Drafting and Planning: Double Page Spread Photography

Double Page Spread

http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/organisation-main-artist.html

This is a link to one of my blog posts in which all the photos I have taken for my main cover star are displayed. Harry, my main cover star will be featured on the cover page and on the double page spread therefore I had to organize two photo shoots for him. 

No.1

No.2

No.3

No.4

No.1 is my favourite picture and it will definitely be considered for my double page spread. There is so much emotion in that picture and it gives off the perfect vibes for my magazine. The leather jacket gives Harry a rebellious personality and the chemistry between the two characters is just unbelievable. The guitar also adds effect as it makes Harry appear to be a proper indie artist. I also considered No.3 because of the vibes that the two characters are giving off. They are both laughing and looking to the side which creates an amazing effect. 

Target Audience: Cover Page

Cover Page Photography

http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/organisation-main-artist.html

This is a link to another one of my blog posts in which I talk about the photo shoot and display all the pictures I have taken of Harry, them main star.

I will use this picture for my cover page as it is perfect for my target audience. It is giving off exactly what I need it to. There is attitude and the clothes look extremely indie. Also the background in the drama studio is amazing and creates a great effect. The body language that the cover star is giving off is exactly the same as any other indie artist. By folding the arms, the cover star is portraying to the readers that he typically "don't care"  about anything. This is exactly the type of artist that my target audience is expecting on the cover page.

Organisation: Main Artist

Photo shoot for Main Artist

I have asked another friend who fits the look and personality for this magazine genre to be my main cover star. Harry was OK with me using a lot of different types of props to enhance his image. I have used my leather jacket to make him look more rebellious and also I have tucked in his jumper to make him look indie. Another prop that I used was a guitar which made Harry look like a complete indie star. The lighting used was artificial and gave my photos a low key effect. The photo shoot took place in school hours, inside of school in the drama studio. I have chosen the drama studio because I love the walls and the effect they gave my photos.

No.1

No.2

No.3

No.4

No.5

No.6

No.7

No.8

No.8

No.9

Drafting and Planning: Contents Page

Contents Page Photography

http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/organisation-jordan-photoshoot.html
This is a link to another one of my blogs in which I talked about the photo shoot of my back up artist. I have taken 7 similar pictures but the props, attitude, body language and eye contact is different.

 At first this one was my favourite as by not making eye contact with the reader, the artist showed rebellion which is great for this type of magazine. But then I realized that by making eye contact with the reader, a relationship is created and the reader is more likely to purchase the magazine.

This was my second choice for the contents page as this pose is just sublime. I love how the usage of the cigarette makes Jordan look even more rebellious, as if he does everything that society loos down upon. There is also eye contact created between the reader and the artist which is what persuades the reader to buy the magazine. I also love that his hair is wild and crazy and again, his rebellious personality is reiterated.

Organisation: Jordan Photoshoot

Back up Artist Photo shoot

The time has come to start actually moving the process of creating the music magazine along. I have asked a friend of mine to be the back up artist and I have organised a photo shoot during school time. His whole look and personality is perfect for my indie magazine and so he was the perfect model. The props I used was his costume: the long jacket added to the whole indie personality and makes Jordan more appealing to my target audience. The lighting will be natural as the photos will be taken outside.

No. 1

No.2

No.3

No.4

No.5

No.6

No.7

Target Audience: Fonts for Mastheads

Fonts for Mastheads

http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/drafting-and-planning-fontspossible.html

This is a link to a blog post I created in which I have used different fonts to create different styles of my masthead. Then I recreated these mastheads into a questionnaire and gave them to all of my class. This helped me decide which font to use for my masthead.
the options were:

1. Calibri

2. Britannic Bold

3. Cairo SF

4. Delphi SF

5. Elephant

6. Arial

7. Gloucester MT Extra

I have given my questionnaire to 15 people and I have found out that the least favourite font was 2.Britannic Bold and 7.Gloucester MT Extra. 6.Arial was preferred by 2 people which is 13%, this response is too small for me to consider it as a possibility for my masthead. 4.Delphi SF got 3 responses which is 20% which is still too small to be considered. The one that was the most popular and got a response of 5/14 which is 36%, is 5. Elephant. This means that the nane of my music magazine will be "Sound Alive" and it will be written in the font "Elephant."

