Interview Draft

COOL AS A CAT

The Shades’ frontman Shaun Hough goes over his career and tells AMPED about his interesting - and a little bit weird -experiences…

Q-Okay, Hi its Elliot Robson here from AMPED, we just want a couple of answers, we just want you to let yourself go and reminisce on your highlights and experiences with us.

A-That seems fine by me

Q-What was your inspiration to start ‘The Shades?’

A-Well, my inspiration would be general Indie and Rock bands.  My early inspiration would be bands such as: The Beatles, The Kinks and The Rolling Stones.  I mean these old bands are f*cking incredible! But the bands I try and relate to would be: The Strokes, The Stereophonics and The Strypes.  But, I love my inspiration, it completes me in a weird way, you know what I mean mate?

Q-I have heard that The Shades are releasing their second CD?

A-Oh yeah that’s right, I know the guy that owns ‘Sound Effects’, you know the one in Ormskirk?  Jeff… he’s a good lad him you know.  He’s done me a lot of favours.  He let the band record the album in there, because there is a recording studio upstairs, not many bands know about that which benefits us.  The album will be out soon, maybe just after Christmas.

Q-We know about the Jaffa Cake incident haha, have there been any other bizarre incidents that have occurred in the band?

A-Ohh haha I knew that would come up, that was a weird one! Mad thing is I f*cking despise Jaffa Cakes now! Oh yeah do you know about the story about the puppy?

Q-No, we haven’t heard about that one

A-Oh well, we had this s*ht gig in Manchester that Sam sorted for us! He is a proper doughnut!  Well anyway! We had the worst gig ever! And we missed the last train home; we had to check into a scatty, scary, back alley apartment.  The room stunk of Egg and Toothpaste because there was a massive bin outside the window.  I got woken up by a dog in the back alley; it was like a terrible groan.  So I got up all the other lads were fast asleep like babies.  I look out the window and there is this deranged skinny dog that was moaning like hell! So theirs me in my bills, sticking my head out the window.  Next minute one of the lads pushes me out the window and I go flying into this bin.  The dog jumps in the bin and sits on me.  So that night I slept in a minging bin with a smelly old dog.  So I got the train home smelling of egg and toothpaste.  I don’t know who pushed me out that window, none of the lads will tell me and I don’t think I will ever find out.   

Q-Oh Lord! That story was great! There have been reports that for one of your songs, you took drugs to help you write it.  Is that true?

A-Well yeah know what, I am not going to lie to you and I did.  I had writers block, I just could not come up with anything.  The band was relying on a good song to go on this album.  So Sam Shaw came round to my apartment and told me that my troubles would go away, if I snorted this cocaine.  Me being me I did, and I wrote a great song out of doing it.  I am not going to tell you what song it is, I will let you figure that out for yourself.

Q-So you snorted cocaine to help you write a song?

A-Yes, but never again, because I have heard I did some whacky stuff that night.  I woke up with 2 midgets, a hooker and a bottle of Tizer.  So never again haha

Q-Do you like the way the shades are going?

A-Yeah I do, I mean we are just going at our own pace.  We have sold an album already and that has been very successful.  ‘What are you going to do?’ reached No.1.  I am very proud of that because I wrote that song.  But I am very happy with how the band is progressing.

Q-Would you change anything in your musical career?

A-To be honest, I don’t think I would change anything.  I am very happy with The Shades and how we are progressing.  There will be more albums to come

Front Cover Analysis

 This is another example for my front cover research, I chosen to do a couple of front covers because some of them have different layouts, information and features.  I wanted to make sure that I was collecting the most information as I could, to make sure that my magazine was as accurate and professional as possible.  I have collected a lot of information from this specific front cover.

Research Magazine Analysis

This is part of my research to find out what I wanted my front cover to look like.  I have analysed this front cover to get some ideas for my own front cover.  I have got a lot of ideas from this front cover from things such as: Colour themes, Fonts, Layout, Photoshoots, Advertisments etc...  I have done this physically because it was easier to do and analyse.  This is because I just put the front cover in the centre of the page and picked out the key information and features within the magazine front cover.

Double Page Spread Article Draft

Double Page Spread Draft

Contents Page Draft

Front cover draft

Why I chose to re-do my double page spread

I chosen to re-do my double page spread because I felt that it was the poorest page I made in my old magazine.  I did not feel it was to the best standard, however it did not take me a while to create it.  But I did learn some valuable things for creating a double page spread, I learnt about what layouts look good and what features and colours look effective.  I learnt about the gutters and margins and what you should and shouldn't do.  These were good skills that I picked up from creating my double page spread as it gave me the skills and the ideas I needed to create my final product double page spread.  Overall I am happy that I redid the double page spread and the other pages as it gave me the skills and ideas to make my final product even better.  This was a part of my planning towards my final product.

Why I chose to re-do my contents page

I chose to re-do my contents page because for this one I just wanted to play around with the layout.  I wanted to see what looked good and effective, again making the contents page did not take me that long but it gave me some good ideas to create my final product contents page.  Some of the features that I have within my draft magazine I have inputted to my final product contents page.  This again was a part of my planning for my final product.  I wanted to make sure that my final product contents page was as good as possible. 

Why I chose to re-do my front cover

I chose to re-do my front cover as I felt it did not suit my target audience and I did not suit my Genre.  Another reason is that the feedback I received was good but I wanted my magazine to be the best it could be.  I made the first magazine so that I could develop the skills I gained from the prelim task and do more wild and wonderful things in a magazine front cover.  This is why I chose the specific colour theme and the layout of the front cover.  I did this so I could gain some ideas for my actual magazine front cover.  The first magazine that I created did not take me that long to create, so I did not affect me in anyway to make it.  But it did benefit me because from the creation of the prelim task and my first magazine I was able to have the skills to create the best front cover I could possibly make.  This was part of my planning to my final product. 

Plan for magazine

This is my plan for my magazine front cover.  I have done this on publisher so that it would let me to change things around easily.

My chosen Music magazine name

Amped-I have chosen this name for my chosen genre of 'Indie Rock.'  I have chosen this name because I think it is a perfect name for the genre I have chosen.  I think it is a good name because it links in very well.  It links in well because the genre I have chosen, Indie rock is amplified music.  The bands/artists in this category of music, have electric guitars and electric bass guitars.  These instruments are played through a amplifier to make the instruments sound louder, powerful and have more of an effect on the music. I think that this is a great suitable name for my chosen genre, because as soon as somebody reads the title of my magazine.  They will automatically know that the magazine is about Indie Rock.

Tempo-I have considered this name for my magazine because I think that this is a suitable name for my chosen genre Indie Rock.  I think that this is very suitable because the word 'Tempo' means fast music.  Indie Rock is mostly fast powerful music.  So I think that if anyone seen my magazine title, they would know what the genre of the magazine is.  I think that Tempo is a great name for an Indie rock magazine because it links up great with the genre.

Style-I have considered this name for my magazine because I think that this is a suitable name for my chosen genre Indie Rock.  I think this is very suitable because bands/artists in this certain genre all have there own type of style.  An example of this would be Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys.  I think that the title 'Style' would be a suitable name for an Indie Rock Magazine because it links up great with the type of genre.  I think that if anybody seen my magazine title 'Style' they would know that it would be Indie Rock. 

School Magazine

My Front Cover and Contents page

Ideology

Ideology is important in magazines because they determine who the target audience is. 

The ideology is the features we see in a magazine.  E.G. for a young magazine.  We would see lots of young pop stars and bright colours.  We would also see silly texts, font and writing.  We would know this would be a magazine that is aimed at the younger generation because an older magazine wouldn't have silly fonts.  We could also determine whether the magazine has a younger target audience because of the language being used.  The colours would also help us determine what the target audience is, E.G. if the magazine cover includes Pink, relatively bright colours.  We would know that it would have a younger target audience. 

On an older magazine such as: NME we would see older bands.  The magazine would include older language which could include swear words.  If we saw this in a magazine we would instantly think that the magazine has an older target audience. 

Ideology is very important in magazines because even a look of the front cover of a magazine.  You could automatically know who and what the magazine is aimed because of the ideology used.

Magazine Terminology

Masthead - The main title of the magazine, this will always be on the Front page

The Main Image - This is the main image that is on the Front cover, this is usual the thing that determines the whole magazine and whether it sells.  The picture normally has an exclusive interview on it.

Banner - To advertise something exclusive such as an interview

Buzzword - Something that advertises a competition.  Something that draws the reader towards the magazine, something that the reader can win.

Headline - The headline is the main piece of text on the cover of the magazine. The headline will advertise the main image on the cover.

Barcode - A bar code tells us how much the magazine is and what distribution its from, it is on every magazine.

Anchorage text - Found underneath the headline and helps the customers understand the headline and the main image.

Puff - Normally like a border, this is put around something to make it stand out on the page.  E.G. an Interview, competition

Secondary images - Images that are on the front cover that is maybe not as important as the main image.

Pug - Where the corner of the page is covered and usually has a buzzword inside of it. This makes the reader want to read through the magazine

Features -  Things the readers will find inside the magazine.

