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

Photo Shoot

Today was the day of the photo shoot, we have been looking at the weather forecasts all week and they all predicted that the weather would be clear, and the weather forecast was right, it was a sunny and warm day, perfect weather for a photo shoot. The plan was for Holly to go to the shop (Jemporium) and get the clothing that we would be using, the shop owner had emailed us in the week confirming that she would open the shop half an hour earlier as we were on a tight schedule, Holly got to the shop at half 10 expecting someone to be there to meet her, unfortunately the shop owner didn't turn up till 11. As Leanne and I got a lift we had arranged to meet Holly and all the models at Mill Pond, as the lady at the shop didn't turn up on time Leanne and I were left to wait around, in this time we picked out a few locations around Mill Pond that we thought would look good in the pictures. Holly and the models got to Mill Pond  around about 11.30, we got the models dressed and sorted their hair and make up out and set up the tri-pod and camera and got the light reflector ready. It didn't take long to get the models ready so we started pretty much as soon as we got there. We spent an hour at Mill Pond and then moved onto The Fitz William Museum, when we arrived we went into the reception to let them know we were starting our photo shoot. The photo shoot at the museum was a lot harder to take the photo's as people were constantly walking around the area, but in some of the photo's there are people in the background but it makes the photo's come alive as there's movement. We left the museum at 1.30pm so we had an hour at each location. In general the photo shoot was a success and we got some great photo's. 

Day Before Photo Shoot

So the day before the photo shoot I got in contact with the make up artist Freya, I was just check to make sure she had all the make up and planning on where to meet. Instead I got an email explaining that she didn't have the make up she needed and she also had a personal matter which meant she couldn't make it at the times we needed her anyway. So now we have no make up artist for tomorrow. I sent a text to Leanna and Holly explaining that the make up artist couldn't make it. A few texts were sent and we decided that we would get the models to do their base make up (foundation) and then when we arrive on location we would then finish it to the style we wanted. We all brought different bits of make up so we had a good selection to choose from.

Planning for photoshoot

As we are doing our photoshoot on Sunday we need to plan out all props and have a plan of action for where we will be through the day and how long for. we also need to think about what the weather will be like and lighting for our shoot.

So we all know what we need to bring on Sunday we have made a list for each person so they know what equiment and props. From doing this it will make us all aware and more prepared for the day.

Leanne:

• Camera
• Lighting
• Bike
• Tripod

Amber:

• Make up artist
• Postcard of cambridge
• Ice cream as a prop if needed

Holly:

• Map
• Book
• Camera (Prop one)
• Umbrella
• Models and clothes from Jemporium Vintage

As well as having all equipment and perimission forms filled in for the models and photographer allowing us to use the photos in the magazine we have to keep looking and making sure the weather will be alright for the photos on the day. I have looked on the met office and at the moment the weather is dry with sunny spells at the tempture of 15 degrees. This will help our shoot and make the photos better and fit better with the spring/summer feature.

Photo Shoot

We have been planning a photo shoot, the only day where everyone (Models, Make-up artist and us) is free is sunday. We've contacted The Fitz William Museum to let them know what time we will be arriving and have told them that it won't take longer than 2 hours. As the museum doesn't open till 11 and we are wanting to start a little earlier than that so we are going to do a shoot at Mill Pond first. I will be meeting the make up artist and then will be joining Leanne, Holly and the models at Mill Pond. After Mill Pond we shall be heading towards the museum to finish the shoot there. 

Wallpaper Designs

We're thinking about the layout and design of our magazine, we've been looking through other fashion magazines for inspiration and many of them have patterns. So we have done some research ourselves into patterns, Leanne went into B&Q and took many samples of wallpaper, not costing a thing. We want to use the patterns as inspiration for us to create our own for backgrounds of some pages and just general pattern designs. Leanne got a great range and we are currently discussing what we like and what we don't. This work for all sorts of pages as there is many ranges and styles which can fit to all our ideas 

Rearranged Flat Plan

We were happy with the current flat plan until we started thinking about actual content for example text and images and layouts. We haven't changed it dramatically just moved a few bits round. We have decided to move the competition page towards the end of the magazine, and moved a feature to where the competition page used to be, this means all the feature pages will be together, we think it will look better instead of having them scattered everywhere. We have also moved a advert further towards the end of the magazine, it will be on the back of the competition page as we are going to have a reply slip and it will have to be cut out, it makes more sense to have a advert on the back. The flat plan will probably have more changes but we're happy with it at the moment.

We've also added a key, different colours mean different things. We added this so we can look at the flat plan and know exactly what is going on at that moment of time.