Company Name.

When in the creation of my magazine, my company name will be 'Voice'. When i was choosing my company name i wanted something which was similar to music, i picked out quite a few words, but i decided to go with 'Voice' because it was relevant to the artist and the music company.

Draft Article (Interview)

Interview: Alice S6x

Discovered at the club ‘Open Mics’, Alice S6x has recently released her first album, which as sold over 1,000,000 copies in its first week, and still growing. Alice has become so successful we just had to get an interview with this music star.

Q- Hello Alice S6x, tell me where did the inspiration for your name come from?

A-    Alice came from the book ‘Alice in Wonderland’; it shows the naturalistic side of life and people, so it really shows the fantasy of everything. S6x just sounded cool with Alice, so there your answer. Also S6x was my postcode when I was growing up, so it means something to me (personal)

Q- Interesting, I must say. Also where did the inspiration for the name of you   album come from?

A-Androgyny came from a lot of different things, but mostly coming from blurring the male and female lines. Represents the weirdness of afraid in being yourself and different to other people. It shows and tells people that they shouldn’t be afraid of who they actually want to be, just do it and you can accomplish anything, it’s the albums hidden meaning.

Q- Another interesting fact, I must say though, it’s unusual?

A-I don’t believe it’s unusual because its part of my reality, my reality is your fantasy; the truth is…I loathe reality.

Q-How was life growing up, did any memories have any inspirations to your album?

A-Life growing up was tough, I got bullied for being different. I was called lots and lots of names, some of which I don’t like to repeat). I believe the hurtful memories were my inspiration; I put my feelings down on paper, and to show I’m not afraid of being different and no one else should be!

Q-How does it feel to be in the spotlight and have so many people want to be you?

A-It feels really good, knowing I’ve been bullied all my life, and now people love me, it just shows that I’ve done something positive in my life. I love the reaction I get from people it makes me really happy that people understand the meaning of my songs. I’ve always wanted to perform with Lady G’, because she as the same view points as me on life and individuality, but, to be honest, I don’t think of myself as a superstar, not yet anyway, I still have a long way to go before I reach that status.

Q- Bet you’re very proud of yourself?

A-Yes, my parents are really proud of me, there glad I stood up for myself. So am I! I’m also proud of the stage I’ve created for my upcoming tour, I designed it all by myself. In my tour there’s going to be a lot of costumes changes, the lighting will also be over the top. I’ve recently worked with a lot of people like ‘Guopei’ to produce the costumes for my show as well as working with ‘Versace’ and ‘McQueen’ for my upcoming spread in Vogue, shot by renowned photographer ‘Nick Knight’.

Thank you for you spending your time with us Alice S6x, you have told us some interesting information, which has hopefully excited our audience and wanted some of them to buy your new album. Remember guys you can purchase Alice S6x’s album on I-tunes for £6.99. You don’t want to miss out on this amazing artist.

Initial ideas:

My inital idea is to create a new music magazine, promoting a new artist and their new album. I will be keeping to the genre of Indie, and to the original codes and conventions of typical Indie music magazine  (Example: NME)

Props, make-up, setting etc.

At the moment i don't really need any props, but my model (Emily Mason) must have to wear one object which is red. Make-up might be essential, but i won't go over the top with the amount. The setting i'm trying to achieve is a white/black plain brick wall, this would help in editing.

Equipment:

In the creation of my photoshoot i shall need a digital camera (to take the pictures with). I may need a tripod, but at the moment it doesn't seem likely that i shall need one.

Photoshoot: Model

For the creation of my magazine, i will need to have a photoshoot taken.

The name of my model is: Emily Mason

My proposal:

My proposal is to create a new music magazine, promoting a new artist. It will include an interview, where he discusses his music career and promote his new album. It will include a new photoshoot (which is exclusive). It will also include advertisments and posters for concerts, keeping to its typical conventions and codes.

Indie Rock: Audience Expectations.

Indie Rock:

The audiences expactations for indie rock magazines is free-flowing and straight to the point. Natural and a stand out colour scheme and someone you can associate with the genre...Indie Rock (Artist/Band). Engaging headings which is friendly to the reader. Trying to keep to most of the coventions of a typical Indie rock magazine, like the main picture is usually placed on the right of the front cover, and starts to cover the mast-head. Special offers are placed in yellow shapes (stand out promotion colours), and the bar code must be placed on the right hand side at the bottom of the page, and must be small-medium sized. The mast-head is usually in Red, and in a bold font (makes company become familiar to the reader).

All these are expactations because it makes the reader become familiar to the magazine, so they understand what genre the magazine is promoting and become even more familiar with the concept and context of the mag.

Magazine production companies.

Magazine Production Companies:

Examples:

• Titan Magazines: Is a magazine publishing group, they own many Forbidden Planet specialist and collectors stores. They publish many magazines for television programmes and films, and are a well known organisation. Some of the magazines they create becoming very collectable and sell for good prices on websites such as Ebay e.t.c.
• EMAP: A british media company, specialising in the production of business to business magazines. There for mostly information and sell 20 types of magazines.
• Bauer Group (UK): They are probably the main and big publishing company in the UK, they sell magazines for any type of Genre. Example: Lifestyle to Music. A big company and earn lots of money for their publications.

Indie Rock magazine: Codes and Conventions.

Indie Rock magazine:

Front Cover

Conventions:

• Mast-head is usually in bold letters and in the colour red. Bright and dominating colour.
• Main-Heading are usually in Red or white, keeping to its front cover colour scheme. The headings are wrote in 'Sans Serif', showing a friendly feel to engage the reader to read this magazine.
• The main image is usually placed on the right hand side of the front cover, it starts to blend over the mast-head, this happens on most of NME front covers. They are also placed on a white background, making the image stand out more.
• Special offers or promotion are usually in yellow.
• They keep to them same, basic colour scheme: Red, Yellow, Black and White. But mostly use the colour red.
• The bar-code is placed at the bottom right hand corner, not much attention is put on the bar-code, so your attention goes on the main-image/headings first.

Codes:

           Symbolic Codes:

• The typical symbolic codes of a music magazine (NME) is the plugs are usually yellow and bold, and placed at either the top of the magazine or the bottom.
• Always include an image on the front cover of the artist, which will be the main point of the magazine.

Genre and Target Audience.

The Genre in which i want my magazine to be focused on is 'Indie Rock'.

The main target audience for this type of magazine is usually teenagers (16+) to young adults, they class this genre of music not to really be associated with young teenagers, as some of the songs contain young adult humour. Indie Rock though can be listened by everyone, as it sells itself to a wide-spread audience.

The Genre of Indie Rock is natural and straight to the point, you can identify this with some of the magazines associated with Indie (Example: NME), as they keep to the natural and stand out colours and their headings are straight to the main focus/main selling points of the magazine. They keep to what they want you to find out. Also Indie Rock comes from the word 'Independent', as the singers and artist promote and try to sell songs themselves, the same to magazines, as they are there own company.

Initial Idea.

My initial indea is to create a front cover, contents page and a 2 page cover spread for a new music magazine.. it will be centered around the genre we call today...Indie Rock. I will keep to the typical conventions and codes of this magazine, which is the colour scheme they use (Red, Black, White and Yellow) as well as the font and style of images. The main purpose of the magazine is to promote and interview a new artist.

Analysis of 2 contents pages (Layout and Images)

          Contents Pages:

         Layout and Images

NME:

On this contents page they only use one image, which is centred around the front cover image. The image is big and stands out, helping the reader identify the main focus points of the magazine. They use another image, which is at the bottom of the page, which is two magazines, helping with an offer. The layout of this contents page is compact, showing there is lot going off in this magazine, they seperate them by borders and shapes, with some in different colours. The main-heading which stretches across the main image is written in bigger font and more bolder then the other text, the page number is in a different colour, informing the reader this is the page they need to go to first. The main contents which is placed on the right hand side, as been split into certain topics, which the articles are best placed in. The page numbers are in red too. Certain topics have an arrow next to them, urging the reader the read these too.  The promotion and special offers are in yellow, they have used this colour becase it stands out and catches the readers attention immediatley. A good promotion tatic by the publishers as its selling the magazine and promoting an annual subscription.

Q: 

This magazine contents page is different to NME because its less compact, and a lot more simple. I say this because not much is going off, the colours are mostly the same. The only items which stand out on the page are the headings on the contents at the side. The publisher is clever as they have only put the articles which have the most interest/promotion to the selling of the magazine itself. They have used an interesting colour, Gold, at the bottom of the contents page to show a special interview or article which is in the magazine. I say this as been used to show its importance to the reader, a one off special, and of very important standard. Like NME they have only used one image which is the main focus point, same as the front cover. The page numbers are in red, so they stand out and catches the readers attention. They have kept it simple, so it engages the reader, and also its a lot clearer to read.

