Monitoring Blog - 2nd Jan

2nd Jan

1.      Photoshoot plan 2.      Continue with Photoshoot planning 3.      Call sheet 4.      Layout of articles Homework: Finish any incomplete work

This is a professional magazine double page spread I was looking at and thinking of taking the design from. I like how there is a dominant image taking up one page and then a manageable amount of text beside it. I think this split would be perfect for my target audience as visual appeal is vital and I need enough text to make it healthy with information, but not too much to put them off.

The week commencing the 2nd of January, I had planned to complete my planning documents and decide upon and design the layout of my articles. I managed to get three of my call sheets done plus my Photoshoot planning document, although I haven’t yet decided on a time and date for my shoot, so that information has been left blank in both my call sheets and Photoshoot plan for the time being. I only ended up completing one of my article layouts as it took me longer than expected to finish my planning documents and decide upon the layout for this particular spread. This design is based upon one used in a Cosmopolitan magazine, although slightly altered to make it more my own.

During the process of working on inDesign to produce my layout, I was able to refresh my skills and develop them a little bit more, whilst getting used to the programme once again. Because I hadn’t used it in a few months I had forgotten how to make use of certain tools, but after some practise I reminded myself of them and think I have included some effective and attractive features which can be seen in professional magazines, such as insert quotes and drop caps. The page opposite the text will be used for a full-page picture, the box entitled ‘intro’ is where I will place my small summarising introduction to the article, and then the ‘help suggestions’ box is where I will include a few tips, help-lines and websites for readers.

This week I have also completed three call sheets (lighting assistant, models and make-up artist) and finished my Photoshoot plan.

I have also started and nearly finished a Schedule which will document what my plan for each day is, helping me stay on track. One of my tasks was to get my Photoshoot booked, I did this but then later found out that the time I had chosen was no longer appropriate for my model so I will have to cancel and re-book that early next week, enabling me to fill in the information on my call sheets.