Learning Outcome 2 (U3): Be able to plan and develop pre-production materials for an original media product to a client brief (P3, M2)

Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart was made in an attempt to schedule my work and to make sure preparations for the production and the production of my magazine would adhere to its due date being the 18th of January. I gave myself adequate time to do such tasks and occasionally disciplining myself by giving myself a two weeks to do the front cover and double page spread due to my lack of photoshop skills. 

 The images for my mood board were found on google. What I take from it is that vibrant colours are heavily associated with Indie Rock and that I should be encouraged to use colours such as pink, blue and yellow whilst having a darker colour such as black or grey as the image's background.

Indie Insider Mood Board (Indie Rock)

For the secondary font of my magazine (for uses such as cover lines for the front cover of the magazine), I chose a font titled Lavigne. The reason behind this was due to the absence of serifs in the font which weren't needed because of my primary font Kevlar Underwear which has serifs. Another reason for my choosing of this font was because of its comparably thinner letters to the primary font. This allows there to be a contrast in width of lettering without negatively affecting the onlookers thoughts that this is an Indie Rock magazine. By not having the font too tall in comparison to fonts such as Mont on Dafont, the strap line and cover line wouldn't take up too much space from the rest of the magazine which in turn would direct the onlooker's attention away from the subject of the magazine front cover: the main photo. The reason why I chose this modern looking font is because it would look more appealing to a young audience which is what the brief asked for when it said that my magazine should appeal to a vibrant music scene.

Kevlar Underwear is the primary font for the cover of my magazine. This font was chosen because as well as it looking modern, the serifs of the font make it easier to read thus making it more likely to be bought by a potential customer. This font relates to the indie genre because as well as looking retro with serifs (as the Indie Rock genre was most prominent three decades ago), the font also looks modern as it's bold suggesting to the onlooker that the magazine is about Indie Rock artists today.

For the main text of my magazine, I chose the font Apple Garamond. Besides mentioning earlier in the project that I will most likely use the font Times New Roman for the main text of my magazine, I ultimately decided against it as it came across as too plain due to the vast use of it. In its place I decided to use Apple Garamond. The main reason behind this choice was because as well as having similar serifs to Times New Roman, it is skinnier which allows there to be more space for text on the page. This was decided for as the brief states that in the double page spread, there should be a body copy.

Color Palette. The colors decided were inspired by my mood board which has large amounts of magenta, blue and yellow-green like colours. The blue was decided as its the only cool colour and contrasts the warm yellow and magenta (all of which will appear on the front cover and most likely the double page spread). The yellow-green and magenta colours were decided on as they are heavily associated with the genre of Indie Rock due to the large uses of the colours on the covers of Indie Rock albums. 

Double Page Spread sketch

Front Page Sketch

Location Release Form
By signing this document I give Max Postyn permission to take photographs of his model(s) on my property so that he may use them for his magazine Indie Insider. By signing this I give away my right to use the photos taken for any personal use.

Signed
Property Owner.........................
Max Postyn...............................

Talent Release Form
By signing this document I give Max Postyn permission to photograph me and to edit said photos however he sees fit for his music magazine Indie Insider. By signing this I give away my right to use the photos taken for any personal use.

Signed
Model........................................
Max Postyn...............................

Risk Assessment Form

Location Recce

Ethical Issues
Issue 1)
It would be unethical if a worker asked for a break due to fatigue or various other reasons and the person in charge of them wouldn't grant them the break. This may happen if my model wanted a break and I didn't grant it to them if there wasn't enough time. To counter this, I would give the model breaks whenever they required one.
Issue 2)

Certain groups may be angered if a magazine contains any controversial topics and may attempt to boycott or potentially sue the magazine as its unethical. This may happen to my magazine if I include any topics that may fall under said category. To counter this, I would play it safe and not include any controversial topics when writing my body copy.

