Production Plan for Photography

The images that will be used in my music magazine will be taken between the dates 4^th January 2012 and 10^th February 2012. The location I will use for my photography will be in the drama room and the hall at Cromwell Community College. I will use the both the drama room and the hall, so that I can use the lighting and the stage to give the impression that someone is performing at a gig/concert. The equipment that I will use in the photography will include; lights, guitars, drums, and a microphone. The personnel that will be used in the photos will be students from the college that are willing to take part. The costume that will be worn by these people should connote an indie style to the audience of the magazine. All these factors will help create the photography so that it looks like they are performing. I will use variety of shots, ranging from long shots, to mid shots, to close ups, to establishing shots. These shots will be taken at different angles, such as high and low. Each of the shots that I use will connote a different effect to the audience. For example, a mid-shot from a high angle will signify that the person has ‘power’.

Pitch of Music Magazine

My research has consisted of a questionnaire which allowed me to find out my specific target audience, so that I know who to cater for. This helped me because it allowed me to get the public’s opinion across to me, thusly making me fulfil their needs, views and interests. By getting their opinions across this will help me into improving my magazine so that it is the best it can be.

 My research also consisted of research into similar products. The other products that I researched were ‘Q’, ‘NME’ and ‘Rolling Stone.’ By doing this research I have found out a variety of conventions which will be very useful when making my magazine. I have found that the typography must include a variety of font styles and sizes, which will represent what is on the magazine. For example, the masthead is stereotypically larger than the main cover line; however this can be changed depending on the importance of the story/article behind the cover line. I will use these findings to make my magazine more successful because I have learnt how to structure the typography so that it is appealing to the audience. I have also found that the layout of the magazine should be set so that it follows the ‘route of the eye’. This is when the audience get drawn towards the masthead, then to the main/central image and then to the main cover line. Also whether the magazine is cluttered or organised depends on the genre in which the magazine wishes to connote. For example, if the magazine’s genre is rock then the magazine will be more cluttered compared to a magazine which connotes the genre classical music. The finding that I have received from this research has given me the chance to make my magazine more successful. This will be done making sure that I use the ‘route of the eye’ technique and I may choose to slightly give my magazine a cluttered effect so that it relates to the indie/rock genre of my magazine. I have found that the language that is suitable when making an indie/rock magazine should be quite informal; using short and snappy phrases which catch the attention of the audience, thusly enticing them to buy the magazine. I will use this type of language in my magazine to make it more successful and more interesting for the audience, thusly increasing the sales of the magazine. From the research I have found that when using colour, you should stick to a main colour group, such as red, white and black. These will be known as your trademark colours. These colours however can be altered so that it relates to what is in the magazine. For example, on the front cover of the ‘Q’ magazine I analysed, there was a main cover line of ‘Greenday’. This cover line was coloured green, so that it related to the band. This further emphasized the band when looking at the magazine. I will use a main colour group in my magazine so that I have a set of colours in which the audience can relate to. This should make my magazine more recognisable to the public which will increase the success of it. I have also found that the camerawork has a massive effect on how the image is portrayed to the audience. For example, if the image has a low angle of a musician, then this makes the musician come across has powerful. Also if there was a close up of a musician, then this will convey the expressions, emotions and effort from the musician. In my magazine I intend to use a variety of different shots so that the images I use relate and connote to the article/artist/band that I am portraying to the audience.  I also found that the mise-en-scene used in the magazine must relate to the genre, style and theme of the magazine. An example of a setting for my magazine could be a stage, because this would signify to the audience that the musician is performing. An example of a prop which relates to my magazine would be a guitar, a microphone or drums. These props would further connote to the audience the genre of the magazine. An example of costume used in my magazine could be darker clothing which would connote the darker style of the music genre. From these findings I will use similar ideas so that my magazine has a fully emphasized genre, therefore making it more appropriate to the targeted audience and increasing the demand for it. Lastly, I have found that the mode of address which I use for my magazine will have an enthusiastic tone. This tone could be connoted to the audience by using short phrases, capital letters, larger/bolder font and including exclamation marks. I will also use an enthusiastic tone when creating my magazine because this will get the audience upbeat and excited when reading the magazine.

By adapting all of these conventions to suit my magazine this should make my magazine become more successful. This is because I have learnt how to get the magazine to become appealing to the audience and entice them to buy it. By having the correct conventions in my magazine, this might increase the range of audience that buy the magazine, thusly increasing the popularity of the magazine.

I also conducted some research into an institution called ‘IPC Media.’ This company would be suitable for my magazine because it owns the magazine ‘NME’ which is similar to my magazine. This research has helped me to find out the demographics in which my magazine will cater for. This allows me to adapt the magazine so that it suits the audience which will increase the success of my magazine. I think that my magazine will be successful as a weekly issue rather than a monthly issue because magazines such as ‘NME’ have been very successful over the years when producing weekly issues.

