Flat Plans

NME FLAT PLAN

MY FLAT PLAN

First Draft of Music Magazine Layout (includes Evaluation)

 FRONT PAGE

A couple of problems have occurred with this design - the logo is incredibly basic (not in a good way) and my head and arm obscures the text in the byline. This meant I had to completely rethink the masthead. After consulting my audience, I found out that the slanted masthead wasn't popular, despite what I thought about it being more visually exciting. I also found that the logo looked more professional when I removed the stripe, which I replaced with a slight glow. By moving the angle, i was then able to left-align the words in the byline - however, this created a large gap next to the head of Joe (left), meaning i also had to rearrange where the smaller headlines went.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

 The original design left a lot of open space, to stop this, I extended the margins and increased the size of the image in the middle slightly. I also added the sidebar on the right, as this also gave the reader something more visually interesting to look at than a vast block of writing. Unfortunately, this left a large block of writing on the first page that needed breaking up. However, after consulting my audience, i was told that they liked it and didn't think it needed anything in the middle of it. I was also told that they didn't think the lower right image was needed - so that went.

Another unpopular feature was the sidebar, which they felt would be better as a box-out rather than a part of the page.

To get around these problems, I highlighted quotes, making them slightly larger and changing their colour. I shortened the sidebar and widened it.

CONTENTS PAGE

RECCE - Risk Assessment For Picture Taking

Typography

Typography

View more presentations from SixFootSteve.

Photography Planning

AUDIENCE RESEARCH - Prezi Presentation

My Advert Plan on Prezi

Follow this to see my prezi presentation - it's a quick brainstorm that I did to show a few of my ideas - I should be using this for reference while actually making my Magazine. There may be changes made to this every now and again, so keep watching.

Front Covers and Double Page Spread Annotations

The Zeppelin is an old fashioned mode of transport, Led Zeppelin is a band from the 60's. They've tied this information slyly to their image (left), by comparing them to the band being covered, then showing them with a plane in the background, as if to tell us that this band is the modern day Led Zep - and saying as much in the Title.

Looking back on all these annotations that we'd made showed me just how much we interpret from what we see. How people are shown in images tells us just as much as the text that goes with them does. Take the image from the 'BIRDS OF SLAY' double page spread (left) for example, they're lit up in Gold light, a colour associated with Champions, or winning! On the left, the bassist is bowing down, which is symbolic of reaching the end, reaching a climax or a pinnacle of an event. The drummer looks in awe. The singer/guitarist is striking a strong, leader-like pose, the audience at his feet, which shows his power!

Double Page Spread Article Second Draft

Walking into the studio, the first thing I notice is how mismatched the three other people in the studio are. One is around average height with a long fringe, various piercings and dark clothing, including a slipknot hoodie and Avenged Sevenfold T-shirt; the second is short, with a thick black quiff wearing blue jeans and a short-sleeved checked shirt, unbuttoned, on top of a Guns’n’Roses shirt; the third is tall, sporting a Bieber-esque mop, black jeans and a torn t-shirt that’s slightly too small for him, emblazoned with the phrase: “YOU CAN’T ARREST ME, I’M A ROCKSTAR” across the front. On first sight, I thought I had the wrong room; surely these three weren’t in the same band? Yet within moments, they stop chatting and go over to the instruments and start playing. The sound that comes out is a jumbled mix of different genres: heavy metal drumming, slightly distorted rock and roll guitar riffs and a bouncy bass line that wouldn’t be out of place in a pop song. Yet somehow it works well together - and I find myself unable to stop myself from tapping my feet and nodding my head!

When they finally finish we go into the next room to sit down, each one with a huge grin on their face. The drummer, Joe, seems to be leading the chatter between them, poking fun at the performance of the bassist who is laughing along and pointing out Joe’s mistakes. Dan, the guitarist, is just smiling, not taking much notice, but giving Joe the odd look as if to tell him to be quiet. Eventually he pipes down and they begin telling us about how they work together with such different tastes. Joe instantly pipes up again blurting out almost instantly that they don't really know. What proceeds is an awkward silence as if no one really knows what else there is to say. Finally Dan says,

 “We don’t really have such different tastes, yes we all listen to different things – Joe’s into metal”, 

“Punk for me” says Steve, their bassist, “and I’m into more classic rock” Dan continues, “but we have enough shared tastes to get along without too much hassle”. What follows was the band pointing out different bands that they all like, three bands come out most strongly: Green Day, Muse and Foo Fighters. 

“We do a lot of covers, by all sorts of different bands we like” explains Steve, “Our best is probably a version of The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, but most of them are Green Day, I think?” There are murmurs of agreement from the other two, and Steve carries on talking, “But it’s been a lot harder to cover things and adapt them in our own way since [second guitarist] Alex left a month or two back”. Joe's smile quickly fades and turns into a bitter pout. He turns his face away. I ask him what happened and Steve replies for him, “we don’t really know all of it, but Joe had one of his little moans and Alex thought he was being blamed for something, and took it out of proportion.” 

“Then he left” Dan adds. I ask why it hit Joe so much harder, to which Joe finally replies “because I didn’t do anything! Now he’s just removed all contact from me. Removed me on Facebook, completely blanks me when I try and talk to him - he won’t even look at me!” Steve notices how worked up Joe is getting and butts in to stop him from getting carried away, “which means the argument can’t be sorted out. It’s more Alex’s shyness than anything else – he’s going out of his way to avoid an argument or suchlike”. By the way Joe suddenly changed; I can already tell how true that statement probably was. 

Overall, the leaving of Alex has left the band in a muddled, confused state,

“but,” says Dan, “We’re not taking it to heart. We’re changing the songs we play to get around his absence and we’re not going to stop playing. The band has had breakups before and we’ll be damned if this one stops us,” nods of agreement all round. 

“To be honest, I think it’s a kick up the backside we needed.” says Steve, “and since it happened, we’ve begun to step up our game.” Dan nods his head in approval and a smile spreads on his face, and with that, they return to their instruments in the next room, grim faces replaced once again with huge, sincere grins. Joe gives a countdown by tapping his drumsticks and the music starts, and listening to the sounds coming from their studio, they prove that last statement totally and utterly correct. Their game has been upped and by God does it show! •

Double Page Spread Article First Draft

Walking into the Studio (1), the first thing I notice is how mismatched the three other people in the studio are. One is around average height with a long fringe, various piercings and dark clothing, including a slipknot Hoodie (2) and Avenged Sevenfold T-shirt; the second is short, with a thick black quiff wearing blue jeans and a short-sleeved checker shirt (3), unbuttoned, on top of a Guns’n’Roses shirt; the third is tall, sporting a Bieber-esque mop, black jeans and a torn t-shirt that’s slightly too small for him, emblazoned with the phrase: “YOU CAN’T ARREST ME, I’M A ROCKSTAR” across the front. On first sight, I thought I had the wrong room; surely these three weren’t in the same band? Yet within moments, they stop chatting and go over to the instruments and start playing. The sound that comes out is a jumbled mix of different genres: heavy metal drumming, slightly distorted rock and roll guitar riffs and a bouncy bass line that wouldn’t be out of place in a pop song. Yet somehow it works well together - and I find myself unable to stop myself from tapping my feet and nodding my head!

When they finally finish we go into the next room to sit down, each one with a huge grin on their face. The drummer, Joe, seems to be leading the chatter between them, poking fun at the performance of the bassist, who (4) is laughing along and pointing out Joe’s mistakes. Dan, the guitarist, is just smiling, not taking much notice, but giving Joe the odd look as if to tell him to be quiet. Eventually he pipes down and they begin, telling (5) us about how they work together with such different tastes. Joe instantly pipes up again, blurting (6) out almost instantly that they “don’t really know”, what (7) proceeds is an awkward silence as if no one really knows what else there is to say, finally broken by Dan who differs, saying (8),

 “We don’t really have such different tastes, yes we all listen to different things – Joe’s into metal”, 

“Punk for me” says Steve, their bassist, “And (9) I’m into more classic rock” Dan continues, “but we have enough shared tastes to get along without too much hassle”. What follows was the band pointing out different bands that they all like, three bands come out most strongly: Green Day, Muse and Foo Fighters. 

“We do a lot of covers, by all sorts of different bands we like” explains Steve, “Our best is probably a version of The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, but most of them are Green Day, I think?” there (10) are murmurs of agreement from the other two, and Steve carries on talking, “But it’s been a lot harder to cover things and adapt them in our own way since [second guitarist] Alex left a month or two back”. Joe's smile quickly fades and turns into a bitter pout. He turns his face away. I ask him what happened and Steve replies for him, “we don’t really know all of it, but Joe had one of his little moans and Alex thought he was being blamed for something, and took it out of proportion.” 

“Then he left” Dan adds. I ask why it hit Joe so much harder, to which Joe finally replies “because I didn’t do anything! Now he’s just removed all contact from me. Removed me on Facebook, completely blanks me when I try and talk to him - he won’t even look at me!” Steve notices how worked up Joe is getting and butts in to stop him from getting carried away, “which means the argument can’t be sorted out. It’s more Alex’s shyness than anything else – he’s going out of his way to avoid an argument or suchlike”. By the way Joe suddenly changed; I can already tell how true that statement probably was. 

Overall, the leaving of Alex has left the band in a muddled, confused state,

“but,” says Dan, “We’re not taking it to heart. We’re changing the songs we play to get around his absence and we’re not going to stop playing. The band has had breakups before and we’ll be damned if this one stops us,” nods of agreement all round. 

“To be honest, I think it’s a kick up the backside we needed.” Says (11) Steve, “and since it happened, we’ve begun to step up our game.” Dan nods his head in approval and a smile spreads on his face. And (12) with that, they return to their instruments in the next room, grim faces replaced once again with huge, sincere grins. Joe gives a countdown by tapping his drumsticks and the music starts. And (13) listening to the sounds coming from their studio, they prove that last statement totally and utterly correct. Their game has been upped and by God does it show! •


CORRECTIONS

1. studio
2. hoodie
3. checked shirt
4. bassist who
5. begin telling
6. again blurting
7. don't really know. What
8. is to say. Finally Dan says
9.  "and
10. There
11. says
12. face, and
13. starts, and

Analysis of a Music Magazine (Audio Track)

Costume and Set Ideas

I know the band I'm covering personally, as I'm in the band. So I know the kind of clothes they own and wear - meaning this part was easy. I want to show the band as a diverse group, explaining how different all their styles are, yet the colours they wear are quite dark and monotone, which links them together.

