First draft of front cover and critical analysis

This is the first draft of my front cover. 

There are a number of things that are wrong with this draft, including the image. I will need to redesign the whole cover with a new image as this draft does not convey the genre of "dance" at all. The black and white house style has not worked because it looks very gloomy and not appealing to anyone. The sell line "Rudimental's debut album", is in the wrong place as it should be where the sell line "Massive new single from Calvin Harris" is. Also, this sell line needs a picture a their album "Home", otherwise it seems like a pointless sell line and does not really tell the consumer anything. The masthead "Breakhouse" does not look very good as it just employs a generic font that looks nothing like what a dance music magazine's masthead would look like. To rectify this, I need to change the font to one that connotes the genre more, for example: 

These four fonts connote dance music more than the current font I have used. Although, each font connotes a different type of dance music, for example, the second font down connotes current dance music such as that of Calvin Harris, Avicii, etc. The third one down connotes dance music from the Northern Soul genre, such as John Newman's track "Love Me Again", which has an old school feel to it and the music video is set in a Northern Soul club. The fourth font down connotes music from the same era as the third one but it looks more American and retro. It reminds me of fonts that you would see in Los Angeles in the 1960s. I am not sure if this font would work well with my magazine because the target audience is young people so they are mostly fans of music from the likes of Calvin Harris, Avicii and Rudimental. Having said that, the more modern second font is a pretty generic font that many people use so it would make my magazine look amateur. I think the font that would look best out of these four is the third one because it looks less "American" than the fourth font but it is more old school. Although this font is old school, it would work well because the rising Northern Soul/Soul/Pop artist, John Newman, is putting a modern twist on the old school soul style and has been very successful with it so far, reaching number five in the US Album chart.

Font names: 

1st font - Forte

2nd font - Bauhaus 93

3rd font - Britannic Bold

4th font - Magneto

The things that worked well with this draft are the skyline and the promotional banner because they look professional and are in the conventional place although, most music magazines tend to only use a skyline so I will probably either remove the promotional banner altogether, or move it and make it a bit transparent. Although they look fairly professional, they look quite bland because I have only used two colours. This is also one of the main problems with the whole cover, there is not much colour on it, it looks bland and is unappealing, even to me.

Double page spread draft 1

This is the first draft of my double page spread. The main image will be placed on the left page whilst the masthead and main article will be on the right page. I will also have the page numbers  on the bottom-left and bottom-right corners so the reader can identify each page. The main article will be an interview with a new band. The main image will be of the band themselves.

Magazine Information: Name, Colours etc

I have decided to name my magazine "BreakHouse". This name is a play on words with two sub-genres of dance music, "breakbeat" and "house". I feel this is a good name because it relates heavily to the genre and is memorable. Also, this name tells the target audience that it is a diverse magazine in terms of the types of dance music featured because breakbeat and house music are very different from each other.

My colour scheme will consist of three neutral colours: black, grey and white. This is because neutral colours are sophisticated and smart and they appeal to both male and female.

Magazine mood board

This is my mood board of different dance music magazines. These magazines include: mixmag, tillate, bpm and DJ.

All of these magazines use the conventions correctly and are very colourful. This is because dance music is of course associated with clubs so the bright, vibrant colours connote this as they are colourful like the disco lights in nightclubs.

In all but one of the magazines, the subject is looking at the camera.

Each magazines has an artists' name in big font to comply with the conventions and to tell the consumer who it is on the cover.

Google front cover mock-up

This is my mock-up using images I have found on Google images. I think this is a fairly good mock-up although some things are in the wrong place and it is just a rough mock. 

After completing my first draft using original images, I have found that this actually looks better because the darker colour-corrected main image contrast the magazine conventions more and make them stand out to the consumer. I also have used a picture of Rudimental's album cover to show the consumer what that sell line is about. I have not done this on my first draft because I have to use original images. I have also used a picture of John Newman on this mock-up because it tells the consumer who he is and it also makes the cover look less bland. I have also not done this on my first draft so that is another reason why I think this mock-up is better than my first draft. Furthermore, the main image of Avicii in-concert looks a lot better than my main image on my draft because because the magazine conventions fit around this picture really well, whereas on my draft, they don't look very good because of a poor, amateur-looking image.

Contents page draft 1

This is the first draft of my contents page. At the top, the masthead will be on the left, the date in the middle and the title of the page, "Contents", will be situated on the right. The main image will be placed on the left side of the page so I can place the page numbers and information about them pages on the right. I will also have a recent album's track list along with some information along the bottom of the page.

Front page draft 1

This is the first draft of my front cover. The masthead will be at the top of the page with a skyline just above it. The main image will fill the whole of the page. The main image will be of a friend pretending to be John Newman and the teller will tell the consumer that it is him. 

Price of my magazine

I have researched prices of magazines and they tend to be around the £3 mark. I will price my magazine at £2.99 because it is a marketing trick which makes it sound a lot cheaper and tempts people more into to buying products that end with 99. I researched this marketing trick and people associate products ending with 99 with discounts and special offers so they are more likely to but it. Researchers in France found that a pizza which was lowered from €8 to €7.99 caused sales to rise by around 15% so it shows that this trick works.

Dance music sub-genre artists

These are some well known artists who make music in a sub-genre of dance music such as breakbeat, liquid funk and house

• John Newman - breakbeat - "Love me again", "Cheating".
• Rudimental - Drum and base, Liquid funk - "Feel the love", "Not giving in".
• Calvin Harris - Electro house, progressive house, synthpop, nu-disco - "Thinking about you", "I'm not alone".
• Ne-Yo - Dance-pop - "Closer"
• Alex Clare - drum and bass, dubstep, electro house - "Too Close"
• The Chemical Brothers - Alternative dance, techno - "Galvanize"
• Fatboy Slim - Trip hop - "Eat Sleep Rave Repeat"

Examples of their music:

John Newman - Love Me Again

This was Newman's debut single and was a number one hit in the UK. It reached number one on the  7th of July 2013 but only managed one week at number one. It also peaked at number 25 in the US Billboard top 40.

This song was written by Newman and Steve Booker who also produced it along with Mike Spencer.
There were two music videos produced for this track, both with elements of Northern soul dancing. One version, which is below this text, was directed by Vaughan Arnell and is based on the classic love story, Romeo and Juliet. The second version features Newman, backed by musicians, singing in a dim-lit room. There has also been a number of remixes made of this track by Kove, Gemini, Ejeca and Love thy brother. The sub-genres of this song are Pop, Breakbeat and Northern Soul.

Newman's debut album "Tribute" features 11 songs including the three singles "Love Me Again", "Cheating" and "Losing Sleep". The album was released in the UK on 14th October 2013 and peaked at number one in the UK chart. "Tribute" was released in America on 7th January 2014 and went straight to number 5 in the  Official US album chart.

Rudimental - Right Here

This track is by british electronic quartet, Rudimental and features vocals from British singer/songwriter, Foxes. The track was released on the 12th of August 2013 and is the fourth single from their debut studio album, "Home", which was also released in 2013. The song peaked at number 14 in the UK singles chart and peaked at number one in the UK dance chart.

It was produced by Rudimental themselves and written by Rudimental, Johnny Harris and Louisa Rose Allen (Foxes). The five minute nineteen second music video was released onto YouTube on 5th July 2013. The video was shot on location at the Tiger Temple in western Thailand, which is a Buddhist temple. It was directed by Josh Cole who is also responsible for the quartet's music video for their song "Not giving in", which was also shot on location in the shanty towns of the Philippines.

Calvin Harris - I'm not alone

This track is by Scottish DJ and music producer, Calvin Harris. It was released on 6th April 2009 and reached number on the 12 April 2009, knocking Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" off the top spot. It remained at number one for two weeks. "I'm not alone" was succeeded by Tinchy Stryder's "Number 1". This single was the lead single from his second studio album, "Ready for the weekend".

This track was written and produced solely by Harris under the Fly Eye and Columbia labels. When Chris Brown released his single "Yeah 3x", some comparisons were made to "I'm not alone", which led to some controversy and Chris Brown added Harris to the song credits.

The music video for this track was filmed in Oslo, Norway on 6th February 2009 and directed by Christian Holm-Grad. There has been a couple of remixes such as Deadmau5's and Herve's mix.

Fatboy Slim - Eat Sleep Rave Repeat

This is a single by Fatboy Slim and Riva Starr, featuring vocals from Beardyman and was released on 20th June 2013. With help from a remix by Calvin Harris, this track reached number three in the charts, becoming Fatboy Slim's first top ten hit since 2001.

A music video to accompany the release of Harris' remix was released onto YouTube on 22nd October 2013. The track was written by Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), Stefano Miele and Darren Foreman. It was produced by Fatboy Slim and Riva Starr under the Skint Records label.

What is Dance music?

What is it?

Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music.

Genres within Dance music
 
    There are a lot of sub-genres in dance music dating as far back as the 1910s with ballroom dancing.
     Dance music has evolved massively over the last 110 years.
   
Some examples of subgenres

Breakbeat is both an electronic/dance music and the distinct percussion rythme from which the genre takes its name. It culturally originated in the late 70s in the USA and the late 80s in the UK. Its stylistic origins include Hip hop, freestyle, Miami bass, electro, funk and Turntablism.

In the present day, Breakbeat carries on in the form of regional scenes in the USA and UK. Breakbeats are often used in the production of diverse music genres such as hip hop, jungle or drum and bass, hardcore, UK garage and even pop and rock. Since the 90s, breakbeat has been used a lot as background music to TV adverts as well as in action film soundtracks.

Artists who are known for their Breakbeat music include The Prodigy, Cut La Roc, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method and Propellerheads.

House is a very popular subgenre that originated in Chicago, USA in the early 80s. Its stylistic origins include Boogie, R&B, disco, hi-NRG, New wave, dub, electro, funk, jazz, soul and synthpop.

House had an influence of telling conveying political messages to people who were considered as outcasts of society. It appealed to those who didn't fit into the mainstream American society and was especially celebrated by many black males.

The 2010s saw multiple new sounds in house music from numerous DJs. Sweden saw a huge increase in House music in the form of Sebastian Ingrosso, Axwell, Steve Angello (These three formed the electronic dance music trio Swedish House Mafia), Avicii, Alesso and numerous more. Fusion genres derivative of 2000s progressive house returned to prominence, with the help of DJs such as Calvin Harris, Eric Prydz and Mat Zo.

Trance is another very popular subgenre of electronic dance music that culturally originated in the 90s in Germany. The stylistic origins of Trance music include House, Acid house, Techno, Chill-out, Pop Classical, Film score, Synthpop and Ambient.

The term "Trance" refers to the induced emotional feeling, high, euphoria, chills and uplifting run that listeners experience. One of the characteristics of nearly every trance song is the soft mid-song breakdown, beginning with and occurring after the orchestration is broken down and the rythme tracks fade out rapidly.

Another common characteristic among trance music is the use of vocals often sung by a female voice ranging from mezzo-soprano to soprano sometimes without the verse/chorus structure.

Audience profiling, Demographics and Social Class

Audience Profiling

The age of my target audience is between the ages of 16-30 because people between these ages are the most likely to go out to parties and clubs so they are more likely to enjoy dance music.

My target audience is both men and women because dance music tends to appeal to both sexes.

My magazine will be aimed at a number of racial groups although it will be aimed at a westernised audience because the dance music that will be featured is western and does not appeal at all to easterners.

The audience of dance music are largely young adults and teenagers so they are the kind of people who watch reality TV shows like "The Only Way is Essex" and "Made in Chelsea" so they are into the whole "celebrity culture". Therefore, I will feature stories about things that adhere to this like the artists' lives etc.

Demographics

I will aim my magazine at people in the B, C1, C2, D and E categories because these are the kind of people who go out to clubs and parties although people in the B and C1 categories are usually older which means they are only just in my target age so they are not quite as important as C2, D and E.

Social Class

I will aim my magazine at the Lower middle (C1), Skilled working (C2), Working (D) and those at the lowest level of subsistance (E). The classes D and E usually are not very wealthy so they can't afford to pay a lot every month for a magazine, therefore I will be pricing my magazine at £2.50 and it will be issued monthly which means it would cost them £30 for a year. I have decided to price it at this because it is cheap and most magazines are usually priced at around 2 and 4 pounds.

As they are not very wealthy, they are attracted to free gifts and promotions. I will adhere to this by having a free single from a new artist and a competition to win 2 of 6 tickets to an upcoming concert of their choice.

