#SpacingOUT

Today, my mother, who majored in graphic design in college, helped me with my project a LOT!!! She gave me pointers on group text boxes together and critiqued what I have so far. She went especially in depth into my cover picture, which I was kind of upset because I thought my picture was PERFECTION, but she believes I need to take it again. Low-key angry and don't want to, but I should listen to the professional. It pains me to admit that I actually don't know as much as she does.

Anyway, the thing she wanted to help me out with was my Table of Contents. The first time she saw it, she complemented my layout, but said we could work on the spacing of some of the line. Well, today we did just that! Even though it took approximately an hour an a half we finally figured out the issues I was getting with the text boxes I had!

Before I dive deeper into that, here's a little before-and-after of my Table of Contents:

Before

After

As you can see, I lined up things like my article titles, article descriptions, the space between the first three articles and the last three, AND I even got rid of the white space above where it says "Table of Contents"!!! All this came from the help of my mother! Now onto the issues I had and how we fixed them.

Before, I had each little text in its own text box. So, when I tried to bring one box closer to the other, the stationary box would disappear! I had to settle for as close as it could go. But then, my mom found out my method and COMPLETELY changed it. She said it was because they were all in individual text boxes, so she showed me how to group the boxes together and move one text to another box and delete the old text box. She told me, "the less text boxes you have, the better" which should be the golden rule because man was she right! I went from having 14 text boxes to 6 text boxes!!! It became so much easier to move everything around after that!

Next, she showed me how to align things better! I can't believe I didn't know this but if you use the arrow keys on the computer instead of dragging the mouse on the keypad, it becomes so much more precise! And if you want to take it further, you can zoom in on the thing you are trying to move around and use the arrow keys for EVEN MORE precision!!!

But, there was one thing that was troubling her that we could not figure out. It was how to space a paragraph on Pages. She knew how to do it on Microsoft's Word, but Pages has updated itself over the past 20 years, so she was at a lost, and so was I. So we YouTubed how to do it...no help. We tried the Apple Help site...again, no help. Then it hit her: it was the line spacing, not paragraph spacing! I had the line spacing on 1.0 (the standard spacing), but to make it seem more professional, we changed it to 1.2 spacing. Trust me, even though it's a small change, it made a HUGE difference!!!

I'm so grateful that my mom helped me out with this! Like I said, everything is working out right now! Fingers-crossed that nothing starts to go downhill from here! But, I have a positive mindset and truly believe nothing will happen! That's all for now! Talk to you guys soon! Thanks again, Mom!!!😘

#DoubleTrouble

So I'm starting my double-page spread today, which is an interview style article about my dancer teacher Idy. One of the biggest things I feel about this article is the title and its font. The title of the article, "Choreographer Chat" isn't finalized, but it is always good to keep working instead of being held up on one thing. So, I just have to push through and hopefully a better name will pop into my head, because what I have now sounds very amateurish.

I also got a notification that Apple Pages had to be updated. When it finished updating I opened up the program and it gave me a small run-through of the features that were added. Out of habit I just went to click out of that run-through and as it was closing I noticed a phrase that had "double page spread" in it. First, I was mad at myself for not reading through the updates. Second, I spent the next 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get the double page look! Eventually, I ended up clicking something by accident and it got what I needed! I love it when life works out like that! SO now I can view on my computer what the double page spread would look like as it would on paper!

Moving on, I want to choose a font that has a very rustic vibe to it, yet still reminds you the slightest bit about dance. Of course, I went to my new favorite site 1001fonts.com and picked out some of my favorites.

These are only a very VERY small portion of the different fonts they had, but I really like some of them. I'm going to continue looking though! Stay tuned!🧐

#TableOfContentsAlmostFinished

Today, my friend, Hannah, and I worked on our magazines together. It took a little while to do my table of contents (an hour and a half to be exact), but with help from Hannah, it was totally worth it!!! I have everything done, except the pictures to my featured articles. Here is what it looks like so far:

What I did was I put each text in it's own text box. For example, "9 Just A Simple Sponge" is in one text box and the description of the article below it is in another. I lined up the text in each description text box to match the article title above it, which, by the way, is NOT a fast process. The triangle arrows indicate that that specific article corresponds to the picture next to it.

