Shoot For Magazine 2

I have created some more contact sheets of another one of my models that I am going to include inside of my magazine as one of the girls in my girl band. These are the range of photos that I have taken just to show that I have considered lots of different shot types so that she could be used elsewhere inside of my magazine and that my shots that have been shown match the conventions of a pop music magazine.

Magazine Outside Shoot- Alex

Institutional Background

As I am going to produce a pop music magazine I have looked at two current pop music magazines Top Of The Pops and Blender, each of which are pop music magazines that have been produced as a monthly magazine to sell to each of their target audiences.


Top Of The Pops

Top Of The Pops magazine was launched in 1995 to go along side the television show and the supplementry magazine for the TV show; Top Of The Pops. With a monthly magazine produced with star gossip, song lyrics, posters and quizzes etc. the magazine became very appealing too young girls. The magazine was famous for giving the 'Spice Girls' their name in the music industry.

Produced by the BBC, the monthly magazine uses colours like pinks and purples that are more aimed towards girls. The crowded front cover of the magazine that is not as sophisticated as other music magazines show that this magazine is also more aimed towards a younger audience.

Top Of The Pops regualarly use pop bands on the front cover of their magazine to attract a younger audience who are likely to enjoy the music that each of these bands produce. This is one of the main features that help to sell the magazine.   

Blender

Blender magazine is an American music magazine known as ''The ultimate guide to music and more'' The magazine began in 1994 with ''best of'' and ''worst of'' reviews on albums, artists and songs. 

With a more sophisticated front cover we can automatically see that the magazine is aimed towards an older target audience, rather than the Top Of The Pops magazine, with a much younger target audience.

Very little colour has been used on the cover of the magazine which shows that the magazine is not aimed more towards a one gender.

A well known pop music artist has been placed on the front cover of the magazine with a a direct address which is going to attract the target audience to this magazine. 

My Chosen Font

After creating my questionnaire and asking some people of my target audience and others i found that three fonts were very popular.

Looking at these fonts and other fonts that are used on current music magazines, e.g. Top Of The Pops, Blender and Billboard:-

Each of these current magazines have very similar fonts used for the masthead. Out of my three fonts that I have whittled it down too, font one and font three are the closest fonts that follow the conventions of these three pop music magazines.

Therefore I have chosen font 3 as my masthead and as this was the most popular chosen choice in my questionnaire.

Costumes For Shoot

Taking into consideration that the genre of music magazine that I am going to be producing is a pop music magazine I have taken into consideration the costumes that each of my models are going to be wearing.

My front cover model Tara will need to have a direct address to attract people to buy the magazine, therefore a stylish and sophisticated outfit will suit the genre of magazine. I have chosen a flowered skirt and a plain black top would be suitable for the front cover as this will make my model stand out more on the front cover, although I will be using a mid shot or a close up for my front cover so we may not be able to see her outfit.
The same clothes will be worn when Tara features inside of my magazine in the contents page and double page spread, following the conventions of a Pop music magazine.

costumes for shoot

As I am going to create a girl band to use as one of the images inside the magazine on the contents page I will need to think about costumes that are going to work well on the page and fit in with the genre of music that I have decided to create my music magazine around. Sticking with stylish and sophisticated outfits, each of the girls that are going to be in the girl band will be wearing a dress, each wearing a different colour. I thought this was suitable for my pop magazine as it follows conventions of other girl bands. I have three girls, Tara (my cover girl), Olivia and Georgia as my models that I will take individual photos of to put the images together to create a girl band.

My male model alex will be the only image that is taken in an outside location that will fit into my magazine, within the contents page. I have chosen a much more casual outfit of dark jeans and a navy blue polo top. Having looked at some pop music magazines I have found that the males are dressed in a much more casual outfit, therefore I am following these conventions for my own magazines.

Chosen Photo's For My Contents Page

For my contents page I want to use a few different pictures that relate to what is going to be shown in my magazine. On my contents page I have created a list showing what is going to feature inside of my magazine and I plan to use images, with small numbers in the corner of the image, indicating to the text in my contents page to give more of an idea of what is going to be inside my magazine. This is also shown in my draft drawings of my music magazine.

I am planning to show two photos of my main model that is going to feature on the front cover of my magazine, in the contents page and in the double page spread. A photo of a male that I am photographing to show a male music artist and a group shot of some of my friends which are going to create my made up 'girl band' that will be featuring in my magazine.

The numbers indicating what my magazine has inside will match up with the four images on the page so that my target audience can look at the picture and then see what the story is going to be about.

