Sketches of photoshoot ideas...

An array of different sketches for possible pictures

Close up against white wall and medium/long shot against fence

Sat around the cool chair thingy!

My shots must show personality, and look reeaaaalllyy cool :)

Location Shots

I looked for possible locations for my shots. For the picture on the cover I will use a white sheet background, but for my other shots I wanted a rustic, outdoorsy feel, so I went looking for some locations that might work, and took pictures of some possibilities. I had to use the camera on my phone so they're not the best quality, but when I use a better camera tomorrow hopefully they'll look really good!

Planning my photoshoot

I have arranged my first photoshoot to take place tomorrow with my three models, Beth, Harriet and Clemmie. I'm really excited because taking the pictures is the part of the producing a magazine I have been most looking forward to!

Before the shoot I need to plan out my shots, decide final locations, and plan what props and costumes my models will be using.

There are three main ideas I have, I need to take a photo for my front page, a picture to feature on the first page of my feature article, and a collection of snapshots from the shoot at the bottom of the secod page, which will hopefully look a little comething like this:

Page Mock Ups

I sketched a mock up of how each page will look:

FRONT COVER CONTENTS DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Indie Magazine

I finally found an Indie magazine!! I was doing some research and found a blog called 'Die Cult Ure' which is incidentally a blogspot site. It discusses English and Amercian culture and fashion, and I thought it would be a very interesting influence for me. On the blog 'Indie' magazine was being advertised, so I had a look at the website link...

http://www.indie-mag.com/

Indie magazine is a fashion and music magazine, which perfectly matches mine! However, it is quite masculine, and I would like my magazine to be more suitable for young women :) However, I previewed the magazine to see what it looked like, so that I could develop mine based on a typical 'indie' look magazine. Here is what the magazine looked like...

This typical Indie style can provide further influence on the style of my magazine. I also looked at some rock music magazine covers featuring bands and female artists, so that I knew what my front cover photo should look like. Here are some pictures of front cover photos:

^^

I was going to scan

these but then I

thought they'd look

nice all laid out :)

To make people want to buy the magazine, the photo on the front cover needs to show something interesting. Personality is particularly obvious on the Kerrang! photo with Paramore, and incidentally, is one of the UK's best selling music magazines! Rustic glamour is also something that I should try and create in my shoot for that extra feminine indie feel. Now its time to plan my photos!!!

Photoshoot!!

Finally I'm at the stage where I can begin to take photographs!! For the front cover I plan to use a variety of different photos to make the magazine look full of different articles, however, for my feature article, and main image on the front cover, I need three female models to represent the band I will write about. I have already begun writing my article, and I have a clear idea in my head of what the band need to look like, so its just a case of selecting some models for the shoot, and planning out what the photos need to look like.

I plan to do two main photoshoots, one with three girls in a variety of different shots, to act as my Indie girl band, The Station. I also want to do one with just one girl, and take just a few images to act as an advertisment on the front page for an article inside. All the images I take need to promote the magazine and the genre, so I think the single person photoshoot will provide a more edgy, rock and roll look, and the featured band pictures will be Indie-looking, and will make the reader want to know more about the band.

I have emailed some people who I think may be interested, and hopefully they will get back to me asap!! In my mind, I can see three of my friends (Beth, Harriet and Clemmie) modelling as the band The Station, and my friend Evie as the single model featured on the front page, or maybe in the contents. Next I need to plan how the photographs will look, so it will be easier to create them on the day of the shoot.

Indie/Rock Moodboard

Here is my moodboard which I hope will inspire my final product.
I feel these colours and designs are suitable for my intented audience, as they combine the ideas I have discovered through research and audience questionnairres. I particularly like the obscurity of a couple of the images, and combined with bright colours, I feel that I know what my magazine should look like. My next step will be designing it!


The majority of the fonts used are from dafont.com, and the ones I like best I have listed below, so that I can download them and use them on my magazine.





