plan of photo shoot

Before I take my photos for my magazine cover I have written this plan so that I know what to do when it comes to my photo shoot. I have covered all the areas including costume, hair and make-up, the setting/background, shot type, props, facial expression/pose and the lighting so that it will be a lot easier when it comes to taking the photographs.

Costume

For my model’s costume, she is going to be wearing dark clothes as this links back to the ‘rock’ theme of the magazine. She will wear a leather jacket, black leggings and dark boots to also link to this theme. To break up the outfit she will wear a stripy top with an image on the front, this will be very plain so that it suits the traditional ‘rock n roll’ attitude of not caring what they look like.

Hair and Make-up

The model’s hair will be quite scruffy and messy as this fits the ‘rock n roll’ style. Luckily, the model’s hair is quite dark but has a slight red tint to it so that it attracts your attention; also reddish hair is very popular.

The make-up used on my model will be quite heavy, using a lot of black around the eyes to make them stand out, also the model I will be using is quite pale which is good as it doesn’t make her look very materialistic.

Setting

For the background of my magazine I am not going to have the model in an actual setting, I am going to take the photo and then remove the background so that the text will be more visible and it won’t look too busy. I am going to use a grey background as it is quite simple and dark so that it suits the ‘rock n roll’ theme.

Shot Type

I am going use a variety of shot types when taking my photo, however the main shot type I am going to focus on is a medium-long shot so that most of the model’s body will be in the shot. This will show what the model is wearing and what her body language is like.

Props

In my photo shoot I am only going to include one prop which will be a set of headphones around the model’s neck. This will show that the model is into music and that this is a music magazine. The reason I am only using this prop is because this is the only suitable prop I have available to me that can relate to music.

Facial Expression/ Pose

The model will be looking straight at the camera as this will give the audience a direct mode of address. The model will look quite moody and will be in a very relaxed pose so that it suits the rock theme of the magazine.

For the pose she will be standing up and she will be holding a part of her jacket, this suggests that she is showing off the clothes that she is wearing. The model’s head will be tilted so that she doesn’t look too rigid or awkward in the photo.

Lighting

For the issue surrounding lighting, because I don’t have any special equipment I am going to take the photo outside so that I can get a very natural effect. I will take the photo when it is darker in the afternoon so that the highlights and low-lights of the face will be more visible. Also after the photo has been taken I will edit the photo so that the lighting looks a bit better.

music magazine plan

I have created a plan for my music magazine so that when it comes to making it, I know exactly what I have to do. This plan includes things like the layout, what the masthead looks like, what the cover lines are, where they are positioned, the colour scheme and the mis en scene of the photo (e.g. shot size, model position, clothes, props etc.)

Q magazine - full cover analysis

To understand the codes and conventions of a music magazine, I have analysed the cover of Q magazine. The main feature in this magazine is an interview with the lead singer of the band Coldplay, Chris Martin.

Representation of Image

The central image is a close up shot of Chris Martin's face. His facial expression shows that he is very interesting and outgoing, this is shown by his mouth being wide-open, his head is tilted back and his eyes are squited which makes it seem as if he is shouting. His hair is cut short which suggests that he is quite clean cut, however his facial hair contradicts this as it makes him look quite scruffy and makes him seem quite rebellious as he feels he doesn't always have to look his best. Also in the photo we can just see the top of his clothes, he seems to be wearing a black shirt which makes him look quite smart and sophisticated.

Font, Text and Language
The main headline is just the name of the band, Coldplay, this shows that the band is the most important part of the magazine. This headline is written in bold, capital letters and the font seems to get larger towards the end of the word, this makes it seem as if he is shouting as it is written across his open mouth. The caption underneath the main headline uses the word 'barking' in capital letters and an exclamation mark is used to emphasize the word, this also links to the fact that he is shouting.

Dotted around the page is quotes from the interview, this gives the reader a sneak preview of the interview and makes them want to find out more. The quotes that are used are all personal issues that the artist has had to go through including 'I thought I was gay' which was obviously a very personal matter for the artist which makes the interview seem like he is opening up exclusively for this magazine.

At the top of the page is a cover line saying 'Glastonbury: 8 page special' this is also written in capital letters which suggests that it is another important part of the magazineand the word 'Glastonbury' is written in red to make it seem more important.

Colour
The colour scheme for this magazine is very plain, the main colours used are black, white and beige, there is also the 'Q' logo which has a red background and some of the other text is also written in red.
The connotation of these colours are:
Black - style, rebellion. This is to show that the artists featured in this magazine and the readers are quite rebellious but also make this seem stylish.
White - simplicity, cleanliness. This shows that the artists are very clean cut and that there is no profanity featured in the magazine.
Beige - simplicity, tradition. This also links back to the simple theme and it shows that the artist's music is seen as 'traditonal' which suggests that it is very well known and popular.
Red - energy, excitement. The colour red is used to show that as well as being quite simple the artist is also very exciting and interesting. Red is also very good for attracting attention to the magazine.