I have taken photos of my main model Tara and as she is featuring in my Girl band as well I have taken some separate pictures of her for it, wearing a different costume. I have used another model, Olivia that is also going to be in my girl band. By taking each of their photos separately I can place them together inside my magazine so they look like they are a girl group. I still need to take a picture of another girl to feature in my band that i have created.

As my male model, Alex, will only be featuring in my contents page I thought it would be a good idea to take his photo in an outside location. I am planning to take this photo a.s.a.p so that I can fit it into my contents page.

Using outside locations will work well on my contents page as they are not being used to fill a sufficient amount of space on my page, therefore I will not consider the background if there is a lot going on in the scene, e.g fields and trees.

These are some of the images that I have taken to feature in my contents page in my magazine, I am unsure of which photos I am going to put together to form my girl band in my magazine but by taking lots of different shots it shows the different pictures that i may use to go on my contents.

Chosen Photo's For My Double Page Spread

After taking my photos on wednesday and looking at some music magazines I have a good idea on how I would like my photos across my double page spread. I would like to use on image that fills up a lot of space on one of the pages on my double page spread so that people have a range of things to look at on the page.

These images are ones that I have chosen that i may possibly use in the my double page spread as I have found by looking at some pop magazines one main image has been used on one side of the double page spread which has a direct address to its target audience. Other images that are used on a double page spread are diferent shot types that fit in with the main story inside of the magazine.

Chosen Photo For My Front Cover

This is the photo that i have decided to use for the front cover of my magazine because i thought the way the image has been taken of my main model is unique and with a direct address would really appeal to my target audience. I am going to crop the photo so there are no elbows showing on the front cover of the magazine and we can just see the hands and face.

I will leave sufficient space around the image so my masthead fits comfortably above the image and can sit just slightly behind Tara's head. With this in mind there will be no interference with the text that is around the outside of my image with text that may be placed to cover some of Tara's skin.

Shoot For Magazine

I have created some contact sheets on photoshop to show the images that i took in the studio on Wednesday. The photos that i have taken show a range of different shots of two of my models that are going to feature inside my magazine. Mid shots and close ups of one of my models were taken with a range of different lighting and the use of an external flash unit with my camera. I have some really good shots that i am going to use on my front cover and on the inside pages of my music magazine.

Font For My Magazine Title- 'www.dafont.com'

When i created my my questionnaire one of my questions were given to help me select which font i was going to use for the name of my magazine, 'Body Of Music'. The fonts that i have looked at all come from a website called 'www.dafont.com' which displays a large number of fonts that range from retro to more modern fonts. I thought this website was a really good idea to find a font that would be suitable, and which fits the conventions of a Pop music magazine.

These fonts are the ones that I have whittled it down to as I thought each of these fonts were very similar and displayed the conventions of a pop music magazine. I really like each of the fonts that I have selected that could possibly be one of the fonts that I use for the masthead of my magazine.

Out of these six fonts i really like the first three fonts that have been shown above. I think each of these three fonts would fit a pop music magazine perfectly and really stand out to its target audience.



Plan For Actual Shoot

This is a basic plan of the photoshoots that i am going to do to produce the pictures that are going to feature inside of my magazine. Having a rough idea of shot types, outfits and locations will really help me when it comes to taking these pictures. I will take a range of pictures although the photo's that are going to feature in my magazine should be similar to the way i have described it in my plan.
FRONT  COVER

Shot type: Long shot, sat down on the floor (Direct Address)
Location: Studio Shot
Outfit: Flowery skirt, Plain black top


CONTENTS

4 images- One or two relating to the cover, One or two shots of a girl band, One shot of a male.

Image/images relating to the cover

Shot type: Long shot or midshot- maybe stood to the side looking at the camera.
Outfit: Flowery top and black leggings
Location: Studio shot

Image of girl band

3 Girls
Shot types: Long shot & Midshots
Outfit 1: Red dress, black tights
Outfit 2: Black dress, black tights
Outfit 3: Purple dress, black tights
Image of male

Shot type: Long shot
Outfit: Dark blue jeans, Navy & White striped polo, White Converse
Location: Outside shot, next to a tree/brick wall
(maybe black and white photo)


DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Picture relating to the cover- 2-3 images

Shot type: Midshot with a direct address
Outfit: Same outfit as on the front cover
Location: Studio shot or Outside (brick wall) black and white photo

Shot type:  Long shot to fill up the length of the page
Outfit: Flowery top, black leggings & lace up shoes
Location: Studio shot (so image can fit onto page with text arond it)

Shot type: Close up of face
Outfit: Doesn't matter
Location: Studio (white back ground, making it easy to cut around the photo)

Location Shots

I have taken a number of location shots to show where i could potentionally take some of my photos that are going to feature inside my music magazine. Although most of my images that are going to be inside of my magazine and on the front cover of my magazine are going to be taken in the studio so that text can fit around images properly.