My Plans For the Pictures

For the stage makeup article, I plan to gather a bunch of, well, stage makeup on a counter and snap a picture of the "organized clutter" I like to call it. The makeup would include foundation, blush, mascara, eyeliner, etc. and be arranged it a display that seems clumped together, yet still has a neat feel to it. For my choreographer picture, I meeting up with her later today for dance class where I'll take a headshot of her. She has already giving me the consent to use her pictures in my magazine. She has been so kind to helping me with this project, that I'm giving her a shoutout! Love you Idy!!!

Anyways, that's all for today! I feel like I've been getting so much done lately. However, I feel like something big and problematic is drawing closer to me, but I really hope that's all in my head! Everything is working out perfectly now and I really don't want anything to suddenly happen!😓

#CoverPageDone...Hopefully

So I finally got my cover page finished today! It's a little cropped because I couldn't get a screen shot of the whole thing. It only took all but an hour. Why you may ask? That's because I'm still getting used to pages and technology is not my area of expertise! Allow me to expand on that:

The overall making of the cover was fairly simple. Since the trend in theatre magazines is to have the cover page picture focus on your main article (mine being an interview with a choreographer) with no distractions (i.e. extra text, other pictures, etc.) all I had to do was paste my picture and move my title onto it. Simple right? Well, I had some malfunctions with my title.

So my title, as stated in a previous blog posting, consists of two text boxes. One with standard black font color and the other in a red font color and slightly bigger to give it the shadow effect. As a reminder, here is my original intention:

To layer the black on top of the red, I set the red text box to be wrapped "behind text" and the black text box "in front of text". BUT when layered on top of each other, the black text is either fully covering the red text, giving it a very faint shadow:

or an even thicker shadow than intended (as seen above on cover page)

I felt the shadow played a key role in the title because I gives it a bold, dramatic effect on the magazine as a whole when people look at it. I spent approximately 45 minutes watching maybe 3+ videos on Apple Pages tutorials and guides...AGAIN!!! Eventually, I had to compromise and go with the bigger shadow. Hopefully in the future, I'll be able to fix it. My mom was actually a graphic design major in college, but she is currently on a business trip, so maybe she'll be able to help me when she returns. Until then!⏳

#PicsAndAnInterview

Hello everyone!!!

For my double page spread, I've decided to do an interview-esque article with my dance teacher and choreographer, Idy. SO, yesterday, at dance class, I finally got to interview and acquire some pictures of her and my friends! I'm not 100% sure what I wanted them to do, so I asked them to do whatever looks the most "dance-y" and they did NOT disappoint! Here are the pictures I've taken:

I hope you guys have a great night! Thanks for sticking with me through all of this!💖

#FIXED

I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT! I figured out how to fix the issues involving Pages!!!

So one of my biggest issues was trying to line up my title with my edition (the month and year this magazine is being released). I knew I needed the ruler function and one Microsoft's Word, the ruler is always displayed at the top of the document. But, on Pages it was not displayed at all and I thought it wasn't there at all! BUT I realized on my settings I had the ruler function HIDDEN!!! I finally got the alignment to what I wanted it to be! Now I'm getting much more familiar with Pages so I'm thinking of sticking to Pages, rather than switching to Word. My friend has not gotten back to me about my issue, so there is a HIGH chance Pages will host my magazine creation station!

Fun Fact: As I was trying to figure out the ruler situation I had a Broadway playlist playing on a speaker, and as soon as I figured out the ruler was hidden, the song I was listening to (from the Greatest Showman) picked up and became super happy! Talk about a coincidence!!! My day really picked up after that!

#PagesOrWord???

Here's a HOT update:

I'm having a little dilemma. I'm trying to decide whether I should use Microsoft Word or Apple's Pages to create my magazine. I'm struggling a little bit with Pages and I'm familiar with Word, BUT I feel that Pages is a little better than Word. I remember when my sister did this project, she eventually used Word, but I remember that she struggled a LOT with this.

With that in mind, I've decided that if I still can't figure out Pages by this Saturday I'm switching over to Word. That's that and I'll update when I've made the choice!😖

Hot Update On That Hot Update:

I downloaded Office to my new computer and I'm trying to activate it but it is NOT working and I'm stressing out a little bit. Not just for this project, but what if I want to use Office for future projects?! It won't let my type on it until I've activated my Office account, which I already have. I don't know why it's not activating! I am logged into my OneDrive and that works fine, but I can't create any more Word documents!!! I do have a friend that can help me with this so I have to give him a call. But now I'm just a little more stressed, so thanks Microsoft 😬👍🏻

#MyFirstGroupSession

Yesterday in class, our teacher held our very first group critic session! We were all put into small groups to review each other's portfolio project, give critics, insights, and opinions, and overall help each other's projects become the best they can be! I went into class thinking my project was going to get torn apart and I'd basically have to start fresh, but that was the COMPLETE opposite of what actually happened!!! Everyone loved what I had done so far, especially my title font and the shadow-esque design I put on it! If you need a refresher here it is:

Even my teacher complimented it, saying how it looked very powerful with the red and black color combination, and the 3D visual added to it! One of my group members even asked if I could show her how I did it, but even I barely know how I came up with it! I also asked my group members if I should put my motto ("Bringing the backstage news towards the audience!") underneath it, but they advised against it. They said if the target audience is to theatre-lovers, then most likely they would know what "downstage" means.

