Location for photo shoot/Recce

As I have already mentioned in my previous post, I am still undecided about who to have as my model for the magazine. However, I have thought of a place to have my photoshoot.

This area is quite close to where I live and is available to the public so I thought it would be ideal. I think it's something different and interesting to have in music magazine. It has urban but old and derelict vibe, which I quite like particularly with the graffitti at the other end of the tunnel. My dad has used this area for his photographs before so I know the area is safe. However, there are some risks.

Risk Assessment



There may be other risks due to the weather. If there is heavy rain, then I may not be able to take the photos. I don't want to damage any of the equipment so I may have to either reschedule or take the photos in the tunnel. This may work, although I'll have to bring a flash with the camera.

Planning for my music magazine

Photos
The models for the photos will be decided at a later date. I'll be using one of my friends. The camera shot will probably be a mid shot of them, with an interesting background to catch readers attention. For the OFC, I'll try to put the image of the artist infront of the brand name, just like other magazines do. My dad has shown me how to do this using Adobe Photoshop. However there may be some problems because I want to use Picasa to make the magazine. I may also use different photo effects that are available on Picasa, e.g. black and white, sepia, etc.


Colour palette
Just like other music magazines, I will be using neutral colours and one or two bold colours as my colour palette. However, during production I may experiment with other colours that aren't usually used in music magazines, just to see what it looks like.


Names for magazine
I'm finding it hard to decide on a name for my magazine at the moment. Of course the name will have a reference to music. Here are some of my ideas:

• Revolutions
• Alternative
• Buffed
• Jewel Case
• Tonal
• Analogue
• Acoustic
• Instrumental

These are just a few of my ideas. I'll add more to my blog as I go along.

Defining my audience

Audiences can be defined by using SAGEL:

 

Social class

Age

Gender

Ethnicity

Lifestyle

 

Using this, I more capable of defining who audience will be so I can make a music magazine appropriate for them. However, with any product that is created,  there is always a penumbra effect. This is an unintended audience that like and buy your product. So, for example, Kerrang! is a rock magazine aimed at men yet women also buy this magazine.

 

The genre of music I have chosen for my magazine will be indie/rock. This means that my target audience will be mainly indie type people. The age range will be roughly between 15-25. I will try to appeal to both genders and a wide range of ethnicity groups.

 

Now that I have decided on these factors, I can now make a suitable questionnaire to give to these types of people. This will give me a better idea of what I should put into my magazine.

Uses and gratifications

This is about what people do with the media rather than what the media does to people. The theory assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. It also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use media to fulfill specific gratifications. This theory can be applied to music magazines as people take an active role in which magazine they choose to read.

There are four primary factors for which one may use the media:

• Diversion-this is something to do in order to escape from reality/problems. So people may read music magazines to escape from their problems so they can feel better.
• Personal Relationships-using media to discuss with friends afterwards (e.g. last nights Eastenders) and also as a subsitute for real contact (e.g. Facebook). This could also fit into another theory which is the two-step flow. The first step is that the media introduces us to ideas and then the next step is that we discuss these ideas with others and an opinion. In other words, we read or hear something in the news/magazines and discuss about the topics raised with others.
• Personal Identity or Individual Psychologyy-defining yourself by your media texts, building your sense of self. So, for instance, someone who reads NME magazine would be defined as a Indie person.
• Surveillance-finding out about the world and finding out info. For example, people may read music magazines to find out about their favourite artists or whether they are going on tour.

Summary post of my research

All music magazines have a brand name related to music. Kerrang! for example is onomatopoeic as it the sound of an electric guitar playing a power chord. Another example is Rolling Stones magazine, named after the famous band. Therefore I will also stick to this convention when deciding on my magazines brand name.

Another convention I will probably use is the type of images used in the magazine. On the OFC, the main image is of a music artist/s and are featured in the magazine issue. The image is usually a mid shot/close up of the artist/s and they generally look directly at the camera when it is taken. The image is kept in colour.

