Photography Analysis - Front Covers

In order to further gain information which would aid in the photographing for my final front cover, I found 3 front covers of music magazines from any genre and looked into the framing, costume, lighting, poses and props (if used) and how they were effective in attracting the target audience.

Overall, I liked this image due to the unusual outfit which Kraviz is wearing. Her pose along with the fact she is looking directly at the camera drew more attention to the cover, along with the framing of the image meant she was taking up just the right amount of space to allow the placement of other features; whilst still ensuring she was the largest feature on the page and thus drew more attention.

 

I chose this image as it was from a magazine which aims towards a slightly different genre of music, therefore it allowed me to compare and contrast the difference between the magazines. Unlike the other two magazines which I have analysed here, props have been included to further draw attention to the magazine, therefore making the image different from, and more eye-catching than the other two.

Lastly, I chose this image in particular for its inclusion of a background. Unlike the other two magazine covers which I have analysed, this image has a background which is heavily blurred due to the very shallow depth of field. As mentioned, this was the effect I attempted to achieve in my preliminary task. It adds extra colour to the image and thus draws more attention.

Focus Group

For this task, I found two students who matched the general profile of the magazine's target audiences and asked them questions relating to the magazine in a 'focus group' video.

After recording the video, I uploaded and edited it in iMovie from scratch. Below, I have attached a screenshot to show how I put together the video in order to achieve the desired effect.

I started by importing the clips and then adding them along with the text into the timeline. I did this as chronologically as I could to make it easier. I had to cut, chop and split clips as well as adjust the audio in some as you could hear me asking the questions in the background. After I got everything in place, I added transitions and tweaked the brightness to complete the visuals.

Lastly, I added audio. This was probably the most difficult part as I had to adjust the volume levels in places so the voices could be heard over it. Not only this, but the audio clip I used (a standard iMovie clip so as not to potentially breach copyright by using a downloaded one) was too short for the video; therefore I had to piece it together with an earlier chunk of the audio as best as possible in order to complete it.

The video took around 2-3 hours to complete.

Overall, I would have preferred it if I could have had more people answering questions in the video. However, this was almost impossible due to time limits and difficulties I was having with my camera on the day of recording. It took around an hour to record the video of Molly as my camera/SD card suffered writing issues and would cut off at various places in the recordings. To improve, I would have allowed more time to record, checked any potential issues with equipment before starting and asked more people to participate.

Response to Focus Group

Why was it useful?

The focus group were useful as they answered my questions in depth, often expanding upon their answers and explaining why. They gave me answers to questions which would help in the development of my magazine and articles which will appeal to the target audience such as 'What are your favourite artists?'. They answered questions that may help increase circulation of the magazine such as price and how often the magazine should be released.

How has it helped you in the decisions you will make when creating your magazine?

The focus group helped me in the decisions I will make for the magazine as they have given me ideas for feature stories and contents pages, advised how often the magazine should be released and in what format. Their answers have been helpful as it gave an insight into the views of my target audience and therefore suggested how it could be targeted better to suit them.

Did you find out something that you did not expect to?

I was fairly surprised at their answers for 'Would you prefer a paper or electronic copy?’ as a number of existing electronic music magazines publish them online. This is due to the fact that EDM music, being widely distributed electronically, is reflected well in the fact that the majority of dedicated magazines also release issues electronically. However, physical paper copies can sometimes be easier to read, look better and, as Victoria stated, are more authentic.

What were your general findings?

One of my general findings were that the target audience felt as though their genre was somewhat neglected in terms of magazines, “The genre that I listen to, they don’t really have a specific music magazine.” This further backs up the fact that I found the magazine research difficult due to a lack of existing products. I also found that generally, as a fairly young audience, they would prefer a cheaper price (£2 or £3-4 for a good quality magazine) and would only want to purchase it monthly in order to allow the best quality production and to avoid spending often.

Has it made you change any of your initial ideas?

The focus group hasn’t made me change any of my initial ideas as generally, their responses were relatively predictable. However, it has helped me to refine ideas and gain a better idea on the opinions of the target audience, thus backing up the decisions I had already made.

Audience Research - Social Class & Demographics

We began further research into our audience so that we could gain a good knowledge of the kind of people who would be reading our magazine and how to be target it so that it appeals to them. We looked into the different social classes within the UK, shown below in a table.

After conducting research into this, I decided upon the audience I would aim my magazine at and presented it in a Prezi presentation (below).

3 Looks for the Front Cover Artist

Mise-en-scène plays an extremely important part in magazine design, the artist in the main image needs to reflect the genre well in order to attract the target audience. I have created moodboards of general clothing worn by male and female EDM/house artists and then drawn up 3 looks each from the information I gathered in the moodboards.

