P L A N N I N G

Shooting schedule:

Locations:

Wycliffe College – Sibly Hall.

Wycliffe College – Outside the D&T Department, beside the brick wall.

Wycliffe College – Loosley Halls Yard

Health & Safety: 

Town Centre could be dangerous – a lot of cars, it may be rainy and slippery – so we need to be concentrated and attentive – look when you’re going and take and umbrella to not to ruin how model looks.

Also it can be very cold, what can make a model ill, so we’ll try to dress a model as warm as possible – so she could feel comfortable.

Equipment:

Tripod, 50mm lens, long zoom lens, a Canon Camera.

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Props:

Electric guitar, because it will apply to codes & conventions of a rock magazine. Also a chair located in Sibly Hall for a shot with a model sitting on it and a white sofa for a range of shots with another model.

Models:

Luiza Zablocka – Montmella (zabloce@wycliffe.co.uk)

Polina Kozyaeva – Darlene Ronan

Boston Plowman – John Trevor White (plowmab@wycliffe.co.uk)

Costumes:

White shirt, black/purple lipstick which was used on Luiza’s lips. It is clearly seen on my photography

A dark blue jacket – can make a model look really classy and beautiful. Blue color reminds more of a rock music than any other genre of music, that’s why I chose this color.

A sweatshirt, saying “We’re gonna party like it’s my birthday” – that could mean a rock party, festival. And very conventional piece of clothing for a model who is posing for a rock magazine.

DPS Article

Montmella: “I never wanted to be famous, I don’t consider myself as a pop-rock star!”

Yeah! You got it right! The one we all considered as a huge famous rock star said that this was never her dream or aspiration.

“When I think of word “rock star” I always imagine some kind of pop influenced artists and I then I realize that I’m not them, because I only write for myself and nobody else. I bring music to the world, so the can understand what I’m all about, I want them to know who I am, but one song that can be wrongly produced or arranged can change your whole image and that is what I was afraid of!”

Montmella is talking about her best-selling single yet “Hell Away From You” from the album “Hawk”. It was released in December 2015. From the first seconds we can feel the pop-rock vibe, but we never knew what it sounded like when it was only a demo recording.

“I put a ‘stripped down’ version of this song on my album as a deluxe edition bonus track, so my fans can hear how it must sound like, however the audience don’t really care about the other version of the songs as long as the original version (as they think) is much catchier, popular and written-specially-for-charts. Well, I admit, I made a huge mistake – this is not what my music is like, but on the other hand it’s good to have a #1 song in a lot of charts worldwide, but I’m sad because it’s gotta be more pop-rock to reach top of the charts! I’m more an alternative rock artist and I never wanted to mess with pop!”

Montmella has already released 3 studio albums “Soul For You” (2008), “A Little Funeral” (2011), “She Wolf” (2014) and her 4th studio album “Hawk” is going to be released on April 22.

“One of my biggest fears is to become a mainstream artist – I never wanted to be famous. Being famous is a lot of responsibility – for instance, you are going to be in the spotlight, people are going to talk about a lot, so as paparazzi and oh my gosh, I honestly hate them. I just want to write music for living, sometimes I just want to release my music anonymously, so that nobody could see my face or know my name – that would make it so much easier!”

Have you ever tried to get your ‘true name’ back and prove the audience that you’re not going pop?

“Yes! I have! A lot! I swear that was one of the hardest thing I’ve done! Imagine convincing millions of lovers “Hell Away From You” that you are not a pop artist. (Will serve as a pull quote) This is difficult, however I’m thankful for my true fans that know who I am and in love with my real music and I hope they understood that my whole new album is not going to sound like this song does. It’s good to experiment, but I think my producers took it more seriously than I did and “Hell Away From You” is the result – at least I got to release the first version of the song without any problems with the label, I would literally burn this place down (laughs) if they wouldn’t let me – this is one of the best songs I’ve written!”

What do you consider as your very best songs?

“Definitely “She Wolf”! This is my best work so far! I’m in love with the arrangement. And I also consider this one as my most successful song in the way I wanted it to be. My other personal four favorites are “Nothing But the Air”, “Every Second That He Had Spent With You”, “Hell Away From You”…and… “Boombox”, which will appear on my new album. And lastly, I wanted to mention my very first song I wrote “Only Pieces”. I love this song, because it is literally my whole teen years and every time I listen to it, I get shivers and I remember my teen years which very just more than brilliant, I miss my youth!”

What do you think is your best album?

“‘She Wolf’ – I put my whole soul into it and my fans estimated its true worth – that what makes it so important for me. I’m really interested in what “Hawk” is going to show world too. There are some songs there that are really worth to listen in, in my opinion!”

Ladies & Gentlemen, Montmella! She’s a truly amazing songwriter, woman, artist. I am an actual fan of all of her works and by the way, I got to listen some of the upcoming songs and let me tell you – they sound brilliant! Make sure you’ve checked her discography out! You won’t find anyone like her, she’s definitely irreplaceable and has her individual style. Thank you, Montmella, for sharing some stories with us!

Poll Daddy Evaluation

When I asked people what kind of prize they want to see if my magazine had a competition – majority of them answered that they want free tickets for a gig. 31% percent of asked chose a real autograph from their favourite musician. 15% would like to get a free CD, whereas only 11% would like to receive a poster.

My next question was about people hobbies. Not surprisingly that the highest percentage belongs to ‘Music ‘with 23%! Then it goes reading with 19%. Sport and Socialising with friends took the same 15% of people that voted. Dancing & Clubbing gained the smallest percentage of asked – 11% & 9% respectively.

27 voters or 64% of asked prefer digital copies or streaming services for consuming music in my next question “Do you buy CD’s?”, however 21% buy CDs very often and 14% buy it rarely.

The age of people who were taking a part in my poll was from 16 to 25 years old – 91%! 9% were older than 25 and no one was younger than 16, also there were more males than females (54% vs. 46%) – that could mean that the target audience for my future rock magazine will be these people aged 16-25 and males in average, because they were choosing the aspects for my magazine.

52% of people would spend from £1 to £4 on a high quality magazine. 41% would spend from £4 to £10, 6% would spend more than £10 and nobody would spend less than £1!

80% of asked always buy magazine in the shop, so that can mean that I will use a barcode on my cover to make it look like it’s an actual physical copy of a magazine. Speaking of the cover, main image is the most important thing on the cover, because more tan 50% of the people voted that it attracts them and they magazine mainly because of the main image! More than 20% look at the bright colors first, 11% on the text and 5% on the price!

In addition majority of the asked people want to see Album Reviews, Interviews and Celeb Stories in this type of magazine.

 

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD DECONSTRUCTION

The double page spread consists of a one big black and white picture and it takes up the whole of the left page and some of the right page. This could be probably made to show how important image is how it can express everything that is written beside. We can see there are two text columns that are placed on the right page neatly and conventionally. There is a very simple use of a grid but at the same time it looks a bit complicated with a pull quote in the middle of the text. This is made to show us that there are going to be person/people that are going to be interviewed. The layout of the double page spread is black & white – this is done to show everything in an old and vintage look what can make us think that the text is about the past.

The headline is a more modern and classic font which makes it stand out from the old vintage theme of rock and the same font as the body text. The kicker has a different font to make people notice that is can be important to read it. There is a caption on the picture that is in white font to make it stand out from the picture. There is a chapter heading at the bottom that is an also white color. The drop letter is a bolder bigger version of the font used in the headline and body text – this has been used to follow codes and conventions. The body text is aligned fairly conventionally but is slightly «jagged» at the edges to keep with the rock theme of «rebelness» and «not obeying the rules».

There’s a synergy between the second contents page and a double page spread. To begin with, their layout is black and white with the exception on a contents page – there is some red text. There is also a page number in the bottom corner and next to this is the name of the magazine and this is branding that they are using. There isn’t anymore logos or graphics and this is probably because having too many would make it look tacky and «crazy» which would not relate to rock genre.

To add up to an image we can see a man holding a guitar but holding it not in a normal way – he is hugging it, like it’s his child, like it’s a really important thing for him and he is ready to take care of it anytime – the mise en scene is helping to support the «memorial» theme – this article is about remembering a musician BB King with the help of his friends. BB King is also wearing a suit and it can mean that article is formal. To mention another little image at the right top of the double page spread is the photo of a young BB King. Tis could be done to make a comparison to what he was looking like when his was at his young ages to what he was looking at his old ages and one big similarity that a viewer can notice is that he is still holding a guitar on both of the photos, what can make us think that he was playing music all his life.

Contents Page Deconstruction

Contents Page Deconstruction

The grid on the contents page of my rock music magazine is conventional – we can clearly see every single thing is laid out in the way we would expect it to be. By this, I mean that all the features are lined up, written clearly, understandable font and their position is straight. Overall this pages looks neat & clean. This kind of look makes magazine more professional looking and people tend to trust the information that is written in a neat and nice way. The main headline is probably the «Contents» text at the top right and this is how the page is defined as the contents page, this font is bigger and bolder to make it stand out – it is the first thing we notice. The number of the issue and issue date are written right under it.

Moreover, there’s a picture on the right side of the page which takes more than a half of the page and there’s a feature written right on the picture, suggesting that this image is related to a article on a given page. There are no supporting images on this page as well as any other supporting graphics except for a «sticker» at the bottom right that suggests to go on a particular page to see track listing of the songs that are on the free CD, which is a free gift that comes with a buy of a magazine. Main image consists of a shirtless man. Probably in his 40s. He has a long, curly and fuzzy hair (till the shoulders), hairy chest and two tattoos on his arms what only obeys to the rules of a rock style person. He also holds a cup of beer in his hands. Holding beers like that can represent different rock festivals when people are walking around with cups of beers, drink and party, listening to the music of a different rock bands.

As we turn the page, we can notice another contents page, but it says «regulars», what can mean that articles given on this page are not that important as the ones on the first contents page. The picture which takes more than a half of a second contents page space consists of a man holding a stick and posing for a camera in a black & white suit, however he has bare foot and the camera is located above him, so that he is look at us from the low angle and we looking at him from above – this is probably made to make us feel «dominant» when looking at him. In addition this photo is black & white.

Color palette of a rock music magazine contents page is pretty simple – black & red with the white background. There’s nothing outstanding in this color scheme, but there are some meanings of the colors that can explain why exactly these colors are chosen for the magazine. Red is associated with energy, danger, strength, power, whereas black represents death, mystery, evil & power and it all creates a mood for a rock magazine as rock we associate with «hard» things, craziness, black, metal.