Details of Locations, Props and Models

For my three main products I organised three separate photo-shoots. The first photo-shoot I organised was for my main band that would be featured throughout all three products; this photo-shoot took place in my living room where I used a white backdrop and some lights. In terms of props, I had the models pose differently using a microphone and a guitar. The models used were teenage girls; I asked them to wear black torn tops, Denim shorts, Dr Martens, American flag tops, Red jeans, Floral print jackets, Bandannas, black rimmed glasses and red lipstick. I had initially decided that I wanted my magazine to fairly professional and glossy; this is why I thought using a white backdrop would work best as it would be easy to edit out the space surrounding the models. The lighting used was to also highlight certain features and make the main aspects of my images look professional. However, the music genre I wanted to include in my magazine was pop rock, therefore I felt it was necessary to use instruments as props to demonstrate that the band are all about music rather than just the auto-tuned sounding pop stars. Prior to the shoot, I had decided that my target audience consisted of: ‘trendies’, ‘hipsters’ and ‘indie scenesters’, due to this I ensured that the models in the band all wore items of clothing that were popular with these stereotypes. For example, the Dr Martens represent the ‘hipsters’, whereas the black rimmed glasses represent ‘indie scenesters’ and the floral print represents the ‘Trendies’. All of these representations used entice my target audience of fashion followers/mainstreamers with that alternative edge into buying my magazine.

However, I also wanted to ensure that my magazine would appeal to a small male audience and people more interested in rock music; therefore my second Photo-shoot was slightly different. This time round, I decided to use two male models one of which would appeal to the male mainstreamers and the other would appeal to the male ‘rockers’. Again, I used a white background, however this time I used a white wall; this was to keep the professional, glossy appeal to my magazine. However, for the male ‘rocker’ I used a real guitar as a prop; my main aim was to make the instrument much more prominent than I had done before to emphasize the idea of being a musician. I also paid attention to detail by ensuring I used a model with long swept hair to connote rock and a plain white shirt to suggest the idea of old school or classic rock. The other part of this photo-shoot was for male mainstreamers; for this I decided I wanted to try and make my model look like an old school rapper, again, this was to go for the vintage/retro style. Therefore the costume I used was a big over-sized jumper and a woolly hat. I also tried a different way of using the microphone, by raising it slightly and having it pointing down from above it demonstrates how a rapper would hold their microphone.

My third and final photo-shoot was located in my bedroom where I used my feature wall as a background design. To ensure my magazine still had a sense of ‘grunge’ and ‘rock & roll’ I wanted to stop using plain white backgrounds. In order to put more emphasis on the links to my indie target audience, I decided to use a model that was very thin and dainty with two toned hair; this is very representative to a typical ‘indie kid’. For this shoot I used no props/instruments and this was to suggest to the audience that this artist was mainly about the voice. To highlight the dainty, innocence of this model I decided that their facial expression should have a ‘puppy dog’ look; as for the costume I decided on tights with stripes and a long, khaki, suede shirt. Again, this represented the ‘indie scenesters’ but it also added to the vintage style that was demonstrated throughout my magazine.