Rejection and Selection of Photographs

I took several pictures for my magazine, focusing on the Halloween theme, especially for my front cover, DPS, and main picture for y contents page. I put the models in costume, but chose a darker, more gothic look so that they still fit the Rock genre and did not appear tacky as some mainstream Halloween costumes do:

 

I then uploaded the photographs I took to Flickr in order to get some feedback:

From this, I was able to select a picture for each model that was the most popular with the audience. The winning pictures were this one:

and this one:

I will now be editing the pictures on Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 in order to get them up to magazine standard.

Photo Shoot plan

Ideas Update

IDEAS

These are some of the ideas I have had for the picture on my front cover. I have chosen a black and red masquerade style costume for my featured artist; I feel this keeps the conventional Rock magazine colour scheme, and the old fashioned style with a twist is something which will fit very well with the genre, keeping the Halloween theme without seeming over the top or tacky.

DPS Plan

Contents Page Plan

I have chosen to feature overlapping pictures in y contents page because it is something I have seen in my similar product research, and I feel it gives the page a modern look, which will appeal to my target audience.

Front Cover Plan

I have based my first draft of my front cover on music magazine covers in my similar product research, focusing mainly on the Halloween issue of Kerrang, as my magazine will also be a Halloween issue. A common convention in these magazine covers is to include one large picture of the featured musician accompanied by a series of smaller pictures of bands/artists, a technique which I have replicated in my plan.

Ideas Update - Target Audience Research

Through my Target Audience research I have found that the most popular colour for a house style is red. I will be using a dark red in the colour scheme for my music magazine as darker colours fit well with the Rock/Halloween theme.


The most popular 'freebie' was posters, so I will definitely be including a free poster with my magazine. I have already considered several images for this:

To find the best image for my poster, I will also present these pictures to a sample of my target audience, to see which is the most popular.

The most popular genre was Rock - I was very pleased with this as Rock is the genre I originally planned to use. 

The target audience research also revealed that most of the target audience would prefer a monthly magazine, and would be willing to pay £2.50. I was not surprised by this as my research has shown that the current price of Kerrang is also approximately £2.50.

Target Audience Research - Colour Scheme

In order to ensure my magazine attracts the right audience, an effective colour scheme is vital. The first things the potential buyer will see are the colours and pictures. because of this the colours need to be eye-catching while still adhering to the codes and conventions of a rock-based music magazine. I decided on a base of black and white, as this is the most popular convention for Rock magazines. In order to choose the best main colour, I asked 20 16-25 year olds (my target audience) which colour they preferred: 

Out of a choice of four colours (chosen because they fit the Rock/Halloween theme) the most popular was, by far, the colour red, and so this is the colour I will be using in my magazine.

Target Audience Research - Halloween Issue