Dear Examinor...

Thank you for taking your time to look/read my coursework.
Before the course started I already had some self-taught knowledge on using photoshop and this course enabled me to further my understanding of the software. In addition I was able to clarify my perception of the way certain media concepts are applied in the media industry for different purposes.

EVALUATION

How does your media product represent a particular social group?

-Appearance - In terms of appearance my magazine fulfilled the required demands for appealing to my target market because I incorporated a variation of elements such as; futuristic font choice, appropriate mis-en- scene (e.g. gold chain), suitable featuring artists and relevant articles, in an exciting and similar way to the rest of the leading Hip-hop magazines on the market to day. I also made sure that my magazine would appeal to both ends of the target market spectrum so that all of the consumers can relate.

-Similarities and differences -The similarities of my magazine and existing hip-hop magazines are the basic structure and layouts, the type of photo selection, similar article types and similar quality. The differences include how my magazine appears to be a bit feminine compared some Hip-Hop magazine due to my featuring artist and the use of Gold. The colour Gold gave an impression of 'glamour' as opposed to the norm which is 'Street'

-Costume- In terms of Costume, I think my magazine had an approximate reflection of the sort of social group that would read my paper because of certain mis-en-scene features such as my main artist's glasses and her Gold chain. These objects gave a clear indication of culture because typically within the genre of Hip-Hop glasses and gold chains show a form of attitude and style therefore I thought it was appropriate for me to have these objects on my main artist. Also In double page spread/ content page, my main featuring artist is wearing a black sweatshirt which also added to the image of Hip-Hop culture. 

House style (How is it displayed, special effects, and how is genre suggested,

I used a range of special effects such as drop Shadow, inner Shadow to enhance the professionalism of the magazine. I also used a technique of merging layers together to improve the aesthetics of my magazine artistically. In addition, as discussed above, genre is suggested in a moderate way due to the way my main artist is dressed (In terms of mis-en-scene). Aspects such as the artist's glasses, chain, sweatshirt and posing enforces the idea of hip-hop because traditionally and currently the whole image of hip-hop leans of the idea of standing out with the use of jewelry and street clothing making it unique in its own way. Therefore genre is suggested to a moderate standard because although my meets some of the specifications of a hip-hip image, because she is female, some of those aspects wouldn't have been suitable because she still needed to maintain her femininity.

What kind of media institutions would distribute your media product and why?

My magazine would be distributed through the IPC media group because through research, I found out that its a media institution which is well known for distributing some of the largest name magazines in England. After looking closer, I established that there is a small platform for music magazines (especially hip-hip) therefore distributing my magazine in that media institution would give the institution a chance for the company to reach out to a much larger market which they've not attempted to explore yet (Black people aged 14+) .
 

What have I learnt about technology from the process of constructing this product?
In terms of technology, I've learnt that there is a range of ways in which you are able to present your ideas from other that Microsoft PowerPoint. I was able to utilise the website Prezi.com to make presentations in a more effective and interactive way making my presentations include the audience more. Prezi also enabled me to make certain points in my presentation more highlighted because the way you are able to navigate through Prezi presentations make that possible.
I also encountered using the Photo-editing software, Photoshop, and because I already acquired Photoshop skills from my past personal experiences, I was able to strengthen my existing knowledge in the software by using tools I wasn't necessarily familiar with, therefore now I am able to do certain things which I couldn't do before. 

What could I have done better?
Planning- To make my project better I could have taken a more tactical approach towards planning my project by considering a larger range of the structure of the layout and showing examples/modelling of that.
 Practical research -I could have made my research more extensive by forming together a questionnaire which narrowed down my target audience on exactly what they would have wanted to see in a magazine of that kind.
Models + Setting variation - I could have also taken a photo shoot with a wider range of models rather than just sticking to one model, also, I could have experimented with the setting more by taking pictures of models out-doors.
Blogging Process - I could have taken advantage of the way a blog is set out in order to monitor my progress by looking at my peer's work, other existing media blogs and improving previous work I had done.



Target Market - Video

This is a good example to the extent to which hip-hop culture is expressed through use of mis-en-scene, clothing, movement/gestures. My target market would be people who are fanatics of this music and people who try to immitate/follow this sort of culture.

Final Products

Target audience and Pricing

 

The target audience for my magazine consists of a variation of categories.

