Flat plans of music magaizne

Beth Bowpitt's photostream

Beth Bowpitt's photostream on Flickr.

This is the flickr account that has all of he pictures that i have used throughout both of my projects

Question 7

Question 6

Question 4 and 5

Question 3

Question 2

Part one of my evaluation

Final Front Cover, Contents and Double page spread

Magazine Proposal

I am aiming my music magazine at a target audience who are interested in the indie/rock genre of music as this seems to be a popular music genre. This audience will mainly be filled with people who are in the age range of 16-20 as this is where the indie/rock genre is most popular. The material that is going to be in the magazine will have to appeal to a wide audience. In the magazine there will be different types of articles including gig information, interviews with artists and photo spreads of artists that fit into the correct genre.

There will be cover lines on the front of the magazine that will give the reader an insight into what is in the edition of the magazine. They should encourage the audience to choose the magazine over other music magazines. These will include lines like ‘Win tickets to one of the biggest festivals this year’, ‘How to start your very own band-Tips from the ones who have done it before’ and ‘I would never have made it to through a reality show’ which is a quote from the artist that will be on the front cover. I think that the wide range of plugs will interest the wide target audience.

The font that I am going to use on the front cover and throughout the magazine is going to be formal with a side of informality as this will represent the edgy but ‘pc’ indie/rock genre of music. This will enable people to take the magazine seriously as it will look professional. I think that a font like FangSong as it covers everything that the font should.

The double page spread it is going to be an interview with the cover star of my magazine. From the research that I conducted I found that interviews with an artist that is appropriate for the genre. It will be in the format of a question and answer session as this allows for it to be formal with an edgy side due to the spontaneous aspect that come with the improvisation of a question and answer session.

The title of the magazine is IRM and this stands for Indie Rock Monthly. As the title is short it will be easily remembered and recognisable to the audiences when it is in on the front cover. This will enable readers to recognise it straight away and know what is included and the quality that comes with the name. I am not going to have a tagline for my magazine as other magazines of the same genres as mine do not have them.

As the title suggests the magazine is going to be sold monthly. This will enable the cost to be higher as the people that purchase the magazine will only have to buy it once a month instead of more frequently. This may also persuade them to buy the magazine as they may believe that they are getting better value for money. I am going to price the magazine at £4 for each issue as I believe that this is an appropriate price to sell it at.

The type of image that I am going to put on the front cover of my magazine is a close up shot of my model looking straight at the camera. Their eyes will be positioned along the top third line as this is where the main focus point is. I think this will be a good shot to use as it will draw attention to the models main features. The model will be wearing little make up except her eyes will be smoky and this gives connotations of a darker side to her which may be revealed in the magazine. This however means the reader will have to purchase the magazine to find out.

The colours that I am going to use for my magazines colour scheme consist of white, red and black. I feel that these colours will complement each other well and when used correctly will make important parts of the magazine front cover stand out. This will help to draw the attention of possible target members to the magazine and encourage them to purchase this magazine. 

Prezzi on the conventions of a music magazine

Conventions of a music magazine on Prezi

Link to Prezzi

Research of target audience - NME

Age- The age of the target audience varies depending on the artist in which the magazine is featuring. However the main target age for a music magazine is older teenagers who have an interest in the indie/rock genre of music. 50% of the readers are aged between 16 and 24. This is the age group with the largest percentage, and this shows that these are the main audience.
Gender- 65% of the audience of NME are male and although this is the majority, females do also read the magazine. This shows that there must be certain aspects that attract both males and females. When asked males were more interested in the 'freebies' that are given away with the magazine and the gig information rather than the articles and interviews about bands.
Other interests- Other things that interest the target audience of an indie rock music magazine include things like the film industry, skateboarding, art, fashion among other things. To help attract different audiences to the magazine, these things could be included alongside the music as long as it is relevant to what the magazine is talking about.
Socioeconomic background- The majority of the readers of NME are middle class as they are interested in the music that is featured. They also have enough disposable income to purchase the magazine when it is published. However the audience is not only limited to this 'class' as NME has readers from all three 'classes' which proves that many people are interested in music magazines.
Musical Tastes and Inspiration- When people from the target audience of NME were asked who the were interested in musically they said artists including- The Wombats, Greenday, Muse, Paramore, Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and other artists that fit into the categories of Indie-Rock or Rock. They are also artists that have been known to be on the front of NME so this shows that the audience has been targeted correctly.

Music Magazine Target Audience Research

College Magazine Contents Page

This is the contents page for my college magazine

College Magazine Front Cover

This is my front cover for my college magazine.

Flatplans

This is my front cover flat plan

This is my contents page flat plan

Magazine proposal

Magazine proposal

I am aiming my magazine at students who are currently studying at college. They are most likely to be people of he ages 16-19 so the material within the magazine would have to cater to a wide audience. It could also be used as a material for promoting college to people who are deciding which option to take after they leave school.  It will give them an insight of the sort of activities that the colleges offer and what the student union do. The magazine will also talk about anything new that has happened in the college.

