Initial Ideas/Props setting and location report:

I have a few initial ideas for my magazine, i haven't thought to much about the actually construction of the magazine, but i have thought of my cast and props and area I am going to do my shoot in. A friend of mine named Richard is going to be my model, who i will use as a solo artist in the actually magazine. I am going to use an acoustic guitar which i already have. I am going to take the shoot in a woods near my house, because i like the setting of being alone and in the wilderness. I think the contrast of solo music and loneliness works well because most solo artist write songs about being lonely or love that has ended which then results in them being lonely. The color scheme for my magazine will be black and white, for the text at least i haven't decided whether the image will be in black and white yet as i haven't taken it and decided what it looks better in color or black and white. I'm still struggling to come up with a name for my magazine but i am sure when i am doing the actually thing it will just come naturally.

IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults – while our websites collectively reach over 14 million users every month. IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women. Our men's portfolio (IPC Inspire) comprises a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME. Our mass market woman's division (IPC Connect) comprises famous woman's weeklies including Look, Now, Chat and Woman; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week and, online, the GoodToKnow network. Our upmarket woman's division (IPC Southbank) comprises luxury fashion brands including Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands including woman&home and essentials and home interest brands including Ideal Home, Livingetc and housetohome.

 The information above is about a website called IPC which basically promotes and produces mass media products. It sells and reaches out to a whole variety of different people. Notice it says Horse & Hound and Nuts those two brand are at two different ends of the spectrum, nuts is very male orientated and working class whereas Horse & Hound is aimed at upper class males who have money to blow. The two women markets are very stereotypical in the topics they have to offer. Most of the media products are aimed at women and them being interested in chat shows and living products. Which again comes back to this view that women are still seen as the housewife and don't care about issues such as politics because they are only interested in celebs and looking good. This site could be seen as stereotypical against women because they are offering such a specific market to them. But the same could be said about the male market, it depends how you look at it. The reason why the website aims these markets so specifically is because they know that men and women will buy into this idea.

Kerrang! Front Cover:

Kerrang! is a music magazine which is very popular in rock and punk music, its known for its exclusive interviews and its special monthly editions. The image on the front is very stereotypical of Kerrang! they always use an image which is bold clear and is also easy for the reader to distinguish who the band are. The front cover contains around 4 images, all of bands posing. The main image is of Linkin Park a well known band, the image takes up the majority of the page with a few subordinate images around it. The color scheme consists of Black, White, Red and Yellow, these colors are typical of most music magazines, they are bold colors and they catch the readers eyes. Typically most magazines won't use more than 5 colors, this is because they don't want to make the front cover to busy and in your face. The price of the magazine is £5.99 but this is because its a legends edition of Kerrang, usually they are only about £3.99. The magazine is appealing to the target audience which is 17-30 and the class bracket they aim at is A B C1 C2.

 

NME Front Cover:

The NME is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. Every week it gives its readers the most exciting, most authoritative coverage of the very best in contemporary music. This particular cover of NME features a band known as Kasabian, the front cover makes them easily distinguishable. NME are well known for using red and black in their magazines, The red is used because its a British magazine and its symbolizes British colors well. But also red catches the eye of the viewer very well, its easy to walk past and get drawn in by the color red. There are many texts on this page but there all in two colors (Black and Red) this is because the magazine doesn't want to make the page too busy. The font sizes of all the texts varies on how important the information is or rather how important the magazine thinks it is. The magazine has one main image and that's it, it probably has done this because it doesn't want to take the attention away from the main article. To many focus points could confuse and unattract the reader.