Planning production: rough sketches

Today in the lesson, I drew rough sketches of my front cover and contents page.

Article Research

Interview Questions
This is what I will ask the guitarist.

1.       When did you start learning to play the guitar?

2.       Can you play any other instruments?

3.       Who are your main musical influences?

4.       What is your favourite famous guitar solo?

5.       What is the first record you ever bought?

6.       Do you still own any vinyls?

7.       How do you think the internet affects the music industry?

8.       Describe your music in 3 words.

9.       Is there any rivalry with other bands?

10.   Who have you most enjoyed working with?

11.   How did it feel to headline for the first time?

12.   How do you feel when you perform?

13.   How did you find your tour?

14.   What warm-up methods do you use before a gig?

15.   Is there any conflict between band members?

16.   What would you do if you weren’t in the band?

17.   Has it always been your dream to pursue a career in music?

18.   Who would you love to record with?

19.   How would you react if you were asked to perform at the Leeds festival?




DPS article:

Geof Gardiner. Rock legend.

Geoff’s laid back demeanour came across as we started to talk with his appearance and passion for black alluding to his musical style.

“My favourite place to be is on stage,” enthused Geoff Gardiner, lead guitarist of White Trash ana Half Cast. “As soon as I start playing, I sorta get lost in it.” From the moment Geoff started talking about his music, he changed from a shy guy to the confident, energised performer we see on stage.

Inspired by his dad, his passion began when he was 14, having started learning the guitar, his love for music grew.

Some of Geoff’s influences include Radiohead, Rancid and Nirvana, with Jimmy Hendirx’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’ being his favourite guitar solo, as you can’t help being drawn in by the hypnotic sound. The first albums he bought were ‘Nevermind’ -Nirvana, and ‘Dookie’ –Greenday. “I still buy vinyls quite regularly” -It’s always a good sign of a hard core music enthusiast to hear that!

Having gone through college with singer, Collin Jones they worked on numerous projects outside Geoff’s band and Geoff told ROCK that he’d love to work with him again. “We’ve learnt a lot together music-wise”. Clearly Geoff has taken inspiration from many sources.

White Trash ana Half Caste were fortunate enough to capture the attention of Alan McGee, the manager of Oasis. Having recognised their talents, he took them on and they were soon on tour, supporting White Mice. “It was good, yeah! It’s a way to get out there. I did enjoy it, it was a good experience.”

Not long after, the band was asked to perform at the Leeds Festival. Unfortunately there was personal issues and they had to pull out, but “at the time we were very excited! It was a letdown not to, but actually getting to play it would be absolutely brilliant!”

Geoff describes headlining for the first time as “the best feeling in my life. I’ve never come across anything better than that.”  He still gets nervous before a live gig and does warming up exercises to get his fingers going. By the time he’s on stage, Geoff is full of energy and ready to rock!

There was a slight hesitation from Geoff when we asked if there was any conflict between band members. “There has been, nothing too major. There’s been a few discrepancies with which direction the songs should go, or which songs shouldn’t be played live. But nothing too extreme.” Luckily for fans, there’s no sign of them breaking up.

Can Geoff play anything else? “Not competently, no” Geoff says modestly. “I can do a little bit on the drums, little bit on the keyboard, but mainly guitar”.  You get the feeling that Geoff likes to try out all the band’s instruments and he’s most probably better than he’s letting on.

As it’s always been Geoff’s dream to pursue a career in music, he admitted: “If I wasn’t in a band, I’d be wishing I was!” We were also told that he’d love to record a song with Tom Waits. So would we!

 Geoff sees the emergence of the internet as a great place for young bands to be heard. Their  popular myspace page got them a lot of acknowledgement and they gained many fans via this platform.

There was a slight hesitation from Geoff when we asked if there was any conflict between band members. “There has been, nothing too major.  There’s been a few discrepancies with which direction the songs should go, or which songs shouldn’t be played live. But nothing too extreme.” His hesitation causes some suspicions but, luckily for fans, there’s no sign of them breaking up.

