Final Media Project

Here is the final product of my media project.

Magazine Front Cover:

Magazine Contents Page:

Magazine Double Page Spread:

Presentation for my final media project

Below is a link to the final presentation for my media project "Rap Patrol":

http://prezi.com/l_h8ejuiofqb/media-magazine-evaluation/

Feedback of final media project

As the final media project is complete, I asked ten people some questions on their thoughts of the magazine.

Would you pick up this magazine?

8/10 people agreed that they would buy this magazine. In fact the two that said they wouldn't basically said this as they were not big fans of hip hop, and not because they disliked the magazine.

Do you feel the colour schemes work in the magazine?

All the 10/10 people agreed that the colour schemes worked well for the magazine as they reflected the genre well and they were eye catching.

Was the interview on the double page spread engaging?

Again the 10/10 people felt that the interview was well carried out and that it really showed off the artist's personality.

RAP PATROL

From my flat plan, I believe it may have become slightly obvious that my magazine's name is entitled "Rap Patrol". I thought it would be important to post the reason for my choice. Throughout this provcess, I have been coming up with names for my magazine. The reason I chose "Rap Patrol" is firstly because it shows that the magazine lets off a bit of humour and fun as depicted with my artist Tubby Boy's personality. Furthermore it also allows it to be knowm easily as to what the magazine's genre of music is; so that of someone was to walk in a store in search of a hip hop/rap magazine, it would be easy to find. Fianlly another reason I chose this name is because it has become a renound hip hop statement after the release of Jay Z's single "99 Problems", and I felt that it would relate to the hip hop genre very well.

Below is the video of the single to further prove the point on the title (Note at the beginning, when Jay Z says "I got the rap patrol") :

Tubby's inspirations

I thought I would make a quick post on Tubby Boy's inspirations. This was mainly because it gives the reader of the post an idea of what type of artist Tubby is and how he basis his style of rapping. Furthermore it allows one to see how my magazine will be based on this as the issues main attraction is the EXCLUSIVE interview with Tubby Boy!

Tubby's first inspiration is the rapper Notorious BIG, who is renound as a legend in the hip hop world. Below is a video of his song "Juicy":

The other rapper is Busta Rhymes and below is his music video for "We Made It" which featues Linkin Park (Note that there is also a rapper within this group):

Heroic personality and Hip Hop

To some people, the question may enter their minds, to why I have chose my artist Tubby Boy wear a superman hooded top. Firstly the superman top is hooded which already reflects the nature of hip hop, however there is a lot more to this choice of mise en scene than just a hooded top. A part from the fact that the Superman clothing reflects Tubby Boy's fun nature, it can also relate to Hip Hop. For example, within today's Hip Hop world, many artists produce songs that have some sort of link to the idea of a heroic being.

Below are two videos that go on to further prove this point:

Eminem: Superman:

Nas: Hero

These are just a few examples of hip hop songs that relate to superhero like personalities.

Contents page flat plan and progression

As I progressed through the creation of my magazine's contents page, I noted that it would be better if I was to add some more pictures to the contents page and so therefore I made some slight changes.

So above it is clear to see the similarities between the flat plan and the final product, however as I decided that I wanted to make some changes to the contents page, I decided to create a new flat plan to show the differences between the current contents page and how the new one would look.

New flat plan for contents page:

Flat Plans

The flat plans that I created were quite similar to the final product itself. Below are the rough sketches for my flat plans. Bear in mind that these drawings are very rough and were made to give an idea of what the final products would look like.

Front Cover:

Contents Page:

Double Page Spread:

Double Page Spread

The main inspiration for my double page spread was the same double page spread that I analysed of BOB. My double page spread will consist of an image on one side of the page and on the other side of the page will be the article/interview that I took with Tubby Boy.

Vibe Magazine

Through my magazine development, I thought I would show the main inspiration for my magazine front cover. It is the "Drake" issue of Vibe magazine:

This would definitely depict a good image of how my final magazine front cover will look as it contains many of the conventions that my magazine front cover would relate to.

Camera photos

Below is a table that gives information about the main photos that I will be using in my magazine:

Purpose of shot	Feature of shot	Type of shot	Mise en scene	Equipment	Details of shot
Front Cover	Tubby Boy	Mid Shot	Tubby Boy in a superman T shirt	Digital camera	It gives Tubby Boy a cool look that works well with his character
Contents Page	Tubby Boy	Close up	Tubby Boy in a casual hooded top and is present in what seems to be a park	Digital Camera	This shows the personality of Tubby Boy and shows how he is similar to his fans and the public as he engages in the same type of activities.
Contents Page	Tubby Boy	Long shot	Tubby Boy among the dead trees	Digital camera	Showing Tubby Boy among the trees shows artistic imagery and a contrasting of personalities, as Tubby Boy has a fun character whilst the trees convey a message of seriousness.
Double Page Spread	Tubby Boy	Long Shot	Tubby Boy in casual hooded top	Digital Camera	It gives Tubby Boy a similar look as to when he was in the Superman top bit in a different dress code.