Drafting and Planning: Fonts/Possible Styles

Fonts/Possible Styles for Masthead

1. Calibri

2. Britannic Bold

3. Cairo SF

4. Delphi SF

5. Elephant

6. Arial

7. Gloucester MT Extra

The name of my music magazine will be "Sound Alive." I have chosen some simple fonts as a style for my masthead. I will create a questionnaire to find out which font people prefer the best.

Organisation: Visual Thesaurus

I am still thinking about what my music magazine should be called, I definitely want the name of my music magazine to bring people together and represent that we can't live without music and that for centuries, all over the world, all sorts of people listen to all sorts of music. The words that I really like as names are "liveliness", "spirit","aliveness" and "alive". I might put two of these wars together to make the name of my music magazine.

Drafting and Planning: Colour Scheme

Colour Scheme

Every single magazine, whether it is as popular as NME or as minor as The Fly, the Colour Scheme is one of the most conventions that magazines use to attract and appeal to their audience. The Colour Scheme is ually decided upon and chosen after the picture was taken. The editors look at the picture that was signed off to use for the cover page and decide what colours would be symbiotic. 

This cover page is a perfect example of an effective colour scheme. The editors looked at this picture of the colour star and used a dark orange to go with Nicki Minaj's hair.

For my music magazine, I will take the picture first, analyse it for main colours and use them for my colour scheme. I could also use colours that are symbiotic to the main colours or the complete opposites. For example I could use bright colours for the cover stories if the picture has a dark background or is the lighting is low key.










http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/double-page-spread.html
This is a link to my draft double page spread and I have used a pink background to my title as the lighting and the background is really dark. I did this to capture attention, the pink really does create a great effect.

Drafting and Planning: Potential Article Ideas

Potential Article Ideas

I have spent time into researching possible article ideas for my music magazine. These topic ideas have been chosen by editors and readers to be the best, most appealing and most popular article topics in music magazines.
The topics are:

• Music Instruments
• Music Festivals
• Musicians/Artists
• Concert Scenes
• Album Reviews
• Independent Music
• Top Music List
• Movie Soundtracks
• Music Industry

These are great ideas and I can definitely develop music soundtracks and the music industry into full length double page spread articles. They can be titled "Best Movie Soundtracks of All Time" and "What?...The Music Industry is Ripping Us Off??!?!?!"

I can also create fictitious albums of my fictitious bands and review them  as cover stories on the cover page.

I could also create a cover story that reads "The Best Music Instruments To Ever Exist" or "The Most Recognized Music Instruments" or "The Biggest Legends and Their Tools of Glory"

Organisation: Tracker

As it is shown in the most recent tracker, I have to focus my attention on Target Audience and Organisation . I will also create 2 or 3 more blog posts that will be Similar Products so that I can get the most amount of marks possible. I only have 25 blog posts which is a small number when compared to others who have 40 or more. The next couple of blog posts will  be mostly focused on the three areas mentioned previously. A Target Audience blog post will include the target audience of big magazines such as NME and Q and analyse what makes them so attractive to that type of people. More photo shoot opportunities are coming up which will also be mentioned in my blog posts. This will definitely gain me marks as I will be hitting the different targets.

Drafting and Planning: Name of Music Magazine

Name Of Music Magazine

I want the name of my music magazine to be something exceptional and something unusual yet something that everybody can relate to. I want the name of my music magazine to be something that represents the unification of all sorts of people through music. I had an idea to call it something like "ALL OF US", "LISTEN UP" or even "CONNECTED"

I really like "All Of Us" as it sends the message to the readers that we are all connected and that we all have that one thing in common; every single on us loves music. Doesn't matter if it's classical, indie, metal, pop or rap - we all love music. 

