Planning- Initial Ideas (Front Cover)

For the photo on my front cover I was hoping to get a great long shot of Brittany possibly sat on hay bails in front of a tractor or in front of a barn. I'm incredibly lucky to live where I live because this means that I have access to the public walkways and parks in and around Barton. We have a field where we keep two horses so if I need a country style backdrop it will be perfect. The man who owns the field next to us is very good friends with my family and I'm sure it will be no problem if I ask him to use his farm as a background. He owns a few tractors and a hay shed. He also owns cows, pigs and chickens.

The only thing I'm worried about is that since it is October now the weather is starting to get a bit dreary and grey so it will be quite hard to plan the days of my photo shoots. I was imagining having warm tones as the lighting for my cover photo and as its winter I might have to adjust the lighting and contrast on Photoshop after they've been taken.

I am going to transform Brittany into a world famous Country star who is making her debut in Europe (UK) so I think I will have to change her name to suit the genre. This will support Dyers theory that "A star is an image not a real person that is constructed", so despite country not being Brittany's favourite genre of music, or the fact that she doesn't own a pair of cowboy boots wont matter because "How we are seen determines how we are treated... how we see 'them' comes from representation". This is where my banjo would come in handy. I'm planning on getting Brittany to hold my banjo in the cover photo which will be used as one of the main codes since it will be recognised by the audience so they know that this is a Country Music magazine and Brittany is a Country Music Star.

It would also be a good idea to adhere to Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory. I am going to get Brittany to represent a beautiful young woman who will catch the eye of my male target audience (since I want my magazine to appeal to both boys and girls) however I don't want her to look too revealing or indecent that she will give off negative connotations to girls. I want her to be a role model to younger girls.