Locations, Props and Costumes.

On the front cover of my magazine i plan to have one model (Billy/Adam) posing in a raining or snowing scenario, weather dependant. This ties in with the month of december/January/February. Hopefully, it will be in a field, or empty road at night, to connote simple themes like lots of Jazz magazines do.  One of these two example scenarios would suit my magazine perfectly.

In relevance to props and costumes, i would prefer my front cover models to be wearing simple t shirt and trousers, but bare foot. I am hoping to incorperate adams range of guitars and drums into the theme as well, in both contents page and front cover.

Potential Danger	Potential Outcomes	Actions to prevent danger	Further comments
Rain	Slipping over	Wellies and removal when sitting down
Mud	Slipping over	Wellies and removal when sitting down
Road	Ran Over	Taking photos at night when there is a lot less chance of cars, and using a remote street rather than a main road.

flatplans

Performers and Casting

Where	Who	Why ?
Double Page Spread /Contents	Adam Paintin	Adam is a perfect model for a Jazz magazine as his overall style connotes a retro yet simple theme that apply to this specific genre.
Front Cover	Billy Francis	Billy is another fantastic model who has a high musical interest, and also again has a retro yet naturalist style that are highly applicable to the genre.
Front Cover	Mike Bhatt	Mike is an older model, who would be perfect for the main interview as he has a high interest in music, as well as song writing.
Double Page Spread	Sam Parker	Sam has an individualistic look about him, that relates to his potential musical style, that this magazine primarily focuses on.

Target Audience

To research my target audience, I have asked a select number of people, who have an interest within the Jazz genre, a series of questions as to what they would prefer in a magazine, and which specific details they are interested in. I asked :
1) Which colours do you think would be appropriate to use within a Jazz magazine (lots of colours/a limited amount)


2)Would you prefer a layout to be dominated by text, images, or a mix of both ?

3)What sort of things would you like to find, within a magazine ? (i.e -  reviews, interviews, merchandise etc )

4)Which do you think suits the genre more - a simplistic layout, focusing only a couple of things but in detail, or would you prefer a busy layout, with lots of things catching your attention, but with less detail ?

5) Do you think that Jazz artists themselves, should decide on what they produce, or should the labels and companies themselves decide ?

After asking 5 participants, i can conclude that in relation to
Q1) - ALL participants said that they would prefer a limited number rather than lots of colours. They gave examples such as  black and white, and subtle blues and greens.
Q2) Participants said that they were more interested in the actual content, and therefore would prefer a double page spread primarily dominated by text, but also felt that one or two images had to be used to vary the layout.
Q3) Participants said that they would like to find interviews and reviews of albums within the magazine, with also some mention of less well known artists, to enable readers to vary their listening experience.
Q4) Majority of participants felt that a simplistic layout was more suited to the genre, rather than a busy one, as consumers of the magazine preferred more detail on a couple of main things, rather than little detail on a lot of things.
Q5) ALL participants felt that music artists themselves should decide on what they produce, as they felt that the genre was about doing what the artists feels the audience like, rather than the company or label.

Time Plan

Research into existing magazines x2 : 2nd December

Research into Target Audience : 8th December
Questions to ask to audience

Models and Props/ Organisation of locations : 12th December
Models Names - reliability
props used - hard or easy to get hold of ?

Work in progress/ rough work and flat plan : 15th/16th December
drawings of magazine front cover/contents/double page spread
positioning of props
backgrounds ?
                            

AS Media Coursework - Research and Planning

Jazz Times


Jazz times, is primarily aimed at jazz fans, who have knowledge of the specific genre, and are looking to either advance their own knowledge, or have a brief overview of the genre, and wish to expand. The magazine provides interviews, information and news on the artists, and promo's of new work.


The front cover's primary attraction is the CVI of a man playing to, stereotypical jazz related instruments. Presumably he is a recognizable figure within the jazz genre that would attract the specific audience.


With numerous call outs, this constitutes a relatively busy front cover, which is strange, as often with other Jazz Magazines, there are a limited number of signs.  The cover lines themselves, are an orange colour, that stand out against the black background to firstly attract the reader, the the strap lines, in contrast are in white, and provide further information about the text. This works well in an attempt to first draw in the reader with one contrasting colour, and then using another to provide more information. The orange and white, as as the blue are the 3 main colours used in this colour theme.






 When used together, in the running head create a very attractive, and stand out in order to attract the audience. The soft blue colour, works well in conjunction with the soft connotations that you associate with the Jazz genre. The text is sans serif, which also suggests that the magazine is pure music, and serif writing, which has up market connotations is not necessary to the audience it is aimed at.

