Mise En Scene - Location

The location that I will be using for my photo shoot is going to be in the school hall, the reason for this is that I can remove the blank background more efficiently than if I used a busy or colourful background. This will allow me to get a sharper edge on the actor to background. 

I will be wanting to take some images outdoors also in order to allow myself to see the difference in a blank background to a city skyline type of background. The background, if I choose to have a skyline background, will be slightly blurred in order to create the effect that the image was taken as one instead of two, thus creating two layers. 

If this does not work out properly I will also be taking some images as one. This will mean less editing however it may mean that i do not have the desired lighting upon my actors features. Also, I have to consider the fact that I want my actor to pose topless; this is hard to do in public places because of the safeguarding of the possibility of passing children. 

My location for the skyline shot would be on the Seacombe promenade looking over towards the Liverpool skyline with the Radio City tower, the three graces buildings, the echo arena and some of the skyscrapers. 

The reason that I wanted to do a double layer is because I wanted the buildings to have less of a natural colour and use photoshop functions to make my image bright and colourful. 

This is the type of colourful edit that I am aiming for.

Mise En Scene - Actor

The image for my front cover will be an image of a male character with good facial features. He will be posing with a microphone. The reason I would like my actor to pose with a microphone is because my music magazine genre is a mainstream pop music therefore a lot of pop music is based around singers.

My actor will be a dark haired male with a desirable body figure in order to portray a male pop star. The reason that this type of image will be my cover photo is because of the audience that will be attracted by the image. The actor will have a seemingly natural look on his face whilst looking happy simultaneously.

One feature that I will contemplate is if my actor will be topless. The reason for this is because the audience that I am targeting are going to be mostly female. The actor should be a talking point of the magazine; this will make the magazine more topical in conversation, thus selling more magazines.

The shot of the actor will be a medium close up in order to capture the detail of the actors upper chest and facial features such as the jaw line.

The actor of choice is shown below with a similar expression to the desired expression. My actor will be the actor that i used in my preliminary task because i am able to manipulate my actor fully to get the desired shots. 

Style models for Music Magazine

The style models for my music magazine will be of mainstream hits music magazines such as 'VIBE' and 'NME'. The reason for these being my style models is because I would like my music magazine genre to be a mainstream type of magazine that is corresponding to the currently mainstream music hits. 

I will aim certain sections of my magazine at the acoustic genre of mainstream music such as Ed Sheeran songs and other acoustic singer/songwriter. 

                 

It is magazines such as this that are the type of magazine that I am aiming for. These particular magazines are aimed more towards the female audience such as teenagers. In my magazine, I will be changing some aspects of the magazine such as the colours and advertisements on the cover to make the magazine have a broader target audience in order to make the magazine more appealing to male teenagers as well as females.

 I will vary in different issues, the colours of the magazine, the image on the front cover and other aspects of the magazine also; some weeks I shall put a female artist on the front cover in order to make the magazine more appealing to the male audience, the colours would be more archetypal in the masculinity of the colours, such as blues and greens.

This image is of a contents page, however it has got an image in the centre that could be worthy of a front cover in the type of magazine that I would aim more towards the male audience.

My Music Genre Interest

My main music genre interest would be mainstream pop music alongside mainstream alternative pop music. 

I enjoy these music genres because they are very upbeat and positive. The artists are very enthusiastic in their music and they vary their use of instruments. I enjoy acoustic songs by singer songwriters such as Ed Sheeran because they are mostly original and the variation in chords used can be seemingly appealing. 

I am attracted to the magazines of these magazines also because the majority are very bright and bold.

 

The Genre Of Each Of The Existing Magazine Covers

 As you can see, this image has very bright fluorescent colours in the title of the magazine. The vibrant colours represent the pop culture of the music. The image of a well known singer also connotes the mainstream activity of the magazine. The target audience of the magazine would be from late teens until later twenties; this would be due to the price of the magazine being more that £5, thus enforcing that the audience of the magazine must have a reasonable disposable income. 

     This magazine is also a mainstream pop magazine. This is portrayed in the racing blue colour and the simplicity of the text. The mainstream culture is also provoked in the way that Rihanna is on the front cover and there is also a celebrity name on the cover. The target audience would be towards more of a teenage era. This is conveyed in the simple detail in the image and text, very bold and big. The price also encapsulates the idea of a younger target audience due to the fact that it is under the £5 mark; thus too much money for younger than a teenager, but contrarily a reasonable price for a teenager with perhaps a part time job. 

 This magazine is aimed more at the Rock element of music. The simple fact that gives this away is the title of a rock band streamed across the bottom of the page with a rock artist central to the page. The target audience of this magazine would be the younger teenagers who are opening up to the music industry profoundly. The reason this is promoted in such a way is because of the cheap price of the magazine. The target audience is well interpreted in this because of the bright nature of the images and text. 

This is also the same magazine as shown above, however this magazine is aimed toward the fans of John Lennon.

This magazine is aimed toward the older generation as it is classical music or other enthusiasts of the classical genre.  

This magazine is aimed at the rap fanatics as there is an image of a rapper with a gun pointed at his face. The text also gives the genre of the magazine away due to the abstract viciousness of the text style.

This magazine is a Jazz music magazine. This magazine would be situated towards the older generation due to the fact that Jazz music is not as mainstream as it was back in the 1900's. This is made apparent by the Saxophone player on the front cover.

This magazine is an alternative genre magazine, it would be aimed at the older teens to late twenties. This is because of the more subtle colours in the cover and the amount of text has increased. 

This magazine is a country music magazine, this is made apparent by the fact that the title is country music and the image that has been taken has been edited in order to make the image look older; the editor has done this because they wanted to show the old fashioned nature of country music. 

This is another pop music mainstream type of video aimed at the younger audience again because of the bright colours in the image. 

This magazine is another pop magazine, however the image shown creates an alternative pop kind of vibe for the audience. 

Existing Music Magazine Covers

This Post contains 11 images of existing music magazine front covers. I will be using these as part of the inspiration for my coursework piece for my music magazine cover. 

There is a wide range of music types and cover types varying on the contents of the magazine as well as the genre of the magazine. 

 
 
 
 
 

What I have learnt from this task

From this task, I have learned how to use photoshop effectively and how to fix many mistakes. It has been my first ever time using photoshop and I think that I have used it effectively in order to create a magazine front cover and contents page. 

Another thing that I have learned to do is make executive decisions in the form of what images I like and dislike enough to use in my magazine. The decisions I made had to be rational and I had to have reasons for why I was doing the things that I was doing. 

I also learned that I had to think things through properly because if something didn't work effectively then I had to go back a lot and change a lot of my content. In addition, I learned that in order for something to work correctly you have to take the correct steps before hand in order for it to be completed.

I also learned that the magic wand tool on Photoshop doesn't necessarily work properly unless there is a definitive contrast in colours of the actors skin tone and clothes against the background of the shot, i.e a school hall or the exterior of a building.