Mise en Scene & Props2

Contents page model releases

Album Review Draft

This London born indie star, has only now decided to crack the states. When Bethany George burst to prominence two years ago, with her quirky fashion sense and unique voice, it was hard not to fall in love with her and her music. After her debut albums huge success, she’s back, even better than the first time, with her second album ‘Here We Go Again’, which has everything from indie to rock and even a hint of country, what more could you want? Her first single ‘Feel the sound’ is everything you would expect, with a smooth indie-soul sound paired with beautiful lyrics, its magical to listen to. However. The most impressive use of her singing skills comes on the restrained ballad "Love After War", a live recording on which her extemporisations and vocal flourishes break the lyrics down to a series of stuttered phrases, before smoothly picking up the slack. Overall this album is a great listen, to brighten up those rainy days, or to bring a smile to your face.

Editors note draft

When a lot of people meet Matt Thomas, they really don’t know quite how to take him. Indeed, it’s all too easy to dismiss The Icebergs front mans unswerving self belief as arrogance or plain old rudeness. But, behind that cocky exterior and that razor sharp wit is a man who cares passionately about his art. In this week’s issue if Indiependence, we pin down Matt for a truly intimate insight into one of British rock music’s genuine icons.  Matt gives us an exclusive account of his life in the spotlight and talks about his celebrity girlfriends and how he’s not afraid to fight for what he believes in.  Whether you’re a fan of the band or not, it makes a fascinating read. We also met Bethany George, who is officially one of the nicest artists out there. Not only has she brightened up our days in the office with her utterly brilliant new album, but Bethany very kindly gave up some of her rare downtime to record an exclusive four track accoustic session for us to give away for free in next weeks issue.

Favourite photos from shoots

Contasct Sheet

Schedule

Articles Pull Quotes Etc

Drafts

These are my initial draft designs for my magazines. My front cover, contents page and  follows the typical conventions of a indie/rock magazine. I will use these draft designs when making my final copies, as they give me a good starting point. I plan on creating a contents page similar to one found in a magazine such as NME or Kerrang! as they are filled with relevant information yet are interesting at the same time, i tried to do this with my contents page design. My double page spreads are basic, but i plan on using more pictures on my final copies, i have also decided that i might include a third double page spread.

Mise en Scene

Mise en Scene & Props


This powerpoint about mise en scene shows why I used the different props, and why I picked the outfits for my model to wear. The powerpoint helped me to pick out some of the photos that I will want to use on my magazine.

Article draft

17. How have things been this year so far?
18. Things have been really good, very busy at the moment. It's something you have to get used to but I seem to adjust to the whole hectic-ness of it. I’d never complain though, I’d rather be busy living my dream than busy doing a repetitive 9-5 job.

17. When did it all start for you?
18.  I was signed on an independent record label in the UK first as a songwriter to Sony, and then I flew to America. I tried to get signed in the UK but there were so many other girls so I flew over to America, not to disappear from the UK, it was just so I could do some writing. Whilst I was over there I did a showcase then got spotted by American labels. Basically I thought that this kind of opportunity doesn't come along very often in the industry so I decided to sign to the US label but on a worldwide deal. So I had a UK label as well, so I just begged them to let me release my first single here first.

17. How was it being over in America?
18. I was never based over there, which is what a lot of people think. I've stayed there for long periods of time, I was there for nearly three months in LA when I first got signed but I’ve never lived there. I know now that I will probably have to but that's part of what comes with the job I do I guess.

17. How do you find writing for other people?
18. Most of the time I’m writing for myself but it just ends up sounding like it should be for someone else. It was only in the last couple of months that I have actually sat down and written a song for Britney and written a song for Willow Smith and actually had them in mind. Most of the time it's songs that haven’t been right for me and I’ve pitched them to other people.

17. When did you decided to start releasing your own material?
18. I was in a girl group for two years and as soon as I got signed at seventeen I started writing. I know there is a confusion that people think that I was a songwriter and then I did this but it was always for myself first. I always wanted to be an artist straight off the cuff. I wrote my first song 'All Over Again' when I was seventeen.