Layout

The masthead is located at the top left of the magazine cover. This is because it is the most important part of the magazine as it shows people what magazine it is. The central image is only slightly overlapping the masthead, this suggests that the magazine is already very well-known so the name would be recognised even if part was covered up.

The headline is written across the centre of the page which shows that this is also a very important part of the magazine.

The quotes from the interview are all scattered randomly across the page, this has been done to suggest that the artist himself is quite random and unpredictable.

Under the masthead is the date and price of the magazine. This is because they don't want the price to be one of the first things the readers see, they want the readers to have a chance to read the front cover before thay see the price.

Mis en scene

The lighting used is shined on the front of the artists face to make him seem illuminated and shows he has nothing to hide, also there are no props in this photo which suggests that the artist does not anything to make him more interesting.

Genre

The genre of this magazine is very general, including evidence of both pop and rock genres. However, this issue focus' on the alternative rock/ indie genre. This is shown through the artists facial expression which suggests that he is loud and rebellious which has been linked to sub-genres of rock because of the traditional rock and roll attitude.

Target Audience

The target audience for this issue of the mgazine, and the magazine in general, is young adults/teenagers. This is shown mainly through the main image as the facial expression of the artist suggests that he is quite rebellious and loud which teenagers can relate to as they are normally full of energy and get bored easily. Also the band members themselves are quite young which makes the magazine seem more personal to its readers as they can relate to the band because they are in the same generation.

The text used also is used to attract it's target audience, an example would be where it says 'Glastonbury' at the top. This is used as the main audience for Glastonbury and other music festivals is young adults, the same audience as the magazine which means that by seeing that there is a feature about a music festival, this may convince someone to buy the magazine. Also the target audience may be able to relate to some of the quotes taken from the interview in the main feature. This is shown by the quotes 'I thought I was gay' and 'I only lost my virginity two years ago' as many young people can relate to these situations which means that they may be persuaded to buy the magazine as they can relate to the artist.

name of magazine and masthead font

I have come up with a range of names for my music magazine, these names are:

Noise,

Amp,

Chords,

Sound, and

A-music.

I have also come up with a range of fonts that I may use for my masthead.

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I then asked a focus group of my target audience which name and font they liked so that I could get a clear understanding of what the audience want.

After collecting the results from the focus group I can see that the most popular name was Amp and the most popular font was Font 2 (Stentiga). Therefore, my magazine masthead will look like this:

questionnaire

To gather a complete uncderstanding of what my target audience would like to see in my music magazine I have created a questionnaire. I have done this so that my magazine will fullfill all of their expectations of what a music magazine should be like.

evaluation of BLENDER magazine mock up

As a part of our AS media coursework we were required to recreate a magazine so that we could understand the coventions and what was required to create a music magazine. After searching Google for appropriate magazines that I could re-create, I chose this cover for Blender magazine.

I chose this cover as I had a model that I could use who had the same hair length and colour, my model also had the same physique and skin tone as the model on the cover of Blender.



Programs

I created this magazine cover on Microsoft Word as I found this was the easiest way to do this. I managed to get the layout basically the same as the layout of the original cover, this was relitavely easy as the layout was quite simple to copy. Also the graphics and masthead were quite simple to re-create, I made these in Windows' Paint programme as I knew how to use this programme and I knew what I had to do for each of the graphics. The programme I used for editing the photo was Adobe Photoshop, this was quite difficult to use as I didn't know how it worked.

Font

Re-creating the font was quite difficult as I could not find a font that matched the original font completely as it was quite unique, however I managed to find a font that was similar on the Microsoft Word Programme. The font I used for the main headlines was found online, I managed to get these fonts pretty close to the original as they were quite easy to find. As you can see there is a large range of font sizes used on this cover, to re-create this magazine as best as I could I altered the sizes of the text so that it looks the same size as the text on the original. Some of the text needed to have the colour changed so that it looked accurate, I did this by copy and pasting the text onto the Paint programme and using the fill tool to change the colour.

Taking the photo

When I was taking the photo I came across a few problems. One of these problems was the positioning of the model, the pose that the model is in is quite difficult to re-create as her arms are in the air and in different directions. This was a problem as my models arms started to tire very quickly as it was quite an awkward pose, also the position of her head was quite awkward as everytime we took a photo the head didn't look as if it was in the right place. We overcame this problem as I decided to position the model myself, once I did this the model looked like she was in the same pose as the model on the original.

Another problem I found was that the model's hair wasn't in the right position, this was very easy to fix as I just changed the position of the models parting.