Setting, I have ideas, but i'll need to take the photos myself as I can't find images of where I want them to be online, however I have managed to find a few pictures online that help illustrate what I'm looking for.

The steps outside of the school block is what I want for the front cover as it shows them as well-educated people, it makes them look more official, yet it's not going to be a fancy school, just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill school. The effect of this would be that it shows them as normal human beings who play very honest music.

I'm unsure as of yet which image i should use for the double page spread. I want to have a kind of live image that shows the band performing, but I'm not sure if that means having them onstage or in a studio. The studio would link in well with the story, as it involves them rehearsing IN A STUDIO, however the intent of the article is to let everyone know that they aren't giving up, that they're still playing live despite their loss. Having an image of a 3-man live performance would illustrate that fantastically!

The image on the double page spread inside I'd like to be taken using a fish eye lens, as it takes photos with a visually interesting shape, and distorts the image in an exciting way. It would also allow us to take an image with a wider angle, meaning we could probably do a close up of a live performance and still fit all three of the band members in at once.

NME NOTES - Front and Double Page Spreads!

We managed to get an interview with a few people from NME Magazine and we asked them what advice they could give us in making a music magazine. Here a few brief things i'll be needing to remember...

Red = Front Page issues
Blue = Double Page Spread
Purple = Images etc that can be applied for both

Black and White – Can represent things as being old, vintage or from the archives – an ICONIC image. If it’s not any of the above, it’s probably best to just drain most of the colour out of an image so it’s NEAR Black and White.

Concepts Drawn à Photo Shoot arranged and followed through à around 300 pictures taken à Whittled down to around 10 à Ten photos set up as a front page in a rough copy à 10 front pages compared and 3 or 4 are picked as the best à 1 Front page picked the day before release.

Big Heads and Eye Contact are important for attracting the audience’s attention as it makes them feel like they’re being watched, it draws attention and makes the overall feel of the image more personal.

AUDIENCE IS KEY! If the image used doesn’t fit their requirements or tastes, then it’s not going to shift any copies!

Important issues for the front page! Average won’t attract attention! It has to be up to date information that people need to know!

Logos must be simple. Stick to simple, bold formats and primary colours.

Change is good, it keeps things fresh, but don’t use too many fonts on each page, it looks messy.

Everything must link! Text format and images must follow the same kind of colour scheme or shape.

Quotes are good to break up solid blocks of text, making it easier to read. Nobody likes humungous chunks of solid reading.

Little splashes of colour in text makes it more visually interesting and easier to read.

For images of the band, a concept needs to be thought of – look at the story you’re trying to tell or the way you want to represent them and take ideas from that. When pitching it to the artist, you need to pull in the artist with this concept as much as you would use it to draw in the audience

Stay away from mainly black front covers!

Things will change, so keep an open mind.

Continuity is key – keep things simple and it’ll be more attractive to look at and buy.

Music Magazines - Media Institutions (Video!!)

After a little searching, I found that most of the music magazines that I would choose to read or would be interested in we made by Bauer Media - so I decided to do a little research into the company and their three major music magazines...

Here's a brief video on my research on Bauer Media, who make 'Kerrang!' - one of my focus magazines, as well as 'Q' magazine and Mojo, two magazines I have briefly studied.

Text:

THESE MAGAZINES WERE MADE BY BAUER.

They include KERRANG!, Q and MOJO as well as non music magazines like FHM.

Bauer is a company which operates in 15 countries worldwide. The Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week.

It was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, abbreviated to HBV and usually shortened to H. Bauer. Bauer Verlagsgruppe has been managed by four generations of the Bauer family and it all started off as just a small printing press in Bauer's House...

Analysis/Annotations of a Front Cover

Music Magazines (A history)

Music Magazines Started with Billboard - the first magazine devoted to the music industry, which began in 1894. However, it wasn't until 1936 that they featured the 'music hit parade'  which later developed into the Billboard charts and was responsible for the the foundation of programmes like the American Top 40 and various radio shows. The magazine was aimed at Professionals, but was open to the public.

Melody Maker arrived in 1926 and covered mainly Jazz. By the mid-50s NME had arrived and was in hot competition - a peak for Melody Maker during this competition was when Lennon and McCartney argued over the Beatles split, sending bitchy letters against each other to Melody Maker.

1967 heralded the introduction of Rolling Stone Magazine, which followed the hippy-youth movement. It did this with reflective articles on music and political/social changes and how the two interweave. During the 80s came a wave of new music filled with synth, pop beats and cheesy lyrics. With this new music came new magazines, like Smash Hits! Rolling Stone chose not to change with the times and continued to focus on Rock'n'Roll music, as opposed to this new-fangled pop.