Legal Issues

Issue 1)

If a company was to hire someone under the legal working age of 16 without their parents permission, legal action would be required. This may happen if my magazine's model was under 16 and had no parent permission to be in said magazine. To counter this, I have ensured that all of my models are over the age of 16.
Issue 2)
If a company conducted corporal punishment then legal action would be required as it is illegal and very unethical. This may take place during my magazine shoot if I physically abuse my model. This would be countered by me not abusing them.
Issue 3)
If someone signs a contract and doesn't meet the requirements they agreed to, they will be sued. This may happen in my magazine if my model uses the pictures I have taken for other projects. To counter this, I will not breach any contracts regarding the magazine that I agreed to.
Issue 4)
In the event of copyright infringement, a company may take legal action to sue a media distributor if they include any artwork that they didn't produce and is owned by the company. In an attempt to make their magazine more realistic,  a person creating a magazine may include an advertisement which would be illegal if the advertisement was for a real product and/or they didn't create the artwork for the advertisement. To counter this, I won't use any advertisements in my magazine

Issue 5)
If a photo is taken of a model without their consent and is used for any sort of purpose, the model would have the legal obligation to sue me. This may happen if I took pictures of my model and used them after forgetting to get them to sign my contributor release form. To counter this, I already had my model sign the contributor release form
Issue 6)
Companies have the legal obligation to sue media outlets if they use images that were originally created and edited by the company. This may happen to me if I use images or text in my magazine that isn't/aren't my own. To counter this, I won't include images or text that isn't/aren't my own.
Issue 7)
In the event of copyright infringement, a company may take legal action to sue a media distributor if they include any artwork that they didn't produce and is owned by the company. My model may wear a piece of clothing with a logo on it. To stop any legal action from taking place, I would inform the model to not wear clothing that falls into that criteria prior to the shoot or I would edit out said logo.
Issue 8)
If members of the public appeared in a magazine without their consent and they found out, legal action may take place against said magazine. This may happen as my magazine shoot may happen in a public place and members of the public ,accidentally be photographed. To counter this, I would either have them sign a release form, blur out their face or use photographs that don't have members of the public on them.

Learning Outcome 3 (U21): Be able to pitch ideas on a proposed media product and respond to questions (D1)

Evaluation of the feedback given by the client (points that will add to the product creation and points that will not)

I believe that the most helpful piece of feedback I received from the media representative was the suggestion that instead of my magazine operating on a global scale similar to that of Pitchfork and Wired, I should make it city-centric. The formula of that idea being similar to the operation of magazines such as Vogue. The reasoning behind this idea was that as my magazine would have articles about shows happening in certain venues in certain cities, people in different locations to that of the shows would lose interest causing a decrease in my audience which would defeat the entire purpose of the expansion of my magazine. In order to do this, my expansion would be gradual. From North London to the entirety of London then city to city from there.

Another useful consideration from the media representative was that I should definitely include a physical copy of my magazine when making it. My main reason for not including the physical magazine in the pitch was because I was positive that as the magazine is new and doesn't have a large fan base, convenience stores and supermarkets wouldn't stock the magazine whereas platforms such as the App Store and Google Play Store don't care as they aren't risking capital. However, as the brief says that I must have a physical and digital copy of the magazine, I've decided that I would sell physical copies of my magazine via a subscription in which readers would have their magazines delivered to their homes. This would be how the physical issues of the magazine would be distributed until I am confident that my fan base is big enough for convenience stores and supermarkets to stock it.

However, one consideration that I did not find helpful from the media representative was that if I was to sell my magazine on the Kindle store that I should only allow it to be read on the Kindle Fire as other devices don't have coloured images. The reason why I didn't find this consideration useful was that it is up to the reader how they want their reading experience and the quality of said experience is completely up to them and is only controlled by them. Although I do see the reason why the point was made, it was ultimately decided against as it would most likely bring down sales of the magazine.

A useful piece of consideration I received is that my primary target audience should be younger than 25 to 35-year-olds. The reason behind this was because the brief said that my magazine should be based on a vibrant music scene and my older primary target audience doesn't match that description as well as my secondary target audience which was fifteen to twenty-five year olds living in North London in social grades A to C1. In response to this consideration, I have switched the primary and secondary target audiences with each other making fifteen to twenty five-year-olds my primary target audience and twenty-five to thirty five-year-olds as my secondary target audience. This would affect my magazine as some online marketing (whilst it still primarily being on Facebook) will take place on platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat as their demographic is aimed at people younger than my original primary target audience.

