CCR!

Below is the link to my CCR! So happy to finally be done

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IElUsDYkcq8

Final Magazine

Photoshop is amazing

I never thought photoshopping and editing pictures would be so easy and fun but it really is. I started using a few different editing apps but the one I found to be the most beneficial and successful in accessible is an app called VSCO. On this app I am able to place color filters, change the saturation, clarity etc of the picture. I really did not think that the lighting of an image would make that much of a difference but I was completely wrong. When editing the image, I changed the brightness, clarity, saturation, focus, exposure, and highlights of the picture, and this ended up making a HUGE difference in the image. It looked more focused, cleaner, and really has the reader focus on the subject which is important. The pop of color also is visually pleasing because there is a great contrast of the red top and green grass. Here is the image after I altered the lighting of it 

Edit Edit Edit

So as I said before i narrowed down the images I plan on using my for cover image down to five and the issue I am finding myself facing is the editing of the pictures. I want to edit the color,warmth, texture etc in the picture but I am having a hard time finding apps on my phone that help me achieve that. I also decided that instead of using a camera I would use my own phone because I am more familiar with it and the camera on my phone has special settings and features such as portrait mode and changing the colors of the picture etc. Also, if I used my phone I could edit on my phone during any free time I have which would help me be more productive with this project. An example of an unedited shot i took of diego is below 

picture time

I finally took the pictures of my model for the cover page of my magazine and it was way more challenging than I thought it would be. Since my model is one of my very close friends we couldn’t go more than 2 minutes without laughing and we took the picture in the center of a very crowded field and they were staring at us because i was standing over him and taking pictures of him. I easily took over 100 pictures and I’ve actually managed to narrow down the imges I like down to five so after i edit them and make them more aesthetically pleasing and put them side by side i’ll be able to pick which one looks best. This is what me and Diego looked like while we were shooting. 

Even though I am unable to take the pictures for my magazine, there are still other parts of the magazine that needs to be done such as the actual layout and dialogue. So I have started to write rough drafts of the dialogue that will be included in my two page spread. I will have the image on the left side of the spread and the dialogue on the right. In this dialogue I will give a brief summary and description of the fashion during the 90s and include popular trends and then the rest will be a one on one interview with the model who dressed in the 90s style clothing and discuss his opinions on it and how he felt wearing the clothes. I think that this would be a fun idea because it gives the perspective of a modern day teenager and it ties together modern day lifestyles with those from the past.

Making the best out of a bad situation

So even though I don’t have my models, I was able to get my hands on a professional camera that I will be able to use during the shoot. This will greatly benefit myself and my project because the quality of the photos will be greatly improved and thus benefitting the magazine as a whole. I also discussed when my model would be able to shoot with me so because not being able to do it over spring break has been a major set back in my project. So in order to make this work and not lose anymore time, we will be shooting in school on the wednesday when we come back from spring break and take time out of our lunch to shoot. Although this is a major setback for me, there is not much I can do so i just have to make the best out of a bad situation and do the best I can which is what I am hoping to achieve now.

Spring break

Due to it being spring break, all plans I had to start and finish the shoot over break did not fall through. Both of my models were too busy to participate in the shoot and I had no back ups for them which was a failure on my part because I should have taken into consideration that maybe my models would not be available. There’s really not much I am able to do without my models so I’m just waiting until the break is over and decided to only have one of them in my magazine cover because it’s too challenging to include both my brother and Diego since their schedules are so busy. So until then, there’s really not much for me to do.

Trying to get creative

Since the 90s had so much color and photo shoots can get pretty boring and tiring so I’ve been brainstorming ways to make sure the shoot is fun. While I was thinking about what I could do to make the pictures trendier and make sure there’s enough color, I remembered I had my yellow Polaroid camera. This is important because this led to my next thought which is having both Diego AND my brother model at the same time and to try and make the pictures different and less staged, because again they are both teenagers and the magazine is supposed to be fun, have them take pictures of each other while modeling for me. So the idea is that while they’re taking pictures of each other I’m going to be attempting to get cool shots of them doing that, while still trying to achieve the 90s theme and keep it fun. I thought this would be a cool idea because it’s different than what we usually see in magazines since everything seems so fake and staged. I wanted the picture to be able to capture the interest of the consumers by including a lot of color and showing the relaxed fun nature of teens. It’s also beneficial because my camera is yellow and it helps bring color into the shoot.

