Blog 9 - Evaluation of the finished magazine

I am satisfied with the outcome of my magazine, and with the niche in the market that my magazine is aimed at, it is hip hop magazines that are most comparable to it. The fact that it focuses on a teenager is quite unsatisfying, but it had to be done.

The front cover is slightly too packed for my liking, and I think maybe the background is too sharp, taking away focus from the main image, but it also gives the image drama and intensity alongside the red and orange gradient. It also shows contrast between the blue based clothing that my model is wearing in the largest photo, and a low level of contrast between the background and the words, meaning that the audience have to look closely in order to read them, drawing interest. The contrast is also high between the background and the title, as well as the name of the artist featured.

The contents page is my favourite part of my magazine for its simplicity and effectiveness at providing a frame for all the pictures, highlighting page numbers and therefore doing its task as a contents page well, and the font and text size of the headers works well. The dark red background colour also does a good job of merging with the largest photo, and therefore provides a strong contrast between the dominant colour and the model. The colour also works well with the unsaturated colour of the secondary picture at the bottom of the page.

The double page spread is satisfactory, but not of the standards of the other 2 pages. I have stuck to my idea of using many pictures of the same person to create a timeline like effect, but it is the organisation of the text that is its downfall. I wrote the interview on microsoft word, and the entire interview is relevant, so I had to include all of it. This meant that I had a lot of difficulty with sizing and organisation with the jagged lines that I have included from my magazine research on a double page spread from Kerrang. The overall layout is correct, with good pictures and good text. I think that if I had spent a bit more time on the text layout, it would have been a lot better though.

Blog 8 - Planning and evaluation of the article

I have chosen my subjects at college to coincide with my aspiration of becoming a writer when I am older, so writing my double page pread article is important and a critical peice of the magazine process for me. I have based the character of The Big V around Vadim (the person photographed) to make it seem more valid and realistic. While writing it, I tried to capture the sense of a Russian person that has made it big in a foreign country. This can give off a sense of arrogance, but arrogance is accepted in a magazine based around urban music. It is a requirement of the people featured in them to 'big themselves up'. While doing this, I also tried to capture the business side of him, as he is a self made man who has done so by his business skills within his club in russia, and the promotion and marketing he has done around his own music. This is intertwined with creativity to create the character of The Big V. At the start of the interview he corrects the interviewer, telling him to call him 'V'. I have decided to include this to give him a further atmosphere of a controversial person. He is not the type of person that would normally be included in a hip hop magazine such as vibe, but my magazine is focussing on a different side of hip hop, the side away from gangster rap such as 50 cent and more on lyrical genius and people who put intelligence and creativity into the music they create. This is why I have made V such a strange character, because my magazine appeals to the kind of person that would read it. There is not a magazine for dubstep, or underground hip hop, so I do not have any interviews to base it on. While he can still 'big himself up' I still tried to give him this secondary sense of intelligence and ingenuity.

Blog 4 - Flat plans

This is the flat plan for my contents page. The primary research done for this contents page was done from an issue of Vibe.

This my double page spread based around the big V, the same model as for my contents page and front cover. For the first page I plan to use 1 large photo of the face, and for the second page use lots of smaller photos. My text box is going to be jagged. I am worried about how I plan to 'mould' the text to fit in around the jagged lines

Blog 6 - Photos

Based on my magazine research, it seems apparant that the majority of magazines in the Hip Hop genre will have a single person as one big picture. This is displayed particularly in Vibe. I have decided to have the focus on one single person, but have many images of him sized smaller, to fill the bottom of his frame. This is complemented by the fact that I am not going to have a photo of an urban landscape as my background, but a gradient of deep colours with italic writing that are displayed as words the character on the cover has said. This can display a sense of story if there is pictures of him getting bigger as the words go on. This will be the 'big up' factor that is shown Hip Hop magazines towards the rapper on the cover.

These are the photos, unedited taken on my phone for the intention of the smaller pictures

The photos I am going to use for my double page spread use the same idea, and fit in with the idea of a timeline being featured in the double page spread.

Magazine analysis - Vibe

The typical cover picture of the hip hop magazine 'Vibe' is of male rappers, typically 50 cent, eminem or Jay Z. When a female is on the cover it is of a nature that will appeal to the male gender. The females that have a place on the cover include Keyshia Cole, Ciara Williams, Beyonce and Maria Carey. For my cover I plan to either have a black male rapper, as is the case with the majority of hip hop magazine covers, or story on the rise of the female DJ. I have picture candidates for both these positions, as well as a candidate for a white rapper I included in my flatplan. The problem that arises is that my magazine will focus on urban music as a whole (Hip hop, drum and bass, reggae and dubstep) as opposed to the primary focus of Vibe which is hip hop. Perhaps if I plan to appeal to this wider audience I should use more than one type of music for my cover. Maybe if I personify a person on the cover who mixes together two or more of these genres, but will still appeal to the hip hop audience of vibe. An MC for example, who sings hip hop lyrics over drum and bass or dubstep samples. As I am making up the artist, it will not be a problem to represent this in writing within my article.

The layout of Vibe is usually one picture of a person, as I plan my magazine to be. It usually consists of lots of text, rather than a simplistic layout as I am planning my magazine out as.

Target Audience

The target audience for my magazine is going to be a large number of people, as it spans 4 genres of music, but also a specific audience as Drum and bass, hip hop, reggae and dubstep music are enjoyed by similar kinds of people, and often if one of these genres is listened to by a person, they are also quite open to the other types of music included in my magazine. Though drum and bass and dubstep music may seem very similar, the audience in which they appeal to can be very different, as is the case with hip hop and reggae. Though hip hop magazines have been developed already, this is only one type of music my magazine spans, and because the other types of music may also appeal to hip hop fans, they are more likely to buy my magazine rather than a magazine that focusses mainly on hip hop alone. For example, the magazine 'Vibe' appeals to the target audience of the black rapper. 50 cent has been on the cover of the annual magazine 4 times. Perhaps if I plan to appeal to this audience myself, I should cover a black rapper in one of my stories, and include text or a picture of it on my cover.

As Media Task - Introduction

The task for my first assignment of Media Studies AS level is to create a music based magazine. The genre of music I plan to base my magazine on is Drum and bass, hip hop, reggae and dubstep music. I plan to call my magazine 'The Tune'. My main article and main picture on the front cover is going to be on the rise in the level of Female DJ's on the Drum and bass scene of today. As with my preliminary task I plan to use photoshop as the base program for designing my magazine, as I am much more fluent in it than in InDesign. The magazines I have done my research from are hip hop magazines Vibe and The Source, both of which are published on Blackboard. To view the front cover and contents page of my preliminary task, follow the link. http://brookthomas.blogspot.com/2009/10/media-as-task.html