It was an absolute pleasure to talk to Geoff Gardiner and we at ROCK, are hoping that White Trash ana Half Cast will be at Leeds soon, as we just can’t get enough of this awesome band!

‘Voices In My Head’ is now free to download on iTunes until 1^st January 2012!

Planning Production

These are the detailed decisions I've made about what I'm going to produce.
Front cover image: James Costello, Rock artist.
Coverlines:
MAIN STORY- Exclusive! James Costello.. "Drugs influence my music"
Roy Reynolds reveals... We get the inside scoop about Enter Shikari's constant conflict!
Blind date with Brendon Urie... We picked one lucky subscriber to unexpectedly meet the singer of Panic! At The Disco
Patrick's new partner... Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump takes time out of the band to work on a project with upcoming artist Dennis Jones.
Competition! -Win tickets to a gig of your choice!
FREE downloads!

Text for contents page:
Regulars:
Fan letters
Album reviews
Gig reviews
Upcoming gig list/ tour dates
New bands and artists
Poster page
Music-related crosswords
Features:
Best English venues
Blink 182's new tour
Leeds festival line up
Free stickers
Exclusive poster of Tom Delonge
Competition- Win tickets to a gig of your choice!
Band news- MCR have split up!
Vote for band of the year
Tribute to casey Calvert
Competition winner interviews Blink 182
How to become the ultimate band
Quiz- How well do you know your music?
Free downloads
The Stone Roses reunion
Guns 'n' Roses UK tour
Exclusive interview with ____ (new artist that will be my main cover story)
Roy Reynolds reveals... We get the inside scoop about Enter Shikari's constant conflict!
Blind date with Brendon Urie... We picked one lucky subscriber to unexpectedly meet the singer of Panic! At The Disco
Patrick's new partner... Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump takes time out of the band to work on a project with upcoming artist Dennis Jones.


Images for contents page:
(Blind date with Brendon Urie article) Close-up of someone wearing a blindfold
James Costello- image on front cover.
DPS image.
Small image of band

Double Page Spread:le photographs that I took which I could us

Photographs I've Taken

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Publication Plan

This is the information about my music magazine.

Title: ROCK
Positioning statement: Dare To Be Deafened
Frequency of publication: Weekly
Price: £2 (Although my questionnaire showed that £3-4 was a reasonable price, it is too expensive for a weekly music magazine. My target audience won't be able to afford to buy it every week.)
Distribution: Supermarkets, newsagents, music shops e.g. HMV
Rationale: The appraoch of the magazine is to relate to fans and get involved and personal with bands, so that readers feel like they've met them. It will appeal to young people who are more open to different aspects of rock music.
Style: Informal, slang, laid back, exciting, short paragraphs, relevant images, consistent colours.
Regulars:
Fan letters
Album reviews
Gig reviews
Upcoming gig list/ tour dates
New bands and artists
Poster page
Music-related crosswords
Features:
Best English venues
Blink 182's new tour
Leeds festival line up
Free stickers
Exclusive poster of Tom Delonge
Competition- Win tickets to a gig of your choice!
Band news- MCR have split up!
Vote for band of the year
Tribute to Casey Calvert
Competition winner interviews Blink 182
How to become the ultimate band
Quiz- How well do you know your music?
Free downloads
The Stone Roses reunion
Guns 'n' Roses UK tour
Exclusive interview with ____  (new artist that will be my main cover story)
Roy Reynolds reveals... We get the inside scoop about Enter Shikari's constant conflict!
Blind date with Brendon Urie... We picked one lucky subscriber to unexpectedly meet the singer of Panic! At The Disco
Patrick's new partner... Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump takes time out of the band to work on a project with upcoming artist Dennis Jones.
House Style
Title: Defused (www.dafont.com)
Coverlines: Impact 14pt
Headlines: Arial Black 54pt
Standfirst: Arial 14pt
Credits: Arial 10pt
Body text: Arial 11pt
Colour scheme: Black, red, white

Audience Research: Questionnaire Results

This is a presentation I made to show the results of my questionnaire. These results will determine things about my magazine, e.g. price and publication frequency.

Questionnaire results

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These are videos of my target audience answering the questions:

Voice recording:

Questionnaire

I created a questionnaire aimed at the target audience for my music magazine. The results will provide me with information, which will enable me to make my magazine appeal to the intended clients.

Q1- How old are you?
From this I can see what my target ages have answered, therefore I can add content which will interest them, and make my product more successful.

Q2- Male or female?
This will help me to compare the similarities and differences in what males and females want to read in a music magazine.

Q3- Which magazines do you read? (Rock Sound, Kerrang!, Rolling Stone, Metal Hammer)
By stating which other music magazines they read, I can see which articles appear in all of them and what interests people the most.

Q4- Who is your favourite band/singer?
I may include these bands or artists in my magazine content, making it more realistic and appeal to my chosen target audience.

Q5- What is your favourite song?
This may influence the design of my magazine. Also, the lyrics may inspire the title of my magazine.

Q6- State 5 words associated with rock music/magazines.
I included this question so that I can convey these themes throughout my magazine production and it may help me to decide the name of my magazine.

Q7- What colours do you link to rock music?
I will base my colour scheme on the results of this question. I have given the following choices; black, red, yellow, white, grey, pink, blue, green. From my research, I predict that black and red will be popular answers.

Q8- What are the main articles that interest you in a music magazine?
I will include these in my magazine contents.

Q9- State 5 regular artciles in the music magazine you currently read.
This will help me to find out what artciles regularly appear in music magazines.

Q10- Would you buy a magazine just to read 1 article that interests you?
If people are willing to do this, I can include one thing that interests everyone in my target audience so that they will buy it.

Q11- Do you feel encouraged to buy a magazine if you know and like the artist/band on the front cover?
I would like to find out how the image on the front cover effects sales. I can include known artists and bands on my coverlines to attract my target audience.

Q12- Would you still buy a magazine if you didn't know who was on the front cover?
Same as question 11, I hope my target audience will still buy it with an unkown band or artist on the cover image.

Q13- Name some bands and artists that would make you more likely to buy a magazine.
I will include these in my content and coverlines to encourage people to buy my product.

Q14- How often do you buy music magazines?
This will influence my frequency of publication.

Q15- How much do you spend on music magazines per month?
Q16- Which of price do you think is reasonable for a weekly magazine?
Both these questions will help me to decide what price to make the magazine.

Analysis of Double Page Spread Articles

I have created a slideshow to present my analysis of double page spread articles in Rock music magazines. I have also listed the codes and conventions on my slide presentation.

Analysis of Double Page Spread Articles

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Analysis of Contents Pages

This is an analysis of a professional music magazine's contents page. I created it on www.prezi.com, I found this website extremely difficult to use. I will refer back to this analysis when I create my contents page so that mine will look professional.

Analysis of Professional Magazine Contents Pages on Prezi

Analysis of Professional Magazine Covers

In today's lesson I analysed some existing music magazine front covers. Some things that I found out were that bands and artists shown on the front wear similar clothes to the target audience to appeal to them, the bar code should be in the bottom right corner, the mast head is always a unique font. Here is a slide show I made to present my analysis'.

Music Magazine Analysis

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Initial Plans for my Magazine

Genre: Heavy Rock
Target Audience: Both genders, ages 15-24
Issue size: 70 pages
Frequency: Weekly
Price: £2.50

Regulars:
-Gig reviews
-New artists/bands
-Upcoming gigs
-Posters page

Features:
-Exclusive interview

Market Place Research

I did some research to find out information about other Rock music magazines on the market which I may have competition with. Looking at these will help me to make a good magazine.

Name: KERRANG!

