When picking my adverts, I had to make sure that they followed the conventions and were appropriate for my target audiences. My demographic is young adults who like to go to gigs and festivals so I kept this in mind when picking my adverts.
The first advertisement I chose was for ‘DOWNLOAD Festival 2021’. I felt this was appropriate as it’s a popular festival among fans of the genre and also because I mention it on my contents page.
The second advert I chose was a poster promoting Bring me the Horizon (BMTH)’s new EP and tour. BMTH are one of the biggest and most mainstream bands right now so it follows conventions and also is interesting and relevant for my target audience.
My DPS (double page spread) needed some tweaks after the first draft. In photoshop I brightened up the image on the right as it was a bit too dark on my first draft. I also added the magazine logo to the banner and made sure that the spacing in my banner was all the same to make it look clean and professional. I changed the slanted bars on the top right and bottom left from red to the black and white stripes to keep the branding consistent. I made the by line text bigger and added a drop cap at the start of the article to finish it off.
What’s next
Adjust line spacing on banner
Remove hyphens
*headbang on every listen
Use numbers not words in the banner
*sense
line spacing between numbers and coverline in the banner bar
For my second draft of my contents page, there was quite a lot of work that needed to be done to it as my first draft had only place holder text under my headings. I wrote different news, features, posters, reviews and gigs information about what would be included in the magazine. I had to keep in mind my genre and use bands and artist who are popular in Hardcore music right now. The small summaries had to be grabbing and spike the readers interest so I stayed brief but left the reader wanting to read more. I also made sure to include page numbers so that the reader actually know where to read more. I filled out the editors note which I forgot to write the editor’s name so I will make sure to add that in my final draft.
Layout wise, I felt that it looked empty down the right hand side so I added the slanted black and white stripes which I decided to use again on the double page spread as part of the magazine’s branding. I also created space at the bottom for an add from the magazine selling their new digital radio station.
This is my second draft of my front page. Using Indesign, I’ve added the missing conventions from my first draft such as a pug in the top left, a barcode placed in the same place you would typically find it on other magazines, an inset advertising a free poster of the cover star. I went back into photoshop and refined the layer mask around my cover star’s hat and hair.
What’s next
‘Apothis’ logo instead of the word
Italics for the quote and move closer
Add edition and price
Add another red line
Wrap Charlie Spicer around his t-shirt
Who tells us?
Need some other artists on the front otherwise all about one artist?
This is the first draft of my double page spread for my music magazine. For the layout I followed a conventional look with text on the left and the star image on the right. On the far left I included a ‘Top 5 Apothis tracks’ which talks about songs from the album which was release at the time of the tour the article refers to. For the headlines and the quotations I used a bold font to make it stand out and grab the reader’s attention. The main body of text was a serif font in black on a white background which makes it easy to read and doesn’t strain the eyes.
Targets for draft 2
Add in a small box of info by the page number about whats on the next page
We went out to get photos for the double page spread of my metal magazine. To prepare for this I had to make sure my models had the right Mise en Scene. I started with making sure their outfits followed the conventions for the genre. I had Orlando wear a leather jacket with dark navy jeans and his hair flopping over his face. Ben wore an Apothis (band featured in the article) Tee over a white hoodie with black jeans and white shoes. George wore an Architects (metalcore band) tee with a black zip-up hoodie and black jeans.
These photos are my favourite out of the ones I took as they have good framing for a double page spread; the models are placed in the corner of the screen but the focus is still on them. The poses work for the genre as they have stern facial expressions representing arrogance and status. This is conventional for the genre.
Throwing up, sleeping on cold floors and travelling all across the US in beat up 90s Dodge Caravan. Charlie Spicer, the hardcore break-down God, talks about the shenanigans and tour pranks from before Apothis hit the spot-light.
Charlie Spicer formed Apothis with members Drew Baudains, Zav Pike, Elliot Scambler and Toby Beasley in 2010. The band had a slow start, gaining a small following in their home town of Guernsey. It was only after 4 years when they released their debut full length album and people started to notice them. “Being in the studio recording that first album was so much fun, we just locked ourselves in a house and banged it out in like a week. It was so sick” Charlie recalls. After that album was released Apothis were invited on tour with Knocked Loose all over the US.
“The most notable thing from that tour was our van” Charlie explains with a grin. “We didn’t want to take one over on the boat so we organised to pick up this beat up 90s Dodge Caravan when we got there. It was risky ‘cause we didn’t really know what we were buying.” All members of Apothis, including their newly found manager Eddie Crawford, a long time friend of drummer Toby Beasley, had to live in that van together with all their gear for 5 long weeks of shows every night. “It was a tight fit. We’d had enough of each other by week 4 that was for sure” Charlie cringes. Being rebellious, wide eyed young adults, the pranks through-out the tour just seemed to get worse and even more extreme. Charlie notes with a cheeky laugh that for legal reasons he cannot disclose every detail of what went down over the weeks. He does however go on to reminisce on the prank war between himself and bass player Elliot Scambler. “It started off with little things like, hiding each other’s clean boxers for the next day while we were asleep. However, we quickly realised that living in that van meant hygiene was very important. It got to the point where people were throwing up on the side of the free way mid drive to the next town. So that ended pretty quickly” Spicer added. Another highlight of the prank war was when lead singer zav pike needed the toilet at a service station 20 minutes away from entering the town. “He insisted that he couldn’t wait any longer and needed to go. We decided it would be funny after parking up and letting him out the car to just leave him there and head down to the hotel. We made him walk the rest of the way. To say he was p**sed would be an understatement!” I wanted to find out from Charlie what it was like living on the road in a country where they’ve never been before. Charlie tells me that there were many nights sleeping on ‘beer soaked floors’ of venues they just played. “We ate a selection of fast food and crispy cream donuts from service stations on long car journeys going from town to town. It wasn’t healthy at all but playing a bad-ass show every night kept us going!”
Spicer tells me that Apothis do have another tour planned for may 2021, assuming live shows are allowed by then. The tour will be promoting their 4th full length album where they are experimenting with new sound but still sticking to their hardcore roots.
Charlie clearly looks fondly on these times and tells me that “nothing will ever beat this experience with my boys! I’m truly grateful for all the new fans and support since then and hope to continue to grow. See you in the pit!”
Things I need to change for second draft:
Keep in the same tense
Capitol letters for ‘Zav Pike’
Correct punctuation
Second Draft
APOTHIS: UNTOLD TRUTHS
Charlie Spicer unlocks the vault of APOTHIS’ first US tour.
Throwing up, sleeping on cold floors and travelling all across the US in beat up 90s Dodge Caravan, Charlie Spicer, the hardcore break-down God, talks about the shenanigans and tour pranks from before Apothis hit the spot-light.
Charlie formed Apothis with members Drew Baudains, Zav Pike, Elliot Scambler and Toby Beasley in 2010. The band had a slow start, gaining a small following in their home town of Guernsey. It was only after 4 years when they released their debut full length album ‘Foresight’ and people started to notice them. “Being in the studio recording that first album was so much fun, we just locked ourselves in a house and banged it out in like a week. It was so sick”, Charlie recalls. After that album was released Apothis were invited on tour with Knocked Loose all over the US.
“The most notable thing from that tour was our van”, Charlie explained with a grin. “We didn’t want to take one over on the boat so we organised to pick up this beat up 90s Dodge Caravan when we got there. It was risky ‘cause we didn’t really know what we were buying.” All members of Apothis, including their newly found manager Eddie Crawford, a long time friend of drummer Toby Beasley, had to live in that van together with all their gear for 5 long weeks of shows every night. “It was a tight fit. We’d had enough of each other by week 4 that was for sure”, Charlie cringes. Being rebellious, wide eyed young adults, the pranks throughout the tour just seemed to get worse and even more extreme. Charlie notes with a cheeky laugh that for legal reasons he cannot disclose every detail of what went down over the weeks. He does however go on to reminisce on the prank war between himself and bass player Elliot Scambler. “It started off with little things like, hiding each other’s clean boxers for the next day while we were asleep. However, we quickly realised that living in that van meant hygiene was very important. It got to the point where people were throwing up on the side of the free way mid-drive to the next town. So that ended pretty quickly”, Spicer added. Another highlight of the prank war was when lead singer Zav Pike needed the toilet at a service station 20 minutes away from entering the town. “He insisted that he couldn’t wait any longer and needed to go. We decided it would be funny after parking up and letting him out the car to just leave him there and head down to the hotel. We made him walk the rest of the way. To say he was p**sed would be an understatement!”
BREAKDOWN Magazine wanted to find out from Charlie what it was like living on the road in a country where they’ve never been before. Charlie tells me that there were many nights sleeping on ‘beer soaked floors’ of venues they just played. “We ate a selection of fast food and crispy cream donuts from service stations on long car journeys going from town to town. It wasn’t healthy at all but playing a bad-ass show every night kept us going!”
Spicer tells me that Apothis do have another tour planned for May 2021, assuming live shows are allowed by then. The tour will be promoting their 4th full length album where they are experimenting with new sound but still sticking to their hardcore roots.
Charlie clearly looks fondly on these times and tells me that, “nothing will ever beat this experience with my boys! I’m truly grateful for all the new fans and support since then and hope to continue to grow. See you in the pit!”
This is my Production meeting agenda which includes information about the date, time and location of the shoot. It also has the costume and prop details so that I know what is needed for the shoot.
The article: ‘Adam Lambert: Don’t Look Back’, from Billboard Magazine on June 20th 2015 is an interview with Lambert where he talks about what’s going on in his life at that point and how he’s dealing with it.
The Structure
The first thing the reader sees is the headline, the goal of the headline is to give an interesting and striking title to the content below. The headline ‘Adam Lambert: Don’t Look Back’ does exactly this. It tells us that this article is going to give the reader some insight into Lambert’s past and where he’s heading. It’s effective because it’s dramatic. This is achieved by the choice of short and simple but sharp and impactful language. ‘Don’t Look Back’ is an instruction, there is no arguing with it, that is what is going to happen.
Under that is the Standfirst. This gives a bit more detail into and an introduction to the contents of the article. In this case, the standfirst is a short summary of Lambert’s progression in his career and then a quote from Addam Lambert to get the reader engaged.
The first paragraph in an article is a very key part in getting the reader’s attention. The interview opens with a quote from Lambert which reads: ‘It’s hard for me to be happy with things’, followed by another quote about how he finds it hard to feel good about himself and that he’s looking for an answer. This does exactly that as it’s showing vulnerability in someone who’s has a massive presence in the media. This intrigues the reader as it’s relatable and makes the reader want to understand the problems that someone with so much money, status and influence could possibly have.
After this grabbing first paragraph, the reader is given some information on his up-bringing and origin as a musician. This includes albums that he’s released up to present and briefly addresses controversy between moving labels. The journalist then lists a few of his achievements to give some background on his career. This is all included so that the reader can get to know who Lambert is and make them feel closer to him.
The article then goes on to the actual story that Lambert and the journalist are trying to say. This is mainly about the release of his new music and how it’s changed over time.
Presence of the Journalist
The journalist’s voice is present through-out the article when not quoting directly from Lambert. There aren’t any opinions from the journalist but they have taken what Lambert has said and written it in his own words. This is done to keep the flow of the interview to make it easier to understand for the reader.
Language and Aim
In terms of language, the journalist has to keep the reader engaged by using a mix of words that are easy to understand but also interesting and engaging vocabulary to describe Lambert and aspects of the story. When describing Lambert the journalist uses phrases like ‘a sexually ambiguous rocker with a flair for operatic shrieks and studded leather outfits’.
Representation of the Performer
The performer is represented in a way that shows his vulnerability but also shows how he’s overcome his difficulties and this shows his extraordinary side.
