Planning 2

Flatplans

Here is two plans that I have made for my front cover, it demonstrates where I would position everything when creating my real one. I think that I will choose the first plan as it seems to show the same conventions that i found in NME and Q magazine when researching them.

 

Here are two plans for my contents that I have created to follow when making my contents page. It shows where everything will be laid out; the images, text, title. I think that I am going to choose the plan on the left as it is very similar to the one that I saw in NME also it isn't as packed as the other plan I made. There would be too much space for text which means the font size would be smaller, or there would not be a lot of room for magazine content.

Here are the plans for the double page spread in the magazine. This will be where the interview with my cover model will be placed. Before hand I will research into the types of questions asked in an interview and then I will personally interview Megan myself to get the text to transfer over to the magazine. I will include some small information about her single, which could be used a form of promotion.

 On both I will use a main image on the left hand page of the interviewee and then the interview will feature on the opposite page. I think that I will use the second plan to follow for my double page spread as it looks tidier and then this way the font size of the main text wouldn't have to be so small and unreadable. I also like the idea of the pull out quote being placed in the centre between two columns of text, the quote can be of bigger font and a different colour to stand out to the reader.

Planning 1

Proposal

I will be creating a music magazine that will be targeted at indie/alternative music fans between the ages of 16 and 24. This type of music magazine highlights new musical talent that will be suggestions on who we think will become big/well known in the year. My magazine will be about showcasing and giving a platform to new, upcoming talent by including interviews, reviews and a list of festivals and gigs to attend during the issue month. I will make my magazine to be published monthly, so that there is time in between issues to collect info and data for the next one. This particular issue will be aimed to publish during one of the summer/spring months, like May, this is due to the featured story of festivals (which occur in the summer months). This magazine will be available in A5 dimensions so that it is easier to carry around or place in a bag when done. It will not only be found in shops to buy but also it’ll be given out at some small music/gig venues as a complementary gift for buying the tickets. For the coverlines I plan to have 3 on the front of the magazine with another larger main coverline at the bottom, this coverline will feature the chosen ‘model’ to photograph’s interview. This will be called, ‘Interview with Megan Linford’, some of the smaller ones will be, ‘New talent coming through’, ‘Best gigs this month’. .The title that I have chosen for the magazine is ‘Unknown’ which indicates that the people featured in it are new musicians/singers who are trying to do what they love to perform. Some ideas that I thought of and rejected are, ‘Upcoming’, ‘Individual’. I chose to reject these as they seemed too vague and not intriguing enough for someone to want to read or pick the magazine, I thought that ‘Unknown’ was mysterious, persuading you to read it. I want my font style to be clear to read easily, the font size needs to be big enough for it to be read at a normal distance away from the eyes, having a simple, modern font type will also with this. When looking through the fonts I came across one called Baskerville, which I will use for my coverlines and the main text. Also for my masthead I have found a font called Copperplate, as it is very bold and modern which makes it stand out, I have used a red colour for this text so that it will be visible as the masthead. I will use the Baskerville font throughout my magazine to keep it consistent. For my front cover I plan to get an image that is a close up (head/shoulders) of my model so that it seems like she is staring directly at the reader bringing an intimate feel, I got this idea from an NME cover I looked at with Florence Welch as the star. To get hold of this image I will take it of my sister’s friend, Megan, as she is the magazines star, if I take the images I will then be in control of how it should look. For the other images that will feature in the magazine I will again take these in different locations, with lots of costume changes to show variety. Some of these will includes instruments or of Megan actually singing.
I completed 5 research tasks to gain an idea of how an indie/alternative music magazine should look, in each piece of research I looked into different things like; contents page, front cover, double page spread, an interview, research into a media company and research into how I came to the genre I did. From these I hope to follow the conventions so that mine will look as real and professional as possible. I picked up on the style and layouts of each page, which will help to inspire mine; also the colours used were quite earthy, greys, browns, blues and reds. From analysing an NME front cover it gave me the thought of how to portray the look and style of my cover model.

Evaluation of Research

I conducted a vast quantity of research into a variety of sources to gain some ideas and influence for my final product of a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. From this research I have learnt the common conventions that are used on each of the pages, they make sure that each issue follows the same structure to show consistency. By completing extensive page analysis of each of the pages I needed to make, it assisted me by finding the true/real conventions used for me to utilise to make my product look authentic and like something you'd see on a shops shelf.

The primary research into audiences that I completed (the two surveys) helped to confirm the target audience I had outlined before making a start on the research or construction. It made it clear and informed me that I should create an indie/alternative/folk magazine targeting the 16-24 year olds- I can target them by my use of wording or style of article in my double page spread, the use of colours to suit the tone and mood, the images I choose to use need to emulate the genre of music or represent this age group.

