed with us and also knows many of the independent clothing store we mentioned. We were then asked about how we were funding the magazine and we soon had lots to talk about, we explained that we sent out hundreds of emails and then re-sent emails to companies who didn't reply asking if they would like to pay a small fee for a advert in our magazine, and many didn't get back to us until it was too late and we had already got all the advertisers we needed. She seemed amazed as we were so enthusiastic and excited about the magazine. Ella asked us if this is what we were planning on doing in the future and was surprised to hear 3 different answers, Leanne is going to university to study graphic design, Holly is going to university to study radio and I've decided that I want to go straight into work and start from the bottom and make my way up while learning the skills I need to hopefully become a director. We explained that even though we all want to do different things after college our skills all work well together to make this magazine successful. I feel that the interview went really well and I cant wait to see it on the website. 

Online Pages

The pages online are already hitting off well with only being up and going for less then a day. We are highly postive this will help us sell and get the word out for our magazine. More people who find out more chance we can sell all and make enough money to make more.

Twitter Page

I (Leanne) have just created a twitter page. Just like the facebook page its a way we can show off our magazine to protencional buyers. We can also contact the twitter and facebook together to let people know it is the same thing. When we start finishing the pages we can add them on to the pages and get people to see some of the pages.

Facebook Page

I (Leanne) have created a facebook page of our magazine for basically free adversitings through the internet. I am asking people to add all their friends on to the page so they can see it. Meaning if we sell out of the ones we have printed we can re print more. This could work in our favour however many people may ignore so adding photos and getting reviews will be the best for the page.

Out of lesson

Tomorrow we have a meeting with Cambridge Evening News which I (Leanne) contacted last week. They want to interview us for their website and maybe it will go in the newspaper. This will help us boost up sells and publicity when it comes to the magazine. Also this would be great to talk to some who knows all about the industry already. We shall be filming and taking photos of the interview.

Also we will be going in to town to get final photos of places as well as going 2 shops about competions. One of them is for a t-shirt shop which they offered instead of an advert they can add a competion to the magazine which is great for us as it can get people in to the idea of having a chance of winning something as thats always free which people love. Also another is a cafe which said maybe something like free meal for 2 which would be great for our audience.

Money!

We have finally made up to the right amount of money to get it all published. We needed £500 for getting it printed and have actually raised £530. We are all very proud and also have a page we can still use for another advert. The money break down is :

Stabo - £25

Lelly Jewellery - £20

Hair Care Bunch - £30

Dressing Room - £50

Burwash Manor - £50

Removal Comapny - £60

Anglia Ruskin Fashion - £60

Cambridge Marketing - £60

Professional Acd - £60

Bake Sale - £105

Donation - £10

We are deciding at this moment of time to sell the magazine for £2.50 which would make £625. This would split between the 3 of us which would be around £208 each. I (leanne) think this is great for our first magazine. Knowing this can make money we could always go for another issue if it all works out.

Edited Photo shoot

I (Leanne) have finally decided on the 6 photos out of many for the photoshoot pages. We needed a photo for each piece of clothing that was being shown off. When choosing which one to use I thought it be best we had a range of medium and long shots. Also I wanted there to be movement through out the photos and slightly broken bodies with the poses. I blurred the ones with out a blurred background to them so they all tied in together, and all have a photo filter on top, using an orange. I also air brushed all the girls using the mixer brush to give them smooth skin and get rid of any blumlishes.

Cake sale

Today we are doing a bake sale to raise money to get our magazine published. We have made a number of different cakes and are selling them to people around college. As well as selling cake this is a good way of getting people aware of what we are trying to do. At lot of people wanted to know more about the magazine and what we are making. This is a good way of getting people aware for when it comes to selling the magazine. It also shows that people want a college magazine and we now know there is a large audience for our magazine. 

It has also given us more of an idea of what content we need to make a good fashion magazine as we learnt what people were interested in and what they would want to buy. So people knew we were doing a cake sale we created this poster on the right hand side and posted them around college. We also made a facebook page and added people from college to the event, this was a good way of getting the bake sale noticed. 

Results

Holly took the money home to count it all up, I got a text around 5pm from Holly saying the total was a massive £105.38. 

 

Interview

For one of our features I  (Holly) went to do an interview with the company Stabo. This was a lot easier than them sending over information for the feature. I took notes on what she was saying and I recorded the interview so it was easier for when writing up the feature. I already had questions that I wanted to ask and I had sent them over to the company so they had an idea of what I was going ask. I asked the questions and let her add to any of the questions as she wanted. Once I had done the interview she also gave money for a quarter page advert. I then went and wrote the interview out into a feature using key elements from the recording and making it to a 350 word feature. As I wanted to make sure that all the content was true and I hadn't misunderstood any of the interview I sent over the feature to the company to make sure everything was correct. 

Baking - Amber

We are having a bake sale on friday to help raise money to get our magazine printed. Leanne, Holly and I all discussed what sort of goodies we would like to sell, I said I would make chocolate rice crispy cakes and cornflake cakes. I went to the shops to buy my ingredients and then got home to start baking. It took me around 2 and a half hours to make just over 50 cakes. 

Baking - Leanne

We are having a bake sale. I chose to make cupcakes, honeycomb/crunchies and rice crispie cakes. The cakes were only cooked and I will be decorating them when to get to college to make it easier to transport. The honeycomb was a 1st time go for me, it is very simple but hard to make sure you do not burn it. The rice crispie cakes were very simple and I brought Mr Men to decorate the top. The ingredients made more then I thought and had to buy a lot more chocolate.

I am hoping to raise around £50 with all my items

Behind The Scenes of The Photo Shoot