Interview question!

Here are some questions that I will be asking Ozzy, the bassist of Amaryllis, for the interview tomorrow. They are basic question which I'll be improvising on during the interview so its more fluent and not just firing questions out at him!

Let's edit!

Using a website called Befunky.com I used some of the tools on there to edit an image I look at the photo shoot. This process helped me as I was able to apply different types of effects to it and play around with it, so I have a better understanding of what I can do when it comes to doing the actual production of the magazine.

Applying black and white effect to the image

Using 'Paint Mode' to gain back the original colour of the hat  

Again using 'Paint Mood' again to gain back the original colour of his eyes 



Before and after image from editing it



I used the editing tools above to make the image look more attractive and engaging. Also, the black and white background gives it the more rock feel and having the two features in its natural blue tone, the hat and his eyes, standsout and makes it look like he's in direct contact with the audience he's looking out at. 

Grids!

After taking the images I decided to put a couple of them into paint and see if I followed the conventions and drew on the grid which would help me when it comes to production. The grid divides up the image into sections which then can be used to place text or image and helps with placing graphics too.

These images 3 images that I've taken might be used for my front cover as the eyes lie near enough to the first horizontal line that meets the vertical line which is where they are suppose to be at.

The photo shoot :O

So on the 23rd January I had invited Amaryllis into school for a photo shoot, unfortunately due to the bad, snowy weather only the bassist could make it in, along with a friend of my that knows him. On the day of the photo shoot I had to improvise and think of two shots and single shots that I could possible use. This went down well as just before the the shoot, we has a double lesson with a professional photographer and he gave us lots of tips on using lighting with a single person and how that can create an image. Taking all this on board, I went ahead with my photo shoot...

Shot list!

Before the photo shoot could take place I had to create a shot list, with different shots that I would like to take. This included thinking about mise en sense, props, angles and shot type.

my shot list for the first photo shoot

Practicing shots shots...

Early today I did a practice shots so I know what I'm doing for the actual photo shoot, although I have used a green back drop in these photos's in the actually photo shoot I will be using a white and black back drops.
I also did some practice with photo shop on a few images, changing the background and looking at different features I can change.

 

Flat plan feedback!

Today we looked everyone's flat plans and did a bit of peer assessing and got back great feedback which will help me improve and develop the ideas i have for my magazine when it comes to producing it. Below is the peer assessing sheet of my flat plan, which points out that I'm heading in the right direction in terms of keeping up with magazine conventions. A few comments made which I can act upon to ensure I'm achieving at the best level possible were: adding more cover lines on the front page and having a variation in font size too.

Peer assessment sheet 

Add some colour why don't we?

So you can see now how I've progressed from having a basic flat plan into a coloured one which is annotated too, this will help me when doing the final products as I will know which colours I want to use and then can get straight on to it. Before doing added colour to my flat plans I did quick colour practices to experiment with different  colours I could use.

Colour studies

Front cover 

Contents page 

Double page spread

Flat Plans, look at what I've created!

After doing research I attempted to create my flat plans, below you can see the front cover, contents page and double page of what I'd like my pages to look like!

Front cover

Contents page 

Double page spread

These flat plans are deigned to help me with the actual production of the magazine. Also has helped me narrow down what features need to be included and what I wanted to include in them. Before creating them, I made lists of things that were conventional to all three to make sure I included them but also the little things such has remembering the page numbers and titled features of different articles.

Flat plans, what have I been up to so far?

So for the past few days I've been working towards designing flat plans for my magazine. Before I could design them I had to do some research into looking at different front covers and double page spreads which consisted of band members; as my front cover and double page spread will have the band Amaryllis on it. I found the follow magazine front covers which gave me a direction on the types of shots I should be looking at.

For double page spreads, I looked more closely at the way many photographers arrange the band members which I could do as well, and so I created this mood board which will help me narrow down my shot list and well as looking at mise en scene and seeing how each image has the rock/alternative rock feel to it.

Update on Amaryllis

The interview that will take place with Amaryllis will be based on their debt EP that'll be out soon. Keeping up with there Facebook posts; they posted a link of a video that shows behind the senses of whats they done at the recording studio! When the interview takes place I can make references to the video for any questions that I will be asking them.

My Reader Profile

Here is 17 year old Holly. She is a reader profile that I've created.

Likes and hobbies: Rock boy bands, going out with friends, partying, going swimming, chilling in lesson, playing the piano , watching t.v, going to gigs
Dislikes: homework, being told what to do, things that are boring

Holly goes to college and does 4 Alevels. She also wants to a career in art because it allows her to express herself and her love for music. She also listens to Xfm a lot as it always plays her favourite songs and plays upcoming music from artists in the rock genre. She enjoys being at college but hates the homework load. A typical day would include waking up at 6am to get ready and in time for college at 8.30am. Finishes school at 4pm, listens to her rock music including music from, Green Day, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Coldplay, Blink182 and the Foo Fighters. Getting home, eating and then cracking on with homework whiles having Xfm playing in the background. Having dinner at around 7.30pm then watching tv. She usually catches up on the channel Rock Plus which has all the latests from upcoming artists and bands. Shes goes to bed at 10pm so shes fully rested for another long day at college the next day.

Analysis of market research results!

Survey 

So from getting back my survey results I can see that 60% of 16 - 18 year old's would pay £1.50 - £2.00 for a weekly magazine, and 40% would pay £3.50 to £4.00 for a monthly magazine. Which were not that surprising figures as I expected that range.