Drafting and Planning: Mastheads

Masthead of Music Magazine

I want my music magazine to be something that people read to find out more about their favourite artists or to find new music obsessions and I was that to be portrayed through the name of the music magazine. It has to be short, snappy and something that is extremely easy to remember. Also the design of the name of the magazine has to be suitable to the ethos and target audience. I want to stick to a simple colour scheme and a simple lay out, I also want to use a simple font as simplicity is key to success. I do not want to clog up my magazine with a pointlessly messy and carnivalesque.

these are some mock ups I did of some Mastheads.

My favourite one has to be "All Of Us" as the colour scheme is simple and the font is simple. Also the name is cool as well as it represents perfectly the message I want to send with my magazine.

Drafting and Planning: Fictitious Band

Fictitious Band

The name of my fictitious band is undecided as there are too many possibilities and I just cannot decide. However that does not mean that I cannot create their image, their history and their lives.
My fictitious band will be new to the business. Their genre of music will be indie/soft rock, which means they are perfect for being featured in my music magazine.
A group of young people, teenagers, that worked hard their whole life and practiced every day to get to where they are now. From their mother's basement, to the huge world wide stage, they made their way to the top. there will be more than two people in this band, I'm thinking three - all of them will be males. They will be celebrating their first album and its release. The group will be know for their fame that was against all odds as they all came from troubled backgrounds. Growing up in the rough area of London, to drugs, alcohol and continuous abuse and music was the thing that kept them together and lit their faith. Their first album will be called "I'm from where I want to be from" which reflects on their history. All of their songs will be inspired or based on their pasts and their experiences with life itself. Their most famous song, which reached number 1 twice in a row, is called "The West End is the Worst End" which reflects on them being brought up in the rough part of London: Westminster. They all went to to the same Primary and Secondary Schools, as well as the same college and the same university. They all dropped out of university to pursue their dreams of music.

Target Audience: Age Range

Target Audience: Age Range

I have decided to follow in the footsteps of magazines such as NME and Q, and I want to do a music magazine that is a genre of indie/soft rock. The Target Audience of NME and Q are teenagers and young adults. The age range of such audience must be 15-22. My target audience is also going to be for teenagers and young adults. I will have to meet their expectations and use codes and conventions that would catch their attention. Having a younger audience would mean that the whole outlook of the music magazine would have to be different as under 14 year olds are attracted to different things. Keeping the target audience age range as 15-22 is easier as this age group is attracted by similar colours, music genres, main cover stars and articles. 

Research Into Similar Products

Photography - This is amazing photography to me, I definitely will want something similar as my original photography because it's just so genuine and it really exploits the subject's attitude. The photograph was edited to appear darker and tinted for effect. It will definitely attract the target audience,
Colour Scheme - The colour scheme was created after the photograph was taken so that the colours and the photograph have a symbiotic relationship. The colour scheme was made to suit the photograph it has completed that task effectively.The whole and orange complement the colour of the beer that the star is holding.
Body Language - The star is giving off natural body language and has a casual facial expression which the audience would like as it gives them a glimpse of what the star is like in real life. Also a bit of attitude is given off by the star which sends the audience an idea of how the star acts.
Quote - the quote is something that is typically used by NME and even if there is no title of the magazine on the double page spread, it can be easily guessed which music magazine these pages belong to. the quote gives the audience an idea of what the article will be about and it also grabs attention as it is bold and placed in the center of the page.
Page Number - Like every music magazine. the pages are numbered to make it easier for the audience to find what they need. It is also one of the codes and conventions.
Props - The beers are used as props in this photograph and their role is to give the readers a general idea of who the star is even if the reader has no idea who they are. They send the message of the star being a casual, relaxed, and a typical rocker.
Placement - The placement of this double page spread is not usual but in its simplicity, it is very appealing. On the left there is only a photograph with the title of the article and on the right is the actual article.

Organisation: Custard Factory Gig

Photo Shoot Opportunity

A friend of mine, Ben Tibbits, is in a band and he is having a gig at the Custard Factory on Saturday the 29th of November. I plan to take a lot of pictures of the whole band and post them on my blog. Some pictures may hopefully be good enough to be considered for a Contents Page, Double Page Spread and even a Cover Page. 

