Final Feature Article

Final Contents Page

Final Magazine Cover

Evaluation

Introduction
Firstly, it came to designing my front cover of my magazine. In the beginning i planned on having 3 artists on the front cover from a group, however because of transport etc i could only get two, although i still think it works just as good.
So i had to decide on poses and how i was to represent them, and on my front cover i have cut them out of separate pictures and put them close together because they didn't always boht look how i wanted in the same picture. Nothing really inspired me to do this, or the poses, i just wanted a mid angle shot of them on the front cover. Then the money was added, so it wasn't in the photo either. However i think it looks all like one photo and fits together well.Also the subheadings i used, "Bombaclat Bad Boys" sets enigmas for the reader who might want an insight into whether or not these artists are all their bigged up to be.
Then "Raated Revealed" which tells the reader what the article will mainly be for, the album is called Raated and so the readers will go to read the article to find to more about them.
When it came to choosing artists and what would be in the subheadings at the bottom, i chose to put top rap artists in it which will attract readers and i know people will want to know about these people. Theres, eminem, Nelly and 2pac, who is dead so nything about him will attract true rap fans probably.


Next i came to designing the contents page, I was inspired by a contents page i came across when doing my research which is of Jay-Z on a contents page. So i used one artist from the two, ansd had a full image with them looking at the artist. This is following all the conventions and i think looks good.

I also followed my style scheme from the front page, colours, fonts etc, which is conventional otherwise your magazine just looks odd, which could work but i wanted to keep it at a constant so the magazine looks more organsised and professional.

The pose of my artist on this photo is slightly slouched up against a wall or object, arms folded and sun glasses, he's coming across as the cool hip hop artist. I chose glasses so it added some mstery with tthe artist plus sunglasses are associated wth coolness, or rebellious.

The way the text curves around the artist was my own idea, i didn't just want the bullet points to scroll as a list, it would look bland and boring. This way they are interesting, the colours keep the reader busy and reading. So overall i like my contents page and am  happy with it.


Then, my two page article about my artists was probably the most difficult. It folows  conventions of having strips of text as an article, plus theres photos of the artists which i had to choose to fit in with the article. Firstly i wanted to split the artists up where the text mainly refered to them, so i put one on one page and another on the other.

I didn't keep the colour scheme here because I wanted the article to look different, which i think works. Alhough, i kept the style of falling money becuase this makes it seem as though the artists are rich and it fits in with the rap genre, it is steroetyped to be about, drugs, cars and money. So these two artist are the classic rap, baddass,rappers.

Genre
Before i had even researched or planned my magazine i decided i wanted to do a Hip Hop/R&B style magazine, mostly because i knew that i could make it easily and had people in mind who i could use as artists.

So next i began to reasearch into my genre and it became clear that most hip hop stars where black or mixed race, and i have two friends who are half Jamaican and half Irish. So I knew i could make my magazine go with the conventions of hip hop, however i wanted to add something different, i was going to add a white person to the group. Although, this didn't happen because when it came to taking photo's he was unavailable so I just used the other two and did my whole story and cover designs over.

Next i decided what gender my magazine would be aimed at and how i could do this. My magazine is appealing to both genders equally i would say, the girls might be attracted to the artists and boys will want to read about these artists.

Also i needed to decide the race i am aiming it too, it probably swings more towards black people or mixed race because the artist are mixed race and they tell the story of their race etc. However it is for any race realy. It aims towards teenagers mainly because the artists are very only 16 and 17, so thye can relate to them and it will interest them more than old stars.

Finally the socio-economic status i aimed towards was the lowest class of unemployed because its teenagers who majority don't have jobs, to help do this i priced my magazine very low around 1 pound 99 pence. So it is affordable and still good.



