Main production planning: initial ideas

Facebook Responses:
I put my mood board on face book, and asked a few questions about what people thought about it. These were the only responses that I got, and they weren't very helpful.

Mood Board

This is a mood board which shows the type of thing my audience can relate to in their every day life. I chose things which i knew were popular to them, and to myself aswell, as i would class myself as apart of this audience profile.

Magazine research and planning 2

Kerrang magazine

Audience
This magazine has an audience of people aged around 13 +. I wouldnt say any younger because most children under that would not be interested in music as a hobby, and so wouldnt actualy buy a magazine. But 13 year olds would just be developing an interest in things, and so would probably like to buy the magazine to gain knowledge about music they do and dont like.

The sexes would be both male and female, as music is ever really aimed at one or the other. So the magazine would be aimed at both aswell.

They would be around a D and a C on the Jicnar scale. They would enjoy things like socialising at places like gigs, and parties. They would be at the point in their life where they are finding out who they are musically, what they like and what they dont like.

Genre

This magazine has a genre of rock and mainly 'emo' music. Although sometimes other kinds of music is profiled in the magazine, it is usually of those two genres. 'Emo' music is formally known as emotionally expressed music, and it is the type of music where every lyric holds a sort of message, or take on the world. So the magazine caters for the audience of the music by making sure that they have interviews, and pages on where some of the artists explain their music and tell us what inspired them.

Title

The title of the magazine is the masthead, and it says 'Kerrang!' which is the magazine name. It is of a sans serif font and is behind the bands head. This is because Kerrang! is a very well known magazine and the layout and colouring makes it automatically recognised, so the masthead has no reason to stand out completely and hiding it a bit wouldnt be a risk on the magazines behalf. The colour is black, which yet again doesnt exactly make it stand out but it is unnecessary to do so. The colour black is classed as quite a smart colour, so although the magazine is not about making itself look pretty, it is about being organised and appealing to the audience, the colour black is just an easy colour to use. It makes the magazine look less amateurish and it automatically goes with everything else on the page.

Style

The layout of the page is fairly simple, and organised. They have managed to keep everything chronological yet still make it appeal to the audience. They places three bands name at the top of the magazines front cover. These bands include Enter shikari, and Funeral for a Friend. These two bands are very famous in the rock world, and would automatically let the potential reader know what this weeks issue will involve, and with these two bands being advertised Kerrang! would be certain of a sure sale. Also in the cover featured, it also has 'Travis Barker update' in with the two bands name. Travis barker is in a band called Blink 182 and he was recently involved in a terrific plane crash where it was feared he may never walk again. So putting the word 'update' next to his name readers will be instantly compelled to buy it as Travis Barker is a drumming ledgend. Then underneath that it has the masthead. Then it has the picture of the main featured band for this weeks magazine. This picture is usually quite large and covers over half of the magazine cover. Then it has two other features advertised, one being posters and the other being an interview. Then underneath that it mentions more names of bands in this weeks issue. The way everything is ordered has obviously been made to be less difficult as the audience suggests that they would not like to be bombarded with mounds of information. Also the use of pictures is balanced with the use of words, as the reader would like to have the pictures explained, like for example they may be confused if there was a picture on the cover, but no text explaining what it means or why it is there.

Content

The features in this magazine are generally the same every week, they have interviews, news, reviews, gig reports, new band information, posters and a main biography or interview with the biggest bands. The ones featured on my front cover example are news on Travis Barkers accident, a main sell of You Me At Six which combined a biographical text with an interview, it had posters for Madina Lake, Trivium and The Gaslight Anthem and there is an interview with the singer fron disturbed. Kerrang! rarely change the feature scheme, although on christmas they do a wish list from several famous singers or members of bands, and before the new year they put in peoples new years resolutions.

Photographs

The main photograph on the front cover of this is of the band You Me At Six. They are in a very typical, unoriginal stance, with them all slightly behind each other with the singer in the middle at the front, pulling a strange face. Music photography has become very limited now with very many bands trying to come in and create new styles, so Kerrang! have not tried to over complicate the picture, which is good as it then lets the potential buyers know exactly who there main sell is. You Me At Six are being represented as a fun, young band with a lot to say.

