Professional photography analysis.

This picture strikes me as a great shot for a front cover. I like to think that the story that accompanies this picture would be focusing just on him, and maybe a rebellious nature, emphasized by his hand gripping the microphone almost like a fist raised, and him also screaming whilst making direct eye contact.

Medium Close Up.



This photo would be best suited for a contents page, where all the different vinyl’s laid around the woman in the photo could be representing all the different contents the magazine has to offer.

For the same reasons, this photo could also be used as a front cover shot, but I personally don’t think it would be as effective.

High Angle Shot.

This picture seems to be a perfect shot for a front cover, filling whatever space it needs to with just the part of the face you can see, which is interestingly not much, with the large, blacked out glasses and the hair, possibly pointing to the subject of the photo having a sort of rock personality, just from first glance.

Close Up Shot.

 

A picture like this with all the hands reaching towards the stage could be easily stretched out across a double page spread reviewing a music festival, like Leeds festival for example. Putting the hands across the two pages along the bottom of each page would create the effect of the text being supported by all the hands, cleverly relating to “crowd surfing” which is incredibly popular at festivals and gigs.









This shot of Billy Joe was taken during one of the biggest gigs Britain's ever had for one band, and the screen behind him is used so people can see him clearly. In this shot though, it particularly like the camera man is trying to capture the huge presence the singer has, using the rule of thirds to incorporate both Billy Joe and his on screen picture, and not just one or the other.

Medium range shot.



College magazine contents page.

As with my front cover, my contents page also didn't take much effort on my part. But I did learn that even without much effort, it's actually quite easy to place fonts and pictures and wrap words around images using Photoshop, so I do believe these two pieces helped me complete my coursework pieces.

College magazine front cover.

This is the front cover I completed for a preliminary task, and as you can see it's basically a picture with a few words on it, which took little to no effort; not the best approach, I admit. The font I used has permission to be used by it's author, so that wasn't a problem, but I decided to not use the picture or title font for my coursework task (my music magazine).

List of possible contents.

I'm aiming for at least two "sections" of contents on my page, and I'm trying to get content for about 15-20 "pages" of items as I think that's long enough to make it a good magazine but not so long as it would bore the student who would be reading it.

1st section (top list);

Review of Health Week, and interviews with college students who participated.  Pages 3-4.
Interview with Student of the Month. Pages 5-6.
Prior's got Talent exclusive spread. Pages 7-10
Drama's upcoming production of Jane Eyre. Pages 11-12.

So far I'd predict that's half a page worth of contents, depending on the style and size of my font.

The next section (bottom list) could include;

Interview with a student regarding peer mentoring. Page 13.
UCAS news, final deadlines. Pages 14-15.
Results from a survey carried out to reveal if students were happy or not with the music situation in the cafeteria, and also about busses. An interview also with a student affected by the busses. Pages 16-17.
Ending on weekly announcements from any staff, and upcoming Student Union meetings, page 18.

I think this would suffice for now, and I just have to incorporate them into an actual contents page.

Ideas for college magazine.

Prior Pursglove College always has activities happening at some point in the year and even has themes for every week, with various events taking place to promote the particular theme; for instance, 2 weeks ago it was Health Week and the college organised stalls that promoted healthy eating, and hired a "Bucking Banana" for fun. Other events, such as a "Britain's Got Talent" styled talent show will shortly be held, dubbed "Prior's Got Talent". I think that this particular show would be an excellent feature as the main headline on my college magazines' front cover, and I also have the perfect idea for a photo which would go with the story as well. I can imagine that the photo will be taken and uploaded to the blog as my next post, and I'm sure whilst adding a few other lines, that would be my front cover finished. Then moving on to the contents page, I will take a picture of someone, employing the rule of thirds technique and placing them on the right hand side of the photo, so I can use the left hand side for my list of contents. The way the rule of thirds works, the reader will be immediatly drawn to the contents, and upon completing this, that will be my college magazine preliminary task completed.

Just a few snaps.

We were tasked with taking various pictures that used different camera angles and techniques, for instance low angled shots and close ups. Most people in my Media class decided to take the easy route and just pose people in different positions, but I decided to go to my partner's house and take a few pictures of things other than just people. Here are three of the shots I took, which I'll explain individually. This is just an exercise to get me used to taking different types of shots, in preparation for the photographs I will be taking for my music magazine.

This as you can see is a picture of a lit candle, a source of heat. Sitting next to the candle is an ice cube, a source of....well, cold I suppose. Basically, the shot I was going for was one showing juxtaposition, but I wanted to create it myself instead of trying to find it in my surroundings, which I believed would be too easy. The contrast in heat between these two objects just struck me as something that would be fun to capture.

This shot is a close up of fungi growing on Prior Pursglove's grounds. A lot of people were taking pictures of things they percieved to be beautiful, thinking that was all that is important. For instance, a lot of roses were posing for cameras. Now this shot of fungi isn't exactly a pretty red rose, but that's not to say it isn't a great picture that captures so much detail , with so many gouges and shadows and other elements that set it apart from the rest as a close up.

Straight away you can see that this shot uses a low camera angle, giving the effect that you are looking up at the iPod and it's dock in this case. The inspiration to use an iPod came from the idea that human beings are almost entirely dependant on technology; it's everywhere. Why, I'm even using a technological piece of equipment (albeit a rather unimpressive keyboard) to type these words. This leads me to believe that technology holds a certain power, and thus I thought it appropriate to show this by taking this photo.

My questionnaire.

This is the questionnaire that I made and passed to random members of my class to get a better idea of readership. The questions feature elements that help them relate to college students like myself, for example the use of "smiley's" to invoke humour but also to let the people filling out the survey that another student just like them made it. I thought this would help with attaining reliable data.

1. What is your gender?
Male
or
Female

2. How old are you? :3
(Enter answer)

What college year are you in?
First
or
Second

4. Could you describe your personality to me in as few words as possible? I.E outgoing, shy, loud? :)
(Enter answer)

5. Do you support yourself with a job, or do you still live off allowance, for instance EMA?
(Enter answer)

6. Do you like to be in a large group of friends, or prefer the company of a small group? Or does it depend entirely on the situation?
(Enter answer)

7. Do you have any religious beliefs or none at all?
(Enter answer)

8. Do you support any political parties, I.E The Conservatives or Labour etc? Or do you not follow politics?
(Enter answer)

9. Do you plan on going to University after college? If yes, where are you aiming to attend?
(Enter answer)

10. Where do you see yourself in ten years time?
(Enter answer)

11. What genres of music do you listen too? For instance, punk, metal, rap? :3
(Enter answer)

12. Would you be willing telling me your parents/guardian's occupations?
(Enter answer)

13. Do you consider yourself environmentally friendly?
(Enter answer)

14. When shopping do you like to buy well known brands, or are you not fussed at all? ;)
(Enter answer)

15. Do you like to adhere to fashion trends?
Yes
or
No
or
Sometimes

16. Do you like to get involved with college activites, for instance last week's activities put on by college due to it being Health Week?
Yes
or
No
or
Depends what's happening at the time.

Do you enjoy attending PPC? ;D
Yes
or
No
or
Kinda!


The various results I got from this survey I will use to determine the content and presentation of my college magazine preliminary task, and I will also keep the results for future reference when the time comes to start writing content for my music magazine. I will most likely write another survey when I'm doing my main task that's more tailored towards music, but these results will certainly help to get a good readership profile.

Examples of music magazine front covers.

Alternative Press Magazine.
http://www.altpress.com/

Big Cheese Magazine.
http://www.bigcheesemagazine.com/





Kerrang! Magazine.
http://www.kerrang.com/







Alternative Press, Kerrang! and Big Cheese Magazine all serve as magazines for the same variety of genres, including rock, pop punk and metal. A wider variety of genres are covered though, and Kerrang! and AP tend to cover the more rock and pop punk bands, although metal genres are covered, but usually more so in Big Cheese Magazine.

Pictured aboce is an example of a front cover from each of the three magazines, and show two pop punk/rock bands in the form of All Time Low and The Maine on AP and Kerrang!, whereas Big Cheese shows rock band Fall Out Boy, but also covering heavier bands such as Underoth and Dragon Force.

Types of bands my magazine would focus on.



In this picture, the 5 members of Paramore are seen posing on a road, in a black and white picture.

In my opinion black and white is used to show the band in the same light and colours, because

Paramore in particular are stereotyped as a band consisting of the lead singer Hayley Williams,

and 4 of her band mates who don't play as big a role, which is obviously untrue. So this picture has connotations of strong friendship and suggests they're proving the stereotype wrong.







 

 

We The Kings, as shown in this picture in front of a wall and drawings of crowns they appear to have jokingly drawn themselves with annotations, are your typically fun loving, pop punky band, with a lot of songs talking about successful love and fun lives. The fact that they are all smiling and all seem to have had fun drawing on the wall just strengthen the fact they are a fun loving band, and really tells people just what they are like as a band.

 



All Time Low, as seen here in an older photoshoot, are your typically funny, like to mess around type of band. Although this is an older photo, All Time Low have always had great photoshoots, always doing something different, which coincides with the fact they are always having fun with the songs they sing as well. One particular photo that started an internet phenomenon and particularly boosted ATL's popularity was a photo depicting the band in nothing but underwear, eating bananas. Although a lot of people disagreed with the photo shoot,  I personally believe that it was a brilliant way for the band to let people know that they are not afraid to express themselves, be it through voice or media.









Blog Intro.

This is the first post of my AS Media blog, and will be documenting my progress over the course of the year. During this year I will be constantly updating my blog with new posts that will hopefully culminate in my completion of the main task, which is of course to complete a front cover, contents page and a double page spread for a music magazine. But first as a preliminary task I will be creating a front cover and contents page for a college magazine.

I personally listen to an extremely wide range of bands and genres, but artists I find myself particularly listening to include Paramore, Mayday Parade, Bring Me The Horizon, All Time Low, We The Kings, and more along the same lines. Although my music magazine will be aimed to a market of fans of those types of bands, I did consider doing a classical music magazine as I find I enjoy the genre.

Over the course of the year, my focus will be on Kerrang!, Big Cheese magazine and Alternative Press, as they feature the same genres of bands, and I find it would be better to draw influence from both magazines, rather than just one. Both of these magazines focus on the pop punk/rock genre, among other. This gives enables me to look at a variety of different bands.

Kerrang! magazine still holds out well against other competing music magazines like for instance NME Magazine, enjoying annual sales of 421,000, as of july '10, whereas NME only managed 325,000.

Other webzines, magazines and music sites include, Rolling Stone, Q magazine and RockFeedBack webzine. A music sharing site I personally have used for around 3-4 years is Spotify, which is an incredibly large source of music of all genres, and is updated daily. Many bands also still use MySpace as pages for their band, and to put their music out. Myspace has always proven itself to be very reliable when it comes to music.

Links to any bands, magazines, webzines or websites referenced in my intro can be found here:

Bands:
www.alltimelow.com
www.paramore.net
www.maydayparade.com
www.myspace.com/bmth
www.wethekingsmusic.com

Magazines/Webzines:
www.kerrang.com
www.bigcheesemagazine.com
www.altpress.com
www.nme.com
www.rollingstone.com
www.qthemusic.com
www.rockfeedback.com

Websites:
www.spotify.com/uk/
www.myspace.com