Male Artists

Drawing up 3 outfits for male artists was fairly simple. There was a recurring theme of t-shirts, often tight-fitting v-necks, sometimes with prints but usually just plain black or white. Generally, black jackets or cardigans are worn over the top and trousers are nearly always jeans with trainer-type shoes. Main colours tended to be black, white and grey with the occasional bright colour such as a near-fluorescent green or blue.

For the first look, I chose a white v-neck t-shirt that was tight-fitting, along with a simple black jacket, jeans and nike trainers. For the second, I swapped out the white t-shirt for a black v-neck instead. I picked a pair of baggy grey jeans and black trainers, as well as a black snapback. Lastly for 'look 3', I found two t-shirts that were bright in colour and paired it with a black leather jacket, dark blue jeans and Converse trainers. 

Female Artists

Drawing up outfits for female artists proved to be extremely difficult as there doesn't seem to be a general theme with their costumes. Upon researching outfits which female fans of EDM music wear, there was definitely a recurring theme of tutu skirts, bras, leg-warmers and shorts all in neon fluorescent colours. However, this isn't necessarily reflected in the outfits seen worn by female fans in music and festival videos, and so is more likely a generalisation of club culture. For that reason, I instead focused my outfit research on female DJs and produced the above moodboard. Although there isn't a recurring theme with their outfits, they are all more suitable for a magazine cover and in my opinion, reflect the genre better.

Out of all the outfits in the moodboard, I personally liked those worn by Audrey Napoleon best (the artist with black hair and a block fringe, first image has a blue tint and the second image she is wearing a pink-purple skirt). These outfits in particular are very contemporary and modern-looking, which reflects the genre well as EDM and house are very new genres of music. I am hoping to achieve this similar contemporary look in the final images for my magazine.

Along with costumes for females, I looked for make-up ideas which were fairly versatile and could be manipulated to work with any outfit. The following video I found to be the best one as the eye make-up is fairly natural and the lip colour could be changed to suit any colour of costume

Colour Schemes

After I had decided upon the name of my magazine, 'Reverb' and looked at fonts, I settled for the same font which I used in my 'Reverb' Google mock-up for the masthead, 'Dylan Dog' as I believe it works well with the name and size and began to look at potential colour schemes for my magazine.

Names for my Magazine

In order to come up with names for my magazine, I researched the genre further and looked out for key words which I could use and/or manipulate to create a name. I came up with a few and presented them in a Prezi online presentation along with a description of why I like each.

After conducting research into different names I finally decided upon the name for my magazine which would be 'Reverb' I then took different fonts which I'd collected from around the internet, mostly from 'DaFont' and wrote the name of my magazine in them and presented them on powerpoint documents, shown in images below.

Moodboard of General Costumes

I have created a moodboard of general costumes that includes images of different fonts, existing magazines, clothing and products which may attract the target audience. These all give me a better idea of the kind of content I should be including within my magazine and how to target it better so that it appeals to the relevant audience.

I included a wide variety of different fonts, including ones which could be used as titles, subheadings and body text. Most of the fonts I included are written in the names of them and so this may prove to be helpful later if I wanted to find and download that font for use. I particularly like the 'Voix' font for a masthead as it draws attention due to the filled-in 'o' and personally, it reminds me of the font used for Mixmag's masthead. Therefore, I immediately associated it with the genre. As shown (and described) with the Nylon magazine, I like how they have written the main feature story header in a handwritten-style font in order to draw attention and for this reason, I included a number of messy, handwritten-style fonts. Personally, I liked 'Rebel' and 'Raw Row' out of the ones shown.

By displaying existing magazines collectively allowed a general colour scheme to appear which could be associated with the genre, the main colours usually being dark and complimented with white text. The main image of artists are usually medium shots against a plain background, though some have been edited to have interesting overlays (similar to that which I used in my google mock-up). This will help later when it comes to designing layouts and colour schemes for the front cover as well as clothing for the main subject.

The images of the audience in the bottom left-hand corner allowed me to see a general pattern with the age and gender as well as the clothes which they are wearing. As clearly shown, they are generally quite young and a mix of both male and female (which backs up my reader profile research). They are mostly wearing bright, often fluorescent colours and minimal clothing. From these images and further research I drew up several images of clothes which may be associated with EDM and house music and displayed them around the bottom half of the moodboard. However, the clothes shown don't necessarily match those seen on the existing magazines as they are generally more casual and sometimes smart (though they are nearly always 'current' and 'fashionable'). EDM and house are very new genres of music, and so it could be argued that a particular 'style' of clothing has not yet clearly emerged from it. 

Lastly, I included images of products which may be of interest to the target audience. Generally comprised of technology including mobile phones, laptops, speakers, headphones and game consoles; it gives us a better idea of the kind of people reading the magazine. Not only products, but there are also images of well-known festival logos which readers of the magazine may be likely to spend money on. These include Tomorrowland, Creamfields, Defqon, Electric Zoo, Qlimax and EDC as well as event organising company Q-Dance. This information will be useful for future use as it gives us an idea for feature stories, plugs or article content which may attract our target audience.