PhotoShoot

I took my photo's today for my front cover, contents and double page spread. Im still waiting on them to upload and plan to take a few more so I have a wider range of outfits and models. I found taking the photo's a lot harder than I thought as although in my head I knew what sort of photo's I wanted and what poses I wanted but getting them to look perfect took a long time. My research helped me a lot with what clothes I styled my models in, their make up and hair. I also recorded video evidence of me taking the photo's and fixing hair, make up and props etc.

To take my photo's I used a FinePix S9500 and to video tape the photoshoot I used a Sanyo Xacti 10Mega Full HD camera. My location was a lightly coloured wall and carpet so that I can easily edit on photoshop. I have learnt how to use a professional camera and how important lighting, camera angles, location and props are in taking a single photo. I also used a Canon Speedlite external flash to get the perfect photo lighting where needed.

Magazine Mock Up

This is my magazine layout so far, I am working on completing it in colour now.

FlatPlan

When magazines companies want to create their magazine they use a flatplan to see a clear layout. I created my flatplan so that I can see what I need to include on my contents and also so I know what order I want my magazine to go in. I based my idea's on research of the order of Country Music Magazines so that it would fit in well with the conventions and genre. Typically I have found that Country Music Magazine's have around 35-40 pages which is why I have included roughly this many pages in my magazine. I have also taken into account my audience's feedback as to what I should include in my magazine and how many images they would like to see. I did at first find it difficult putting my flatplan in order but as I got into the flow and looked through all my research I am now pleased with how it turned out.

Photoshoot Plan

I plan to take my photo's next week as this is the only time my models and I have found available and until then I will be finishing my flatplan and creating my mockup magazine. I have found trying to find a time to take my photo's a problem but hope to get them done as soon as I can.
I'm going to take my photo's against a light coloured wall so that I am easily able to photoshop my background colour onto it.
Facial Expressions: Happy, Smiling. To give the magazine a fun, enjoyable vibe.
Camera Shots/Angles: Direct Shot, Natural Shot (not posed), Medium Shot (high angle/eye level)
Props: Guitar
Hair: Down, Wavey/Curley
Make-Up: Natural
Clothes: Jeans, Checkered Shirt

Possible Locations

My two options for locations are either Outdoors or on a Plain White background.
From my research I have learnt that the background image for a front cover is either outdoors in a typical country setting (grass, natural, stables,peaceful e.t.c) or a lightly coloured background.

For example:

I think taking the photo's on a plain white backdrop and then photoshopping the colour will be the best option as time and the weather/daylight hours restrict me from getting the perfect outdoor setting that I want. I have decided to either go for a pastel green colour like the first picture of a pastel pink. 

Country star media pack from beckadavis

Planning

What have I found out about my genre and artists from my genre?
I have found out that my genre's target audience is aimed at female and male ages 14 - 24. From researching Country magazines I have found out that light, natural pastel colours are mainly used for there colour swatches. The artists on the front cover usually have a direct look and are dressed in clothes associated with the country genre such as cowboys boots, ripped jeans, checkered shirt, and dress.

What have I found out about my audience's needs?
From my questionnaire results I found out that 44% of my audience were aged 21-26 with with a close 37% of them being 14-20. Also the most popular country band/artists were Carrie Underwood with 40% of the votes and Taylor Swift with 39% of the votes. Rascal Flatts and Jason Aldean were both also voted so I will include mentions of all of these artists in my magazine but will try to focus more on Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and my own artist(s).  The favourite country music magazine was Country Weekly so I will do some more research into what makes this magazine so popular by looking at the magazine itself and its media pack.Weekly was the most popular time frame for a magazine so this has helped me decide that my magazine will be published weekly also. The most popular price was £1+ I feel this was the most popular option because people want to get what they pay for so paying only 50p or so they don't expect very much from the magazine if they even buy it at all. By making my magazine more than £1 I feel that this will encourage people to buy and expect a good magazine which they will recieve. My colour swatch will be Pastel Blue, Pastel Yellow and Pastel Pink because this was the most popular option in both my questionarre and my poll. My double page spread will feature an artist interview and part of a photoshoot. This was most popular with the audience.




What I have found about existing music magazines for this genre/target audience:

• This genre of music magazine is popular within it's genre but compared to magazines such as NME it is not as popular and known within every genre.
• Ad's included in this magazine advertise things such as TeenHoot and Camplified.
• Within the whole magazine there isn't any bright and bold colours as this tends not to fit in with the conventions of a country music magazine.

My artist and their images:
Clothes: Ripped Jeans, Country Boots, Checkered Shirt,

Hair: Down, Wavy/Curly, Lots of volume.

Make-Up: Natural Make-up >>>>>>>




Setting: Taken Outdoors, Middle of the day to get the lighting that I want.





Mise En Scene:
2 models for my 2 different artists to give the magazine some variation.
Location: Outdoors, Back Garden.
Props: Guitar
Facial Expressions:
Camera Shots/ Angles: Direct Shot, Natural Shot (not posed), Medium Shot, (high angle/eye level)

Fonts

These are the fonts I have considered for my magazine. I have changed my mind about my masthead font as I recently posted that I want my masthead font to be Modern and swirly but since looking more into my research I have decided to go for a more basic bold font such as >




Number 1 from the masthead fonts is named Blackoak Std - I like this font because it is very bold and simple making it easy for people to read and know what magazine it is. However this font is slightly boring and plain which is not the impression I want to give of my magazine, this is why I wont be choosing this font.
Number 2 from Masthead fonts is named Ravie.
-This is slightly more modern and fun which is why I like it but it doesnt really fit in with the typical masthead convention of a Country Music Magazine.
Number 3 from masthead fonts is named Bauhaus 93.
-I like this font because it is simple and easy to read with a slight twist at the end of each word. This font doesnt exactly fit in with the conventions of Country Music mastheads but I feel that it does enough to still be used. I like this font also because it gives my magazine a good impression - it shows the magazine fun and exciting as well as producing everything it should a proffesional way.
Number 4 from masthead fonts is named Bernard MT Condensed.
-I like this font because it fits in with the masthead convention of a Country Music Magazine. The font is very easy to read, bold and each letter stands by itself and is not joined up. This font is quite plain but I find that it looks much more interesting that Blackoak Std because it is less stretched and the serifs are made more interesting.
Number 5 from masthead fonts is named Broadway.
-I like this font because it is bold and interesting due to the lettering design however I do feel that this font is more suited to a pop magazine and doesn't really fit in with the Country genre.
Number 6 from masthead fonts is named Charlemagne Std.
-I like this font due to the boldness of each letter and the serifs but I find that the letters aren't bold enough to fit in with the Country Music Magazine masthead convention. I have tried to make it bolder but even on bold it was still to thin. This is why I wont be using this font.
Number 7 from masthead fonts is named Goudy Stout.
-I like this font because the serifs make the font interesting whilst the actual letters are still simple and bold however I now feel that this font would be better suited to maybe a rock magazine or alternative genre.
Number 8 from masthead fonts is named Hobo Std.
-I like this font because it is sans-serif font which fits in with the general conventions of a music magazine. The font is also fun and appealing which is the feel I want my magazine to have. This is a font that I will consider.

Number 1 from article fonts is named Cambria (Headings).
-This font is very plain and simple which is good for an article however I feel that it is too bold and too won't fit in well with the rest of my magazine.
Number 2 from article fonts is named Adobe Ming Std L.
-I like this font because the serif's on the T make it interesting as well as being plain and simple to read. It's not too bold or too swirly so it is perfect for an article font. This is a font that I will consider.
Number 3 from article fonts is named Bookman Old Style.
-This font is also plain and simple to read with nice serif's on the T to make it interesting. I like this font because it looks nice and will fit in with my magazine style.
Number 4 from article fonts is named Comic Sans MS.
-I like this font because it isn't too plain and boring. However I do find that the font is slightly childish and would be better included in a magazine aimed for younger years such as 6-10.
Number 5 from article fonts is named High Tower Text.
- I like this font because it is simple and plain. Although I do feel that this font is too proffesional and boring therefore it won't fit in very well with my whole magazine. I have decided not to choose this font.

Questionnaire results

I gave out my questionnaire in order to find out about my target audience, so therefore I handed my questionnaires to 16 people I knew liked Country Music, 8 of these were male and 8 were female. My questionnaire can be found here. 

The first question I asked was how old each person was. I asked this so I could get an idea of the age range that read Country Music Magazines and the age range that would read my magazine. From the results I found that the age ranges from 14-26. There was no one younger than 14 and a few over 26 but only by a few years. 44% of the people I asked were aged 21-26. From this information I can make sure my magazine is aimed at these ages rather than someone aged 45 or 5.

The next question I asked was the favourite Country band/artist of my audience and the four answers that came back were Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts. The most popular of the answers was Carrie Underwood with 40% of the votes. Taylor Swift came a close second with 39% of the votes.

I then asked which was their favourite Country music magazine. Only three different answers came back Country Weekly, Country Music and Country Style. The most popular answer was Country Weekly with 50% of the audience choosing it as their favourite.

When asking how often the audience bought Country Music magazines the most popular answer was Country Weekly with 44% of the votes. From this information I have decided to make my magazine a weekly magazine as this seems to be the most popular option.

Out of the five options I gave for How much your willing to pay only two of the options were ticked - £1+ and 50P. I think people have only chosen this option because they believe that a good magazine should be priced more than at least 50P. I haven't yet fully decided on a price for my magazine but from this feedback I have decided that that price will be more than £1.  

I gave four different options for my magazine name as I wanted to choose a name that was popular with both males and females. From this audience feedback I have decided to choose the name Country Star because it was the most popular answer with 63% of the votes. Another name I could also consider for my magazine could be Country Boots as this took 31% of the votes.

The most popular Colour Swatch is the Poll Top Voted Swatch which was Pastel Blue, Pastel Yellow and Pastel Pink. I have decided to choose this colour swatch because I feel it fits in with the genre and is the most popular answer on both my poll and questionnaire results.

I asked my target audience which Artists that they would like to see featured in my magazine, by featuring the artists that they want to see feautured they will bring in more buyers. The most popular answer out of only three different artists given back was Carrie Underwood with 50% of the votes. The Rascal Flatts was also popular with 37% of people choosing them and13% of people chose Taylor Swift. I will try to mention them all somewhere in my magazine as they seem to be the three artists that will pull in buyers but I will try to focus on Carrie Underwood as she is most popular.

I asked my target audience what they would like to see featured on my double page spread as this is one of the main things in a magazine and it's very important that they double page spread features what your target audience wants to see. The most popular answer was an Artist Interview. I think people chose this option because they like to read about their favourite artist in a way that the artist is answering for themselves rather than the magazine saying they said or did something. An interview is more personal and can seem more one to one for the reader. I didnt expect photoshoots to be the least popular answer with only 8% of the votes so I will now include just a few photo's rather than a lot.

The reason I asked my audience how many images they wanted included throughout the magazine is because I don't want them to feel overcrowded with images or not see enough. Generally Country Music magazines tend to feature a lot of images so when the most popular answer came back as Lots I was pleased as my audience like the typical conventions of a Country Music magazines and also because the images play a big part throughout the magazine.

All together my audience feedback has helped me with many decisions such as the name of my magazine, the amount of images to include and the colour swatch. This feedback has made me more comfortable in making these decisions because I am now certain that my target audience will  like these choices.

Iconography, My Genre, My artist

Iconography associated with the Country Genre:
- Guitars -Ukulele -Country Hats (Cowboy Hats) -Country Style Boots -Light Natural Colours

A typical member of my target audience would be:
Female, 15-24
Favourite Artists would include: Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts, Faith Hill.
Male, 15-24
Favourite Artists would include: Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts, Faith Hill

Music from smaller independent stores rather than big chain stores.

