Task 6 (Planning) - Reverb Magazine prezi

Task 6 (Planning) - Formal Magazine Pitch Evaluation

The feedback that I got from the magazine wasn't so much questioning the features themselves, they were mainly just questions about the magazine itself but where weren't many which questioned the features of the magazine enough to question how I would be developing the magazine. Though, I did get the question, how does your magazine attract female readers which took me by surprise as although the magazine is just a predominantly male audience. There is still a female audience of readers that the magazine is desired to appeal to. It may be difficult to aim a magazine at this audience but I hope by the end of the project, it has shown to be possible.

Task 6 (Planning) - Formal Magazine Pitch

Photography Studio Workshop Notes

All the photography that will be done, will be done behind a white backdrop which will help to emphasise the different aspects of the models. The main rules of the studio include no food and no wet shoes. This is to keep the room from getting dirty. When taking pictures, the models should stand roughly 5 feet from the backdrop. The main lights should also be off when shooting.

The main light used is a flash head and this provides most of the light to the model. The light can be moved around into all positions within reason. The lights need a softbox as of how bright the light can get although the lights don't get hot enough to effect make up. There are 8 buttons on the main two lights: the top middle buttons control the exposure of the light, the bottom left turns it on and off and the bottom right tests if or how the light will work with a short flash of light. Connected to the light is a transmitter called the Godox remote snoot which communicates to all the other lights and the camera to flash when the picture is taken. When you finish taking pictures, the main switch should be set to the middle of the device.

The lighting setup that I will be using is 3 point lighting. This will include the main light having 4.0 exposure, the fill light having 3.0 exposure and the hair  light with 1.5 exposure. This is also called the 3 to 1 lighting ratio. The fill light is used to knock out all of the shadow from the main light and the hair light is used to define the model as separate from the image and also the define the hairline.

The cameras that are used are DSLRs and the model in particular used is the Nikon D7000. It can take pictures in 16 million mega pixels and has 2 memory card slot. When using the camera, the pictures taken need to be transferred to a computer otherwise they will be deleted. The two modes which we need to know on the camera are "A" and "S"; "A" stands for aperture and is used to focus on a given subject in a picture with depth of field; "S" stands for stutter and is used to capture action shots or general shots with movement. The lens works between 18mm and 105mm offering plenty of different distance compositions. There are also modes for the lens which are A for automatic focus and M for manual focus.

The camera must be held with the right hand on top of the shutter and the left hand under the lens, supporting the camera. To set the colour of the picture before you take it, you go on the menu to set picture control and choose either monochrome or standard. Reflective discs can be used to emphasise the lighting: the gold disc and the white disc can help get rid of shadow of the bottom of the face but only the gold disc can make the models face glow.

Magazine Proposal draft

There are quite a fair number of music magazines sitting on newsagent shelves with various genres and age ranges covered with their content. One genre which seems to be missing on store shelves and in other words, being a gap in the market is dance music magazines. For many, dance music can be a tricky to investigate and discover new things about. So this gives us ample opportunity to guide these lost folk in the direction of the best and latest in Dance music, towards the up and coming artists and maybe even into the tunes considered to be left of field. This can all be done with Reverb magazine. Possible artists included in the magazine are Disclosure, Metronomy, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Second City, etc. There will be regular recommendations of “featured artists”, album reviews, what’s featured on reverb.co.uk’s Reverb Radio and good club venues in your area. 

The design of the magazine will be mainly based on the themes and sounds of the music, i.e. being a firm layout yet quite informal with san serif fonts to show it's up to date with modern life and a black white and magenta colour scheme.

The target audience will be men and women in their early 20's looking to make the most of life with a magazine like this telling them about the latest and best in electronic dance music and where to experience it. Though this is subject to change.

Task 5 (Planning) - Magazine Online Distribution Methods

Online methods of magazine distribution have increased dramatically in the last decade or so with the internet being easier to access every year. This means magazines have to keep up in whatever way they can. One of the main ways magazines are keeping up is in the form of e-books. Magazine brands would be downloaded as apps for free but each copy of the magazine is paid for in a price similar to the price of the physical product. The app of the magazine would be put onto as many app stores as they can to maximise profit, this being much like where they would decide to sell their magazines at. 

Their web presence is maximised also, by use of social media to tell people about the magazine. These social medias can include a Facebook or Twitter account or even a YouTube account to help expand what the magazine itself offers. Such and example is Q magazine which offers interviews and exclusive musical performances. 

This research has given me plenty of ideas about what I should do with my music magazine. 

Task 5 (Planning) - Music Magazine Stand Analysis

As you can see, the magazines are presented with the right hand side being prominently shown i.e. having the whole of the front pages being shown there. With most of the magazines, the title is most prominent; either that or the cover image.  With the majority of cover images, they look directly at the customer as if to tell them to buy the magazine. 

The coverlines also help the magazines to be noticed with them being almost as big as the mastheads themselves, what they say contributes almost as much with one of them saying "Slipknot: The Fire Is Back". This gives the magazine great appeal and with such a punchy coverline, it grabs the audience straight away. 

With some of the magazines, the colours help it stand out from the rest, this can be seen with the Oasis special edition magazine with the predominant colours presented in cyan, black and white. This makes up for the fact that it is behind Hammer magazine on the shelf. With the additional Cyan, it makes the magazine stand out from the normal red designs.

Task 4 (Planning) - College Magazine Evaluation

From the feedback on the magazine, it shows that the magazine is very well presented and aesthetically pleasing. Also that the magazine has a neat and pleasant layout which is easy to understand and read. This is helped by the inclusion of page number to know a reader's point of reference.

The improvements needed weren't as many as the positives but they were significant. They include the lack of much variety in colour to make the magazine stand out and that their should be a wider range in fonts used in the contents page. 

From this feedback, I feel that I should try to make the colour scheme stand out more and be more prevalent to make the magazine stand out, I also should set up significant font to make give the magazine some character. Finally what would be good would be to make the layout as good or even better in the music magazine. 

Task 3 (Planning) - College Magazine Contents Page

Task 3 (Planning) - College Magazine Front Cover

Task 3 (Planning) - College Magazine Prototype