Evidence of Photoshoot

This is the outcome of my original two separate photoshoots. I decided to carry out two photoshoots with two different people to express variety throughout my magazine. My favourite images are the ones where Amber and Lily are looking directly at the camera with a neutral facial expression because it follows common genre codes and conventions.

After reviewing these images in my media product, I decided to conduct several more photoshoots with higher quality images. All of these images can be found on my other blog post 'Actual Photos'. These images were a massive improvement in comparison to my beginning photoshoots below, as the better lighting gave my images a higher level of quality, therefore making my media product appear more professional and of a higher quality, thus connoting high production values.

Photo reflection

The overall outcome of both photoshoots were fairly successful. but the lighting was slightly darker than I was hoping for. When doing my photoshoots, I ensured that the lights were on and facing in the right direction in the studio. However, the outcome of the photographs  showed the lights as darker than what I was expecting.



One success was the clothing worn, which was appropriate to the indie genre, thus making it an accurate representation of indie music culture. Also, the facial expressions used followed typical indie genre conventions.


The location was both successful and unsuccessful - the location used was the best place in college to get professional photos, but the dark lighting made the student more difficult to see. This however can be modified using the brightness settings in Photoshop.

Article Copy

Heading - International indie inspiration AMBER ADAIR reveals all in a very exclusive, very personal interview with Now Indie Magazine.

Pull Quote - "I like to stay modest, because I can't believe I am where I am"

Article - International indie inspiration Amber Adair reveals all in a very exclusive, very personal interview with Now Indie Magazine.

Picture this: I’m in the outskirts of London, stood outside the world famous Amber Adair’s house, which is perhaps the most cosy and modest house I have ever seen. Just as I am admiring the house and all its beauty, the gorgeous legend herself opens the front door. As I entered, I was immediately drawn to the huge amount of awards casually presented around the house. But this will not come as a surprise to anyone who has heard this talented musician sing. It was very obvious she highly values all of her fans, as she has many selfies of them displayed on her walls. When I questioned Amber about this she laughed and said, “Yeah, my fans mean so much to me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them!”

Her sheer popularity and massively dedicated fans doesn’t seem to faze her, and hasn’t changed her as a person at all. This came as a surprise and a delight to me with my experience of interviewing egotistical musicians that clearly love themselves a bit too much. When I told her this, Amber blushed and said “Why thank you, it’s always nice when someone tells you how fame hasn’t changed you. I like to stay modest, because I can’t believe I am where I am”.

Polite and a bit shy, Amber says how she was brought up in a modest background, which has influenced her music and made her stay humble. “I was born and raised in a relatively poor family, which made you appreciate everything you were given.  My childhood has inspired my music by singing about the value of life, and I use it as a way to reach out to any of my fans that may be feeling what I felt. That is why I wanted to create my own music – to express who I am and how I feel, and offer a peaceful escape to those in need of it”.

 Amber was raised in a rural town in South Devon, and came to London to audition for the popular reality TV show ‘The X Factor’. “Being born in the countryside has a tendency to make you feel isolated and cut off from the rest of the world, which is why travelling to London was such a frightening experience for me. It made me realise how naïve I was about the real world. It shocked me how many different cultures occurred in London and how I wanted to be a part of this multi-cultural community.”

Unsurprisingly, Ambers’ amazing audition impressed the judges greatly, and her amazing talent carried her to The X Factor Final. To everyone’s disbelief she didn’t win the final, but came a very respectable second place. This caused anger from her fans, who were all completely confident her spectacular singing had secured her first place in the show. Coming second place shocked Amber and made her realise how much people value her music. “I couldn’t believe I made it past the auditions let alone the final. Getting to perform my own songs in front of thousands of people was such an incredible experience that I will never forget’.

After coming second place, Amber was signed on to a 2-year contract with Modest! Management, who are best known for managing super famous musicians such as Olly Murs, One Direction and Little Mix. Within 2 weeks of finishing the final, Adair was in the studio producing and recording new music. Her first song on the upcoming album, ‘I’d be lost without you’ is independently written by Adair, and she says it is ‘a song dedicated to each and every one of my fans. They all mean so much to me and I wanted to make sure they know that. The names of her other songs are yet to be released, but it has been confirmed by Modest! that her album is coming out on the 25^th of June.

As well as a new album and music videos to look forward to, there have also been hints about an upcoming UK tour. When I tried to find out information about this Amber said, “I would love to do a tour! It has been something I have suggested to the management team recently, and they also seem really enthusiastic with the whole touring idea. I have always wanted to travel around the world someday, and I could think of nothing better than to do so whilst doing what I love – performing to all my fans. However, given the choice I would rather go touring around this beautiful country first, so I can give something back to all my British fans that voted for me religiously each week and thank them for doing so.” So far this tour is just a possibility and has not had confirmation but if it were to happen Adair would want it to begin near her hometown and gradually make her way up the country, performing at as many venues as possible.

Amber promises that she will continue to produce music and perform for as long as she possibly can. Laughingly, Adair jokes, “I’m sure that I will be around for so long that my fans will be sick of me!”

Title notes and feedback

My possible titles were: Now Indie, Indie Weekly, Indie Now and Indie Music For You. I decided to go with Now Indie after analysing my survey results and seeing that the majority of my responders preferred this title over the other options. These responders were in my target audience so this gave me even further reason to use this title in my work.

House style mood board

When creating my mood board I made sure to include a variation of magazine covers, fonts and mastheads. This gave me a better understanding on how house styles are established through colour and typography. You are able to see the difference between the high and low production value magazines by the use of colour and the quality of the images. The photographs with a plain background with the shot in focus have high production values, because the magazines can afford to have professional photo-shoots of celebrities for every issue. The low production value magazines usually use bright, bold colours, but this is not always the case, as evidenced by the Q Magazine logo pictured in the bottom right of my mood board. All of the fonts, despite the high or low production  values, are in capital letters to stand out.

There is quite a variation of colours but black, red and blue are the main colours present on my mood board. These are the colours I want to include across my magazine.

Font styles

I am aiming to use quite masculine fonts to make sure my magazine appeals to both genders. Using a female throughout my magazine will appeal to the female members in my audience because it gives them someone to relate to, but I am trying to avoid using any femininity through typography and colour. This is why I am focusing on using fonts like the ones below (at the bottom of the page) which are not seen as too feminine or too masculine, so it wont appeal to just one gender in the audience. For the double page spread the text will need to be quite small to ensure that all of the information fits onto one page. I will have two columns in my double page spread, because when considering how the page will fold I decided to have the main image take up half the page, and the text and masthead to take up the other half. I am also considering using a drop cap or an initial letter at the beginning of my article to give my double page spread a more sophisticated appearance.

The two fonts below are included to show examples of the sort of font I am wanting for my masthead. I am using my understanding on how some fonts can look too masculine or feminine to make sure I avoid using these fonts, which will ensure that I am appealing to both genders. In terms of the two fonts pictured below, I would be more likely to choose the top font because it is bolder and capitalised, whereas the bottom font isn't in capital letters so it doesn't stand out as much.

Masthead design and feedback

After thoughtful consideration I decided to use the bottom right masthead in my magazine, because the bolder font makes it stand out more, which makes it gain more attention. The sans serif used makes it look more informal, because although formality usually connotes professionalism, using sans serif will attract the audience because the masthead looks more friendly and welcoming. The colour choices I am mostly likely to use are black or white, although it is more likely I will use black because I wanted the background to be white, to follow genre conventions and connote high production values.  I will also ensure that the masthead I am using will be in capital letters, to emphasise it and gain more attention.