To target my audience I plan to have an interview for the text on the double page spread as I feel that from my research the audience will enjoy a more personal touch to the article, to get to know someone. At this age people may want to idolise or be like the 'artist in the magazines' so knowing all about them will assist them in this quest. 

Through the construction of my product I will utilise and gather all I have discovered from the research to use my final outcome as an example of all I have learnt along the way.

Music Magazine Research 8

I did some research into the images used on various pages in a music magazine, from these photos I then went out to take my own being influenced and inspired by those I'd found. Below is a slideshow of the comparisons between my image and the professional image:

Research into images used in magazines from shannon_barker

Lesson on Photography

In class today we learnt about photography and how to achieve the best images possible. We learnt about the factors that need to be considered when photographing. You need to take good photographs in the first place and then use digital manipulation only to enhance the images. There are a number of 'Rules' we learnt about that are set up to create images that are pleasing to the eye. 
A persons first impression is based on a compositional balance. Composition; Positioning of key elements within a photo.


Rule of Thirds:
- The human eye is naturally drawn to a point two-thirds up a page.
- This suggests it will be more pleasing to the eye, if focal points are placed around the intersection points.
- Not following the Rule of Thirds, and having the image in the centre can make it harder to layout the cover.

Using Lines:
- Look for lines to use in the photograph.
- Powerful elements, add dynamic impact, in terms of mood.
- Leads a viewers eye to the image.

Diagonal Lines:
- Draws the eye of the viewer through the image.
- Creates points of interest that intersects with other lines.
- Adds a sense of action.

Focal Points:
- Important as the eye needs a resting place to hold onto.
- You can enhance the focal point by; Positioning, Focus, Size, Colour and Shape--a combination of these can work well.

Angles:
- To make an image more interesting, alter the angle you shoot from--it can change the feeling of size, the light and pattern.
- Low Angle--Looking up at the image subject.
- High Angle--Looking down to the image subject.

 These are notes taken from the lesson we had on photography skills, and they will be taken into account for my own images to use in my magazine.

Music Magazine Research 7

I did some more research into the audience for my genre of music. This time I went into more depth to find out what people like best about their genre of music and then comparing it to what they like to do in their spare time. By doing this, in a survey/questionnaire format, it will help to know how and who to aim my magazine at, looking into what interests my audience most.

One method I used to gather the research was to create a survey on 'Survey Monkey', this way I could share the content on Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, to raise more awareness and get more people to complete it.

I also created a paper version of the same survey, containing the same questions to physically hand out to friends and family. This way I can make sure that I will definitely get some results that I can use. 

My Results:
From the two forms of surveys, I have come to the conclusion that I will use Indie, Alternative, Folk music as my genre for the magazine. This second set of audience research has confirmed this choice of genre that was highlighted as most popular in the first audience survey I completed. Also from these surveys I found out that 75% of the people who took the survey were aged 16-24, which is the age range I aim to target my magazine to and this was evident as an ideal audience from my first lot of audience research. My next question was finding out about the most popular music genre that the people I surveyed listen to, in the online survey, Pop music was the favoured choice, with Indie and Alternative close behind- on the paper survey, Indie, alternative and folk were the overriding most listened to genre. This data has helped to confirm that this is the right music genre to base a magazine on, also this amount of 'music lovers' has made it target my magazine at them-people I know who I can get advice and tips from for improvements. Next, I wanted to know what the people liked most about the genre of music they listen too, the most populous answer was the music itself which was just ahead of the lyrics used. With the lyrics coming just behind, has shown that the words written by artists really do emulate emotion across to the listener- Megan writes her own music and lyrics, from the data gathered it has confirmed that she is a good role model to be featured. The 5th question I asked was to find out whether the audience go to gigs and concerts to see their favourite genre of music, from the results the majority of people put that they sometimes attend these events, this could be a good basis to try to target the audience to attend more concerts, gigs, festivals and maybe to see Megan live. To persuade the readers that Megan Linford is the next 'up and coming' musical talent that you just NEED to see. Finally my last question was to find out what the audience get up to in their spare time, to get an idea and visual of the type of reader I am targeting. The result from this question was that most of the respondents like to spend their time being with friends, listening to music and going on social media- this outcome is not really surprising considering the age range of people who took the survey, as someone of that age I know well of what interests people may share.

This survey has given me affirmation of who I really am targeting my magazine at as I do want people to read and enjoy it. I want people to be able to relate to the content and layout on the pages so finding out in detail what interests people have, their favourite music genres etc. I can plan out what to include in the magazine.