The media representative said that to improve my pitch, I would need to include photos more relevant to my product. For example, it would be preferable if when showing pictures to represent my target audience, I should focus less on photos that represent the target audience but rather photos that represent people that would realistically read my magazine. In response to this consideration, I have edited my magazine pitch so that the photos included have more to do with the target audience of my magazine.

Another useful piece of consideration that the media representative told me was that I should include other typefaces for both the cover and the content of my magazine other than my chosen font: Kevlar Underwear. I did however select the font Times New Roman to use for the content of the magazine such as interviews with up and coming Indie Rock bands. I did however not include it in my presentation and I didn't think about including a different font for the cover of my magazine. In response to this consideration, when making my magazine cover, I will select a secondary type face to use on my front cover to describe the contents inside the magazine.

To conclude, for my magazine product, I will originally distribute the physical copy in a subscription-based way to begin with. As well as this, when the magazine eventually expands, it will be city-centric instead of operating on a global scale as most music magazines do. I will also target my marketing primarily to fifteen to twenty five-year-olds than mainly to twenty-five to thirty five-year-olds.

Learning Outcome 3 (U21): Be able to pitch ideas on a proposed media product and respond to questions (P4, M3)

Final Pitch Presentation

Notes for my Presentation

The name

Alliteration

Indie connotes the genre

Insider suggests there is information on the inside of the business that readers cannot get anywhere else

The Font

Read on the board

Purpose

Get Indie Rock in North London back to its status from 20 years ago

To expand to a global market

Form of the magazine

Electronic issue would be available on:

App store

Google play store

Kindle store

Physical issue will be available:

Newsagents

Supermarkets

Content of the magazine

Q&A with featured artists of the magazine

Upcoming indie rock live shows

Formula taken from magazines such as Wire and Pitchfork

However the difference is they focused on the past

We focus on the future of Indie Rock

By focusing on upcoming musicians instead of well established musicians

We are also focusing on North London musiciANS AND VENUES TO START

Target Audience

Lives in North London

Is male

Aged 25 to 35

Social grade c1 to A

Enjoys Indie Rock

Ages decided as they would be adolescent in the 90s and 2000s making them the group that would listen to Indie rock the most at its peak

Resources

Apple mac computer, photoshop, DSLR camera, tripod, lens, memory card, video camera, spare camera battery

Personnel

Cameraman, photoshop editor, interviewer, indie album reviewer, editor

Distribution and marketing methods

In order to use the budget efficiently we would need to have target our marketing to thee target audience we would need to advertise to males aged 25 to 35 who enjoy Indie Rock. Advertising for the physical issue would take place in the form of posters at live Indie rock concerts. The digital issues will be distributed via the app store, google play store and the kindle store. It would be advertised on facebook as the majority of my primary and secondary target demographic would be on facebook. The reason the website was decided was because it targets advertisements to people the website knows are interested in Indie rock via groups they may have joined or albums they have publicly listed that they enjoyed or are interested in. The reason we are not advertising on Instagram or Snapchat is because its usually a younger demographic that uses them.

Final Feedback given by client (corrections and changes)

Feedback: Instead of making your magazine operate on a global scale, make it city centric when it expands

Correction: I will make my magazine city centric. The reason behind this is because I overlooked the fact that if it were to operate on a global scale, the majority of people wouldn't buy the magazine (which defeats the purpose of expansion) as there would be little to nothing about artists and concerts in their city. This will be done gradually by eventually expanding from North London to the entirety of London then release magazines city to city in different countries.