Camera - The camera I will be using will be a professional Canon so that the pictures will not be pixelated and will be of amazing quality. If pictures are of good quality, more editing can be done to them as they will not lose their sharp quality.  

Lighting - As it will be a gig the lighting will be bright and colourful which means that if one colour is dominant, I can base my house colour on it. I do not want to have to be forced to use flash because it's so dark as I do not like the effect that flash causes. There is a chance that the subjects will have red eye.

Angle - as there is four band members I want t take pictures of each of them from different angles so that I am provided with a lot of options and possibilities for my original photography to use in my music magazine. I will be lower that then as they will be standing on stage, however good pictures can still be taken.

Drafting and Plannning: Photography Inspiration

For my music magazine cover, I have decided to create a fictitious indie rock band. I want the cover star/stars to have a lot of attitude as most bands do.  
This picture is great and will definitely play a big role in deciding the perfect position for my fictitious band. Blur has attitude in this picture and the background also adds to their rebellious ambiance. I also have to think about the costumes, props, characters, lighting, camera work and  space.

The costumes will reflect the rebellious attitude of the band and will also send out a subtle message to the audience about the band's aims and music. 

I will definitely use some form of props to help create the specific message I want the audience to receive.

The camera I will be using to take the photographs for the music magazine cover will be my professional. This will allow me to manipulate and play around with the photos without losing needed resolution.

Target Audience: Survey Responses

Survey Responses

I have created a survey on Survey Monkey to collect knowledge and information about my target audience. I have collected the data I have received from 5 responses.

Question 1

Out of the 5 responses I received, 80% of them belonged to the 0-16 age group. This means that only one person that completed my survey was older than 16. This shows me that my target audience is teenagers that belong to the 15- 18 age group. I have to change the ethos of my music magazine to appeal to this target audience.

Question 2

I got varied responses for this question as 1 person never buys music magazines, however 2 people buy music magazines every week and 2 buy them every month. This shows me that on average only about 80% of teenagers, which are my target audience, buy music magazines either weekly or monthly. This means that it is up to me whether my music magazine will be released weekly or monthly.

Question 3

I got varied results for this question as well as the people that did my survey buy different music magazines. The most people buy indie music magazines which is reassuring as I will be creating an indie magazines.

Question 4

People have chosen to pay £3-4 for a weekly magazine which tells me how much to charge. I will most likely charge £2.50

Question 5

What people most liked about that cover was the simplicity which tells me that my music magazine shouldn't be too crowded by articled, puffs or screamers. The photography should also be simple but suit the ethos.

Organisation: Draft CP + DPS

Photo Shoot for CP and DPS

I was set the task of completing a Draft Contents Page and Double Page Spread to go with my draft Cover Page. I used the same cover star - Felicity Yakubu. I wanted the Cover Page, Contents Page and Double Page Spread to be from the same magazine. However, I did not follow the policy of consistency throughout my draft work because the red colour scheme changes to pink.

I organised another photo shoot with Felicity that took place in school. I liked the paintings on the wall by the music corridor and so I decided to take the pictures there. I used my professional camera to take the pictures and I took multiple pictures for the Contents Page and Double Page Spread. I organised the photo shoot in school to show that the artist was still young, had to attend school and yet was hooked on drugs from a young age. I wanted the picture to represent a bigger picture of teens in today's society.I again used the same props - red lipstick so that the image and the attitude of the cover star is maintained. This makes the pictures consistent. In all the pictures the cover star doesn't smile which was a pose done on purpose to show her rebellious and careless attitude.

Draft Double Page Spread

This double page spread also follows the ethos of the cover page and the contents page. The cover star is the same and the space is similar. The house colours are similar all throughout the mock up magazine pages and they compliment each other.
My music magazine will follow in the footsteps of NME and indie music magazines usually use quotes as titles of articles, I did the same for practice.
I used double page spreads such as this one for inspiration -

As it can be seen, the quote is on a block background and it is large and bold to grab attention.