I have taken some photos at Weston-Super-Mare as I thought some of the locations around that area were suitable for a photo of my male model alex.

I have also taken some photos at Kingswood park as the rural scenes inside of the park was another location that may have been a possible place to take some pictures. 

There were other locations that I had in mind but as they were very similar to the Kingswood park location that I have already taken photos of I didnt think taking photos of these areas would have made much difference. These other locations were Cockridge, Barrs Court Park and the Downs in Bristol.   

Test Shoot With Alex

These are some photos that i have taken as a test shoot as my male model, Alex, will be featuring in the contents page of my magazine. I took a range of different shots and used my extetnal flash at different angles to create a range of different lighting in the pictures, hence the reason some of these photos look a lot brighter than some of the others.

The shots that i have taken are longs shots, mid shots and close ups. I have taken these in this way to show one of these shots are going to be used for the picture that will go onto my contents page.

After doing this test shoot i have come to the conclusion that i am going to take a mid shot of Alex that is going to be one of the four pictures that is going to into my contents page inside of my music magazine.

My Intentions

Through my analysis I understand the conventions of your typical Pop music magazine to be very similar as they all follow the same sort of conventions by sticking to just one main person on the front cover of the magazine and then create a cover story for a double page spread inside of the magazine. Other artists are used for sell lines on the front cover of the magazines but I have found that they tend to stick to using just one main image for the front cover. Looking further into contents pages I found that more images are used to portray the typical conventions of a music magazine.

Through my target audience research I have found that my chosen genre of Pop is a popular genre of music on the market. This was my chosen genre as I found the people that answered my questionnaire were more attracted to this genre and would like to see the typical conventions followed inside my music magazine. 

Therefore I plan to meet the following conventions by using just one main image on my front cover that will be my story inside on my double page spread. Using a direct address with my main image and with the use of sell lines that will attract to people buy the magazine. On my contents page I will use more images that will appeal to my target audience and make them want to read further on into my magazine. Keeping in mind the conventions of a music magazine to produce a high standard music magazine that will appeal appropriately to my target audience.

However, I plan to challenge the conventions by including some features that you may not expect to see inside of a music magazine. Something that was a popular choice in my questionnaire was competitions therefore in the corner of my contents page there will be a competition shown to enable someone to win a guitar. This is slightly different to a typical Pop magazine, especially the ones I have researched.
With the use of mostly formal language the use of informal language may be used a little across my double page spread as it is going to be an interview with my main person that will feature on my front cover.
I will try to include as many conventions that you would expect to see in a typical music magazine included in my music magazine.

Drafts Of My Music Magazine

I have drawn some ideas of how I want my music magazine to be laid out and the different things that i am going to include on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. By researching into different music magazines I have had a great amount of ideas and by asking my questionnaire to friends and family to work out the target audience for my magazine and who I want it to be aimed at. This also helps as my chosen genre for my music magazine is Pop/Indie and i will need to try and follow some of the conventions that are already used for these genres of music magazines that are already on the market.

My drafts show where I want images and text to be placed inside my magazine and on my front cover. It gives me a rough idea to follow when i come to create my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread on photoshop/Indesign.

I have shown that i would like to use one main image, with a direct address, on my front cover with sell lines around the outside of the image to help sell my magazine. I am sticking to the conventions of a Pop/Indie music magazine by focussing on one main artist for my front cover of my magazine where i will then go on to talk about this person more inside my double page spread.

For my contents page I have chosen a typical layout but added a little bit of quirkyness to the way i am going to show my images. I am going to present what is inside the magazine in a column like format to make it easy for my target audience to read and enjoy.

My double page spread that I am going to design is going to focus on the main person that will feature on the front cover of my magazine. The main text that will be in my double page spread will be an interview with my main artist. I will include a few images across the page the tie in with the story that I am writing about.  

When it comes to producing my magazine I will take a lot of factors into consideration. For example my research, questionnaire and drafts of my music magazine. This will really help me create a music magazine following the typical conventions of a music magazine that is already on the market.

My Chosen Genre

I have chosen to base my magazine around a pop magazine. I have been influenced by this genre from creating my questionnaire and asking several different people to answer my questionnaire to give me an idea of what to produce my magazine around. Looking at magazines like NME and Billboard has given me an insight on how I would like to set my magazine out looking particularly at the layout of the magazine. Looking at fonts, different shots for the images that have been used, the type of language that has been used on the front cover, etc.

