Locations

Over the course of two days, I have taken some images of my chosen locations for my indie rock magazine. These particular locations will be featured throughout my magazine, on the front cover, contents page, and double page spread. As you can see, I have taken a variety of images, to ensure that I have a wide choice of images/locations to choose from.

Weekly Update/Progress Report

Last week, I completed the risk assessment forms, as well as asking the model's to complete my model release forms (asking for permission to appear in the magazine). Myself and Maisie have completed our final pitch, after editing and updating it because of some minor errors.

Social Networking Research

Maisie uploaded our final questionnaire to her Facebook and Twitter (as I don't have either) to gain wider research and a variety of different peoples opinions rather than just people in my year at my college, to help us get more inspiration and ideas.

Possible Locations

I have thought about quite a few possible locations to consider using for my magazine, I am going to go and look at all of these and take photos of them to see what I think would suit my target audience best. Some of the possible locations include graffiti alley ways, brick walls and dark stair ways. I have locations both inside and outside to try and give my magazine a mix and not make it too boring. With it being the middle of December and it getting dark at around 4pm I have found it quite difficult to be able to get decent photos of the outdoor locations therefore we have found it difficult to complete certain work to deadlines.

Final Pitch

Myself and Maisie's research has helped us make many decisions with our ideas for our rock magazine. Although no decisions we have made are final, we have got quite a few ideas that we think will more than likely make it to our final copy. The research that has influenced us the most is probably our textual analysis, this helped us discover the conventions of a music magazine which then gave us ideas and inspiration as to what to apply for our own magazine. We have decided that our colour palette will include the four colours: yellow, green, black, and white; this is because we thought that we would go against the stereotypical colour scheme used in rock magazines. This will hopefully create a more urban, edgy, individual look for our magazine, attracting more a wider target audience, making our magazine more popular within the ages 16-25. We have decided that we will feature an interview on our double page spread, as from our research we have found that our target audience feel that it is more interactive and fun, creating a more intimate feel, making the reader feel more involved, creating a more fun experience for the reader. Also, we have came to the decision to use an eye-catching slogan linking to the interview, so that it brings in the attention of the reader more, making them want to read into the interview to find out more. On our front cover, we plan to use mainly sans serif font, as this is quite a simple look, as we didn't want the cover to look too busy, in fear that it may look messy and overdone. Also, sans serif font is used in the majority of music magazines, and we thought it looked quite effective, and seems to be loved by the readers/audience of these magazines (this was also agreed by our target audience in our focus group). This type of font is very eye-catching and bold, meaning that it is more attractive to the reader. Our chosen target audience is 16-25 year old males, we have chosen this particular demographic/psychographic group because we feel that this is a good choice as rock magazines are mainly focused on male music groups and artists. This age group was chosen also, because we feel that as 17-year-olds, we can relate to them more, understanding what they might like. We have chosen to do a medium close-up shot for our main image, this is because it is more effective as the camera focuses on the facial expression of the artist(s), meaning that the reader can connect more with the artist(s). The costume of the artist will be fitted in with the music genre to create a more rocky look, using dark colours like black, grey, navy (colours associated with the music genre). On our front cover, we will have two female models, as a music group; one model will be dressed in a black bomber jacket, black ripped jeans, a white distressed t-shirt and black converse. The other female model will be costumed in a long, black, mesh t-shirt, with some distressed grey jeans, and white trainers. We will costume our chosen male artist/model (on the contents page) in black ripped jeans, a white distressed t shirt, and black trainers etc. (rest of the costume description found on the blog). We will co-ordinate the outfit of the model/artist with the music genre, getting inspiration from different magazine covers. e.g. a front cover of an issue from Rolling Stone magazine of Bruno Mars. I thought this cover was quite influential as the prop used (the cigarette in his mouth) adds quite an edgy look to the cover/artist, connoting many things (as seen below) We will lay out our contents page to be quite basic, nothing too complicated, and have pictures on the right hand side of the page; they will also all be in the same filter, but different shots of different artists, e.g. a band, the artist featured on the front cover, and another artist. The page numbers will be printed in a different colour to the text to make it stand out from the other text, highlighting it, and making it more noticeable to the eye.

Resources and Equipment

Focus Group Script

Preliminary Original Image

This is my original shot, which is on the front cover of my preliminary magazine. I chose this particular shot, because it fits the criteria set, and is based in a school environment.

Online Tutorial and Response

Focus Group Video

Previously, we created our focus group asking questions to our target audience on their opinions and views on how they think a rock magazine should be. We had finished filming our research, but when it came to uploading it onto our blogs, our recordings had been lost. This caused us to become slightly behind on our work, as we needed to re-film, however we are now back on track. Throughout this video research, we received many ideas on what we can apply to our future magazine, through asking several questions. One of which was about what colour palette we should use; the response was that darker colours would fit best with our rock magazine image, this is because these are the most typical colours associated with the music genre and the magazine type. We also asked the question of which gender would be the best to represent our magazine; the response was that we should have a male pose on the front cover. Our target audience thought it would be most effective as "both men and women would be interested in a male artist". This is because it attracts a wider audience, and male artists from this particular genre are usually more popular, however we may go against this stereotype and use a woman to create difference, or use both genders. All of our target audience said that they think an interview with an artist is much more personal, as it makes you feel more intimate with the artist, as if you know them personally, like a chatty interview.