Research and planning: Audience research interviews for music.

Equipment and software list still needed

Research and Planning: Costumes, equipment and software

COSTUME AND PROPS LIST

Framing Hanley Hoody.                                    Already own it

Lostprophets Dstryr Dstryr jacket                         Already own it

The Blackout t-shirt                                                Already own it

Lostprophets t-shirt                                                Already own it

Lostprophets Betrayed jacket                        Already own it

My Chemical Romance t-shirt                        Brother owns it. I will borrow this

Green Day t-shirt                                                Brother owns it. I will borrow this

The Blackout shirt                                               £15 approximately, will buy soon

No Fear hoody black                                                I own this

No Fear hoody white                                                I own this

Equipment and Software
Photoshop
InDesign
SLR Cameras

Research and Planning: double page spread analysis.

 

This double page spread out of Rocksound is an album review. It features a very large mid-shot of the band, which shows to the audience exactly who the band are, getting their fans' attention straightaway, causing them to read what's on the page.

The large white font is bold and contrasting to the colour of the background, a generic feature of a rock magazine article. It works well because it standing out makes it noticeable, grabbing a readers' attention if they are skimming through the pages of the magazine, perhaps enticing them to read this article.

The target audience of the article appears to be young, energetic males. This is reflected in the image, of males having fun, and in the colour scheme. The green and black colours look very boyish together, and create an almost dirty effect, which would cater more towards males than females.

The album cover is only small, however,  it leans over the edge of the green border, into the white area, appearing to be popping out of the page. This effect shows its importance in the story, and tells the reader that this is what has been focused on.

The article is separated into an interview section, in the black area, and a review of the album in the green area. The colour divides work very effectively to separate each part of the article.

Research and planning: Questionnaire research

 

Here shows the majority of people I asked were female, which helps because my magazine will be mainly aimed at females.

 

The majority of people I asked were 16, again, this helps because they are in the target audience of my music magazine.

 

The majority of people listened to rock or pop. This does help a little as it shows that rock is a popular genre of music, so a rock magazine may be quite likely to do well. My magazine is a rock magazine, so it is likely it will be a success at profit making.

 

The people I  asked suggested that red and black would be the best colours to use within a rock magazine, as well as white. I will use these colours when I create the magazine.

 

Half of the people I asked said they would pay £2 for a rock magazine, so this is the price I will make my rock magazine.

 

The articles that people are most likely to read about are the musician's background, however there is a fair amount of interest in reviews, touring and new releases. Therefore, I intend to have more articles about the musicians' backgrounds, though I will still feature articles on touring, new releases and reviews.

 

The questionnaire showed that dark clothes would be best, and that band merchandise, hoodies, and long coats would  look good in a rock magazine, so they will be features of mine.

 

The questionnaire showed that near enough every kind of shot could be featured in a rock magazine. This gives me a lot of leniency towards which of my images ends up in the final draft of my magazine. This means I will take more pictures, and experiment with what looks best.

Research and Planning: Contents page analysis.

Genre:
The magazine is obviously a rock magazine, the large fonts which stand out are bold and rough looking, which goes with the type of music featured in the magazine.
The main article takes pride of place, this shows there is a huge focus on Pearl Jam, showing they are the most important thing right now. This is typical of a rock magazine to have a larger focus on a specific band.

Target Audience:
The young, teenage audience is catered for in using very little text that isn't necessary. There are articles and page numbers, with only some of these having a description next to them. This appeals to the young audience because they might only read what they are interested in.
Also, the images are all of males, which suggest that maybe the magazine is aimed at females.

Layout:
There are three columns, however, the main image takes up so much of the page, that two of them are hidden away at the bottom, where the editor's note is.
The column at the side is clearer then the two at the bottom, so that is where the articles are listed, as the page numbers are important, so need to be clear.

Representation:
Each and every picture of a musician shows them having fun. They clearly love what they are doing and this will tell the audience that the image is linked to something good, enticing them to read into it more.
The language used is very informal, particularly in the editor's note, where the readers are addressed. It adds a more friendly, relaxed feel to the magazine and represents the readers as very approachable.

Media Language:
The medium long shot and two long shots all show the majority of the artist's body. This shows what they are doing and also explains a little as to what's so fun. Also, within these images, the facial expressions all seem to suggest something out of the ordinary is going on, the smiling in the largest photo, confused look in the one linked to page 40, and the crazy expression on the photo linked with page 38 all tell the audience that there's something going on.

