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.

primary audience research survey

 my survey

the survey was linked to and completed by members of facebook. This website has allowed me to collect a large array of relevant information in a relatively easy manner. the results from this survey have provoked my colour choice and content to include in my final pitch. i also found that having a lead singer on the cover of a magazine is considered highly important, as are interviews with band members. The site i used was survey monkey and it proved to be a very helpful tool for my coursework.