NME and Q Background Information.

‘NME’ (New Musical Express) is a popular publication for music and has been published weekly since March 1952. It began as a newspaper, but in the 1980’s it gradually adapted and from 1998, it was known as a magazine. They demographically cater for those of a younger age in the population. NME don’t only produce weekly magazines, they have an international website. The website includes the following categories:

·         News – bringing you the latest news from the music industry.

·         Video – this category includes music videos, interviews and backstage insights.

·         Tickets – this section shows you all the tickets for upcoming events.

·         New music – shows you the new music of the week.

·         Reviews – this category gives you track/album/ live reviews.

·         Photos – shows you all the photos from albums, festivals and photos which are on sale.

·         Blogs – this brings you blogs from internal people and external people of the company.

·         Film & TV – this keeps you updated on all the latest film news, including actors/actress’.

·         Artists – This gives a list of all the artists and giving the most popular ones at present.

·         Awards – gives you the latest news, pictures, videos and tickets to the awards.

·         Metal – brings you all the rock & metal news, videos, reviews, albums, tickets and merchandise.

·         Shop – This section gives you the opportunity to buy a range of NME items, from magazines to clothing.

·         Lists – this offers a wide range of lists including the 100 greatest albums of the decade and the best albums of the year.

This shows that they are a massive company providing a lot of media. By providing a wider range of media, the company will expand and a larger audience range will be intrigued by NME. If they didn’t have the media involved that they do at present, then they wouldn’t be anywhere as big as they are at now.

The ‘Q’ magazine has been published monthly since October 1986. It was named ‘Q’ because the creators believed that it would make the magazine look more prominent on newsstands. Q is a magazine that demographically caters for a range of ages in the population. The reason for this is because it has up to date music, so it will suit teenagers and young adults. However, the style in which it is made and written makes it appropriate for an audience of an older age range. Q magazine also has a similar range of media like ‘NME’, ranging from latest music news to latest tickets. The company Q doesn’t only have a magazine, it has other brands including, ‘Q TV television channel’ in the UK. It also holds a yearly awards ceremony called the ‘Q Awards’. This signifies that they are a large company and have the audience range to grow in the industry and have television channels and award ceremonies.

Overall both the companies ‘NME’ and ‘Q’ have been and still are extremely successful mainly due to not only producing magazines, but many other types of media to expand their brand to a wider audience. The brands have also become bigger and more recognisable to the population due to advertisement and sponsorship. Also both the magazines have been adapted over the years to keep up with modern day music, styles and graphics. This has allowed them both to be continuously popular and appealing to the audience they cater for.

Drafts of Pages/Text

Font Styles

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Calibri (Body)’.This font style would be good for when writing articles or subheadings because of its clear and easily readable style.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Century Gothic’. This font style would also be helpful when writing an article.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Cooper Black’. This font style would be good to use as a heading. This is because it has a unique, urban style which draws the attention of the person looking at it.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Elephant’. This font style would be good when you are writing an article because it is clear and easily readable. However it was a certain ‘kick’ to it which gives the effect that it is written using an olden day ink pen.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Tempus Sans ITC’. This font style would be good to use as a sub-heading or a cover line. This is because it has a youthful style which catches the eye of the reader. However it wouldn’t be very suitable if it was to be used to write an article.

Font style – This font style is called ‘Rockwell’. This font style would be good to use as a cover line, tagline or a heading. This is because it has a clear and slightly bold style, whilst connoting a ‘digital’ effect.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Impact’. This font style would be good to use as a mast head, heading or a large main cover line. This is because it has an extremely bold style which is ‘in the face’ of the audience.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Tahoma’. This font style would be good when writing articles. It has a very clear and easily readable style, making it suitable to use as a long piece of text/writing.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘FangSong’. This font style has an unusual ‘spaced out’ style which would be good to use as a heading on a double page spread, so that it stretches across the page.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Times New Roman’. This font style is one of the most common fonts. This has been consistently used throughout magazine and newspaper articles for years. So this font style would be suitable for an article.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Bauhaus 93’. This font style would be good for a heading or a cover line. It has a unique style which would gain the attention of the audience.

Font Style – This font style is called ‘Broadway’. This font style would be suitable for a tagline, or a subheading. This is because it has a bold and a chisel tipped pen look which would cause the reader to automatically look at it.

Colour Schemes

The colour of the background represents the ‘rock’ genre because the it is red. This red colour signifies a sense of anger from the magazine which relates to the genre. By seeing the main red colour, you would think that this fierce tone is exhibited throughout the magazine, via its text and images. The opposite colours, black and white, work well with the red background because they further emphasize the rock theme. Other magazines such as ‘NME’ also use these colours to connote to their audience that their magazine has a rock styled theme.

The very dark background colour connotes a ‘dark genre’, such as rock to the audience. This ‘dark genre’ is further conveyed by the bright red used on the page. This is because the colour red has stereotypically known to signify anger, danger and blood. This could link well with some of the styles of the bands/artists that may be included in the magazine.

As you can see, like the previous background, it has a black background to symbolise the rock/indie genre. However by using white and yellow on the colour scheme, this gives the page a neutralised effect. The two colours also vividly stand out amongst the background because they are very bright and catch the eye of the audience and draw them toward the magazine. The colour yellow has been known to symbolise happiness; giving the magazine an unusual effect by having the comparison between this and the black background.

The white background is very neutral and light for a rock/indie magazine. However it allows the text and images to be enhanced because they will stand out much more. The black banner and text will be complemented by the white background because they are opposite colours. The colour scheme still has the red to signify the genre, together with it being easily seen by the audience because of the white background.

With this colour scheme, I took a different approach by having a bright colour as the background. I chose to have the orange mast head and banner because it is the opposite colour to blue, making them complement and stand out against one another. Also the white cover lines and tagline are easily read because they are clearly seen by the audience due to the darker background. Taking everything into account, this colour scheme wouldn’t be suitable for a stereotypical rock/indie music magazine because the colours do not symbolise the genre.

The silver coloured background connotes a rich looking effect which could symbolise the amount of money that is involved in the music industry. The dark blue masthead, banner and cover line are all easily distinguished on the silver background because of the difference in darkness of the colours. This colour scheme won’t attract as much of an audience for a rock/indie magazine because it doesn’t use stereotypical colours that you would expect to see on a music magazine.

The background colour of this colour scheme is a gold mixture, portraying a very rich theme. This could be because of the amount of money that it distributed throughout the music business and the wealth of most of the artists. The use of the colour black on the gold background, allows it to be emphasized more because of the difference in colour density. This colour scheme would suit the rock genre. These colours are often used on ‘rap’ or ‘hip-hop’ music magazines so that the artists can show off their wealth to their fans.

For this colour scheme I decided to be experimental. The bright green background doesn’t work well with the purple and white used on the page. This colour scheme wouldn’t be suitable for a rock/indie magazine because the colours don’t signify anything to do with the genre. These colours would be more suited more a ‘eco-friendly/ recycling’ magazine.

This grey background has been altered so that it has a mixture of different shades throughout it and then merges into a red at the top. This gives it a chrome looking effect symbolising modernisation. The red banner creates a sense of repetition because it links with the strip of red that is merged into the background at the top. The use of red and black in the text signifies the rock/indie genre of music.

This adapted grey background creates a chrome effect similar to the previous colour scheme. However this adaption gives the background colours a ‘whipped’ effect, linking well with the tilted masthead. The use of blue works well against the chrome background because it is vivid and will catch the eye of the audience. The black and white cover lines and tagline are structured so that the white is against the black and the black is against the white, thusly allowing them to complement each other.

Summary

After experimenting with different colours for my colour scheme of my magazine, I have decided that I will be using a black background and either ‘red’, ‘yellow’ or blue’ as my secondary colour and white as my added colour. The reason for this choice is because the black background will symbolise the rock/indie genre of music. Also the ‘yellow’, ‘red’ or ‘blue’ are all bright, vivid colours which will clearly stand out and be enhanced by the dark background, thusly attracting the attention of the audience. Another reason why I think that these colours will be suitable is because the results from the question from my audience research questionnaire show that the majority of answers gave these colours.





Research into Institutions

Research into Institutions- IPC Media.

IPC Media is a company that produces over 60 media brands. IPC focuses on three core audiences, men, mass market women and upmarket women. The men’s section includes brands such as; Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World, Decanter, Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME. The mass market women’s section includes brands such as; Look, Now, Chat and Women. It also includes TV brands such as; What’s on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week. The upmarket women’s section includes brands such as; Marie Claire, InStyle, women&home, Ideal Home, Livingetc and housetohome.

Demographically, IPC Media cater on a wide scale, including mainstream and niche audiences. NME is an example of one of IPC’s weekly magazines which caters for a mainstream audience because it has a mixture of different music genre‘s in the magazine. However the magazine is aimed more towards men because statistics show that 76% of there readers are male. NME has become an extremely popular brand and has progressed into music channels, websites and radio stations. On the other hand, Golf Monthly is an example of a monthly magazine which caters for a niche audience because it is only aimed at people who are interested in Golf. The weekly issues tend to be less expensive because they have less information than the monthly issues.

IPC Media is a fully owned subsidiary of Time Inc. Time Inc. is a subsidiary of ‘Time Warner’, this company was formed in 1990, by merging the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. This company publishes 130 magazines. As well as owning IPC Media, it also owns the rights to LIFE; a well known magazine. It currently runs and owns LIFE.com. This is a website which exhibits news and photography.