Pulse Sans Virgin


Broken Ghost


Docteur Atomic


Phorssa


Porky's


Kingthings Extortion


Staubiges Vergnunen


Al Fragment


Distorted and Scratchy

Planning my magazine

The main programs I will be using for my magazine will be Photoshop and Indesign, as these will allow me the most freedom to make my magazine look exactly right, and hopefully will give my product that extra 'professional' look.

I carried out another questionnaire during the college term, and after recently looking at the results, the name for my magazine has been decided. I asked my target audience which name they would prefer out of...

a) Jam

b) Unzipped

c) Unleashed

d) Indie Cindy

e) Clash!

f) Ms. Indie

Overall, my audience decided on the name Clash!, so from hereonin I will refer to my magazine as Clash magazine.

I also asked the participants questions on colours and bands that they would like to see in the magazine. Yellow, pink, purple and blue were all popular choices, and I think they will look good, as they confirm the idea of the bright clashy colours. Black was also a common choice, and will look good as it will contrast to the bright colours, and it creates a rockier, edgier look. Popular bands mentioned by my target audience include:

Paramore

All Time Low

New Young Pony Club

(finally some female artists!!)

Cat Power!!

After carrying out more research, other popular indie bands (particularly popular with females)include...

Modest Mouse

Neutral Milk Hotel

Mumford and Sons

The Cold War Kids

TV On The Radio

Mountain Goat

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

The Apples in Stereo

Le Tigre

The Pixies

Tilly and the Wall

Slightly more mainstream indie bands include:

Bright Eyes

Deathcab for Cutie

The Shins

Of Montreal

I'm currently leaning more towards the Indie genre than the rock, because I think the Indie genre isn't as well covered as the rock genre. Rock music has magazines such as Kerrang! and NME, but Indie magazine has no major magazine coverage. I also like the fresh, new, funky Indie style, as the rock genre has been done thousands of times and isn't so modern. However, as rock is still popular, I felt I should research further into rock music, if I was to continue with the idea of an Indie/Rock magazine...

In my next blog I will make another moodboard combining both rock and indie images and designs to give me further inspiration for my magazine.

Top 40 Chart.

As further research into popular music genres, I looked at this weeks UK Top 40 to get an idea of what everyone's listening to at the moment...





www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles





As its Christmas time, everybody seems to be downloading their old favourites, so what I have found probably isn't the most accurate representation of current popular music, however, I will repeat this investigation in a few weeks to see if the charts says anything different, however, this weeks top 40 includes...





CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE


Rage Against The Machine - Killling in the name of

Interestingly, this band are a heavy rock group, so the genre is obvoiusly popular!

Other bands that made the top 40 were...

Florence and the Machine

Lady Gaga

Westlife

Robbie Williams

Magazine Institutions

In order to be successful, a magazine needs to be supported by a media institution to produce and distribute copies on the magazine. Institutions such as IPC Media, Bauer Media Group (BMG), and EMAP produce hundreds of magazines, radio shows and other types of media. I feel that either BMG or IPC would be perfect media institutions to support my magazine, because they produce magazines such as Marie Clare, Kerrang!, NME, Look and Heat, which all have similarities to my magazine.

If I were to mass produce and sell my magazine, I would probably like to work with BMG, as that particular institute produces for both Kerrang! and Heat, which are two of my main influences. If I were to work with them, I might be able to encourage Heat and Kerrang! readers to buy my magazine. Kerrang! magazine would probably be my biggest competition, so if I worked with the same institute as them, I would be able to contact my specific target audience straight away.

Indie/Rock Music at a glance...

For my magazine to appeal to the right audience, I need to study posters, artists, and CDs etc. that cover the same genre, so I know what kind of 'look' I need to create, e.g. colour schemes, font, band image, logos.

Here are some images which caught my eye during my research; I created a primary moodboard containing a collection of images which I feel will influence my final design:

As the Indie industry is mainly dominated by male artists, most of the band images are of shaggy haired males, but as there is a large female audience, keeping good looking males somewhat involved in my magazine will be an important selling point! However, I plan to use the 'indie look' to promote my female band which I plan to write about in my feature article, as well as having unkempt looking (but highly attractive) men somewhere on the front cover! As Indie is popular with females, I will use the same kind of look as I have found in my research, but apply it to a female band.

All the album covers seem to feature obscure, colourful artwork, brightly coloured photos, or simply a black and white image (usually if the band is more famous e.g. The Killers). The bright colours are eyecatching and will work well in a magazine, so I will base my colourscheme on some of the images I have found today, to attract attention. The 'weird and wonderful' designs seem to be popular within the genre, so the target audience are likely to be attracted to arty images and logos in the magazine.

Analysis of 'You Me At Six' feature article

I analysed the article further to get a clearer idea of what style to write in for my article. The language used in the feature article is relaxed, chatty and informal, which immediately appeals to the modern day reader, as it feels personal. The writer writes as though he is actually talking to the reader, so the things we read in the article have more impact on us. Early on, the journalist directly quotes the featured band, You Me At Six, so we feel like we are talking to the aspirational artist - therefore encouraging us to read on. Their album is also mentioned in the very first paragraph, so its immediately obvious as to what the band's agenda is in this interview - to promote their new album. When band members are quoted, first names are used, so we feel like we are getting up close and personal with the band, which every teenage reader is very likely to want to be! Just using first name terms also carries out the informality of the text, again keeping things fresh and interesting for the reader. The album is promoted throughout through quotes such as "this album will change people opinions of us" and the reader is also encouraged to buy the album with the opportunity of a free download of some of their music which will be featured on the album, a 'taster' of the real thing. The article is very brief, its chatty, fast paced style keeps the readers attention, and after thinking about this, an interesting idea occurred to me. The target audience for the magazine is teenage males, who are notorious for their short attention span, so its interesting that the writer seems to have remembered this, and has got down the most important information with very little extra waffle or padding. If the ida of going to see the band live interests the reader after reading, the last thing we are told is to look at the gig guide featured later in the magazine, for more information about the tour.

I feel this article style is very effective, its straight to the point and the target audience has clearly been remembered by the writer, however, because I am writing for teenage girls, I feel that I will need to go into further detail, and supply the reader with smaller, interesting nuggets of information, as I feel this style is more likely to keep a young female reader interested.

Questionnaire Results

After the questionnaire, I added up all the scores so that I could get a clearer picture of what my target audience want in the magazine:

All participants in this questionnaire were females, aged between 14 and 20.

To the question "What category best describes your preferred genre of music?", 75% of the participants said they liked Rock, Indie or Metal, indicating that there is a large audience for this genre.

To the question "Do you read music magazines?", 60% replied "Yes, but they could be better', and 30% said they did often, and 10% said no, there aren't any that cater for what I want.

When asked "What would make you want to buy a magazine the most", around 50% replied with "a magazine similar to Kerrang! but with a more female dominated approach", and the second most popular answer was that the articles on the inside must interest them.

The question "What would you most like to see in a music magazine?" received a large variety of answers, but the most popular were gig reviews, and interviews and gossip about popular artists. 20% said they would like to see style advice on how to get the 'look' of a specific influential artist, which surprised me a little as I would've expected a slightly higher percentage for that answer, however, keeping my target audience in mind, I will focus more on what my feedback has told mthe resutse to!

To the question '"Would an indie/rock magazine similar to 'Kerrang!' and 'NME' but with elements of magazines such as 'Heat' and 'Cosmopolitan' interest you?" a substantial 75% answered yes, proving that my target audience definetly would appreciate my idea!

Finally, I asked the participants "What would make you want to buy a women's music magazine?" to which the majority vote was split between 'Articles similar to that of a women's magazine, but related to music' and 'good looking male artists featured'. Shallow it may seem - but I will be taking this into account!

Overall I am pleased with the results of me questionnaire, I know now that I have an audience, so I now need to start thinking about producing my magazine!

Feedback 6.12.09

Magda, I'm sure you have done more work than it seems in this last week and need to ensure you keep posting on the blog to show your steady progress. You should by now have finished the research and planning and be ready to start production this week. In lessons, I'd like to see you working on the pages and feature article now. Try to complete any outstanding reearch in your own time no please.

Mrs A

Music Magazine Conventions

Before I begin planning for how my completed work will look, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the conventions of music magazines similar to mine - so I dont end up producing a magazine which nobody wants to read! I want my magazine to really appeal to young women like myself, who are interested in rock and indie music, therefore, I need to know what conventions I need to follow. I want my magazine to be different, but if it stands out too much then nobody will want to buy it! My questionnaire will aid this process of seeing what people do and dont like as well. I also looked at some fairly recent music magazines, and analysed the conventions used on front covers, contents pages, and feature artcicles, to give me a clearer idea of what I need to do.

Conventions:

All magazines follow the same rules, whether they are music, lifestyle, fashion or movie magazines. They all have a memorable logo or image with we associate with the magazine. The title of the magazine must also have this impact. The colour scheme must also create a 'house style' which appeals to the target audience. For example...

Music magazines also need to include a clear mode of address, and is usually written in an informal, chatty style. Magazines usually include celebrities, and 'aspirational' stars are usually included on the front cover of music magazines as a selling point. Magazine covers are the main advertisement for the magazine - therefore, it has to be effective and strong. It has to represent the magazine as a whole, and is usually bright, interesting to look at and eyecatching. The colours need to reflect the target audience, e.g. pink for a girly pop magazine, black for a heavy metal magazine. A variety of fonts on the front cover makes the cover more interesting to look at. There should be a header at the top to create a brand image which is recognisable. There should be a star on the front, a leading caption, subheadings, straplines, the date and a barcode.

Here is my analysis of the front cover of a Kerrang! magazine:

Conventions of contents pages:

Contents pages need to be - bright and colourful

- image dominated (allows 'grazing')

- images with page numbers included

- direct address used in all images

- title/header appears on every page

- list of contents must be included, otherwise it wouldnt be much use!

Here is my contents page analysis:

Feature article conventions:

A double page spread must include - a headline and subheadings (usually witty)

- the article must sell the artist or their album/tour/dvd etc.

The feature needs to be image dominated, and needs to be clear and easy to follow. Text grabs draw the attention to certain lines, making the best parts of the article stand out, encouraging the reader to read on. Tet grabs are usually controversial, funny, or rude!

Here is my feature article analysis:

To make profit, music magazines have to appeal to its audience. The cover price of a magazine doesn't pay for the magazine to be published, the majority of the money made by the magazine company comes from advertising revenue. The magazine can charge for advertising space, so if the magazine is popular, companies are more likely to advertise inside.

My Questionnaire

I composed a questionaire to prove that my magazine's target audience would approve of my ideas. It includes questions about the consumer's music tastes, magazine preferences, and what they woud like to see. I've been handing them out all week so I should hopefully have them finished soon - and when I do I will look at my results which will hopefully give me a clearer idea of what to do next!

Feedback 24.11.09

Magda,

Good work so far. Good feflection on prelim task. You now need to get stuck into the research. Outline the conventions of music magazines in general and analyse a front cover, contents and feature artcile from a music magazine of similar genre to your intended project to see how it suggests genre and targets its audience etc. You also need to conduct some primary research - audioence questionnaire and present the quantitative data with a summary - say how it will inform your design ideas. See the checklist for more research tasks.

Mrs A

Beginning My Research, Target Audience and Media Theory

So, I finally finished my prelim task and was ready to begin my the actual, proper music magazine!! :)

It was at this moment that the realization that I would have to do looooaadsss of research and pointless scanning of google in a frail attempt to find something vaguely connected to my idea.

So I went to look at some websites:

http://indieintune.com/ -

An online forum devoted to indie music.

http://info-hqs.com/the-most-talented-female-singers-in-indie-rock.php -

An interesting article I found on female rock musicians.

http://musicmoz.org/Women_in_Music/Magazines/Links/

Here I found a list of popular, online, female music magazines. I browsed through the links listed and looked at the online magazines, and I feel that there is still a lot of work to be done for this market, as the online magazines weren't very good, although some of the ideas they had were fantastic, such as message boards, and forums for women with similar interests to talk.

The best women's online music magazines I found were:

http://www.musiqqueen.com/

Its layout and appearance was the most professional looking, and it had interesting articles that women of this target audience would want to read, but it wasn't the same genre as the magazine I want to make.

http://bitchmagazine.org/browse/results/taxonomy:2315

A 'feminist response to pop culture'. This magazine promoted the independence I think women deserve to feel when they read music magazines specifically for them!

The magazine I that was most similar to how I hope mine will be was Kerrang! magazine, which is a mainly male dominated rock magazine.

http://www.kerrang.com/

I also looked at circulation figures for music magazines for the first six months of 2009. The figures don't look that good, particularly for Kerrang! and NME, which have experienced a double digit percentage fall, which indicates that the needs od the target audience aren't being met. I would hope that my magazine would fill the gap in the market and get people buying Indie/Rock magazines again! Interestingly, one of the most popular magazines by far is Classic Rock, which proves Rock is a popular genre.

Here are the circulation figures I found:

Classic Rock 70,301 (70,188, 66,362)

Kerrang! 43,253 (52,272, 60,294)

Metal Hammer 46,004 (50,269, 48,540)

Mojo 97,722 (100,507, 106,367)

NME 40,948 (48,459, 56,284)

Q 100,172 (103,107, 113,174)

Uncut 76,526 (87,069, 86,925)

From looking at these figures I can see that Rock/Indie is still a popular genre, but the two main magazines of this genre are not doing well, which suggets that there is a gap in the market for a magazine like mine that will fix the problems that these magazines have.

Because I am pretty sure of how I want my magazine to be, I have thought about my target audience, the needs of my audience, and how my magazine will cater for those needs.

get market using the theories of demographic and psychographic profiling...

Demographic:

As the media industries grew after World War Two, the need to identify specific target audiences became more pronounced, and so the first type of audience profiling was developed, taking into account age, gender, geographical area, class, economics, religion, sexuality etc. This demographic method groups people into smaller groups according to their 'socio-economic status'.

Socio-economic segments are widely used in marketing, and in the UK, the six standard socio-economic groups are...

A - Higher managerial, administrative or professional

B - Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional

C1 - Skilled non-manual

C2 - Skilled manual

D - Semi skilled

E - Unskilled

Demographic profiling is problematic because the people in each group all differ, they have completely different jobs and incomes and class. Your job and class does not reflect your own personal taste, for example, one Caucasian female doctor may enjoy R'n'B, whereas another may hate all types of music and prefers to spend her time fishing.

This is where Psychographic Profiling comes in...

Psychographic Profiling:

This type of profiling looks closer at the audience's needs, and aims to appeal to your emorional and psychological needs. These needs can be explained by Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs...

Another important theory to keep in mind when targeting a specific audience is the 'Young and Rubicam's Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics'. This approach characterizes people into five groups in terms of their personal aspirations...

1) Mainstreamers - 40% of the market. This group seek security in conformity and tend to buy well known brands.

2) Aspirers - motivated by status. Will buy smart, high tech and fashion goods.

3) Succeeders - have already climbed the ladder, want to keep control of what they have. Car adverts which emphasize power are usually aimed at this group.

4) Reformers - want the world to be a better place, usually educated, likely to buy eco-friendly or health products.

5) Individuals (added to the profiling in 1988) - want to stand out from the crowd, likely to buy unusual, quirky, products. Responds to advertising.

In the 80's/90's, consumer groups were categorized further into VERY specific groups. To list them all would take a long time, so I picked out the groups which I felt summarized by target audience, be warned, some of the group names are a little crude!!

