Draft Article

DRAFT ARTICLE

Now then Steph is a 19 year old, home grown singer/songwriter from Leicester, She has had to work hard for her rising success, she started by uploading videos of herself onto YouTube and Facebook, just generally getting people to listen to her music, she then went on to performing in the local pubs and small gigs for free so people could recognise her talents. She inspires to be a producer of all her own work. She is an interesting character to talk to and her music is a delight to listen to. She arrived as if from nowhere with her amazing single ‘Era’ supporting the likes of the Jamie T, and XX.

With one single out already called ‘Era’ and in the process of forming another, she has a busy schedule to stick to, as she wants to have her album produced by later on this year. She is hoping to get into gigs and festivals like reading, O2 and even go on tour. She inspires to perform with her favourite artists like Jamie T, The wombats etc.  Due to her intense passion for her music and music in general this sure shows us that there’s still a lot more talent to come from this young star.

Entering the room Steph looks very excited and calm. She pulls her arm out for a hand shake and says hello while in the process. This shows that she has good manners and was a well brought up.

We are going onto ask Steph some questions for her fans to get an insight on her life style and music today.

It’s been a great start for you musically Steph. Straight the way you have reached our 2012 list of artists to catch a quick chat with BURST,  for this month’s issue. So why are things going so well?

Well I’ve been trying my hardest to get noticed and it all has just happened in a click, I’ve been working hard on my new music, and its been a busy few months as I've been working on my album day and night! [Laughs]

Your first single ‘Era’ is becoming quite a hit sensation, what can we expect from you in the future?

I never thought my first real single would get this kind of response, at the minute I’m working on producing my next single, the same style but different, but I’m sure my fans will still love it!

Have you decided if you want to tour to spread your music?

Yes I’ve thought many times about it and I’m looking forward to getting more songs together so that I have an album to advertise.

Where did your interest in music come from?

As a child my mum used to always play lots of old time indie classics from her generation and she used to dance around to them. Then for my 13th birthday she bought me a guitar, something I could put all of my energy into she used to say, [laughs]

what is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you whilst performing?

When I was performing at my local club recently I tripped over my microphone stand and fell into the crowd. It was a total accident but they all cheered and seemed to love it! [Laughs]

If you weren’t a singer/songwriter, what would be your dream job?

I’m really into producing my music at the minute so I would probably want to be a producer for some really famous bands, but if I can’t choose that I think I would be a Lifeguard.

If you could headline one festival which one would it be?

Well I've been going to the Leeds festival since I was little with my mum, and that’s what got me into this sort of music, you know the indie genre. So if I could only choose one, I would choose that one. But I would also like to have the honour to headline a massive festival such as Glastonbury because that would be awesome!

There have been quite a few rumours about yourself and upcoming festivals this summer, can you give us any clues at all to if you’re taking part in any or supporting?

“I’m a new artist so would love to get out there and play as many festivals and gigs as possible! This will help me promote my music and what I do in general fast, and get me noticed. I always dream about Glastonbury and reading though, being up on their stage! And I have had a lot of good feedback from a lot of great artists, and to me this is an achievement in itself! ”

You described walking onto a stage ‘phenomenal’, how do you prepare yourself for the rush?

“Oh, I don’t really have a set routine but I normally just chill out in the back rooms before with friends, and as soon as I get on stage I’m in the zone”

You risked a lot just dropping out of school to become a performer and producer; do you look back and regret this?

“Well I guess it was a massive thing now, but I just really feel that I am good enough to do this and become a great artist and producer. I wouldn’t have dropped out of school it I didn’t think I could make it that would be stupid!”

What’s the best thing about ‘being famous’ if you like?

“haha, I wouldn’t say famous! But I really am pretty partial to free stuff! I get all sorts, as soon as I mention I like that thing or food, I get loads delivered to me on set, it’s wicked!”

What’s the worst thing about ‘being famous’?

Well I get told a lot about me, that even I didn’t know! Haha, I do a lot without even knowing, and apparently my love life is kind of great! But I'm telling you now, it’s really not! Haha “

Do you worry about other artists and the competition between you all?

”There’s nothing to worry about? It’s great to be compared to other artists in the music industry, for someone who's successful it’s such a compliment! It does put pressure on me to be the best and live up to peoples standards yes, but that’s what I'm here to do.”

We would like to thank you Steph for coming in and telling us all about your new career we really do wish you well for the future and hope to see you popping up somewhere soon! The BURST crew.

“I tripped over my microphone stand and fell into the crowd”

Magazine Publisher

I have chosen IPC media one of the UK’s leading publisher to publish my magazine I have done this because I feel it has a lot to offer to my magazine to get it on the market and to get copies sold. The magazine NME describes itself as “the world’s most recognised and iconic music magazine”, published to give a “truthful, honest, informed account of what’s going down in music”. IPC media also publish NME’s magazine and I also want my magazine full of truthful, honest and an informed account of what’s going down in music. I would also at some point want my magazine to become a recognised and iconic magazine. I feel that the characteristics that NME magazine have to offer would be ideal for my magazine giving it that edge, for these reasons I have chose IPC media to publish my magazine.

mock ups



Photo 1 is the mock cover for the magazine. It includes a mid-shot quality photo of my up and coming artist on the right hand side coming onto the left. This image will be full colour with the colours of her clothes showing through, in indie clothes. The writing around it will be blue and orange to fit in with my title and colour scheme. The headline of my artist will be in black so that it stands out a lot more than anything else on the page.

This is the mock contents page. It includes the logo/name for the magazine at the bottom on the banner which is throughout my magazine so this also links all my pages together. There will be a list of different features throughout that edition and it will allow the readers to see what else there is in the magazine. I have left space for my magazines website in the top write hand corner so that people can subscribe. I will also have 2/3 different shots of different featuring artists in the magazine on the right hand side in boxes to give it a clean look.

This is the mock-up of the double page spread; it will have a single photo faded on the right hand page with Polaroid’s of different types of shots over the top as if they have been thrown down. Also includes the magazines logo/name in the top left side on the banner again. Large font will be briefly around in black for a brief sentence or quote to show the theme for the article which is about my new artist. The article will then be at on the left hand side of the page and will be written in columns and in blue to stick with colour scheme.

     

Artist Profile

My artist is called Steph, she will be a female of the age 18, I will be using Steph because she is female and this differs from all the other indie magazines due to the fact that they are mostly portrayed as a males magazine, this will get me more female readers., and she will be a home grown Leicester artist interested in instrumental music and the indie style, she writes all her own music also. She enjoys things like the latest fashion and indie clothing and gigs. She is become successful through performing at her local clubs and pubs, and just with her pure talent to sign and write music. She stays in touch with all her fans and has set up a Facebook and twitter account to promote her music, there are also lots of music videos she does herself on YouTube and Facebook to also make her profile bigger due to the fact that she is a new up and coming music artist. Her inspirations to music are people like Jamie T and she loves his style and how he writes all his own music also, she is working her way to the top and inspires to be like him and also enjoys music such as the vaccines and the wombats. As well as performing Steph would like and also gets involved with the production of her music.

Pitch and Summary

I felt that my pitch went OK, but it could have gone better. I could have written down on paper prompts and key words due to the fact that i couldn't remember anything when i stood up. My mood board was good and i used the right photography and music to get across my genre, i also used key words on the animoto mood board which included things such as my target audience and so on.
When i was asked the questions such as what is my colour scheme and how am i going to lay it out, i feel that i answered the questions fully and gave my answers across thoroughly. I had done all the research needed so knew how to answer all the questions that had been thrown at me.
Some feedback i had been given was that the name VIBE had already been taken and was i going to change it because of this, i have taken this as constructive criticism and i am going to change the name of my magazine, but i don't know what to yet.
Also they liked the idea of an INDIE magazine with a target audience of females only and of an age range of students, i will produce a magazine with a female model on the front cover this will portray my ideas.
I feel that people who are into fashion and music in general would love to buy my magazine and keep up to date with the latest trends in fashion and music.
The cost of my magazine will be quite cheap compared to others partly because I am aiming my magazine at students, even though its cheap it is still a high quality music magazine.

Typical Reader Profile...

My typical reader profile would be someone like Abbi Toone, she is 17 years old and interested in the latest trends and indie culture. She goes out a lot with friends and likes to keep up to date with the latest fashion and culture. She studies fashion design and music at college and is interested in producing music herself. She prefers non-mainstream mixed bands such as junior fencing club, the wombats and the strokes. Like most teenagers Abbi has hardly any money but when she does she prefers to spend her money on magazines that offer a unique information and that offer an indie style so she can share this with her friends. she says she would also buy subscriptions if a magazine takes to her directly. her main preferences are magazine such as dazed or spin which provide the indie style and interesting content.

moodboard

research for magazines

Research

^^^
Here are a few covers I looked at with some shots on the front which I feel look good; this has given me some ideas for the front cover of my magazine.

I also looked at different fonts and it gave me a few idears for good headlines/mastheads ect. i know that my title needs to stand out and be bold but i also know my magazine needs to be colourful but retro and indie.

I have also looked at colour pallets; here are the colour pallets that I have looked at. I feel like they are all good colours but I have chosen a blue, orange and white to give it that retro feel and the indie look.

I feel that I want a different edge to my magazine contents page so would like to do something like this but would change font’s colours and main image etc.
I would also like boxed images this gives the magazine that cleaner cut.

My double page spread would probably be an article on the artist on the front cover and some sort of profile on them, (what they get up to, gigs, specials, etc.)
or I could do something like an article.

On my front cover there will be an ‘up and coming’ new artist, preferably female, with that indie edge, and with styled clothes on to match the colour scheme and about 18 years old.
She would also be quite a close shot but mid, covering most of the page.

analysis of magazines

Analysis of Music Magazines

Readership

Men	7,114		60%
Women	4,785		40%
Age 18 to 24	3,206		27%
Age 25 to 34	3,240		27%
Age 35 to 44	2,322		20%
Age 45 to 54	1,617		14%
Age 55+	1,514		13%
Age 18 to 24	6,446		54%
Age 18 to 49	9,800		82%
Age 25 to 49	6,595		55%
Age 25 to 54	7,180		60%
Median Age	33.5

Preliminary School Magazine.

My Preliminary school magazine represents a school based magazine as it includes Lutterworth college students. I used school students in my front cover and contents page to create a friendly attraction and for readers/the audience to be intreaged in what their fellow students are doing.

The articles the magazine contains are all addressed to students at the college such as 'Cuts on EMA how will we cope!' they are all relevant to students at present.  They are current issues and interests for this particular age group.
 I looked at magazines that interest me such as, NME and Jenesis and so on, this helped me develop a sense of what I wanted my magazine to look like. Most of the magazines I looked at had a main image that was a mid-shot and had some lighting effect on the front of them or black and white effect with alterations to hue and saturation. I looked for differences in the mast heads and the different types of fonts different magazine company’s used to encourage new readers and existing ones.
 Skills I have learnt while using Photoshop, I have learnt a lot of useful techniques while working on my magazine such as when I have a photograph with a horrible background or one which hasn’t come out very good, I can simply use the magnetic tool which will allow me to carefully cut around the photo and I will then be able to move or set a solid/gradient background behind my photo with it looking good. I have also learnt that I can use hue, saturation, contrast and such to edit my photo efficiently so that it will attract readers when I want people to buy it, this is a really good editing effect.
 I managed my time efficiently when creating my preliminary piece this is a good thing as I think I met the deadline and also everything was finished with time for tweaks. I also found that I had a really good colour scheme, I used black white and orange, I felt like I used them in the right way to enable different features standout such as the mast head.

schedule

G321 CW Schedule 2012

Magazine Annotations

Q Magazine Cover With Annotations