 There is also a mix in the size of the writing, dependent on the importance and attraction of the story, and a mix of bold and italics - i.e  the masthead.  With a limited amount of images on the page, with the main CVI bleeding off the page, and one singular in the running head, the front cover is not photo based, but is dominated by the text, which has both upmarket, and downmarket connotaions.

The masthead is spaced out, in bold and in capitals, which connotes a sense superiority over other magazines in the Jazz genre.

 This, in conjunction with the CVI ( of a recognisable figure within the jazz genre ) gives the magazine an upmarket feel. The CVI bleeds off the page, and is a close up of only the figures face. His eyes and brows, are furrowed seriously which helps the superior feel to the magazine. The front cover is a simple layout, with no running head, and very few call outs and strap lines, and only one photo, which is the primary attraction point. The strap line  is in simple bold and sans serif font, that connotes a lack of fanciness, and more towards the simplistic feeling. This could be a representation of how the editors/artists feel about this specific genre of music. This is a recurring theme in lots of jazz magazines, with a simplistic design, and limited number of cover lines and images.




Similarly to the front covers of many jazz magazines, the contents page is of a similar design, with a minimalist approach to the design. With one image, being the primary CVI that again bleeds off the page, although there is a lack of visual content, it suggests that no more is needed than what has been given.








 Also, the text is again bold and clear, with straplines attracting the consumer in, and then then the subheads in a smaller, less conspicuous font. The font is in sans serif, connoting a more naturalistic and simple nature to the magazine. The semantic themes of simple, serious and natural appear to occur in many magazines, and i will definitely take this into account when producing my own piece.

 The same Logo, used in the masthead of the front cover is again repeated, with some other information i.e - date, and also includes a small tag line at the bottom, giving credit to the illustrator.



There is a minimal amount of colours used again in the contents page, with the CVI being in black and white, and the same two colours used on the font throughout. this adds to the semantic feel of simplicity, and naturalistic and also gives us an insight of the audience this magazine appears to be projected at. it would lead to suggestion that unlike fans of pop magazines, or rock, readers of this genre of magazine care less about the specific detailing of the magazine, and more about the content itself, rather than the look of the magazine. However the connotations of the word jazz would usually be simplistic and natural, therefore the magazine is suited to its theme. when considering the layout and production of my piece, as well as conducting my own research into the audience, this will provide useful information on how to design my piece.



Looking at WIRE magazine, and the numerous double page spreads throughout, it is easy to see a common theme occurring. When observing an article double page spread, there is a distinct lack of variation between the two pages, with similar features within both. When spread across both pages, it is dominated by text, with a minimal amount of images, and breaks between the text and the image are often unfilled, or have a a small anchorage caption, that does not fill the space - this is evident across both pages.

When an article is mixed with an image, the CVI usually takes up one whole side of the page and the other being only text, with no images being used.

There is also a distinct lack of colour, with a white background seen throughout the magazine, and a sans serif font used throughout the piece.The lack of variation in text size/font/colour adds to the connotations previously mentioned. Similarly to the rest of front cover, and contents of other magazines, this 'simplistic' theme is a common feature, and I will consider this when I produce my own piece.


 I also noticed that within WIRE magazine itself, when images are used, they are often in black and white. This amplifies the retro/simplistic/naturalistic semantic fields that the genre, and the word jazz connote.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine cover and contents page both challenge and use the stereotypical features of a magazine cover and contents. The magazine cover has the usual features such as masthead and call outs, as well as a running head. However it also uses less recognizable features such as drop shadow on the title which is less noticeable. It also uses serif font throughout the pieces, which is typical for an upmarket magazine, and the use of bold and italics throughout on certain more interesting aspects of the pieces. The CVI also bleeds off the page, which is another less recognizable feature.
The contents also uses similar features, bold, italics and callouts for the pictures. It also includes flush left/left justify text which is typical of a contents page





Who would be the target audience for your media product ?

The obvious target audience for my magazine would be students. On a psychographic note, i would expect primarily aspirers and achievers to read the magazine, due to college being about cementing the grades in order for you to achieve in life. I would assume that majority of readers would be placed at grade E on the Jicnar Scale, due to college not enabling you to have a full time or high paying job. In relevence to the life stage catagories, the 12-18 and decision pending catagories would fit.

How did you attract/address your audience ?

I used numerous features to help attract my target audience, with lots of connotations and meanings. On the front cover, i attempted to use captions and callouts that my primary target audience would find interesting. An example of this is the 'How to pass your driving test'. When at college, usually this is when a student would begin to learn to drive, and by addressing matters that concern students, it allows the audience to relate to the magazine and persuades them to buy the magazine. The posture of the CVI with his hand on his head and his eyes looking away from the camera connote intelligence, thoughtfulness and  coolness, which is likely to appeal to the audience.

