Existing Mastheads

Existing Mastheads

I have researched existing mastheads of music magazines that are also part of the Urban genre, to get an idea of what my masthead should look like. I have come to understand that it needs to be a simple, bold font that is easy to read.

Contact Sheet

Contact Sheet

This is my contact sheet of all of the photographs that I took on location at Waterloo Graffiti Park on the bank of the River Thames. It includes all three outfits and photographs that were taken along the River Thames once we left the graffiti park.
I will use this contact sheet to see all of the photographs that I have taken when choosing which images I should use.

Sketches

Below are scans of the sketches that I have drawn of my magazine. I have designed sketches of a front cover, contents page and 2 double page spreads. I got inspiration for the layout of these pages by looking at existing music magazines. My analysis of existing magazines was very helpful when I was wondering what I need to include on each page.

These sketches will make it easier for me when constructing my magazine on InDesign as I will already have an idea of how I would like to lay the pages out, making the process quicker and easier.

Article Draft

Media Magazine Article Draft

Photoshoot Montage

Above is a short montage of some of the photographs I have taken to use in my magazine.

A few days ago I went with my model, Jade to take photographs that I’ll use for my music magazine.

I have decided that the genre of my magazine will be hip-hop music, therefore the location of the photoshoot was mainly at Southbank skate park, which is a small skate park in Waterloo that is covered in legal graffiti. I thought that the graffiti background would help to enhance that hip-hop lifestyle throughout the photos and I believe it was very effective.

We also took a few photographs in Camden and along the river Thames.

As you can see in the photos, Jade is wearing clothes that can be easily associated with the hip-hop culture such as trainers, shorts and hoodies to give her that layed-back style that most hip-hop artists have.

To emphasise the fact that it’s a music magazine, I will try to graffiti music notes onto the pages using Photoshop and maybe add images of headphones and iPods and other products also associated with music.

I used two different lenses when taking the photos, but my favourite was the one where I could make the background out of focus, and Jade in full focus. I was also able to adjust how much focus was on the model, which came in useful as I wanted the background at the skate park to be visible, but slightly out of focus compared to my model.

From now ‘til my next lesson, I’ll be trying to come up with a name for my magazine that represents the hip-hop genre well. I will gather information from existing magazines such as Vibe and Billboard.

Behind the scenes of my Photoshoot

Today my model and I went to a graffiti park in Waterloo.
Using a 50mm 1.8f prime lens on a digital SLR camera, I conducted a photo shoot on location, in the graffiti park and the surrounding area, on the bank of the River Thames.
The fact that the location was covered in graffiti meant that it reflected the genre of music in my magazine and had immediately associates the images with urban or hip-hop music. I used the depth of field lens in order to put the background in shallow focus and my model in deep focus in order to ensure that the attention was on her, even though the background could still be seen and appreciated.

I asked Jade to pick out costumes that urban artists would wear, such as denim shorts, trainers, a hoodie and a crop top.
There were no props used, except from those already in the park such as a slope and a column that was holding the concrete park up. I chose not to use any other props except from the ones that were naturally in the park as I think the background of colourful graffiti was a great natural prop and did not want to take any attention away from that.

Production Log - entry 9

Unfortunately, I missed 2 weeks of school as I was away due to family commitments, however while I was away I researched articles in other urban music magazines such as Vibe and Billboard.

I read the feature articles in detail, examining the tone of the article, the topic(s) of discussion and the type of language used. I also looked at other articles about up-and-coming artists to see the type of things that were mentioned.

As my magazine is meant to be quite a stylish and serious monthly magazine, I decided that it was best to write my article as a report rather than a Q & A interview like you would find more in weekly pop magazines that would be used to entertain rather than inform.

I also decided that the article would describe the journey of the artist and how she started her music career to where she is now and how successful she has become. I will word the article in an informative and truthful, yet entertaining way in order to give the readers exclusive information whilst ensuring that they do not get bored.

I may also add some special features to the article such as tour dates in order to make the readers feel like they are getting even more exclusive and informative information.