MY PHOTO SHOOTS

My Models: Mike Frost I think Mike was a great choice for a

model because he really suits this ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ look that I am promoting in my magazine.

As most popular musicians do, he has long and messy hair, as well as facial hair and this look will stand out to a reader as a quintessential rock image.

His looks could also encourage, perhaps, a wider range of potential buyers that the one that I have specifically catered my magazine around.

Dave Grohl - Rock GodMike Frost – My Model

My Models: Shelved Glory My next models are the band Shelved

Glory.

Their look is Stereophonics meets Arctic Monkeys. In their photo shoots they don’t need to have instruments and they have a distinctive style of dress that I think works well, and is very suited to an NME audience.

This group have some of the aspects that are seen in popular culture a lot. As demonstrated in the pictures at the side. The Leather jacket, the long messy hair and the brooding faces.

Stereophonics Arctic Monkeys

Gentlemen’s Club

My Models: Gentlemen’s Club For this photo shoot, I wanted to

keep as much naturalism in it as I could. So I took them to a small recording studio and took some photos of them while they were rehearsing.

I think the fact that they don’t know they are being shot is the factor that keeps it natural and this is important because, for readers, seeing a band rehearse can encourage and relate to them on a realistic level. Showing that this achieved success is possible for anybody.

I feel that the readers enjoy seeing bands in this environment.

Gentlemen’s Club Setting

Props: The Bass The main prop that I used in my photo

shoot was the bass guitar.

I thought it was important, in order to appeal to an audience that are interested in music, for my cover artists to be shown to be a musician.

The fact that he has an instrument acts as a way for an audience to distinguish this as a music magazine.

It also acts as a way for the audience to relate to the cover artist as a high majority of the readership play a musical instrument.

The Bass

Clothes I asked Mike wear a leather jacket because in my

opinion this is a timeless rock look. It is iconic and has been worn by rock stars for generations and when work with the white shirt and plain vest underneath enhances the image.

He is also wearing fingerless gloves, which is another part of punk-rock attire and works very well in this photo

Slash & Jerry CantrellBruce SpringsteenGene Simmons

Mike Frost

Set The location of Mike’s photo shoot was

in the studio and I made a point of keeping the set very minimalistic.

I tried to make sure that the none of the focus was taken away by extravagant sets and backgrounds. Most NME covers are very simplistic and I wanted to explore this idea and follow in their example

Gentlemen’s Club on the other hand was much busier and colourful. This is because, as I mentioned, it was a real life setting.

I used this photograph on my contents page in order to entice the reader, it relates to them on a more personal level, in a way that they will want to read about someone who is okay with people seeing them for who they are and that they don’t have to be in a studio with professional lighting and such.

I think this is a more ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ mind set as suggests that the band are more realistic and are putting themselves out there.

Mike Frost Photo Shoot Gentlemen’s Club Photo Shoot

Permission As I had decided that I was using Mike

to be my cover artist I realised that I would need more than the studio shots of him.

I realised that a real magazine would have shots of a live performance. And because I wanted them to be totally authentic I didn’t want to fake a live performance for the purpose of a photo shoot.

Luckily, Mike is already in a band who happen to have live performance shots. But it was important that I had permission to use these pictures before I went ahead and took them.

So Mike advised me to send an e-mail to the band management team so see if it was okay.

So after asking for their approval, I received this e-mail.

Live Shots Since I had the permission from Mikes

management, I had my choice of his live shots.

They all had their benefits and drawbacks but they would all fit in my magazine because the nature of a live shot is validating that the musician is the real deal, and that’s what the readers what to know.