 There are also only 3 colours used, black, white and a light blue. As the magazine is targetted at both genders, not just one, we needed to find colours that don't favour one gender over another, and that both genders would find appealing. The colour black connotes seriousness, and boldness, where as the white and blue connote fun, and imply that, combined with the black, the magazine will be packed with relavent things, but will also be a light read. In the magazine we also used bold and italics on the text that we found to be most interesting to the reader.

What've you learnt about other technologies from the process of constructing this product ?


When making this media piece, i learnt about a number of different technologies, including digital SLR cameras, Photoshop and Indesign. When using the cameras, I learnt to turn the flash off, in order make the photo of a better quality. I also learnt terms such as mid close up, which is the type of photo we were required to take. I learnt how to handle and keep the camera safe also. Photoshop proved particularly interesting, as it used skills that were unknown to me. I learnt how to get rid of spots, and blemishes, and how to use the magnetic lasso tool to enable me to crop photos delicately and then feather the image to make it look more professional. Indesign was also a new experience, as it taught me the importance of laying out a contents page, rather than just put things where nessicary. I learnt how to use swatches, and gradients, and how to lay out my contents page into a 3 4 or 5 collumn piece. Also i would not have been able to perform text wrap without using Indesign before hand, as i think this is a valuable feature into my piece.

Keeping track of my work via Blogger has enabled me to plan my piece much more carefully, and allowed me to identify problems and shown me which idea's work, and which idea's don't. An example of this were my fonts, or the name of my magazine. If not for the planning on blogger, i would have likely rushed into making decisions and my overall product would have been worse.

Contents Page

Magazine Front Cover

Target Audience

If you're reading this magazine, you :
- you'd prefer to be outdoors rather than indoors,
- you spend your nights watching friends rather than Eastenders
- you're a morning person
- you were designer clothes, and won't be seen without a fashionable label
- you prefer twitter to Facebook, but aren't addicted
- you plan on going to University, before getting a job
-

Names i could use

VARSITY
KICK
MEGA MAGAZINE
THE AGEING YOUTH
THE YOUTH
WSFC

flat plan

Coverlines

- 2012 Olympics build up
- Winter Best Buys
-  Latest Tour Snaps
- How to pass your driving test - Top Tips
- Halloween Scares!
- Christmas Clubbing Destination.

FONTS i could use.

MAGAZINE

Magazine

MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE

KICK

KICK

KICK

Varsity.

What i have learnt from my research

- Upmarket magazines tend to have a fixed layout, and are not crowded with infomation.
- The use of serif brings the magazine upscale also.
- Multiple colour themes bring the magazine down market.
- Majoirty of the popular magazines have a popular CVI on them.
- In order to make my magazine unisex based, i will have to get the right colour scheme that appeals to both genders.
- Another feature of a downmarket magazine is when the masthead is obscured by other objects on the cover.
- My college magazine will contain articles on music, books, fashion and the latest technology.

Preliminary Project

College lifestyle is primarily targeted at college students, and aspirer's and achievers, connoted by the masthead. The picture boost is of an iconic figure that the target audience can relate and look up to. This improves the appeal of the magazine to college students, however the image of the man mixed with the colour scheme connotes that the content is fundamentally aimed at males. 


The layout of the cover and the use of sans serif is relatively unsophisticated and unfixed, giving the magazine a more down market vibe, making it more accessible for college students. 
  










'More' is aimed at a female target audience, made up of aspirer's and , roughly aged ages 16+. This is connoted by the CVI who is a recognisable  figure head. Also the colour themes of pink, white and yellow are generally associated with a female target audience, therefore making the magazine appeal to female college students.  
In addition to this, the posture of the picture boost is exuding confidence and glamour by direct eye contact with the camera and the 'in season' clothes being modelled. This is further complimented by the flushed left, smaller picture boost, aligned with the CVI, promoting the fashion content of the magazine.  
On the other hand the crowded layout and the minimal amount of serif font used considerably pulls the magazine down market, therefore making it more accessible to college students. 

The target audience for 'Closer' is young women, who range on the jicnar scale from D-E . This is connoted by the content, CVI's and colour theme. The layout of the magazine is unfixed and cluttered with the pictures bleeding off the page, consequently bringing the magazine down market. The mast head, which is also a wob is overlapped by the left flushed pull quote.


The CVI is a recognisable figure, but fundamentally towards women, as are the other smaller picture boosts, all containing womanly icons that are of general interest. The sans serif font brings the market of the magazine downwards towards the bottom end of the jicnar scale.

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