QUICK THING

 

STATEMENT OF INTENT (FINALE?!?!?!?!?)

 Statement of intent

How will you use media language and media representations in order to create your product, meet the requirements of the brief and the needs of the target audience and reflect the appropriate media industries for your chosen brief?

Be specific about the ways in which you will use aspects of media language, media representations, target your audience and reflect the appropriate media industry for your chosen brief and exploit opportunities for digital convergence.

In order to meet the brief, my chosen song, “I’m Sleepin’ In'' by King Gizzard and The lizard Wizard is exactly three minutes long. The genre of music is Psychedelic rock, a genre that became popular during the 1960s and 70s and has gained traction back into the mainstream by contemporary artists such as Tame Impala. King Gizzard aims to follow in the expanding of the genre into the mainstream by appealing to younger audiences who would be unfamiliar with the genre, although will also connect with older fans who grew up with similar music such as The Beatles. Similarly, King Gizzard explores multiple genres and has a distinct sound that will appeal to a range of audiences.

My target audience will primarily be males aged 18-26, be a part of the ABC1 social class, and lean left politically. As for lifestyle, music is a large part of their life - they are bound to indulge in live concerts, collect records and enjoy experimenting in different musical genres. They will have a vast media literacy, using the internet and social media every day and will commonly interact on twitter with music artists. They are likely to read the NME online, as well as engage with independent music magazines. They best fit the "Explorer" psychographic group.

The headphone sponsorship will be purposefully on the nose, lamp-shading the product placement yet engaging with the audience's tastes in order to create a connection between the audience and the lead (our masked individual.) The use of a modern headphone brand sponsorship will help in both engaging mainstream audiences, as well as creating more juxtaposition including between the 70s aesthetic and the modern world. Specifically, "Marshall" headphones will appeal to the target demographic, a popular brand of headphones evoking a vintage rock feel.

The music magazine is named HAZE. Due to the rise of digital media, the music magazine engages with the target demographic primarily through its online presence, hosting a popular website that branches out into various genres of music and pop culture. Despite this, the magazine still circulates around 190,000 physical issues weekly, partly due to its aesthetic visual design appealing to psychedelic rock audiences. It’s design is modern yet quirky - the front covers are artistic and host hand-drawn stylisations reminiscent of psychedelic album covers from the 70s, managing to engage with the mainstream audience while appealing to a niche one. Similar to magazines like NME, HAZE is heading in the direction of becoming an online-only publication, and thus their social media presence is plentiful and influential.

The video will be uploaded to YouTube and be available for viewing on the band's website. Social media will also be a key aspect in promoting the video, where a link will be cross-posted to the band's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages and be repeatedly advertised coming up to it's debut. The magazine issue will be promoted alongside the music video on the band's website, as well as on all the band's social media platforms. HAZE will also feature exclusive articles promoting King Gizzard’s tour. Furthermore, building an audience on newer social media like Tik-Tok will result in reaching the largest audience possible, as well as creating more opportunities for a strong participatory culture.

In my music video, I will incorporate the concept of juxtaposition; employing media language through Levi Straus' binary opposition theory, with one location being within the confounds of a bedroom and then contrasting it with vast beaches, cliffs and wooded areas. The camera work will be steady and unmoving inside, which will contrast with many panning long shots of the scenery and utilisation of hand-held camerawork. My main idea is to convey the concept of descending into madness while yearning for an unattainable fantasy life: Portraying a fantasy world, akin to a dream-scape, and contrasting it with a world more mundane, which then concludes in the eventual merging of the two as our masked individual wakes up on a mattress outside.

Applying codes and conventions, psychedelic rock elements I will use are Kitsch costumes and intentionally tacky composition of props, such as items not being where they should be for brief shots. Our main actor will be wearing a cheap Halloween mask, obscuring his face. 

This will help enhance the psychedelic elements of the video, and make it more entertaining through its absurdity, thus marketable to a mainstream audience. My music video will also be heavily reliant on synchronisation between the music and sequencing of shots, and I will use a lower-quality, VHS styled camera or camera filter that can enhance the mood of the video and liken it to psychedelic music videos of the 70s-80s. 