RockSound Magazine

Audience
The audience of this magazine is similar to the audience of most rock/punk/emo music magazines. The age would range from about 15+. I dont think it would be younger as this magazine prides itself on being 'more underground than commercial'. For this reason i dont think younger people than 15 would know a great deal about non commercial music, and so they would be more tempted to go on to magazines like Kerrang! where they are very commercial. They would be radicals and hedonist, post materialist and a B on the Jicnar Scale. They would the type of people who have a small weekend job, and save a small amount to go to festivals such as reading and leeds or download. They would go out socialising most nights, either drinking and partying or going to events such as a concert or the cinama. They would be 'fashionably' dressed wearing very abstract clothes, such as skinny jeans and leather jackets.
Genre
The Genre of this magazine is more indie/rock than Kerrang! was. It is very noncommercial, so will have alot of new and alternative bands featured in it, bands who may not be able to commit to a label of a genre. While its non commercial it still manages to cover the best and most famous rock bands, such as Paramore, Lostprophets and Trivium.
Style
The colours of this magazine are very plain and simple, using mainly light blues or green as the background. The masthead is of a bright green colour which makes it fit in well with the rest of the colour scheme, and making it slightly stand out. Having matching colours or colours which compliment themselves will make the magazine look very proffesional, and more appealing to any buyer. Again the masthead is very similar to Kerrangs! in the sense that the editors have slightly hidden it by putting it behind the band. RockSound, although not as popular as K!, is a well known rock magazine, and simply the layout and colouring of the magazine will make it automatically recgonisable, so the masthead is not really needed to jump out at us. Underneath the masthead we have a picture of the mainsell band, and then we have a freebie on the left hand side of the picture. Having a picture of the mainsell band undernead the masthead is a very common thing, as it is the first thing people tend to look at first. Then having the freebie information next to that is very clever, as it makes it very noticable and it will entice the reader furthurmore. Then on the bottom left hand side we have the list of all the more famous and recognisable bands that the magazine will be writing about in that weeks issue. Then on the right hand side there are three reverse lines, one includes an interview, another includes a chart to the top 20 thrash albums of all time, and the last involves a story on the band Megadeath. These are all things the editor thought would be good to advertise on the front page to the potential buyer, as they are all things people in the rock scene would like to know about.
Content
The features in this magazine are generally the same every week, they have interviews, news, reviews, gig reports, new band information, posters and a main biography or interview with the biggest bands. The ones featured on my front cover example is a story on Muse, an interview with Megadeath, there are posters, and there will be album, single, video and gig reviews for all the bands listed. RockSound rarely change the feature scheme, and the things they include in their magazine are very unoriginal and all very cloned. But it works well and they are a very popular magazine.
Photographs
The photographs in the magazine are usually taken by photographers payed by Rocksound, including all gig reviews and posters they may include. The main picture is of a band called Muse and again, as kerrang! did they have the band standing side by side, with the singer in the middle. It doesnt really portray any personality of the band, or what their music is about, it just shows them, which is all they want, because it is enough to entice anyone to buy it who are fans of that particular band.

Initial Research Magazines (Any Genre)

The main task that I have been given is to create a music magazine of a particular genre, consisting of a front cover, contents page and double page spread.
In order to to do this i will need to complete three things:

1: Research and Planning
2: Production
3: Evaluation

Rock Sound Magazine
Front Page
This magazines genre is rock/indie/pop-punk. It profiles a different variety of new and old bands, and tries to advertise to both mainstream and independant music audiences. Both male and female people will buy this magazine, and both of them will read it. They would be underacheivers and radicals, hedonists and be around an E and a C2 on the Jicnar Scale. The black and grey colouring of the magazines look very stylish, and indicate that this magazine is aiming out to an older teenage audience, so about 16+ whereas other magazines, like Kerrang! aim at a lower age.