17. Do you have a particular writing process?
18. I have my own personal style but I'm not obsessed with it. Purely because when you go half the way around the world you have to adapt to how different people write. You can't be like sorry this is how I write the songs can you adapt to me. It's not like that, I’m new to this game so I learn to write melody and lyric at the same time, which is how I prefer to write.

17. You've been in a lot of polls this year – how did you find that?
18. It's like a really odd competition. I’ve won the Critics' Choice, but that doesn't mean that everyone else who didn't get the award won't be as successful as me. I think people think I’m this kind of non-human robot that thinks I’m brilliant. That is not the case at all. I get upset and have bad days like everyone else but I love being under pressure. I don't think I would still be here doing what I'm doing if I didn't love a struggle and a challenge.
    
    
19. What do you use as inspiration when writing?
20. Life. Not really other songs, its more situations that I go through. I'll pick up little things that people say and elaborate on it to make it a song.

17. It must be strange making the jump from singer-songwriter to pop star…
18. ‘Totally, you don’t go to pop star school to learn how to be a pop star, or how to be ‘papped’, or what to do when a fan attacks you in Westfield, you just have to get on with it. And that’s the kind of thing people think, you know, that if you sign up to be a singer-songwriter you know how to deal with people setting up hate websites, or people being obsessed with you and crying when you touch them, but you don’t, and you just have to deal with. People will hate you, rate you, shake you, and break you. But how strong you stand is what makes you.  

17. You’re also quite clean living for a 22-year-old pop star…
18. ‘Music is my drug and the only drug I’ll ever want. The clean living thing is a bit drastic – I won’t say I’ll never have a glass of Champagne to say well done for the Brit award or whatever. I’m not someone who’s anti partying; I just don’t depend on it. Alcohol and drugs don’t give me the confidence to be who I am and that’s why I really wanna embrace being a role model, I want to show young people that you can be who you are with purity, you don’t have to kind of inject it with a double shot of G&T or a spliff. It’s just part of the role I have to play now, which I’ve always played, to be honest – ask my girlfriends, they’ll all tell you I’ll have half a shandy and I’m done!’

17. Yeah, you seem hyper enough without any assistance…
18. ‘Can you imagine me with alcohol? Not a good look, is it? A Lucozade is enough for me. I’m irritating enough without it all.’

17. You got your first big break when Chris Brown’s manager spotted you singing on YouTube and booked you to support him for six dates – how important is it for you to be known for your vocal abilities?
18. ‘For me, there shouldn’t be anyone who can’t do it live. Ever since I was a kid, I was taught that you have to be good at what you do. If you’re a masseuse, you should know what to do to make someone’s back feel better. If you’re a singer you should be able to sing live. In the last four or five years I’ve been working on my vocals, because if it’s not amazing, people will say its crap. Because that’s my job. I should be good at what I do. But I love singing live.

Contact Sheet

Contact Sheet Lauren

This is my final masthead design. I have chosen this as my masthead because i think it incorperates everything that i want from my magazine. I chose the Indie/Rock genre for my magazine, which gave me the inspiration to try and create my masthead name from the word Indie. After playing around with the word i eventually came up with indiependence. The word 'Indie' is shortened from independent music, as most of the origional music in the indie genre was unsigned bands which were not considered mainstream. I incorperated the word Indie in front of pendence to creare indiependence. Whilst researching the indie genre on the internet i found the urban dictionary definition of indie: ' an obscure form of rock you can only know about from someone slightly more hip than yourself'. I decided to put thos definition below the masthead to make it look like an actual definition, i added a colon to the end of the word to add to that effect.

Names Designs

These are some of the masthead designs I created whilst trying to decide on my final one. I thought about using colour in my magazine masthead, so experimented with blue, red and yellow. I also used several effects such as stroke and bevel on some of the masthead designs.

Masthead design

One of my ideas for my masthead was to create a collage of letters cut from a magazine and placed them together. I cut out the letters from different newspaper headlines to create the masthead design. I set up a video camera to film me sticking together the letters to form the word indiependence. I put the video on premiere and sped it up so it all happens over 26 seconds. I thought this was an interesting way of showing my masthead idea.

Colour

My Proposal