The colour pallete is limited to 3 or 4 colours. These tend to be mainly neutral colours with some usage of bold primary colours (red, yellow, blue). However, sometimes music magazines can break this convention. For example, this issue of NME has used the bold primary colours as the main colour pallette and the artists image is in black and white. There is never any use of pastel colours. I may stick to this convention although I feel that with music magazines you can be more experimental with things such as the colour palette and photo shots.

On the OFC, the sell lines are either related to music or reference to what is in that magazines issue. There are also pull quotes from an interview inside the magazine. I have also noticed that with rock magazines such as Kerrang! and NME that there also references to sex, drugs and sometimes there are swear words on the OFC. I'm unsure whether to stick this convention or not yet.

The layout of a magazines interview article is quite basic. The text is set out into columns, as you would expect. There is also an image of the artist/s being interviewed. This image tends to dominant the double page spread so that attracts the readers interest.

Research methods

In our media lesson, we learnt about the different types of research methods. There are four types of research:

• Primary-research that is carried out personally
• Secondary-research that is done by other people
• Quantitative-research that is numerical
• Qualitative-research that is descriptive

Primary research methods include questionnaires, interviews, surveys, focus groups, emails, letters, textual analysis, etc. There are some advantages to doing primary research. It is quick and simple to do, easy to complete and you get direct answers. However, the disadvantages of primary research are that people can lie, they may not complete the tasks (e.g. questionnaires, emails, etc) and it is time consuming to create.

Secondary research methods include websites done by companies/industries, websites done by individuals, books and newspapers. The advantages of using this type of research is that the information will be more reliable. However, a disadvantage is that media changes rapidly, so books won't be very reliable for up to date information. Although they are good for researching media theory.

Quantitative research uses a large number of people to find patterns/trends between their answers. Methods include questionnaires and surveys.

Qualitative research uses a small number of people. It is used if you want to collect the opinions of people. Methods include interviews.

Textual analysis of Kerrang!

The OFC of Kerrang! has the brand name at the top of the page. The font of this has an effect that makes it look like broken glass. The artists image is the main graphic on the page with the artist looking directly at the camera. With this there is a sell line saying who they are in a big font and a pull quote from the magazines interview. There are other sell lines and smaller images of artists laid out on the front page. There is also a sell line in a red explosion shape saying 'MEET ALICE IN CHAINS!'. This catches the readers attention and also shows that it is something important.

The contents page of Kerrang! is organised. The images used are small yet dominant in comparison to the rest of page. They show who is in this weeks magazine and what pages they are on. On the right side of the page, there is a list with subheadings showing what is in this weeks magazine. Also, on the top left hand corner, there is a message from the editor of Kerrang! This is something that I may have a go at in my magazine as I think that with this, a magazine feels more authentic and personal.

Here is music article from Kerrang! Just like in NME, the image of the artist dominants the page in comparison to the rest of the page. The colour pallet is again limited to three colours (yellow, black, red). The text is all set into one column, avoiding going over the image of the artist. The title is put into a yellow circle and is a pull quote from that interview.

Idealogy and music

All musical genres have an idealogy. These are a set of ideas and values that fit that particular genre. Claude Levi-Strauss' theory of binary oppositions applies here. In western cultures we often think in pairs of ideas that oppose each other, e.g. love/hate, war/peace, etc.

These are the stereotypical ideas that are usually associated with these genres:

Pop/R 'n' B:

• More conformist
• Slick, better produced
• Conscious of 'good' image
• Less obviously sexual/euphemistic
• No drugs/alcohol references
• More passive
• Apolitical
• Universal messages for everyone
• Mass audiences, mainstream
• Non-violent
• Pro-social
• Don't always swear
• Conspicuous wealth

Rock/Hip hop:

• More rebellious
• Rawer, less over-produced
• (pretend to) Care less about image
• Sexual
• Violence
• Open drug/alcohol references
• Anti-social
• More aggressive
• Political
• Self indulgent, more about the artists self expression
• Niche audiences, outside mainstream
• Swearing
• Act poor

For my music magazine, indie rock music will be the genre. Using these stereotypes of that genre of music, I will base the style of my music magazine on those stereotypes. So for example, I probably use more swear words than say if I was to do a pop music magazine. I won't put them on the front page though. I'll probably use them in the articles.