Practice Interview Shots

A Draft of the interview photos:

The following slideshow presents photos taken roughly based on the shots that I drew.
I have annotated the pros and cons of these shots and changes I will most likely make.

Electro Music Cover - analysis

With the genre of electro music, my partner and I have taken a photo based on a front cover of an electro music album. I directed my partner’s pose and positioning of hands. The table represent a DJ machine and her hand shows that she is playing it. This helps reflect the technology used in this genre of music. Her eyes are fixated to the “DJ player” showing that she is focusing on the music, and this reflects the passion an artist has for this music. It is a mid-close up shot to reveal her playing the DJ. The angle I took is slightly curved to reflect on the style of music – the tilt is funky, new and quite fresh.

Example of Interview - Analysis

The Interview Qs & As

The title: A pull quote from the article – What was your most embarrassing moment?

Well it had something to do with a concert and the wrong lyrics!

This week I welcomed the frontman (or frontwoman) of SCREAM into my guest room. Amber Kay sat onto the sofa with her fish net gloves drinking her coffee. She will be updating us on their upcoming release of their new, powerful album, Vendetta; while revealing the personal battles they faced.

-

Firstly, let me welcome you to TRASHED. How was your flight?
I don't like flying, so I'm glad my feet are on the ground again (laughs).

-
With the new album coming up, you must’ve been caught up in preparations. Have you completely finished creating the music?
Almost. We're still working on the lyrics. We're trying to live up to our fans' expectations to create powerful words. This album was a tough challenge as we have been facing battles of conflict with our label. But as a band and as friends, we have stuck together through thick and thin.

-
Your front cover is really outspoken and rebellious. Is that the sort of message you’re sending out to your fans?
There's more to the meaning of the message than the destruction of life. It's about digging deeper in yourself, so when you look into the mirror, you'd see someone who's worthwhile.

-
I heard Dave, who plays bass, is planning to leave the band. Is it true?
Ah yes. We are extremely upset about that.

-
Why is that?
It's time he decided to settle down and spend more time with his family. We respect that decision and wish him all the best.

-
So you think you can cope without him?
He was very creative with lyrics and was a talented bass player, but yeah, I think we can survive.

-
When writing the lyrics, do you guys work together or is it only just up to one person?
Actually it depends. Sometimes one of us just comes in one day with a whole written song and other times we just sit together and pitch in our ideas.

-
What about you? How have you been holding up in this roller-coaster?
As you may have heard recently I had a rough patch but I was able to manage to lift myself up to pull through for the sake of the band.

-
Putting aside all seriousness, what was your most embarrassing moment?
(laughs) Well it had something to do with a concert and the wrong lyrics!

-
SCREAM's new album Vendetta is coming soon to March. The band will begin tour next year. See magazine website for more details.

Magazine Questionnaire - RESULTS

Below are the results of my questionnaire with the percentages (Bear in mind that I managed to ask up to 20 people)

What's your occupation?
100% Students
20% Part time

How many albums/ singles do you buy per week?
All stated they buy 0-5 albums and/or singles per week.

Do you buy music from online retailers? e.g. Play.com, Amazon
63% buy their music online

Do you go to gigs and events often?
85% say go to events the magazines advertise
15% say they go once in a while

Do you buy tickets from online retailers?
90% of them do
10% say they buy if the magazine offers

Do you own a CD player/iPod/Mp3/Digital Radio?
50% own iPod
90% own digital radio and CD player
95& own Mp3

Do you burn music onto CD?
25% say they do or used to

Do you go to online blogs/forums of your artists?
75% say they do

Do you read a rock music magazine?
95% they do - 90% of them read Kerrang!

Do you go to music festivals?
60% say they do

Do you check out your magazine online for any news/updates?
75% say they often do

Do you dress up in the fashion of your genre?
40% say it's essential
The other 60% don't think it's necessary but would be willing to if they go to concerts or events

Do you like free merchandise given by magazines?
All say they want freebies

Do you watch movies often?
90% say they do - 40% of them go to the cinema often

Out of the following, which genres do you prefer?
85% like comedy
90% like romance
100% like action/adventures
80% like rom-coms

Are you interested in competitions?
70% say they are.

My Reader Profile

Music genre – Rock

Name of Magazine – TRASHED

Target Audience Profile:

• Male & Female Readers aged 16 – early 20s
• Average Age – 19
• Occupation – Students, workers (part time/full time)
• Albums readers buy per week – (Will be surveyed)
• Singles readers buy per week – (Will be surveyed)
• % buy their music online (Will be surveyed)
• % go to gigs & events this magazine advertises (Will be surveyed)
• % buy their tickets from online retailers e.g. Play.com, Amazon. (Will be surveyed)
• % own CD player/mp3/iPod/Digital Radio (Will be surveyed)
• % burn their music onto CD (Will be surveyed)
• 
  

Blogs/Forums used by target audience:

• MySpace – 30 Seconds to Mars
• LP Underground – Linkin Park forum
• 
  

3 band core websites for this genre:

• 30 Seconds to Mars
• Mike Shinoda
• Evanescence
• 
  

Existing rock music magazines (UK):

• Kerrang
• NME

Music Festival/event for this music genre:

• Sonisphere (Bands getting together)
• Scuzz Festival
• Kerrang awards
• 
  

Name of online music magazine for this genre – Kerrang

Magazine Questionnaire

1. What’s your occupation?

- Student

- Part time

- Full time

2. How many albums do you buy per week?

- 0-5

- 6-10

- 11-15

- 16+

3. How many singles do you buy per week?

- 0-5

- 6-10

- 11-15

- 16+

4. Do you buy music from online retailers? e.g. Play.com, Amazon

- Yes

- No

If so, where from?

5. Do you go to gigs and events often? (What was the last one did you go to?)

- Yes

- No

6. Do you buy your tickets from online retailers?

- Yes

- No

If so, where from?

7. Do you own a CD player?

- Yes

- No

8. Do you own an iPod

- Yes

- No

9. Do you own an Mp3?

- Yes

- No

10. Do you own a digital radio?

- Yes

- No

11. Do you burn music onto CD?

- Yes

- No

12. Do you go to online blogs/forums of your artists?

- Yes

- No

If so, specify which one…

13. Do you read a rock music magazine?

- Yes

- No

Which…?

14. Do you go to music festivals?

- Yes

- No

If so, which ones?

15. Do you check out your magazine online for any news/updates?

- Yes

- No

16. Do you dress up in the fashion of your music genre?

- Always

- Sometimes

- Not really

17. Do you like free merchandise given by magazines?

- Yes

- No

18. Do you watch movies often?

- Yes

- No

19. Out of the following, which genre do you prefer?

- Comedy

- Romance

- Action/adventure

- Rom-com

20. Are you interested in competitions?

- Yes

- No

Simultation Task

The Fairest of them all - Discover a new level of sophistication!

Indulge your desire and express your natural instinct for style!

Made for women by women:
- It is used to meet the needs of their busy lifestyles
- It has a mirror display function for touching up your make-up
- Installed with ‘five minutes to fabulous’ software – beauty tips and secrets to always look sensational.
- It is accompanied by a fashionable charm with a luxurious carry pouch and a convenient hands-free kit.
- Sophisticated design decoration and innovative mirror display
- Includes chic boutique box and bag
- It’s the ‘most stylish of them all’!

Features:
- 1.3 mega pixel camera with “9 consecutive shots” and “living picture options”
- Mp3 Player with 3D surround sound
- Bluetooth
- Expandable memory with free MB MicroSD™ card
- Coming soon – a limited edition lip-gloss charm from pout cosmetics

Advertisers:
- Niche audience – women (early to late 20s)
- Women who are Glamorous, sophisticated, vein, into fashion and beauty, girly, into cheesy pop, - Spas for leisure time, not into sports – don’t like to get their hands dirty.
- Aimed at C1 – Lower Middle Class to Middle Class (Supervisory or junior managerial, administrative or professional secretaries)

- BenQ-SIEMENS – Merged to create stylish phones.

Magazine Publishers:
- EF61 Mia Special Edition
- Main Focus – Beauty, glossy and gossip magazine styles
- Budget: £25,000
- Time: 3 months
- Get full page monthly - £8300
- Willing to pay a share of profit

Mia’s special edition is the Fairest of them ALL!

NME front Cover - Analysis

The magazine masthead is in a fixed location. Its colour and font remains the same in each issue – read and white – helping to develop brand identity. Gerard’s face (from My Chemical Romance) is shown looking quite broody, emphasising the fact that smiling is never shown within artist’s face of this magazine; and this demonstrates how important and serious this magazine takes music. There is a column of cover lines to entice readers to the magazine’s articles. The red colour of the headlines connotes passion, anger and danger. “My Chemical Romance” reinforces this as “Chemical” is a word often used to describe chemistry of passion, and so is coloured in red. Front cover is used to attract its audience. Readers of this magazine seem to be interested in new artists and so new bands are advertised in the front cover. The language of text is bold and outspoken – “The Death of rock ‘n’ roll anti-hero” – it is shocking and sensational. It intrigues the reader and acts as a tease to reading the full article. The singer is also wearing dark clothing to compliment the colour of white and red in the magazine.
Unlike RWD, NME focuses on many different genres of music, thus different artists of genres are on the cover every issue. RWD mainly concentrates on grime music. “RWD” is slang used for rewind. There are arrows before the “R” to perhaps connote a rewind button in a CD player or mp3 and possibly a rewind in events that happened that week. The magazine changes a lot of its colours through the weeks, most likely connoting the change of music through the years. On the side of the N-Dubz front cover, there are a range of artists the magazine included to get as many buyers as possible.
Similarly to NME, RWD uses informal language and contains street slang. This is because it connects to the target audience. NME uses colloquial and expletive language for mainly male readers in their late teens or early 20s as their language is quite aggressive and edgy.

Comparing the covers of NME & RWD

Editor's Recommendation Letter

From my experience, a music magazine should contain various features to get a good number of people to buy it.
You should always be specific about your target audience as it will help focus on the particular qualities needed to be in that magazine for your readers. If you, for instance, concentrate on late teens (16-19), you need to think about the variety of interests this audience is into. Colour is a major element of developing a magazine issue – should you stick with an ongoing theme of colours? Or change them every issue? If you focus on a more young male audience, the colours such as dark red, blue, green or black would be advisable.
Other factors that should be taken into consideration include the language. This is a huge importance to the style of text of your magazine. Should it be formal? Would it contain slang or expletive language? For a male audience, it should focus on being more aggressive and edgy.

Another factor is establishing a genre. If we take NME for example, this magazine chose to focus on many genres as it collects a wider spread of audiences; that way, it can keep many readers attracted to the magazine. On the other hand, a majority of other publications choose to focus on a more niche market. They prefer to link with one style of music e.g. RWD is Hip-Hop, Kerrang is Rock.

Akin to the theme of colours, remember to think carefully about your masthead, as it will expand over the years to eventually develop brand identity, which is to say if your magazine becomes as successful. Thus, wisely choose the colours and the font for your headline. NME for example is boldly written and is in a fixed location on the cover. RWD has cleverly used arrows to indicate a “rewind button” on a music playing device e.g. iPod, Mp3.

Additionally in a magazine, it would be a lot more attractive if gigs, up coming events and reviews were posted to keep readers interested and updated. A music magazine always chooses its advertisers, and each decides a particular type. The main ones include events (e.g. awards, festivals), gigs (bands performing), online tickets (as nowadays internet has become a huge spread media for online retailing) and free merchandise such as T-shirts. Some even advertise for other magazines (Kerrang advertises Mojo issues).

A problem you will be facing once your magazine is launched is competition. Like in every other business in the world, a company must always find new ways to survive and keep up with their opponents. Say your magazine is based on the R&B genre, and a newer magazine has entered the market. It releases bigger artists of the same genre and its price is extremely reasonable. You need to find ways to survive and have your readers still interested. Lowering your price would be a popular choice, and also, you need to get the biggest artists as of the moment. Also, offer more to the fans e.g. free merchandise, competitions to win great prizes like iPods, tickets.

Lastly, a magazine should always adapt to change. The music world will always keep on shifting to various new styles to keep up with the modern day world, so adjust your magazine, and keep it hip!