Flat Plan Designs

Here are the basic flat plans that i designed for my music magazine. I tried to include all of the necessary conventions that are included in other music magazines, for example, headlines, anchorage and slogans. I kept to my house style theme of black, white and yellow and tried to keep to one style font also. When I come to make my final magazine, I will most likely change some of these plans and edit them. This is just a basic outline and gives me an idea of how I want my magazine to turn out.

Music Magazine Cover Annotations

These two covers are from kerrang! magazine and both highlight all of the main features in music magazines that i will have to use in mine.

Behind the scenes

In these photos you can see how our studio was set up and how the lights were positioned. In the photos, you can see how we also used blue and red filters over the lights, and the effect they had. These photos just show what was happening on the scene of our photoshoot.  

Photoshoot Photos

These photos are my favourites from the photoshoot we did. We took several serious photos and a few accidental photos, which turned out to be the best ones. For the first photo, we decided that we should position ourselves so that we arent all just stood together in a line. And so we had people at different heights and different positions next to eachother. We also had it so that each one of us was looking at a different place in the photo. Two of us looked at the camera, one of us looked at the floor and one looked at the ceiling too. The second photo was took on the spur of the moment, but it turned out to be one of our best photos. In magazines, when you have interviews with bands, there are usually serious photos then at least one showing the band "messing around". I think the second photo would be a good one to use for this.

 We also took some smaller group shots using the redhead lights and put a red and green filter on them. This gave us a pink background but a green shadow on our models. We also used different props to make our photos more interesting. for example, in these photos we used a big hairband, hats and oversised glasses. We also used different compositions when taking the photos. For example, we had two models looking down at a camera in this first shot and in the second, one looking at the camera and one looking away.

Health and Safety During the Photoshoot

1. The redheads are fragile. When transporting them use the bag and padding. Dont knock them and 2 people must carry them.
2. They are hot! Take extreme care when handling lights.
3. Dont cover them with anything.
4. Dont look directly at them.
5. Switch off when not in use.
6. Bulbs are expensive and break easily so take extreme care.
7. Tape down all wires and cables.

Music Magazine House Style Ideas & Questionnaire

This is a sample of different colours and fonts i will experiment with for my house style for my music magazine. My favourite fonts are the second and third ones. For my masthead, i will most likely use the third font as it is more detailed and bolder. The second font would be used as subheadings and i would use the last font as text within the magazine.



Music Magazine Questionnaire

Male or female:
Age:

1.    What genre of music do you feel is your favourite (tick all that apply)?
Indie/Alternative

Rock  

House
Rap
Metal
Soul

Other (please state) _____________________________________________

2.    What (if any) of these music magazines do you read?
Q Magazine
NME
Kerrang!
Mojo                           
Rolling Stone
Other (please state) ____________________________________________

3.   What kind of features do you expect to see in music magazines?

4.   What price would you pay for a music magazine?

5.   Would you expect freebies with a music magazine?


6.   Are there any artists you admire that influence your lifestyle? (E.g.- clothing)

7.    Who is your favourite singer/band?

8.   Do you go to watch and support local bands?

9.   What social group do you feel you fit into most?
       Emo, Chav, Indie, Clubber, Goth, Pop Prince(ess), Skater, Other


10. Circle your favourite artists from this list:

      Paramore, Madness, Katy Perry, Fall out Boy, The Cure, Bruno Mars, None, JayZ, Metallica, LL cool J

RESULTS
The age range of these questionnaire results is 16-17 and the main gender is female. 3 males and 7 females took this questionnaire.
1. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 6 said Indie/Alternative, 2 said Rap,1 said House and 1 said Rock2. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 5 said Kerrang, 2 said NME and 3 said none
3. The main features people wanted to see in music magazines included: Competitions, exclusive interviews, posters and top bands of the month.

4. The price people would pay for a music magazine ranged from £1-£5.00, I would settle in the middle for £2.50-£3.00.

5. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 8 said they would expect freebies and 2 said they wouldn't.

6. Some of the artists named that influenced lifestyle included, Hayley Williams of Paramore, Matt Bellamy of Muse, rapper Jayz and Lady Gaga.
7. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 2 people said Enter Shikari, 1 said Jay Z, 3 said Paramore, 1 said Fall Out Boy, 2 said Lady Gaga, and 1 said Katy Perry.

8. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 6 said they DO go to support local bands and 4 said they DONT go and support local bands.

9. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire 1 person circled Emo, 1 person circled Chav, 4 people circled Indie, 2 circled Pop Prince(ess) and 2 circled other.

10. Paramore were circled 4 times, Madness were circled once, Katy Perry was circled 4 times, Fall out Boy were circled 3 times, The Cure were circled twice, Bruno Mars was circled 3 times, None was circled once, Jay Z was circled twice, Metallica was circled once and LL Cool J was circled once.

The majority of these answers reveal that these readers are mainly Indie/Alternative that read magazines like Kerrang or NME. Most of the features people like to see are Posters, Competitions, Bands of the Month and exclusive interviews. The acceptable price range would be between £2 and £3. Most of these people would expect some sort of freebie from a magazine.
Popular people are Lady Gaga, Hayley Williams, Jay Z and Matt Bellamy. The most popular favourite bands/singers were Lady Gaga, Paramore and Enter Shikari. Most of these readers DO go to support local bands. Fall out boy, Katy Perry and  Paramore were the most popular artists and most people consider themselves in the indie category.

