Music magazine- 1st photoshoot pictures

This week, I have done a photo shoot which some of the images i have taken will go onto my music magazine. I done the photo shoot with four other people and we all helped each other by taking pictures of ourselves or together. The pictures i have put on my blog will almost definitely go into my music magazine. I am still going to do one more photo shoot with other people to vary the range of 'music artists' that will be in my magazine. I will do this so there is not just the same faces appearing on the pages and so their is a range.

Out of all of the photo's we took in the photo shoot, i have only selected the ones that will look appropriate for the music genre of the magazine. 

     

      

Plan for the pictures I will take for my music magazine

For my music magazine, I will think carefully about the pictures im going to use. They will obviously all be related to music so that it fits the theme and genre. The models I will use to take photos of will be age ranged from 13-16 and will be people that I know very well. This is good because it means that I trust the models and that they know me well enough to not be shy around me and to do what I say. They will be posed with musical instruments such as guitar and tambourines. I will be photographing a group of girls, which will represent a ‘big famous girl band’ in my magazine.  I will mostly take my pictures with a professional DSLR camera in front of a white backdrop and use studio lights to make the quality better. The people that I will be photographing will be standing in my choice of positions so that it is completely how I want it to be. 

Double page spread essay

In class we looked at two double page spreads from two different magazines. They were from ‘we love pop’ and ‘Q’ magazine. 

‘We love pop’ has a target audience of teenage girls who love the latest gossip from all the biggest pop artists. The ‘we love pop’ double page spread is mainly focusing on ‘Tulisa’, a former member from the band ‘N-Dubz’ and a current X factor judge. The main text story is a conversation interview, having a casual chat about what Tulisa thinks about the ‘banter’ they have in the X factor and what she thinks about other celebrities she is friends with. The tone of the interview is informal because it is a chatty gossip interview, so phrases like 'You only have to sit down for a biscuit with Tulisa.' is persuasive and informal.

Q’ magazine’s double spread's target audience is mainly men who like rock music and who are maybe interested in the celebrities Biffy Clyro, Simon Neil, and Ben and James Johnston.  Also, just like the ‘we love pop’ magazine, the main text  on the double page spread is a conversation interview. This is personal towards the audience, because although it is a conversation between two people not reading the article, quotes from celebrities make the reader more involved. Words like "What are you having?" is a personal question which relate to the audience. This double page spread text is also informal, and use words that could only be understood if you knew about the subject; such as 'just don't challenge them to a game of Hotel'. If you didn't know the subject of the conversation before, it may be hard to understand.

The pictures spread across the 'We love pop!' page spreads are quite similar. Because the story across the pages mainly focus on Tulisa, all of the pictures are either her on her own, or with another well known celebrity friend. These have been put on the page between parts of texts to again remind the reader what the main story is about. A mixture of posed individual shots and group pictures have been put on the pages for varied effect, but the biggest pictures seem to be the ones of just Tulisa, which are long body shots The little pictures have been used to support parts of the conversation. For example, Tulisa is asked whether she knows a member of One Direction; Harry Styles, and in the middle of the paragraph about that, a picture of them both has been placed for entertainment purposes and to back up the story. 

However, the Q double page spread pictures are different. The only picture on the spread is the big one on the back which takes up the whole of a page. The picture is of three men, who are seen as having a party, with lots of alcohol, no tops on not really caring about the mess. On the bottom right hand corner of the picture, the words 'having a quiet night in in front of the X factor', is using sarcasm which goes against what the picture shoes. 

The last feature to analyse on these two double page spreads, are the layouts. The 'we love pop!' page spreads the layout is set out a lot like a newspaper article. With the headline along the top and a smaller font quote telling us more information on the story. Below the headline, a picture is in the middle of the circle of text and the layout of this page makes the picture stand out, and suggest the text links to what the picture shows. Underneath the picture was a quote from the text, again hinting parts of the story to make the reader eager to read it. The second page is a big whole page spread picture of Tulisa, and the third page of the spread, the text is down the right hand side with a total of 7 pictures, that overlap over each other a bit, all the pictures are different sizes, the biggest one being the one of Aston Merrygold and Tulisa. The last page layout is quite similar to the third one which is again a big picture (Of Tulisa), a smaller picture of Harry and Tulisa, with text on the right hand side going down. 

In the Q double page spread, the layout is quite simple. There are no images on the first page and the text is set out again like a newspaper article. The text is written in 2 columns and takes about about three quarters of the page. Like the 'we love pop!' first page, the main headline 'Biffy Clyro' is central along the top, with smaller font below it explaining more about the article. The text layout has been set out with interview names, with the speech next to the celebrities initials and the question they are being asked above it. 

From looking and analysing both magazine double page spreads, i have learnt that more information has to be included than i thought and that the pictures have to be completely relevant, otherwise the reader will not be interested or think that the pictures used are boring and unnecessary. I have also learnt from these double page spreads, however the article is laid out, my text i produce for my music magazine should be stories that will entertain the reader and make them want to carry on reading it. 