Content
Rocksound uses a large image to cover two pages with a smaller article. The effect of using this large image is so that the reader gains instant interest by being able to directly focus on a large image. This is therefore more successful than using smaller images and as the article continues onto another page, the reader will be more likely to continue reading. For the image, the individuals are all wearing similar colour clothing which identifies them as a group. The magazine then uses yellow title boxes in the corners as to make them stand out as the section within the magazine on band 'exposure', this stands out to the reader and draws them even further into looking at the page and reading the article. The image also presents the main/lead person in the band to be percieved as the person in the centre as he is the person with the most animated expression, while the others look closer to being contempt. This ensures that the reader is focusing more upon one individual that the article may focus on.

Mix Mag

Front Cover
Mix Mag is a specifically designed magazine for dance music. It is aimed at students, who obviously like to get out and have a good time. Both male and female would buy this, although it does look slightly girly. It features things like Ibiza trips and free CDs to entice the audience further.
Content
This is an example of the kind of pages MixMag has in its content. This is titled 'This months must-have tunes!' Having that kind of title automaticaly entices the reader, especially as it would of been why they would of brought the magazine in the first place. This kind of title is good for an audience who has maybe just brought a new music player, or phone and would like to know what good, dance music there is for him/her purchase. The rest of the page shows example of a top ten chart, having the songs put down in chronological order, putting a small review of each tune underneath a picture of the artist who created the song. It then has a small section dedicated to one of the dance music industrys top artists, writing for MixMag exclusively. By that he has divised his own chart list. This is a very good feature as people will obviously be interested to read this anyway, as it features a good artist, but to know what music he finds good lets the audience feel closer to him, and it also ensures the reader will carry on reading it.

Q Magazine

Front Cover
Q magazine has a very, very varied take on music. Featuring Lily Allen to U2 it covers all sorts of music. The front cover is very simple, but it makes it stylish and appeal to the audience. It would appeal to both male and females, and it would aim at people around 17+. I dont think it appeals to a younger audience as it looks simple, and not very creative, and young people like there magazines to be filled with imagination.

Content

This is a double page spread featuring the band The Gaslight Anthem'. The way they are stood in the picture suggests they are very carefree, and happy to stand up to what they belive in, which is probably one of the themes of the piece about them anyway. I dont think that teenagers aged around 13+ would read this, unless they know of the band and are real fans of them. I think this because the page isnt very exciting, and magazines like Kerrang! have set a high bar for pages to be exciting and appealing to age groups like that. I think that the obvious older audience wouldnt be interested in what the page looks like in general, just aslong as it is simple and easy to read, which this double page spread is. It has simple, yet complimenting colours and how the picture is placed next to the text is very unoriginal, and chronological, so therefore easy to read.

Kerrang! Magazine

Front Cover
This magazine has a genre of rock and mainly 'emo' music. Although sometimes other kinds of music is profiled in the magazine, it is usually of those two genres. It is aimed at both male and female people, aged around 13 to 25, depending on what the magazine is covering. They would be underacheivers and radicals, hedonists and be around an E and a C2 on the Jicnar Scale. I think that this cover appeals to the audience because it has a sans serif font, which doesnt imply style and class, and makes it less intimidating for the readers. The main sell is the band LOSTPROPHETS, and the picture for them is large and takes up most of the cover, this entices fans of the band and it makes it more appealing, as it indicates there will not be alot of writing to read, and that is good for the audience of this magazine.

Content

This is an example of the content Kerrang magazine have in their magazine. It is of an album review of the band 'Five Finger Death Punch'. Prior to that it also has small album reviews on less well known bands on the side. On the review for FFDP it has a small interview from someone in the band. I think this is a good page as it lets the audience know which albums they think are good and not good, and as the reader will probably trust kerrang! they will go by what they say, and therefore create a sense of loyalty to the magazine. So if that reader needs to know about an album in the future, or about a band, then they will look to kerrang for the answers they give. It is a very simply laid out page, and it looks very neat. Although it wont exactly entice the reader, it gives them a chance to focus on the text, as there is alot to read.

Evaluation of Magazine

My magazine cover is similar to other magazines. It would of been hard to of created a design which wouldn't of been similiar to one, or basically the same. We researched into many college magazines, and chose three covers to analyse properly, and use as our main inspiration. My magazine is a college magazine, which automatically puts itself in competition with other college magazines. It is a magazine which is aimed at a large percentage of young people who would be interested in buying it, so it has to be the better one out of all other college magazines. Our masthead is the colour magenta, and has a sans serif font. This is a friendly type of font, one which is used on the majority of magazines aimed at students or younger people. This is because it doesn't frighten them away, and encourages them to buy it. It is also right at the top of the page, the place where everyone will look for the name, so it would be quickly known through students. Our puff is probably similar to ones which are used on many magazines which have nothing to do with college. It says ' The best college magazine in the world'. Although its cliche, and is probably not true, it entices the interest of the audience, and makes them want to read it and feel as though it really is the best college magazine in the world. Our coverlines contained an interview with the Actress Samia Smith. This was the main coverline as she is a celebrity, of whom everyone will know or recognise. Having a celeb as our coverline is a good way of advertising, as it automatically gets the buyer interested and ready to spend money on our magazine. We used a variety of different colours on the fonts, as this would keep the reader always looking at something and interested. Our magazine doesn't really have a genre, apart from the fact it is a college magazine. So this in a way keeps it different to other magazines because they would tend to be more of one genre, as to appeal to one type of audience. But we have things like sport, gigs and soap news appearing in our magazine. So this challenged normal conventions of a magazine. We also had a competition for tickets to see a popular group. This is a good way to keep buyers interested, as it will be a group which they would of heard of, and probably liked. So this challenges other magazines to produce other competitions to maintain the buyers interest.

Our audience is someone who is aged from 16-17 years old and are mostly 1st years in college. To attract this age group we used friendly and colourful font, and not too much writing, as in the first years of college it could feel like you are bowed down with the wieght of too much information. So a magazine with little writing would appeal to them. They live in Worcester, or very near to. To attract these we put in things like latest gigs, dates that are important and events happening in and around Worcester. This would be a big selling point as it would provide information they may not be able to find elsewhere, and keep them sociable. They live with their parents, and have no children of their own. To attract this type of audience, we put a picture of a young girl on the cover, as this relates to this audience, as she would obviously be a young, child free girl, who lives with her mum and dad. This would indicate to people like her that the magazine would be full on things that would interest her, and in retaliation to that relate to them. They would be Acheivers, Aspirers and Hedonists. To get their interest we used things like competitions, and interviews with famous celebs. This is because this would appeal to what they belive in, and what they want to read about. The masthead would encourage them to read it, as they wouldnt feel imtimidated by the serif, bold title, but welcomed by the soft and friendly sans serif font. They're between C2 and B on the Jicnar scale and hope to reach B and A when they become fully independant. The competition for JLS tickets definatly appeal to this audience, as they would not be able to afford things such as this on their own. It also gives them an opportunity to do something for themselves, even if it is just entering a competition. They tend to study a wide range of subjects from Chemistry to Photography, and therefore have a wide range of interests. They are interested in general high street fashion and chart music and like to follow the lastest celebrities. They are very sociable and enjoy big events such as festivals. Using all the conventions of my magazine helped to attract this audience; the colourful font, the masthead, the coverlines, the main sell. All of it was similiar to other college magazines, but that means that it shall be popular with students if those other magazines have made it.


In this whole task i have used a variety of websites that i have never heard of before. The main one being http://www.blogger.com/. This website provided me with a way to keep my work in a managable manner, and it easily let me see what was needed to be done. Another website i'd never used before is http://www.dafont.com/. I thought this website was very good for providing me with an alternative to the standard photoshop fonts, and it let me know for future reference where to go if i want an exciting font. Before we came to do this project, I was aware of how to use a DLSR camera fairly confidently. But as we progressed i became increasingly confident with which settings to use, whether to use the flash or not, and how much exposure was needed for the perfect photograph. I used my own camera for this project, and it has enabled me with the confidence i may need for other tasks in future. I found it relativly easy to set the camera onto the right setting to take a mid close up shot of our model. I used the setting portrait, as this blurs out the background and softens the skin of the subject. Before the preliminary work, i hadnt ever used photoshop for more than a quick experiment. I only knew how to crop, and how to save work. Now I can add layers, remove red eyes, remove bad skin, change the opacity of a certain layer, add text and format it, and how to import different pictures while you are still working on a different one. I am confident i know enough about photoshop to use it on my own now. Before the task i was completely unaware of how to download fonts from the internet, and how to use them in photoshop. Now i know to use the site dafont.com for anything i feel should have a more interesting font. I also found out properly how to change the colours of the font, so that it fits in well with whatever i am doing, in this case my magazine. Quark express was a programme of which i had never heard of. So using it to create my contents page was a daunting task, especially as id just gotten used to photoshop. I quickly found my way around how to use it correctly, and i think that the contents page we created was very good. The thing i liked doing was selected an image, and taking away all the white space, so that the text could fit around the pictures shape. I thought this looked very proffesional and stylish, all of which appeals to our audience.