Music Magazine Research 6

Research into Target Audience:

To find out who my target audience will be and what kind of magazine I will produce I created a survey to determine all of these factors. First I will write the survey and then I will hand them out to 10 people to get some answers, this will give me a good idea for my final magazine.

This above is the outcome of my survey, I have turned it into a pie chart format to visually the difference between each given answer. I think that from this I will be aiming my magazine at 16-20 year olds who are interested in new music, as this appeared to be most popular. From this survey it has confirmed that Indie/alternative is most popular with the people who completed it and this fits in well as this was going to be the genre I initially wanted to base my magazine around. Majority (about half) of the people I asked to fill out the survey have said that they prefer to read NME (New Musical Express) magazine over the others, this too fits in with the genre of music I have decided on and the idea of promoting new music and talent.

Music Magazine Research 5

Interview Format:

For my double page spread I am going to have an interview my cover model, Megan, I have chosen this format as I think that readers interact more with an interview as they can get to know the artist more personally- people like to think that they know the artists and celebrities, like to think of them as ‘friends’. Before getting together my interview with Megan, I needed to research into the typical structure used which is;

Question asked by interviewer

Answer by interviewee

Response to Q or Q asked by interviewer

Answer to response or Q

........etc

I used this structure for my own interview to make it come across feasible. I then looked into the convention and typical questions asked in a music interview to form a basis for mine, I wanted them to be informative to the reader so they find out all about Megan.

Questions typically asked:

‘You’ve co-written songs for Pussycat Dolls and Jennifer Hudson- any more plans for collaborations with pop’s er...elite?’ –NME Magazine interview with Cee-lo Green

‘Tell us about your forthcoming album, ‘The Lady Killer’. It’s been a few years in the making....’ –NME Magazine interview with Cee-lo Green

‘If you haven’t been making music , what have you been listening to?’ –NME Magazine interview with Matt Helders

‘Could any of your songs end up on a solo album?’ –NME Magazine interview with Matt Helders

‘What’s the image?’ –NME Magazine interview with Miles Kane

‘Is there a future for the Puppets?’ –NME Magazine interview with Miles Kane

‘What was your success in this department’ –NME Magazine interview with Miles Kane

From these questions I have found out that the questions that an interviewer can ask are usually something to do with; the future (hopes and dreams), discuss their ‘image’, why/how they are successful, singles/albums/music, dream or actual collaborations etc..

From the research I did into interview layouts and typical questions asked, this is the interview I put together and did with Megan- I took tips from the key parts of the question research to use it in my own. Here is the interview I had with Megan Linford;

What got you into music?

I really enjoyed watching musicians performing acoustic songs and I loved singing so I asked my mum if I could pick up a guitar. As soon as she got me my first guitar I didn’t put it down and my love for music grew from there.

How many instruments can you play? What ones?

My main instrument is my voice. I then play guitar, ukulele, banjo and piano.

How would you describe your own music style?

I would describe my music style as modern folk/alternative.

How did you learn to play the instruments?

I picked up guitar first and taught myself using books and the

Internet, with piano I had lessons when I was younger so I knew the basics and just retaught myself everything. I picked up the ukulele 2 years ago and used YouTube to get me started and as it is a simple instrument it didn’t take   long to understand it. The banjo is my most recent purchase and I have been teaching myself from books with tips from people I know.

How did you know you were good at singing?

I wouldn’t consider myself to be good at singing as I find I always just hear the faults or mistakes in my songs I do. But the reactions people gave me and the feedback helped reassure music was something to stick at.

Would you say your music style has influenced your fashion style?

My music style has definitely influenced my fashion sense; especially more recently I’ve just given up spending lots of money on clothes in shops like Topshop instead go to charity shops and search for cheap things. This is pretty sad but the crowds and people who listen to the sort of music I like tend to be similar in the sense of wearing whatever.

How do you feel when on stage performing?

When on stage I am the most happy, it feels natural and I love seeing and hearing the reactions from the people watching, especially when its constructive criticism or tips to improve. I usually get nerves no matter how big a gig is but as soon as I’m up there it turns to adrenaline and I absolutely love it.

If you could sing/duet with anyone dead or alive who would you choose?

If I could sing with anyone it would be Laura Marling, I base a lot of my music around her, so to actually sing with her would be incredible.

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

I hope to be gigging and playing festivals where a large number of people can appreciate my music. I don’t want fame I just want to play music that people hopefully appreciate. I hope to make a career out of my passion for something I love.

Music Magazine Research 4

 

Interview Research 

I looked at an artist musician interview from NME magazine so that it would help me to get an idea of layout and questions to ask for my double page spread/interview. Around the interview I have written notes about the page.