The main artist that will feature in my magazine will be:
Female, 16/17
Influential Artist: Carrie Underwood
Wears: Country style boots, ripped jeans,
Favourite place to play live: UK- Hyde Park
 Worldwide - Goode's Armadillo Palace.Housten, Texas. Toyota Centre. Houston, Texas. Sprint Center, Kansas City.













10 words to describe themself: young, fresh, upcoming, fun, rolemodel, compassionate, caring, talented,smart, ambitious.
Typical Headline: The freshest upcoming artist on the scene!

Word/Phrase that best captures the mood I am going to create with my front cover: youthful and fun.

Front Cover: Layout- Relaxed, Interesting, Not too busy and overcrowded.
Fonts: Masthead= Modern. Article= Traditional, Simple.
Title:Located top middle. Eye catching modern font.

My artist and their images:
Hair: Down, Curley/Wavy, Volume.
Make-Up: Natural, not too obvious. Mascara, Foundation, Lipgloss.

Images taken in an outdoors natural setting.
                                                                   

Country Fashion

This is my country fashion moodboard. I have chosen the sort of clothes I aim to dress my models in as I feel from my research that they are most closely linked to the genre. The backgrounds are also good base locations for my main image on my front cover and for the double page spread and contents page images also.

Conventions I Will Follow

Masthead - My masthead will be located at the top of my magazine in the middle like most music magazines. I haven't completely decided on a font yet but I plan for it to be modern and a serif font which goes against the usual masthead convention of the country music genre e.g  Country Weekly is a sans serif font - very traditional and simple. I am going to aim for my masthead font to be more modern and interesting e.g Country Music.

Slogan - I have decided not to include a slogan on my magazine because through my country genre research I have discovered that no Country magazines have included one.

Anchorage Text - All country music magazines include anchorage text. I will be including this on my front cover and possibly placing it to the left where the audiences eyes will first look due to the Z-rule.

Price - The price of my magazine will be located in the very bottom right - the last place the eyes look. I hope that people would have made up their minds about buying the magazine before they reach the price. If the price is slightly expensive I will make the font size smaller but if it's cheap then I will make the font size larger.

Main Image - I haven't decided fully on my location but have chosen my model. I have chosen my model because she is tall and has blonde hair - this seems to be the typical look of a country girl.

Barcode- My barcode will be located in the bottom right corner of the front page as this is the least important part of the magazine.

Sell Lines- My sell lines will be located down the left and right sides. The main titles will be in bold and slightly larger and the little info paragraphs will be in a smaller font. The style of font will be a more traditional simple as to make it easier for the readers to read.

Layout- The layout of my front page wont be very busy as I feel this will overwhelm people and steer them away from the magazine.

Puff- I wont be including a puff on my magazine as from my research I have noted that no country music magazines have a puff.

Colour Scheme- From my poll results I have decided to use the colour scheme pastel blue, pastel yellow and pastel pink.

Poll Results

These are the results from the poll I included on my blog. From this I have decided that my colour scheme will be pastel blue, pastel yellow, and pastel pink. 

I think people voted for these colours because there are very natural and fit in very well with the conventions of a Country Music magazine.

My Magazine

I have decided that my magazine is going to be within the Country genre. I have decided this because I have done a lot of research into country magazines and now know and understand the typical conventions and layouts of a country magazine. Also I have researched into country music artists and how they are represented through the magazines which you can find on my blog post named Which Genre Have I Chosen And Why?. My audience is going to be girls and boys aged 14+ because although music magazine's tend to have a target audience of mostly boys country magazines have a good target audience of girls due to the amount of females that read this genre of magazine. I was going to aim my magazine at an audience of mainly boys but after some more research into just country music magazines I have changed my mind and decided to aim it more at both genders now if not slightly more towards females. Due to my target audience being predominantly young people I have decided to make the price reasonable because at this age students don't have access to much extra money.

Locations I have considered

Back Garden - I have considered this location because through my research I have found that most photoshoots based in Country Music Magazines, which is the genre I am going for, are involving grass and an outdoor space e.g

Both pictures are from Country Music Magazine photoshoots and both have an outdoors background with a natural feel to it.