Apart from the masthead, everything else seems to be in order! They loved my table of contents layout, the way my article was set up, and said that the entire magazine overall was very concise and fit into the genre stereotypes very well! They were a bit concerned about my double-page spread's picture and how I would make that work (the big one that covers most of one page and half of the other). I told them that based on the research I've conducted and my own experiences, I've noticed that in theatre magazines, it is all about visuals. That's why I chose for that specific picture to take up so much space. They all understood and complimented that I stuck with genre techniques, but all of them said I had to be careful about one thing. I need to put the picture subject in the left third because the curvature of the magazine would cut off anything in that area, they said. A very good point they had too! But that was the only critique they gave me, so that makes me so happy that I don't have to change much!

All in all, this group session went so well, mostly because all I got was praise for my work! I can't wait for the next one, because then I should have my table of contents finished, and I'm calling it now, that is going to be a train wreck and a half! Then again, I though what I had now was bad so maybe it won't out as bad as I think!🙉

P.S. After my group session I decided that the "rough draft" of my magazine's layout (shown above) worked really well, so I've decided to make it my final layout draft. How often does that happen? Your first try worked out so well, you don't need to change everything!!!

#TitleFontAndDesign

Heyo everyone!!!

So, I just recently got a MacBook Air, and since I've gotten it, I've never had to write/type a document for school. But, now that I have to start the draft of my magazine cover, I need a place to start my document. My teacher told me that Pages is a good place to create a magazine. BUT the thing is, I've NEVER used pages before. Therefore I had to watch a 15 minute tutorial video on YouTube about how to navigate through Pages. I wouldn't call myself a Pages-expert or anything, but now I feel like I can find my way around the app.

I also picked out a font for my title and masthead:

The red color is not a part of the actual font. What I did was put two versions of "DownStage" in two different text boxes. I then made one of them red and placed the black text over the red text, creating this red outline/shadow effect. Depending on my cover picture, I'll probably be changing the red font color to fit the picture theme. So, that means with each edition the shadow color will probably change. Also, on the left side of the text, the shadow sticks out a little more, giving the text a slight 3D effect.

#TitleFonts

So, my most recent step of this project has been searching for possible fonts for the title of my magazine and the overall masthead in general. Because the cover page only has the masthead for text, I don't have to look for too many fonts, yet it has to be easy to read, yet still present the fun theme of the magazine. Below I took screen shots of my favorite font styles I researched in class today.

I got these fonts from an AMAZING website called 1001 Fonts! This website has SOOOO many fonts of different sizes and shapes and was super easy to navigate! All I had to do was type the text I needed (in this case it was DownStage) and BOOM! 492 pages of fonts, with each page having 10 different fonts on them! That's 4,920 choices I can use for my title!!! If you have any personal preferences on which one you like better, please, don't hesitate to let me know! But for now, the following are my favorites!!! I'm not even finished looking through, and maybe I'll find one that will be "the one"! 🤓

Citations: New & Fresh Fonts. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2018, from http://www.1001fonts.com/ 

#RoughDraft

I got my magazine layout's rough draft completed!!!


You can take a closer look at it by clicking on the images. I actually really enjoyed coming up with various ways to set these visuals up. I was really torn on where I should put the mast head because I wanted it to be on the bottom left part of my cover page. This was because the name is "DownStage" and I wanted that to be sort of "down stage" of the magazine. But I ultimately thought I shouldn't do that because 1.) It would harder for people to see and 2.) I felt it is called a mast-HEAD for a reason, meaning it goes on the head/top of the magazine.

I also feel like I need to add an extra Table Of Contents page, because now I'm thinking it's a little small for a table of contents for a full magazine.

That's all I have for tonight! I hope you enjoy my progress so far and if you have any comments leave on on my page! I'm always ready to receive feedback on my work and how I can make it better! Until next time! 🌃

#WhoWillBuyThisWhere?

