Proposal: Double Page Spread!

What type of double page spread will it be?
For my double page spread I have chosen to base it on an interview in a question and answer format. I think this would be most appropriate as my target audience are girls between the ages of 11-16. I believe that this is what they would find most interesting.

What type of questions will you ask?
For my questions I plan to ask simple yet interesting questions. They cannot be too complicated as I have a young target audience, however, as they are young they need to be kept interested more. I will take the interview and show it in a kind of chatty way but not too much otherwise it may distract away from the actual interview. Questions based on their 'new single', love life and childhood should be included as this is what stereo-typically interests young girls.

How will your main image be placed?
I will have one main image on my double page spread as there are already several throughout the magazine and once again, I don't want to over-load the page with too many images as the main purpose of the double page spread is for it to contain an interview about the particular artist. I plan to place it on the right hand side as this is a convention of the a lot of magazines. 

What colours will you use?
The colours need to be consistent with the front cover and contents page so it will looks like it could all belong in an actual magazine. It would also be conventional to have a background on the double page spread rather than leaving it white as I have done with the contents and front cover. A white background worked well with those pages, however, I think my double page spread will be more effective if it has some form of a background.

What will you use for the main title/mast head?
When I looked into other pop magazines in particular they tended to use quotes from the interview as their main title. This then encourages the reader to want to continue as it would hopefully interest them.

Analysis of a Double Page Spread Music Magazine; Interview!

The magazine I have chosen to look at is ‘Top of the Pops’ which includes an interview with Misha B. The genre of magazine is quite clear as it says it in the masthead but it is a pop magazine. Top of the pops is said to be the favourite children and teen magazine. Around 18% of its readership is boys whilst the majority is girls at 82%. They clearly target girls through by the choice of topics and people they include as well as their chosen colour scheme. The age range tends to be girls between 11-15. Misha B (the person being interviewed) originally found fame on the TV show ‘The X Factor’ which is typically known to search for the next ‘POP star’. As this is where she found fame many people know her and could possibly take interest in her. She tends to base herself around the pop scene which would fit in well with the magazine.

The masthead (title) of the article is actually a quote from the interview. This instantly attracts attention from the reader and tries to persuade them to read the article. As it’s only a few words from the interview people won’t understand entirely what it’s about so would need to read the whole thing in order to find out. They highlight one of the words, ‘heart’ and also put it in capitals because it implies that a lot of the interview will revolve around that subject but also because it fits in with the typical teenage subject of love. For the sub-heading they use current slang words such ‘emosh’ as this suits their main audience of teenage girls. They don’t use a drop capital as it’s in the style of an interview. This could be because they do not include paragraphs of information about the artist as people are expected to know but also because it’s aimed at young people so they wouldn’t want to over power them with too much text. The question that is being asked is in bold and a different colour whilst the answer is in normal font and colour. Each question is in a different paragraph but it is all kept quite close together. Each question asked is most formal but quite personal. They do however use slight conversational words such as ‘so’ and at the end they do add a comment about the interview. There’s a reference to her latest single and they do question her about that which is obviously one of the main reasons why she done the interview, to promote her album. They also ask typical girly questions about her dream date, boy issues and childhood life. They include two pull-quotes other than the main title. One is surrounded by a heart which again links to them highlighting the ‘heart’ in their title. Another is in the middle of all the text which helps to draw your eye to the text and once again should make you want to continue to read.  They use boxes as smaller sub-headings so the reader would know what to expect in the next few questions. They also have a smaller box at the bottom which gives information on the artist’s new single and album and where the readers can listen to it. The colour scheme which they use is typically girl’s colours which include pinks and light blues mostly. This again fits in well with their target audience of girls between the ages of 11-15. 

‘Top of the Pops’ includes one main image of the artist and two other smaller ones. One of the smaller ones is of Misha B on ‘The X-Factor’ as this is where many people will know her from. The main image is based on the right page and she is wearing drawing attention to the necklace. It consumes most of the page but does have text boxes overlapping at the bottom. It looks as though she has been cut out from her original shoot and placed onto the page with a coloured background. They use a long shot in the corner so you can view her whole body.

 To the left is annotated notes about the chosen double page spread. Below is the original copy in colour.

Task 2: Planning your DPS!

What type of double page spread do you intend to create?
As my target audience is aimed at girls between the ages of approx 11-15, I think the best layout would be an interview in the style of question and answers. This is because it would allow the readers to 'get to know' the artist being interviewed and it also allows them to read the direct words the interviewee has said. 
          Also as it's a pop magazine it's typically known to be quite open and more chatty than informative. 

How you intend to incorporate original images?
I intend to incorporate original images but using a main image across one side of the double page spread. Furthermore, because it's a magazine aimed at young teenage girls there should maybe be other smaller images to break up the text so it doesn't overpower the readers. For this I could also include other images of features coming up on other pages or smaller features that are separate on the double page spread to give the readers a break from reading the same thing. 

How will you obtain information and images for your feature spread?
For images, I will take these myself or the person of my choice. If I decide to include smaller images of other people then I will also need to take photo's of them. For the information, I will research into typical questions and answers that are often included in magazines. 

Visual style?
The double page spread needs to be consistent with the front cover and contents page. This means that I will need to you the same colours and similar fonts. The layout needs to be related in some way, however, because it is a completely different style to the front cover and contents it won't be exactly the same but there needs to be some relation between them all. As it is aimed at younger people, it needs to include a variation of colour to keep them interested. Also it pop magazines typically include a lot of colour and have different puffs/plugs/features all over the page.  

What style of writing you intend to use?
The writing style needs to use simple words as it is aimed at younger readers so they may not understand the writing if it includes longer and more complex words. As I will most probably write it in the format of a question and answer style, it needs to be simple questions that any one will understand even if they aren't a fan of the artist/band. 

Task 1- Double Page Spread!

What is a double page spread?
It is two facing pages containing appropriate material which are intended to be view together. It is often abbreviated to DPS and could also be referred to as a 'feature spread'.

Different types of feature spread/double page:

Interview: 
This is where an individual or group are asked questions and then the responses are written up. This is usually written up as a question and answer style or as a continuous prose. This would be useful for pre-teens/teens who are fans of the individual/group. This style allows the reader to understand what the individual/group are saying and it really gives a personal feel about it. This would be a useful style to use for my pop magazine as it's target audience is typically female pre-teens/teens. It would allow the young female readers to connect with the person being interviewed. 

Fashion Piece:
This could be items of fashion from a range of places spread across the double page spread. This would stereotypically apply to females, however, you could include items of mens fashion to appeal to them also. Depending on the type of features shown, it could vary who it appeals to. This could be suitable for the genre of my magazine (pop) as I could base the feature on the style of fashion that would apply to pre-teens/teen girls. 

Review:
Reviews on particular products are sometimes featured across the double page spread. Reviews can include items such as concerts, latest CD's/music or upcoming bands/artists. The item that's being reviewed would need to appeal to the target audience because they'd need to find an interest in reading it. This could be suitable for my magazine as I could include items revolving around bands/artists that are typically in the pop genre. 

Final Contents

Rough Contents!

Above is a rough of my contents page. 

I don't like the colour scheme that has been used as it is different to the front cover and doesn't feel consistent. 

It also looks too plain as there are a lot of blank gaps making the page look boring. 

There aren't enough pictures there and considering it's aimed at 11-16 year olds there should be more. 

The layout of the contents page isn't consistent throughout and doesn't have a sense of a proper theme. 

Proposal for Contents Page!

Who is the magazine aimed at?
The magazine is a pop magazine and typically this would mean that it's target audience would be girls around the ages of 11-16. 

What will be included on the contents page?
The contents page needs to include all the important information about what will be in the magazine. When looking through published pop magazines, I noticed that they do no include every little detail but just the things that are most likely to interest readers.

What colours will you use?
The colours will need to be bright, bold and interesting. This is because it's a pop magazine aimed at girls aged between 11-16. However, it shouldn't be quite as bright as the front cover because the front cover's job is to catch the readers eye, whereas, the contents page needs to let people know what will be in the magazine in order to interest them further. The reader needs to be able to read the contents page without being too distracted by the colours and images.

How many images will you use?
As I said in my last paragraph, I don't want to over power the readers with too many images as the content pages main job is to inform. However, there still needs to be a range of some images as it is aimed at younger people who need to be kept interested.

What types of text will be used?
For my text I plan to use various sub headings such as win opportunities, celebrity gossip items as well as real life features. 

Photo's for Contents

When I looked at other pop music magazines many of them used photo's of objects rather than a single image of a person. So I decided to use this idea and include it onto my contents page. As my target audience is aimed at mostly teen girls I thought I'd apply images that would be to their interest so items such as bags, nail varnish's etc... 

 Once again for this image I need to cut it out and edit it onto the contents. 

 I cut out each nail varnish which I wanted to use as I decided to use all of them as it'd be too many. 

Final Front Cover

Rough Front Cover!

The rough front cover, above, looks too plain to be a pop magazine. This is because it's aimed at 11-16 year olds so should be colourful and have loads of images etc...

There's too many white spaces which should be filled with images and text.

There aren't enough effects used which could help to improve the front cover.

For example, the main tag line 'anna' doesn't really stand out much and blends in with everything else. 

This, along with the mast head, should be the two things that stand out the most and this isn't the case with the one above.

Overall, it looks to varied and doesn't look consistent or anything like an actual pop magazine.

Photo's for Front Cover!

Although for my front cover I used one main image that takes up the majority of the front cover, I also used smaller images to fill the space. I got this idea from other pop magazines as many of them are full of colour, text and images. They often contain many smaller images to add colour and fill space. Also because the target audience is aimed for young teens and pre-teens, there needs to be more images and less text.

These were some of the photo's that featured on the front cover.  I need to edit them and cut them out.

2nd Photo Shoot!

After noticing that the first photo's from the first shoot weren't usable, I re-took them to try and get them to fit the pop genre that I was aiming for. Below are a few of the other pictures which I took however didn't pick them.

 This picture shows the face clearly which would allow the viewer to connect more, however, I didn't feel it was right for the front cover and didn't show clearly enough that it was a pop magazine. This is partially to do with the fact that it is a close up and therefore, doesn't show her clothes in any detail.

This photo wasn't chosen as although it was a completely different shot to the first one, when I looked at other pop front covers, many didn't show the whole body unless it was a band on the front cover. 

Although this picture is similar to the one that I actually picked, I found that it didn't fulfill the 'normal' features that pop front covers have as she wasn't really posing and it looked a bit too plain and too casual to put on the front cover. 

Below is the photo that I am actually picking as my main image on the front cover. This is   because it is close enough to gather certain detail such as the clothing and make-up which makes it more clear that it is a pop magazine. Also it looks more 'pop' than the previous image as she is posing rather than just simply standing.