Photo Shoot, January

In January I went out with my friend Brendan and took photos of him around Southsea with his guitar so I could get images for my magazine front cover. I've put my favourite two on here and have uploaded the rest to my Flickr account, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakebooth-asmedia/. 

These two images are, what I think, the best two images for a front cover that I took on that day. They both have space at the top for a title and banner, if I wanted one. they also have lots of space along the right hand side for tag lines and also the images are of good quality. Having got feed back from my friends and media tutor I will go with the second image as my front cover main image, firstly because there is lots of room for tag lines, titles and other information and also because the image is more interesting and arty then the first one. further more in the first image the pose Brendan is pulling looks very unnatural which makes him look uncomfortable where as in the second image hes more relaxed which makes for a better picture. 

Music Magazine Title Ideas

The title of my magazine, I feel, should reflect the genre of music which will be represented. For example NME, New Musical Express, is a magazine about new up and coming bands and musicians, which from the title of the magazine you can tell. Also NME's name is a very formal name with how it’s laid out and the use of proper English which is quite old fashioned for a magazine as most magazines have adopted the casual every day talk into their title, this ‘old fashioned’ style of presenting the title can be seen as ‘retro’ which is a popular theme/style for the look of an indie/alternative magazine. 

I posted the six possible names I had come up with for my magazine, 'Alternative Music Press.', 'Alternative Music Broadcast.', 'The Alternative Press.', 'Live.', 'Live Music Press.', 'Backstage.' and asked my friends to comment there favourite.

Four people voted for 'Alternative Music Press', No one voted for 'Alternative Music Broadcast', 'The Alternative press' and 'Live.' got two votes, 'Live Music Press' got only one vote and 'Backstage' got eight votes. this feed back is good as I can get rid of the lowest voted names and keep the top two and decided  from them which one I will chose. The top two names were, 'Alternative Music Press' and 'Backstage'. Backstage is a good name as it suggests the magazine goes behind the scenes and can get exclusive information about bands and musicians, however the name doesn't suggest what genera of music my magazine is specialised in so if its not clear to the reader they might not buy it. Alternative Music Press, is also a good name as it clearly shows that genera of music the magazine will be about also it can be abbreviated to AMP which is also a word for an amplifier which is used a lot in the music world. having looked at both name my magazine will be called 'Alternative Music Press' as with this name I can do many things and create a title that will stand out and be recognised.  

  

Music Magazine Proposal

The genre of my magazine will be Alternative/Indie. I chose this genre because these were the two most popular genres chosen in my audience research questionnaire which proves that this is a popular genre and that there will be people to buy it. This is also a good genre for me as it is also my favorite type of music and this will help me create a popular and successful magazine based on this genre.

The target audience of my magazine will be male and females that like alternative music, which I think will be mainly between the 14 and 24 as this is the main age that attend gigs and follow bands to the extent of buying a magazine to read about them, also this age because this is the age when people generally have money to spend on items such as magazines.  

The title of my magazine should represent the genre of music that will be in my magazine. As my magazine will be about new indie, alternative bands and musicians my name should clearly state that that is what will be in this magazine. Having looked through many issues of NME I have a few ideas of what images I would like for my front cover contents page and the double page spread. My front cover and double page will have the same musician or band in the images as I will link the two pages, the contents page will have around 5/6 other images of gigs and other musicians to make the contents page more interesting and more professional. The fonts I will use will be clear and modern but also retro and interesting and a combination of these are used in NME and I think it looks more interesting then just one type of font and if it looks good on there magazines it should look good on mine.

NME Front Cover

NME Contents Page

I have looked at NME photos on their website, http://www.nme.com/photos , to get ideas on how my images could look and ideas for settings.  Also before I go and take my images I will research how to take professional looking photographs to make my magazine look the best I can

My double page spread will be about the musician on the front cover. I’ve seen a few double page spreads that I like from NME and they all have a large main image and writing along one side with quotes picked out from the musician made bigger to stand out, my double page spread will be along the same lines as this.

NME Double Page Spread 

NME Double Page Spread

 I like the first double page spread with the image taking up the whole space and the writing on top as it looks more flowing and interesting to look at, as the second double page spread the writing on the blank background looks very boring and almost news paper like. 

Lesson Overview Monday, January 10 2011

In todays lesson I uploaded the conclusion to my Student College Magazine Project, I completed and uploaded two front cover deconstructions of the magazine 'NME', and I have also written up my audience research questionnaire and will give them out over the week for people to fill out. Finally I have started on my planning on titles and music industry analysis which I will complete and upload at home, also at home I will take photographs that I can use for my front cover, contents page and double page spread. 