I also took other pictures but these were chosen to be the main ones for my magazine.

Hip Hop: My magazine genre

It has obviously been established that my genre for my magazine genre is hip hop. So I thought I would put down some extra music videos by hip hop artists that are some of the more popular so that my magazine is backed up further by its genre.

NAS:

JAY Z:

EMINEM:

DRAKE:

BUSTA RHYMES:

Tubby Boy Double Page Spread Interview

INTERVIEW:

We met with new upcoming rapper Tubby Boy to interview him about the start of his career so far. During our interview he was dressed in a simple hoody and trousers and was just a chilled out guy. He spoke to us exclusively about his single and upcoming album, which hasn’t been spoken about anywhere but here. We also went deeper and talked to him about the people who inspired him to enter the rap game and other things that he learnt before following his dreams.

As an upcoming rapper, what sort of challenges do you feel you would have to face in order to become a top hip hop artist?

To become number one... be unique, different. You have to be hungry, gotta have passion. You have to be top... you have to be the best. Success doesn’t just happen overnight, you have to strive for success.

What do you feel makes you different from other artists within the hip hop genre?

My craziness, my wildness, and just being fun. MC’s in this day are too angry. We need to bring back the fun to hip hop. I mean don’t get me wrong we need to have the serious part of our music as well, but we also need that bit of humour and fun in it too.

Your single “Don’t Fade Away” has been released and it seems to have a very deep meaning that many people will be able to relate to. When you wrote this song, was it at a point when you felt it was really time to pursue your dream or was it mainly for people who could use such meaningful advice?

Do you know what, it was a bit of both at the time because I had done that tune when I had just released “Go crazy”, and “Go crazy” had got a lot of good feedback, and that was a couple of years ago, and now it has been played across different clubs. Then people started to know me as just as the fun crazy quirky guy. So I decided to record “Don’t Fade Away” because it went to show that I went from being any average Joe to actually putting my foot down on the scene. And also within the message of it, it’s basically just saying that no matter what you do and whatever has happened to you in the past, you can make it. You have to just, as I said, be hungry and go for it. So yeah it was to inspire others but also for people to know more about me.

This is the single to your upcoming album which you’re currently promoting. Does your album contain similar soulful music throughout, or is it more of a mixture of track styles?

Look the album (he says as he looks towards manager). Are we allowed to give the album name today? (He gets approval). Well basically the album’s called “Jerk Chicken and Guinness Punch!” That’s my favourite mixture of food and plus you know Jerk Chicken is hot and spicy and Guinness Punch is smooth but a packs a punch, a bit like myself. So it goes with my album because it is going to have so much variation. It will be applicable to the public. It will be different so that everyone can like it. So there’s gonna be reggae, hip hop, R N B, there’s gonna be garage, there’s gonna be electro, there’s gonna be everything, you know what I mean, there’s gonna be a touch of everything. So if you don’t like one song, you will like a tune on it eventually. Someone may hate five but will like one, or vice versa. So I’m making sure the album is something like no one’s ever heard. They’ll be like; he was just doing a hip hop track a second ago, now he’s doing a rock tune, what’s that all about?

Have you done any tours recently?

I have been touring but I’ve stopped for a bit, as you know I’m also a doorman, so I’ve got to work the weekends, but I just got started back to work for about a three or four week break where I was doing basically tours across the country like I was down at Music bar doing gigs, and also up in Brixton, and in Camden which was in the Bliss Bar. I’ve also got a big competition coming up.

Do you think you will be touring any time soon?

Yeah anything that comes up, like hopefully later on in March I’ll be getting a day’s sponsor from Apple at the iStore up in Crawley because obviously the 20^th of March is the big day of the iPad 2 releasing, so hopefully I’ll be doing a little supporting act at the iStore to get the people in and what not. I’ve got a thing coming up for Liberty Radio. So you know a lot of things coming up everything’s popping up.

I’m assuming you listen to hip hop so what types of rappers inspire you?

It most definitely, one hundred percent, undoubtedly has to be Biggie and Busta Rhymes. For me they bought Hip Hop to a different realm, you know to a different standard, to make people think twice about what they come out with. You know before Biggie and Busta Rhymes came out, Hip Hop was just about your rhymes, how good your rhymes were, then it came to how gangster you were and who you roll with, how many women and cars you’ve got, they all had that same Hip Hop flow. As soon as Biggie dropped, he still used them old school beats, that were lazy and more laid back, and people were shocked, and he just brought it to a whole new level. And after that Busta Rhymes came out, and he came out with this absolutely crazy voice, wild hair and just making you wanna jump about the place, while he’s singing and screaming. And I’ve always tried to be of that calibre. I’ve always tried to be that guy who can bring something different.

