Introduction To My Blog

Hello, my name is Oliver Bryant and I have made a blog so I can upload my magazine research for AS media. After all the research the objective is I make a magazine within the genre I have chosen which is 'HipHop'. Hope you enjoy the blog.

Magazine Research

College Magazine

As part of our coursework we were asked to produce a college magazine to help us with our pre production work. This enabled us to work with photoshop and get a rough idea how to use the software and roughtly how we want our music magazine looks. As you can see this is a very basic magazine and I will be Improving my music magazine to a lot higher standard.

Survey Monkey Question 1

This is the first question on my survey, it shows which age I will be directing my magazine at.

Survey Monkey Question 2

My second question is about gender as you can see its a almost a 50/50 splitt so i'm targeting my magazine at both genders.

Survey Monkey Question 3

My third question shows how often people who answered my survey read music magazines, it shows people do read music magazines often but not all the time. However 1/4 of the people who answered the survey read music magazines very often.

Survey Monkey Question 4

My fourth question is asking what music genre's the audience listen to and all though there was a mix spread over all the genre's but my audience listen to hip hop more than anything, this is why i decided to make a magazine about hip hop music.

Survey Monkey Question 5

As you can see question 5 is about how people purchase there magazines, there is a wide variety of options and they have all been used. The three most popular are annual subscription, local newsagents and supermarket, so I will aim to sell them in shops and get a website so you can get annual subscription.

Survey Monkey Question 6

My 6th question is asking the audience wether they relate music to there life, you might think this is a pointless question but i've put it in to see what type of articles people would want to read. If they relate music to there life and the lyrics they'd want a deep article about the life and how they have got to wear they have today. Most hip hop of artists have not had it easy and have been knocked down at some point of there life and this is the kind of articles I will include in my magazine.

Survey Monkey Question 7

In question 7 I try to establish what attracts the customers to a magazine and the majority are attracted by the front cover image and a particular article in the magazine so i'll get a front cover image that will wow the customers and an article thats gripping from the first word to the last.

Survey Monkey Question 8

Question 8 shows how often the customers would like to purchase the magazine and it was close whether I made a weekly magazine or monthly. I decided with monthly, this way I can make it slightly more well designed and classy and slightly increase the price.

Survey Monkey Question 9

Question 9 is about how much my target audience are willing to spend on my magazine. The majority answered saying they would look to spend between £2.00 and £3.99. As answered in my earlier question my magazine will be monthly so I'll be looking to sell my magazine at the top range of this, so I will price it at reasonable £3.99.

Survey Monkey Question 10

Although the picture is hard to read as there is a lot of data, the final question was which magazine the people who were surveyed read. This would determine which magazine I would base my magazine on, although it was close and there was a wide range of data. The magazine 'XXL' was the most popular magazine which people read the most so I have decided to use 'XXL' as my basis of my hip hop magazine.

Video Interview Magazine Research

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTftZtnc7iE&feature=youtu.be

 

Above you will find my video interview with Amy Moser, where I asked her certain questions which I thought would be relevant to help me produce my magazine. Unfortunately the video was to large to put on my blog so I have uploaded to you tube and left the URL so you can see watch it. If you have more technical issues type 'Oliver Bryant's Blog' into you tube. This video and the questions I asked are hopefully going to help me produce the magazine which I desire to make.

 

Pitch

As part of our pre production work we were asked to make a pitch and talk to the class about our idea's. I thought it would be easier to make a powerpoint so they can see it as well as hear me speak. After we spoke to the class three members of the class had to give me positive and negative feedback so I can imporve my work.

Music Magazine Pitch Feedback

As part of our magazine research we were asked to do a 'pitch' to our media class with our draft ideas for our music magazine. We drafted up our ideas on an A3 piece of papers, we needed to tell the class about what coulor scheme we were planning on using; what pictures and props we are thinking about; the price of our magazine; what our article we will write about and lastly how we would link misce en scene into our music magazine.