NME Front Cover Deconstructions

Music Magazine Research

Music Magazine Research

The genre of music I will be publishing my magazine in is indie, indie rock. Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. The meaning of the term ‘indie rock’ is contested today by many musicians and fans. Some use the term ‘indie’ to describe independent music defined as any music produced by artists working within the network of independent record labels and underground music venues. Others see indie rock as a distinct genre of rock music with a specific artistic aesthetic, and care less about the context in which it is made. Many embrace both meanings of the word, believing that the aesthetics of the genre and its means of production are deeply intertwined. Indie rock artists are known for maintaining in complete control of their music and careers, releasing albums on independent record labels and relying on touring, word-of-mouth, airplay on independent or college radio stations and, in recent years, the Internet for promotion. However, in the 2000's many acts with a musical style identified as "indie" signed to major record labels and began promoting themselves through more traditional media outlets. This has led to a further blurring in the meaning of the term.

The media that exist for this genre of music are mainly dominated by the brand ‘NME’ or ‘New Musical Express’. It started as a weakly published magazine in 1952 and over the years has turned into a brand by opening ‘NME Radio’, ‘NME TV’ and ‘NME.com’. The ‘NME’ is a major competitor for indie music magazines and one that I can look at in more detail and use it for inspiration.

The producer of ‘NME’ is a company called ‘IPC Media’.  ‘IPC Media’ also produce other magazines in Women's weeklies such as ‘Now Magazine’ and ‘Look’ they also produce leisure and specialist magazines like ‘Ignite!’ and men's lifestyle and entertainment magazines and women's lifestyle and home interest. IPC Media are UK's leading magazine distribution business and because of this I think that looking at there music magazine it will help me because they are obviously doing things the right way and I can use there techniques and style as inspiration for my magazine.  

In current publications of ‘NME’ they typically include Interviews with well-known bands and up and coming bands reviews on gigs and festivals, the latest news about bands, albums, music and festivals. Also they do a main story, which is normally to do with the main image on the front cover and normally follows with a large section dedicated to in inside.

‘NME’ costs £2.30 and for that you get a 66-page publication, with interviews, reviews and exclusives and NME which is published every week normally on a Tuesday.

‘NME’ is aimed at people who clam to ‘Indie’ and enjoy alternative music and like to be first to hear about new bands and future stars.  

The NME or New Musical Express is called this because the magazines genre is music and it’s all about new music and up and coming bands. And the Express is due to the frequency of the issues released.

My music magazine should have a name that reflects the contents and style that I would like my magazine to have. It has to be music related because the magazine is based around music and I want the name to be easily recognized and associated with music. Also the name has to represent the style of magazine I’m producing, for example because my magazine is an indie, alternative music magazine I will avoid words that you wouldn’t link to that type of music.

The band on the front cover of this NME magazine are a new band called ‘The Vaccines’.  The band members are relatively all equal as their heads are the same height; however the lead singer is in front of the other members to show his importance. In the image the band members are just sitting on a sofa looking at the camera holding guitars because of the tag line ‘The return of the great British guitar band’.

On this cover of NME they have used a picture of John Lennon, one of the members of The Beatles. The shot is a close up of his face and he is smoking, which represents how music was different back then as now smoking is frowned upon.    

On this cover of NME there is an image of Paul Weller from the well known band The Jam. This shot is a mid shot and in the image he is standing up with his arms crossed and has a face is looking disappointed, which goes with his quote “This generation needs to stand up and fight”.

On this cover of NME there is an image of an old retro vinyl record. The shot is a close up of the vinyl, this is because it goes with the tag line on the cover of 'the 100 greatest albums, you've never heard'. 

Student Magazine Project Conclusion

In conclusion we had to write up a proposal about a college student magazine that we would later have to create a front page and a contents page for. I felt my proposal had all it needed init and more, although I could have gone into more detail with things like taglines and talked about why they would work and whom they are mainly aimed at and how the taglines will attract my target audience. The second part of the project was to research already published college magazines, I looked at two magazines that I found on the Internet and deconstructed there front cover, this helped me see what was needed to put in my magazine and how it should be laid out. Also what types of taglines the magazine uses. All these things helped me and influenced the final outcome of my magazine. After that I went out around college at took many pictures of people and places I could use for my front cover and images I could use in my contents page. I think the images I look where every good, I remembered the rule of thirds and that I needed to make room for things like titles and taglines so it can all fit into the image without blocking out any of the important parts like peoples faces etc. With all this research and the images I then created my front cover and contents page. I started off using InDesign to put together my front cover but having had working with Photoshop before I felt I could get a better quality front cover and contents page then if I used InDesign which I didn’t have previous experience with. I felt my front cover come out well, I had a very good starting image and I used techniques used in published magazines to make mine look more professional. My contents page was a little rushed as I missed a lesson due to a college field trip in another lesson so its not the best I could have done, however with the time I had I felt it is sufficient enough as it has the main things it needs and the images I’ve used link with the taglines which makes the whole page flow and work. I also uploaded all the photos I took onto Flickr, an online photo storage website, so they can be publicly accessed by anyone and can people comment and I can get more feedback then I normally would. Doing this project I feel it has helped me understand what is needed to make a professional and interesting magazine front cover, however I will have to look at more music magazine when it comes working on the music magazine project. Also having working on programs like InDesign and Photoshop has given me more experience and understanding to be able to produce a better outcome, also working on this project I have become more use to using the Macs and becomes more confident in what I can do on them meaning my future work can only get better.