Do you enjoy any other types of music?

Yeah I like everything. Reggae, because that’s what I grew up with. Soul, Rock, Heavy Metal. I love AC DC. I even like Blues and even a couple of country tunes. I like to be as diverse as possible.

When you come up with an idea for a song, would you usually try to remember lyrics that came in your mind, or do you find something to quickly write down your ideas on?

I used to do it all the time and I hated it, like I would think of a lyric and be like oh that’s sick, and then five minutes later, I’d be like what did I just say. I hated that so if something happens I’ll write it down on anything I can find, even on the back of my hand. You know inspiration comes from the music itself; you get an idea from just listening to a tune.

How do you keep your fans updated on upcoming projects and other important things that you would feel would be of their interest?

Yeah, it’s all done over Twitter, Facebook and video blogs. It’s just about constantly updating the people because they’re the ones that listen to your music so it’s about constantly updating them. You know like every industry revolves around Facebook and use it.

Well thank you Tubby Boy for coming and speaking with us, we really appreciate it.

No problem, it was a pleasure.

Tubby Boy

The artist that I will be using for my media magazine is Tubby Boy. He is a new breaking out artist that is trying to make it big within the music industry. He already has his own music videos for his single, "Don't Fade Away" and also has another video for a competition he is competing in (which is a freestyle).

The reason I chose this artist was mainly because I felt that he was the perfect artist for my magazine. It wasn't just because he is a hip hop artist but also because of his development within the industry. I felt iot would make a good exclusive interview that hip hop fans would want to find out about in order for them to make a choice of whether they like this new addition to the rap game (hip hop genre), hence it would make people more determined to pick up a copy of my magazine if it was on store shelves etc...

"MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY"

The reason I chose to blog about the new Kanye West album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" is because it links with my final media project. As my media magazine is for the hip hop genre, I thought it is important to research on a fairly new album within the hip hop genre as it could benefit me greatly in the final product.

The album contains a total of thirteen tracks and each one seems unique in its own way. As a prominent hip hop fan, it seems to me that this album has a lot more than just a typical hip hop beat and insane lyrics, but it gives each track its own unique style (as I will show by embedding some of the tracks from Youtube).

Overall this helps me with my media magazine as it shows other parts of hip hop culture that I can add to my magazine. The album is truly inspiring and definitely helps me add something to the production of the final piece.

Double page spread analysis

I have also analysed a double page spread from the same magazine, "RESPECT". Through my evaluation I have learnt a lot of the ways in which this double page spread relates to the audience, and how it connects back to the front cover, in which it is mentioned that there will be an article with this artist.

I took the double page spread of an interview with B.O.B and analysed it. I checked for all the different techniques used from the design of the double page spread to the language of the interview.

Below is a picture of my analysis of the double page spread:

Double page spread analysis

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Summary of analysis:

This double page spread was definitely an interesting one to analyse. On the left hand side is a picture of the artist B.O.B sitting in a studio and on the right hand side is the text of the interview that was conducted.

Firstly I will summarise the design and different layouts of the double page spread before moving on to discussing the more language based elements of the article. Firstly by viewing the picture it shows B.O.B sitting inside a studio. This to me showed us as the audience the artist’s personality and how the interview was either conducted during recording sessions or if it is just a place he generally likes to spend his time. Furthermore there seems to be certain messages from the picture that tell me as an audience member things about B.O.B. For example, the background image of all the Skyscrapers could signify his ongoing success. Furthermore things like a microphone on display within the studio could show his music success.

Also it seems as if there is promotion within the picture. For instance the dress sense of B.O.B’s may promote huge fans to purchase similar. This is shown by the long mid shot. Moreover B.O.B is wearing Oakley glasses which could definitely help promote the company rather than an advert being displayed somewhere on the page.   

Finally other simple things like the colour of the big font displaying the artist’s name, is the same colour as his trousers. This helps link in the two pages together and also shows how these two pages are related. Furthermore the background colour behind the text is similar to the colour of the studio. This provides a very neat effect that also links the two pages.

