Film Research

Quadrophenia

It is important I gain as much research as possible on mod culture in order to create a mod music magazine. I decided to watch 1979's Quadrophenia. It's a film on how rival youth cults emerge - the mods and rockers. Phil Daniels plays the main character, Jimmy. It shows his daily life as a mod. This includes pill-popping, getting tailor suits made and shrinking his levis on to him. Also a large fight with the rockers. Music from the film is from the famous mod band The Who. 




 How this helped me for my magazine?

• Music - The who's songs were used throughout the film. I therefore want to include an article about their music in my magazine as must mods will be familiar with them and therefore want to read about it.
• Dress code- every scene in the film shown me what the mods wore. It allowed me to discover what type of clothes I should include in my magazine. Items such as Levis, Fred Perry shirts and Levis are essential. 
• Props - The same goes for props. It would be a good idea to do photoshoot with a scooter as they mods used these are their transport method. You see the main character, Jimmy riding on his everywhere. There is also a scene where there is ride out of scooter on their way to Brighton.
•  Hair- Iconic hairstyles were seen on both male and female. When I do my photoshoot with my models I will have to try these out to ensure they achieve this mod look. 
• Photographs - the frames used in the movie I could adapt myself in the photos i take for my magazine to achieve a photo which is representative of the mod genre. 
• Editing - I want to experiment editing to achieve a colour which is similar to the colour of the frames are in the film to achieve a mod look.

Northern Soul

I then watched the 2014's Northern Soul film which is based in 1974 England. I watched this film for research because the northern soul scene emerged from mod youth culture in 1970's. They therefore share many similarities, especially their enthusiasm for music. In the late 1960s, when some mods started to embrace freakbeat and psychedelic rock, other mods stuck to the original mod soundtrack of soul and Blue Beat. This caused skinheads and the northern soul scenes to appear.



What I've learnt:

• How one youth culture has merged and created another.
• The music brought people together. People went out and socialized together because they shared their same taste in music.
• They dressed similar to mods. This included  such as button-down Ben Sherman shirts, blazers with centre vents and unusual numbers of buttons, Trickers and brogue shoes and shrink-to-fit Levi's jeans.

Target Market Interests

My Target Market

Media Technology

Where are music magazines heading?

After studying these recent statistics into circulation of music magazines, it encouraged to discover why..

Music Genres

After investigating into Shindig magazine, it has inspired me to do a Mod magazine. Although it reports mod music, it isn't a direct mod magazine, I therefore want to create on independently for this genre. I believe there is a gap in the market for this magazine after investigating readerships of other magazines.

Moodboards - It's important to gather images from the mod cultures as well as photos in the time periods mod was famously popular. It will help me with ideas for my own photographs as well as what props to include and what clothes to wear.

 

Conclusion from my moodboards:

• MINI SKIRTS ARE A MUST. It's obvious that mini skirts were worn by the female mod rockets.
• Sunglasses must be worn no matter the weather
• A guy must be sitting near or around a motorbike at all times, ideally a vepsa
• Paul Weller is the 'Modfather'
• Black, white and red were big colours, the Jam even rocked union jack suits. They celebrated the British Spirit in the mod culture. The mod target was everywhere it could possibly be.
• Arrows in fonts were popular, as shown in by 'The Who'
• Fonts were big, font and curvy. The funkier the better.

Research Methods



Advantages of Quantitative research: It allowed you to collect data from a bigger audience. Using the internet means you can communicate with people from the other side of the world without having to leave the house. It also helps you get
 a fairer preventative of opinion with asking all these different people instead of just a small group of people who are very similar. Disadvantage: People may not fill out the survey online correctly if your not physically there telling them how to do it. The information you collect may be incorrect.

Advantage: Interviewing someone personally gives you the opportunity to collect a wide variety of data. It also gives you the chance to ask the questions you desperately want to find out. The disadvantage to this is that it is time consuming. You may end up tailoring our magazine to this one persons like and it may not be appealing to the majority.



Advantage to primary research is it will allow me to gain knowledge and ideas from my own research. This will make the magazine more original and able me to create something which  isn't just a copy of another magazine on the market. The disadvantage is it can be time consuming to set up experiments ect..



Advantages of secondary research: There is so much secondary research out there to find me with my own research. It's easy accessible, whether it's a book or a on the internet.
Disadvantage: Unless it's a official record, it's hard to find out if the information is true or not. You have to be especially careful with websites such as Wikipedia as information on there can be changed and adapted.

Uses and Gratification Theory

•Uses and gratifications theory is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. The audience here have the power to reject, use and play with media however they want. These choices influences what media publishers publish.

Audience use media contents for:

•Diversion/escapsim, gives people a place to escape from daily issues and involve themselves into something else

•Pleasure. People use it because they enjoy reading about topics or certain programs

•Information, people read and watch media texts to learn from them and educate themselves. Whether it is gig dates or a programme on Martin Luther King.

•Compare relationships and lifestyles. This is a big one for magazines. People like to find out how their favourite celebrities live and compare it to their own.

Readers also consume media because it helps people with issues such as:

•Emotional Satisfaction

•Relaxation

•Help issues of personal identify

•Help issues of social identify

•Help issues of aggression and violence

After looking at two completely different music magazines. I decided I liked the layout of shindig more. I thought the artistic look more interesting and creative. I would like to investigate into creating a cover with retro influences. To achieve this have to investigate into a music genre of this era. I believe MOD would be a good one. It was huge music culture, and although shindig includes MOD content, there isn't a large MOD magazine on the market.

Who are reading music magazines?

Following my research in magazines readers I went to investigate further into who reads magazines. This is to extend my knowledge on my own target audience for my own music magazine.

This statistics are from NRS website -http://www.nrs.co.uk/
 All numbers are from July 2013- 2014. The advantage of using NRS website as it lets me find specific readership information, most update being up to July 2014. It includes age, genders and financial groups. The disadvantage to NRS is the age groups aren't specific. They are divided into two groups which vary extremely (15-34 and 35+) . There is a big different between the customer aged 15 and the one aged 34, however they are classed in the same age group. As well as using just ‘35+’ this doesn't identify if the majority of the customers are 35- 50 years old or older. Again, there is a big difference between a 35 year old and a 70 year old. However, I used their website as a key source to find out who reads two well established magazines, Kerrang and MOJO. Both of these magazines are published by Bauer, the publisher I looked at previously. This will help me discover what makes them popular to help me create a successful music magazine of my own.

Media Publishers

In order to produce an effect Music magazine, I must gain knowledge in magazine publishing.

What is a magazine publisher?

•Magazine publishers are responsible for making their publications an success. They define the editorial position and manage business operations so that the magazine provides readers with high quality content while maximizing revenue and profit.

•Publishers establish a direction and market position for the magazine so that it conveys a clear identity to readers and advertisers. For example Shingdig! Publishers must have it clear it is a magazine for 1960’s and 70s music. So, Beyonce will never appear on the cover.

•The magazine content must reflect its editorial position. The publisher recruits a team of writers, photographers and editors to create entertaining, newsworthy articles that appeal to the target audience. The size of this team depends on the size of the magazine. For example, Vogue’s team will be larger than Shingdig! as it is a bigger magazine.

•Advertising- This is VERY important for publishers. It how the magazine makes the most money. Publishers recruit an advertising sales team to sell space to advertisers or their agencies. The adverts must be suitable for the magazine, for example some may refuse to accept ads for tobacco or alcohol in it is a magazine for children. Also, it would be a waste for a rock band to spend money on advertising in a sewing magazine.

•Why advertise in a magazine? (according to Bauer publisher)

•-Readers become deeply engaged with their magazines. As a result a strong relationship, a bond of trust, grows up between the reader and his or her chosen magazines. Reading a favourite magazine is like talking with a friend

•-The average page in a paid-for magazine is looked at 2.5 times by each reader

•-Since different categories of magazine fulfil different needs they work in different ways, which are well adapted to their readers’ requirements. Also be a place your advert will fit.

 

BAUER PUBLISHER - There slogan 'We Think Popular'.

It is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. This means in a shop bauer may be owning two magazines your trying to pick in-between. What is the benefit of this? Genres in music are very specific, this therefore makes the audience for a magazine of certain genre smaller. Bauer knows that a rock fan won't buy a magazine with pop in, it only wants rock. Therefore if it owns both a pop and a rock magazine, they will be publishing to both audiences and getting more ££

MOJO - Bauer publishers MOJO - information below came from www.bauermedia.co.uk

 

This tells on who EXACTLY the audience for mojo is. It is so specific and it shows that mojo know exactly who they are aiming at. I therefore want to investigate into creating my own 'reader' to ensure that my magazine will meet their every need

The website also tells potential advertisers the benefits of advertising with MOJO. These include the fact it has a 58% ABC1 audience, if someone was looking to advertise a expensive product, it would be effective to do it in MOJO. Also tells me MOJO is a 'influencer' this means the content in magazine has large influence on the reader. This could mean it influence them to listen to a new band or to attend a concert.

Probably the most important information for advertisers. However it also lets me the audience rating for MOJO. It is mostly male, who are aged 45-54 and the mean age is 43. If I wanted to base my magazine on this target audience I will look at MOJO and what about it is appealing to them. Also have a high number of 15-24 year olds that read the magazine. So, I may like to look at MOJO and see how they create a magazine which appeals to two different age groups.

 

SHINDIG! - all information gathered from www.shindig-magazine.co.uk

I I am looking at shindig magazine as I am interested in producing a mod magazine. Shindig is a magazine based on music in the 1960's and 70's. Although it is not specifically based on mod, mod music was in the 60's and therefore it does appear regularly in the magazine. "Shindig! not only recounts the stories about the musicals and bands from the original psychedelic period, it also discovers and promotes new young bands who are influenced by the halcyon ear and adapting it style to make their own exciting sounds"

F   The facts and figures:

•82% of Shindig! readers are in the ABC1 category.

•Men make up 83% of the readership.

•Women 17%

•Shindig! achieves a circulation of 26,000.

•The website has 13,800 vistors pcm

-similar to MOJO, Shindig also have a large male audience. Which  makes me this if the market is missing a Mod magazine for females?

 

 

Here is the information shindig give online on what advertising space they offer for print or online and the prices.

Also, on the website it tells me the publishing dates. This is important as it clearly shows what time of the year Shindig publish a issue.