 

Black people (male and female) 14+

White people (male and female)14+

 

With in theses types of people there are other sub-categories such as:

Music fanatics in general,

Hip-Hop/Rap/R'n'B fanatics,

Fashion enthusiasts,

Black culture enthusiasts

Concert goers etc...

 

 

----------------------------Pricing----------------------------

 

I plan to price my magazine according to the the quantity and proffesionalism involved. This is why I chose for it to be be priced at £3.99 because in comparison to the other magazines in the same category as mine (e.g. The Source, XXL and Vibe) they are all priced around the same region. This is also because the content in the magazin is very vast. ranging from multiple exclusive interviews, free posters, free online content, to exclusive information on upcoming events. Therefore I think its suitable to charge my magazine at £3.99   

Colour schemes



1) Front Cover
2) Double page spread
3) Content page

Left 1/3

 

My magazine in a shop scenario, next to other magazines within the same genre/lifestyle/culture.

Noticably, importent text such as widely recognisable artist names, logos, key words and logos feature in the left 3rd of a magazine which is why my magazine fits in.

Font selection

I chose to get the font which I used in my front cover specifically for the main featuring artist because I felt it reflected the type of character and mood that the musician carries her self with (e.g. curvey, height etc...)

I chose this font for the main magazine title because i thought it was suitable in the sense that its bold, large, tall and block .

 

Double page spread anaylsis

Final Content page

MAKING CONTENT PAGE #5

 

In the final stages of making the content page I added a small photo description next to the main featuring artist and I wrote the magazine website along the bottom.

MAKING CONTENT PAGE #4

 

I then added the most important variations of stories in my magazine into the content page in black with the page reference in white. So that the white text can also stand out, I gave the text layers a medium drop shadow. To highlight the order of importance I made the different articles different sizes (biggest being most important). I continued to use the same futuristic font as I used in my Double page spread and Front cover because it mainitains the theme of the magazine.

MAKING CONTENT PAGE #3

 

To make the content page more appealing to music enthisists, I got a picture of an 'old school radio' and merged zig-zag parts of it into the background. I then gave the layer some inner drop shadow so that it has a more realistic look.

MAKING CONTENT PAGE #2

 

Then I chose picture which I throught was appropriatr from my previous photoshoot of the main featuring artist and cut it out using the phtoshop pen tool. I placed it along the bottom of the page because it'd give me more space above to write the pager numbers and content. 

MAKING CONTENT PAGE #1

 

In the process of making this content page, I used the same background I made from the double page spread which I made by applying multiple paint brushes. I then added a black box at the top of the page with 'CONTENT' inside it to make the text stand out. 

Final Double page spread

MAKING DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD #4

In the final stages of making this double page spread, I added the magazine website under the written content as a form of linking the target market back to the magazine (advertising).

Finally, I added the title 'Juicy jess - Deeper than music' on the first page. I got the font from www.dafont.com  

MAKING DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD #4

Next I decided to write the content. This consisted of suitable interview questions that relate to the artist, her life/music and the audience;

When and why did you start rapping?,

 Who were your biggest influences?,

What was the first song you wrote?,

Whens your new project coming out?,

What can we expect from your new album?,

Where do you get your fashion sense from?,

What can we expect from you in the up coming years?

 

Also, the response of the artist corresponded suitabley to the questions.

As well as this, I added the page number along the bottom-left and right corner or the two pages. Also I added another, more defined and in-colour, picture of the featuring artist because I didn't think the other two pictures behind were enough to show the atrist's relationship with music. I then added a caption next to the picture saying 'Jess shows us her passion for music' 



MAKING DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD #3

At this stage I was experimenting with the ways I could incorparate the featured artist in th edouble page spread therefore I decided to cut out a picture using the pen tool, duplicating the picture, making them symetrical, placing them next to eachother (on the right hand page) and minimising the Hue and saturation so then they are both black and white.

MAKING DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD #2

In the second stage of making the double page spread, I got a picture of a creased paper and blended it into the existing background so to that the paper effect will be directly under the the written content.

MAKING DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD #1

 

To begin with, I used an A3 canvas for may background and I used photoshop brushed to create red painted effect.

Final Frontcover

MAKING FRONT COVER #8

This is the final stage of making the front cover. I added a few final toches to the magazine such as the barcode, QR code and the magazine price. Also I added other gold images using the same proces as i used to make the main magazine title. 

