Mood Board of images

After looking at these images of indie artists I have noticed:

• Indie artists use their hair as a prop
• Their expressions are usually sullen and thoughtful
• Images if outside tend to be within lush green sceneries
• They use their musical instruments as props
• They tend to dress in similar casual clothing

Article planning

The article in general is going to be about an indie artist who is using the magazine to promote his/her new album. Within this article there will also be written information about recent gigs the artist has been on and where and when the artist will be touring again.

The article is going to be a interview with the artist as I feel this is a more intimate and personal approach to a article where the consumers who are reading the article can feel more personal with the reader, once more because it is an article interview questions can be asked that wouldn't usually be used in a review or story as they tend to focus on one thing.

The style of the article will be written in both 1st person narrative and 2nd person narrative.

At the beginning of the article I am going to produce a large amount of text to write about the band and what their how successful they been as well as other general information about them and what is to come next with their new album and gigs. After this the interview itself will be more personal and therefore I will be able to ask a wider variety of questions to the band.

Q magazine uses a large amount of text before the interview. Talking in depth about Florence and the machine's previous fame and more resent news about the artist.

It starts: EARLY ON (Title) 7 December, 2011, and the stars are aligning for Florence Welch. Today will be her first good day in a while, though she has no inkling how events will pan out as she clicks on the bedside lamp and glumly surveys surroundings that are routinely familiar. Uh-oh, Welch thinks, here again, alone in the silent hotel room, the place where she most fears being ambushed by lonely self-inspection but where, unfortunately, she will be spending much of the next two years.

The beginning of the article is setting the scene of where the interview is going to take place, it then later goes into the success of Florence and the Machine, then the interview itself. I think this is a good way of creating an article about an artist because it doesn't just generalize the artist, the reader can feel that they too are sat with the artist taking in the interview themselves. 

The interview itself asks more personal questions such as; why did you give up drinking on performance days?,smoking crack cocaine?, so now, sitting in a booth at Lowell's, how does Welch feel about being back on tour so soon, a global star with so many more fans to reach?, is it easier being on tour so far without a partner?

Analysing Images

This image is of Paolo Nutini whom is an indie artist.

The image is set in a dark and mysterious setting. It looks like he is going through a tunnel and the only source of light is behind him and directly on him. Because he is walking away from the light it gives this air of mystery and as though he is going to a deeper more emotional place, which could be symbolic of music. His body language seems quite sullen and thoughtful as though he is thinking about something sad. The shot distance is a medium close up and his eye line is in the top third of the shot slightly towards the left. Because his eyes are not meeting the camera it again suggests he is going through a thoughtful process through his mind. His clothing is is quite typical in the indie genre as its casual, once more his hair is a untamed reflecting the effortlessness of his look.  

The image is of Jason Marez whom also is a indie artist.

These images are all close up shots of the artist, mostly concentrating on his hand with the text love on it. These images are mysterious and different, and in doing this it makes the viewer want to know who this artist is and what hes all about. The different camera shots are unusual as they cut the artists main features such as face and body out of them and in doing this we are made to focus on his hand and the word love written upon it. I think this gives the impression that the artists work it quite deep and emotional. Once more the use of the photos being in black and white gives a simplistic look again getting across to the audience that the artist does not need bright colours to make him interesting, he is interesting just by what he is displaying through his music and the word love written on his hand. The back ground again is very neutral and uninteresting making us focus purely on the artist himself. His look again displays this dark sullen look and again like the first photo of Paolo his clothing is very typically of what indie people wear and his hair is quite long and untamed. The expression on the photos are quite emotional and sad as well as there is no direct contact with the artists eyes as they are either cut out, hidden or looking down and away from the audiences. This hiding of the eyes again makes the audience feel that the artist is mysterious and deep with emotion. 

This is an image of Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine



This photo is a close up of the artists face. The shot is slightly high so that the artist has to look up through her eyelashes to make focus with the audience. The clothing she is wearing is quite neutral with the gold metallic colours. Once more her make up again matches the clothing and her gold sequined hands and it is not brightly coloured and it does stand out but illuminates her eyes and defines her lips more. the use of sequins makes the image more interesting and different. This unusual prop makes her seem majestic and matches the rest of the look with her clothing, make-up and her lush ginger hair giving her a attractiveness that isn't sexual but more beautiful and majestic. 

