Production Process: Clifton Road Live Gig 02/10/10 - Court Lane

When attending and working at a local gig at Clifton Road Youth Centre on 02/10/10, I took the opportunity to photograph the main headline band both backstage, on stage, and amongst the audience. I did this as I knew the band 'Court Lane' was an ideal band to feature within my rock music magazine. Shown below are some of the images I took, which I can manipulate and use within my music magazine production.

Meet the band
From left to right: Ryan, Ciaran, Ethan, Rob.

Although it is an all male band and I am hoping to feature a female band on the front page, they can certainly be a featured article within my music magazine. 

Research and Planning: My Music Magazine Production

Before starting the production of my music magazine, I had to decide for definite the genre of my magazine and who the target audience would be. Shown below is the publisher document I created to start the planning process.

After I had established that my music magazine would be for the rock genre and knew my target audience would be teenagers to young adults of both genders, I did some research into which magazines already existed that met my specification, using the results of my questionnaire to help. I did this in order to see what key features I should include within my magazine and what elements I could improve upon.

Shown below is the front page of some already existing current rock magazines.

From researching into the rock genre, that I want my music magazine to feature within, it soon became apparent that male artists almost always feature on the front cover (as shown by the images above) therefore, a unique selling point of my magazine will be featuring a female artist on the front cover. This will help attract the females within my target audience.

Also, from researching into music magazine covers I noticed that most of the band pictures look at the audience. This is effective as it entices the audience and shows that the magazine is addressed to them, it is a magazine feature that I will include in my production.

As well as this, I acknowledged that all the current music magazines available have certain codes and conventions. Many of which are apparent on the front pages shown above. They include: a banner, a headline, a lure, a by-line etc. I will try and incorporate these and many more conventional elements within my music magazine production.

In preparation for my music magazine I compiled a document displaying different camera angles and shots that I had researched. I can then use these various camera techniques within my music magazine production to give a professional effect.

Research and Planning: Magazine Questionnaire

I devised and conducted a magazine questionnaire to hand out to people of a variety of ages and of both genders in order to establish my target audience. In doing this I gained an understanding of which aspects of magazines that people liked and which aspects they thought could be improved upon. Therefore, I could address these issues and make resulting improvements within my music magazine, thus creating a unique selling point and attracting my target audience.

Below is the questionnaire that I created.

 I then printed off 15 copies of this magazine and went about distributing it.


Shown below is an example of feedback from one of my questionnaires:

After all of my magazine questionnaires had been completed, I took particular interest in those that were completed by people within the age range of my desired target audience of 15-25 years old. I studied their responses to see what aspects they liked about their favourite magazines and what improvements they thought could be made.

Magazine Preference data

Out of the 15 questionnaires distributed, 5 people read music magazines, 4 read gossip magazines, 1 reads a school magazine, 4 read fashion magazines and 1 read a women's magazine.

Also, it was clear from the results of my questionnaires that the majority of my target audience aren't subscribed to their favourite magazine and usually purchase it on a weekly basis. Therefore, I will ensure that my music magazine is available for individual purchase each week as well as subscription so that it appeals to my target audience. This means that a price will have to appear on the front cover of my magazine.

Music Magazine data

Out of the 5 people that read music magazines, 2 read Kerrang, 1 reads NME, 1 reads Q Magazine and 1 reads X Factor (X Mag). All of whom are male apart from the person that reads X Factor (X Mag) who is female.

When analysing the replies about music magazines it was obvious that rock magazines were most popular. Also, the point was made clear that some females feel as if there isn't a rock music magazine available for them to read as they think that Q, NME, Kerrang etc are aimed more at the male gender (indicated by the result shown above). Therefore, I will produce a rock music magazine for both females and males and so broadening my target audience. I will do this by including articles about both female artists and male artists.

Preliminary Task: School Magazine

Prior to starting the music magazine coursework I created a fictional school magazine to see where my strengths and weaknesses lie within magazine production. I created the front page and contents page of the magazine. The target audience for my school magazine was year 3 primary students. I chose this target audience as I could include content which would appeal to them about the transition from infant to junior school.

My school magazine proposal

Before I could create the magazine I had to contact a primary school and ask their permission to feature children in my school magazine. Below is a copy of the email I sent to the school.

Fortunately, the reply was yes although I still had to ask the parent's permission so I attached the following document to the email to be sent to year 3 parents.

I had 7 reply slips from parents allowing their children to participate and after asking them a brief questionnaire about what they enjoy about school and what they would like to appear in a potential school magazine, I selected 4 to be my potential models.

After choosing who would best suit the school magazine I then went about creating the product.
Shown below is the front page of my school magazine.

Below is the contents page of my magazine.

The production of this task allowed me to acknowledge what main features a magazine consists of such as a barcode, a mast head, lures etc. Also by completing this preliminary task I could see what improvements I would need to make for my music magazine coursework.

After its creation, I then deconstructed the fictional school magazine cover and contents page that I produced. I did this is order to acknowledge my current understanding of magazine features and my ability to include them within my later work. This task of deconstructing my own work was very beneficial as I was able to assess my own strengths and weaknesses within the production of the task and acknowledge what I could improve upon for my music magazine coursework.

Shown below is my school magazine deconstruction: