Potential front cover poses

I came across these shots by looking through the pictures of SUM41's tours on their official website. Theses were captured during their performance in summer 2010 and I feel these are typical rock-star poses that I can use for my Music magazine front cover as it will appeal to my target audience.

Practice shots for my magazine

I finally get to take the camera out and take 'practice pictures' of what general poses I want to use in my music magazine. I got assigned a camera and practiced a few shots around school to get used to the camera before actually taking my practice shots. Thanks to my amazing model Cleo Greer I managed to get great shots and I was pleased with the outcomes, however the jump shots did blur a bit. To avoid this I will be taking multiple shots at once so there is more chance of getting a picture that isn't blurred. When taking the final photos, I will be capturing the shots behind a white background so that it will be easier to photoshop it into my magazine.

-Here are the shots I have taken today:

 1. This is an idea of what pose my front cover might have.

 2. This is another pose my front cover might have.

3. This is a pose my double page spread might have (on the side of the page).

Music Magazine - Potential Masthead Fonts

I have been testing out different fonts that I can use as the masthead on my magazine front cover and I have come up with a list of different ones which could work well with the Alternative rock theme of my magazine.

These are the fonts that I have collected and I will ask people's opinions on which they would prefer or expect to see on an alternative rock music magazine and why, I might do this by means of creating a survey and/or asking people who are in my media lesson.
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UPDATE!

Many people have said that the third font works best, however I disagree with this as it gives an impression of metal music which is not the genre of my magazine. I have chosen to go with the second one as it is very big and bold which allows me to alter and edit it to my preference.

Potential front cover pose

         

This is a shot of Deryck Jason Whibley performing, he is part of the band SUM41 and is the lead vocalists & guitarist. I think this could be another potential shot for my front cover of my magazine; his facial expression shows that he is singing loudly which is typical of my target audience (people who listen to Alternative rock) so therefore it would appeal to my target audience as the semiotics of his electric guitar, spiky hair and facial expressions all show a relation to the loud and rebellious Rock/Alternative rock genre.                                                                       

Potential front cover pose

One of my FAVORITE songs when i was a kid; SUM41 - 'In too deep'
It was also played in an American television series called 'Malcolm in the Middle' (another thing i loved as a kid... still do) But getting towards my main point is that I was watching the music video and came across this pose and automatically thought it would make a great pose for my model in my music magazine.

I think this pose can appeal to my target audience because it is related to alternative rock with the facial expressions, guitar strap and the mic.

Music Magazine - Potential Name

'WHAM!' I believe should be a suitable name for my music magazine. Alternative music is known to be loud and  in this genre it is very known for breaking guitars and wrecking havoc, so I thought it would be a good idea to use this and come up with a 'loud' name for my magazine. I researched into Roy Lichtenstein (world famous pop art artist) who used onomatopoeia in many of his paintings as they were comics of action; crashes and explosions. I decided to use some of his paintings for inspiration. Here is an example of one of his works:                

Music Magazine - Shot List

SHOT#1: potential front cover pose, a close up of my artist's face to show that she is going to be the main feature of the magazine in the double page spread.

SHOT#2: Double page spread, using a long shot i wanted to have a picture of the artist lying down with a guitar resting of her shoulder as this shows she is an artist in music and it also leaves a lot of space for text. However I might not use this idea as it is used by many people and I want my double page spread to be different from others as the alternative rock genre is very different.

SHOT#3: Extreme long shot of people on a stage, I want to use this in my contents page as it could show people preparing for a gig or an upcoming concert. I found this common in the rock magazine "Kerrang!"

SHOT#4: Long jumping shot in order to get all of the body's actions. This jump is seen in many alternative rock concerts and gigs which is why I have used it in order to relate to my genre and target audience.

SHOT#5: I got this shot from a music video by "The Offspring" (Alternative rock band) I find this shot effective as the artist's head is up close and it makes them stand out on the front cover.

SHOT#6: long shot with an electrcal guitar, the guitar gives a rock connotation and the pose the model is doing looks like she is performing.

Music Magazine Scamps.

This is a plan for my double page spread, it will have a background fading into white from left to right. The pull quote might be a little slanted as this technique is used frequently in many magazines. My model will be sitting against a wall with one leg up with her electric guitar resting on her shoulder. There will be an amp on the other side of the shot as seen in the picture.

This is a plan for the layout for the front cover of my magazine, the chosen genre is Alternative rock therefore it will have a reoccurring colour scheme of Black, White and Red. The model will be standing while looking up at the camera, there will be a slight high angle shot used so that her head becomes larger in proportion to the rest of her body in the picture. The artist's name will be in big letters in the middle of the front cover, this technique is used by Kerrang! magazine and I wish to use a similar style. There will be a pull quote underneath the artist's name which has come from the double page spread interview. The Title of the magazine will be in very big bold letters because it represents the alternative rock genre; very loud, in your face style. The exclusive extras will be presented at the bottom of the cover next to the barcode.

This is my contents page, there will be a large picture on the left hand side showing a performance of a band or artist. The reason for doing this is because many music magazines have featured concerts/gigs that have been performed recently. The list of contents will be on the top half right and bottom half left. There will also be a speaker at the bottom showing sound waves coming out of it, along with the waves there will be the free extras in a large font; this helps to make the magazine more live and appealing to its young audience. Furthermore I have researched with my survey; many people like to have free extras in magazines which is what attracts them to it so for this reason I will be featuring them on my magazine.

Survey Results

As the title of my survey was music magazine related, I have concluded from my results that the majority of people who are interested in, or purchase music magazines are aged 16-20. Therefore my magazine will be made to relate to this age range. For example I will make sure to add a few slang terms in my double page spread but not too many as my target audience does include elder people in their 20's.

I have found out through my results that most people listen to rock music, this gives me an advantage as my magazine is based on alternative rock which includes many varied forms of rock, for example Punk Rock.

My magazine will be released monthly which, (according to my survey results) is how often many people purchase magazines.

The colour scheme seems to be a very important factor in attracting people to a magazine, therefore I will keep my colour scheme a reoccurring theme as to not include too many colours resulting in a 'busy-looking' front cover. Inside features and free extras are also what attracts most readers to magazines so I will be sure to include this on my front cover to make it more appealing.

From this I have decided to make my magazine £2.99 so it is affordable for the vast majority but also not too cheap that it seems not worth reading.

Colours on the front cover put off a lot of people from buying a magazine so i will research into which colour schemes seem to attract people rather than put them off buying the magazine.

Most people wanted an upcoming band featured on the front cover, however I do not know many people who listen to alternative rock so i will feature an upcoming artist who is also in the age range of 16-20. This will not be a problem in attracting readers to my magazine as many also said they would like to see an upcoming artist featured on the front cover.

I will stay in the convention of red, black and white as the colour scheme for my magazine as this, as i have noticed, is a very common colour scheme in rock magazines such as "Kerrang!" and many rock album covers such as green day. This will appeal to my target audience as they are very used to seeing these colours in alternative music videos, album covers and clothing of such bands.

Music magazine survey

I conducted this questionnaire in order to find out how to make my magazine more successful and appealing to people. The results will affect my final product heavily as I believe what the audience says is right and I will try my best to appeal to the majority.

Contents page potential featured shot

For my contents page, I am planning to have a featured page of a band performing (Gigs/Concerts) with this type of shot used. I came across this frame while watching a music video of 'Fall Out Boy'. Music magazines usually have a picture in their contents page of a gig/concert for one of their featured articles. The typical shot that is usual is a long shot/extreme long shot, which helps to get all of the band and their instruments in the frame.

For example (Highlighted in red) :

Reader profile (Music magazine)

Louis is an average 16 year old who is studying A levels in music, media and art college. He is interested in Rock and Alternative rock and reads 'Kerrang!' magazine monthly and watches his favorite bands on 'skuzz' (on television). His favorite bands include ACDC, Alien Ant Farm, Good Charlotte and Green day. Louis is part of his own band called 'GRUDGE', he plays the bass guitar and has been teaching himself how to play since he was 10 years old. On the weekends he spends his saturdays at a friend's house doing band practice, in his band he has: a lead singer, solo (electric) guitar player and a drummer. He also goes to many concerts, such as Green day and Radiohead. Louis feels that there are not much magazines which cater for upcoming alternative rock artists. My music magazine will appeal to Louis as it will feature young upcoming artists/bands in the Alternative rock genre and have articles on people's experiences with recent gigs and concerts they've been, it will also feature upcoming albums from well known alternative rock artists and how they have become so successful.

Front cover potential action shot

So I was watching a music video of 'The Offspring' and I came across this pose in the middle of the video and thought it could be an idea for a pose for the model for the front cover of my alternative rock music magazine. The shot used is a mid-long shot, in order to get most of his body into the camera frame, the guy's head is also slightly sticking out making his face the centre of attention in this shot which I feel is very effective in catching people's attention. I would also use the 'tough' expression on his face as it can be a semiotic; it anchors the alternative rock theme/genre.

Double page spread - Research

Presentational	Visual
·         Font	·         Pull quotes
·         Colour scheme	·         Semiotics
·         Size	·         Alliteration
·         Layout	·         Rhetorical question
·         Headline	·         Slang
·         Pictures/Photos	·         Grammatical error
·         Pose
·         Camera shot
·         Angle of gaze
·         Expression
·         Mise en scene
·         Contrast?

Semiotics - Kerrang

In this issue of Kerrang magazine, it features Green Day on the front cover. As you can see their faces show an expression of shock, surprise, scared, aggressive and something new possibly. This can suggest that they possibly have a new rock album coming out or they have a shocking secret they have exposed. This is apparent in the pull quote under the title Green Day; "We've made the album of our lives". This shows that they are showing through their facial expressions that they actually DO have some exclusive news; their new rock album.

They are showing their eyes really wide open, by this we can tell that their eyes are relatively green which related to their band name; Green Day. They also made the colour scheme black, white and red which is a typical colour scheme of a rock/alternative rock magazine. The band is also wearing black, the band member on the left is wearing a black, white and red tie which also links to rock and the colour scheme of the magazine.