Price: £2.20

Issue: 1226, Sept. 6 2008

Issue size: approx. 70 pages

Average reader age: 22

Frequency of publication: Weekly

Positioning Statement: Life is Loud

Secondary leads:

 FREE STICKERS! ENTER SHIKARI NINE INCH NAILS 30 SECONDS TO MARS

Regular content: reviews of CD's, Radio, TV and gigs, new album releases, upcoming gig information and tour dates, letters from readers.

Feature Articles: About bands/ artists, e.g. 'Foo Fighters is it all over?', 'What would Wentz do?'

An exclusive interview with an artist/band, one-off posters, further articles about other artists/bands.

http://www.kerrang.com/

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

The magazine's name is
onomatopoeic and refers to the sound made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar. I should consider musical factors when choosing my name.

The top of the masthead has the special offer of a gift and band names that will be inside the magazine and relate to the genre of the magazine.

Here is a link to Bauer Media's media pack about Kerrang! It includes the average reader's age, information about the magazine, the percentage of readers that buy every issue, their mission and influences.
http://bauermediaadvertising.com/uploads/Kerrang!-MediaPack-2011.pdf

Name: Rock Sound

Price: £3.99

Issue: 129, December 2009

Frequency of Publication: Monthly

Audience: 59% female, 72% aged 15-24

78% of readers want to know about new music and trends.

Positioning Statement: New Music First

Secondary leads:

FREE CD + POSTERS + STICKER SHEET!

Content: The contents page lists the main feaures, e.g. band names with a short description about what the article will contain.

In October 2011's issue it is split into:

'The Noise'

'Exposure'

'Features'

'Reviews'

These sections all contain music-related articles.

http://www.rocksound.tv/

http://www.sonicpublishing.co.uk/rock-sound/

The secondary leads above the title entice the audience.

Name: Rolling stone

Price: $4.99

Frequency: Fortnightly

Readers: Median age 32

Positioning Statement: None

Regular Content: Album reviews, Grammy guide, festival guide, yearbook, previews of seasonal music and events.

Features: Album preview, artist interviews, music-related news, coming soon...

http://www.rollingstone.com/

Media pack:

http://www.srds.com/mediakits/rollingstone/demographics.html

(Contains demographics: age and ethnicity details)

Name: Metal Hammer

Price: £4.99

Frequency: Monthly

Positioning Statement: None

Target Audience: Fans of metal music

Regular Content: Gig information, music reviews

Features: Interviews with bands

http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/

http://www.futureplc.com/

Metal Hammer magazine was recognised for its outstanding design winning best entertainment cover at the PPA Maggies Awards, beating Empire, Heat and Hello.It has launched mobile apps, and has more than 100,000 Facebook followers. This is a successful magazine.

Main Task- Initial Ideas

Today I planned my initial ideas of what to do for my music magazine. This is what i have decided to do:

Genre: Heavy Rock
Target Audience: Rock-lovers of both genders. I will focus on more current Rock music. This will appeal to 15-24 year-olds. It will be aimed at the niche audience that listen to the bands and artists that are shown on the front cover. To appeal to them I will use aggressive images and include bands/artists related to the Rock genre.
Influences: Kerrang!

Preliminary Task Evaluation

I think that both my school magazine front cover and contents page have been quite successful, however some improvements could be made:

Front Cover

You can see part of the fire door sign on the door in the background, which ruins the look of the magazine.
My photo is of a high quality, and my music magazine photo will be too.
I have included a buzz word: 'Exclusive', although my main story isn't eye-catching enough. In future I could make it bolder, bigger, perhaps a different colour. This will make it better for my main task.
The free ruler entices people to buy the magazine, and the freebie appeals to the target audience and relates to the subject of the magazine.
My masthead is in a unique font and all of my coverlines are in the same font. The masthead is eye-catching.
The barcode is situated in the bottom right corner. This conforms to the codes and conventions.
I like my positioning statement, however it could be smaller. It captures the magazine's ethos.
The 'PLUS!' section at the bottom looks professional, because many magazines put extra things to make the target audience feel like they're getting something special if they buy the magazine. I can use this on my music magazine.

Contents Page

I've followed the codes and conventions by having larger page numbers in a different colour. The coverlines are in bold, with a short description is smaller text below.
There are too many white gaps and the subscribe part looks out of place. I will look at existing music magazines before creating my main task so that I can improve this and make it more realistic.
My main image is quite big and takes up most of the page. It needs to be a bit smaller.
I've split the page into regulars and features, which is good.
My stories relate to the magazine and the pictures are anchored by page numbers, to show what it's about. This follows the codes and conventions.
I forgot to add the website when producing my contents page. I will need to include it when creating my main task.

I'm pleased with the outcome of my preliminary task.

Production of Contents Page

This is my school magazine contents page, created on Quark.

This shows the production of my contents page. I added the title, issue number, date and credits for cover photo.

COMPLETED CONTENTS PAGE

Production of School Magazine Front Cover

This is the front cover I created for a school magazine. I used Photoshop to make it.

This is while I was working on it.
I changed the background colour behind the title, so it differs slightly on this screen grab than my actual front cover.
All my coverlines are written in the same font, colour and size.

Final Images for School Magazine

These are the photographs that I have taken in school for my magazine. They will be used on the front cover and contents page.

 This is the image for my front cover. It is a medium close-up shot of a 6th former (related to my main story) outside the common room. She's using direct address. The background is quite plain, but shows the location. It's not white, which prevents it looking boring.

Here is a screen shot of me cropping the image on photoshop.

 This will be used on my contents page for the story 'Common room Crisis'. It is a long shot.

I also cropped this image on photoshop.

 This is a long shot of the poetry competition winner. She looks happy, connoting that the reader should also feel happy.

(This photograph won't be manipulated, as it's fine like this)

Mid shot for Ice Radio. This will be on my contents page.

I cropped this to focus on the person and mic inn the photo.

Rough layout of contents page

This is my contents page plan.

'WEATHERHEAD WEEKLY CONTENTS' -written at the top.

One large main image on the left.

2 smaller images on the right underneath regular contents.

Feature articles listed on the left.

Subscription details at bottom.

I have included credits for the front cover photograph.

Date, issue number & website included.

It follows the codes and conventions.

Planning Content

I will include these stories on my contents page.

Regulars:
Clubs,
Ice Radio,
Horoscopes,
Fun page,
Charity updates,
Health & fitness guide,
Extra help clinics timetable,
School council,
Mr Dynment weekly worry page.


Features:
School stress,
School trips,
Body issues,
Join the 6th form prom committee,
Get involved in our anti-bullying campaign,
Exam prep. tips,
Poetry winners,
Competition- meet Jacqueline Wilson,
Friendship quiz- are you a good friend?
(MAIN STORY)- Exclusive interview with pupil _______
Common room crisis

Images:
I will include a photo of the common room, ice radio and the poetry winner.

Rough Layout of Front Cover

This is my rough layout idea for the school magazine that I will create.

Plans for Front Cover

This is my initial ideas for the front cover that I will produce.

It must appeal to the target audience- pupils in a high school. I will use informal language, to appeal to teenagers. Stories must relate to school and teenagers. It must look interesting. I will include a freebie to entice the target audience.

Title: Weatherhead Weekly
Mise-en-scene: Pupil standing in front of the common room, the wooden door won't distract attention away from the text, but also show the location. The image will be a medium close-up shot. Colour scheme will be the school colours: navy, lilac, white. This reinforces the brand.
Coverlines;
School trips,
Body issues,
Exam prep. tips,
Poetry winners,
Competition- meet Jacqueline Wilson,
Friendship quiz- are you a good friend?
(MAIN STORY)- Exclusive interview with pupil _______.

The coverlines appeal to pupils and relate to school.

The title is straight-forward, pupils know how often it is available to purchase, and the use of alliteration will engage the audience's attention.