Serif Font - Font which has small bars (serifs) at the end of each letter (Like This Text)

Bylines - Credits to the people who produced each article including photo credits and data sources

Strapline - A secondary headline just below the main headline

Moral Panic

Moral Panic-A condition, episode, person or group of people emerges as a threat to societal values and interests: its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media. 
Alternatively-Moral Panics involved the construction of 'Folk Devils' that need controlling, which leads to increased social control.  This occurs during periods when powerful groups or the ruling classes face troubled times. 

Photoshop

Photoshop is a programme which allows you to change the way a picture/image has been created.  You can alter the way the Photo looks by using the different features on the programme.  You can change the picture to look better or worse.  Photoshop can be used for getting rid of Red eye, spots and any unnecessary things that are in the picture.  Photoshop is a very powerful programme, once you have changed a photo, it is very hard to recognise the original picture after it has been changed.  Photoshop is used in magazines and the media all the time because it is so powerful.  It has the ability to change anything that doesn't look right in the picture. 

In class we used Photoshop to practice.  We used the programme for doing basic things such as getting rid of spots on a mans face.  We also had a go of changing red eyes in pictures.  The last thing we did on Photoshop was duplicate things.  These are only basic things in Photoshop however, it is a powerful programme once you know all the features.

Music Mag questionnaire

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bQPV6PV4ZHSIHe4GopswfQCVGjW601A5hD9c0KlN3fE/edit#

Mood Board

 

Taget Audience

My target audience for my music magazine is anyone who is interested in Indie Music.  Bands/Artists that feature in this type of Genre may be: Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Jake Bugg etc...  There are many more.  Anyone is enjoys this type of music and are a fan of these types of bands and artists.  This would be my target audience. 

The age of my target audience will be a wide spread because in my chosen Genre there are a lot of different bands.  That are all different ages.  For E.G. The clash and Oasis feature in my chosen Genre.  These bands are old.  This would attract the older age to read my magazine.  However I also have new exciting bands and artists that feature in my magazine.  This may attract teenagers and young adults that may want to know about new bands.

To sum up my target audience, I believe that my target audience is anyone who enjoys Indie Rock music.  Also anyone age group that want to know about old bands and the new exciting bands/artists.

InDesign

Prelim Task

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study with signs and symbols in a photo. It is also the colours been used, this links in with magazines a lot, especially music magazines. Front covers of music magazines have a lot of semiotics within them because the front cover tells a lot of stories. The picture is trying to get you to read on in the magazine and needs to be eye catching. The use of semiotics help this, so in order for a music magazine to be successful it needs to have good semiotics within it. The most common semiotic signs are:

How they or something is communicating to the reader?

What does it symbolize?

What does it indicate?

How they make us feel?

Who are they designed for?

and...

Why are they designed?

For E.G. we know that if a man picked up a magazine and the basic colour was blue.  We would automatically think it would be a mans magazine.  We think this because we think blue is a boys colour while pink is a girls colour.  This is the idea of semiotics.

The male gaze is the concept of: How men look at women, how women look at themselves and how women look at other women. Laura Mulvey came up with the term 'Male Gaze' in 1975. She believed that film audiences view women in a sexual way. This links in with magazines because it shows how men look at women on the front covers. E.g. Miley Cyrus.  

 

First Photo-shoot

This is my first photo-shoot for my music magazine.  These pictures could be for my front cover.  The characters on the pictures are: James Doyle and Joe Turnbull. 

Feminism

The way we look at women has changed dramatically in how the media present women.   Adele is always rewarded on how powerful and good her vocal ability is.  50 years ago Marianne Faithful was often compared to cute animals and not given any graduation as a musician in her own right.  This has changed a lot because 50 years ago Marianne Faithful was compared to animals, this was because of her personality and looks.  She never got rewarded for he vocals.  However, now Adele never gets presented in the media for the way she dresses its only for her singing and song writing.  This is how the media changed in looking at women.  This is just one of the examples on how the way we look at women has changed in the past 50 years.

Introduction (Liverpool)

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/welcome-to-liverpool-fc

i have chosen the offical liverpool fc site because i frequently go the site to get the latest news on the team

Introduction (Stereophonics)

i have chosen stereophonics "graffiti on the train" because i like the stereophonics and i enjoy listening to the song

Introduction (Insidious 2)

i have uploaded insidious 2 because i have seen the first one and hope to see the second, in the pictures.

Introduction (Fifa 14)

i have uploaded a game trailer of Fifa 14, because i enjoy playing the Fifa games and i wish to get the new one.

Introduction

Introduction

Hello, my name is Elliot Robson.  i am 16 years old and i study at deyes high school.  i studied geography, history, IT and music.  i am taking Media for A-level because i think i will enjoy it and i think i will be good at it.  i would like to use the subject in the future, because id pick up alot of skills off the media course.  Such as learning how to use Photoshop and learning the different camera shots.