Style sheet

Example font!  (impact)

Example font! (comic sans MS)

I have chosen the two above fonts because impact is self explanitory, this font was chosen simply because it nicely mimcs the loud and bold mentality these magazines portray. Also with Comic sans MS, i thought the text implies a simple, easy to read feel but still informal with the teen friendly rounded letters. The pictures above are action shots of performances that readers of Overdrive admire, this will be the kind of photography used in my magazine.

This is a colour scheme I will be sticking close to as it appears to run as a theme in music magazines dealing with similar genres. These colours were also the most often picked in my survey in reference to rock/metal magazine colour schemes.

Double page spread - Interview with Jonny Darkness

Overdrive Jonny Darkness interview:
Here in overdrive, we have a killer treat for all you Blistered fans with an exclusive interview with the bands lead singer Jonny Darkness about his new album, times on the tour and the recent passing of the band’s drummer;  Alex ‘the Gov’ Milligan.

Overdrive: hey Darkness, thanks for coming out.
Darkness: no problem, great to be here
Overdrive: right so, you took a blow recently with Alex’s passing but you’re back with a new album, can you tell us a bit about it?
Darkness: yeah well the album is called Hellbound and it’s the darkest record the band has ever released both lyrically and musically. It’s tied in to the emotions we all went through with the recent events and he died during the making of the album so we have dedicated Hellbound to our brother Alex. I think the record is painful for a lot of people to listen to, including myself but it’s a great album with a lot of anger and like, frustration coming through into the songs themselves. But yeah, the album comes out in February and it should be awesome to see how fans react to the new line up and new style we are putting forward.
Overdrive: sounds amazing, you have a large fan base here in England and we have seen loads of hype about the album and despite the introduction of the new drummer, Mike Portnoy to drum in The Gov’s place, He will never be forgotten, can you share with us some of your favourite Alex memories?
Darkness: My god there is so many! I mean pretty much every time we went out with that guy there is a story to tell. I remember one time in the New York subway, Alex wanted to do a handstand on the train; I mean we told him not to but he really wanted to seize the opportunity to do something crazy. So he did this handstand and Alex’s heel caught on this guy’s bags of groceries and food went all over the inside of the train and all over everybody. It was so embarrassing but we all laugh about it now. 
Overdrive: it sounds like he was amazing fun to be around...
Darkness: Yeah totally, he was a really great guy and nobody has been hit as hard as his family and the rest of the band. We just want people to remember him as the great, fun loving guy that he was.
Overdrive: he is remembered very fondly by all that knew him. And I mean it’s great that you’re comfortable to talk about him with a smile on your face and still go out and make new music and go on tour with the same confidence and presence you had before. In fact could you tell our readers about your new tour?
Darkness: yeah well it was a hard decision for us to tour at all; I mean we turned down loads of tours because obviously something like the passing of Alex knocks everybody back. And morale was low but after a while we realised that people needed to hear what the Gov had written and he deserved us to go out there and perform his music. So eventually we all agreed we would start a new tour. It’s called the Rage on stage tour and we are already a few shows deep and it’s been amazing, the fans have been truly great and it’s a killer buzz to see the amount of support for the new Blistered. So we’re just gonna try continue to kick ass like we always do but keep our brother in mind while we do it.
Overdrive: like I say, Blistered have some great, devoted fans. And finally Jonny, could you maybe touch upon what may be in store for the future with the band?
Darkness: uh yeah, like i say it’s all about moving forward, we need to recover and get back to full form, we always had a strong bond with all of the guys in the band and mike has been brilliant so we will just do what we do best and that’s writing new material and giving amazing shows to all our fans.
Overdrive: excellent news, thanks again for this opportunity.
Darkness: no thank you, it’s been awesome.

Pre-Photography planning

Photography plans:

On the cover of my magazine, due to the results from my survey, I intend to have a picture of the lead singer of a band with a similar style to avenged sevenfold, the subject will be wearing black clothing, to follow genre norms and will be located in the centre of the image, leaving room at the top of the image for the Magazine masthead. 

I will take planned images and unplanned images in this style and pick the clearest and most impacting picture to use as the cover. In more detail, it will be a posed image perhaps in monochrome depending on how the image turns out. I will use passive imagery in the sense that the lead singer will be the only subject in the image.

The location will be in a photography studio but i will try different locations until i get the right image. The subject of my image will be angry or rebellious looking in order to give off the correct message to the buyers of my magazine.

On the contents page, I will have multiple images, one of which will be a candid, live action shot of one of the featured bands performing. The light will be dim but the picture will have an energetic atmosphere. I also intend to include pictures of musical instruments as the picture will represent a competition in the magazine.

My double page spread will consist of a close up high exposure shot of Jonny Darkness (Blistered lead singer) with the camera close to his eyes, against a black background on which light coloured text can display the interview i wrote for him.

I will take multiple planned and unplanned shots in these styles and choose the best to feature in my magazine double page spread.

Photography

Here is a compilation of some of the photos i will use in my magazine:

Secondary research

As secondary research, i found the appropriate media pack concerning the demographic my magazine will be aiming at. This is the media packs for Kerrang! demonstrating the profile of a typical reader:

kerrang! media pack







This media pack used as secondary research helped me fine tune the style that my magazine will employ. kerrang! is a loud and rebellious magazine and the products shown within the magazine match the products that a reader would be interested in buying, the almost obnoxious and unconventional stylings of this music magazine will be partially mirrored into my final draft.

Primary audience research

Results i gained from the survey are shown below:

survey results analysation

For my survey i only generated 11 responses, however, these were sufficient enough for me to make decisions based on the replies.

my pitch

Pitch

My magazine will be called Overdrive and will be a rock/metal themed magazine aimed at a mostly male market in the age range of 15-25. Readers will be in the middle/working class (B,C1,C2,D) demographic and are likely to be very passionate about there music preferences.

Overdrive will cover the various genres associated with the rock/metal movement such as death metal, emo, alternative, thrash metal etc. Although it may touch upon old bands and themes, overdrive will be a contemporary, modern magazine concerned with popular music within the genre. It will include reviews of albums, live shows, a news section and interviews with famous musicians.

The magazine will be simple to understand as it is aimed at a younger demographic. The emphasis will be on the high quality images and text will be inter-dispersed with quotes. There will be bulk text but the text to picture ratio will be low as people flicking through Overdrive will most likely focus on the colourful images and may not appreciate large areas of solid written content.

My double page spread will be an interview with Blistered lead singer Jonny Darkness. The interview will include how he feels about the recent passing of the bands drummer. It will have sections with information about J Darkness’s past and about his new album.

This is my analysis of three covers, contents pages and double page spreads. Analysing these pages has helped me to understand and observe the themes that run throughout music magazines and will ultimately help me apply these conventions to my own work.

I found that different ways of organsing and displaying information appeals to different and specific demographic groups. Sticking to these themes will help sell copies of the magazine to its intended target audience.