Music Magazine - Photography

I took quite a large amount of photos for my Magazine, as I wanted to make as many of them as possible my own.

I took part in a couple of photoshoots with my friend, Megan, and we both took images for our Media coursework. These images were taken with a white background for editing purposes as it made sure that the images looked studio based, and were not too visually noisy. Some of the unedited images I took follow.

Music Magazine - Pencil drafts

Music Magazine - Audience research

I used survey monkey to construct an easily accesible questionnaire for my music magazine, and recieved 26 participants' results.

The questionnaire can be found here.

Due to my not having a premium account, I could only ask ten questions, but that was more than enough to gather the results I need.

I want my magazine to be based on rock music, so my questions were based on this. Following are my results to the survey:

Due to the results of this question, I have decided to call my magazine Shredder.

Music Magazine - Reader Profile

AGE: 15-25

GENDER: Unisex, but mainly male

MUSIC TASTE: Mainstream rock - pop rock, punk, alternative, screamo

CLOTHING/STYLE: Alternative, Punk

VALUES AND BELIEFS: Music matters most – support the artists. the music created, not the image and fame.

PERSONALITY: Varied possibilities from shy and introvert, to loud and extrovert depending on the individual. A method of helping those more worried about sharing their interests (due to common problems) to find others similar.

HOBBIES: Music orientated activities – gigs, playing, listening, creating

HATES: Conformity, Mainstream music, Idealism

SHOPS: Mostly online, alternative and less well known brands such as Criminal Damage, Masked Clothing and Dead Heroes Clothing. Band merchandise

FOOD AND DRINK: Energy drink and other unhealthy things.

Music Magazine - Analysis of similar texts

In the image above, I have analysed multiple magazines, including their layout, target audience and whether they are mainstream or not. I've found most of the magazines that cover rock music appear to be independant.



Kerrang! is a well known rock magazine, which along with Rock Sound takes the lead role in the publicity of the rock music industry.
They clearly know the popularity and how recognised their magazine is, and so have no problem with covering part of their logo with the musician's image.
The front cover has a very minimal colour scheme, only using red black and white, in addition to the skin tones

Preliminary - Final

Front cover:

This is my final cover composition. I'm happy with it, as I believe it looks quite professional and fills all of the aims I needed it to. As you can tell, I took the results from the questionnaire into consideration, using the suggested colour scheme and making the magazine free.

I feel than if I wanted to improve it, I'd add more things to the page. I didn't want to overcrowd the cover, but there is quite a lot more space than I had intended.

If I could have, I'd definitely have used a different model!

Contents:

I tried to make the theme flow on from the cover, with the titles using the same text, making it easier for receivers to find the articles that they want to read that are featured.

I wanted to put a preview of the next week to keep the reader interested, and I like how it turned out, the image fits perfectly.

With the editors note, I would make sure to have a 'hand' signature after the note, this connects with the reader on a more personal level.

As you can see, this page is unfinished so I would complete it.

School Magazine - Images

From my questionnaire results, I have formulated some front cover plans.

I designed three different covers by hand, and then from this took my favourite design to enlarge.

As my questionnaire results had concluded that readers would want a posed photo, I've come up with a main headline of 'Hate Exams?' and then based the models pose around this.

This is the image I decided on:

I'm the model, as no one would pose for me.
The image has only had some slight editing, such as the removal of spots, and correction of the necklace. Unfortunately, I've lost the orignal image to show you what changes I have made.

Preliminary cover ideas - pencil drafts

Preliminary Research

In order to make a school magazine that my target audience would like, I created a questionnaire to find out what they would want from it.
Below are screenshots of my questionnaire that I wrote.

(Click to enlarge)

I collected data from the relevant audience, and found that the following results occured:

1. Genre
   Out of the three options, 'Student Information and News' proved the most popular.
   


2. Price
   The result of this proved quite straight forward, as almost all responses were '£0 - £1'
   


3. Consumers
   Most of my target auidence read magazines weekly, however I found that everyone who took my questionnaire wanted the school magazine to be monthly.
   


4. Attractions
   The result of my questionnaire indicate that the leading factor to attracting an audience is the overall front cover, particularly the image and the article titles.
   


5. Front Cover Image
   I gave four options for a cover image; In uniform, posed or relaxed, or Non uniform, posed or relaxed. I found that most people wanted an image composed of posing students, not in uniform. The second most popular being in uniform, and relaxed.
   


6. Colour Scheme
   The most popular colours proved to be Black, White and Green.
   


7. Features
   I offered the questionnaire participants the option of five different special features to the magazine. Out of Horoscopes, Fashion, Reviews, Local News and Puzzles, most preffered reviews with the only other two options that had been chosen as Horoscopes and Puzzles.
   


8. Contributions
   All of my target audience wanted student and teacher contributions to the magazines to be possible, so I will make sure to mention this in my magazine.
   


9. Magazine Title
   I asked whether my audience would prefer the title to be of more serious origin, such as 'FSG Updates' or laid-back like 'Girls Weekly' and found that a more laid-back approach was favoured.

Preliminary analysis of similar texts

Genre: Education centred, mainly for promotion to future students
Representation: Clever student participating in experiment. Science specialisation?
Audience: Future students who don't know about the school already.
Values and Ideology: Attending this school guarantees sucess, amazing science department, happy/good school experience - content model expression.
Insititution: Teacher for student.
Language: Bold text - attention grabbing. There is contrasting colour to the background image, though all are plain.

Genre: School magazine for girls, mainly lifestyle and fashion.

Representation: The school and students feature in the image. Female orientated magazine is indicated by the models, girl-associated article titles and colour scheme.

Audience: Current female students.

Values and Ideology: Friendships are important, as are aspirations and dreams - 'fairytales can come true'. The image connotates perfection.

Institution: Student for student.

Language: The photo is colourful and so the titles are hard to read, unlike the 'Beloit' magazine.