Fonts

I had a difficulty finding the correct font to use for my Double Page Spread. I tried to keep to the more simpler fonts. I used the blog post from the 10th of October in which we investigated typography to help me.
http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/this-is-magazine-cover-page-created-by.html
It help me understand that the fonts help to create the ethos of the magazine and they also add to the message that is sent out to the audience. It is crucial for them to match with the article. A symbiotic relationship should be created between the fonts, cover star and the colour scheme. Using this blog, I decided to write my title/quote on a blocked background and also to use Calibri and to me it looks really attractive.

Draft Cover Page

This is just a mock up of a contents page for a music magazine. It follows the same ethos as my mock up cover page - http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/remakeremodel.htmle.
The same cover star is used in the same surrounding space. I used contents page that I analysed for codes and conventions previously for inspiration - http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/this-contents-page-is-another-great-one.html

Remake-Remodel Peer Assessment

A friend, Ben Tibbits, has peer assessed my cover page that I have created. This is the link to the cover page I created:
http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/remakeremodel.html

He said that my improvements are to add another cover line to take up some white space and also to pay more attention to my cover lines as the name of the band is on two different lines.

I will remember these comments and act upon them on my next creative task. I will pay more attention to the detail of my music magazine such as making sure that the words on the cover lines are all one one line and a couple of letters don't escape to the next line.

Remake/Remodel

This is a music cover page that I created using original ideas including photography.
The main cover star is Felicity.

Codes and Conventions Analysis 

Masthead - The masthead is not my work, NME is an actual magazine. I have just followed the codes and conventions for NME and tried to create a cover page that goes with the ethics of NME.

Photography/Main Cover Star - The photography is original, I took this picture of my friend. The photo shoot was organised and I took the picture in school. The artists and the magazine are symbiotic.

Colour Scheme - The red lipstick was a prop that I used on purpose so that I could base my whole colour scheme on the redness of Felicity's lips.

House Style - The colours compliment each other as the colour scheme is red and black. The main cover star is dressed in black and has red lips which means that the fonts of cover lines and the main star do not clash.

Lighting and Colour/Photo shoot - The picture was taken in school. The lighting wasn't very good as it was artificial and it made my photography not look very professional. However, it does look decent enough for now.

Direct Mode of Address - The main subject is making eye contact with the audience and potential buyer so that a bond/relationship is formed.

Left Third - The masthead is the same size as an original NME masthead that I copied. It leaves the left third to be seen and allows the magazine to be recognized by the customer from other competitors.

Facial expression/Body lang - I purposely placed Felicity in this pose becuase I wanted her to have attitude that can be seen in many bands today. I named her fictional artist RED because of the lips. Her body lang gives off the impression that she is rude and doesn't care which is the usual body lang of young artists.

Puffs - I have included a Puff to entice the audience and try to persuade them to vote for their favourite band. Puffs take forms of exclusives or celebrity articles and I have used it for just that.

Secondary Images - I have added in some secondary images to show the potential customers a preview of some of the exclusive pictures of Arctic Monkeys in concert, This will appeal to Arctic Monkeys fans and encourage them to buy the magazine.

This cover page will be used in the future to help me distinguish between cover pages that look real and ones that look like they were made at home using Paint.net. In the near future, I will go back to this post so that I can get ideas on how to improve my work and how to make it look more real. also I will be able to see how much more realistic my work has become.

Organisation: Remake/Remodel

Photo Shoot

As I wanted my friend Felicity to be the main cover star, I organised a photo shoot so that I could take pictures of her for the draft cover page.

The photo shoot happened in school in the sixth form common room (St. Bernadette Center). I used my professional camera to take the pictures. The props I used was the red lipstick. This was premeditated as I wanted to have a red colour scheme and also this led to the main cover star being named "Red." I took multiple pictures so that I was sure that I had the best picture to use for the cover page. I wanted the artists to have a rebellious attitude and it took me about 20 minutes to find the perfect position and background.

