Draft Article For Double Page Spread

Annabelle Clark on writing her own rules, not becoming a cliché and the hurdle of going pop.

Annabelle Clark never doubted the success of her first album, The Lion Inside, which resulted into selling 1 million copies in its first week. However, the artist herself has told us others were not so confident. 

"Everyone, in and out of the music business, kept telling me that my opinion and my view point was naive and overly optimistic -- even my own label' she tells us. "But when we got those first-day numbers in, all of a sudden, I didn't look so naive anymore."

In fact, The Lion Inside moved 1.29 million copies in its first week, the biggest seven-day release since 2002. Clark has become the first artist to hit that 1 million week milestone three times, and breaking a record for all musicians.

There has been so much talk about you moving to London, but people forget that you grew up in Newcastle just a few hours away.

Oh, yeah, some people have no idea. When I discovered that I was in love with singing and performing, I wanted to be in theater. So growing up, London was where I would come for auditions. I was 10, but I was as tall as a 16 year old, and then you'd have a 22 year old who could play 10, and they'd get the role. Then I started taking voice lessons in Gateshead close by, so my Mom and I would drive over and have these adventures every weekend.

I went to see 'Wicked' which I adore at the Apollo, and people were like "Oh, it's your first show!" Actually have a photo of my first Apollo show, which was coincidently 'Wicked'. I was 12 years old, and sang  'Defying Gravity' at the top of my lungs!

You have been criticized for the tone of the The Lion Inside's song "The Roaring", has it made you think any differently, hearing people say that this is a strange song to what you usually write?

Absolutely. But when you write a song, you're writing about a momentary emotion. If you can capture that and turn it into three and a half minutes that feel like that emotion, that's all you're trying to do as a songwriter. To take a song and try to apply it to every situation everyone is going through, is just asking a little much of a piece of a music.

It must be a challenge for you to move around. Do you have favorite places to go or things to do?

The only places I can't really go are huge carnival-type things, where there could be some sort of stampede. It's happened before. Which sucks, because I love carnivals, and I love fairs. I have a hard time accepting the fact that my life is abnormal. I admit it now, but I’m not going to stop grocery shopping just because it tends to be a hectic situation. If I ever have a family, that's when I would start to think about the inconvenience of it - if I had to explain to a 4 year old why all those men are pointing cameras at us and why are people staring. At this point, I can handle it because it's just me, and my friends are really good at it too. If I had friends who made me feel about it, I’d feel like I was a burden to them.

Your Mom has been a central to your work and your life. Between moving around and everything else, has that relationship changed?

My Mom has allowed me to grow up one year at a time. She was very protective when I was a teenager, when every other person would say to us, "Are you going to become a train wreck? When are we going to see you going off the rails like..." and then they would name these other girls that they perceived to be train wrecks, which was lovely. So it wasn't just "Don't drink until you're 21," it was "Don't be seen holding a glass that they could think alcohol is in."

What's your advice for women looking to get into singing and songwriting?

Let the decisions you make be your decisions, and not the public’s decisions. Don't let them be some man in a suit's decisions either. Make them yours.

You're coming off of your third million-selling week. Now that you're really only competing against yourself, do you see a time when you'll step away from trying to go bigger every time out?

I have no idea what's going to happen to me, that's the thing. I was really hoping that we could convince people to go out and make 'The Lion Inside' a part of their lives, and that maybe a million people would want to do that. And essentially, my fans wanted to make a statement about music, too.

Time Management, Week 5

I have completed the evaluation of the preliminary task, the written proposal and the flat plans, and they're all uploaded to my blog. However, these weren't finished to the deadlines I needed, instead they have been finished and uploaded a number of weeks after.

Time management seems to be reoccurring problem while completing my blog.

However, I have being coping well with the workload, and I am finding the tasks relatively easy oncE I have got my head round them. 