Applying Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory, Personal Identity and Escapism are the two main audience pleasures for my media products. Due to the masked individual being faceless, I believe it will be easier for all audiences to relate to and project their similar feelings of frustration about the unattainable outside world onto them (feelings that will be common amidst the Covid 19 pandemic.) This also plays into representation, as this masked individual represents more than just one gender or one race or one age. No women will be objectified or sexualised, as is common in the modern music industry, and the video will have no focus on gender dynamics or power. This perpetuates Butler's idea that gender is "performed", as disengaging with specific gendered acts in my media product will create unique gender representations. In doing this I will be challenging traditional gender conventions, preventing stereotypes and going against the patriarchy. 

PRINT PROGRESS

 

POSTER

>The format is weird??? Should probably just dedicate the bottom third to listing venue times and add flare at the sides some other way. 

>Colours are. not very psychadelic, It looks like it's been greyscaled???? 

Something like this looks not bad actually? 

Probably something other than orange and green though

>Kind of hard to look at, weird flow with lack of focus for the eyes (mostly b/c of weird empty space) ..Had trouble writing the other venues at the sides anyway so I'll def just write them all at the bottom.

> The white outline would prob look better if it continued and acted as a border for the venues at the bottom.

>Still looks super sketchy. Either refine the lettering a lot or just use an existing font

>I stole copied the lettering of the band name from another king gizzard poster. That might be illegal

FRONT COVER

>Need to actually come up with words that arent placeholders

>Need more features on the side obviously

(and additional images?)

>I think I might just use a font for the "HAZE" title.

>I Like the colours and the layout

INTERVIEW

Coursework: Print magazine research and planning

 

Coursework: Print magazine research and planning

The Print aspect to our coursework brief is as important as the video work have been focusing on so far. 

It is crucial that you research, plan and design print work that could comfortably hold its own alongside professional examples. You will also need to include a short paragraph regarding your print magazine work in your redrafted Statement of Intent. A reminder of our coursework brief is here, with the key tasks as follows:

Print
You should create 4 pages from a music magazine. The magazine targets a mainstream music audience.

You should create a front cover, a two-page feature interview with your music artist and a one-page tour advert for your artist that would appear in the magazine. 

You can choose the focus of the feature article but it needs to promote the tour and music video. It should also reinforce the brand image of the artist/band and integrate some reference to the headphone manufacturers who are sponsoring the band/artist.

What do you need to produce?

1) The front page (A4 portrait) for a new, original music magazine aimed at a mainstream audience that you have created:

• Title and masthead
• Selling line (slogan)
• Cover price
• Dateline
• Main cover image and at least two further smaller images related to the content of the magazine (all original images)
• At least 5 cover lines

2) A double-page spread feature interview with your artist (A3 landscape - i.e. two A4 pages next to each other):

• Content that is appropriate to the conventions of the genre of magazine being created
• Original copy (at least 400 words)
• Each page to use original images as illustrations (the main cover image must not be repeated but can come from the same photoshoot)
• Internal pages should reflect the design codes and conventions of the genre of magazine being created

3) A single-page advert for the artist/band's tour (A4 portrait):

• Original photography - NOT from the same photoshoot as the other pages
• Link/reference to headphone manufacturer sponsorship
• Tour dates and other conventions of tour posters must be included

Print brief - overall minimum requirements

• A clear house style should be used in the presentation of the magazine pages with a separate house style and branding for the tour poster.
• A minimum of 7 original images should be included in the submission.
• All copy should be original and a minimum of 400 words should be submitted
• Work should be presented on pages that are an appropriate size or in proportion to the size of paper used by magazines

We recommend that all of the above should be A4 portrait page size (with the double-page spread doubling up to A3 landscape).

Research and planning blog tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Print brief research and planning' and complete the following tasks to plan and prepare your print work:

1) Research music magazine cover key conventions. Look over the magazine cover key conventions notes sheet and write which of these you will use for your magazine cover. (This is a film magazine example but the conventions still apply).

Title of publication

Slogan
Central image - the cover is anchored by an image.

