Drafting and planning

I have decided that the article for my double page spread will be an interview of the cover star. The interview will feature questions to do with the beginning of my artists music career, the release of her new album and the world music tour she is planning.

Here are the questions from my magazine 'MOVE' to my artist:

Organisation

I have researched into an MCU image on the front page of a music magazine of which I'd like to imitate on my own music magazine. This is an organisation skill because I am going to reflect what I have found onto my final piece:

I think the simplistic style of an MCU is effective because it creates a direct mode of address with the reader, drawing them into the magazine - facial expression of the cover star is important.

The Billboard magazine which has Adele as the cover star will be the image that inspires me because Adele is shown to have attitude and her personality shines through the pose - she is represented is a diva.

I will attempt to mirror the pose of Adele for my image for my front page of my music magazine because even though my artist and Adele are different - my artist is a female DJ whose attitude foreshadows her edgy and highly energetic music.

I also think that the editing of the image of Adele is very effective because her face has been softened and her lips look very shiny, she appears to look very womanly. I understand that  the use of image on this Billboard magazine is a paradox because of her prima donna charisma.

I will use the cover of Adele as a template as I'd like my artists image on the magazine to seem very beautiful and elegant, yet with accessories that make them appear like a real edgy female DJ. 

Target Audience

I have placed my masthead in the middle of a publisher file and around it I have analysed where I have got my ideas from and what my ideas are:

I've included:

1. Different magazines that have influenced my ideas
2. A definition of my genre
3. Artists included inside
4. What is featured inside the magazine e.g. interviews etc.
5. Different photography that I will include and use 

This will appeal to my target audience because they will be used to finding these sort of elements in usual dance music magazine's. If I include these ideas in mine then my target audience will feel right at home. It will be natural for my target audience to look for the exclusive interviews, offers and competitions because magazine's like mine i.e. mixmag include these. Also, the title "MOVE" is very short and simple which creates a connection with the magazine mixmag. The photography will be very similar to the Annie Mac shoot with mixmag. All of the above will enable my magazine to be successful because I'm offering what other magazine's of my genre offer so this will successfully appeal to my target audience of 16-25 year olds as they are in their prime time of wanting to know what's going on in the music industry. 

Drafting and planning

I used a step by step basis to understand how to bring my masthead over my picture without losing some parts of the picture. I will use this when constructing my magazine.

Organisation

When looking at the blog tracker, it became apparent that the posts I am struggling the most with are both Target Audience and Organisation:

To gain extra marks I must have an equal number of posts that balance each other out rather than just having four posts on each and over ten more on the other two areas -

I will now focus my blog posts on Target Audience and Organisation.

Organisation/ Target audience

I researched on how to conduct a 'professional looking' photoshoot at home. I would like to make my photos look very professional as if they had been taken by a real photographer. Having clear, well organised photos will appear to my target audience as the younger demographic are currently living through the 'selfie phase' and photographs are very important.

I found a website which describes how to take good photographs without experience:
http://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Professional-Looking-Photo-Shoot-at-Home

This has four stages which I will be able to follow. I understand that my photographs must be clear, bright and eye-catching. I must follow the guidelines of:

• Use natural and artificial lighting
• Create a professional ambiance
• Gather meaningful props
• Decide on what look to give your model
• Make sure model practices poses before the photographs are taken 
• Prepare the camera
• Edit your photos - ALWAYS KEEP ORIGINAL (just incase)

If I follow these stages successfully, I should be able to produce clear and effective images for my music magazine.

If I follow these stages successfully, I should be able to appeal to my target audience because my photographs will link to professional photographs on magazine's and this means that my target audience will relate to my photographs just as easy as real professional ones. I will successfully fall into the arms of my target audience because I am giving them exactly what they want and they are used to; my work will have the same effect as existing, popular magazines.

Organisation

Linking back to my post on the 6th of November - the double page spread analysis in mixmag of Dillon Francis; I have started to look more closely at the content and detail of the actual interview.

Some of the questions e.g. 'Your new album 'Money Sucks, Friends Rule' is out next month. What can you expect from it?' and 'You also said you'd join the army if fans paid you a million dollars. How long do you think you'd last?'...

These may influence me when writing my article for my double page spread because my artist will be a new popular artist releasing their first album. This means I can ask questions related to their music rather than pointless questions like what is your favourite colour? Along with music related questions, to keep the article interesting to the readers, I can ask more personal questions just like the one about Dillon Francis joining the army... As mine is female artist I could ask them what profession they'd like to go into if the music industry wasn't for them. 

Other questions like 'Dance music's not always considered a great genre for albums. How did you approach making yours?' I could use a similar question because my artist is also a dance music artist and this is very true that a whole album of dance music may not be so successful. 

I have also noticed that the pull quote from the artist next to the image 'I just like to poke at people who take themselves too seriously' may influence me as when writing a quote from the artist it could be really irrelevant to the article but still reflect the artist's personality.