Music Fan Profile

Ideal indie

Age - 15-30

What is an ideal indie? -  Usually a self-appointed "Musician" who thinks their taste in music is really different and unique to everyone else's, they know loads of different bands and just want to find new things/ ways to improve the music.

What he’s wearing – skinny jeans usually designer or from top shop. Either a graphic t-shirt with a catchy slogan/ picture or stripped usually white and another colour (red or blue), unlike the jeans the top is lose fitting around arms and neck. Over the top an undone hoddie with a Harrington jacket over the top. Converse damps on feet done up lose so they are comfortable

Listening to – all different types of low key unsigned bands as well as some more main stream bands like cold play and the killers.

Wants to be - sees this as a stupid question but wouldn’t mind being in his own band with a record label just doing what he loves listening to and making music.

Find him – either out with his mates or in his ‘room’ chilling to some unknown band maybe strumming his own guitar.        

Reader Profile

Music magazine questionnaire

Music magazine questionnaire

Circle your chosen answer to the following questions

1.     What gender are you …..

Female                     

Male

2.     What age group are you in ….

10-15                                                 26-30

16-20                                                 31-35

21-25                                                 36-40

3.     What Genre of music do you like the most ….

Pop                                                     Indie

R&B                                                    Rap                            

Rock                                                   Other (please state)

4.     What 4 subjects would you most want to read about in a music magazine (pick 4) …

Up and coming artists                               Top of the charts

Gig/ festival reviews                                  Music competition

New albums tracks                                    Band/ artist reviews

Other (please state)                                                                                              

5.     which of the following mast heads t you like the most …

Labels                                    infusion

Beats                                     Back to beatsix

Vibe                                        unplugged

Beatsix                                   Louder

Other (please state)

6.     Which of the following slogans do you prefer (pick 2)………

Why we listen                                                       

let the music speak

Hear the music, feel the music, be the music

Play the music, not the instrument

It’s what we listen for

Other (please state)

7. What colours should the magazine cover be (choose three)

White                                   Black

Red                                        Blue

Pink                                       Purple

Green                                   Other (please state)

8. What images would you like to see on the front of the magazine…..

Bands or band                   solo artist

Young artist                        old artist

Other (please state)

9. Who do you think the magazine should be aimed at ….

Young generation (15 -40)

Middle aged generation (41 - 59)

Older generation (60 +)

Other (please state)

10.Would you buy a music magazine ….

Yes

No

11. How much would you be willing to pay for a music magazine…

£1.00 – 1.50

£1.50 – 2.00  

£2.00 – 2.50

£2.50 – 3.00

          

Starting Points

I must think about the following aspects of my music magazine before you start planning your magazine the two main ones are …..

·      Genre of music

·      Target audience

But i must also think about…..

·      Analysing real music magazines focus on cover, contents page and articles about bands.

·      Create an imaginary band or music artist for the magazine cover, story and double page spread.

·      Create a questionnaire to carry out market research into your target audience.

·      Analyse images, bands and music artists in a range of music magazines. Identifying a particular style that you could use for your own magazine.

·      Read a range of articles in arrange of music magazines. Try to find a layout and style that you could use for my own magazine.      

What I need to think about to create an effective main image for my music magazine……

·       setting of shoot

·       location and time

·       who’s going to model

·       mise-en-scene

·       lighting

·       size of image

·       composition

·       camera angle

·       shot distance

·       background

·       genre of magazine

·       representation

·       setting – exterior or exterior

·       costume

·       props

·       pose

·       mast head position an size  

·       take at least 5 shots

Evaluation off school magazine front cover

Evaluation off school magazine front cover

Mast head

The mast head I chose for my school magazine was ‘KHS’ I chose this because it was the one that had most vote in my questionnaire, I think this an appropriate mast head as it is the abbreviation of the schools name and most pupils call the school by this name making it a popular and appropriate name for the school mag. When choosing a colour scheme for my magazine the most popular colours where navy and gold so when deciding the colour for my mast head I went with yellow/ gold for the writing with a thin black line running round the outside making it stand out. The mast head is positioned in the top left hand side of the page and takes up a good quarter of the page.

Image

When deciding the front covers main image I took in to account lots of factors such as who the magazine was aimed at, what aspects off school life it was going to focus on etc. Eventually I decide to use the picture I had taken of the upper school building with the new lift and windows shown in. I chose this image because it represents the school as a bright cheerful place with the blue sky in the back ground.  As my magazine is a sixth form magazine the image of the upper school building is appropriate as this is what is associated with the sixth form.

 My magazine has two subsidiary images these are a two shot close up of two rugby players and a long shot of the canteen. I think that the two subsidiary images are an appropriate size as they only take up a small amount of the page yet they are easy to see and understand. I decided to place the two subsidiary images on the bottom left hand side of the page as this seemed the best place to put them as there was only grass in the background which wasn’t important to the picture. Both subsidiary images give a clear indication on the story they are trying to tell, the two boys are both wearing rugby jerseys indicate that they play rugby and the story is going to be sport based. And the other picture of the canteen tells us about the new café etc.

Language

Strap lines and sell lines have been used on the front cover all together I used 5 of them spreading them out all over the cover drawing in readers. The strap lines do give a clear indication on the content of the magazine they are simple and bold giving the reader knowledge of the content. I have used a few puns and alliteration in my sell lines such as ‘Sporting Success’. Looking back over my magazine I have miss spelt two words ‘success’ and ‘canteen’.

When making the magazine I made sure I used lots of different fronts and font sizes varying it for different stories and sell lines. For the colour of the sell lines I decided to stick with the black and gold varying it to create the schools colours, I think this worked well as in the background you can see the yellow and black on the school sign.

Layout and design   

The layout of my page is very simple everything is kept to the left hand side of the page primarily because that is where the space is. When taking the picture I deliberately took the photo leaving the space so that I could fit the info/ pics in.  I think that my front cover is quite appealing to the reader out of 10 I would rate it around 7, mainly because of the sell line ‘Saved by the bell’ I think made this a little big and chose the wrong colour. If I were to do it again I would make the line smaller and change it to gold colour so that more focus would be on the mast head.   

Strengths

Three aspects that I feel are good on front cover are:

·        Main image – of school

·        Having a header and footer giving extra information

·        Layout – simple and easy to follow

Targets for improvement

Three aspects that I feel need to be improved are:

·        Main sell line – ‘ saved by the bell’

·        Reposition the mast head so everything is in line

·        Another subsidiary image

Final Front cover

 Front cover drafts

Top 4 photos for front cover