Camera Shots

Today we worked in pairs to take some different camera shots. This will help me to take good photographs for my music magazine.

Close-up shots show a full face and neck.
Big close-up shots show the face.
Extreme close-up shots zoom in on the face, so not all of it is shown within the frame (eyes and nose).
Long shots show a full body.
Medium long shot is the head, down to the knees.
Very long shot shows a person from far away.
A medium close-up shows the head and shoulders.
Some shots are taken from a high angle, so it looks down on the subject.
Low angle shots are taken from below, they make the person seem powerful.
Two shots include 2 people within the frame.
Tilted frame- the camera is tilted to the side.
Over the shoulder shot is taken from behind a person, so you can see the back of their head and the object or person in front of them.

This is a close-up of somebody in nature.

 This is a big close-up of a person using a mobile phone.

Here is a photo of a very long shot, to show somebody conveying isolation.

Over-the-shoulder shot of somebody writing.










Two shot in medium long shot.

I took this photo to convey stress, therefore I chose to make my partner bite her nails. I have focused on the mouth and fingers. She looks anxious. This is an extreme close-up shot.

Low angle medium close-up shot.

High angle long shot.

Extreme close-up of the time.

Long shot

Here is a picture of friendship.

The brief for this photograph was to take a picture to convey friendship, without using people in it. This forced me to be creative. I took a picture of a drawing of friends, with other photos of groups of friends in the background.

Codes and Conventions of Contents Pages

Today I studied four contents pages of music magazines and this is what I came to find:

There is 1 main image, which must:
- Relate to the main article (which will be my double page spread)
- Be the largest image on the page
- Be anchored by the page number for the article

At the top of the page there is:
- Date
- Issue number
- Website

'Contents' is always written at the top of the page, in a large font.

There must be clear, consistent fonts used throughout.
Also, a consistent colour scheme should be used, following on from the front cover.

Font:
- Cover lines: 12/13pt, bold: short, sharp, e.g. a band name or 'Tracks of the Year'
- Sublines: 11pt (usually a roman font)
- Page numbers come before the cover line in a big, bold font, usually in a different colour.

The contents page is layed out into 2-3 collumns.
There are usually 2 main headings: Regulars, Features. (Normally about 20 of these)
There is a line gap between each story, and a bugger gap between each section.

The page numbers anchor images to the cover lines of a story.
The subsiduary images are in different shapes and sizes.
There's usually 4-6 images, which have been credited.

The magazine title is shown to reinforce the brand.
There are also addresses and contact details, subscription details and credits for the front cover image.

Codes & Conventions of Music Magazine Front Covers

In today's lesson we looked at the codes and conventions of music magazine front covers. These are the rules I will refer to when creating my own.

Mast head- (title and positioning statement) shows the magazine's ethos.

Title is kept seperate from the main image, unless the magazine is well-established.
The image can also be placed underneath the title.
If it's a well-known brand, the title may be partially covered by the image.

The title is in a large, bold font, which is unique from any other text on the page.
The font of the title never changes, so that people recognise it.
It must match the magazine style.

The barcode is generally on the bottom right of the page, with information of the date, issue number, website and price.

Sometimes buzz words are used.
These make the reader feel like they're getting some extra for their money, or something special that nobody else has.
An example of something extra could be an exclusive interview.

Images:
- 1 main image
- Mid shot used for single artist
- Long/ medium long shots are used for bands
- No text over face, never over the eyes
- Uses direct adress to entice the audience
- Subsiduary images sometimes used that relate to stories
- Body language must match genre
- Plain background makes the image stand out

Cover lines:
- Smaller text than the main story
- Main cover line links to image and has a bigger font
- Same style of font throughout
- Text usually close to image and always relates to stories within the magazine
- Minimum of 5 coverlines
- All cover lines must relate to the magazine genre
- Limited range of fonts; serif, sans serif, times new roman

These are some examples of established music magazines: