Completed Article

Double Page Spread Article for ‘Wolf’ Magazine


Music Interview
Wolf: Breakthrough

Fresh out of the recording studio with his 2011 breakthrough band ‘The Polaroids’, Simon Wicklow talks to ‘Wolf’ about mixtapes, xbox-ing and village life.

When Simon arrived at the ‘Wolf’ offices it was clear from the offset that I was meeting with a very down-to-earth and shy young boy that has been sky-rocketed into the media spotlight. He wanders into our shoot, acid-wash skinnies, boat shoes and a big old granddad cardigan hiding his awkwardness. When asked if he needs anything, he replies ‘a cuppa would be nice, two sugars please’. Sniffling away after recovering from a cold, he retires into one of our squishy armchairs as if settling down for a chat with his mates.

Rose: Hi, it’s lovely to meet you. I’ve been listening to your demo album and it really portrays a group of young lads having fun and living an exciting and spontaneous lifestyle but what makes Simon Wicklow tick?

Simon: Hello, nice to meet you too. Yeah, we’re all in our late teens and early twenties so we’re trying to not get bogged down by all the serious stuff in life, making sure our music is fun and inspiring. ‘The Polaroids’ are becoming popular but I’m still only a lad used to village life, living in a small close-knit community and having a pint up the local pub.

R: You say you’re used to a small community lifestyle, so how do you feel about this new found fame?

S: It is scary! I have never been very good at being the centre of attention; I’m a bit of a social recluse. I’d rather be xbox-ing than out ‘partying’ so this all feels very weird and surreal to me.

R: Your music is alternative, think The Kooks meet Mumford and Son meet Florence and the Machine but who would you have playing on a mixed tape?

S: I like a little bit of everything. I listen to bands such as A Day to Remember or 30 Seconds to Mars. I love dubstep but am happy listening to The Smiths or Bombay Bicycle Club. All of us have completely different tastes in music which I presume is why our songs have such a mix match of styles.

R: You’re playing Camden’s Underworld next month, renowned for performances in the past from the likes of Radiohead and The Smashing Pumpkins. How do you feel about playing such a prestigious venue?

S: Petrified, I am trying not to think about it, just taking each day in my stride but if the fashionable crowd of Camden like you that’s got to mean something!

Quick Fire Questions:

Tea or coffee?
Always tea

What is your telly pleasure?
Has to be two and a half men or any American sitcom. I’m a big fan of scrubs.

Star Sign?
Aquarius

Cider or Beer?
Bleurgh beer is gross, cider all the way preferably a Kopperburg

What would find in your car?
Mess, receipts, shoes, a skateboard, mints, ipod, tapes…

Your scent?
I’m a Lynx Africa kind of man

The Polaroid’s start their new tour at Camden’s Underworld on February 10th and many dates are planned for across the country. Make sure to check them out on tour or at http://www.thepolaroids.com/

(For my double page spread:

The left hand-side page will have an image of the main subject 'Simon Wicklow'.

The right hand-side page will have the title and introduction at the very top and the rest of the interview in columns with a few smaller images dotted within)

Chosen Interview Questions

It is very difficult to plan fully the questions you are going to ask in an interview. You shouldn't really overplan a colloquial and casual interview, some interviews are even conducted over 'twitter' but i have thought about the kind of questions that can trigger off other questions:

- Hello, you've just come off stage, how do you think the audience reacted to your new music?

- Hello, first of all congratulations on your...

- Your reknowned for being...

- Do you have any pre-show rituals?

- Your new album is out next week, what was your inspiration?

Interview Techniques

Obviously interviewing someone for television is entirely different to writing an interview for a magazine but there are some features and skills that are transferable:

Lady Gaga Interviewed on T4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPvwpkU2W9w

Ellie Goulding Interview:



What i have discovered from looking at spoken television interviews is that the majority of modern day interviews are extremely casual and colloquial. Although the questions are scripted it is clear that the people doing the interviews on both ocassions sometimes make the questions up on the spot. I will have to ensure that my magazine interview appears to be conversational and comfortable rather than an interrogation.

How to conduct an interview: Magazine Questions

Types of Interviews:

Informal, conversational interview - no predetermined questions are asked, in order to remain as open and adaptable as possible to the interviewee's nature and priorities; during the interview, the interviewer "goes with the flow".
General interview guide approach - the guide approach is intended to ensure that the same general areas of information are collected from each interviewee; this provides more focus than the conversational approach, but still allows a degree of freedom and adaptability in getting information from the interviewee.
Standardised, open-ended interview - here, the same open-ended questions are asked to all interviewees (an open-ended question is where respondents are free to choose how to answer the question, i.e., they don't select "yes" or "no" or provide a numeric rating, etc.); this approach facilitates faster interviews that can be more easily analyzed and compared.
Closed, fixed-response interview - where all interviewees are asked the same questions and asked to choose answers from among the same set of alternatives. This format is useful for those not practiced in interviewing.