The second question which was "Would you want to see free poster of bands/artists to be inside a music magazine?" everybody said yes, which is something significant to remember when designing my magazine as all the 16 - 18 year old's that i surveyed said yes to free posters

      The question which was ordering in preference the follow statements: 

     Seeing your favourite band/artist on the front page  

     The music magazine having an appealing name 

     Having free gifts with the magazine, e.g. CD’s                 

     Seeing a chance of winning competitions e.g. a chance to win tickets to your favourite band’s concert 

     Having interviews of your favourite bands 

      I got a set of results that conclude 70% ranked seeing their favourite band/artists on the front page as number 1, 50% ranked having interviews with favourite bands and most surprising of all £40% ranked the lest of things they preferred seeing in the magazine was having free gifts in the magazines! 

     Taking on board these results, I will be able to shape my magazine so its most appealing to 16 - 18 year old, also my reader profile will be more precise and I will be able to create a typical reader of my magazine.

               

  One of the survey's completed by a 16 year old 

One of the survey's completed by a 17 year old 

One of the survey's completed by a 18 year old 

Language used on double page spreads

Here is a prezi presentation which will go through my journey of explorings and findings of double page spreads.

Market research! Focus group

So yesterday I conducted a focus group which you can view below, this focus group helped me a lot as two of my best mates, Tia and Amal are into the genre rock and I felt that i could get most of my information from them. Also because they are consistent consumers of magazines and keep up with the issues from different rock magazines. I chose to use a Kerrang! magazine and a NME magazine as they both cover my sub genre of alternative rock. Tia and Amal both gave me loads of information to keep in mine when designing my magazine!
"..Are kinda done in a hand writing type way, so I think its a bit more personal touch and its a little more appealing, its not just the same thing, its not repetitive" ~ Tia

I also noticed that mise en sense is very important as in the focus group Amal points out the artists in the front cover having piercings and tattoo's gives away that the magazine is to do with rock.~ "through the images of the bands makes it more obvious"

whats significant about the contents page is the categories that are given down the side of the magazine, which divides up the different sections of the magazine with both Tia and Amal found convenient - another features to keep in mind for my magazine. "Its very clear where every thing is" ~ Amal

"they go with the traditional black and red, it fits the band more, it fits the article more" ~ Tia, here she makes a very good point from the Karrang! magazine where she points out a variation in colour so it fits in with the genre of the band a bit more.

For my double page spread I've decided to stick with doing an interview for an upcoming articles, when asking on options of if its nice to read about interviews i got this response: "i think interviews are always the best" "I think its more exciting for the fans especially" ~ Tia

"With one image, its good, but its kind of boring" ~ Amal

"poster are really good... its a nice little treat for yourself!" ~ Tia

"its like sometimes I purely buy the magazine because, one of my favourite bands are in the posters" ~ Amal

Market research! - Questionaire

I have constructed a mini questionnaire with a few general questions on music magazines that will help me when with the little features when designing my magazine! I aim to get at least 10 people aged between 16 - 20 to fill this out as that is within my target audience for my magazine.

A bit more about Amaryllis

Here are some video's of the bands progress into the career of music and how they have used social networking sites to promote themselves.

Finding a band - Amaryllis

As i have been asking around to see if anyone knows any upcoming alternative rock bands, i asked a very close friend of mind who is friends with a band that would like to have a career in music. I got into touch with this band called Amaryllis and received an email back from them saying that they would be more than happy to help me out in my coursework!

The final chosen genre for my magazine - Alternative Rock

After look at artists and bands within alternative and indie rock it seemed to broad of a genre to do. And so i decided to pick one and have chosen to alternative rock overall. In progress towards this i have created a mood board of alternative rock magazines that will help me decide on the colour scheme for the magazine.

Below we can see the most frequent colour used is black or shades of black. This likes in with the rock feel that is given to each of these front covers. White is mostly used for text and an alternative colour is given accordingly to the artist featured on the page. NME and SPIN use red as there third colour. The colours orange, blue green and yellow are used amongst the other front covers too.

Overall from this mood board of magazine covers i can take away that the two main colours, also conventional colours of  alternative rock magazines are black and white. For my magazine i plan on using black, white red and yellow as a basic idea in a built up towards designing.

Using social networking sites - Twitter

To explore and find different ranges of indie/pop rock artists I decided to make a tweet asking if anyone knew any upcoming artists that I could get into contact with. The very next day I got a new follower, an upcoming indie rock band called Adora. I found this quite helpful as I could get into touch with them but also get have constant feeds coming through to look at the different songs they releasetoo. Only down side of this was the fact that they were based in Chicago, IL.

Repersentations of alternative/ indie rock!

Here are a few videos of bands and artists in the genre indie rock. These artists and bands well known across the UK and worldwide, and further down i will be doing more research into them so I can create some headlines for the contents page, and maybe mention a few on the double page spread with my main band/artists' article and interview.

Bands and artists within alternative/indie rock

Here is a wordle I've created with names of famous alternative/indie rock bands and artists. When creating the front cover of my magazine I might include a few names from here as "featuring articles" from them. Also will include them on the contents page for under any "upcoming events" for a certain few that I'll select further down the process.

Getting in touch!

After looking at Kerrang! And NME rock magazine's I've chosen the genre alternative/indie rock for my magazine to be based on. A band that I listen to called The Summer Set are upcoming artists signed to an independent record lab. I emailed their manger to see if I could get into touch with them for an interview that I could possible include on my double page spread.

NME magazine analysis

The second magazine analysis I chose to do is on NME's magazines which are indie rock genres. It is also distributed worldwide which makes some features in the layout unconventional but still keeps the house style of music magazines.