2) Find at least five music magazine front covers (either current or former magazines as many have stopped their print editions) aimed at a similar target audience to your project (mainstream music audience). For each one, pick out one design idea or convention that you could use in your own print work. A few examples to start you off:

The NME magazine features 

The Q magazine cover staring Tinie Tempah employs a two-tone contrast using neon pink/red and blue, invoking a hyperpop aesthetic whilst being attention grabbing yet remaining classy and stylish through the musician's wardrobe. The unique font his name is written in further brings attention to the artist.

 

most magazines tend to employ a single, strong central image which serves to‘anchor’ the cover i.e. provide it with weight and focus, and help establish the magazine’s core values and identity. When using human models, the designer will be careful not to obscure the mouth or eyes, as they are the most expressive part of the face. It is interesting to note that magazines aimed at both males and female audiences commonly use female cover models – the difference will usually lie in the way in which the model is ‘addressing’ the gaze of the camera.

3) Find at least five double-page spread features from music magazines on Google images. How are they designed? How are text and images displayed? What design tricks can you borrow from your examples?

These double page spreads are designed with a balance between text and images in mind. The pages bring attention to specific quotes from the interview, often in large slanted bold letters. The pages also use colour and font to dictate who is speaking and to emphasise certain words and phrases in the interview. Often a bright colour is used in contrast with the more saturated colours of the spread.

 

4) Find at least five band/artist tour posters on Google images. How are they designed? What conventions do they all feature? How are text and images displayed? What design tricks can you borrow from your examples?

5) Read at least three example music interview features from newspapers and magazines to learn the format, writing style and content for a music magazine interview. You may wish to use the following to help you:

'I'm an alchemist': Nova, the unknown MC with the Scottish album of the year (900 words)

Rapper SL: ‘When I was coming up, there was nobody else on my level’ (500 words)

Davido on his song ‘FEM’ becoming an #ENDSARS anthem: “It’s amazing to see” (1,500 words)

Tom Vek tells us about his surprise album ‘New Symbols’ (1,300 words)

Interview: 'There's something to scream about': Bring Me the Horizon's pandemic political awakening (1,600 words)

Planning, sketching and writing

1) Plan a title and slogan (sell line) for your new, original music magazine. Sketch out possible designs for the masthead - font, style, colour etc.

HAZE

Psychedelic Resurgence 

2) Plan the content for your magazine front cover. Your double-page spread interview will be the main story and image but what other cover lines and smaller images will you include on the cover?

3) Plan the content for your tour poster. What image will you use? (Remember it needs to be from a different photoshoot). What cities and venues will your artist play in the UK? This may take some research into venues that are associated with your chosen genre and the right size for your artist.

4) Create a spider diagram or bullet point list of all the issues or topics your double-page feature interview could cover. Remember it needs to include reference to the music video, tour and headphone sponsorship. 

5) Write the text for your double-page spread feature. This needs to be a minimum of 400 words and be completely original and include reference to the music video, tour and headphone sponsorship. Make sure you include a headline, subheading and any pullout quotes or sidebar contents. 

6) Produce an A4 sketch of your front cover including the key conventions and design tricks you have studied in existing magazines and then planned in planning task 1 above.

7) Produce an A4 landscape sketch of your double page spread design now you have chosen the subject matter and planned the photoshoot.

8) Produce an A4 sketch of your tour poster including the key conventions and design tricks you have studied in existing tour posters and then planned in planning task 3 above.

Photoshoot

1) Who do you need to photograph from your artist/band that will appear on the front cover of your magazine? This is vital for planning the location and time for your photoshoot (note: if it is you or someone in the class it will make things a lot easier in terms of running the photoshoot)

>The star of the music video, lead singer

>Breaks traditional conventions, having a masked character appear on a magazine cover.

>A couple images of other students representing band members

>Drawn element, incorporating the psychedelic / alternative indie rock aesthetic, blended into the cover. 

2) What image or images do you need for the double-page spread interview feature?

3) What image or images will you use for the tour poster? Remember, you need seven different original images across the print brief in total and the tour poster images(s) need to come from a different photoshoot.

4) Write a shot list for your photoshoots. Make sure you plan a variety of camera shots you will look to capture - medium shots, close-ups etc.

5) What costume, props or make-up will you require for your photoshoots?

>masks that appear in the music video

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