Conducting an Interview:

Make sure everything is recorded or written down
Ask one question at a time.
Attempt to remain as neutral as possible. That is, don't show strong emotional reactions to their responses. Patton suggests to act as if "you've heard it all before."
Encourage responses with occasional nods of the head, "uh huh"s, etc.
Be careful about the appearance when note taking. That is, if you jump to take a note, it may appear as if you're surprised or very pleased about an answer, which may influence answers to future questions.
Provide transition between major topics, e.g., "we've been talking about (some topic) and now I'd like to move on to (another topic)."
Don't lose control of the interview. This can occur when respondents stray to another topic, take so long to answer a question that times begins to run out, or even begin asking questions to the interviewer.

Genre: Fanzine

Fanzine is a blend of fan and magazine (-zine), it is produced by fans and is about a particular cultural phenomenon such as an indie music magazine.

My magazine, although a professional publication, has some aspects of a fanzine style journalised work.

Wolf is 'specialised' to a certain genre but it appeals to a large audience because the genre is popular. My magazine is similar to a fanzine publication due to its almost artistic creation and appearance. I like the idea of a fanzine magazine because clearly the creators haev put a lot of thought into their publication. I want to create some sort of similarities of fanzine publications with my own magazine because it is a really individual and unique style and shows the effort, dedication and care that can go into producing a popular magazine.

Alternative Double Page Spread Ideas

1.Polaroid Interview - Front Man:

My main idea is to conduct an interview between a band or an artist. It is a typical feature within a music

magazine. The public are interested in hearing about their favourite band or artist. Hearing responses to 'nitty-gritty' journalised questions interests the reader and encourages an audience to buy

a magazine that

features something they are interested in.

2.Fashion Meets Music:

Fashion and music coincide with each other. When you see a person on the street dressed

in a certain way you automatically assume that they listen to a certain type of music.

For Example: When looking at the image to the left, you'd presume she listened to a certain genre of music, artists such as 'The Arctic Monkeys' or 'The Smiths'. Fashion and music go hand in hand, magazines such as 'Dazed and Confused' have picked up on this and they publish interviews with bands discussing their music as well as their outfits.

3.Festivals:The Ultimate Review:

Festivals are a huge part in the musical calender and thousands of people each year pay a large sum of money to sleep in a tent in a crowded field. Festival goers are interested to see what is considered to be the best festival, these reviews are like holiday brochures to the regular festival goers. Festivals are a good feature to put into a magazine; they can include information on the artists, festival fashion, pros and cons of certain festivals etc.

4.Real life of Celebrities:

The general public have a fascination with celebrities, as a species we are impulsively nosey and an article that adheres to the public's interest in other people's lives would be popular.

5.CULT living:

An article epitomising 'cult living' - people interested in vintage music and how it applies to there everyday lives. Vintage clothing, antique houses and the idea of living in a different time period.

6.Real Talent VS. Talent Shows:

There is a lot of controversy that bands and singers that are created on talent shows such as 'The X Factor' have been falsely manufactured and have used a 'lazy' route into become famous. An article that interviews different people's views on 'Real Talent' vs 'Talent Shows' could be a controversial.

▲ Complete articles with ‘delta’ triangle symbol as a full stop, finisher.

Style of Writing in a Music Magazine

The style of writing in a music magazine is colloquial. The majority of people that read a music magazine are of a younger audience, late teens to early twenties, and therefore the type of language reflects this age group. Although magazines purely based around the theme of music tend to have specific genres; rock, indie etc they tend to not use technical jargon or complex structures. Magazines tend to be light-hearted and easy to read, nobody wants to read a complicated magazine.

Example of the type of writing in a music magazine:

'Hello Madonna. Its our seven year anniversary. The last interview we did together for this magazine was in March 2001, of all things. We've spoken since, but our last on-the-record conversation for Interview was before the whole world changed.'

Unlike Jane Austen novels, nobody speaks one-hundred percent of the time in a Recieved Pronunciation, Standard English form.

Double Page Spread Style Model

This is an interview with Beth Ditto of The Gossip featuring in Marie Claire. Having looked at several double page spreads featuring interviews i have noticed that the format tends to stay the same the majority of the time. The title font is large but uses a simple typeface and is only shown in black and white. The font for the main content, again is simple, similar to an arial or calibri and is put into a newspaper style format of columns. This interview goes onto several pages and the first page goes into a lot of detail into the background history of Beth Ditto and her band. The image, i love, the colours in which it is shot are subdued, pastel colours and the details on the face are clear and crisp. It is a really lovely piece of photography.