Feedback: Include different fonts for your magazine cover and double page spread for large amounts of texts such as Q&As

Correction: For large amounts of text I would use a font such as Times New Roman as it is easy to read due to its serifs making it easier for the reader as there would be a large amount of text

Feedback: You mentioned that there will originally not be a physical copy of the magazine as most stores wouldn't stock something that they know won't sell due to their not being a large amount of people that would read the magazine early on. However this goes against the brief. What would you do to fix this?

Correction: At first, the only physical copies of my magazine will be distributed through subscriptions people would have made to have the physical copy of the magazine delivered to their homes

Feedback: Ensure that your magazine will only be available on Kindle Fires instead of all Kindle platforms as they are the only ones with colour.

Correction: I disagree with this because when people with no Fire Kindles will be purchasing my magazine, they would most likely already be aware that it won't show colour. Due to this, and because it will ensure more digital copies are being sold, it would not hurt me to make it available on ordinary Kindles.

Feedback: It would be nicer if in your presentation, when you used people for your magazine, that they would look like people that would actually read your magazine

Correction: If my presentation was needed to be shown again, I will edit the pictures so that they would all represent a person that would look like he is interested in Indie Rock.

Learning Outcome 2 (U21): Be able to create a proposal and pitch for an original media product based on a given brief (P3, M2)

Learning Outcome: Be able to create a proposal and pitch for an original media product based on a given brief.
Creating The Pitch

Potential Client Questions
Q1. You have a USP making your magazine exclusively about North London Indie Rock artists. Why would you eventually expand to a global scale where there would be competition from magazines such as Pitchfork and Wired?
A1. My magazine would still always feature an artist from North London. Whether they would be on the front cover or have an interview on the double page spread would be dependant on how large they are. The expansion in territory would be gradual with the magazine first covering all of London, the UK, Europe and then eventually on a Global scale. I expect this goal to be reached within five years of the magazines first issue.
Q2. Your target audience is very niche. Why?
A2. My target audience is based off of the primary target audience of the large Indie Rock bands from the 90s and 2000s. This can be seen through huge bands such as Nirvana, Radiohead, The Killers and many more who have no or very few female band members suggesting that they were aiming their music at adolescent males (25 to 35 year olds today) making them the perfect target audience for my magazine.
Q3. Would you include advertisements in your magazine and if so, would you use the funds to expand the area your magazine covers or rather the amount of personnel you would hire to improve the content of the magazine
A3. I would only expand the area my magazine covers if I am confident that the area I would be covering would have a large Indie Rock fanbase. I would most likely save the funds required to expand as well as replacing my personnel (that would most likely be interns due to the low cost and probable prior experience) with paid personnel that would have more education and experience in their respective fields
Q4. What will be the font in which articles of your magazine are written in?
A4. My magazine's articles will be written in an easy to read and modern font such as Arial. This is because it would put a lot of strain on the reader's eyes if they were to read text in the Kevlar Underwear font for large amounts of time.
Q5. What is your secondary target audience?
A5. My secondary target audience would consist of 15 to 25 year olds because at that age, kids are starting to get further away from mainstream music and prefer more niche forms of the art form.
Q6. How can you save money via personnel?
A6. Early on we would hire mainly interns in order to save money. In order to have them work harder with a none monetary goal, the internship would offer experience for a job they would most likely want in the future and a potential job when the magazine has enough financial security to pay them
Q7. Where would you sell physical copies of your magazine?
A7. I would sell physical copies of my magazine in convenience stores, book shops and in supermarkets.
All shots for my magazine will be interior as lighting will be easier to control and backgrounds will be solid colours

Original Power Point Presentation:

Corrections and changes made after initial pitch
1. Secondary target audience was created and purposely not included in the power point so that there would be a question that would be easy to answer during the pitch
2. The slide titled "Any Questions" was removed
3. The physical magazine is now available in convenience stores and supermarkets
4. Personnel included were "essential"
5. Captions for the double page spread and front cover drafts went beneath the photos
6. Colour and border scheme became a lot more "Indie rock"
7. A decrease in photos and an increase in text was used

Learning Outcome 1 (U3): Be able to create a proposal with sample materials for an original media product to a client brief (P1, P2, M1) Learning Outcome 2 (U21): e ale to create a proposal and pitch for an original media product based on a given brief (P2)

Learning Outcome: Be able to create a proposal with sample materials for an original media product to a client brief

My Proposal

The magazine will be based on an "artist" or "band" who would primarily perform Indie Rock music. This was favoured more than my other ideas which were to base my magazine on Indie Rock venues or on the genre of comedic music because it was my only initial idea in which the positives outweighed the negatives.





For my media product, I propose a magazine which will be based on the Indie genre, the reasons for and against said idea were expressed when I was 'generating ideas'. The name for said product would be called 'Indie Insider'. This name was chosen as the two words have are alliterative. In addition to this, the name shows the reader that the magazine is based on the Indie rock genre through the blatant use of the word 'Indie'. Lastly, the use of the word 'Insider' would suggest to the reader that inside the magazine, they would be receiving information that wouldn't normally be disclosed to the public causing a reader more likely to choose 'Indie Insider' above any other Indie Rock magazine such as 'Pitchfork'.

 A possibility for the font of the magazine is the font Fragment Core which I found on Dafont.com. This font was considered as it appears to be old (as the Indie Rock was most prominent in the past) due to its serifs and the obvious use of the letter 'g' which makes the font look appear in a  handwriting and script which isn't as used with more modern fonts such as avenir. The font was ultimately not chosen as the magazine is meant to be based on modern Indie Rock instead of the height of the genre's popularity in the 90s and 2000s.

It will appear in a Kevlar Underwear font that I found on Dafont.com which looks like this:

This font was chosen because as well as it looking modern, the serifs of the font make it easier to read thus making it more likely to be bought by a potential customer. This font relates to the indie genre because as well as looking retro with serifs (as the Indie Rock genre was most prominent three decades ago), the font also looks modern as it's bold suggesting to the onlooker that the magazine is about Indie Rock artists today.

The strap line font has been decided as Lavigne which I found on Dafont.com because of its lack of serifs it would contrast with Kevlar Underwear well and due to its comparably tall lettering.

For the main text of my magazine, I chose the font Apple Garamond. Besides mentioning earlier in the project that I will most likely use the font Times New Roman for the main text of my magazine, I ultimately decided against it as it came across as too plain due to the vast use of it. In its place I decided to use Apple Garamond. The main reason behind this choice was because as well as having similar serifs to Times New Roman, it is skinnier which allows there to be more space for text on the page. This was decided for as the brief states that in the double page spread, there should be a body copy.

The magazine's purpose is to hopefully make the Indie Rock community in North London a lot larger. This purpose's main goal would be of course to gain more readers of the magazine thus having more finance available. This would allow the magazine to hire more staff, have more interviews with bigger Indie Rock artists and bands ultimately making the magazine's content better allowing the magazine to continuously gain more readers until expansion is possible. As well as expansion, I would also like this magazine to bring the Indie Rock genre back to being prominent hopefully causing the genre to have similar popularity as it had twenty years ago.

The magazine would have a traditional paper form as well as being digitally available on book stores such as those on Kindle, Apple and Android products. Both forms will have the same amount of content, but the digital form will cost one pound cheaper as there won't be expenses such as printing and the buying of paper. There will however be expenses such as the digital book stores taking a percentage of the profits from each sale of each magazine issue. Due to this, there will not be a large difference (if any) in profit between the digital and physical issues of the magazine. This is useful because as more people are becoming environmentally friendly and reading issues of magazines and books digitally, there wouldn't be a noticeable change in profits. The length of each issue will be roughly 150 pages as it will be a monthly issue and to ensure that there will be as much content in each issue as possible. The length of the magazine and regularity of it coming out also affects its price which would be 5 GBP per issue.

Mood board depicting various artists of the Indie Rock genre as well as several magazines in competition to mine

The majority of the magazine would be composed of upcoming Indie Rock shows taking place in North London venues with four or so small interviews with upcoming Indie Rock artists based in the North London area as well as reviews of Indie Rock albums that have come out recently. The double page spread, however, will consist of the longest interview of the magazine as it would be with the featured "artist" of the magazine who's picture will be on the cover as well as in the double page spread. The reason for the interviews with the Indie Rock artists and the Indie album reviews is because the brief states that my magazine should be based on a vibrant music scene. The reason why the venues are based in North London and why the artists will be primarily based in North London as well is because the brief states that my magazine should be territorial to North London.
Competition
The formula for the content of the magazine was heavily inspired by music magazines that cover similar genres to Indie Rock such as The Wire and Magnet.

The main difference in the content is that my magazine would be less based on interviews and be more focused on reviews of Indie Rock albums and upcoming Indie Rock shows. This is mainly due to these afore mentioned magazines having a much larger access to Indie Rock musicians due to their finance, because they are already well established magazines and because they operate on a global scale of Indie Rock magazines rather than a comparably much smaller sector being North London.

The primary target audience for my magazine will most likely be British Caucasian males aged 25 to 35 in social grades A1 to B.  This is mainly due to the fact that Indie Rock music was most prominent in the 90s and 2000s (the time the primary target audience would be adolescent and listening to a large amount of music). Because of this, the fans of genre would most likely want to read the magazine in order to find out how artists may differ today in the North London area as opposed to 20 years ago. The social grade of the primary target audience was decided upon as people in social grades below C tend to not have the income to afford the magazine or enough time to read it. As well as this, as a lot of the content of the magazine will be referencing Indie Rock shows and albums, people in social grades below C may find the magazine boring as they most likely won't be able to afford to said shows or to purchase the Indie Rock albums referenced.

A representation of what my primary target audience may look like

For the first issue of my magazine I will be working the duties of all the personnel. As funding and awareness for my magazine grows, interns early on would be hired for each personnel position

To ensure that the marketing budget is being used efficiently, advertisements for the magazine must be geared to be shown specifically to the target audience. As the primary target audience of my product will most likely be British Caucasian males aged 35 to 50 in social grades A1 to B, it would make sense to have the magazine's advertisements in places they would most likely be. Due to this, I propose that advertisements for the magazine to have a social media presence as a large amount of 25 to 35 year olds are on it for various reasons. However, I don't propose that said advertisements would be on social media such as Instagram or Snapchat as those social media tend to have a younger demographic mainly aged 13 to 25. For this reason, I would suggest that the online marketing of the magazine was to take place on FaceBook as the majority of the primary target audience would most likely be on it.
 Another reason for choosing FaceBook as the main platform for placing the online advertisements is because the business can effectively which target audience they could display advertisements to due to their ability to process the information through the users history. For example: FaceBook may display advertisements of my media product to a user who is active on Indie Rock related FaceBook groups as it would suggest that the user would have an interest in the genre. These will be geared to advertise the digital version of the magazine available on multiple platforms rather than the physical copy as the viewers of said advertisements will most likely be more technologically savvy and thus would be more likely to read the digital version of my magazine. To advertise the physical copy of my magazine, I would use physical advertisements such as posters in areas where my target audience would most likely be such as Indie Rock venues in North London. This meets the client brief as it would ensue that my magazine would be based in North London and that there would be a printed and digital version of it.
Digital issues of the magazine, as previously stated, will be distributed on Kindle, Google Play and Apple stores. The physical issues of the magazine will be distributed in a number of ways. For example shops such as convenience stores or supermarkets who may buy stock in bulk keeping a percentage of the profit depending on the amount of issues sold. They will however have the fixed price of 5 GBP per issue printed on the cover of each magazine to ensure that the owner of the store doesn't have extra profit or to deter customers from buying due to the heightened price. Another form of distribution of physical issues of the magazine would be through mail in which readers of the magazine may have an annual subscription of the magazine mailed to their address every month the issue is published. An annual subscription to the magazine would be marginally cheaper for both digital and physical issues. This meets the client brief as it ensures that there is a digital version of the magazine as well as a printed version.

Sketched layout of what the front cover may potentially look like

Sketched layout of what the double page spread may potentially look like