Conventions of a magazine

Current top Dance music artists

iTunes Dance music singles chart

There are nine different artists currently in the top 10 in the singles chart on iTunes; Avicii, Fuse ODG, Matrix & Futurebound, Martin Garrix, Hardwell, Calvin Harris & Alesso, Clean Bandit, Breach and Storm Queen. Avicii currently has two singles in the top 10; Hey Brother at number one and Wake Me Up at number eight. His track "Wake Me Up" has broken the one million sales mark to become one of only 150 singles to break a million. This track was also the fastest selling track of 2013 with 267,000 copies sold in only its first week. This is a huge achievement for Avicii considering Snow Patrol's power ballad "Chasing Cars" reached one million sales seven years after it was released. The only other tracks to reach one million sales in 2013 were Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" and Daft Punk's "Get Lucky".

Martin Garrix's track "Animals" has been a huge hit having been released in November and went straight to number one. It is still in the charts at number three on iTunes as of the 14th of January 2014.

Breach's tracks "Jack" and "Everything you ever had" have both peaked at number nine in the charts. "Jack" was a hit summer track which was released on 12th July 2013 and peaked at number four in the UK Dance chart. "Everything you ever had" was released on 18th November 2013 and peaked at number two in the UK Dance chart.

Storm Queen's track "Look Right Through" was released on 3rd November 2013 and went straight to number one seemingly out of nowhere. Although, this only happened because Storm Queen's original version was remixed by Mark Kinchen and vocals were added by Damon C. Scott.

AS G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media

In this coursework unit you produce two print artefacts from a set brief. This process involves progression from a pre-production, preliminary exercise to a more fully realised piece. This unit is internally assessed and externally moderated.

The purpose of this unit is firstly to assess your ability:

• to plan and construct print products using appropriate technical and creative skills
• to assess your application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating your own work, showing how meanings and responses are created.
• to assess your ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research.

The unit requires you to engage with contemporary media technologies, giving you the opportunity for development of skills in these technologies.

Evaluation

Before I began designing my front cover, I researched a range of existing magazines. This was very helpful because it gave me an idea for a design and I could see how the different conventions were laid out. It also showed me what I needed to do to make it look as professional as possible.

I took a long shot of a student and zoomed in to make it look like a mid-shot. I used a mid-shot so the student fills more of the frame and you can see the top of the glass behind him. I decided to have a border around the cover because it makes it look more professional so you can read the skyline and promotional banner better because the colours contrast. For the text I added black drop shadows because it makes it look 3d and not bland. This also makes it look more professional.

I have successfully included all the conventions of a magazine cover; Masthead, skyline, promotional banner, sell lines, picture, date, issue number, price and barcode. This gives it a greater sense of realism and professionalism.

I am happy with my front cover because I believe it looks reasonably professional and I have included all of the conventions. Also I have demonstrated a good grasp of Photoshop by using drop shadows, transform tools, rectangle and circular shapes etc.

Contents mock up

Final front cover

Unused Images

Front cover mock-up

Spider Diagram

Mood Board

Shot and Angle Types

Shot Types

Close-Up: 

Mid-Shot: 

Wide-Shot: 

Dutch Tilt:

High Angle: 

Long Shot: 

Low Angle: 

Pan: Lens moves left of right. Camera stays in the same position

Tilt: Lens moves up and down. Camera stays in the same position

Extreme close-up: 

Point of view: 

Noddy shot: Used to show a person's reaction. Person usually in left of right third of the       frame.

LIIAR analysis of a magazine front cover

LIIAR Analysis of a magazine front cover

Language: The language used is relevant to the intended audience. For example, the promotional banner in the bottom-right corner refers to an NFL player by his nickname "Big Ben". Most people who aren't sports fans won't know who "Big Ben" is so it is only relevant to sports fans. Also the sub-heading "BCS Champs" is only relevant to sports fans because "BCS" refers to a division of a college championship so as with my first point, non-sports fans probably won't know what this means. If it was intended for a general audience, they would have used a simpler term.

Institution: The institution of this magazine is Sports Illustrated

Ideology: The ideology of this magazine is to give sports fans more information and analysis of the main sports in the USA.

Audience: This magazine has to appeal to sports fans. It does this by using a big, high-quality picture of an American Football player to catch the consumer's eye. The name of the publication is big and in orange because the player on the cover is/was a Florida Gators player and their colours are white, blue and orange so the title represents them.

Representation: 

Conventions of a magazine cover

Conventions of a magazine front cover

• Masthead
• Usually have a medium close-up of a person
• Skyline
• Subheadings
• Barcode
• Promotional Banner
• Issue Number
• Caption
• Price
• Sell Lines
• Footer
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Preliminary exercise and Main task

Preliminary exercise
Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.

Main Task
The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.