Costume and Mise-en-scene research

The main two magazines I have looked into for research are 'Top of the Pops' and 'We <3 Pop'. These are the two main 'pop' magazines that exist at the moment and I am planning on aiming mine at the same audience, plus slightly older. Therefore looking at these seemed to be the most logical.

As you can see from these two covers, and from what I have found after looking at multiple covers, they both use blank backdrops rather than a mise-en-scene such as the woods. I have decided that I will also use a white backdrop, I think this will make the composition of the magazine a lot more simple and will stop the cover becoming too busy. 

I will have my models in multiple different outfits. They will all be quite bold and on trend, as I feel this is important for the cover.

 I like this tartan dress as it is on trend, and allows Rihanna to look 'cute' but at the same time is bold and suits her style.

I also like this monochrome look that Kylie Jenner wore to the American Music Awards and will take some inspiration from it. Although not an artist Kylie Jenner is extremely influential and also at the age of 16 fits in very appropriately for my magazine.

Artist Identity

I have decided to have two models, both solo artists who have come together for a collaboration. The names I have chosen are Molly Jackson and Lily Sainty. The reason for choosing these is because they not only fit the magazine but also the models I have decided on. They will both have very different personalities but will fit together well, each will also have a different style . I have decided on Kendall Jenner and Caroline Flack to inspire me on style and hair etc.

Molly Jackson

 Lily Sainty

Music Magazine Mood Board

Here is the mood board I put together to represent the 'mood' I would like my magazine to have. On the board there is a mixture of pictures, however most of the reflect the styling of the models. The main style inspiration I have chosen for my magazine is Alicia Silverstone, in particular her character 'Cher' from 'Clueless'. My reasoning for this is that she fits in very well with my targeted audience and using inspiration from this style will hopefully help attract readers.

   My main aim is to keep the magazine from being childish, as I think too much pink/girlyness can come across as being linked with the likes of barbie etc. This way I can hopefully attract a slightly wider audience range rather than restricting it to mainly young girls. 

Magazine Questionnaire

I asked 20 people to complete a questionnaire on music magazines. This was so I had a better idea of the market and could justify any decisions made concerning this area.

Here is the questionnaire I designed:

        

These are the results I got:

From these results I know my target audience will be female 10-14 year olds. Pop was the most popular genre of music so as I had planned my magazine will be of the pop genre. As the target audience are quite young I will have to make my price slightly lower as to be appropriate. Competitions, photo shoots and Gossip were the three most wanted features and so I will not only add these in but make sure they are age appropriate.



My Time Plan

As time management is not my strong point I have decided to create a schedule for the research and production stages of my music magazine.

Magazine Questionnaire...15/02/14

Magazine Mood Board...17/02/14

Artist Identity...18/02/14

Costume and Mise-en-Scene Research...19/02/14

Front Cover/Contents Page/Double Page Spread Layouts...04/03/14

Magazine Name & Masthead...05/03/14

Double Page Spread Written Interview...06/03/14

Blogged Photo Shoot...07/03/14

Creative Processes...11/03/14

First Drafts...13/03/14

Double Page Spread Analysis

Multiple different features have been used by Q magazine to make this double page spread interesting and appealing for the customer. For example Q have used something out of the ordinary for their text, using underscores in between words instead of spaces 'IF_I_HAD_TO_GET_A_DAY_JOB_I_COULD'. This makes it a bit more interesting for the reader. 
The main picture was chosen tactfully, the lights behind the artist draw lots of attention to the page and makes the entire spread much more lively and enticing. To some people the amount of writing may appear daunting and so the picture is a great way to draw them in.