Interview Planning

Questionaires

 



Planning: Photoshoot Types

 For my front cover I would consider using a medium shot mid-shot like this image of rapper 'Tiny Tempah'. I feel that this camera shot is best suited for my front cover as you can capture the facial expression of the artist and also because of the close-ness you feel invited into the magazine. Furthermore, we can analyse the artists' flaws, we can almost feel on the same level as them. Moreover, it provides simplicity for the magazine and therefore it would allow me to exaggerate the straplines I will implement on the sides. Furthering this, I like the idea of having a black and white filter on the image as it draws more attention to it. It also provides a level of elegance because the black and white isnt something you would see on the front cover of a rap magazine.

For my feature page I'm aiming to have an image thats an eye-angle shot, and I want my model to be posed in a relaxed slouched way, so that the interview that will also be placed on the page is very welcoming to the audience. This image here reflects my aim as rapper Kendrick Lamar is crouched down but it almost at eye-level with the audience, furthermore, I like the use if the natural urban setting around him as I feel it captures the moment and demonstrates his personality.

Planning: Feature Page Layout

Planning: Contents Page Layout

Planning: Front Cover Layout

Planning: My Fonts and Potential Names

 I chose these names because I feel that they reflect the type of magazine I'm producing which is a rap/hip hop magazine mainly targeting young males between the ages 15-24. I think these names for my magazine give an insight to what my magazine is about straight away. For example, 'the catch' is simple and sweet and literally displays that this magazine is quick and easy and has the lastest gossip/news on rap artists. Moreover, 'grime tyme' reflects a type of rap genre in the UK, and my magazine is a UK artist orientated magazine.  

Furthermore, I used twitter to also gather research about potential names and what would be best, I have two screen shots of answers from individuals which are below.

 

Audience Profile and research into Complex Magazine and The Source

 

 

RESEARCH INTO THE MAGAZINES THAT INFLUENCE MY MAGAZINE PLANS 

 

COMPLEX MAGAZINE!

Complex is a New York-based media network and was founded by the fashion designer Marc Ecko. Complex consists on updating people on trends in fashion, music, art and design, technology, sports and video games with a focus on niche cultures such as streetwear, sneaker cultture hip-hop, and graphic art. Complex Media as an online magazine currently receives over 120 million unique monthly visitors and 1.4B monthly pageviews. Complex was established in 2002 by the founder of the ecko ultd brand, Marc Ecko, as a print magazine aimed at providing young males a report of the latest in hip-hop, fashion and pop culture without regard to race. The name Complex evolved from a slogan developed to promote the Ecko website: "Ecko.complex". The idea was to create a men's magazine that combined Ecko's streetwear and hip-hop attitude along with the style of Japanese men's magazines by providing consumer guides. This was achieved by creating a magazine in two sections: one traditional magazine, and the other a shopping guide.In 2005, Complex was joined by the former senior editor of Vibe magazine, Noah Callahan-Bever. He became editor-in-chief aar later; a position he still retains as of February 2014.

 

The influence 'Complex' magazine has on the way I carry out my magazine is that Complex magazine does focus predominately around rap and hip hop music but it focuses on all elements of that whether it being American rap or British rap. Complex also challenges the stereotypes given to male rap mainly black artists as, as you can see below all the main images below don't include 'gang signs', 'several chains around their neck', or 'baggy clothes' which we would associate with these artists in this genre of music because of how the media portrays them. From looking at the front covers, I can analyse the fact that complex use the location, the NVC of the artist and the props featured symbolise them as a person and not just an artist and their style of music. The location of the Pusha T front cover issue is very classic and ancient. As the swimming pool his feet are placed in have an old-fashioned pattern that has been placed within the stone. Moreover, the curtains behind and the leaves placed all around look egptian but old fashioned like in the era of pharaoh. In addition to this, the black and white filter placed on the image further enforces the classic loaction and makes the issue unique. Lastly, Pusha T looks cool and collected in his shorts and t-shirt that we can see is very modern which juxtapose with the location. Also, the simplicity of the outfit reflects the challenged stereotype placed on rap artits.

The J Cole issue of Complex reflects him as the artist he is enormosuly as J Cole is a rap artists that poetic in the way that he raps about him, others and the history that his race has overcome, and I feel that complex completed this reflection in the fact that the wall that is overcrowded with images behind him are filled with iconic rap artists both female and women. It includes legends like Tupac and Biggie smalls and we can see this connotes how empowered he is by these people. Furthermore, the image in the portraying his latest album 'Forest Hills Drive 2014'. This can be reflected by the note pad that is placed in his hand and the NVC of the pose he displays as he looks up at the images as though he were inspired by all these people. J cole looks unusually relaxed and at peace, as he's dressed very casual and humble. This outfit portrays Cole as the artist he is and the person he appears to be. As well as this, in this issue of Complex the masthead of the title 'Complex' is emphasised as its bold and capitalised, which can also represent J cole's music in itself as it is complex, and you have to show an understanding to interpret what he tries to message to his fans.

 

The Drake issue of Complex magazine is very unique in the fact its a mid-shot of the artist placed on a vinyl that is being held. Drake is a very quirky rapper as he also sings like many rappers but he explores the emotions of people and is very sutle. The underlining of the name Drake, allows the magazine to enforce importance on him, as the simple underlining makes his name stand out from the image. The words 'kinda blue' are done in blue and not white also making that stand out, as well as this the cup he holds is blue which could connote what his drinking is making him 'kinda blue' or could symbolise a new single.

 

The main thing that stands out as a whole for this magazine is that Complex do not include straplines on the front cover and this is something that is most of the time important on a magazine front cover as this is what catches the audiences' eye, however, Complex have replaced this with the use of the eye-catching locations.

 

THE SOURCE MAGAZINE!

The Source is a United States-based, monthly full-color magazine covering hip-hop music, politics, and culture, founded in 1988.The Source was intially founded as a newslettter in 1988.The Source was originally conducted by two Harvard University students who were influenced by Hip-Hop music and wanted to give praise by devoting coverage to the rising music genre. It is the world's second longest rap periodical, behind the UK's- based publication 'Hip Hop connection' .The publication has over eight million subscribers worldwide and remains one of the most popular hip-hop magazines in the world. The Source mainly focuses on males as there are the target influence for this magazine again. However, on their online website there is a link called 'Her Source'which focuses on females and fashion,music and culture etc. So it does as a whole include both genders.

The source magazine consistently produces simple colour schemes on the front cover of their issues. However, they always stick with their noticeable masthead. In the School BOY Q addition the colour scheme is just black and red, these colours make the issue bold, and straightfoward. The source intially doesn't add something that reflects the artist as an whole like Complex. But it does have a main image that captures the NVC of the artists' facial expression. In this issue with School BOY Q, we can see that the medium- mid shot enables the magazine to display the cool in his face, and the relaxation he shows. 

These two issues of The Source feature legendary rappers; Tupac and Dr. Dre. These are old editions of the magazine but we can see how the source has stuck with its bold masthead on the frontcover and the strapline above it. Moreover, we can see how political the magazine was, as the tupac issue has 'tupac free?'. And the Dr.Dre issue has him holding a gun to his head. 

Planning: My Influences and Project proposal for magazine

This double page features the famous influential artist Rick Ross, I like the use of the sheer background, as the colour white enforces purity, freshness and clarity. This contrasts to the artist who is stood in a sleek, suited tuxedo, the combination of the white and black provides elegance for the the double page. The attire Rick Ross presents himself in portrays wealth  and richness which we can see he has accomplished from the master-head on the right side of the page that states 'man made'.  The attire also shows status, and the balloons in the background could also be a symbolic representation of how high he is in terms of status. Also, i like the fact that he is in a tuxedo has it overcomes stereotypes placed on rappers, especially black males being in 'chains' 'baggy clothes' and having 'grills'.Moreover, the fact that he's posing away in this long-shot evidently indicates sophistication of him being to good for the camera. My magazine being a rap magazine I would aim to overcome stereotypes of rappers and so I would inform my model not to do a stereotypical pose looking forward at the camera with an angry facial expression and hand signs representing violence. Furthermore, I like how the title 'man made' is mirrored as its unique and appealing and makes the audience intrigued, as well this, the text in the middle gives the audience an insight as to why he is 'man made'. The background being plain and not having any balloons featured in the background also demonstrates that he went from nothing to something (the page with him in it) also, because the image is placed on one side it's attractive and so makes you want to read the next page. I would consider adapting this to the feature page of my magazine because of how appealing it is. The feature page itself is very influential as its showing how this rapper became who he is now, and 'man made' emphasises his struggle even further. Saying this, the tuxedo he's wearing also supplies us with the latest fashion trend that rappers have started to grown into. 

Planning: My Influences

The contents page of this magazine features famous rapper Kanye West. I think this contents page is very appealing as the monotonous, grey colour scheme as it brings immediate attention to Kanye West. Also, the fact that everything is grey except the heart in the hand that is wrapped around Kanye is a vibrant, lively red may symbolise a hidden loving character that Kanye doesn't like to visualise to people because we know Kanye as being 'arrogant'. Moreover, the heart could also insinuate the fact that although he can be 'cold' he still is warm at heart. This contents page is very fascinating as it speaks many messages and so the audience want to know more. This is something I really like about this contents page.  

In this Q magazine contents page I like the layout and the simplicity of the colour scheme, however it still loos intriguing to read mainly because of how the photos are placed around the contents page and the fact it's not just one image filling the page. Moreover, I like how all these images are taken in natural settings, an it's almost as if the audience can capture the moment and live it to. Furthering this, its different from other magazines' contents pages as there is more than one image being displayed as mention before, but the fact that one of the images is a mid-shot that covers half the page portrays that this magazine will be revolving mainly around this celebrity icon. 

Planning: My influences

Here I've presented front cover images, contents pages and feature pages of popular artists that influence me with my style of music and fashion.

In this Vibe magazine that features RNB singer Miguel, I like how the strap-lines are either side of the artist and the different font sizes and the different coloursused are emphasised in different ways to create liveliness for the front cover. By doing this it captures the audiences eyes. In my magazine, I would include using different fonts to emphasise what the straplines are saying.

 The simplicity of using a white background makes the image stand out and also it provides a symbolic relation with the artist and the background as they're both fresh, clean and pure, as Miguel is a new and upcoming artist. In this magazine, the possible use of subliminal messages is appealing to me and what I mean by this is the title alomst fades into a 'halo effect' as its almost hovering above the artists' head. This contrasts to the mid-shot of the artist as his posing with this 'rock poss' and this cheeky grin. This provides to the audience that he's got two sides; innocent and cheeky. And this makes us want to find out more about his mysterious character. Miguel's combination of fashion incinuates his universal style of music. His retro glasses presents a sense of qwerkiness and mystery again, as it makes the audience question 'what is he hidding?' and so we as the audience feel obliged to find out more. The necklaces, bracelets and ring demolish stereotypes placed on men not being able to wear this, and having a famous artist like Miguel to break the barrier is very powerful beause he is listened to by many, even though he is a newly, established artist. Futhermore, the colour of the jewellery; black and gold, displays elegance and darkness, and the combination of both creates the idea the Miguel himself is very humble because he's not wearing vibrant jewellery that immediately shows 'money'.

     

This vibe magazine featuring Nicki Minaj in a long-shot angle allows the audience to be invited to the magazine because we're seeing her head to toe instead of an average close-up of her face. The uniqueness of the animated, vibrant background captures the moment, and it brings enthusiasm to the image which would capture the eye of her target audience; young female girls. This is appealing as I feel it brings life to the front cover, It wouldn't exactly be something I would try to produce in my magazine with the animated pictures as it would be very tactical and time-consuming but the youthfulness of the straplines being bold would be something to consider to bring to my magzine. However, I am fabricating a rap magazine so it may not blend well. However, the fact that famous and noticeable names have been placed above the artist is very appealing to the audience because it will intice them to know why they have been placed above the artist. I would definately do this with my magazine cover as it's a simplistic way of adding artists that are featuring in the magazine. Nicki Minaj as a female rapper influences me as she breaks the line of stereotypes placed on females as being 'delicate' and 'sweet' and cannot participate in this style of music and she overcomes this with her fiesty attittude and flamboyant fashion sense that intrigues you to want to know more.

In this vibe magazine that features legendary rapper Kanye West they chose to use an extreme close up shot of the artist. This shot is inticing as the audience feels like their on the same eye-level as him and the dull, blank expression draws the attention of the audience further. The use of this shot makes us want to know more about Kanye as a person. Also, the extreme close up shot is a very symbolic representation of kanye's extreme views that he holds already. Futhermore, I like the contionous use of subliminal messages you can dig from these front covers and I would definately include this type of message in my front cover. The cheerful color scheme illustrated in the front cover juxtaposes the initial facial expression of Kanye West.

 

 

Feature Page Analysis

Contents Page Analysis

Project Brief and Front Cover Analysis