I told them I had to potential names for my magazine 'clique' and 'illest' they are both urban words, 'clique' means a group of artists and 'illest' means the best. After a debate with the class and everyone contributing I decided to choose 'clique' as it sounded better and the majority of the class preferred it. Also they helped me come up with my colour scheme, saying I should use a faded red as red is a powerful colour and hip hop artists have powerful lyrics and meaning. Also I am using a gold as a lot of hip hop artists are associated with bling and massive in your face jewellery.

Feedback:

Tom Fletcher: The general idea of your magazine is very good, you just need to put your ideas down and choose a colour scheme and a article idea and expand on all your ideas. Also I really like the name of your magazine as it Is very relevant at the moment as there is the new song by kanye west called 'clique'.

Ben Merrywood: I think that you should not use a graffiti background on your front cover as the textual and the information won't stand out as well. I think you should use a plain white back ground for your front cover and the graffiti picture for your double page spread. However I really like the idea of having your artist sat on the speakers looking very subdued. It gives the artist a sense of not caring about what people think about them and that's what a lot of hip hop artists like to betrayed as.

Ollie Wharton: Although I am in to rock music I like the way you have planned your idea. The article idea of how a young posh boy is struggling at a rough state school and uses his lyrics to speak out about his life is original and will be a very interesting read. However I don't like how you were planning on giving the hip hop artist lots of bling it will take the attention away from the photograph its self and more on what jewellery he'll be wearing.

Front Cover Analysis Of 'XXL'

Front Cover Analysis Of 'King Magazine'

Elektro Magazine Front Cover Analysis

This blog analysis's a new up and coming electronic dance magazine which is published by the same company and publications as the 'XXL' which is Harris publications, i've tried to see any comparisons.

Mojo Double Page Spread Analysis

 

The colours used in the headline of this magazine emphasise the fact that Alex Turner and Miles Kane have the best of both worlds yet they are both still different and unique. This shown because the writing on the left hand side of the spread are in an orange colour and the words on the right are in white which shows they are both different. This is again used in the text just underneath the headline where orange and white are both used. The font used for the title is very bold and then the font changes for the text used in the article and then goes back to the same font used for the headline when it says who wrote the article.

The basic idea behind this double page spread is to give the reader an article about Alex Turner and Miles Kane working together. However you get the feeling that Mojo are trying to give off the impression that Turner and Kane don’t always get on. This is shown because Alex Turner is looking away from Miles Kane this perhaps showing that they don’t always get on all that well.

Mojo magazine’s audience is people aged 15-24 and this is quite a mainstream audience. However the target audience is slightly older then say Kerrang which I think can be seen by the way the magazine is set out.

This double page spread is represented in some of the traditional ways a double page spread is represented. For example a large headline used, so is a large photo which dominates the page. However some conventions are missed out like a pull quote for example. 

XXL Double Page Spread Analysis

Double Page Spread Analysis For Vibe

Title: The title for this double page spread page is How High, which can be interpreted as marijuana as the picture on the left suggests or how high the artist Wiz Khalifa is in the music charts. The big WK above the title is simply for the initials of the artists and instantly tells the reader who they are going to read about.

Layout: The Layout on this page is very simple. With a picture on the left page and Writing on the right. This is done to help the reader instantly get the message as this type of audience would not wish to try and work it out, they would wish for a simple message which is exactly what the DPS has got.

Colour Scheme: The Colour scheme used on this double page spread  is white, black and Orange.  This has been used to highlight the important parts of the double page spread such as the information under the title and the Sub-heading of each section.

Picture: The picture here is of the hip-hop artist Wiz Khalifa who is very popular in this type of genre. He is known for taking Marijuana and this picture of smoke coming out of his mouth suggests the idea that he is smoking Weed, which helps to get the message of the article across.

How does it appeal to the audience: This double page spread  appeals to the audience, firstly by using a simple message that readers will easily understand. The second way it appeals to the audience is by using a picture of a Wiz Khalifa with a not bothered look on his face which is how most of this audience feel towards smoking Marijuana. The final way in which this DPS appeals to its target audience is by featuring an article in which they care about and using a big bold font to present it so that the message really stands out to the readers.

Contents Page Analysis 'XXL'

XXL has two contents pages. I am analyzing what XXL call ‘The A-Side’. The other contents page is called ‘The B-side’. The ‘A-Side’ is seen as the more superior contents page because it features more on the main feature of the magazine. In this case, singer/rapper Chris Brown. The ‘B-Side’ contents page contains the smaller features and XXL own content. The A-Side and the B-Side connote a vinyl record. vinyls are very iconic to the hip-hop genre and XXL have interpreted this into their contents page.

The main and only image on this page is of cover artist Chris Brown. He is wearing casual attire and is showing elements of hip-hop culture with tattoos, jewellery and his purple bandana, which could be seen as a gang item. The leather jacket that he wears is very shiny and looks like he paid a lot for it. hip-hop artist tend to think that they are more important than other. this is shown by the lack of direct address that Chris Brown gives us. by him looking away and having his hood covering his eyes connotes that he thinks he is more important than the reader and that he deserves better than to look at us. The photo is a staged studio photo of Chris Brown. He is covering part of the masthead, which reads ‘the a-side’, with his head. This can connote that Brown is most powerful or more likely that the magazine are confident that their reader knows what page they are on and that they don’t need to tell the reader everything.

The sub-heading is featured in a banner, which is placed below the masthead. The banner features the logo of XXL at the far right. This is XXL advertising them and reminding the reader what they are reading. The rest of the banner is black with white writing and red punctuation and then to the right the red of the XXL logo splits it up. The colour scheme is the same throughout the whole magazine. It is effective as it is simple and they are very bold colours, so nearly any external colours from other pictures blend in with them or go with the colours.

Underneath the masthead and banner there is a black divider. This is used to split up the masthead and the rest of the content. Underneath the divider is a quote by Chris Brown. We know this as just underneath the quote, XXL has told us. By just putting a random quote from their interview creates enigma for the reader. This makes them want to read the magazine to see why they have used that quote.

There is a gutter just under the quote, which is empty space. The page numbers are in black, bold and sans serif writing, and next to it small title is the same style of writing. Under each title is a paragraph of writing explaining about the title to try and push the reader to read that story. This again creates enigma. The artists in the paragraph are in bold so they stand out more than the paragraph. This is done so the reader recognizes this more than the paragraph and they pick out the name and read it just for the name. The page numbers are written in ascending order to add a professional effect. The footer is similar to the banner. But instead of black and then red, this one goes red and black. The red box left of the footer is of a fast forward symbol. The black rectangular shape that goes across the bottom of the page contains by-lines of the photographer.

The whole contents page is quite spacious and simple, uses very few colours and simple fonts. This helps the reader understand the magazine a lot more as their isn’t much on the page that will confuse an audience. I believe that the audience age range for this will be 16 to around 24. This is because the magazine contains some strong language and explicit pictures

Contents page Analysis For Vibe

Masthead: The masthead here is the Contents. The masthead is presented in white here in order to stand out from the dark coloured background. The V (for Vibe) is also displayed here with a white outline this is also to help make sure it stands out on the page and that the reader knows exactly which magazine they are reading.

Main Picture: In this contents page the Image in the only image and all the text has been centred around it. This is to help the picture stand out, so that readers can immediately tell which kind of stories will be in the magazine in this case it is Ciara who is a big R and B artist, this then tells the reader that this magazine will feature stories on R and B. The legs of Ciara have also been used here to Symbolise and emphasis the V above.

Main Features: The main features part of this contents page has been laid out in a very simple fashion. By having two sections the first being all about particular artists such as Ciara whereas the second section is of the music as a whole and features stories about legends in the Hip-hop genre. The sub titles are also displayed in blue so that they can be differentiated from the rest of the text. The next part of this is the brief description under each sub-title to give the reader a feel on what the topic is about.

Background: For this magazine the background they have chosen is a white fade into black (Starting from the bottom going up). This has been used to create the effect of having a range of colours for a range of stories and to help emphasis everything about the contents page such as the blue sub-heading colour and the colour of Ciara’s legs and shoes therefore making the main image stand out and of course in order to make sure the V for the magazine stands out.

