My Cover Photo Plan

Cover Photo

For my front cover, I have a few ideas as to what I think my readers will want to see on the front of my magazine. I will organise a day where I can go and photograph my friends band at their practice area.

I know what kind of image I want as the front cover and how it will be presented.

With 5 people in the band, I have decided to go with the generic pose and put the front man centre and the other members stood slightly behind and to the side of the front man. I will not be using any make-up as I don't think the boys need to wear make-up for the shoot.

Here is an example for how I want the band members to stand:

This is one of my ideas for the stance of the band members. The reason I would like them to stand like this is because you can see all members, even though the focus is slightly more on the frontman (Josh Franceschi), the other band members are still clearly seen. This created a sense of togetherness, and the fans will not be disappointed that it is all focused on the frontman.

Here is another example of a cover photo:

This is the cover for one of Metallica's albums (Garage Inc.) However, this image does not follow the norm. Most bands seem to focus on the frontman, whereas in this image it is actually the bass player (Jason Newsted) that is the main focal point. Yes, the other band members are in the picture, they just aren't as forward as Jason is in this image.

In comparison, here is another photo of Metallica for another album:

In this image, all of the band members are the focal point instead of just one. However, instead of following the norm, the frontman (James Hetfield) is off to the side of the image, instead of in the centre. I will be using all of these images when taking my final cover photo.

Cover Images Research

In order to plan my own cover image, I have researched some other magazine covers of the same style. The magazine cover examples have researched are Kerrang! Rocksound and Q.

I plan to use my friends band, with 5 members.

Here of some examples of cover photos that may influence my photos:

Each of these covers are well suited to the amount of band members I will be using for my shoot. Each magazine has a different camera angle, lighting, position of the band members, clothing, make-up.

For my cover photo, I will need minimal to no make-up as all of the band members are male. I have a few ideas as to how I will position them all and what style of clothing they will be wearing. As of right now, I am still unsure on the background of the image and things like lighting and photoshopping. All will be sorted out in the next few weeks and I will plan for us to all get together and I will take a few shots here and there with my camera.

Typical Reader

A typical reader for my magazine

John Doe is between the ages of 16 and 25 and enjoys rock and metal music. John does not have a job so he can't afford more expensive magazines, however this magazine caters for his interests. The magazines feature his favourite bands and he collects the posters for his room and enters competitions for tickets to concerts. Even if he does not win the competition, he still attends some concerts with his friends throughout the year.

Style Model

My Style Models: Kerrang! & Rocksound

The reason I chose these two magazines as my style models is because they are very similar to the styles of music I enjoy and would like to base my magazine off. However, as Kerrang! is published by Bauer Media, Rocksound is published by a French company called Editions Freeway, with offices based in London.

Kerrang! caters to the styles of music that I most interested in. These styles of music will be the types that influence the design and the features of my magazine.

The genres of music that will be features include:

Punk

Pop-punk

Rock

Metal

The audience of these magazines range from 16-25 years old, and my magazine will also target these age ranges. The target audience will be aimed at people who listen to the genres above, plus a few extras.

Audience Research

Influence for my magazine
I have been doing research on two magazines in particular, Kerrang! and Q.
I don't really read Q, however I am a big fan of Kerrang! and buy it often. The style and genre of the magazines are similar, however I find the bands I am most interested in are regularly featured in Kerrang!

The main influence for my magazine is Kerrang! as it is suited to my age range, music interests and style. For example, Kerrang! is well known for its pop-punk/rock/metal influences from bands such as Metallica, You Me At Six and Bullet For My Valentine.

The audience for Kerrang! is as follows:

Age: 16-24
Gender:     Female - 45.3%   Male - 54.7%
Music genres: lots of different types of rock/metal, e.g thrash metal to punk rock

Typical Conventions

Typical Conventions of a music magazine

Masthead -  A masthead is the name or logo of the magazines, here are some examples:

Main Coverline -  The main coverline is usually the main topic of the magazine article, placed in the centre, header or footer of the magazine in a larger text. Here are some examples: 

Here are some typical conventions used on magazines, I am looking at music magazines in particular. However, some magazines do not follow these norms. In the post below you can see some examples of magazines that don't follow the trend.

Not following the trend...

Above I have added a few of the magazine covers that defy the generic conventions of music magazines. Each of these magazines are purposely missing out some of the key conventions of a music magazine such as coverlines, banners etc. Some don't even include the barcode on the front cover like most magazines.

The reason that this is done is so that the magazine can be identified as a special or limited edition. Most publishers will make a completely different cover just relating to main topic and nothing else within the magazine, this is often done for special occasions or just because a band/artist is popular at the time and everyone is interested. By doing a special edition, the publishers are targeting the more demographic audience as they are more likely to pay more for a special, limited edition magazine on one of their favourite artists etc.

My Powerpoint

Here is the link for my powerpoint that I uploaded onto slideshare:

http://www.slideshare.net/FreeMeAtSix/music-magazine-conventi

Music Magazine Conventions Research Source

http://www.trcmediastudies.co.uk/How%20To%20Research%20Music%20Magazines%20Web%20Resource.pdf


Above is the website I used for my research. The website is extremely helpful to my work as it identifies and explains the conventions I have highlighted in my work.

I used this list to help me create my powerpoint. Below is my smaller version of this, plus the other slides identifying each convention including examples.

My Magazine Comparison

Above is my comparison of the two music magazines, Kerrang and Q Magazine. I used arrows to indicate where on the magazine each convention is. These conventions are underlined in the text boxes.

Music Magazine Conventions Research

Here is one of the slides from my powerpoint on the generic conventions of music magazines. I have listed some of the typical conventions on the magazines that I researched.

Here is one of the magazines that I used for my research. This is a very popular music magazine, featuring the majority of the conventions I listed above.