Main OFC: Other tries

I've been working on a few other designs, just to try out different approaches and styles. I know I want it to be a rock magazine, so it will naturally be darker colours, mainly black and reds; so I decided to try out some other styles, with other colours and patterns etc.

Here's one of my trials:

Main OFC Basic Process

I have finished my final OFC. I will add things as I see they need fixing etc, but for now, this is my final OFC, and a quick breakdown of how I made it. I'm going to do a more in-depth breakdown of the processes, but I'll put it aside from the main posts, maybe in a tab along the top.

Here's my OFC:

Shooting Schedule - 3

I am meeting Trixy next friday to discuss more ideas. It may take a while to get everything sorted, as we are both in full time education and have weekend jobs, so meeting up at suitable times (regarding sunlight etc) could be difficult. We're still going to try though, as I'm sure this will be great if worked on properly :) 

Risk Assessment - 3

There are quite a few hazards in the disused petrol station:

• There are some plug sockets attached to the supports, that are only partially attached (and one of the plugs was switched on!)
• There is a broken window with glass everywhere
• Various bits of piping, tubing and wires have been pulled out from the building frame
• The door round the back is open and could contain dangerous items (I had a look through the door and there was old stuff in piles everywhere. None of it looked particulaly dangerous, but then again it was dark, and covered in dust/cobwebs etc)

It isn't looking like the best idea to shoot here, however as long as Trixy and I are careful and don't enter the actual building; I don't see why it can't be done safely :)

Recce - 3

I met up with one of my best friends Trixy a few days ago; and I asked her to be my model. She said yes, so we sat down and started talking ideas. It was only then I realised we were sitting on the wall of the old, disused petrol station on London Road.

I didn't have a good camera, only the 1.3 megapixel phone camera, but we still took a few test shots on our accidental recce:

I am much happier with this location; mainly because it is different from the trees/houses type approach I was going for before. I think this will be the actual location for my photoshoot. One thing I would like to do would be to add graffiti to the garage door round the back, relating to my magazine. I was thinking that as it is disused, and has no signs or anything, that I could contact the local council, and request permission to graffiti the back side of the building (not the front, so it'd stay invisible to passers-by) for artistic purposes. [DISCLAIMER: If I don't get permission, then I 100% will NOT be graffiting anywhere]

Recce - 2

For my first Recce, I went around the school and close areas, looking for anywhere that grabbed my attention. I have another idea, slightly further away from school, but I still want to try and find other places before deciding on one.


I took my model (and sister) Sarah, around the school and got these shots:

 I don't like these locations as much as I did at the time. I think some could work, but I'm not completely convinced its the best I could find. So I'm going to try out the other locations I have in mind, and if not then, try finding some more.


Risk Assessment:
There are a few things that could be dangerous in these locations:

• The ones under the bridge are on a quite steep hill for carrying a camera safely, and keeping balanced while photographing/modelling.
• In the wild grass there could have been biting insects or stinging nettles etc that could have caused an allergic reaction.
• The plants and trees etc could have caused injury.
• The wooden fence was broken and could have given my model splinters, or the wire could hurt, or it could have tripped her up.
• Some of these were taken in the local park, which could have had loose vicious dogs or mental chavs with knives! Which would have been baaaaad news... , sorry, which could have caused problems. [DISCLAIMER: I have nothing against dogs or chavs]

Shooting Schedule - Live Photos

As I've already taken the live photos I cannot really do a proper shooting schedule. I will be doing one with photos of my friends though. Instead, I'm going to state when they were taken, on what camera, and who features in them:

MCR:

• 12th Feb 2011
• 13th Feb 2011
• 19th Feb 2011

I took the photos with my sister's ____.

These are the people that feature in my photos, and will probably feature in my magazine:

• Gerard Way - My Chemical Romance
• Mikey Way - My Chemical Romance
• Frank Iero - My Chemical Romance
• Ray Toro - My Chemical Romance
• Sean Smith - The Blackout
• Gavin Butler - The Blackout
• James "Bob" Davies - The Blackout
• Rhys Lewis - The Blackout
• Gareth "Snoz" Lawrence - The Blackout
• Stephen Battelle - LostAlone
• Alan Williamson - LostAlone
• Mark Gibson - LostAlone

Risk Assessment - Live Photos

In all of the concert venues, there are a fair few safety hazards. These include:

• People in the standing section are suseptable to bruising or worse
• Standing gets very hot and can lead to overheating and fainting (as many people did)
• Property could get broken - e.g. camera, phone, glasses etc
• Property could get stolen - camera, phone etc
• The stairs to seated levels don't all have handrails, and are quite difficult to stay balanced on if you don't have the best balance
• The seats are quite low and therefore dangerous if you choose to stand as there is minimal support against your legs should you step too far forward.
• Some of the top seats have nothing blocking the stairs, so if you fell, nothing would stop you falling the entire length of the stairs:

This is how it was for Sarah and I, at Wembley Arena! We couldn't jump about too much in case we fell :( but luckily towards the end, a bunch of people left early (I honestly do not understand why!) so we had our run of about 5 seats and could jump about as much as we liked - which we did! :)

Recce - Live Photos

I went to see My Chemical Romance 3 times a few months ago, with my sister Sarah, whose photos of the inside of the arenas I have borrowed with her permission (just the arena ones, the photos I post here of the actual bands are ones I took myself).

I chose to take photos of them here, because I thought I stood the best chance of getting decent photos when I could get relatively close to them. I'm pleased to say (out of the many hundreds I took!) I got a bunch of shots I'm happy with.