Park - Another location I have considered is the park because this is also outdoors and will get the grass and natural feel. This is a very typical location for the Country genre. 

Both of these magazines are from the Country genre. By looking at these both I have gotten idea's about what my Country magazine front cover should look like to fit in with the typical conventions.

Idea's for front cover

From my front cover magazine analysis I have learnt that the publishers don't really tend to focus on the mise en scéne with the front cover image and mostly on the artists clothing and facial expression. This has helped me decide that although the background that I choose is extremely important I should focus a bit more on my cover artist.

Grid Content Analysis

Country Weekly - Double Page Spread

This is a double page spread from Country Weekly magazine. It covers the style section of the magazine where double page spreads are usually for interviews with artists or photoshoots.
The double page spread is covered in images making it automatically more interesting. The images all link in with the double page spread article but each are different. Each image shows a country artist representing what the aticle is talking about. The font of the article is a typical plain sans serif font that makes the article easy to read. The way the page is layed out makes it draw you in as due to the z rule your eyes first look at the top left where you see a fancy heading in a nice font and is coloured also the image underneath makes you want to read on more. The colour scheme is lilac/purple/pink which is very girly - the double page spread it covering corsets and fashions so the target audience would be girls.

Poll

I have sent an email out to everyone asking them to complete my poll, once everyone has voted I will post the results.

My decisions

After completing all my research I have decided to do a country genre magazine and aim it towards both boys and girls between the ages of 14+ and anything up to about 40. First of all I was going to do a magazine aimed at only girls but after researching the target audience for Country Music magazines and music magazines in general it seems that boys are mainly buying the magazines so the target audience is mostly made up of the male gender. After completing all my research I am going to start planning and drafting for my actual magazine. I will start to think about the mise en scéne and decide what conventions I will include.

Questionnaire

 

This is my questionnaire that I plan on handing out to people outside of school as well of inside. From my research I have learnt that the target audience of country music covers all different ages starting from around 14+. There are young children that like it, to young adults and even people 60+ however these tend to not read the music magazienes and just stick to listening to the music on the radio. Music magazines tend to have a target audience of mainly boys so the majority gender I will hand it to will be boys but I have decided to also include some girls because I want there opinions too.

Music Magazine Industry

In recent months it has appeared that the music magazine industry has declined in it' sales. Magazines have been vastly replaced by the Internet online services. For example NME has its own website that allows the public to access what they would get in the magazine for free, and with today's technology such as mobile Internet people can read it on their phones out of their pockets on long journeys such as a train ride. It has also been said that the decline is due to the magazine front covers - people find that they are not 'standing out ' and 'grabbing their attention'. People would much rather watch a quick video lasting a few minuets to find out the latest music news or watch the latest interview with their new favourite artists than sit and read through pages of writing. Some find that they prefer to sit and read a magazine but with such a drastic change in the media industry many prefer to access the information for free, online, straight away. From this research I have learnt that I should make my magazine different and eye-catching as too catch the eye of the public like successful magazines such as Rolling Stone do. I have also learnt that the whole magazine needs to be like this the whole way through as to keep people wanting to read it and not wanting to watch video clips about the news inside instead.

MoodBoard

I have been working on my moodboard and including the sort of images I could use inside my magazine. These images have also given me inspiration as to what sort of images I could take for my front cover and double page spread.I have chosen images of guitars because through my research of country music magazines I found that guitars are involved a lot due to their big part in most country songs. The musical notes are just to fit in with the music magazine theme and the more background photo's (the daisy field and the country road) are there because I feel that both of these shots are very conventional with the country music genre. I watched a few country music video's and found that they are mostly set in surroundings such as these two. Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Payton Rae, Taylor Swift and Keith Urban are some of my personal favourite artists from this genre and found that they cover many country music magazines such as Country Weekly. I have also included words that link in with the country theme and sell lines that can be used on the front cover and double page spread. The colours involved on this moodboard are mostly pastel light colours such as pink, blue, brown and green. These all connote the idea of nature and the country lifestyle so I aim to include these with my music magazine colour palette. The quotes are from country artists I can use as sell lines or as lines from an interview inside the magazine, these can be featured on any point of my magazine.From this moodboard I have learnt about the colour palette's of Country music magazines and the sorts of images involved with them. I know I have many idea's about the images I am going to take for my own magazine and the way I am going to take them e.g I know that I will aim for a light, natural feel and I have decided on a few artists that I can include in my magazine. By researching and going through the different conventions of Country music magazines I have found what I should include in my magazine to make it like the well selling country music magazines.