Surveymonkey Questionnaire Feedback and Summary.

1.       Are you male or female?

·         83.3 % answered male

·         16.7% answered female

2.       How old are you?

·         100% answered 11-20 years old

3.       What is your favourite genre of music?

·         Indie – 66.7%

·         Rock – 66.7%

·         Reggae – 16.7%

·         Pop – 33.3%

·         Rap/Hip-Hop – 41.7%

·         R&B – 41.7 %

·         Drum & Bass/ Dubstep – 58.3%

·         Country – 16.7%

·         Metal - 25%

·         Jazz/ Blues – 25%

·         House/ Garage – 16.7%

·         Classical – 16.7%

4.       What entices you to read a magazine?

·         ‘Artists!’

·         ‘new artists’

·         ‘Artists’

·         ‘the featured group/artists’

·         ‘Exclusive interviews’

·         ‘bright colours’

·         ‘good colour scheme’

5.       What colours would you like to see on a music magazine?

·         ‘Red, white, black!’

·         ‘red/blue, white, black’

·         ‘Red, white, black’

·         ‘Indigo’

·         ‘yellow and black’

·         ‘Red, blue’

·         ‘red, white, yellow’

·         ‘probably red’

·         ‘turquoise and indigo’

·         ‘gold’

6.       At most, how, much would you pay for a music magazine which interested you?

·         £.0.01- £1.00  = 16.7%

·         £1.01- £2.00 = 50%

·         £2.01- £3.00 = 16.7%

·         £3.01- £4.00 = 25%

·         £4.01- £5.00 = 16.7%

·         £5.01+  = 16.7%

 7.       What music magazines do you read already, if any?

·         ‘NME’

·         ‘NME, Q’

·         ‘NME, Q’

·         ‘A LOT’

·         ‘no’

·         ‘none’

·         ‘NME’

·         ‘NME, Q’

·         ‘I don’t im afraid’

·         ‘none’

·         ‘none’

 8.       If you were making a music magazine, what would you put into it? For example, upcoming events, artists etc.

·         ‘Artists’

·         ‘artists, gig/tour dates’

·         ‘Artists, upcoming gigs’

·         ‘interesting stuff’

·         ‘tour dates, interviews’

·         ‘upcoming concerts and tours’

·         ‘probably upcoming events and artists’

·         ‘quiz’

·         ‘chart updates, interviews and a quiz’

 9.       Do you prefer more images in magazines or more text?

·         Images = 91.7 %

·         Text = 41.7 %

 10.   Would you be interested in hearing about local artists/ bands in a music magazine?

·         Yes = 91.7 %

·         No = 33.3 %

I used ‘Surveymonkey’ to create a questionnaire for my audience research. This questionnaire has helped me to gather the target audience and their views on a music magazine. The first and second question connotes to me that the target audience is mainly boys of the ages 11-20. This allows me to design the magazine to mainly suit boys of this age range. The third question allows the audience to give their favourite genre of music, so that I could choose the highest scoring genre to attract a larger audience. The results showed that ‘Indie’ and ‘Rock’ received the most votes with 66.7% each. I will use this as my music magazine genre because it is most likely to draw the attention of a much bigger audience and be more successful. The fourth question asks what would draw people to read a music magazine. The majority of answers given were ‘artists’, so this will be my main attraction of my music magazine. The fifth question asks what colour theme they would most like to see on a music magazine. The majority of the answers referred to the colours black and white, with a bright colour to mix with them, such as red, blue or yellow. These results will make me use these colours so that the audience are happy with the colour scheme, together with it relating to the genre of music that I am portraying in my music magazine. The sixth question asked for the price in which people are willing to pay for a music magazine. The price range which was most popular to the audience is ‘£1.01- £2.00’, so this is how much my magazine will roughly cost. The seventh question asked what magazines they already read. Most of the answers were the magazines ‘NME’ and ‘Q’. These results will allow me to have a similar style to these magazines, thusly fulfilling the audience’s interests. The eighth question asks what the audience would like to see in the music magazine. The results included artists, gig/tour dates, interviews, chart updates and quizzes. I will include these in my magazine so that the audience has what they would like to see in my music magazine. The ninth question asked whether they would like to see more images or more text in the magazine. The majority of vote’s show that mostly images is the favourite. This will make me structure my magazine so that there are a lot of images in my magazine, as well as text. The final question asks whether they would be interested in local artists and band in the magazine. The results show that most people would be interested, so I will include this in my magazine. In conclusion, the questionnaire has been successful because it gives me a general idea of what to include in the magazine, how to structure/organise the magazine and what audience I should be aiming to buy my magazine.