Both magazine contents pages uses the colour red, a bright and dominating colour which catches any readers attention. It makes the reader think that the articles are important and a must-read.

For when i create my magazine i will keep to the design used in Q, i like this design because its simple and not over the top. The reader understands what the contents includes and its easily understandable. I also like it because its can be achieved and the design looks easy to grasp.

Analysis of 2 different articles (Language and Layout)

 

     NME



        Q

 

Langauge and Layout of both magazines ( NME and Q)

NME:

When looking at this page straight away the image catches your attention, as it covers most of the page and seperates the interview to either side of the page, this immediatley informs the reader that this page will be centred around what the image is showing. This page consists of the colours red, black, yellow and white, keeping to the intended colour scheme from the front cover. The main information and topics of this page are high-lighted in a bold and strong colour (Red), this too catches the readers attention because they are showing which bits the reader should read first. The main-heading is bold and goes across the top of the page, they are using a quote from the article itselfs (showing what the interview is about). The language is engaging and friendly to the reader, we understand the purpose of the article. They keep it simple and interesting, so not the bore the reader. Also they have used a 'Puff' at the bottom of the page, this makes the article more interesting, as you can 'Win' an item from a competition. You would usually see these on the front cover of a magazine, but i think its good to have one in a magazine, engaging the reader even more.


Q:
The layout of the article is different to NME because the image is much bigger and more of a main focus, for this article. When i first looked at this page, the image caught my attention straight away. The main heading goes across the bottom of the image, surrounded by the colour Red, which again, catches the readers attention, as Red is a dominating colour. Also, a quote (which as been picked out the article) is in red, also again catching the readers attention, before they start to read the article. I would say they have used the colour Red ( like NME) to keep to its front cover colour scheme, as the mast-head is usually Red. The laguage again is simple and engages the reader. The main headings and high-lighted points are short, making the reader want to read this article, a clever technique in wanting to promote a certain item or Band, or even the buy the magazines.

When creating my music magazine i will keep to the intended colour scheme of red, black, white and yellow and the type of fonts it uses, such as Sans Serif.

Indie Music magazine: Codes and Conventions.

Indie music magazine:

 An example of a Indie Music Magazine is NME. The typical conventions are that the image is usually placed on the right while the mast-head is placed on the left. You can also clearly tell that the image is blending over to the other side, so its starting to cover the mast head, so it shows that the main image is the main selling point of the magazine. Another convention of the image (and one that you always expect to have) a famous singer/Artist on the front. For example: Lily Allen.

Another convention of this Indie Magazine (NME) is that most of the (main and sub) headings use the colour white, and the mast-head is usually red. I say that the mast-head is red because it dominates the front cover of the magazine, striking out to the audience the name of the company.

The Plugs and Puffs are usally place around the sides of the magazine, and usually coloured in with bright colours (E.G Yellow, Red or White). This engages the readers attention because the colours will make them notice that there is more articles inside which are interesting. A clever promotion tatic, because they are urging the reader to buy it.

On both magazines the price is wrote in small font, showing that the publisher doesn't want the reader to focus on the price until they have look at the front cover, again very clever in promoting the magazine.

I would say also that another code/convention of these pratically Indie magazines is that they keep to basic colour scheme of 4 (Black, white, yellow and red). This shows that there not planning in going over the top on their magazine cover, keeping it basic, but using colours which are striking and dominating.

Analysis of a Music Mag Cover.

Mast Head- 'Smash Hits'. Uses a bold and striking colour, which easily makes it stand out and catches the readers atention. Simple font and easy to read.

Main-Headings: Again, same as the mast-head, easy to read and you can clearly tell what the main topics of the magazines are. Strong and bold colour.

Main Image : The main image also stands out because the image is placed on a natural background, bringing more attention to the reader.

Plugs: 'Six new song words'. This plug helps with promotion because the reader wants to find out this information, because its only basic. This is a clever technique because it urges readers to buy it.

Bar Code: The bar-code and price is printed small because the publishers doesn't want the reader to focus on th price first, they want the reader to focus on the main-headings of the magazine.