Which Genre Have I Chosen And Why?

The genre I have chosen for my music magazine is Country. I have chosen to do Country because I already have idea's about what i could do on and with my magazine and have researched into the different conventions of  a typical country magazine.
What seems to be the conventions of this genre? Who is the target audience?

A country music magazine like most will include a masthead, covergirl and coverline, article names and barcodes. The target audience for a country music magazine is going to be anyone who listens to country music, the covergirl/boy is also going to depend on the audience it attracts but most music magazine's are aimed at the male gender which is mostly right for music magazines but they are also made to attract a female audience as well.
Who are the main publishers for this magazine?
Country Weekly is published by American Media, Inc.

Are there particular conventions to this type of magazine?
The cover image is always related somehow to the genre of the magazine. Somebody with a guitar or in a calm, country background is most paticularly common for a country music magazine.

Name three artists associated with this genre and analyse how each ones star image has been created. How are they represented and how does the target audience relate with them?
Carrie Underwood - Represented through cover image and photo shoot inside of the magazine. The article surrounding her usually includes an interview with the star so the target audience can relate with them personally through this. Carrie's star image has been created by promoting her with almost flawless pictures and articles about all her success'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Underwood

Luke Bryan - Also represented through cover images and photoshoots. The interview helps the target audience relate with him, this would be different to how Carrie's audience relates to her because Luke and Carrie are both different so there fans would relate to different things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Bryan

Rascal Flatts - Represented through cover images, photoshoot and articles also. Most interviews will feature personal responces from each member of the band, this way to target audience can relate to each member of the band personally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rascal_Flatts

Who is your target audience?
The target audience for most music magazines is boys. Country music has a wide variety of artists both male and female. The target audience mainly for a country music magazine is going to be somebody who is interested in Country music so when the magazine offers a free Carrie Underwood CD or a free Luke Bryan Mixtape this is the people that they are going to attract. My target audience is going to be both male and female aged 14+.

Analysis Of Three Different Music Magazines

Billboard Magazine:

Inside Billboard you will find a contents page, and then pages of articles and photoshoots as well as interviews and the main cover story. Also included were adds such as this one:

The contents page had a basic list of what was in the magazine and the page number to left but on the right side of the page there are images and bigger bolder writing. This is a good contents page because it tells you everything you need to know easily as well as been fun and interesting.
The rest of the magazine was filled with articles and images, photoshoots and adds.





Rolling Stone:

Inside Rolling Stone you will find much the same as inside Billboard; A contents page, articles, photoshoots, interviews and the main cover story. The fonts are mainly sans - serif font but occasionally the bold writing and letters have serif font. Also included inside the magazine was adds for things such as concert dates/tickets which links in well with the rock genre of this magazine. The rolling stone contents page features text which is bold and bright, images which link in with the articles, page numbers and colour linked in with the red/white/black theme of rolling stone. This is a good contents page because it is clear to find out what you want straight away but is also an interesting page to see and read.

Country Weekly:

Country weekly is a country genre magazine aimed at those who like and listen to country music. Country weekly is also full of adds, photo shoots, interviews, images, the main cover story and a contents page. However the adds in country weekly are very different to that of Rolling Stone and Billboard as they are aimed at a different target audience. The fonts in country weekly stick to sans-serif and are all bold and coloured to stand out and catch attention. The contents page for country weekly is split into 2 sections the top is covered with images and page numbers but the bottom left has page numbers for each department E.G  Letters 4 New Music 56 and the right side has Features E.G Shania Twain 18 On The Road 36.