Representation
Taking the photos of my selected artists i had to research into hip hop magazines and how people are portrayed, women are usually wearing very little attracting the male audience to buy the magazine to buy it and see the artist in even less clothing. As you can see with the female on the front cover of 'King' magazine, posing and wearing very few clothes, purposely done to attract male audiences.
And a male artist would be like a modern day gangster portrayal looking tough serious face, usually with guns or/and tattoo's looking straight into the camera. Look at the front cover of 'Bender' magazine, the artist Lil Wayne isn't laughing or being stupid, looking tough and looking straight out at the reader, inviting them in.

I noticed this was conventional in hip hop magazines and so i used some of these conventions in my magazine, for example on the cover both artists are looking straight out at the reader and looking serious. However the use of money to make them look notorious and rich was my own idea, which i think looks quite good.

Also in dressing my artists, i had them with hooded jackets, and so mostly took photos showing their upper body with hoods up. This makes them look like hip hop artists, and one artist is wearing nothing underneath his jacket, attracting the female audience. Also because they are both young, I thought it would be expected of them to have large ego's, and so they are showing off in the photos, throwing money and showing their body ith smug faces.

Plus, when takin photos i had to think about the angles and where the artists eyes where looking. Some on my photos of looking up onto the artist(s) to show they are powerful in some way. Then, they are both wearing glasses in most photos, this gives a mystery to their face, but when they don't have glasses their eyes are looking straight into the camera which is conventional of a magazine cover and i stuc to this although i could of gone against it to add interest which is maybe a disadvantage of my magazine.

Also colouring chosen for my magazine wasn't just random to look nice i thought and researched the meaning of colours and i chose green abd purple and black to run through as the colours. The green is to represent money, connotations are dollars expecially for a magazine of two rich artists. Then the purple represent power, but also it is a good colour and fits with the magazine. And the black is dark, and bad which is hip hop, people don't rap and sing about rabbits or flowers they have strong meaning and usually bad language.

Institution
I think that the company Future PLC would publish my article because it is international and publishes special interest articles. My article is aimed world wide and to hip hop fans, plus it is not an upper class magazine it is about everyday interests for men and women, technology sport etc. My Article would fit into this magazine nicely i think.

http://www.futureplc.com/about/



Target Audience

I have asked my friends and shown them my photos and cover, contents and article pages and then they gave me feedback on what they thought. Mostly everyone thought it worked well as a hip hop magazine and that is the first thougt they got and thye said this because of the title. So the genre was very clear.

Then they also said the photos and pose's worked well and portrayed the types of artists they were, not fun but acting hard. Although they thought the contents pae was quite boring and also the article itself wasn't very interesting and they probably wouldn't have read it all if it was a reall article.

For them the colours also reinforced the genre which was being portrayed so i think that its concluded that my genre has been well presented. Although they thought that the article wasn't very goood, they said the article seemed to drag on and not leave any enigmas. Which  I  also agree with because it was quite rushed when finished and journalism isn't my strong point.

Learnin Technology
The main thing i have learnt about technology wise in producing my magazine is usuing photoshop and InDesign on a Apple Mac, i had never used either of these programs before and alwyas thought it would be really complicated but after about two lessons i got quite used to using both the programs for cropping and editing and then making my magazine. I think without these skills i wouldn't have produced a very good end product at all.

Also i learnt about taking photographs to envoke certain ideas like the mode of address of the peron in the photo, and the lighting and angles, after finidng out these things i then knew how i would be able to pose my artists to give certain impressions. Plus, we went through the use of tripods, using the 180 degree rule and getting good camera angles through using the tripods. Although i didn't use a tripod for my pictures.

Although i already knew how to use most other things like youtube, dafont, google and more because i have come across them all before.

I found blogger very good to use, mainly to keep track and for keeping everything in one place, it didn't matter if i forgot my pen drive. Even if the internet wasn't working, I could writie up my work in word or note pad etc, then copy it up to blogger. It also seemed to work well for me.
Although, sometimes it is hard to get the correct layout with text and images and indentations for new paragraphs.

Preliminary Task


FEEDBACK: OK - some good comments but unfinished and alot more work needed on this Dom - see the example evaluations on the handout given out before the holday.