I think that interview pages for a lot of magazines needed to be more creative and original, they all appear to stick to a certain format. I love the photography used within this double page spread and it has inspired me to be adventurous with camera settings and lighting experiments to create really beautiful photography to compliment the text.

Double Page Spread Style Model

This is an interview from 'Dazed and Confused' magazine. It is an interview with a 'new', unknown pop-punk band called Ariel Pink by Caroline Ryder. The layout of this magazine is unconventional, it appears to be 'all over the place'. It still remains to have a formal layout in the form of a newspaper style format, it uses skinny columns and black and white font and imagery to maintain this appearance. This magazine interview lacks the friendship between the journalist and the subject but still has the informality seen in the interview with 'Madonna'.

I like the way that this interview has been written. The initial paragraph in the first column introduces the artist and tells the reader some of the history of the band. It pressumes that you don't have any prior knowledge of the band and doesn't 'keep you in the dark'. The questions are a mixture of informal irrelevent subjects such as 'do you like blondes?' and more serious questions that relate to the career of the artist 'so, where is music going in your opinion?'. It has that mixture of questions that i hope to portray in my own double page spread.

The image seems to be precariously placed with no real thought. On the one hand it is in keeping with the quirky awkwardness that is the style of Dazed and Confused but on the other hand the image appears slightly messy and the text surrounding has no continuity with the image, the page does not flow as a whole.

I love the style of writing of the journalist, she has the right mix between a formal and informal interview. She asks the quirky and interesting questions alongside the more pressing and important questions that relate to the publicising of the band. I am not keen on the overall format of this double page spread. I think it appears messy and doesn't entice the reader, it is far too clinical for a magazine.

Double Page Spread Style Model

This is a double page spread from 'Interview' Magazine, it is an interview between Madonna and Ingrid Sischy.
It has several features that make it successful both as a double spread in a magazine as well as an interview. Obviously the journalist has had the chance to talk with a world famous artist but the way in which the interview has been produced allows the reader to feel involved in the production. There is a real sense of informality and colloquialism within this interview, this is clear from the off when both subjects start with 'Hi, Ingrid' and 'Hello, Madonna'. The reader can clearly see the connection between these two people and i like the informality of the interview, unlike some magazines, it makes it appear more accessible for the reader.
The magazine set up and layout is simplistic which i like, a complex layout can confuse the reader and make them less likely to be interested in reading about the subject. A large image on the left hand side juxtaposes with the page of text, it means the reader is not overpowered with writing. The name of the artist is in bold, blue lettering, it automatically captures the readers attention, they are not forced to read further into the article to discover what the subject is. The tag line of the interview is also in blue but in a much smaller font, the blue contrasts against the white of the background allowing it to clearly stand out on the page.
The interview itself is in a conversational format:

Ingrid: Tell us more about the film
Madonna: There were so many ways it could have turned out.

I like the way that the text is in bold for one person and is normal for the other, it allows the reader to easily differentiate between the two making it much simpler to read. The interview itself is set out almost similar to a play script, a script should be easy to read at a glance and this magazine clearly has a grasp on the ratio of complexity and simplicity.

I like this double page spread, i think that the simplicity would be something similar that i would use in my magazine. I also like the script format because it makes for very easy reading. A magazine is not expected to be a complex piece of reading, it should be light-hearted and fun. If you want to read 'War and Peace' you can but a magazine is not supposed to be difficult to understand.

House Style

A house style is fundamental in the production of a magazine, they are the elements that link the text, the images and the overall context together. They ensure that the magazine fits a certain standard and that there is continuity within the magazines appearance.

The above font is called 'Levis Brush' and is the font i have used throughout as my magazine name. The rest of the text in the magazine is written in courier and i ensure that this same font is used throughout the magazine.

The front cover and contents page, i feel, show continuity and a sense of a house style. The colour, itself, is dark, using blues and greys and this is apparent through both pages. The font 'stands out' against the dark background because i have used white, it is not awkward or difficult for the magazines audience to read.

Proposal for double page spread article

I want to create a double page spread that embodies the theme of my music magazine, it will probably be about the talent that I have used on the front cover of my magazine to ensure some continuity. Music magazines feature a lot of interviews and rarely is a band featured without some contribution from the band themselves in the form of interviewing, so this is what I will probably include within my magazine double page spread.

There are various different ways that an interview can be 'written up', it can be published as it was said, with questions and answers or the journalist can write it up as a collective text and just include quotations from the interviewee.

