Photoshoot Plans

As my magazine is of the indie/acoustic genre, I looked at magazines such as NME to see how they portrayed female artists, as the model on the front of my cover will be female. I noticed that when they have female or solo artists on their cover, it will usually be a close up shot of their face, so they are the main focus of the cover. In the Florence and the Machine cover of NME that I looked at, she was wearing little make-up, and a plain white top so her face and hair was the main focus of the cover. I’d like to do something like this so other elements on the cover aren’t so distracting and the viewers focus on the artist. I’ve noticed that most indie artists use nature in their music videos, photo-shoots, album covers, etc, with the male indie bands using woodlands quite a lot and female indie artists using single flowers. This was shown in Katy Perry’s Billboard cover, even though she is more of a pop artist, however by using flowers it adds femininity to the frame.

Therefore on my cover my female artist will be wearing little make-up, and the hair-styling will be very simple. The model will be giving the audience a direct mode of address on the cover but in the contents and double-page spread images they will most likely be a variation of photographs, some will have direct modes of address whereas others will not. I’d like to incorporate nature into the shot, which can link to the genre of indie and also perhaps the artist that I make up. For the shoot I’m going to try a close up of the artists face and also a medium shot which could include an instrument (like an acoustic guitar) in the frame to relate to the title of the magazine ‘Strum’ and the genre that it portrays. If I’m using nature as a focus point then I will most likely use natural lighting in the shot. I will see how the photograph looks with the model looking at the camera and also not looking at the camera, to decide whether the direct mode of address works or not. The magazine should have quite a casual feel to it, therefore the photoshoot shouldn’t be too structured, I’d like the image to look natural and comfortable at the end of it rather than a fully posed image. In the close up photograph, body language won’t be too much of an issue as the artist’s face will be the only thing the viewer sees, however in the medium shot the top half of their body will have to be composed naturally to give across that carefree attitude.