Audience feedback needs to go in first (questionnaire/images /answers)

Introduction: Explain what your magazine is – name and genre of music that you have focused on .

Question 1:

Explain how your magazine is typical/challenged usual magazines (conventions of these needed – see the POWERPOINT IN YOUR PACK on the magazine genre) Remember ot look also at the conventions of mag covers/contents/feature articles one by one

Put the examples of the magazines that have inspired you (e.g., the examples you put in your blog earlier you can repeat these from your research and planning.)

Also focus on the music genre you have chosen– how did you communicate this musical genre through your use of colour/fonts/mise en scene etc? Put images and videos of artists/ bands and other similar mags on here also – if there are any!

Label your final pages to prove your points ( do this in word, powerpoint or photoshop – if in word/powerpoint you will have to use www.scribd.com to put it on your blog.)

Question 2: In detail – explain how you represented your characters .Explain in detail props, costume, facial expressions and body language (mise en scene.) Also how you have represented your music genre - through mise en scene - colours used etc...

Use your photos/pages to illustrate your points.

Question 3: UK publisher Put its logo on here also and other similar magazines - to yours- that it produces or general music magazines.

Question 4: Prove that music magazines are a popular sub-genre of magazines– look at recent circulation (audience) figures for them ( try wikipedia or google.) Repeat your findings if in your research and planning.

How do hip hopmagazines sell? Can you get any circulation figures for popular hip hop mags?

Is your genre of music popular – put some download charts on here – top albums of 2009 etc…

Question5: Use your audience feedback findings here –PUT IN GRAPHS/CHARTS (BAR) etc.. of some of the most important answers and analyse your findings. Pictures of people filling out your questionnaires etc…

Be a little more detailed in your explanations – what enigmas did you set up – how – think about subheading and headline on cover – images used etc..? Why do your ‘characters’ appeal to your target audience ( and any secondary audiences – older people for example)

What about your…

style –

use of colour ,

images/photos

fonts,

layout ( placing of text and images on pages)

locations ,

Use of a recognisable popular music genre etc…

Question 6:

Be detailed in your response here – good thing and bad things about the equipments ? Instances where they were very useful or caused problems? Be specific about what your learned – in detail e.g. I learnt to apply colour filters to create an interesting final image that fitted the ‘house-style’ of my magazine etc….

Also don’t forget blogger and your blog! Good and bad things – a useful way to record your progress and planning?

Use SCREENSHOTS of Photoshop and indesign, dafont wesite – images of Imac and camera used etc,,, ( you could find these on google images.)

Question 7 –

Remember don’t be vague!– mention shots, use of tripod, your editing in photoshop/indesign – what was not so great in the prelim – why better in final product – explain what your learned from making the prelim and how you applied this to your final product?

Put your prelim task in here again.

Remember you can do a question as a powerpoint if your wish and use the Slideshare website (www.slideshare.com ) to put it on your blog e.g. your graphs an charts on audience feedback – it will get you more marks!

Feedback

Good progress Dom -

Research- you need to put your audience research on here (questionnaires and results)

Planning:

- It might be nice to outline your artist and their image - and why they are good to be the featured artists in your magazine

- Now that you have written your feature article - put it onto your blog also (get it scanned)

- once done - put your drawn mock -ups of your final pages on here

- you could also go online to dafont.com and look and analyse the connotations of fonts - that you might use for your header (name of magazine) and throughout your magazine - scan the results and out on here.

- see your 'before you blog sheet' for the other planning you can do!

Miss McNulty

Meanings

Raated - Jamaican slang used when someone is shocked, inseatd of "ohh heck !" etc

Bombaclat - in jamaica Bomba means butt and clat means cloth, so put together, bombaclat is buttcloth, or used to swear at people "You bombaclat".

50 Cent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpxpHQ9ggUE

50 cent is one of the most popular hip hop rappers as well as eminem, they both have very succesful films, and are both still producing, although 50 Cent isa black male and his background story adds to his attention also.