Making changes... yet again

So I recently met with both my brother and back up model Diego to view their wardrobe to see if there was anything we’d be able to use for the shoot but it was a complete disaster. Neither one of them had anything that even resembled 70s fashion and there was no luck at the thrift stores so the only option I had was to change the years. Because of this, I chose the 90s. I believe a 90s themed shoot would be really fun and still colorful AND could still take place at the school so it was a win win. The main reason I choice the 90s though was because both my brother and Diego had similar clothes that people wore in the 90s.  The 90s included a lot of denim, colorful patterns, and high top shoes. I really loved the looks I was seeing for the boys and decided that not having a female model would actually be more beneficial because the boys fashion was much more simple compared to women’s fashion in the 90s. Some of the clothing I will be including in the shoot are a shirt my brother owns and jeans Diego owns. Already having parts of the costume planned has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders and I’m feeling productive and ready to actually start taking the pictures.

Layouts and design#1

Due to it being more convenient for my brother, instead of going to Miami, I decided to keep the shoot more local and simple yet catchy. Since my target audience are teens to young adults, I decided the best way to establish a connection to both age groups is to base the shoot in a high school. The reason all of the consumers would relate is because most of them will currently attend high school or have been previously enrolled in a high school. Also basing the shot in a school would make it easier to shoot at because it’s so close by and there’s so many props I can utilize in the shoot. I came up with one rough draft of a shot I plan to capture which is placing my model on the side of the stand in the end zone because I feel like since the 70s is full of color and the wrapping around the post is yellow it’ll help to give that extra pop of color.
I haven’t had any luck finding a female model, and on top of that my brother is an athlete and he has a tournament this weekend and if he wins he has to travel out of town to states and I won’t have my main model. However just in case I’ve already found a back up model who is more than willing to participate in the shoot. I also had no luck with the thrift stores and it’s really challenging to find clothes that much the 70s so I’m considering changing the year to 90s. After I meet with Diego and my brother and view their wardrobe I will make my final decision. Below is a very very rough draft of the shot I plan on achieving.

Playing catch up

To take my mind off the struggle I’m having with the thrift stores, I decided to be productive and research possible shooting locations. There’s no better place for fashion photography than Miami so after researching a few cool places, I found a place called Wynwood that’s located in Miami. Wynwood features cool little shops, restaurants, bars, and most importantly painted walls. The main attraction for Wynwood is the creative and artistic walls they have. Artist create pictures on giant walls with cool designs and pictures and guests are free to take as many pictures as possible. I plan on  incorporating plenty of bright colors into my photography as possible and the scenery and art in Wynwood would most definitely help me achieve that. Since my target audience is young culture, I might also have a photo shoot at my own schools football field in order to create a sense of relation and common factor between my young consumers and the subject in my magazine.
I think my biggest obstacle to overcome in this photo shoot will be achieving the image I’m going for on a budget. I really want to create a magazine spread that would grab the audiences attention and make them think, ”that’s pretty cool” and be interested in the content. I’m also still on the lookout for my female model and it’s realkt challenging because since this idea just only recently came up I’m struggling to catch up and a lot of girls I know don’t feel comfortable enough to go in front of a camera. So right now my biggest obstacles in this project are finding the perfect location and deciding whether Miami or my school is the better location and which would create a more relatable interesting vibe, finding a female model, and lastly finding a trendy thrift store to get clothes that would imitate 70s fashion. So much to do!

