My Draft Article

Title of the page:

"The'X-Factor' changed my life"

Exclusiveinterview!

LucyHargreaves

After coming first in the UK’s most popular singing competition‘X-Factor’, Lucy Hargreaves (age 17) has just realised her new single ‘is thislove’ which is shooting up the charts towards No.1. Lucy is a student formDoncaster who has been singing from the age of 7. In this interview we will be finding out how‘X-Factor’ has really changed her life and what her plans will be now.

When did you start singing?

I startedsinging at the age of 7, just in my room. Then a year later when I was 8, mymum and dad said that I should try some singing lessons. So when I startedsinging lessons, I loved it and then started singing in school shows and when Iwas 16 I started singing in pubs.

Why did you audition for X-factor?

I always knewI wanted to be a singer. I've been singing from the age of 7. I've alwayswatched the show and my family just said ‘might as well give it a go’ so… I did.

What did you do before the X-Factor?

Well because I'm 17 I was at sixth form studying my A levels. I also had a part time job workingat Greggs. Just to earn a little money. And when it came to singing, I used tosing in a pub around the corner from my house.

How has the ‘X-Factor’ changed your life?

Everythingis different, everyone knows me. Everywhere I go people recognises me and askfor pictures and autographs. I have been signed, so that’s changed everything! Andmy first single has just come out, which people are buying (thank you fans).And most of all I get to sing live, which is my dream.

Did you enjoy having ‘Gary Barlow’ as your mentor?

Yes! He is sonice, and helped me so much. He gave me great advice and support. He was great, couldn't ask for a better mentor!

How are your friends reacting to all the new fame?

My friendshave been very supportive. I know a lot of them are so proud of me, but theyknow I haven’t changed I'm the same old Lucy.

What you going to do now?

Well I'm touring a little to perform my new single. Then I have the ‘X-Factor’ tour inDecember. Then I guess I’ll be working on some new songs.

What did you love the most about the ‘X-Factor’ experience?

Singinglive, I love it! Having the crowed there watching and singing along. I knowthis is what I want to do forever!

Would you change anything about you’re ‘X-Factor’ experience?

No I lovedevery second of it. And I would just like to say a big thank you to everyonewho voted. I'm so thankful.

Models

My Models:

Paige singer, Holly Fraser, Liam Lindsay

For my magazine, I have set myself a target to make my magazine look as realistic and professional as possible.  Because of this I need to make sure I plan what I would like my images to be off. They need to relate to my stories, and need to fit in with my genre ‘pop’.  I will be using different camera angles, to make the image look more professional.

Front cover:

For my front cover, my main image will be of my friend ‘Paige’ She will be pretending to be the new winner of’ X-Factor’. She will be the main image of the page and other text and images will be placed over the top. I want an image of her singing her heart out and singing into a microphone facing up.  She will be dressed in girly, glittery clothes with loads of Jewellery. This will show a clear sign of our music genre (pop).  Another idea I had if that idea didn’t work or look right, would be to have a close up of her putting her finger over her lips (showing the ‘shh’ sign).    Also on the front cover I will have images of some clothes which will be next to the heading   ‘Get the red carpet look this Christmas’ and a image of my friend ‘Liam’ who will be pretending he’s a famous singer posing for a free poster which is inside.

Double page spread:

Because my double page spread is all about the mast head (which is an interview of my made up star) this page will be full of text and images of my star. Once again my model will be my friend Paige because she is pretending to be my star. I will have another large image of her on this page and also a smaller image of her on the ‘X-Factor’ stage. Because this is not real I will have to edit her onto a back ground of her stood on the ‘X-Factor’ stage.  I will do this by using the program ‘Photo Shop’ and will use the ‘magic wand’ tool to cut her out and place her on top of my background image. This image will be small so it won’t matter as much if it’s not perfect because when small, you won’t be able to see that she has been edited in.  I would like to add an effect of an old photo film strip to add silly pictures of her, to give the affect that ‘just because she’s now famous, she’s still an average teenage girl.’ This will help the readers connect to her, because there the same age.