There would be cover lines on my front cover to entice the reader into reading the magazine. These will include lines like “win a holiday for you and three friends to Disneyland Paris!”, “Uni fees through the roof, hear what the experts have to say…”and “How to stay happy and healthy at college!” I think that this will interest the target audience so that they will be more likely to read the magazine.

The fonts that I am going to use throughout my magazine are going to be formal but still reasonably playful. This is because I want there to be a serious edge to my magazine but for due to the target audience they may not want a magazine full of serious issues. I think that a font like Ariel would be a suitable font as it covers everything that I want it to. I would use this font for my cover lines and writing in the magazine itself for example the information on the contents page.

The tagline that I think I am going to use is “the magazine that everyone wants to read” I think that this will help to draw the audience in as it makes the magazine seem popular and wanted by the audience. it will also hint that the content of the magazine is something that the target audience will want to read and find out about.

My magazine is going to be released every fortnight, this will allow for the cost to be lightly higher and the content to be of a higher quality. the cover can then reflect the different events that will happen within the acedemic year, and this may help to widen the audience as they might be interested in different events throughout the year. it will be publised thoughout the whole of the year.

the kind of image that i plan to put on the front of my magazine if a medium close up shot of a person who is looking straight at the camera adn smiling. i think that this will be a good shot as it will draw the audiences attention to the persons main features. with the model smiling it will give out a positive vibe and this will also interest and attract the reader.

the colours that i would use for my magazine are going to be vibrant so that they stand out against other magazines but i would only use a few at a time so that the magazine is not crowded. I would use neutral colours so that the magazine would nto look like it was aimed at a specific sex and therefore decrease the size of the possible audience. i would contiue to use the same colours once i decide on them every time the magazine was publised

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations that they offer?

I think that teenage girl magazines should be held responsible for the majority of the views that their readers feel. I believe this because at the age of the targeted audience they are easily impressionable and get the majority of feelings from other media instead of creating their own opinions and living by them. I think it is easier for teenage girls to follow the “norm” than to stand out. This means that when an opinion is portrayed to them as right they are more likely to follow this than follow what their own opinion is, if they have an opinion on the identified subject. An example of this is when a teenage magazine portrays a certain pop star as “cute and talented” then the audience will automatically decide that they also like that certain pop star. Due to the high similarities in many of the magazines that are available to them they all form the same opinions of certain things. Something that is represented a lot in the magazines is boys. Whether its a pop star that they can only dream about or a quiz telling you if your crush is really the fairy tale prince they fancy, boys are all over these girls magazines. The models that are used in these magazine are all seen as what is thought to be good looking. This therefore makes the audience acquire a materialistic view of what all boys should be like. Another thing that makes up a large part of a teenage girls magazine is clothes and beauty. I feel that this causes a large social ramification within the community of teenage girls because they feel that they need to have the clothes that are classed as “in fashion”. This is both damaging for themselves and the people who can’t afford to have every one of the latest trends. This also hinders younger teenagers from finding out that they are as a person because they are all trying to become one. There are some teenage girls that can pull away from the stereotypes but these are then commonly picked on and bullied by those who do conform to the trends, which then makes them afraid to be who they are for fear of persecution. Linking to beauty, all the female models that are used in the magazine do not show girls that are going through puberty and feeling the changes that occur. None of them have spots or struggle with weight. Where as many teenage girls in this generation do. This is not a fair representation of what a typical teenage girl looks like. Seeing thin girls on the front of magazines makes the reader idolise this and want to be thin leading to problems like anorexia and bulimia. This therefore makes the magazines that the majority of young teenage girls read responsible for the social ramifications that they are made to conform to. 

Five magazines aimed at teenage girls

Conventions of teenage girl magazines:

• Large masthead that is in front of the model to make it stand out and visible to the target audience
• Colour schemes that use a large amount of stereotypically feminine colours
• Puffs and plugs that are related to fashion, beauty and real life stories and things the publishing company believe to be of interest to the target audience  to draw the attention of the audience to purchase that specific magazine over the others.  
• The model on the front cover is always placed over the centre or right third as this is where the attention of the reader is drawn first. 
• There are also varying shapes of the puffs around each of the models, normally straight lines are used to segment specific sections of information as depending on the size and colour of the font and puffs the audiences attention will be drawn to specific things first. 

Attempt at photography

The model is positioned in the right third of the image, and the camera shot is a high angle shot.  

 Model is in the last third of the frame. He is not looking at the camera but his eyes are a main focus of the image. It is a medium close up shot. 

 I have used a low angle shot in this photo and the model is in the right third of the image. 

The model is positioned in the centre and right thirds of the shot. he is mainly in the right third. it is a medium close up shot.