Here are my drafts of a front cover, contents page, and double page spread.

Research and Planning: Music Magazine Target Audience

I am going to aim my magazine at 14-18 year olds as these are the age of people who read similar magazines.

I will do this by using language that teenagers use and I will use more informal language than formal.

I am going to aim the magazine mainly at a female target audience.

This will be done through the models I use, images of females will be relatable to the target audience, whereas images of males will be appealing. For example, the females will wear similar clothing to what the audience would, and images of males are stereotypical of a rock magazine aimed at females.

My target audience would be unemployed teenagers at college, or who have a low income job.

To do this, I will make the magazine an appealing price that they can afford.

I am aiming at the socio-economic grouping category E.

This will again be done by having a low price, as well as the articles not involving talk of extravagant things that people in this category won’t have.

The target audience are not supposed to be particularly wealthy.

This will be aimed at by the images used, with nobody wearing ridiculously expensive clothes.

The audience must be interested in rock music.

Other bands that already exist will be referenced to within the magazine, which will engage their fans.

 

The audience would have the ambition to get themselves a career in the future.

I will reach these people by including text which prompts them to think of the future, for example, have an article which asks a band member “What were your ambitions after leaving school?” 

 This is a stereotypical look of my target audience.

Research and Planning: music magazine masthead

Here is the masthead I have created on Photoshop and plan to use for my music magazine.

Research and planning: Music magazine analysis 2

The magazine is all black, white and yellow. The black and white are typical of a rock magazine, with the yellow there to contrast and stand out. This is to create impact on the eye of the reader

The images are all of front-men/women of established rock bands. This appeals to the target audience of established rock fans.

The large, bold fonts are typical of a rock magazine cover. They stand out, like the industry of rock music does, by being different.



The articles are all about rock musicians, with almost no focus on what the article is about, focusing completely on the artists.

The images are of people wearing either black or white, which is typical of a rock musician.

The attitudes of the rock stars seem to be quite complicated, they have a look in their eye which suggests they have something to tell, and it engages the reader to want to learn what that is (which would be discovered by reading the article)



The target audience here is established rock fans, of an older age than those of Kerrang. There are less colours and extra special features to catch a young person's attention. The fact that the majority of the front cover is taken up by names of bands suggests that the bands are all the magazine needs to be sold. If the right artists are featured, the magazine will sell well.



The two main shots are a medium close up and a mid shot. These are to make the artist the centre of attention and at the same time make the look attractive. Matt Bellamy's figure is shown rather well and Christina Scabbia's face is very much focused on, yet looks perfect.
There is very little text, but it has a bold font, typical of the bold sounding genre (rock).
The magazine title is duller than everything else, suggesting its lack of importance. The magazine sells purely on the bands it features, not its reputation, even though it is quite well-known.

Research and planning: Music magazine analysis

 

The magazine is obviously a rock magazine:

• It has bold fonts that almost seem to be shouting at the reader.
• There is lots of black clothing worn, which is typical of a rock magazine.
• A lot of the text is in white on the front cover, this is another feature to show it is rock.
• Well known rock bands are listed all over the page, to grab attention of rock fans.

The large faces of rock stars represent the fame they have, the majority of images are medium close ups, so fans can recognize those they love and purchase the magazine to read about them.
The colours are all bold and contrasting, which goes along with the hard sounding style of music which is quite strong and loud. It creates a powerful impact on the eye, like the rock sound would on the ear.
The rock stars all seem to be posing, but none look miserable. All images seem to be to make them either look attractive, or as though they're having fun doing their job. 

The target audience for this magazine is established rock fans, particularly young ones. There are many images of well known faces in the rock industry, which will appeal to the rock fans. Also, there is a huge feature for posters and stickers, which suggests something a younger audience might want.

There are lots of large fonts, with very little other text than the articles featured inside. This again appeals to a young audience as they will not want to read as much as an elderly reader of a newspaper like the times.
Looking at the mise-en-scene, nothing jumps out as a key feature on the magazine, even the main article doesn't dominate the page, this is to make the page look like there is a lot of important information, and suggests to the reader they wouldn't get bored reading it.