Update!

I think today is going quite well.. I'm catching up! Definitely feeling much more confident now, so on Tuesday's lesson I won't look quite so lost and not know what I'm doing! Yay! 

Introduction and Aims

Introduction and Aims

The demographic of my magazine will be mainly aimed at a younger generation, between the ages of 16 - 24, and I hope to be able to attract an audience of both males and females. Being aimed at a younger generation therefore means I am going to aim my magazine at the C1, C2, D and E social-economic model, as I want the magazine to be available to people from all walks of life. I want my magazine to be mainly simplistic and to the point, whilst still using aspects of bright daring colours to captivate peoples attention. I have looked at some Pop magazines, some being aimed at a teenage audience, such as ‘Just Pop,’ which uses brighter colours. The magazines aimed at an older generation, such as ‘Notion’ are much more simplistic and mellow. I want my magazine to be a balance between the two, so it attracts not only teenagers, but also young adults. 

The magazine is going to be based on inspiring a younger generation of musicians and artists to come forward and fulfill their dreams. I have chosen the genre of ‘Pop’ as it can be extremely versatile, and this will help to attract all sorts of young artists. Also the strongest research I have on artists who are up and coming, singer song writers, fall under the umbrella of ‘Pop.’ The most well known artists in the charts today are Pop artists, suggesting this would be the style that most young people would aspire to be like and be inspired by. It is also therefore the style that fits my demographic best. A magazine I have looked at which follow the same concept I want to achieve, as well as focussing on the same genre, is ‘Rollacoaster.’ It features a variety of up and coming talent, such as those who are not yet at all known, those who have featured on talent shows such as ‘X Factor’ and those who have made it, such as Rita Ora. I want to use this magazine as inspiration when constructing my magazine, in particular my double page spread. 

Artists I want to use as inspiration for my magazine are those such as Ed Sheeran and Rita Ora. I decided to get inspiration from both a female and a male artist so that the magazine will feature both males and females, and not be gender specific. I decided to look at Ed Sheeran as I know that he himself was inspired by another artist, James Morrison. This is the sort of concept I want to achieve in my magazine. I also know that Ed Sheeran did a lot of work of his own back to get to where he wanted to be. For example, he flew all the way to Los Angeles in 2010 to perform at open mic nights all over the city - and this is when he was spotted. He writes his own music, and this is the music that is now in the charts today. Rita Ora was first signed by Jay Z’s ‘Roc Nation’ at the age of 18. Before this, she had been a regular everyday teenager; studying A Levels and performing at open mic events in the evening. I want my magazine to preview stories similar to these, to get across the message that anything is possible if you really want it and don’t give up. I like the idea of an interview styled article for my double page spread, much like the one I have seen in ‘Rollacoaster,’ as this makes the story more believable for the audience. However, I feel this appeals more to young adults. The use of shorter facts about the artist dotted around the spread, much like those used in younger magazines such as ‘Just Pop,’ could appeal more to teenagers. A combination of both will work well for the audience I want to achieve. 

As for images, I want to do a photo shoot in a natural environment, taking natural shots rather than having my model stare at the camera. This is to give a more realistic view, which in turn makes the whole thing more inspiring. A staged photo shoot could come across as fake and this wouldn’t help me to achieve my concept. I would want to use one main image on the front cover, and I would want it to be fairly simple, with perhaps the model wearing a few splashes of more daring colours. This is to make the magazine appealing to both teenagers and young adults, as it won’t look too serious. I am also going to use an image of my model perhaps laughing or smiling on the double page spread. Again, this gives a natural look, but also connotes the idea of the artist being happy with the way all their hard work has paid off. In ‘Rollacoaster,’ it also gives ideas of music artists fashion, and I could use this as inspiration when styling my models. 

As for a title for my magazine, I want to use a short, simple word, which is memorable. Some ideas I have had are ‘Authentic,’ ‘Authentic Pop’ and ‘Be Original.’ This is because I want to install the idea that Pop and music in general is not only inspired by artists, but by the individual. The typography I am going to use is going to be simple, yet also slightly ‘fun,’ perhaps by being rounded. 

