Target Audience: NME readers

The target audience for NME for 17-30 year olds. This magazine is targeted at both men and women, but have a mostly male audience as only 27% of females actually buy this magazine, where as 73% of men buy this magazine. The price for this magazine is usually £2.50 so is cheap enough for students, who are interested in the magazine, to actually go out and buy it, so it is not too expensive. This can attract a younger audience as it is affordable. 

Organisation: Tracker feedback

From this weeks tracker, I can see that I have done plenty of drafting and planning posts and research and planning. However, I could do some more target audience and organisation posts by using the blog suggestions list to help gain extra marks. I could look at the people who read NME and organise how and when I will take my photos for my magazine.

Drafting and Planning: Cropping and Magic Wand Page Plus Practice

I have been practicing using the different tools for photo editing on page plus. I have used the photolab tool to help change the contrast and brightness of the photo, and cutout studio to experiment with the ways to remove background from photos effectively. This will be useful for my final piece as I will now be able to use the different photo tools without damaging my image. 

Drafting and Planning: Drafts For Articles

'It's my job to contribute something amazing to the music industry' says George Hegenbarth, solo member of Lily of the Valley. At midnight on December 5th, his debut album, Silver Linings, will hit the shelves of the UK and take the world by storm. After days and nights at Abbey Road Studios, this charming fellows hard work will pay off when his strategically produced album full of metaphorical lyrics and indie guitar riffs, reaches the peak of it's possible success.

If the single Killer Intuitions is anything to go by, this album will prove to be something worth hyping about. ‘I’d love to be able to play festivals like Reading and Leeds or Glastonbury, and play next to bands such as Arctic Monkeys, I think that’d be a real dream come true’, Hegenbarth says, and with an album like his, there’s no doubt about this happening. Before we know it, Lily of the Valley’s pop melodies and up-beat drumming will be filling the festival fields in no time.

With influences such as the significant Arctic Monkeys and Oasis, his music is certain to please the huge fan base that has been formed from the hearing of his singles. The 20 year old found inspiration from artists such as Nine Inch Nails and Prince, following the solo artist path and blowing the minds of all music lovers. ‘I have always wanted to follow the lead of artists such as Prince in terms of how spectacular the music was, but also incorporate my favourite artists into this idea, I think I may just succeed in this,’ says Hegenbarth and us here at Deep think that he will achieve this.

'So when will you be going on tour? How do you feel about being on tour?'
George: Well my tour should be starting on April 20th 2015 in the UK and then there is actually talk of there being an American tour too which is pretty cool. I’m so excited for this tour, seeing as it’s my first proper one I’m still a bit nervous. Being away from my family and friends will be hard but it will definitely be worth seeing my fans enjoying my music. The sights would also be cool seeing as I've never been to quite a lot of places in which I’m going. I think I’m mostly excited to go to Liverpool just for the Beatles nostalgia.

‘Are you nervous for your album release?’
George: Kind of, I think I have a sort of nervous excitement about it all. I just hope that my fans like it, and seeing as it is my first album, I've never experienced anything like this before. I just want to know how it is accepted by the fans really. On the upside, my mom likes it which is the main thing.

‘How do you feel about Killer Intuitions?’
George: Well I think it’s my biggest achievement in my lifetime. I feel like I've waited my whole life to write and produce this album and I really feel accomplished now that it’s actually finished. I feel like everything about this is a success and I personally think that this is a pretty exciting album 

‘Is there a reason behind the name of your band and your album?’
George: My band name is actually a reference to Breaking Bad; I’m a bit of a fanboy about it really so I thought it’d be quite fitting to have a reference as my band name really. The album name came from a story of my past actually; it’s a bit weird really. I thought my dog wanted to kill me so I guess it sort of came from that. 

Organisation: Photo Opportunities

To take my photographs for my magazine, I need to make sure I make use of every opportunity. I will use my study days in school to make use of the facilities in school, such as the drama studio and the white walls. I will do this on the 16th December so that I can use the whole day to take photos. I will also take time in the Christmas holidays to use settings in the city center so that I can capture where my artist is from. 

Research and Planning: Fonts

I have been looking at fonts that are similar and fitting for an NME style magazine.

I have looked at four different fonts. 

• The first font would be good to use as it stans out and is clear to read. It is similar to the font used on the cover of NME also so would fit the philosophy. The fact that it is a bolded font is also useful as it would be a good font to use for cover lines or the main cover line. 
• The second font would also be a good font to use for my magazine as it is clear. It is also fairly similar to that used on NME so would show my understanding of the philosophy of NME magazine. It would also be good for writing cover lines with, as the lower case letters are easy and clear to read and could even be used for the articles too.
• The third font would be a bad font to use for my magazine as it seems like a childish font, so would not attract the target audience that I would want. It would not fit the serious tone of the magazine either as the magazine would feature reviews and interviews that aren't really silly matters. 
• The last font would be an ok font to use for articles. I think this because it is clear. It is not bold either so would be ideal to use for articles as it's simplicity makes it easy to read. 

Target Audience: Interview - Attraction/Expectation

To find out what people would expect from an NME style magazine, or what they would be attracted to, I have interviewed two people who I am targeting with my magazine. I am doing this to get ideas of what would be successful for my magazine. The questions I have asked are:

1. In an NME style magazine, what would you expect to see? 
2. Have you ever bought an issue of NME?
3. What would attract you to an NME style magazine? 
4. How old are you? 

 The first question was 'how old are you?' which both of my interviewees replied 16 and 17. This is useful to note, as these results will help me attract a younger audience to my magazine more than an older audience.
The second question, 'have you ever bought an issue of NME?' shows a contrast in answers. One person said they had where as the other has not. This can be important as the person who has not bought an issue of NME may not know the philosophy of the magazine so their results may effected by this. However, this person may have bought a different magazine that is similar to NME so would therefore have an idea of what a music magazine is like.
'What would you expect to see in an issue of NME?' was the next question and I recieved similar answers for this. Both interviewee's said they would expect to see interviews and advertisements. This shows that these features are well known features and  would be silly not to include. Other answers also include photos, posters, headlines, tour dates and reviews. These are all key features that would be useful to include in my magazine as they are informative and seem to be looked for.
The last question, 'What would attract you to an NME style magazine?', shows that a symbiotic relationship between the magazine and the reader is very important, as both participants answered with bands and films that I like. This shows the importance of having well known artists on the cover of magazines to help promote it and gain sales. This is useful for my magazine as I could consider making my own made up artists sound well known and highly popular.

I will use the results from this interview to help reach my target audience and draw them into my magazine, by making it appealing specifically to them. I will do this by following the answers I have been given and almost use it as advice for success.

Drafting and Planning: Influences

As my magazine will be largely based off of NME and slightly off of Q, I have had a lot of inspiration from the two magazines whilst researching the different styles of each.
 I personally like the way both mastheads are recognizable and well known, and how each are very simple too. This has shown me the effectiveness of a simple masthead, so has influenced me to do something similar. Here is a draft version of a possible masthead I could use for my magazine (in the real piece there wouldn't be a huge gap at the end, thats just my terrible drawing). It encorporates the simplicity of Q and NME and also includes the usual colour scheme of their mastheads. The background colour of my masthead will dpeend upon the photo i decide to use for my final piece and the font that best suits it.

Q and NME also use nice house styles for their covers. I particularly like The Smiths cover and the Lana Del Rey cover as I love the use of colour on both. I think that both house styles are bright and eye catching and help show the philosophy of each artist also. I have made a draft layout of my front cover to try and encorporate the different aspects that I like of each magazine.

Organisation: Props

For my photoshoot, I want to use a minimal amount of props as I think that having props may clutter the photo and they might steer the focus off of my main artist. However, this would make a lack of music mise en scene, so I will include a guitar in my secondary images to exhibit the fact that it is a music magazine and it is driven by music. I will borrow a guitar from the music faculty in my school so that I can use it in my shoot. 

Target Audience: NME

NME is targeted at people who are aged between 17-30 who have a passion for music and film. 

This cover appeals to many people aged 17-30 as it includes bands, old and new. By having The Clash as the main cover stars will appeal to older audiences who grew up with bands such as The Clash where as artists such as Jay Z and Kings of Leon would appeal to a younger audience as they are more recent. I will use this when doing my own magazine, as I can include band profiles that are both recent and old to show my understanding of target audience, as it would attract an audience within the age range I would like (17-30). NME is also aimed at men more than women, so the fact that it's male artists on the cover could attract them more as The Clash are a punk band so could, stereo typically, relate to the heavy and fast music they produce.

Organisation: Where

To take my photos for my magazine, I will go to the city center to take pictures of my artist on places such as steps, landmarks or in quiet fancy places i.e Brindley Place. I will do this to show where the band originates from, as I will take the photos by Birmingham's known landmarks. I will also take photos in school against black walls and white walls, so the models will stand out on the cover. This image will show the bands facial expressions which will show attitude (as shown on this magazine cover, as attitude shows the philosophy of the artist).

Organisation: Tracker Feedback

         

From this I have realised that I am up to date with each area I need to blog about. To improve, I need to make more posts about target audience to get more marks. I will conduct an interview to discover more about what would attract people to my magazine so that it fits the target audience I want to attract. 

Target Audience: Questionnaire

To find out what my target audience would like to see in a music magazine, I created a questionnaire to find out what appealed to them.

After asking how old people were, this was the result:
This shows that the majority of these answers will be from 16-20 year olds so will have an effect on the answers that I get. I need to keep this in mind when actually creating my magazine as I would like to have a larger target audience than 16-20 year olds, so I need to make sure it is appealing to everyone.

The answers to this question shows that mainly females answered took this questionnaire, which could possibly suggest that mainly woman are interested in magazines. However, I would like my magazine to appeal to both genders so I will make sure that I do so.

From these results, I have found that people agree that a price between £1.99 and £3 would be an ideal price. Due to these results, I have made the decision that my magazine will be £2.50 as it is inbetween the two prices, so would be the most reasonable price.







Lastly, most people agreed that the second magazine cover was the best one because of the it is bright and most people liked the artist on the front. This shows how effective a symbiotic relationship is when creating a magazine, as it would catch more peoples attention with an artist a lot of people like on the cover.











I conducted this questionnaire to get an insight into what my target audience would be interested and now that I have got the results, I have a greater understanding as to what they would look for in a magazine.

Organisation: Blocking

For my photoshoot, I was thinking about having two models stood together in a casual way, as if they were walking towards the camera (similar to this), for my magazine front cover.I will have the 'lead singer' at the front of the duo, to show that he is the lead singer and to show that he is seen as the leader of the band. I will then have the second member of the band slightly behind him. I would like them walking towards the camera because I think that it would make the band look casual and cool, which would then reflect the philosophy of the band itself, as I see the band being a band that sound like Arctic Monkeys or The Strokes, to help fit in the philosophy of an NME style magazine.

Drafting and Planning: Draft Layouts

I have started to draft my contents page and double page spread for my magazine.

I have chosen this layout as it can clearly show the contents of what is included within the magazine and can show relevant photographs that further show what is included. I have based this layout on NME's contents page as I think it is an effective contents page. I think it is an effective contents page as it's simplicity shows everything that a reader would need to see within the contents pages. When I actually come to make the contents page, I think I may scatter some images around the page instead of having them only around the side and the top because I think it would look less structured and more free. I want it to look free as a magazine should be fun and casual and not formal and structured, and that is the type of message I would like to give off to the reader.

From my research of double page spreads (1 & 2), I have observed how double page spreads are usually set out in a similar way to how I have drafted my own. I like the idea of having a large image on the left page because it showcases the artist that is being written about and can also help set out a house style for the article. By having a quote from the article enlarged in the middle of the article, it draws the reader into the article as they would like to know the context of the quote, so would pull them in.

Organisation: Tracker Feedback

From this tracker, I know that I could improve my work by doing more posts that discuss target audience and organisation. I can do this by looking at the blog suggestion list to see what blog posts I could make to gain more marks. I can look at things such as blocking and props and also look at the target audience of magazines that I am basing my own magazine on.

Drafting and Planning: Remake Remodel Feedback

My peer assessor told me that my barcode is too big and I need to improve my photo manipulation skills, so to improve I will use smaller barcodes in later work to make it less obvious and take up less space on my cover and I will practice using magic wand and the eraser on various images to improve my manipulation skills. These improvements will help me in my final piece as I will be able to use page plus and paint.net properly and will know the right proportions of different conventions for my magazine.

Organisation: Effects

For my photos for my music magazine, I will use high key natural lighting with a black and white filter to make the photos look bright. I want to use these effects as I like the look of photo shoots such as early Joy Division shoots (image 1 or 2). I like them because they are very mysterious and can stand out on a news stands as they are simple but effective. I want to use this for my own magazine as it could help to show the philosophy of the band that will be photographed.

Drafting and Planning: Re-make Remodel

Here is the magazine that I made to show my skills.

 

I chose to use NME as my basis for this draft because it is similar to the magazine style that I want to do for my final piece as it's content is based on 'indie' music which is what I am personally interested in.
Here I used black, white and red as the house style as it is the usual colour scheme used by the actual NME magazine so shows my understanding the magazines ethos. These colours also compliment the photo as the cover star is wearing a black t-shirt. 

I also took a few photos, so that I had a variety of different shots to choose from. I chose the photo I did because i thought

that it would be able to fit more conventions around it and also shows the philosophy of the profile of the band that I made up; upbeat, happy, indie.
I used the same font style throughout the front cover to keep it consistent and complementary. I also used a quote as a cover line to draw the reader into the magazine to read the article. 
I included the mention of bands such as Arctic Monkeys and The Smiths to create a symbiotic relationship between the magazine and readers with interests in these bands. The price is also included, which is cheap, so would also attract more readers to actually purchase the magazine.