Thrift shopping!! (I hope)

Okay so as I said in my last post I’m doing an article representing 70s fashion so I figured what better way to get into fashion like going thrift shopping! I’ve been doing tons of research on local thrift shops near me and so far there hasn’t been any luck on finding a vintage thrift shop. The huge issue I’m having with the thrift store idea is that all of the reviews I read don’t mention anything about vintage trendy vibes and say they mostly have normal brand names such as Gap and Hollister. So I’m still on the search for a good trendy vintage thrift shop but I am determined to find one because unfortunately local thrift shops such as Goodwill won’t cut it. The only one I’ve found so far that looks like it MIGHT work is called Buffalo Exchange located in Hollywood Florida and the only reason I felt it would work is because it’s not as big a chain as Goodwill.
On a more positive note however, I found my male model! I decided I really felt like my brother would be a great model and after A LOT of begging and convincing, I finally got him to agree to model for me. So even though I haven’t had any luck with the thrift stores so far, I at least found one of my models so that’s a plus. Below is a picture I took of my brother in Miami

Starting from scratch

So in class my class and I got split into multiple groups of four so that we could talk to our group members and give our opinion or get help if we were having trouble. My group and I were all taking turns telling each other what our project was about when it was finally my turn. I told them my ideas about the tattoos and how I really wanted to capture the evolution of youth and up illustrate how different today is from “back then” but how I’m having a really hard time actually making the tattoo thing happen. A group member of mine suggested I go a whole different route and try to do something else to capture evolution and suggested fashion instead. I was iffy about the idea because I was so stuck on the tattoo idea but after bringing up some valid points such as being able to have more fun with the idea and having more freedom in my production of the story, I was sold. So I decided now that I will be doing my magazine story targeting fashion like a blast from the last time thing.
After researching what years I liked the most between 50-80s fashionwise, I decided I liked the 70s style the most. It was the first time women started to expose more of their bodies and wore bright fun colors and it seems as if it was the year of females that year. I plan on looking at more pictures of fashion from the 70s and trying to imitate the style and find locations and models for my production. The reason I didn’t pick the 50s or 60s to start off with was because compared to the 70s the fashion seemed to be very conservative and quite frankly boring in my opinion. Since I’m doing a magazine targeting youth, I decided it would be in my best interest to focus on fashion trends that the consumers would enjoy and relate to more.
Below is an example of 70s fashion
Leaper C (2017 March 29). The Style Icons Who Defines Glorious Seventies Fashion
Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/marieclaire/fashion/1970s-fashion-moments-that-defined-seventies-style-96107%3fsource=dam

Who knew colors mattered this much

So as I’ve looked at even more magazine covers and actually read the online version of my magazine inspirations, one very common factor is color scheme. No matter what direction or page you look at, there’s a pop of color somewhere. The reason there’s so much color in the magazine is because they’re going for an artistic vibe and a younger target audience so they want it to be appealing to them and their senses.
My struggle is that although I want my piece to be artistic and cool, I want there to be a sense of rebellion in it since it has to do with tattoos but also somewhat sweet since the reader is getting to know the subject and the story behind their tattoo, something that’s personal. So I didn’t know whether or not I should include color or just go black and white and I still can’t decide. I’m really struggling right now because I want to get started on the actual production of my magazine but I simply can't make a decision and it’s delaying my magazine greatly. I hope to do more research on the magazines that are my inspiration and see if there’s and layout and color scheme I will be able to imitate.

Covers!

So between Thursday and today I’ve probably looked at 100 different covers of magazines from ID and Dazed magazine and I think I got the picture. Almost every single magazine is a close up of their subject and has very very very few words on the cover. The idea behind this is that they want the magazine to be focused solely on the individual of idea they’re trying to promote on the cover page and for the consumer to get distracted from it. The close up picture of the subject also creates a more personal relationship between the reader and the subject as well.
In addition to the close ups, the idea of using few words on the cover page is very different and risky compared to other magazines. Almost all of the magazines you see at grocery stores for example are filled to capacity with subheadings and words and it’s a little overwhelming sometimes. For my magazine cover I will not be including many words at all as well. The reason I’m doing this is because I want my magazine to have a sort of risky and different vibe compared to other magazines and since I’m talking about tattoos, what’s more “risky” than that?