Organisation: Antarctic Monkeys

Photo Shoot - Antarctic Monkeys Gig

On November 8 2014, I will be attending a gig of an Arctic Monkeys tribute band. I am a big fan of the Arctic Monkeys and this will be a great opportunity to take some original photography for inspiration. I will take my profession camera, which is a Canon, and take some great pictures. I am hoping for amazing different coloured lighting that will create a great effect. I will also take some images of the empty stage and instruments as they may be used as secondary images on my cover page or images for contents page or double page spread. The gig will be at the O2 Academy and that means I can get close to the band and get some good shots. I will also try and get some pictures of the band and the crowd to use as inspiration for an exclusive article in my music magazine.

Target Audience: Colour Scheme

Colour Scheme

 As I have decided, my target audience will have an age range of 15 to 22. This age range was inspired by music magazines such as NME and Q. 
 Bright colours grab attention however they are childish and immature. Colours such as black, white and red are perfect to use as house colours for a music magazine that has a target audience of 15 to 22 year olds. I have previously analysed a cover page for VIBE magazine. The main cover star was Nicki Minaj and the editors based the house style on Minaj's bright orange hair, to me that looked amazing. It was done so elegantly and with so much taste, it definitely would also appeal to my target audience.
Here is a link to that cover:
http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/similar-products_24.html
 However music magazines such as NME and Q very rarely use such bright colours. Their house colours are mainly black, white and red. Here is an example of such a cover:

It can be clearly sen that the only colour present that stands out is the red from Florence's hair.

Organisation: Photo Shoot

Photo Shoot

I am planning a photo shoot with a friend, Felicity, who is also taking this course. The photo shoot will take place withing the next two weeks and will happen at my house. We will use my camera to take the pictures and the props that we use will be clothes, a guitar, glasses and other accessories. The point of this photo shoot is take potential cover photographs for  our music magazine. I am doing an indie/soft rock music magazine and so therefore I will have to coordinate the background and props to create the best environment to take a photograph that will suit the ethos of my music magazine.
Felicity will be the main cover star for the time being, which means she will be the fake artists that I have made up. However I may change my mind and decide to create a band in which case this will be practice for the real photo shoot.

Target Audience: NME

NME Target Audience

I have done research into the type of audience that NME and target. I have found out what gender they predominantly target and the age group they target. This is the information I found:

• The average age is 25 
• The magazine targets men ages 17-30
• They are predominantly male with 73%
• 73% belong to the social grade ABC1
• The majority of NME readers enjoy new entertainment
• Well educated – 34% working full time, 18% working part time, 26% full time students
• The readers of this magazine are very modern, young and trendy who, enjoy films and technology.
• Dedicated to the magazine
• Audience Demographics:Age: 25• Gender: Male• Employment: Full time job Geographics: Lives in the U.K.

As my magazine will be similar to NME, with similar bands and articles, I have to suspect that my target audience will also be similar. Therefore, I have to create a fictitious band that will suit 17-30 year olds and also the articles have to appealing to that age range.  

Self-Assessment

Self-assessment of Codes and Conventions Task

1.Have you justified your decisions on your blog? How could you enhance these blog entries?

To practice using codes and convention, I have created four fake magazine covers that use the Masthead and style of real magazines. This task helped me get used to adding the basic codes and conventions on magazines such as the date and bar code. This task also helped me gain knowledge on what conventions give off certain messages to the audience. For example a music magazine that is similar to Pitch would not have Justin Bieber or Nicki Minaj on the cover, it would have an artist like Marilyn Manson. Gaining this knowledge will help me when I am creating my own magazine and using the generic codes and conventions to send off the correct individual message to my audience. I feel like I justified my decisions on my blog effectively however my friend Katie has given me feedback on the Codes and Conventions task and gave me a broader view of my work and how it could be improved so that my final product can be done to the best of my ability. I was told that to improve my skills I should get rid of the negative space on the cover pages so that the magazine doesn't look so empty. I could have also discussed why I used secondary images for M with Drake on the cover. 