Peer assessment of flat plan

Peer feedback


The feed back that was given to me for my flat pack was both positive and negative. My peers said I was consistent through the use of colours on both the front page, contents and double page spread. The images were attractive as they were in different backgrounds however they did not suggest what genre the magazine was, therefore the mise-en-scene for the costume and the model I use needs to display the indie genre that my magazine will be focusing on. Once more I could use different camera angles to vary the images more. I could use low angle camera shots to make my model look more dominant and powerful to the readers as they will be almost look up at them which will provoke a feeling of how superior the artist is. The different depth or field was also different  in that there were close ups, wide shots and medium shots. The layout was consistent through out the magazine with the same fonts and graphics. However the colours were very limited and therefore there needs to be more variety of colours across all the magazine.


Improvements I'm going to make:

• Make the images consistent in the focus of genre I am using throughout my magazine.
• Use more than one colour
• Use different camera shots angles
• make sure the model and mise-en-scene I use is focused on the genre of indie.

Flat Plans

These are my flat plans Through out these I am going to have the same house style, which will be the fonts and colours I use. I am going to use red as the most dominant colour.

The front page covers mast head will be red and big and bold which all magazine do, I have chosen red because I think its very eye catching and magazines such as Q and NME magazine use this colour and I feel it it very effective in attracting the reader. The main sell line is also red as it is the main article within the magazine that the reader will be most interested in. There are also several other sell lines these are in black which will stand out against the white background and the model on the magazine. These sell lines have larger fonts on the main sell point but are smaller where the details are included about the sell line, I am going to make sure that all the sell lines are of the same font to give continuity on the front page. I have also used a circle to put one of my sell lines in to make it stand out against the rest so that the sell lines showing the reader that this is a important sell line and attracting them. I have produced a sky line to add an extra sell line to draw the reader in even further, this shows how packed of musical greatness the magazine is. The image is going to be a close up of a solo indie artist and I want them to be in colours that will match with the mast head.

The contents again has the same fonts as the front cover. The mast head is present again at the top with the contents. I am going to pack it with lots of images of different artists at different depths and angles to make the images more interesting. The main colour again will be red and black. I have put the page numbers of the features in red boxes again bring continuity in the magazine. The pages titles will be in a larger font and the details about the page will be in a smaller font which again is typical in magazine contents. I have also included a band index which NME uses in there magazine this font will be the same as the contents font but will be much smaller but still clear. The final thing I added to the contents was the subscription box, I have place a smaller magazine front cover in the box and made the title subscription in bold, large font to attract the reader, once more the rest of the font is also very clear and bigger than the titles along the right hand side, in doing this it would hopefully want to make the reader subscribe and interest the reader.

My double page spread also has the same house style with the red. My title is large and bold, I have also included the artists name at the top of the page so that the reader instantly knows who the double page spread is about, this is in a smaller clear font. The article will be set out into three separate columns which is typical of articles. Furthermore I have made the first letter of the article larger than the rest, I have found that this is typical in magazine articles and its quite unknown for them not to start this way. The final thing I have added to the first page of my double page spread is something that is needed and that's the page number which is in a smaller font but still bold so that it is clear and I've included the magazine name again and the date and year of the magazine. I have done this because I have noticed that a number of magazines do this such as Q magazine.

The second page of the double page spread will be made up of several images. I am going to make them different focuses of the face or the models body. I am also going to find a model with red hair because I think its a very indie look. I have done these different images instead of one image because I think its different and makes the double page spread more interesting. I have also noticed that magazines such as Q and NME do this and I find it very effective in making the page interesting and bring the reader in.

Research into a potential target audience - primary

I conducted primary audience research in order to:

Find out what appeals to my target audience

to discover any flaws or potential improvements that could be made to my magazine genre

to identify any gaps in the market and place a refreshing new twist on the genre

These are the chosen products taken from NME magazine which I am going to conduct my research on:
1. Do you like the font if so what do you like about it?
2. Is the main image attractive?
3. Is the costume that they're wearing appealing?
4. Is the contents page well organised and clear to read?
5. Is the writing easy to read?
6. Is the article interesting?
7. What attracts you attention on the pages?
8. Is it clear that the pages are from the same magazine?
9. What three things do you like about the magazine?
10. What three things would you improve?