When it comes down to things that relate to the style and language of the text, it seems as if there are some important things to mention (especially when it comes down to helping me understand what a double page spread should be like). Firstly when I compared this double page spread to another, I realised that this seemed slightly more formal. For example, on another double page spread, I realised that the interview was set out as one. So the interviewer would seem as if he/she was writing the article but along the way mentioning the questions posed to the celebrity and also mentioning their answers.  However in this article, there is a slight introduction and then the interviewers questions are posed (put in a bold font), and then the answers given by B.O.B are printed beneath the question in a normal font. When it comes to the language used, it isn’t however too formal. The interview is put onto the article, the way it was spoken out. For example the interviewer poses the question, “How did you start playing instruments? You were in band, I guess?” The way that is written is exactly the same as how the question was spoken out. This is a very good way of doing this as it helps keep the person who is reading the article involved and may even seem to them as if they are actually there.

Furthermore the font is quite clear and easy to read which definitely could help keep a reader engaged within the article.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Music magazine front cover analysis, "RESPECT"

As part of my AS course in creating a media magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread, I purchased the magazine "RESPECT" and gave an in depth analysis of the front cover.




Below is a powerpoint presentation that contains my analysis of the front cover of "RESPECT":

Music magazine front cover analysis, "RESPECT"

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HIP HOP

Although it may seem as if this blog doesn't relate to my project, I can definitely write with confidence that it actually does. As this blog has been set up for the purpose of logging in as much information on the topic of study (creating the media magazine for my AS course), this next blog will help contribute to my project quite well.

The genre of music I have chosen for my assignment is Hip Hop. The main reasons for this was more or less the simple answer of how much I love Hip Hop. Personally I do feel this genre of music is quite misunderstood and also the growth of the genre is quite significant. It isn't only just plainly the beats of the music that attracts me to the genre, but it is a whole variety of things. To me Hip Hop has a very interesting culture, from how it developed and to what it is today. The music feels really relatable to myself. The different styles and techniques really attract me as a person and Hip Hop has also gained a lot of true artists who really understand the music and bring a lot of justice to it.

The main reason for why I chose to post this quick blog is to just to make mention of how through blogging over this course, I will be evaluating different Hip Hop artists and their music in a way of getting ready for my final project. As this quite obviously is my favourite genre within the music business, I feel that posting blogs on new and former Hip Hop albums will really help me to understand how to create the perfect Hip Hop magazine (front cover, contents page and double page spread), and also give a wider and broader amount of knowledge on the genre.

Reader profile

Below is a reader profile of the type of readers my magazine will probably attract:

Shawn Carter is 20 years of age. He is currently living by himself in London and is working hard to make a living. He frequently visits his parents and siblings. He has three younger siblings; one brother aged 16, and two sisters aged 15 and 13.

Shawn's hobbies include getting a game of football with his friends, playing videogames and most of all attending concerts by some of his favourite artists.

From a young age, Shawn has always had a love for Hip Hop. He doesn't only love the music but he appreciates evrything it has to offer. For example, Shawn speaks of Hip Hop as a part of himself. He says that he appreciates the culture behind the music, the beats and most of all the lyrical meaning behind some of the songs that he feels he can really relate to. His favourite artists are Jay Z, Kanye West, Eminem and Kid Cudi. As it is part of his hobby, Shawn makes sure that he can attend a lot of the concert performances by these artists. Shawn also looks forward to new breaking out artists within the genre of Hip Hop. He loves it when he finds a new artist that isn't very known, and he enjoys their music. For example Shawn has always listened to music by Tinie Tempah, Devlin and Jessie J, from when they were not very known until this point in time in which they've become a lot bigger. Shawn also loves films that relate similarly to the culture of Hip Hop. For instance, Shawn's favourite film is American Gangster, which relates quite well with some of the problems in todays world, especially with topics such as crime. It is also a film that inspired rapping sensation Jay Z who ended up creating an album with the same name, merely on the basis of inspiration. This is the type of thing that Shawn really respects and loves.

Questionaire on new media magazine: results

Market research is definitely a very important factor when it comes down to finding out some of the most crucial information, especially when it involves a project like my own. As a part of the course, I was sent out to find out people's view on current magazines available, and also to gain there opinion on what they believed would be good for my Hip Hop magazine. By creating a survey/questionairre, I was able to find out some execellent information that will ultimately help me complete the task ahead with a bit more ease. Within the servey, the main idea was to catch a glimpse of different peoples opinions on magazines as a whole; also to find out their preferences, and finally any additional advice they could provide for my magazine.



Below shows the questionairre along with the results:

Questionaire on new media magazine: results

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Uncut mag

Through my AS media course, I've come to the point in which I had to analyse a specific media music magazine in order to catch the jist of the different elements the magazine contains; ultimately leading to the end product.




As I evaluated the media magazine I managed to gain an in depth amount of information which helped me gather enough information on the magazine itself. Furthermore, as the class had to all present the powerpoint presentations created, that contained all the information found on each of the unique magazines provided, I was able to learn a lot more about how different magazines operate in the ways in which they design their products and the differences and similarities between them.




Below is the powerpoint presentation created:

Uncut mag

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