2. How do you plan to use these in the future?

Through the process of creating these music magazines, I have gathered skills that will stay with me and this knowledge about codes and conventions will help me make my final music magazine look more real. One of the feedbacks that I got from Katie about the Codes and Conventions task is that my magazines look only semi-real and are not completely persuasive as a magazine and this task certainly helped me get over that. I also plan to use this task in the future in my Research into Similar Products as I have learnt how to manage the photography, cover lines, bar code and other conventions to make effective use of the space and make the magazine look real. The knowledge gathered also showed me how to use fonts, photography and colours to send out the correct message to attract a specific Target Audience. In terms of Organisation, I now know how to position my cover star so that the artist shows off their attitude and successfully appeal to my chosen Target audience and

Drafting and Planning: Band Names

Band Names

 In my magazine, I need to create a double page spread about a fictional band that I have made up. As I have decided the Band will be soft rock/indie, the name has to be simple yet thought through, and preferably beginning with "The." For inspiration I turned to my some of my all time favourites, including Bastille, Arctic Monkeys, The Lumineers, Two Door Cinema Club and Haim. All of these band names are strange yet elaborate and completely and effortlessly define the band. 

 Haim is a band that is made up of three sisters and they used their last name as the band name. It is a pretty cool band name. 

 Two Door Cinema Club has an interesting story behind it which led to the inevitable discovery of their band name. There was a cinema named "Tudor" in the area where the four band members lived, one day one of the band members said the name of the cinema weirdly and it ended up sounding like "Two Door."

 I also had an idea to instead of creating a fictional band, I would create an artist. That artist would still be in the music genre of soft rock/indie. The artist would be an upcoming one that had to break through obstacles of life to make his dreams come true. For that I was thinking "Man with the Guitar", "Adam Adams" or simply a due called "Double Denim." their image would be just plain ol' fashioned denim. 

Drafting and Palnning: Codes and Conventions Task

M Magazine (Drake on cover) 

Market - Mass market as people of most ages, and both genders would buy this magazine.

Genre - Hip-hop, R n' B

Main Cover Line - How many more times will Nicki Minaj turn him down?

Reasoning 

I have kept to the colour scheme of the music magazine which is red. The name of the main cover star is written boldly on the cover page for attention grabbing. I have added in secondary images as support for my main cover line to really appeal to a wider audience. 

M Magazine (The Welsh Rarebits)

Market - Mass marketing

Genre - Indie

Main Cover Line - A Welsh band that took over America and is headed for the UK

Reasoning

I did not follow the red colour scheme of the masthead as the red font blended with the background and was hard to read. Therefore, I chose the clothing of one of the main cover stars to base the colour scheme on. It looks fantastic, the cover lines really pop and break out from the black background of the cover stars clothing.

Music_X 

Market - Niche, appeals only to a certain group of people with a common interest

Genre - Indie

Main Cover Line - Breaking all the stereotypes

Reasoning

As the main cover star is shown in a 3D way, I have adapted to the red and blue blur and based my colour scheme on it. The cover lines are really showed off on the black background and the name of the cover star is the first thing a person notices as it stands out so much.

Pitch

Market - Niche, appeals to cults or groups of audiences with an interest for this music

Genre - Heavy Metal/Hard Rock

Main Cover Line - Why be a Man when you can be an Animal?

Reasoning

This has to be my favourite cover page, not because of the cover star, but because of the really unique colour scheme that goes with this cover page. Red, white and black really showed off the cover star's personality and also are really attention grabbing.

Sound

Market - Mass as appeals to most people of both genders

Genre - Rock/Indie

Main Cover Line - Live like Kings, Bathe in Glory

Reasoning

I have added a pug to this cover page as I thought it suited the magazine and especially the photograph. I have followed the main colour scheme to appeal to the audience and to make the magazine follow the codes and conventions.

Drafting and Planning: Name/Genre

Music Magazine 

Name
 I am to create a music magazine and with that comes the obvious task of providing it with an appropriate name. I did use the help of the Visual Thesaurus to come up with a name, like my teacher suggested and I got these responses that I will definitely consider: Esthesis and Sensation. I also had some idea of my own which were: Harmonious or Harmony, Urban or Urban Sound, Vocalization or Vocal.

Genre
 The most popular music magazines in the U.K. are NME, SPIN, Kerrang, Q and Mojo. Suprisingly all of these music magazines are of the same musical genre. The most notable music magazines of the British history are rock and indie magazines which mean that if I want my music magazine to be successful in this society, it should be a rock magzine or at least soft rock/indie. Kerrang features artists such as My Chemical Romance, Blink-182 and Nine Inch Nail, which are not soft rock bands but still, Kerrang is one of the most popular music magazine. This does not change my mind I do not listen or enjoy such forms of rock.

Questionnaire

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BF6LP59

Response To Tracker Feedback

I have focused a lot of my energy and time into Research Into Similar Products, as it can be seen in my tracker, because I wanted to have a lot of research ready for when I am creating my magazine and so that was my strongest section. I wanted to create a range of different indie rock magazines so that I can either follow or challenge the generic conventions they use. I haven't decided on my Target Audience yet and so I am lacking in my blog posts in that area - that is my weakness. I have to refer to my research so that I can create more blogs about my Target Audience. I haven't come across many Organisation opportunities for photo shoots, gigs or concerts and so one of my weaker areas was Organisation. To improve my blog I have to arrange a photo opportunity with my main cover star to make more blog posts. Drafting and Planning was also my weak section as I have not began to think about the layout or contents of my magazine. To improve, I have to refer to my research to gain some ideas.

Target Audience

  Now the time has come for me to start progressing into the phase of establishing a target audience for my music magazine. My music magazine will definitely not be appropriate for elders (60+) as I doubt they even still buy music magazine. It will be an indie/soft rock magazine and that is usually a genre that youngsters listen to. It will also not be a music magazine aimed at children (younger than 14) as it will not be written in such a simple language that they might understand however superior proper English will also not be used as that would not suit a music magazine.
  My target audience would have to be teenagers and young adults that belong into the 15 to 22-23 age group. Younger people are the ones that usually enjoy music on a daily bass and regularly attend a gig or concert. and therefore it will be easier to appeal to them. Creating my music magazine based on the genre of indie/soft rock music will be even easier as there are so many popular bands that youngsters listen to, there are even more upcoming ones which proves that younger people are "into it."

Drafting and Planning: Fonts

I definitely do not want seven million fonts parading and wasting space on the cover page of my music magazine as it will look unorganized, terrible and just cruel to humanity. I want to keep it simple, like The Fly magazine which in its simplicity looks so complex. No crazy and outgoing fonts will be used, because simple really is better. I did an exercise some time back where I had to choose the best font for a cover. This really helped me as I got to see what goes with the cover star and what doesn't. (Link to the post: http://amateurpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/this-is-magazine-cover-page-created-by.html)

I did a template to try some fonts out.

My favourite one has to be the first one, New Times Roman. It is simple and yet catchy enough to suit a magzine. The one I dislike the most has to be the 7th one, Franklin Gothic Medium, and Comic Sans - none of them will help me create the look that I.m going for with my music magazine.

Drafting and Planning: Publishing Plan

Publishing Plan

Drafting and Plannning: Publishing Companies

As I am to produce a music magazine, I need to research potential publishing companies. I've decided to look into my favourite music magazines and see what company publishes them. Firstly, NME is published by Time Inc. UK. This company is also responsible for publishing magazines such as InStyle, which is a fashion magazine for women, and also a lot of sport magazines such as Yachting World and Rugby World. All these magazines are similar and they don't break out into the carnivalesque approach. As I will not be following into the footsteps of magazines such Kerrang, that scream for attention, Time Inc. UK is a great publishing company for my magazine.
On that note, Kerrang is published by Bauer Media Group. Q is also published by this company, which is strange as Q does not have a carnivalesque approach to attracting the reader's attention. Therefore Bauer Media Group is an interesting option.

Organisation

I needed ideas for the cover photo of my music magazine. My friend was having a gig at the O2 Academy and I took some amazing pictures. These were just practice and I won't be using them for my cover page.

 The lighting at the event was amazing. I love how the subjects where in front of the light and it seeped through, creating a great effect . It also creates a great rock band look.