Be Original

(LiHei Pro)

Be Original

(Nanum Gothic)

I went with the title ‘Be Original’ as I felt it was simpler for perhaps younger teenagers to understand. It’s also imperative, which could have more of an impact on the audience. I like all of these fonts as they are simple, yet show a sense of creativity too. I particularly like the second style, as it looks like handwriting, which could link to the idea of song writing from scratch, as well as appealing to younger people. It is also stylish, giving a modern, classy feel to the magazine. I looked at other fonts which resembled handwriting, however I felt some of them were too girly and therefore would not fit my gender demographic. The second style is pretty simple and would appeal to either gender. I would use the second style for the title of the magazine, but perhaps a different one for the subheadings and article. 

Chosen Genre Mindmap

Music Genres Mindmap

Production Schedule

This is my Production Schedule for the course. I am having to catch up on a few bits, so I am hoping this will help me to keep on top of everything I need to complete! 

Blog Entry	Due Date to Start	Due Date to Finish
Introduction and initial idea of music magazine project	Sunday 30th September	Sunday 30th September
Production Schedule	Sunday 30th September	Sunday 30th September
Mind Maps - Genre's - Chosen Genre	Friday 28th September	Sunday 30th September
Introduction and Aims	Sunday 30th September	Sunday 30th September
Development/Inspiration of initial idea	Friday 28th September	Continuous.
Mood Boards	Tuesday 2nd October	Friday 5th October
Questionnaire	Friday 5th October	Tuesday 9th October
Questionnaire graph's and analysis	Tuesday 9th October	Friday 12th October
Development of preliminary task including screen grabs and reflections	Tuesday 16th October	Friday 19th October
Any more thoughts on using Photoshop	Friday 5th October	Continuous.
Finished preliminary pages and evaluation	Tuesday 16th October	Friday 19th October
5 textual analysis of music magazine front covers	Sunday 30th September	Tuesday 2nd October
5 textual analysis of music magazine contents pages	Friday 5th October	Tuesday 9th October
5 textual analysis of music magazine double page spreads	Tuesday 13th October	Friday 16th October
2x draft layout of front cover, contents and double page spread	Tuesday 16th October	Friday 19th October
Photo shoot plan/s for music magazine photographs - location - props - person - lighting - clothing	Tuesday 23rd October	Tuesday 30th October
Contact sheet of all the photo's taken	Tuesday 23rd October	Tuesday 30th October
Assessment and reflections on how the photo shoot went and the quality of the photo's. Each photo shoot should be planned, and a contact sheet made for each	Tuesday 30th October	Tuesday 30th October
Mast head font choices and other key layout decisions (e.g. colour combinations)	Tuesday 6th November	Friday 9th November
Screen grabs from front cover	Friday 9th November	Tuesday 13th November
Peer assessment of front cover and reflections on those comments	Friday 9th November	Tuesday 13th November
Repeating screen grabs from front cover and peer assessment/reflections	Friday 9th November	Tuesday 13th November
Screen grabs from contents page	Friday 23rd November	Tuesday 27th November
Peer assessment of contents page and reflections on those comments	Friday 23rd November	Tuesday 27th November
Repeating screen grabs from contents page and peer assessment/reflections	Friday 23rd November	Tuesday 27th November
Screen grabs from double page spread	Friday 7th December	Tuesday 11th December
Peer assessment of double page spread and reflections on those comments	Friday 7th December	Tuesday 11th December
Repeating screen grabs from double page spread and peer assessment/reflections	Friday 7th December	Tuesday 11th December
Evaluation: Introduction Question 1 - Genre (podcast) Question 2 - Representation (prezi) Question 3 - Institution (Powerpoint) Question 4 - Audience (Free choice) Question 5 - Audience (Video) Question 6 - Technologies (youtube tagging) Question 7 - Preliminary task (Diagram) Conclusion	Friday 14th December	Introduction - w/c 17th December 1 & 2: w/c 17th December 3 & 4: w/c 17th December 5, 6, 7 & Conclusion: w/c 14th January
Final version of front cover, contents page and double page spread - top of blog!		w/c 14th January

 

Starting Media Coursework!

Spending today catching up on everything I've missed, seeing as I joined the course later! I have been trying to get some inspiration for a genre, but so far it's proving to be quite a challenge! Hopefully I will have made progress a bit later.