Here is where we saw them:

• Wembley Arena
• Birmingham LG Arena
• Nottingham Trent Arena

Wembley Arena: I didn't take any photos of the bands from here, because we were so far back (the very back row of the very back block!) :

See what I mean!









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Birmingham LG Arena: We had a great view from here, ideal for taking photos :)
The outside (google image) :

From our seats before the gig (Sarah photo) :

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Nottingham Trent Arena: We had another great view at this gig, from the opposite side of the stage, so we got new angles on our photos :)
The outside in Bolero Square (google image) :

 

From our seats during the first support band - LostAlone (Sarah photo) :

Questionnaire Results

My questionnaire results told me that:

Most people:

• Buy music magazines weekly and monthly


• Buy rock magazines


• Pay between £2.00-£2.99


• Would be willing to pay extra for a live special (although not too much extra)


• Would love it to be MCR!


• Like Indie music


• Would like a mixture of old and new music


• Aren't that bothered about a Top 40 chart


• Would like it released weekly


• And would like free CDs, posters and interviews.

This will help me decide which are the most important aspects to include in my magazine.

Questionnaire

I am going to conduct a questionnaire to see what people want from my magazine. My target audience is wide, so I am expected a mixed response, but as long as there is something there for everyone, then my wish will be completed. These questions combined with the poll I have set up on my blog, will give me a decent idea if my plans are going to be well-recieved or not. If not, I will change aspects to try make it a bit more as required, but I won't change from my main ideas, as mine won't be focused on profit etc, it is for the music, and as long as some people like it, I won't particularly mind the size of my eventual audience.

Here are the questions I've written:

• How often do you buy a music magazine?
• Weekly
• Monthly
• Couple of times a year
• Yearly
• Never
• What genre do you buy?
• Rock
• Metal
• Punk
• Pop
• Soul
• RnB
• Dance
• How much do you usually pay?
• £2.00 - £2.99
• £3.00 - £3.99
• £4.00 - £4.99
• £5.00+
• Would you be willing to pay extra for a Live Special of a particular artist?
• Yes
• Maybe
• No
• If the artist was "My Chemical Romance"?
• Hell Yeah!
• Maybe
• No thanks.
• Would you like to read about all kinds of rock/indie music?
• Yes
• No
• Do you prefer newer or older music?
• Newer
• Older
• Mixture of both
• Would you like a Top 40 - type chart?
• Yes
• No
• How often should it be released?
• Weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• Which are most important to you? - please pick 3
• Interviews
• Posters
• Live Reviews
• Album Reviews
• Singles Reviews
• Competitions
• New Artists
• Tour Dates
• Free CDs etc

My Target Audience (SAGEL)

I am going to use SAGEL to work out my target audience to a greater precision that simply stating "teenagers" etc.

Social Class

Age

Gender

Ethnicity

Lifestyle

I am not intending on choosing a select age range for my audience. I think the most likely readers will be between 15 and 25; however I want to include content and style that appeals to all ages.

I want to create a magazine that covers things the whole rock community will want to read. I feel that there is too much stereotyping going on in the world of music magazines. "Kerrang!" is known as the younger magazine, "NME" as the middle one; and "Q" as the older choice. I want mine to appeal to everyone who loves rock and indie music. I feel it should be about the music, not the scene it should fit in to.

In terms of using SAGEL, my intended audience is not particularly helpful. I just want it to be liked by all rock fans, and accessible to anyone who would want to read it; so I would prefer to keep the price at a reasonable level, released weekly to keep the audience entertained.

Uses and Gratifications

Uses and Gratifications is about what people do with the media, instead of what the media does to people. This theory assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting the media into their lives. This theory also states that the audience are responsible for choosing the media to suit their needs.

Blumler and Brown (1972) stated 4 primary factors for which a person may use the media:

• Diversion - Something similar to escaping from reality and problems involved

• Personal Relationships - Using the media to discuss with friends, such as TV programmes will be talked about among friends.

• Personal Identity/Individual Psychology - Defining yourself through your media texts

• Surveillance - Finding out about the world, your favourite bands, e.g. finding out tour dates, video shoot dates, new merch etc...

Research Methods

There are four main types of research methods. I will be looking at each type, and choosing which will work best for my research. These are the methods:

• Primary
• Secondary
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

Primary Research:

This is always carried out personally. Here are some examples of primary research:

• Questionnaire
• Interview
• Online Poll
• Survey
• Letter
• Focus Group
• Textual Analysis

These are good, less time-consuming methods, however with outside input, there is the possibility of bias, and people lying, which will alter the results and prevent a true picture. At the same time, it is impossible to get a realistic idea without questioning the target audience, so the slight difference in results shouldn't make too much difference. It will be outweighed by the useful data that will be collected.

Secondary Research:

This is research that has been carried out by other people and published for public use:

• Internet
• Books
• Newspapers
• Newspaper Archives

These are also good methods as it is quicker to collect and use data in a useful form, although there may be doubt about the reliability of the results collected, as you cannot know the exact circumstances under which the research was performed.

Quantitative Research:

As the name suggests, a lot of people are needed for quantitative research, to create numerical results, which will make it easier to compare. A prime example of this would be a poll, or a questionnaire with quantitative questions included, so a percentage can be calculated, and then easily compared with other studies.

Qualitative Research:

Qualitative research is more intricate. It is more opinions than numbers, where details count. Less people are needed for this, but more time will be needed to get all the ideas and solutions necessary. An ideal qualitative research method would be an interview.

Moodboard

Here is my first moodboard. I was going to do one with everything in, but when I added the camera shots it looked a bit odd, so here's the music one: