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.