Contents Page

This is the contents page to our magazine, Range.

Magazine Front Cover

This is the front cover to our magazine, Range.

Audience Profile for College Magazine

From our research we were able to create this audience profile.You range from 16-17 years old and are mostly 1st years. This means that the majority do not drive but are all keen to. You live in the West Midlands between Herefordshire and Worcestershire. You tend to live with your parents and have no children of your own. You tend to be Acheivers, Aspirers and Hedonists. You are between C2 and B on the Jicnar scale and hope to reach B and A when you become fully independant. You study a wide range of subjects from Chemistry to Photography, and therefore have a wide range of interests. You are interested in general high street fashion and chart music and like to follow the lastest celebrities. You are very sociable and enjoy big events such as festivals.

College Magazine Analysis

Solutions Magazine from Baylor College of Medicine.

• 
  Denotation - Masthead is in Sans Serif Font, Lower case. The text is brown and stands out from the background of a different colour. Connotation - friendly and inivting due to the font being soft. The colour, brown, conotes that the audience is likely to be adult as it is not a particularly attractive or child friendly colour. It isn't particularly glamourous and therefore this also helps to show the type of audience that would read it.

• Denotation - Multi-coloured image of a DNA strand which twists through a second image and is underneath informative text. Connotation - It shows it is scientific due to the nature of the image. The image is relevant to the magazine. It is made to give an exciting feel for science.

• Denotation - A hand, in a negative effect, stretched out through the DNA strand. Connatation - The way the hand is reaching into the DNA strand it makes you feel like you can take control of science, and it connotes that the magazine gives you the power to learn about science. The hand is purple which connotes things like mysitcal, wierd and magical. These are relavant to this magazine because science is wierd, and it will mysitify you.

• Denotation - The bottom right hand corner looks as thought it is being lifted up to reveal what is inside the magazine. It says " Discovery worth repeating" and it gives a page reference. Connotation - This connotes, discovery, excitment, interest into science. This is relevant because showing you a bit of the context intices the reader into getting the magazine.

Emmanuel College Magazine.

State College Magazine.

Planning for College Magazine.

I chose the above colour scheme for my college magazine as the bright colours are attractive to teenagers. Also i think that the colours used are attractive to both males and females.

The font used throughout the magazine will be san serif as it looks more informal and inviting. I think teenagers will be more interested in a magazine that looks like this as it connotes friendliness. In the masthead the title of the magazine will be in capitals sans serif, - RANGE. There will be a tagline underneath saying 'CELBRATE DIFFERENCE. This is also in sans serif font. The puff next to the tagline says 'Best selling college magazine in the world'.

The main sell will be a midclose up of an attractive female college student holding folders. This will be taken from side profile with her looking over her shoulder. She will have a positive expression on her face e.g. laughing and there will be a group of students sat behind her however out of focus. The picture will be taken outside as a shallow depth shot so that the group of students sat behind and the tree will be out of focus in comparison to the main sell. I think that this connotes sociability, fun and a relaxed atmosphere and this are all positive things that will help to interest people in the magazine.

The front cover also includes adverts for upcoming college gigs in order to involve the reader. Other features include student service ad's and celeb news and gossip. This gives interesting and important information to students displayed attractively. A freebie is included in the bottom left of the magazine, a free college pen for every reader. The pen connotes work but also it encourages you to have fun with it. This is because of the range of bright colours the pen will come in.