Audience feedback

After much deliberation and argument with myself of 'how do I..' 'Does this work..' 'What about this colour..' I asked a large group of people for their opinions and how I could improve my front cover and what works or doesn't work at all.

As a whole we decided that I need to be careful of my font selection and of my colour scheme used for my fonts.

..Now time to put preaching into practice.

First attempt at front cover

The Pretty Reckless - Latest EP

 

The Pretty Reckless

 

One of my all time favourite bands, lead singer-Taylor Momsen. Taylor's style is unique and at time controversial yet its thought provoking and to many it enraptures them, this is why the screen shot you can see above is constantly visible when I'm editing any of my photos or creating anything to do with my magazine, this is also to her being one of the main influences and inspirations for my photo shoot. From when she was acting she always portrayed a sweet young innocent girl however her alternative job was to be a lead singing of a very rock heavy uni-core style band. At only the age of 20 she is a perfect example of good girl gone bad and one of the main points I tried to capture during my photo shoot.

Photoshoot montage

Pre-photo shoot light and camera play

Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal

Media Magazine article

Risk assessment

In preparation for my photo shoot I have made a risk assessment for my models and myself in case of the worst possible scenario  - 'plan for the worst, hope for the best'.

Hazard	Risk	Controlling the risk
Sunlight	Getting in the model(s) eyes/my eyes. Could therefore make the model(s) uncomfortable and/or produce an unflattering photo.	Either move areas, change angle so the light is not in either person(s) eyes, or wait until the sun has moved.
Additional lighting used	With the additional lighting this may be too over powering for the model to handle.	Direct the light away from the models eyes or decrease the brightness then edit it on photo shop.
Objects/props used	Could cause anyone to trip.	Make sure the area where models are posing is clear and the same with the camera angle areas. Have designated areas for extra equipment or props to be either between shoots or when not in use.
Cigarette	Burns models or anyone else if careless.	Light the cigarette in a safe environment, and make sure the models do not have any hairspray in their hair or any extremely flammable clothing.

Photo shoot plan

Mise-en-scene of my genre/my genre inspiration

Audience survey questionaire

I used the website www.surveymonkey.com to create a 3 question survey that is widely available, after a week of it being public I have 13 responses, and these images show my findings. 

I plan to base my initial draft of my magazine cover,contents and double page spread on the colour scheme and colours agreed by the audience opinions shown. 

I will no doubt re-upload an updated version of this questionnaire once I have had a larger amount of people reply so I can get a better audience view as to what would appeal to them in a magazine and what they would spend money on as these are my target audience and if they don't like it they wont but it and that would therefore mean my magazine creation would be unsuccessful 

Click here to take survey

The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me - Brand New

A slightly softer album/band but still a great music influence

Flat plans

Launching my magazine

Greeting uni-core fans and welcome to the first ever edition of 'SCREAM' the home of uni-core.

SCREAM is a new and buzzing music magazine for all of you who enjoy head-banging quality rock and scream music. We hope to include many many band interviews, exclusives and posters-galore! 
Bands and Artists who may tickle your fancy to read about include: Bring Me The Horizon, A Day To Remember, Sleeping With Sirens, The Black Out, Black Veil Brides, Asking Alexandria and so much more!
We hope that you join us on our quest to a long and fruitful life in print, but until then, Have fun, and remember - Keep rocking out!

Sophie 

Pitching my magazine

Audience Opinions

                                     

                                     

Audience profile

Samii - Aged 18

Samii is generally happy, enjoys a good head banging session to the sounds of heavy metal. Some of her favourite bands include Sleeping with Sirens, Bring Me The Horizon, Asking Alexandria, Of Mice and Men and Suicide Silence. She shops at quirky places such as Blue Banana and The Real McCoy and adores the large men's shirts cut to size with a leather jacket and Doc Martins look.

Her iPod is full with different types of music however 80% is heavy, loud, bass-y, scream, death core music. Her perfect sort of magazine would include all her favourite bands, and lead singers would be ideal along the lines of a heavy core/death core genre. This would then allow her obsession of Kellin Quinn to continue. (Lead singer of Sleeping With Sirens)

Andy Biersack for you Ladies and Gentlemen .. No need to thank me.

Production plan

Audience research continued..

After a day spent with screaming children and trying to restrain myself from slaughtering them with the instruments they help and so hopelessly attempted to play today, I found that the classic rock legends and creators are known within even the youngest of our society.
Volunteering at a childrens holiday music school allows you to see the music that the children are exposed to either through the media such as TV or radio or influenced through what their parents listen too. - A group of young boys with a few basic instruments were able to play the backing track to Jimi Hendrix 'Wild thing' without even knowing who Hendrix is or even that the song already existed; if anything the children thought that a current 'chart' artist had sung it. How wrong they were and in some respects kinda' insulting to the legend himself that is Hendrix!


So here you go the song itself by (personally) one of the greatest artists ever :)

Jimi Hendrix, Wild Thing - Youtube

Naming my music magazine

Song of the evening - You me at six

 

 

 

 

You Me At Six is one of my main musical inspirations for my music magazine, not only being used and incorporated within my mind map their album art and band posters and composition of them all are to be used as inspiration for my final task and how I organise my photo shoot.

You Me At Six are also an example of a 'heavy'/'rock' band who are able to accomplish their sound without using screaming.

