Response to the Brief

Brief:

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 a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

Main Task- the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style). Maximum four members to a group.

All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of FOUR images per candidates.


I have chosen to do a Print production to create a new music magazine. I decided to do this because I like to take photographs and I think that my skills are better suited for this task for me to do individually. Also I know how to edit and use Photoshop, so I think that I could make a better final edition of print rather than video.

My initial ideas are to have the singer/band in the middle of the frame, having a close up, with them standing facing towards one side. I like the idea of having a constant colour palette running throughout the front cover, and how different editions can follow different colour themes. The Masthead I think would look the best at the top of the magazine, because then when it is stacked, it can be seen easily, and people will know straight away what magazine it is.

The genre of music I think I will do is hip-hop/pop, because this is the music that I listen to the most so I feel that I will be able to create a better magazine for that. Hip-hop and pop music can have a wider range when creating a magazine because it involves two genres so this gives me a lot more variety when I am editing and doing the photo-shoot.

My target audience is the teenage demographic from the ages of 17-30 because I think that I could produce a better magazine for this target audience because I am in that age range so I can relate more to what they would like in a music magazine. Also if I did a younger demographic then the magazine would be more childlike, and I want to create a premium magazine.

An existing media text that is inspiring me is the BillBoard music magazine. All of their editions are different and unique but it is still clear to the audience that they are all part of the same company. The editions all contain the same style, by having the 'BillBoard' title set at the top of the magazine and having a colour scheme throughout each edition. Also the editions have the name of the singer(s)/band clear on the front page so the audience can see who it is if they dont immediately recognise them.