KIPPERS: Kids In Parent's Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings

OINKY: One Income, No Kids Yet

SNAG: Sensitive New Age Guy

SNERT: Snot-Nosed Egotistical Rude Teenager

I now have a clearer idea of Media theories and my target audience. Let the research commence!

Preliminary Task Analysis (SMC Magazine)

Before beginning my task, I did a preliminary task to learn how to use the computer software (such as Photoshop and InDesign). The task was to create a college magazine front cover, and a draft for the contents page.

I'm really glad I had the opportunity to do this task because it has given me a lot of new ideas for my final product, as well as showing me my mistakes and giving me lots of room for improvement for my final magazine. However, despite me seeing certain errors in my work, I am oddly quite pleased with it! :)

I quite like my front cover, the colours are funky, bright and eye catching (if a little gaudy) which is perfect for a magazine aimed at 16-18 year old college students. I think the colour scheme might be a little bit too girly, the pink and yellows are quite gender specific, so this would be something to improve, as the magazine is meant to be unisex, and the use of pink would probably discourage men! I think the title doesn't stand out enough, and really the title should be one of the first things you are drawn to, so this would be something to improve on. I also think the pulse logo needs to be more eye catching, so I would maybe like to work in some interesting colours. It has to be something you recognise.

I like the white background, because the rest of the magazine is quite busy, so the blankness behind makes the front cover easier to digest, however, this style probably wouldn't work for a rock music magazine. I used two different fonts, I think they both work well when they're big, but the smaller text would probably require a clearer font, so its easier to read. I also like the effect of the "student reviews" photographs being tilted slightly, it makes the page look more interesting. I really like all my photographs actually :) Billie was really good to work with, she was creative with her expressions so the different photos express different emotions, tying in with their particular subject. I like my text boxes too, they explain well what will be inside the magazine, capturing the readers interest. I would criticize the first one though, as it rambles on a little too much, and should be short and snappy like the other two.

I think my contents page sketch would've looked better once it had been properly done up :) but I guess it looks alright! I quite like the layout, but there's a few big blank spaces which makes the page look dull.

Initial Ideas.

I have chosen to make a music magazine for my project. I chose this option because I really enjoy writing and journalism, and I feel this particular option will be the most exciting and enjoyable project for me.

I have a few ideas for what genre of music magazine I will make, the music magazine market is quite popular, and so for me to find a product with a unique selling point will be difficult, as so many different genres of music have already been covered in magazines. However, there are a few specific genres I feel would work well:

* Indie/Rock magazine - although these are possibly the most common type of music magazine, they have a large audience, and I personally could target my product at a smaller, more specific audience, for example, a women's rock magazine.

* Women's Indie/Rock Magazine - I am not aware of any that currently exist, so this is something I will research.

* Electronica/Electropop - I think it would be good to produce a magazine that caters for an audience that currently isn't catered for. This genre is quite popular, modern, new and funky, and I think it could be successful.

Before I decide which magazine I choose to produce, I will have to conduct some research to find out who the specific target audience would be. I will do this by making a questionnaire, looking at other popular magazines and internet research.

For my USP (Unique Selling Point) my main focus will be that my magazine will cater for an audience that is currently not catered for, for example, there are many male dominated or unisex rock magazine (e.g. Kerrang!, NME, etc) but none of them cater specifically for women. If I made my magazine for women, my USP would be that it would give the reader the celebrity gossip that you would get in a typical women's magazine, but it would be more music related, rather than about pointless reality TV stars. It could include articles about 'how to dress like your favourite rock star". I think a more feminine approach to rock music would make my product more successful.

Before I begin to produce my product, I need to finalize my idea. To do this, I intend to carry out research. To confirm that my product has an audience, I will make a questionnaire to find out who would buy my product - and how interested the would be. I will also try and find magazines similar to my own, and analyze their strengths and weaknesses.