Journalism Development

Track: Under My Thumb
Artist: The Rolling Stones
Upon first listen to the track, you could almost be forgiven for being lulled into false security by it's upbeat rythms and catchy riffs, both played alongside the unique sound of the marimba, in which Brian Jones takes good care of on this particular song. It is however on closer examination, that the message is reading loud and clear, with Mick Jagger unresentfully calling out "under my thumb, the squirming dog has had her day", the 'squirming dog' of course presumed to be an ex-lover of Jaggers or perhaps a fictional character created for the song, either way, a Woman. Turning back towards the music, the mix of the track is of very high quality, with an atmospheric would-be haunting vocal, allowing Micks distinguished echo to remain calm and just enjoy itself. The contrast of the echo present within the vocal and percussion has a certain flow when backed against the 'clean' sounds of the smooth guitar licks and authentic marimba ,allowing the song to really stay together with nothing getting lost in the mix. Offbeat overdubs add a real choppy rhythm to the otherwise 'nice' track, allowing the stones to really shine under the light again and reveal themselves to be the bunch of lads they are.

Artist: The Who
Original artefacts of 'swinging London', The Who, were originally a group of lads from Shephards Bush just trying to compete against the other British success stories of The Beatles and The kinks, as well as the newly imported Bob Dylan that had recently made his mark on British soil. The Who began life after the success of the 'The High Numbers', their earlier band name, had faltered, it was a mere attempt to catch out the eye of the British public in giving them music which the band themselves already knew to be solid gold. Listening to their earlier records, it is easy to say that The Who were influenced by London peers 'The Kinks', however to say this it must also be understood that both The Who and The kinks were growing up on similar soil at a similar time and therefore similarities music wise must surely of been expected. The Who, in particular guitarist and main songwriter, Pete Townshend, quickly turned their hand to the concept of creating a concept record, this was something that Pete showed clear talent of, even with the early 'I'm a Boy', in which the words were supposedly coming from a fictional creation of Pete's, this was new, this was not The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, this was The Who.

Intended Genre: Popular Music
Popular music as a genre, really takes shape in many forms, as it is simply whatever the popular style of music is at one given time, my intentions are to focus on the popular music movement from the 1960's and 70's with frequent yet brief nods to the 80's, 90's and 00's. Taking this on board, in terms of influences of genre, the 60s was very much blues and folk influenced, and produced rock and roll bands, folk acts and the British answer to the two more American associated acts - Mod bands. Mod was equally about the culture as it was the music, and even more so about the clothes and scooters, prime Mod band The Who began referencing such culture in their songs and hit it off big time, perhaps the start of 'lad' culture. There was no real political spark within Mod songs, this was more present in folk songs or 'protest songs' as they were dubbed, and this peaked the 'hippy' movement, whilst rock and roll songs tended to feature more tender and girl/sex related themes, appealing to a younger, girl populated crowd. It is clear to see that most other popular music genre cultures that i will feature have developed from these intial three, Mod can be linked to Punk and Britpop, and even the one off 'Madchester', Rock and Roll morphs into pretty much any genre of hard or soft rock including glam, classic, prog etc.. and folk pretty much stayed the same, perhaps linking in also with punk culture given the political movement of the two.

My journalism skills have turned my magazine into something more real, something amusing, yet very accurate in its facts. The important factor is to include trivia and mild opinions (bad ones too, can entertain the reader). It is important for the journalism element of the magazine to be down to earth and use language appropriate for the reader, colloquilisms are a must, helping establish a firm bond between editor and reader, as in effect surely that is the most important bond, to get the reader on the same wave length as the magazines editor.

Paragraph Plans

1st Paragraph - Opening paragraph in third person giving detailed background notes about what the band have previosuly done and about their unique act.

2nd Paragraph - Continuous from the last paragraph, this one begins to contain more interviewers observations of the men from the interview, and explaining how this is usual/ unusual compared to a certain event.

3rd Paragraph - The third paragraph is still written in continous prose, however including quotes from the interview and opinions from the band when they are needed.

4th Paragraph - The question - answer format begins, not touching any subject that has previously been mentioned in the interview already.

5th Paragraph - The question - answer format continues, before the interview approaches a climatic end.

Article Planning Sheet

Article Focus
The main focus of my article is going to be the interview, the purpose of the interview i will be conducting is to inform in an entertaining manner. The interview will interchange between 1st and 3rd person as the it takes on new levels of context, and gradually turns into question-answer formatting from its previous mass of interviewers personal and edited response to the men in question. The style of the interview is going to take on a very informal and homely feel, creating a 'real' portrayal of the band by using their actual Northern dialect and other language features such as colloquialisms, which i intend to use frequently. Large portions of the interview will be very subject specific, however not too intentse so that the casual reader would feel the need to put it back in the rack.

Call Sheets

Actor: Peter Hall
Day/ Date(s): 12th - 20th February
Time: 10:00 - 11:00
Costume: Own 'mod' polo and track style top
Make-Up: n/a
Location : The Beck, Baydale

Photographer: David Stobart
Director: David Stobart

Actor: Callum Power
Day/ Date(s): 12th - 20th February
Time: 10:00 - 11:00
Costume: Provided cream 'baggy gentlemen's' coat
Make-Up: n/a
Location: The Beck, Baydale

Photographer: David Stobart
Director: David Stobart

Actor: Tom Norgrove
Day/ Date(s): 12th -20th February
Time: 10:00 - 11:00
Costume: Provided Parka coat
Make-Up: n/a
Location: The Beck, Baydale

Photographer: David Stobart
Director: David Stobart

Recce Of Location

These photos are a variety of angled shots around the location i found for my recce. It conatains a beck with a lot of natural features running through the image. It is the perfect 'feasable' location to portray the intentions of a real band, that are just having a good time by the water and trees. It is easily accessible to me, around a ten minute walk from home, and is open for public use meaning no permission is required for the shoot. The weather condition for the location is going to be a gamble, however the gloomy and miserable connotations created from the photographs i have taken of my recce, is the desired wheather condition of my choice for my cover - depicting Northern gloom for bands along the lack of excitement in the current Northern music scene. The cover is definately very Northern based and represents what being in the North is about, i think it's important that people of the globe reading upmarket music magazines realise the scenes in areas of the UK other than London. The location of recce is also quite tranquil, allowing for the reader to be perhaps introduced to the type of music that the cover artist might be in to.

Photoshoot Plans

River bank shoot

Rationale: The reason i have placed the subject in the great outdoors, in a very natural environment is so they are portrayed as very 'real' people, and not just something that has been invented overnight and glamourized for the publics eyes. I am still looking to take a high quality image, just one that uses natural lighting and can be a warmer (not literally) surrounding for the models (band) to be in. The use of natural lighting can be a bit of a gamble, however the location i have found has a clearing through trees in which the sunlight filters through, it is important that i pick the right day/ time of day to take the shoot, as this has a strong influence on the turnout of the image.

Photography Skills Development