Flat Plans and Rationales

Colour Usage – I will be using my main image as the background of my front cover, and the background colours of the main image will also be the background colours of the front cover. I feel this is a good idea, as it will not contrast any colours. I have chosen a primary colours colour scheme, and will include black and white if it is suitable for my main image. I have chosen these colours as they are bright and attracting colours, and what I aim for my model to wear in the main image if possible. In addition to this, I have decided I don’t want my product to be gender based, as my product being aimed at a mixed gender audience means a wider audience. For cover/sell lines and text on the front cover, I have decided on black unless the main image will be black and white, in which it will be part of my primary colour colour scheme as they will be easy to read as well as attracting. I have decided on primary colours for my masthead as well as it is clear and attention grabbing. However, putting the featured sell/cover line, which relates to the main image in a different colour to the remaining sell/cover lines, will connote the importance. Overall, I want my colours to be eye catching and attractive which will enable the text to be easily read and pleasing to the eye.

Image Usage – After deconstructing magazines in a previous task, a convention that features throughout is the use of one main image on the front cover. Therefore, as the convention is common and well known throughout in magazines, I will make sure that my main image is the key point of my magazine. For the main image, I will be using a mid-shot. The mise en scene will be limited for my main image as it will just be the model against a plain background, inside a building. I have no objections against my model using props or wearing make up in the image. However, if the props and makeup can be related to the primary colour scheme used on the front cover, this would bring the front cover together. I want the body language of my model to be quite natural if possible. I would like to experiment with more natural poses, but so the model is looking at camera.

Text Usage – I intend to use text that will be accessible for my target audience. I will do this by not using common abbreviations, as my target audience don’t commonly do this. I want positive emotional connotations to come from my text, and don’t want to be putting my intended audience off my text and overall magazine. Key words will be highlighted in a bolder font or larger font size to make them stand out from the other bits of text and to show their importance to the audience. The masthead will be the largest form of text on my front cover so the audience can establish what the magazine is called and what it is. Following this, the main sell/cover lines will be large, and most likely bold as well to attract the reader.

Layout and Font – I intend to use a simple font, which will be used in a bold and not in bold as well. I want the magazine to have quite a serious look, hence why it is not in a hand written style and in more of a typed style. The layout is quite clear with distinctive sell lines separate from each other to avoid confusion. From previous deconstructions, I have noted that the front covers aren’t filled with text; images and information but have quite a ‘clear’ look to the page. The key points within the text are the masthead, which I will put in a larger font, which will drag attention to it, and the main sell/cover line will also be slightly larger than the remaining text on the page. 

Colour Usage – Again, my contents page will have a primary colour colour scheme. I chose this is ensuring continuity throughout my magazine. I will not be using a three-shade colour scheme, as I aim to maintain the convention of bright colours for my chosen genre of magazine. My connotations created through my colour scheme will be bright and bubbly, as I want my magazine to be remembered by my audience. The colours will contrast against my background, which will be enabling them to stand out, and be easily read.  I will be using multiple images and will be supported by a background colour, which is undecided yet but will either a primary colour or a white background. I feel this is a good idea, as it won’t contrast any colours. In my images, I will also aim for them to be involved in the primary colour scheme as much as possible.  

Image Usage – I aim to make my contents page filled with images, which will catch the attention of my target audience. At the moment, I intend to use images shot inside a studio environment as well as an open environment. This will expand the mise en scene compared to the front cover. After deconstructing magazines in a previous task, I have seen different conventions that features throughout the contents page. Therefore, I will follow these conventions. I will be experimenting with the different camera angles while taking my images for my contents page too.

Text Usage – I intend to use text that will be accessible for my target audience. I will do this by not using the abbreviations that teenagers would use at ages 13-15, as this isn’t what they’d like. I want positive emotional connotations to come from my text and don’t want to be putting my intended audience off. The key words will be in a bolder font or larger font size to make them stand out from the other bits of text and to show their importance to the audience. This is very relatable to the front cover of the magazine.

Layout and Font – I will be using similar fonts to those on the front cover, including the font used for the masthead. I will be including this in the emphasis in ‘message from the editor’ section that will give the readers a personal connection between the magazine and themselves, which could encourage them to buy the magazine on a more regular basis. The layout will be simple too.

Proposal Form

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

While creating my product, I found the use of photoshop easy due to having previous experience using it, however I found finding the correct placements for each layer hard as I wanted everything to be seen clearly and readable. I found working with photoshop easy as I have used it numerous times before. The nice things about this task were being able to do everything at your own speed and pace, and to present your current existing skills. There were not many challenges in this task apart from taking the right images. However, I have developed my knowledge of magazines, and how they are produced.