After showing my audience these products I got them to do a questionnaire with the questions above.
I asked four people from the age range of 16-18
I found out that: 

• They wanted to see more female artists
• They wanted to see bright and bold colours in the fonts
• That they like clear and organised layouts 
• They liked the Band Index on the contents because it was a quick way of finding their favourite band
• They didn't like it how the image went across the spread of the double page spread
• They also liked the photography and the different poses on the models faces

Research into a potential target audience - secondary

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Q/

Date accessed: 26/1/2011

Audience Profile for Q music magazine

Q's audience is composed of passionate, engaged and open minded music fans driven to continually discover new music - and to use this lust for discovery to influence their friends. The audience is split 75% male to 25% female and is affluent (with 68% ABC1).

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Kerrang/

Date accessed: 26/1/2011

Audience Profile for Kerrang music magazine

Young, individually minded and passionate consumers, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty

 http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Mojo/

Date accessed: 26/1/2011

Audience Profile for Mojo music magazine

Discerning and passionate music aficionados, the MOJO audience is predominantly male (77%) and affluent (63% ABC1). These heavy consumers of music see their passion as discovery without boundaries, genre and decade being secondary to quality

 These reader profiles are short but describe the average audience of the magazine, two of them are also backed up with statistics to help get a better view of who is buying the magazine either through gender or how affluent they are. However I do feel they are a little vague with no real sense of genre or age range of consumer, I think it would be more beneficial to include these within the profile.

My music magazine audience profile

My magazine will attract a young passionate and devoted audience who enjoy indie styled music, promoting its genre between their friends.  For the reason that the audience is between 15 to late 20s the cost of the magazine is a sufficient amount of £2.50 which can be purchased easily, letting these avid people enjoy their magazine every fortnight.

I have chosen this genre as I believe that there is a increasingly amount of young people who enjoy indie. The age range between 15 and late twenties is something I can associate with rather than an older audience as I'm within this age range. I feel I will know more what they would want from a music magazine from this age range rather than a younger focused magazine or an older audiences magazine. The fact that the magazine will be of a indie genre should also be helpful in my design and layout of the magazine as I like indie music myself and therefore can meet the views and needs of the readers.

Research into institutions that distribute similar products

http://www.mediauk.com/owners/88/bauer-media

date accessed it 25/1/2012

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

date accessed it 25/1/2012

These are a few magazines Bauer Media own and some other media interests such as radio stations:

FHM (magazines)

Garden News (magazines)

Grazia (magazines)

Heat (magazines)

Kerrang! (magazines)

Kerrang! Radio (radio) West Midlands

KISS (radio) UK

MOJO (magazines)

More (magazines)

Q (magazines)

Q Radio (radio) UK

Take a Break (magazines)

TFM Radio (radio) Teesside, County Durham, North Yorkshire

That's Life (magazines)

Trout & Salmon (magazines)

Zoo (magazines)

Bauer media have a range of different magazines and other media interests such as TMF radio. Their music magazines MOJO, Kerrang and Q all attract a different audience. Kerrang has a more niche market with rock bands, MOJO is a music magazine that tends to attract an older audience through the use of bands and other artists that would have been the popular genres of their time. Q music magazine tends to feature more mainstream artists and again attracting a different audience, because of these different genres of music that each magazines attracts, Bauer media have a wider capacity of readers through their different magazine audiences and maximise their profits because they are attracting a wider amount of people through different contents from different magazines.If Bauer media where to invest into my magazine they would have to know how they could profit out of it. My magazine will be targeted at a young modern audience and will include a genre of mostly indie artists, I feel this would be beneficial for Bauer media as they do not own an indie magazine, the closest to indie is their magazine Kerrang which deals mostly with rock. Therefore I think their is a gap in their media company which can fit my music magazine.

Ideas and feedback

Research into similar products

Brief

PRINT

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.
All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate, minimum of FOUR images per candidate.