Editing the photo

As soon as I started editing the photo I immediately came across some problems, the first problem I had was that I needed to remove the background of the image as it did not look like the image on the original cover. To solve this problem I watched various Photoshop tutorials on YouTube and these were very helpful and helped me understand how to remove the background. Another problem I found was that after removing the background the edges of the photo were quite jagged, after watching some more YouTube videos I managed to make the edges a bit smoother but could not fix the problem completeley as I wasn't very experienced with Photoshop.

Problems

Most of the problems I came across I have outlined in the paragraphs above. The problems I haven't mentioned yet are the problems I had when doing the layout of the magazine, this was quite difficult as the programme I used wasn't made for the creation of magazines. Although I faced some problems, I fixed them without much hassle as there was nothing that was too difficult to fix when creating my magazine.

Improvements

If I were to improve my magazine then I would have spent a lot more time watching tutorials and practising on Photoshop. Another thing I would improve would be the text, I would have tried a lot harder to find an exact replica of the text that was used on the original magazine cover.

Overall I think my magazine cover recreation went quite well and although I faced some problems I still think that my magazine looks very similar to the original.

MOJO Classic - cover analysis

representation of artists

representation of bands/groups

NME - layout, content, language & mis en scene

Three College Magazine Covers

College Magazine Cover 1

Strengths
These are the strengths of my magazine cover:

• There is a set colour scheme, this shows that this magazine is part of Sponne School as it uses the school's and logo's colours.
• The use of the word 'Success!' will attract the target audience as students that attend sixth form/college want to get the best grades they can get and by using this word it suggests that by reading this magazine a student could get success by following some of the tips featured in the magazine
• The model looks very excited and is looking at her results which fits in with the cover line below the photo. This also suggests that by reading this magazine you can achieve your educational goals
• The 'Driving lessons, 20% Off' incentive will persuade potential readers to buy the magazine as the target audience for this type of magazine is around the age that they can start learning to drive. It is also a good incentive because at that age being sociable is a huge part of the target audience's life and if they were able to drive this could contribute to them having a better social life
• The cover line concerning the 'Gossip Section' is written in smaller writing which makes it seem more secretive. This would persuade the target audience to buy this magazine as it suggests that there is a lot of gossip that no one knows about which would make it seem more exclusive to the readers of the magazine.

Weaknesses
These are the weaknesses of my magazine cover:

•  The font is all the same which can put off potential customers as they might find this boring. If the target audience finds the magazine cover boring then they will not buy the magazine, I found this out when I conducted a questionnaire about what to feature in my magazine and most of the people i asked said that they would only buy a magazine if the cover was interesting
• The setting that the model is in may also be a weakness as she is not in a classroom and it seems she isn't in a school at all. This may not help the magazine win over its target audience as they may not be able to relate to the model as they may do most of their work at school not home
• The cover looks quite bare as there is not a lot of cover lines and only one large picture in the centre of the cover. This is a weakness as the target audience may not find any of the cover lines interesting and they may think that because the cover looks quite empty then the rest of the magazine may be just as uninteresting
• Another weakness may be that the cover lines don't stand out very much, this links back to the last point about how the cover doesn't seem very interesting. This problem could be solved by using brighter colours and a bolder outline around the text.

College Magazine Cover 2

Strengths
The strengths of this college magazine cover are:

• The colours are all very bright which will draw the attention of my target audience as teenagers usually like bright colours
• The font looks like a font that would be recognised as being related to schools which shows that it appeals to my target audience of school/college students
• The incentives are good as they relate to my target audience of school/college students
• The ripped paper on the top of the photo shows that this magazine is for students as the ripped edges sow they are usually quite scruffy and the lines on the paper is the type of paper that students would typically use to write their notes up in
• The image of the two students working together and laughing shows that they enjoy doing their work and they like the environment that they are in as it suggests that they can socialise and get their work done at the same time.

Weaknesses
The weaknesses of this college magazine cover are:

• Although the bright colours may attract students, it also means that there isn't really a set colour scheme which means that it may not be as effective as the other magazine covers I have produced as, apart from the logo, it doesn't really relate to Sponne School
• Even though the font relates to my target audience, it is all the same so that there is no variety with the font. This could be a problem as my target audience may find this boring which may be the reason that they don't buy it, as school/college students get bored very easily and will not buy a magazine if the cover doesn't interest them
• There is not enough cover lines on there, if the target audience is uninterested in the magazine cover then they will not be persuaded to buy it as school/college students tend to get bored very easily. If there were more cover lines then the potential readers may be persuaded to buy it more as the more cover lines there are, the more likely that the target audience will be interested in one of the cover lines featured on the magazine
• There needs to be more images on the front cover that are related to the cover lines as the target audience are more interested in looking at the pictures than having to do a lot of reading.