Target Audience

I feel that recent Broadway musicals have grown to become more kid-friendly. This is shown through the release of Spongebob Squarepants: The Musical and the live-action adaption musical of Disney's Frozen. Ironically, not all Broadway shows are happy-go-lucky and bubbly. Some shows deal with adult themes that younger audiences should stay very clear of. One example is the show The Book of Mormon, which has INTENSE sexual innuendos, adult language, and violence. From these examples, I think I can get a decent range of ages interested in my magazine.

To find out a good general starting area for my target audience range, I posted a poll through social media. I asked people at what age did they become invested in theatre? I told all my friends and everyone I knew to vote on it and the results came as followed:
Out of 48 votes, 46% said "before middle school", 40% said "middle school", 13% said "high school", and 2% said "after high school". Using these results as a reference, my target audience ranges from kids about 10 years of age (fourth graders) to older audiences of about 80 years of age. However, my goal is create a magazine that no matter how old you are, you would still be able to enjoy whatever comes inside it.

I chose to start at the older spectrum of fourth graders because at that age, children have a decent reading level and would be able to enjoy my magazine just as much as an adult would. If a child at that age is still unable to comprehend the articles, they would at least like to look at the pictures I've included in the magazines or be able to do the fun theatre-related quizzes that are in the magazine. I ended with the seniors at 80 years old because most senior citizens love attending the theatre. My own grandparents just love going to see musicals all over the country! With that in mind, I wanted to make my magazine something people of all ages could enjoy to the fullest!

Distribution

The most common distribution method with this genre of magazine is by subscription, with the exception of Playbill. Playbills distributed by Broadway theaters and the different theaters around the nation for traveling shows, as well as through subscription to the actual Playbill company. This works for Playbills because they have a smaller size, being 5 3/8 inches by 8 1/2 inches, yet standard magazines are roughly 8 1/2 inches by 11 inches. Therefore I've decided that my magazine will be mainly through subscription. While it would gain major notice from the target audience I'm reaching out to (theater-goers), but because of it's planned "fuller-size", I believe if it was distributed at theaters, people will not feel like they can just pick it up and read it and just as easily put it away. Furthermore, I feel people would crumple it up more, or throw it away. But to gain notice to my magazine I would try to get my magazine in a local book store or library. This way, people who actually PLAN on reading my magazine, can subscribe and be able to read each monthly edition.


That's all for now! Either late today or tomorrow, I'll post my magazine layout rough draft! Until then!!!🌈




Citations: 
The Universal Playbill Binder - Archival Quality Storage for Playbills of all Sizes. (n.d.). Retrieved March 9, 2018, from https://www.playbillstore.com/the-universal-playbill-binder-archival-quality-storage-for-playbills-of-all-sizes.aspx
Staff, P. (2018, March 09). Schedule of Upcoming and Announced Broadway Shows. Retrieved March 9, 2018, from http://www.playbill.com/article/schedule-of-upcoming-and-announced-broadway-shows-com-113677
Login. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://www.broadwayleague.com/research/research-reports/

#RevisedMagazineTitle

I'VE DONE IT!!!!! 

I've thought of an AMAZING magazine title!!!
Are you ready???

"DownStage"

Don't you guys just love it??? I've actually done my research and confirmed that there is no other magazine with this title already existing in the world! So, now that I'm post this on the Internet, no one can take this idea from me in the next 5 weeks!

I chose this title because in the drama world, down stage means to go to the front of the stage or closer to the audience. This is exactly what I'm doing in my magazine! I'm taking the stories from the theatre world and bringing it right up to the audience. I get a very powerful feeling when I say this title aloud, so I plan to have a very bold theme to it, using strong fonts and warm colors ranging from red to yellow (also including black, but that is a given if I'm using a bold font)! But all this is magazine layouts and color palette just planning and subject to change.

I've got a really good feeling about this title! I can't wait to get started and show you guys what I come up with! Stay tuned!🤗

#ResearchingPlaybills...AndMORE!!!

Genre Research

SO! I've been doing research by reading a variety of different Playbills (yes, a Playbill is an actual magazine), and information online about Playbills and other theatre magazines.

