Monday 31 October 2011

Mood Board

Proposal

The type of magazine I am looking to create is going to be in the style of NME, except focusing more on the Drum N’ Bass/Dubstep/UK Bass Music artists rather than the usual Indie/Rock bands that have all the spotlight. As these genres are still a growing society, it would be focused at mainly the audience already indulged into the underground vibes, as well as attracting a new, curious audience to the scene. I need to create a music magazine that is aimed at a specific target audience. I have chosen this genre as it is more underground and out of the spotlight, therefore making it more challenging as there is less to compare it to, as well as doing it about something I feel passionate about. As there is a lot of cross reference with other genres, I can imitate parts from other magazines where it will be effective, e.g a hip-hop or indie magazine. Although my magazine is a complete different genre, I could still use similar layouts from other genres of magazine such NME, Q etc. This genre is very underground and unique, therefore you should be able to tell what the genre is; just by looking at the cover of the magazine. My layout must represent the genre, and the models will have to be dressed in the appropriate way. The target audience I have selected for my magazine is teenagers from the ages of 14 to young adults of the age 30. These are my intended audience because these are the people who are most likely to be interested in this style of music, as they have grown up and into the genre, as well as newer fans who have come to like it. These people are most likely to have money to buy the magazine as they can start earning their own money, which I intend to sell at a reasonable price on a weekly basis. As well as the age group, the social classes B-E will be targeted for the magazine, especially students, who are social class E due to their student loans. And the others have been selected because these people will be able to afford the magazine and they will also have the general interest for the magazine. My magazine will feature a young, underground musician on the front cover who will be doing an interview inside the magazine. The interview will be advertised on the front cover along with other sell lines to engage the public. Lastly, my magazine will be published by IPC who are one of the leading magazine publishers in the UK. I have chosen them as they already publish NME, who’s layout is similar to the one which I had in mind.
My magazine will focus more on the mainstream artists of the genres, as this will attract the widest audience possible therefore generating the most money. I will also include a double page spread every week on new artists who deserve recognition but don’t have the promotion they need to get known. My magazine will also include features such as gigs and shows, including sound system reviews for all the tech-heads, as well as best song/mix of the night. There will also be an atmosphere rating as well as a recommendations for seeing the artist live next time, e.g take a bottle of water. I will include interviews from the most mainstream artists more than the underground ones as this will attract the main audience. Although, if the underground artist has an interesting story I will give them a whole double page spread to themselves as if they were a mainstream artist. I will also include interviews with a DJ/producer and how he/she feels the scene has changed over the years. This interview will be around 1000 words and take up a whole double page spread, as well as maybe another one for an introductory page. I could also have reviews in my magazine to allow the reader to get an insight into what they may have missed, or are thinking about doing. There will be plenty of images, as actions speak louder than words, and this will also make it more interesting on the eye for the audience. I will ensure the images will be eye-catching and making the audience take time to look closely at them to analyse them fully.
I feel that my magazine will succeed as it is unique in the market and there are no magazines that I know of doing the same genre of music and offering the same information that I am providing. I will be running competitions weekly to attend events, which all include VIP treatment, therefore the term ‘VIP’ will entice the reader and want the chance to win, therefore having to purchase the magazine.

Sunday 30 October 2011

Colour Connotations

Colour Connotations

Monday 17 October 2011

Here is a video of my preliminary task and all the layers used to build up the final, overall image.

Monday 10 October 2011

Diary Entry Number One
Week Beginning 12/9/2011
Week Ending 19/9/2011
In my first week of AS media, I was asked to create a front cover and contents page for a school-based magazine using pervious skills and gaining more skills on Adobe Photoshop CS3. I found this easy as I did GCSE media where we had to do a similar project creating a magazine front page, contents page and double page spread, as well as previous skills on Photoshop. I am excited about beginning my task. As my new Media project commences I hope to achieve and learn more skills than I did throughout GCSE, as well as applying my old skills to the new project.


Diary Entry Number Two
Week Beginning 19/9/2011
Week Ending 26/9/2011
This week for my Media Studies AS Level, I had to analyse three front covers and three contents pages. This started off easy as I only had to find images to annotate, although I found it difficult remembering every single theory and all the key terms to annotate the pages. If we hadn’t completed these, we were asked to complete them for homework. I had trouble accessing them due to the fact they were on the school servers, which I was unable to access from home, although I managed to retrieve the document and finish the task.


Diary Entry Number Three
Week Beginning 26/9/2011
Week Ending 3/10/2011
This week we were given a similar task to the week before except this week we had to evaluate double page spreads to gain an understanding of how they work in music magazines as well as getting ideas to incorporate into our own work. I found this relatively easy as the task from the week before had refreshed my brain a little, although I felt as if I was still lacking detail and not completing the task as fully as I would have liked. I think I will edit the analyses when I have a bit of spare time to catch up on school work. Again, we were assigned to finish these for homework, and again I had the same problem as the week before, although I did still manage to finish them all for the Monday lesson.


Diary Entry Number Four
Week Beginning 3/10/2011
Week Ending 10/10/2011
This weeks task was to log onto a website called Prezi (prezi.com), which is an online version of PowerPoint, except with a lot more perks and makes it a lot more interesting to watch and interact with. I used Prezi to explain the Codes and Conventions of Music Magazine. I found this very straight forward, and answered questions that I created in my mind. Although this was probably not the best solution and yet again, I feel as if it was too vague. Once I have completed all my design work, as that is where I am most likely to finish early, as well as having a high standard of work, I will return and polish up these word documents to make sure they are on the same level as my designs.


Diary Entry Number Five
Week Beginning 10/10/2011
Week Ending 17/10/2011

Sunday 9 October 2011