Basic Information: This contents page also contains basic information such as the date, page number and title of the magazine as you can see in the bottom right hand corner of the page

Mojo Contents Page Analysis

The reason I have used the magazine Mojo for my contents page is due to not been able to find an image for a contents page for the magazine 'King'. Due to there not been a picture I was not able to analysis the magazine.

The title Mojo is present in the contents of the magazines name. The font is consistent throughout the magazine it's all a sans serif which is useful for a magazine like this as it isn't too mad and wild but is easy to read and is relaxed. Different colours have been used to outline different parts of the text e.g.. gold for page numbers, red for sub headings and black for the actual content. The images are large and one side of the page with the writing on the other and down the bottom. This is useful as it makes the page look more interesting and fun to look at and they all relate to the stories that are on the page and aren't just random ones. The colour scheme is bright and colourful which gives the page a fun look and makes it interesting to read. The background is white which makes the text stand out and gives it a professional look, i might use this idea on my pages although i will probably do the opposite and use black as the background and have the text in a bright colour. The layout is tidy and well laid out with the images on one side and the text on the other, the whole page is divided into two which is a good layout for a magazine page as it's simple and lets you lay everything out quickly and easily. The article at the bottom is in it's own mini section so this draws attention to itself simply by being boxed off from the rest. This is a good way to attract attention to an article and I will consider using this.

Style Sheet For My Magazine

Photography Planning

Front Cover Draft.

The first image shows the draft of my magazine front cover and what I want it to look like. The second image is an 'XXL' front cover which my draft has formed its basis from. Its a direct comparison to the 'XXL' magazine with a little bity of twist, i've added my own style to the magazine I want to create and how I want it to look.

Double Page Spread Draft.

This is my draft of my double page spread and how I want it to look, it might be tweaked slightly when I publish it and how I want the finished product to look like. The second image is a double page spread on the rapper 'The |Game' not only do I want to follow the same style as this double page but I also want an image very similar to the one on the double page spread. Its quite a simple double page spread but the class is oozing out.

Draft Contents Page

 

 

My contents page will be again very similar to the magazine 'XXL' with a little bit of twist. At the bottom of the page instead of having a banner I will have a few more pictures. I am doing this because as part of the coursework you need to incorporate at least 4 pictures and I will only have 3. Apart from that I will have a picture of an artist and the information running down the left hand side of the contents page.

Contact Sheet Of Front Cover Photo's

Contact Sheet For Double Page Spread

This contact sheet shows the pictures I took for my double page spread and the picture I used and why I used it. Also shows what the original image looks like before I edited it and cropped it.

Contact Sheet For My Contents Page

 

Front Cover Of My Magazine 'Clique'

For my final production of my front cover I took so much care in the main image and how I wanted it to come across to the public. At first I had the picture in colour with a shadow around Vila (D'angelo) but with the bold red masthead I decided it looked a bit messy. The readers would not know where to look, as there was that much going on. That is why I decided to make the image black and white, with a bold red masthead, so the readers would first be drawn to the name and then with the effect I managed to do on Photoshop by lighting D'angelo up it then draws you to the photograph.
 I tried to copy the style of the magazine 'XXL' and there masthead is always the first item you look at when looking at there front covers.

I edited the photo and turned into black and white, secondly I turned up the yellow colour on the contrast which enabled me to make his skin tone lighter so he blended in with the picture. I also added a vignette using the gradient tool. Lastly I used the burn tool to enhance the shadows in certain parts of the photograph, the burn tool was at 5%, this brought out lots of his features out such as his eyes.

Originally I said my mast head was going to be the font 'Capture it' and size 72pt. I kept the font capture it as its big bold and in your face however for it took look right on my page I had to make the size 240pt. I used red as reds the same colour as the magazine 'XXL' and the colour reds meaning is power and that's exactly what hip-hop artists talk about in there music. I the used the font 'let me ride' for the words 'world exclusive'. This was in size 60pt. For the sub tittles I used the font 'orator' and they were in size of 35pt. Lastly for the word 'D'angelo' I used the font Moiser at 40pt, however there wasn't an apostrophe in that font so I cleverly cropped an apostrophe in.