When it comes to Playbills, you are able to subscribe to receive a new issue every month, but they mainly distribute their magazines at the door to a theatre, with that edition cover page devoted to the musical/play you are seeing. For example, you can clearly see that, apart from the masthead, that the ENTIRE cover page is solely dedicated to a particular play (in these cases, the Broadway musicals Spongebob Squarepants and Kinky Boots). This makes sense because when I received these Playbills, I was entering the theater to see these shows, so Playbill wants to pull all the focus onto these musicals. Inside the magazines, however, were many different articles on other Broadway musicals, quizzes the reader can take, local restaurants to eat at after the play, and the cast list of the play the reader is seeing.

These Playbills play a HUGE part in my research, but I cannot depend on only one type of theatre magazines. Another type of theatre magazine that follows this cover page trend is the American Theatre magazine. This magazine follows the same "cover page is dedicated to a specific show" trend but also has a little twist of it's own. Instead of showing the advertisement art of the play (like Playbill does), American Theatre displays a photo of the actors in that play in the spotlight. But, in both cases, each magazine cover page does not mention ANY text of what is inside the actual magazine. That is all listed in the table of contents. But, each cover is fully devoted to display the show/actors in the show without pulling any attention to something else on the cover page. The entire focus is to bring attention to the show being featured in that specific edition of the magazine.

My next research is going to be dedicated to target audience and distribution method trends. For now, PEACE!!!⭐️

#MyFirstDisappointment

So after choosing my magazine title "Intermission", further research revealed that there is already a theatre magazine named Intermission based in Toronto. I'm VERY upset because I thought my name was so original, creative, and PERFECTLY fit my genre, only to find out someone had already took the idea out of my head before I had even thought of it. Even down to the COLOR SCHEME!!! So now I have to think of a brand new name.

This has shown me that before I pick a title, get too excited, and start thinking of ideas I could use, I have to research more to see if that content is already out there. Research has always been a weak spot of mine. I'm a do-er and when I thinking of something exciting, it's my instinct to just create what's in my head before seeing if it has been done before.
I've started generating a list of possible magazine titles and asked friends for their ideas, thoughts, and comments on a whole she-bang of them. These are a few of the growing list of titles:

Broadway Bing!
Bliss of Broadway
Broadway Bash
Stage Scoop
Theatre Times
Concessions
Understudy
StageLight

I'm asking a variety of friends (especially my drama friends) to give their insight on their favorite titles and I'll check back in soon when I pick a final title by 3/7/18 at the latest. For now my next blog posting will focus on genre conventions, target audience, and the different features I could include in my magazine. Until then! 😋




Citations:
Intermission Magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://www.intermissionmagazine.ca/

#PlanningAndTitle

Heyo!!! So since my last posting, I've made a personal schedule of what I need:

Week 1- Research and compile information on similar magazine genres and play with fonts and cover page ideas

Week 2- Begin outline and magazine planning, rough draft should be done by 3/10 to allow some changes. Have early copy of the cover page done (besides the picture)

Week 3- Begin magazine articles and acquire ALL pictures by 3/18

Week 4- Finish final magazine-cover page, contents, and double-page spread. 4 pictures REQUIRED.

Week 5- Clean and polish EVeRYTHING in magazine. Begin Creative Critical Reflection (CCR) script

Week 6- CCR recording and grand finale!!!!

That's my schedule for this whole project so you can expect my blog postings to be centered around what I'm doing that specific week.

Oh! I also chose a title for my magazine: Intermission

I chose this title because it is very simple, yet has a deeper meaning to it. When people go to a Broadway show (or a show that offers a Playbill in general), they usually take the time during the intermission of the show to read through the Playbill they received earlier. So this title plays off of that action in a way that gives you the feeling that when you have a break, you can just pick up a copy of my magazine and read through it. Because of this, I plan for the magazine to have a home-y vibe towards it. This means I'd have to chose soothing colors such as light blue or white for the theme of the magazine. But that is something I'd think of more in depth later on when I am doing my magazine outline.

I think that's all I have to update you on for now! I'll check back with y'all soon!!! 💜

#FutureMagazineDesigner???

Hello!!! Welcome to my blog, where I will discuss my process in creating my final portfolio project for AICE Media Studies of the 2017-2018 school year!!!

I can't wait to get started on my magazine. I've been so excited that I thought of many different magazine genres that I could do. Then, I thought to myself "Just do something you really like in general and create a magazine off that!" Well well well my friends you've probably guessed by my URL but I decided to do a theatre magazine!!! I'm very excited to start because we are in the theatre season at my school so I'll be able to take some fantastic pictures for the magazine already!

I have huge plans for this project and I'm soooo excited to share it with you guys! I hope you enjoy my blog and magazine in the future and I thank you for taking the time to view it!😄