Print Prelim Product and Evaluation

• I have used a mast head in bold, large, bright text.
• Main sell line is bold and bright
• These are similar to Elle magazine which also uses bright large text and fonts
• Other sell lines are less bold and bright
• Image in medium close up
• Contents page has photos appropriate for magazine
• Images as a background
• Main font is bold and bright for each section
• Large page numbers
• Small brief outline for each section
• Small box for magazine subscription
• Colour scheme is bright and consistent
• My audience for this magazine is from ages 16 and 18
• Mainly advertised as a female student magazine
• Consists of fashion trends, health, beauty products, education
• Small section for sport, could be aimed at male readers
• Front page however does not attract the male stereotypical view
• Interests of students would be ones who enjoy fashion looks, want to succeed in a future career, university applicants, like to enjoy themselves by going out to clubs but still want to get the best out of college
• I attract my audience by:
• bright,fresh colours
• bold interesting sell lines
• student discounts
• top ten student clubs
• how to get the best out of college life
• And educational things such as students who have gained high A level results
• Different themes and information students would want to know about
• In a language that's not formal
• Image of a college student
• What I have learnt about technologies from constructing this product:
• confident with using apple macs, such as copy and pasting and opening software
• Photoshop and ID familiar with the tools and content, found it rewarding
• Blog, changing documents to JPEGs
• Designing both my blog and my magazine
• I found that the best way to learn these technologies was to play around with the tools and get used to the way in which they work.



Photography Composition Worksheet

Photography Composition

Flat Plans

These are the flat plans for my college magazine. I have chosen bright colours to attract the younger adult audience that would attend college. The masthead is bold and bright and I have named it fresh because I feel it is appropriate as it represents the fresh new generation in our society. The image is in medium close up and will be of a student. I have used one main sell line 'get the student look' and put this is the same colour and font as the masthead to make it the main line to attract students. I have then used other sell lines in a less bold font which my inspirational magazine Elle does to distinguish the difference between the main sell line and the sell lines. I have also provided the basics such as a barcode and a price, I will later include a date and the issue number for the magazine as well.

My contents page also has the same colour themes throughout its page. The background of the contents will be a collage of images present throughout the magazine. I have then used three columns for the components in my magazine. These are then split into different sections and are in the same bright, bold font and colour as the masthead. These sections are slit up into different parts of the magazine with large, bold page numbers and a brief outline to what is included in the magazine in a smaller less clearer font. The masthead is present at the top of the page, this idea was taken again from Elle magazine. Then finally I have created an extra box for the magazines subscription and have included two extra magazine cover pages.

Covers and contents pages of inspiration

Below are examples of magazine covers and contents pages that i'm taking inspiration from for my prelim.

I have chosen these Elle magazines for inspiration because they are eye catching and attractive. The masthead is bold and bright in the left side cover of the magazine and quite simple with pastel colours in the other. Yet both draw the audience into wanting to read it. The colour is appropriate

 for the image and the rest of the layout. This in turn brings the whole magazine together. The main sell line on the Elle magazine on the right is in the boldest, brightest text to draw the audience into buying it. The images on both magazines are consistent with the text and promotes the magazine. The language is short and snappy making it easy for the audience of the magazine to see whats inside. The positioning of the text doesn't mask the image and is either at the sides or the bottom of the magazine. The image is in the centre of the layout and dominates the magazine in relation to the sell lines, the main sell lines and the masthead. Overall i find the magazine as a whole very inspirational and draws me into wanting to open up the magazine and  read about both Cheryl and Drew. Aswell as all the other sell lines on the front cover that are inside the magazine.

 These two contents pages display the genre of the magazine which is fashion, beauty and celebrity news. The contents layout on the right uses a collage of images that are most likely to be present through out the magazine. They are split into different sections such as people, looks and features where they are then split into different page numbers for different parts of the sections. The font that is used is clear and bold for each section and the page numbers are clear and large. The main head is also displayed at the top of the contents page, still having similar colour pallettes as the front covers. The layout of the writing is in almost a list like layout, and in doing this makes it clear and easy for the reader to see what they want to read. The language gives out a clear brief outline of each section of the pages titled.  

Brief;print

Print Prelim


Using DTP and image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriate laid-out text and a masthead. you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate your grasp of DTP.


Main task


The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.
A minimum of four images must be used. All images and graphics must be produced by the candidate.