 

 

Genres, audience, and iconography

*images still to upload*

I've uploaded this PowerPoint of mine so you can see the influences of my music/genre choice for my magazine. Through the slides you can see that I've mainly based on the original rock icons as they are the people who's music inspired the modern rock bands and artists. Its like a tumble affect as the generation of music affects the next.
I have learnt that no matter what amount of genres you think there are, there is a million more sub genres for each genre you can name.
Some of the worlds best selling magazines are mainly rock based as this broad genre appeals to a large and varied audience.
The 'fan-base' of an original rock themed magazine or band is stereotypically a male orientated and teen-aged range. However as time has gone by and as the bands and music styles have evolved the female based fan structure has grown and expanded and now is just as much the majority of the make up of the fan base as males are.

This research is going to help me shape my magazine as I know what sort of target audience to aim it at (16 and upwards, generally teens) and I need to make sure that I make my music magazine appeal to my target audience otherwise my music magazine could be classified as unsuccessful.

Mood Board - Genre and artist research

Main task

Sleeping With Sirens new tracks

I've posted these new Sleeping With Sirens tracks on my blog because it shows people looking at my audience and genre research the type of music that influence my choices and the type of music I'd like to create and represent within my music magazine.

Different types of music magazine

Different types of music magazines from 014790


''Stolen'' from - http://www.slideshare.net/014790/different-types-of-music-magazines
 (A good revision/research slideshow)

Deconstruction of magazine covers, contents pages and double page spreads.

Mood board mind map .. the process

Here you can see the brain storm or 'thought shower' as to what makes up my genre, and what I will use to make my mood board; below you can see the finished product.

Initial task research; music and genres

 

There are many different types/different style of music magazines on today’s market, amongst many different genres, on average there are 15 most famous rock/alternative music magazines around and 28 general ‘all-over’ genre magazines covering a range of different types and genres of music.

Genre is defined by the dictionary as: A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

However a genre of music can’t always be allotted a certain genre, and this is where a ‘sub-genre’ is made, a sub-genre is the collaboration of two different genres coming together either in the form of one artist or just a single song. The formation of music can allow for many new genres or subgenres to be made simply through someone’s personal taste or mixing of two different artists.

A fusion genre is a music genre that combines two or more genres. For example, rock and roll originally developed as a fusion of blues, gospel music and country music. The main characteristics of fusion genres are variations in tempo, rhythm, and style.

Artists who work in fusion genres are often difficult to categorize within non-fusion styles. While there are many reasons for this, the main is that most genres evolved out of other genres. When the new genre is finally recognized as separate, musicians may find them in a large gray area. These artists generally consider themselves part of both genres. A musician who plays music that is predominantly blues but is influenced by rock, for example, is often labeled a blues-rock musician. The first genre is the one from which the new one evolved. The second is the newer and less dominant component genre in the artist's music. What constitutes a genuine fusion between genres and what is merely the influence of one genre on another is debatable, as is the level of originality needed to create a completely new genre. But some genres, such as rock music, are certainly distinct from their predecessors. In some cases, many subgenres appear, and their originality and distinctness are dubious.

When a certain level of individuality has been reached, especially when new styles diverge from more established forms, expressions like alternative rock and alternative country have been used. Such styles are often referred to simply as "alternative".

 

http://www.musicgenreslist.com/

^^Due to music genres being so vast and their being so many different subgenres and fusions I have linked a website that shows a list of genres yet still doesn’t include them all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(the magazine deconstructions have been done by hand)

Snippets of happiness

Why these photos?
Well, after searching a blog website for rather a long time, certain photos stand out to you, certain things make you more intrigued to look closer so see what is going on, how its been set up and how its been presented to the audience. So this is what I see and why I chose them, and why I think they're good images.
 Photo 1-Cigarettes and coffee.
With the black and white filter, it gives the image a nostalgic feel, as if its the first cigarette of the morning and the first cup of coffee to wake you up from a long slumber. The natural lighting creating a reflection of the cigarette on the surface of the coffee conjures a sense of addiction and craving. The flip side to this analogy is an impression of daring, the more the cigarette burns the closer it is to falling in the coffee.
Photo 2- Kitty keys
This photo also includes a black and white photo which offers the photo timelessness and a present feeling. However supplying a small feeling of comedy, Charlie Chaplin style.
The kittens wide-eyed expression gives the perception of adventure and excitement.
Photo 3- Cuppa of lova
This image has a black and white filter on it, yet I think it works well with the models winter jumper covering parts of her hand around the mug. Facing the audience in the centre of the image and in fact in the centre of the mug there is the label with a black love heart on it, this joined with the warm clothes being worn by the model allow a warm heart-hugging sensation to fill the viewer when looking at the image. Photo 4 - Herbal hug
This image is also one of a cup of tea, yet I feel with the little quote written on the label allows an ethnic, asian sense to the image as quotes such as "'what ever is produced in hast goes hastily to waste' saadi-1184-1291" are often linked to wise men, or religious people who frequently quote those with words of wisdom or comfort when needed most. And in the western society a cup of tea is linked with a calming, comforting beverage, so the two things go hand in hand.

Photo 5 - Lion heart (well Tiger, but still...)
The photo has a black and white filter on it, yet with the proxemics of the tiger cub being held in the centre of the image with yawning playful expression on its face, allows people to see the 'cute' or less dangerous side to this animals nature, and the less threatening persona that can be encompassed within such a well known and supposed 'dangerous' animal.

Pictures of Pride

"Upload a picture you're really proud of"

I'm proud of this picture because it was taken without looking at the screen or view finder on my first ever digital camera (a really bad Nikon something or other). My only criticism is that I wish I hadn't cut her top paw off the top of the frame and that the foot stall wasn't in shot. However it still remains one of my favourite pictures.

First day back. First homework. First post.

Denotation and Connotation - Destructive Analysis of above picture