MAKING FRONT COVER #7

At this stage I was experimenting with effects and ways I could make the magazine more 'fancy' and exciting therefore I decided to change the reflection in the artist's glasses. This process involved getting a picture of a recording studio, using the pen tool to cut the picture into the shape of the glasses, adding drop shadow and inner shadow and then changing the Hue & Saturation of the studio picture so that it suites the gold colour scheme of my magazine. 

MAKING FRONT COVER #6

 

At this stage I was looking for an effective font to apply to the main artist's name therefore i went to www.dafont.com to search for another font that stands out from the rest and one which is more personal to the artist and her character. I settled for a font under the 'hand written' category because it was more curvey/less serious/more playful. 

MAKING FRONT COVER #5

At this stage of making my front cover i was experimenting with different fonts for the minor stories on the front cover so i decided to chose a more futuristic font because it appeals to people of a more younger genaration rather than an older audience. I also experimented with the spacing out of text and chose to use it in a few text boxes

MAKING FRONT COVER #4

At this stage of making my front cover i was placing text boxes in the appropriate positions. This meant they were to go round the edges of the cover because traditionally in magazines the less significant stories are written in small sized font along the sides.

MAKING FRONT COVER #3

 

I chose to use this picture of Jess because I throught it was the most 'glamorous', wild and most fitting picture to suit the lifestyle of the magazine and its audience's preference because they wouldnt want a boring picture. I used the pen tool in Photoshop to cut out the picture in the best quality becauser the pen tool allows users to make perfect curves and straight lines. I then put minimal drop shadow on thet layer so that it stands out from the back ground.

MAKING FRONT COVER #2

 

 

In continuation, the pictures above show the process in which it took to make the magazine title/featuring artists. To begin with, I copied and pasted the preview of the font, which I got from 'Dafont.com', into Photoshop and used the colour select tool to extract the font from the print screen. Then after I got the gold texture above from google images and merged it together  'UNDERGROUND' to creat a text that has a texture with in it. After I created a horizontal textbox and put the additional featuring along the top in a 'spaced out' sytle and made that font navy blue. 

MAKING FRONT COVER #1

The following pictures are a series of printscreens of the making of my front cover.

 

To begin with, this is my back ground and i make it by downloading a variation of paint splatter brushes and placing them symetrically around the page. I chose the background colour scheme to be dark grey contrasting with light grey so that both the splatters blendin well.

Double page spread - Photoshoot

 

The pioctures above were taken in the drama studio and there are a number of visual aspects (mis-en-scene) which were purposely added to suit the target market, genre and corparate identity of the magazine.

 

To begin with, my attempt was to make the double spread completely different to the front cover by making it more personal towards the artsit and what she stands for. Which is why I decided to run with a majority black theme because, although black is associated with evil, death and depressing, it can also stand for classy, straight forward and simple and thats the way i wished to portray the artists image. In addition, the gold chain and 'old school' radio was used to appeal to the target auduence because traditionally, in hip-hop, artist are known for wearing expensive jewellery etc... Also, the sweatshirt that shes wearing is another representation for the hip-hop culture/fashion therfore it'll apeal to the target audience.

 

The first 3 images are a variation of longshots which feature jess doing different poses. Initially my favourite is the first image because shes looking at the radio as a sign of music being important.

 

 The other images are a variation of medium shots, low angle shots and high angle shots however I didnt think they were suitable for a double page spread.

 

 

 

Front Cover analysis #3

This is an analysis of the front cover of Complex Magazine

Optional Photographs

These are are a variety of photographs which have the possibility of being my Front cover.
Clearly, I've used the same model to portray different poses. Each photo is taken in shots between Close-Up, Medium Close-Up and Big Close-Up. This is because those shots are used very frequently on Hip-Hip magazines so that we can see the detail/emotion/expression of the main featured artist.

Also, by making my model do a variety of poses, im able to broaden my horizon when selecting the appropriate caption under the artist name. This also gives me a chance to possible put a comic spin on the front cover by having her funny facsial expression along side a 'play-on word' caption.

Content Page Analysis

This is my analysis of the content page of Vibe Magazine. As well as my other analysis', I've chosen to do Vibe magazine because I'm able to see a goid example of a well structured/proffesional layout to help me achieve my similar targets

Front Page analysis #1 & #2

This is my form of market research. By doing so, I am able to see the types of features that a magazine. of the genre I've chosen, would have. Therefore enabling me to base my structure and content around similar ideas.

The first analysis is of hip-hop magazine called 'The Source' and the second one is from another hip-hop magazine called 'Vibe'