Final College Magazine

This is the cover of my college magazine and contents page.

For my front cover i used the main colours of black and yellow. I used two different fonts, "label" and "poplar". The main font is "label" and used the yellow theme because it reminded me of the label tape that was used in the 70's. This also links into my music magazine that i will create as Indie/rock music is associated with 70's style clothing. Both photos on the contents and cover are in the same kind of environment, surrounded by trees and quite shaded. This reflects the fact that the first issue is being issued in autumn.

I put the more important words in the bold white writing so that they stand out and draw people's attention to the headings. My target demographic for this magazine is students aged 16-19. It is aimed at a male and female audience as the colours are quite neutral and the articles on the front cover and in the contents are mixed. For example i have included sport news, which is stereotypically male news, and Hair the college musical, which is stereotypically more female news inside. It also contains articles based on college life such as Enrichment, trips, Prior's got Talent and Children in Need week. It also includes a questionnaire to find out what students like and dislike about college life.

I used a variety of conventions in my magazine. The masthead is big and is the main focus of the front cover. It takes up the majority of the top of the page and, besides the picture is the biggest feature on there. The barcode at the bottom also contains the issue number. The captions on my cover such as "who won what?" are smaller than their headings and in one font rather than varying.   

Magazine Shots

                                                      These are a few of the shots we got for our college magazines.

The shots we needed had to be medium close ups of a student in college. For this shot we had the student stand in front of a tree and then threw leaves in front of the camera lens. We used a simple medium close up shot as this is one of the conventions that most magazines use for their front covers. We had the student smiling rather than looking serious as it would reflect the feel of the college and the magazine more if the front cover had a happy/ fun side to it. The second picture we took on an angle from above. We had the student sit on the bench and smile and used the rule of thirds to get her into the furthest left third while having all the autumn leaves behind in the background. For the third picture we put the camera on a timer and rested the camera on the floor. This way we could get a clear picture of ourselves but the leaves at the front near the lens would be out of focus. I used this as the contents page as the main focus of the photo is in the middle, meaning there would be room for the name of the magazine at the top of the page and room for the contents list at the bottom of the page.We also practiced with different camera shots.

Genre




 The Killers are described as a indie/rock band. According to official research indie bands are influenced by seventies style,charity shop style clothing and floppy hair. As you can see in this picture they have floppy hair and vintage/70s style clothing. Some examples of other indie bands are Razorlight, Ash and Keane. Here are some more bands that share a similar style and similar genre of music:
  




The Kings of Leon



Razorlight





Representation

The Killers are represented as a lively and energetic band when performing on stage. When on stage their costumes are kept to a minimum but are inspired by era's such as the 80's as the band draw most of their influences from the music styles of the 80's. This is reflected in this picture of frontman, Brandon Flowers' shoulder padded jacket which also shows him singing energetically.

In The Killers music videos however, the costumes and settings are very over the top such as that in the video for "Spaceman" that you can see here on the right. This may be done as an artistic choice or to get people to remember the band, the song and video. Their music video costumes are very similar to that of newer artist Lady Gaga. At the 2009 BRIT awards, He and Lady Gaga then performed together with the Pet Shop Boys as part of a medley of their hits.

Music Magazine Photography

The music artist i have chosen to research is The Killers. They are an american alternative/indie rock band formed in 2001 in Las Vegas. The band members consist of; Brandon Flowers- vocals and keyboards, Dave Keuning- guitar and backing vocals, Mark Stoermer- bass guitar and backing vocals and Ronnie Vannucci Jr.- drums and percussion. The name "The Killers" supposedly comes from the bass drum of a fictional band in the music video for the New Order song "Crystal". The Killers signed British indie label Lizard King Records in 2003.

On August 19th 2003, Mr Brightside premiered on  DJ Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show in the UK. The Killers then travelled to London and began to play shows in bars and clubs, the crowds grew every night through word of mouth and reviews were very positive. Soon after returning to the US they were signed by Island Def Jam. The Killers have won four NME Awards; Best International Band in 2005, 2008 and 2009 and Best Video for "Bones" in 2006.

ALBUMS.

Hot Fuss; 2004-2006.
Sam's Town; 2006-2007.
Sawdust; 2007-2008.
Day and Age; 2008-2010.

Music Magazine Covers

This magazine cover is really busy and contains lots to look at on the front page. The main headline in the middle of the page stands out immediatley with its bright yellow background and bold red writing. It will appeal to a wide variety of people because it has a variety of genres on the cover such as Little Boots, The Killers, Florence and The Machine and White Lies. It also has four genres of music in the bottom right corner of the cover; "Dance, Hip-Hop, Metal and Indie". It appeals to both genders and many different music tastes and the age range of this magazine would be 15-40 generally. The photo of Florence from Florence and The Machine takes up most of the space on the right hand side of the cover and is bigger than the title of the magazine which will help to sell more copies as she is a popular artist. There are a few sub headings, "The Killers" up at the top, "Scene Reports" at the bottom right corner and also "50 Years of Motown" at the top right. Each artist on the left hand side also has a heading and a picture to themselves. The three primary colours used on the NME cover are black, yellow and red which suggests that it is aimed at men mainly although many women still buy it. Everything on the cover is very bold and stands out which leaves you with a lot of information to take in on the cover.