Progression

Covers and Contents Page existing products and conventions

Resubmission Work;

All five of these front covers use a medium shot to medium close up, this is a conventional thing to use on a front cover main image. I think the way that all 5 of the magazine covers have the artist having direct eye contact, which helps to connect with the audience. The way mark Ronson is using a trumpet as a prop is a good way of including the genre  in the mise en scene.

• The eye contact with the audience
• The 3 colours in a 'house style'
• The large title in the top corner of the magazine
• Feature stories around the front cover
• the barcodes in the corner 

These contents pages, even though they are from different music magazines look pretty similar, with the column of features etc. But most importantly the variety of images they include. There is the main artist who is featured on the front cover as a bigger picture. Then a variety of smaller ones all around to give the reader a view of the artists also featured in the magazine. All the photos look natural, even though most will have been taken at a photoshoot. I think I can see the images look like the artist is having fun- instead of just sitting in one place getting photos taken off them and it looking fake and set up.

• The main image of the feature artist 
• The contents listed with numbers
• Also the offer of subscription
• 
  

Test Shot images

Group shot, medium shot. Featuring 3 people

 Medium /Close Up shot

This is a good shot to use for a magazine as its does follow with convention, the artist has eye contact with the readers and it is clear to see who they are. Also writing fits well around the photo.

MidShot/2 Shot

 Featuring 2 people, not usually seen on a magazine front cover as the photo focuses on one person, to connect with the audience

                                          Long Shot - In this photo you can see Izzy's full body

Close up - You can see Izzy's face and part of her shoulders.

These 2 photos are examples of badly framed shots, as you can see they're off centre and can see the floor in the long shot and Izzy's head is not all fitting in. 

Two shot

 Close up - badly framed

Group Shot - 3 people in one photo

Posed, medium close up of 1 person

Photo Shoot Ideas

To create the best photos and the right look I want to achieve for my music magazine I decided to create a mind map in which outlines some of the ideas I have come up with and like to achieve. I am going to take practice shots and a variety of shots to make sure I have much choice to choose from and can create a detailed and professional looking magazine.

I have also been looking into how to improve my photoshop skills by looking up how to use it more in depth. I am doing this so I can create a better final product, with a better level of photoshop skills. 

LIIAR

Audience & Representation:

                   Language:

Representation

Language:

Magazines that follow conventions

Colour Scheme ideas

I like pastel colours, but I didn't think that lilacs, pale yellows and light greens would stand out enough or be a big enough impact. So I have pieced together some colours that don't clash too much but will stand out and be eye catching.

Font ideas

Resubmission Work:

I decided to use a website called Dafont,com - This allowed me to be able to experiment what different fonts looked like and compare them I then went through the process of going onto Photoshop and editing them to suit the look I wanted to achieve. 

This is an example of what you can do on the website, you then need to take the screen shot and edit it by cropping it and saving it as an image- you can then open the image file in Photoshop and edit it to suit the look you want to achieve. For example I made my fonts bolder and also edited the colours to off black,white and pinky.

Social Grading

Which social class is my magazine aimed at? 
I am aiming it ranging from the Casual lowest grade workers (for students) through to the Lower middle class, I want it to be accessible to a wide audience who will all be interested in finding out about the indie/alternative music, but not expensive such as vouge magazine (£4.10) which I think is too much, I would need to make sure I target the magazine to them with a fair price and good quality content.

The price of my magazine is based on my research and what people can realistically afford. They want good quality so are willing to pay more, but wont need to buy it as often as there will be lots of feature stories and extra images too look at

Gifts such as free gig tickets to win and things to do with music is appropriate for my audience I think, I know people want music related things are what they want as they are specifically buying a music mag.

Social class is going to help to know what stories to include, because people will want to know things that are right for them. Not wanting to see adverts for really expensive clothes or perfumes etc, as they can't afford it anyway.

Focus group

Focus group response- 

This focus group was really useful for me,as I learnt that my target audience are really interested in seeing 'behind the scene' type interviews. Getting content in the magazine that they wouldn't normally be able too see. For example exclusive behind the scene access and interviews of their favourite bands to make them feel closer to the music. Also that they were not overly interested in seeing advertisements. 

It has helped me to decide that one of my main feature stories is going to be an exclusive. Draw the target audience into reading and buying my magazine because they'll be getting more than they could with other magazines. 

I did not expect to find that they weren't really interested in seeing many adverts, saying that they're not paying for the magazine to be filled with adverts, they'd rather pay around the £2.50 price to get a lot more music content. what were your general findings?

I have changed my initial ideas, by making sure I dont come across as if the magazine is advertising things through out, full on. For example no adverts on my front cover, except a plug which the readers will see its something they will benefit from (winning prizes etc. )

Looks for my arsist

Resubmission Work: 

I wanted to be able to decide the look for my artist before I carried out the photography for images - so I have created a mood board to follow the conventions of the genre. Some of the conventions are:

• Jeans and simplistic style
• No overly clashing colours
• Looking comfortable and cool instead of what's necessarily fashionable 
• Plain jewellery 

Questionare Focus Group

Some questions I am asking to find out what people would be interested in,for a Indie alternative magazine. Why do you want a music magazine?
o To learn about new music
o To find about up and coming music events

How often would you buy?
o Every month(subscription)
o Every month (buy each issue)
 o Every other month
 o Once a year
o Rarely

Are you interested in seeing advertisements?
o Yes o Yes if relevant to music
o No

How would you buy the magazine?
o In store
o Delivered via the post
o Digitally
o Anything

Would you pass the magazine on?
o Yes share with friends
o No , throw it away
 o No, I keep magazines

How much are you willing to pay?
o £1 cheap and not much content
o £2.50 better quality, better content
o £3.50 exclusive and more content


What type of artists do you like from the indie/alternative genre? Please state ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Mood Board

In this mood board I have tried to include some colours I like and think fit with the theme - pastels. I have also included some images I would relate to the Genre Indie/Alternative. I created two outfits I think are appropriate too, one for a man and one for a woman. After reflecting on my mood board I think that my magazine would not have enough of an impact if all the 3 main colours in the colour scheme were pastel. But one working with some more bold colours would suit the genre and look good for what I want to achieve.

Digital Mock Ups

Resubmission Work:

For my digital mock ups, I have cropped and lightened or darkened the individual image so it suits a magazine front cover better. I've also added bright and bold titles and writing on the front cover. I have created these basic mock-ups to get a basic feel for what I need to include on my final product. They feature conventions and they also required me to manipulate the image to look better and work for the brief of a magazine cover.

Costume Conventions

I have noticed when looking at costumes featured in and on the front cover of alternative/indie magazines,they are not too smart or neat. Bold colours and oversized clothing can be seen often, most show a casual and laid back feel. Each outfit is appropriate to the artist that is featured, thats why its good to be able to see variety as its Individual to each cover. For example, Lily Allen featuring on NME magazine front cover is wearing an over sized red checked shirt and has scruffy hair. When Jamie T featured on the front cover he wore a plain black Harrington with a tartan inside, this shows each artists individuality.

Genre Research Continued:Resubmitted

 

WHY THIS GENRE?  

This Genre is a very relivant topic in music today,originating from small roots,music that is not the generic and churned out by large record labels is very popular amongst the target audience age range these days. People are interested in learning about the ideas behind music more, as teenagers, then they have previously and espesically during the 1990's. When big boybands and big girl bands who had a lot of media coverage, were what alot of people liked. The access to the internet and the ability of less known artsist being able to record, edit and upload videos gives these independent artists a much bigger shot of bieng listened too. You do not need a record label to be able to sell your music over the internet digitically, which means if you can gain an audience  who like your music you can become very popluar without going down the traditional root of getting signed to a major record label.

Artist in Genre

Dog Is Dead - Two Devils

The Smiths - This Charming Man

Biffy Clyro - Many Of Horror

Here are some artists and their videos considered to be under the genre indie/alternative. Old and new. The Smiths are thought to be one of the first artists to be in the genre and Dog is Dead is an up and coming band also seen to be under the genre of indie/alternative, Biffy Clyro are a quite well known and head more towards the rock vibe, under the alternative genre.

Genre Research

<iframe src="http://prezi.com/embed/0_vu4_qfrw15/?bgcolor=ffffff&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;autohide_ctrls=0&amp;features=undefined&amp;disabled_features=undefined" width="550" height="400" frameBorder="0"></iframe>

Reader Profile

A reader profile for NME magazine. The idea of this is to gain a better understanding for the audience who is reading your magazine. Its no good just putting things in a magazine you think readers will like , it’s important to go out there and find out what you they really do want. A reader profile goes through each topic about their reader. For example on this reader profile its readers are 69% Male and 31% female and an average age of 24 years. This is useful as NME can focus certain areas of the magazines at these reader. Also from this reader profile we can see that 71% think its worth paying for quality goods, I think this will mean that the magazine will take this on board and make NME feel like a good quality magazine. Thick paper, lots of content etc. This reader profile says that 94% also use the internet. You can see NME have taken this on board, as the they do have a magazine website. (http://www.nme.com) Also if the magazine knows what type of things their readers are interested in, they can advertise appropriately. For example certain types of clothing and branding.

Conventions of a Contents page:Resubmission

 

Here is another example of a conventional music magazine contents page. This is also a magazine which is a genre, the same of that I am basing my music magazine around. It's really useful to look in depth at existing products similar to my own to gather ideas and to inspire what I want for my magazine and see how I would achieve this. 

Conventions