Publication Plan

Name of magazine: 'Tuned In'

Font of name: chalkboard

Positioning statement: "Tuning in to the latest music!"

Frequency of publication: fortnightly

Price: £1.50

Distribution: Corner shops, food shops, bookshops
Target audience: teenage girls from age 13-18

Rationale: (what is the thinking behind the magazine - have you identified a gap in the market?) – The thinking behind the magazine is that the audience will want to continuously buy it because of the information and gossip inside

Style: for both genders, female and male pictures

Regular content: Latest gossip on current music, boy& girl bands, pictures, tour dates, interviews, poster pages and an activity page

Feature content in your issue: Big page poster of the band

House style: what font will you use? Will it be the same for articles/headings/captions?- I will use Chalkboard font for headings, captions will be in ‘Arial narrow’,  and articles will be written in arial Unicode MS’. 

Questionnaire analysis

Magazine publishing companies research

Bauer Media:
·Closer
·Heat·Mother and baby magazines
·Zoo
·Kerrang!
Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group; Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. Our business is built on influential media brands with millions of personal relationships with engaged readers and listeners. Our strategy is to connect audiences with excellent content through our broad multi-touch point brand platforms, wherever and whenever and however they want.

National magazine company

·ELLE
·Reveal
·Sugar Scope
· Netdoctor
Hearst Magazines UK is the trading name of National Magazine Company Ltd, established in 1910 by William Randolph. Its major interests include magazine, newspaper and business publishing, cable networks, television and radio broadcasting, internet businesses, TV production and distribution, newspaper features distribution and real estate. It is one of the foremost magazine publishers in the UK and is renowned for producing quality magazines and fostering new talent. Hearst Magazines UK believes fresh, quality journalism and creativity is of paramount importance across all Hearst Magazines UK brands, from Cosmopolitan and Red, to Esquire and Harper's Bazaar.

Future publishing
·TechRadar (the UK’s number one consumer technology website),
·T3
·Total Film
·BikeRadar
·MusicRadar
·Classic Rock
·Official Xbox Magazine
Future plc is an international media group, listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR).  Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 200 specialist publications, apps, websites and events. We hold market-leading positions in our core sectors: Technology, Entertainment & Video Games, Sport & Auto, Music and Creative.

IPC Media
·Marie Claire
·Ideal home
·Women weekly
They focus on mass market women's division comprises famous women's weeklies, TV entertainment brands including What's on TV and the goodtoknow network. Our men's portfolio, IPC Inspire, has a wealth of leisure as well as lifestyle. IPC Southbank is our upmarket women's division and comprises luxury fashion brands, lifestyle and Essentials and home interest brands.

Conde Nast
·Brides
·Glamour
·Golf district
· Lucky
·VogueCondé
Nast is home to some of the world’s most celebrated media brands. In the United States, Condé Nast publishes 18 consumer magazines, four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps for mobile and tablet devices, all of which define excellence in their categories. The company also owns Fairchild Fashion Media (FFM), whose portfolio of brands serves as the leading source of news and analysis for the global fashion community.

BBC worldwide
·Radio times
·Cbeebies
·Good food
BBC Worldwide is the commercial arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). We exist to maximise the value of the BBC's assets for the benefit of the licence fee payer by creating, acquiring, developing and exploiting media content and brands around the world. We also focus on creating value from BBC content and showcasing British talent both in the UK and international markets.

Hachette Filipacchi
Hachette Filipacchi Media, S.A. (HFM) is the largest magazine publisher in the world. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardre Media of France. Hachette Filipacchi was founded by Louis Hachette in 1826 when he purchased the Librarie Brdif. Hachette was purchased by Matra in 1980, a firm associated with Tnot & Filipacchi.

Examples of contents pages we analysed

Analysing a magazine front cover- 'Closer' magazine

 This is a front cover from the magazine 'Closer' that we annotated today in class. I have labelled the main features that make it obvious that this is a magazine cover and explained why and how. All these points are going to help me when creating my own music magazine. Because my magazines genre is music, the features such as advertising products to my target audience and making sure my articles are appealing to the reader is going to help when producing it. The feature I like the most on this magazine cover is the layout. The pictures have been cropped and scaled to fit the sections and shows the reader the main storys inside. 

Analysing contents pages essay

In today’s lesson, we looked at four different magazine contents pages and analysed each one in detail. The magazine contents pages we analysed are ‘Mix mag’, ‘we love pop’ ‘Q magazines’ and ‘NME’. All of them share some of the same features, but also differ in some way.

The first magazine contents page I am going to analyse is ‘We love pop’ and the contents pages it is similar too. This contents page target audience is mainly teenage girls who like pop music. The pictures on this page are varied; there are 6 main pictures, the biggest being the picture in the middle of Tulisa, with a strip of another 11 little pictures along the bottom, which are previews of posters that are included in the magazine. All the pictures are of celebrity singers of pop music, which is relevant to the target audience. ‘Q magazine’ pictures on their contents page is similar. The images are of musicians; there is one main picture on the right side of Adam Ant, just like the main picture of Tulisa on ‘We love pop’ magazine. The layout of the contents page is a little block with the title ‘Inside this month…’ and with 10 stories being shown with their page numbers. This layout is similar to ‘Q magazine’ as this contents page also has a box named ‘REGULARS” with a few stories mentioned with the page numbers. Also the layout of both magazines is similar because the contents are in numbered chorological order. This has been done to make it easy for the reader.