I will compliment the interview text with images so that the double page spread doesn't appear boring. The kind of questions that I want to ask the talent will be obscure and eclectic because the magazine I have created is quite alternative. I want the questions to be 'different', the kind of questions that you would not usually expect to see in a magazine but they will still go alongside the theme of my music magazine. The questions can alternate between simple questions, facts that the fans would like to know such as 'Tea or Coffee?' and more complex interview style questions that publicise the band such as 'Is there a theme to your new album?' or 'What was it like filming you video for _______?'

Wolf Contents Page Mock Up

This is the initial mock up of my contents page, I have used the same model on the cover on the contents page to create a sense of continuity. I have used the same font on the title for the inside of the magazine but I have used courier for the contents page details. The image I have used I have placed slightly off centre so that I could use the black backdrop as the backdrop for my text, it has made it a lot clearer and easy to read. This photo was created using the same technique as the cover shot but I have not edited the colour contrast or brightness, I have left the photo how it was when it was taken because I was already happy with the colour and detail of the facial features.

To ensure the affect of a proper magazine I think I will have to put more text onto this page, at the moment it feels a bit empty. I am happy with how my magazine is coming together so far because it has turned out relatively professional.

Vogue Contents Page

I decided to analyse other magazines that weren't specifically 'music'. Vogue's contents page is simple and slightly clinical but unlike the 'NME' contents page, it doesn't appear messy. It actually has a lot of similarities with NME magazine, the use of the black, white and red. The title is large and is layered over the top of the imagery. Similarly to NME, the contents page is more of a last minute thought - it doesn't appear to have any particular page layout, the images do not really fit with the rest of the page, they almost look as if they have been put in last minute.

On the contrary to what i have said, i do like this contents page, it is clean and organised. It is easy to read because it is simple which is effective.

Dazed & Confused Contents Page

I love the contents page from this issue of Dazed & Confused magazine, it is creative and imaginative. It relates to the arty feel of the magazine. They have put it over a double page spread placing the picture in the middle of the pages, it makes the content interesting as well as spacious, it doesn't feel as if it has been rushed pre-production. The font used, i love, it gives the effect of a dymo machine embossed black and red tape. It has been used on the titles and page numbers and a different font has been used on the further information. I think that this contents page shows the creativity of the magazine and shows an individuality to the magazines production.

NME Contents Page

The NME magazine contents page is a little clinical and newspaper like which relates to the newspaper form that it used to be printed in. There is not a lot of colour, the red from the title and page numbers and the use of imagery relating to the magazine context.

It is not a particularly interesting contents page which is a continuation within most magazines. The magazine producers tend to spend less time producing a contents page compared to a cover because it is not the first thing the potential buyer will see. I am unimpressed with the almost laziness of NME with the unimaginative contents page but it does the job. I like the white text against the black background for the titles, it stands out and clearly directs the reader to the main interests within the magazine.

Magazine Front Cover Mock Up

This is the initial mock up of the front cover of my magazine.

I have included a title in the font called 'levis brush' from dafont.com. I like the effect of this font, it is artistic and looks like it has been painted. I have used the same font for all the lettering on my magazine cover apart from the band name in which i used the font that the band uses on their CD covers and other media etc.

I have included a bar code, price and a magazine website but have put it small in the bottom right hand corner of the cover, i did not want the details to overpower the cover and most magazines of any genre tend to make this information relatively small.

I could possibly do with making the font size of the title and the other text a bit bigger so that at an initial glance the buyer is able to see what the magazine context is alongside the large image which obviously shows the main subject or the 'interviewed artist' of the magazine.

Costume, Location and Lighting

Costume, location and lighting are all fundamental to the final front cover image. A music magazine has a similar style that appears to be universal throughout the mainstream media world of music magazines.

I have been particular in my choices to ensure that my front cover image is individual but follows the conventions of a music magazine.

Costume: My talent is supposed to be from an indie style band and his clothing reflects this. He is wearing a hoodie, coat and t-shirt which is casual wear and is perfect for the overall feel of my magazine.

Location: It didn't matter where i took this cover photo because i knew that i wanted either a plain black or white backdrop. I decided on a black backdrop. When analysing current magazines such as NME and Q, the majority of cover talents were shot against a plain background to ensure that the subject themselves is the main feature of the magazine and this is the effect i have gone for with my front cover. It gives it a fresh and contemporary feel.

Lighting: To ensure i shot an extremely detailed photo there had to be almost no natural lighting and relied entierly on the flash from the camera. Natural lighting affects the detail of the facial features because it drowns out the colour.

I have edited my front cover but only slightly, changing the colour of the photo and photoshopping some of the facial features blemishes and imperfections but i did not want to use any overly unnatural editing and airbrushed. I did not want my talent to appear 'fake' because it doesnt appeal as much to a target audience, makes the subject appear more 'down to earth'.