Research, Research, and more Research

Now that I am certain about what I am writing about, I spent about an hour and a half researching ID Magazine and Dazed Magazine since that’s where I’m getting my inspiration from. The reason I chose these magazines is because they follow the same theme and vibe I’m going for.
  I first started off by looking at the set up of the magazine for ID, the colors, the stories they write about, and the artistic elements they cover. The cover of the magazine is very clean yet artistic at the same time, with very little amount of words on the cover and they usually publish a close up of the main subject to keep the focus on them and create a sense of intimacy between the reader and the subject. The magazine also uses many different bright colors that show the artistic elements of the magazine on the cover but sometimes only black and white images which gives off a kind of rebellious mysterious vibe. My hopes and intentions are to create a happy medium between the two and have a mysterious yet artistic vibe to my story.
  In addition to ID Magazine, I also researched cover images for Dazed Magazine. Dazed magazine is very similar to ID Magazine in the way that they both cover fashion, art, music etc and that’s exactly what I want my magazine to cover as well. They also use close up shots for their covers and very few words on the cover as well. The use of the colors or lack of them set the trend for the rest of the magazine so I want to make sure that my magazine cover catches the consumers attention and draws them in.

Finally know what I’m writing about

So deciding what to write about was tough. I decided to make a list of things I’m interested in that falls under the trend of the magazine. So I came up with the following
- Interview local young artists
- tattoos
- aspiring musicians

After much hesitation I finally decided I would like to write about the evolution of tattoos the most. As someone who has a tattoo themself, I felt that since I have a personal relationship to the topic that if would be best to write about that. Im not exactly sure what direction I want to head toward with tattoos but I was thinking about comparing current tattoo trends with tattoo trends from the past. I want to make the story a question and answer format with pictures of the person I’m interviewing and a picture of the tattoos they have.
After focusing on that idea of the tattoos, I was researching the different magazine covers to see if I could get any inspiration. Since I’m thinking of doing a comparison between and older individual and younger I want to do a side by side comparison of the two subjects. I got the inspiration from a cover from ID magazine. None of this is set in stone though, there are still tweaking that needs to be done.
The magazine cover that caught my attention is the one below

Decisions are being made

My partner and I have officially made a decision on our magazine topic, and I couldn’t be more excited to start working on the product. Maria and I couldn’t pick between art, fashion, and other topics related to that, so we decided to combine all of those things and make a magazine that focuses on arts, fashion, celebs, and youth culture. 

After we decided our subject, I got to researching some magazines that follow similar topics. After tons and tons of researching on different magazines, I found two magazines that I will be using as inspiration. Now I need to decide what my feature story will be on and then I will be getting to work! We figured what better to write about than youth culture considering we are part of the “youth.” I have a few ideas on what I will be writing about but I need to work out the smaller details and make sure I pick something to write about that I love. 

Below is an example of the magazine I’m using as my inspiration 

The Beginning

     Well it seems as if the time has finally come to start one of the biggest projects of my high school career. I decided to create my own magazine, and although we just started to work on our projects, I am already overwhelmed at the amount of work I’ll have to do, but highly anticipating the final product of my magazine.

      To get the process started, my partner and I decided we would make an extensive list of our personal interests. That was three days ago and we still have not decided what direction were going toward but we’re making our final decision tomorrow. We know for certain that we will NOT be gearing toward a political or cooking magazine, so that’s some progress. 

       The fact that my partner and I were even to get that much front is slightly reassuring because I personally have a VERY busy schedule everyday, from waterpolo six days a week, to juggling a job as well, and finding the time to socialize, I know my lack of free time will be one of my biggest challenges to overcome throughout our project. Some ideas we had for our magazine included 

- fashion magazines 

- Art/ photography 

- gossip 

- Lifestyle 

These were just some of the ideas we had, but we still are completely unsure of what we want to do as I stated earlier. By tomorrow we WILL have our final decision made.... ( I hope lol)