Another magazine that I analysed in today’s lesson is Mixmag. This magazine is a dance music and clubbing magazine with the target audience being young adults up to the age of around 30 whom like club and dance music. There is not much language that can be analysed because the majority of the contents page is filled up by big pictures, but at the bottom of the first page of the double page spread; there is information on ‘your free CD’. This is informing the reader on the artist of the CD and the songs that are included are listed on the right hand side. Where the page numbers are, are the title of the article and underneath are a brief explanation about each story. 

This is similar to the NME (New Music Express) magazine. On this contents page of the NME magazine, there are 8 pictures that vary in size all over the page, which indicates there is less space for text. The language used, are all quotes that come from the stories. For example, on page 6, under the picture of a musician playing the guitar, the quote is “Someone’s gonna have to go to the hospital” and is in capital letters which suggests it being an important quote in that article. Under the quote, there is smaller but bold font, which gives a few words about the article. For example “Howler visit everywhere on the NME tour.”  Both magazines also state the page numbers on the bottom corners of the images, and the actual contents and page numbers are not the main focuses on the page, the images are.

The only magazine contents page out of the four that have a logo is ‘We love pop!’ Their logo is ‘WE 'heart' POP!’ and is situated on the top right hand side of the page, next to the title. The rest of the magazine contents pages have the name of the magazine (Mixmag) along the top, such as ‘CONTENTS’ on Q magazine or ‘Inside this week’ for NME magazine. Fonts are also varied on some of the magazine contents pages. Especially NME, where the font is different for every story briefly mentioned. This could be to give variety and not make it look simple, but to also give the impression there is a reason for the font to be varied from section to section. Some of the language is bold, and some is italic.

When I make my own music magazine contents page, I will use this analysis to view how other magazines lay out, colour, place images and use language and put it into action for my own one. I will also use the analysis to see which features went well and which ones needed more improvement so I can reflect the good ideas onto my magazine.

Music magazine questionnaire

I am creating a music magazine for my media coursework. I have been asked to create a questionnaire that is aimed at 8-15 year olds which is my target audience. I would appreciate if you took five minutes of your time to complete my questionnaire.

1) How old are you?

8-10

11-13

14-15

15+

2) Are you male of female? (Circle)
Male
Female

3) Are you interested in pop music? (Please circle)

Yes
No

4) If so, who is/are your favourite pop artists? (Please state at least 2)

…………………………………………………………………………

5) Do you buy any music related magazines? If so, please state which ones

…………………………………………………………………………………

6) How much would you spend on a fortnightly music magazine?
0.20p-0.60p
0.61p-£1
£1.1p-£3
3.1p-£5
£5+

7) What would encourage you to buy a music magazine?
Pictures
certain celebrities in the magazine
Freebies
Any other reasons, please state below

……………………………………………………………………………

8) In a music magazine, what would you like to see included?
 (Circle as many that apply)

Information/stories
Fun/entertainment pages
Music reviewsEditor’s columnMore related articles (e.g. how to dress like a pop star)Posters of musicians / things related to the topic____________________________________________________

I have chosen these questions for my questionnaire because they can tell me alot about the music artists my age group likes, whether they buy music magazines which is good considering im making one, and also tells me what the majority of my audience want to see included and this will help me because it will influence me and give me ideas of what to put in my magazine. The question i asked about the price will also give me a estimate of what my audience would be willing to pay for the magazine. I will also be able to see the different ideas depending on the gender of the person. 

What I've learnt from making my school magazine

By getting the chance to create a school magazine, it has taught me many things. Firstly it helped me to become more familiar with the programme 'Adobe Indesign' and 'Adobe Photoshop' which I have used to create the magazine and to edit my pictures on. Hopefully these skills will help me do well when making my music magazine. I will take ideas from the layout of my pictures and text and judge how big and small they need to be next time in order to make the magazine as detailed as i can. 
I think i will use similar ideas from my contents page of my school magazine, as this has worked nicely. The pictures have been spread out evenly, and surrounded by information and relevant captions. I have used a logo on both pages to make it recognisable to the audience, and it also makes it look professional.

Front cover and contents page draft 3

This is my final draft of my front page for the school magazine. The differences on this draft is that i have added a picture of a opened school book under the big picture of the school along the top. I have done this mainly to fill up the spaces but also to give effect that it is a magazine. The second change i have made on this draft, is i have added a picture of a 'effort sticker' i took myself on the bottom left of the page. I also added a caption underneath it saying 'See what students were the first to get effort stickers this term!' This is appealing to the audience and makes them want to look inside.

On my final draft of my contents page, i have done what i done on the front page and added the picture of a open book next to the page title to give effect. Also i have added a little bit more information under the pictures just to persuade the audience a little bit more. This is my final product of my magazine front and contents page.