Looking at these typical conventions and trying to stick to them when drawing up my drafts for my music magazine I have noticed that they seem to focus on one main music artist on the front cover.
Anchorage text is used to talk about the main music artist on the front cover, this is a really good convention of the music magazine so that someone buying the magazine knows the story about the celebrity on the front. In my opinion this is a feature of the front cover that really helps sell the magazine to its target audience. The magazine then tends to focus a lot on the artist in the weekly/monthly magazine.

I will go on to talk about the types of images, language and the way i will present the text through my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread.
  

Names For My Magazine

After looking in depth at some different magazines I researched on the internet some different magazines for my chosen genre that my magazine is going to be produced around. I used wikipedia to get some different name ideas for my magazine. These were;

Body Of Music

Melody

Volume

The Chorus

The Beat

Popular

After exploring these different names for my music magazine I chose two names that i really liked and thought would work well for the title of my music magazine, which were Body Of Music, Popular and Volume.

I will further research into the fonts and styles for my name of my magazine and finally choose which name I will use for my magazine.

Research Into The Pop Genre

As my chosen genre is the Pop genre I  have decided to look a little bit further into the genre to give me more of an idea of the conventions within the pop genre that i may be able to follow within the production of my magazine.

Pop music is particularly associated with Rock and Roll and is seen as a dsitinct genre which is aimed at more of a youth market. People will often characterise the Pop genre as a softer alternative to Rock and Roll.

Looking at the conventions of Pop music magazines in general many of them will be targeted to a much younger audience and use colours that are much more aimed towards girls. All magazines will feature a 'Pop' artist, e.g. A girl band or solo artist.

Looking at a typical Pop music magazine e.g. Top Of The Pops, I found they have a similar layout, fonts and text. A very busy layout is used and this is probably to attract the younger audience to this magazine. This is also suggested in the way the magazine does not really have a sophisticated look that is likely to target a much older audience. Using well known celebrities that a younger audience are more likely to know are used on the front of the magazines.

I want to create a pop magazine with a more sophisticated style so that is aimed towards an older audience of people. Still following some conventions that are used in this sort of magazine to produce something of my own that will stand out to an older target audience.

Questionnaire- Research

I created a questionnaire so it could help me further into my research process on different magazines and genres. I feel the questionnaire will give me a broader idea on how i will design and produce my own music magazine. The questions that i asked were closed questions which meant the people that i asked my questions to had to choose the choices that were given to them. This give me varied and quick responses and the results show that pop/indie and rock were the most popular genres of music to incorporate in my music magazine around.
The price that someone would pay for a music magazine was between £1.10- £3.00 when it comes to producing my magazine i will take this into consideration.
Red & Black and Black & White were a popular choice of colour schemes to use within the pages of my own music magazine. Also to match these simple colour schemes, simple font was chosen to feature as the text inside of my music magazine.
In my questionnaire i gave people six different font choices for the masthead of my magazine, the chosen fonts matched the genres that i had offered for people to choose in my questionnaire. I thought that these were suitable to be on the front of my music magazine.

Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task i had to create a school magazine front cover and contents page that was aimed at students from John Cabot. I used a school digital camera to take a midshot of a student for the front cover of my magazine and used photoshop to create my magazine.

I chose a simple name for my school magazine 'Cab Mag' and used a website called dafont.com to create my masthead.

To go along with the typical magazine layout I have also added a barcode, date, price and issue number to make it more realistic.

I used basic colours on the magazine so it didn't look too over crowded on the page. The band of colour which i have used to make the 'First Issue' stand out is the same colour as the John Cabot uniform so that students can relate more to it.

I created my contents page using photoshop as well. I used the same colour schemes on my contents page to what i used on my front cover. This made sure that i would stick to similar colour schemes throughout my music magazine that i am going to produce.

Research- Double Page Spreads

double paged spreads

Research- Front Covers Of Magazines

Front covers of music magazines upload

Research- Contents Pages

Contents Pages- Analysed

Research into different music magazines (Double Page Spreads)

I Have looked at double page spreads of some different music magazines. I have looked at Pop, Rock and Indie music magazines as this is going to be one of the genres that i will probably choose for my own music magazine. I have chosen to look at NME which is an indie magazine, Blender magazine which is more of a pop magazine and Q magzine which is a rock/indie magazine.

These are three very similar magazines but each used a very different layout. I liked the idea of using just one main image to work with the story in the double page spread, which was used in NME. The way the title had been designed and presented really stood out to me and i have taken the idea into more consideration for when i am producing my own magazine. The two other magazines that i have looked at used more than one image on the double page spread, but all the images matched with the text. Having a number of different images on the page makes it more enjoyable to read and splits up all of the writing a little bit more.

The same sorts of colours were used on the three double page spreads that i have analysed. Blacks, reds and blues were a popular colour that were used.
The text on the page was written in a column like format. Keeping it this way makes it easy to read and understand.