Contents page:

On my contents page I will need to have images of what I’m pretending is inside. So as well as images of my pretend ‘star’ I will need images of other stories which I am pretending to be inside.  For example, I am pretending I am having a free poster inside so this will be shown on the contents page. I will also have images of other ‘fake’ celebrities  on this page, with ‘fake’ stories next to them.

My Proposal (long)

My Proposal

For this project, we have been asked to create our own music magazine. In which we will create from scratch a front cover, contents page and a double page spread which will fit to my chosen genre. At the start of this task I set my own target which I would like to achieve which is to ‘make my magazine look as professional as possible.

To start off, I needed to choose what type of genre I wanted my magazine to be based on. So to help me decided a genre, I started by researching different types of music genres. There was a wide verity too chose form but I selected three in which I needed to choose form, which were Rock, POP and R&B. I wanted to pick one in which I knew a lot about, so because of that reason I chose the genre ‘POP’.  Next I moved on to researching target audience, and for the majority of ‘POP’ magazines the target audience are young teen girls. This I because a lot of recent ‘POP’ music is created by young teen boys, for example ‘Justin Beiber’ and ‘One Direction’. So because of this research, I have decided to use ‘teen girls’ as my target audience.

Now I had my Initial ideas for what I was going to create, I started to do some more research on what codes and conventions ‘pop’ magazines include.  By doing this research, it helped me know what key codes and conventions to include in my magazine. This will help my magazine look more professional and realistic. Some key conventions which I found out every magazine use include:

·         Mast head (This is the name of the magazine, which is located at the top left of every magazine. This is so that when they are stacked on the magazine shelves in the shop, each magazine name can be seen for the customers to see.) 

·         Price (The price of the magazine will be located in large font IF the price is cheap, if not it will usually be found close to the bar code)

·         Bar code (this is on the cover of every magazine, so it can be scanned when you’re buying it.)

·         Main image (This is the main picture on the front cover, which will usually be an image of a celebrity.)

·         Main Cover line (This will be in large font on the page, because it is the main story inside. It will usually be biased on the main image.)

The next task was to look at examples of ‘contents pages’ and ‘double page spreads’ and see what layout and key information they include. To help me understand what I needed to include in my work, I did a written analysis of a front cover, contents page and a double page spread.  This helped me understand what codes and conventions I need to include for mine. Another research task which I did, was researching about other magazine production companies.  I researched ‘Distributers and publishers’ and looked at audience expectations. I next looked at what my house style would be like, so I did some researched on pop magazines and the majority of girl pop magazines use ‘girly’ colours like pink and purple. They also don’t include loads of text, so normally they only include three of four columns.  I then had loads of ideas of what my magazine would look like, so next I created a mood board of my ideas. On this I included different colours, font sizes, font colours and pictures.          

I then created the name of my ‘publishing company’ which I called ‘Pink Publishing’s’. I have done this because I think it relates to my target audience. My target audience is teen girls, and everyone knows that pink is a girly colour. I have also created a logo for my company which is this picture of a heart with ‘PP’ in the middle. This obviously means ‘Pink Publishing’s’. I wanted my logo to be simple so that it is easily recognisable, like some big company logos like ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’.

To make my final ideas clear, I have made some spider diagrams to display my ideas so I can go through them step by step when in the creating process. Before starting my magazine I’m going to create draft layout for my front cover so I have a brief idea how I’m going to layout my front cover. Then I’m going to write a draft story for my double page spread so that I can plan and improve my ideas if needed. I will also need to plan my images which will be on the cover and inside such as what camera angles, lighting and who is actually going to be in the image.

When creating the pages I will use ‘Photo Shop’. So before starting this project I practiced using the program so that I could get used to the tools and get some editing practice. I will make sure that I make my pages plain and not too complicated.

My Proposal

 For this project, we have been asked to create our own music magazine. In which we will create from scratch a front cover, contents page and a double page spread which will fit to my chosen genre. At the start of this task I set my own target which I would like to achieve which is to ‘make my magazine look as professional as possible. I researched target audience, and for the majority of ‘POP’ magazines the target audience are young teen girls. This is because a lot of recent ‘POP’ music is created by young teen boys, for example ‘Justin Beiber’ and ‘One Direction’. So because of this research, I have decided to use ‘teen girls’ as my target audience.  When creating the pages I will use ‘Photo Shop’.