Final DPS

Final Contents Page

Final Front Cover

Evaluation Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Q6: What have your learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Q5: How did you attract/address you audience?

If you click on the images, It would take you to Flickr where I have added annotations on my work.

Evaluation Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For question 2 I have produced a video with my voice talking through out. Enjoy :)

Evaluation Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Completed Contents page & DPS

Here is my completed contents page and double page spread. Looking back at my flat plan, I have still carried out the same layout but have slightly changed few areas to make it look more professional and realistic. 

Contents page

Double page spread

Changes applied

I looked back at my front cover and thought something was missing. Then I decided to add more text and use more editing skills on my front cover which I did by changing the font to something clearer but bold which was 'Impact' and adding drop shadows and strokes in the selected text.

Due to having to add more text on my front cover and making it look more like a real magazine front cover, I had to re-do my contents page text which I did so. I have changed my layout of my contents page slightly because there was a load of text and was not fitting in as I planned it on my contents page flat plan. I have not fully finished creating my contents page as I have one more image to fit on to it but here is my changed & improved front cover:

DPS title

The reason why my title is 'Jaya @ 4:00' is because as I did my research before at looking at different double page spread's for Hip Hop magazines, a particular double page spread caught my attention and thought it would work well if I was to follow the convention of it. Here is what it looks like:

Where I am currently with creating my double page spread is I have only placed the main image, the small image, the big quotation and importantly the heading for the article.

The colour scheme of black, yellow/orange, white and black is consisntly running through out my front cover, contents page and double page spread (as you can see with the title.) The effect of the time in the title shows that the artist is present with the interviewer (which would be the magazine people).

My front cover

Here is my compelted front cover image I created on PhotoShop. I have followed my flat plan but the changes I have applied is how the front image is and what my artist/model is wearing and adding extra's in as I noticed it was part of my convention and the magazine front cover I was using for my inpiration e.g. a website ''UpBeatz.com'' and adding an issue number around the magazine name.

Contents page so far

I created my contents page on photoshop as I found it easier as I was used to photoshop more. I did not find anything different with what I could not and can do in both programs. Working from my flat plan for my contents page, I started to apply couple images before I entered my text which I did so and here is where I am so far.

All I need to do is add two more images on to my contents page then it would become complete according to my flat plan. The things I have changed is that I decided to add in the magazine name in small on the top right hand side of the page as the page before looked much plainer. I also kept the concept of the theme colour and font of red, black on a white background, following my convention.

Editing DPS main picture

As usual, I visited my favourite website befunky.com. What I did with my main double page spread image is adjust the brightness and contrast. This would give my image a more vibrant and defined look as it goes with my convention. Here is what my final double page spread main image is:

Here is how I edited my image:

What inspired me to adjust the brightness and contrast of my image is I had been doing research on Hip Hop female artist photo shoot's to see what the convention is and here is what I used to help me edit my image:

 As you can see this image is bright and you can see each feature in detail which seems more effective. Also you feel more involved when you are looking at the image due to the artist looking direct at the audience. 

Interview written up!

The interview I wrote up included 8 questions (some long some short.)

Its 2013! Tell us Jaya, what are you looking forward to this year?

Inoe woohoo! Urm, well what can I say to be honest, I’m hoping to focus really hard on my music and get where I really want to be, go on a holiday with my family as I’ve hardly had time to spend time with them ever since getting into this whole music thing..

How did you music is what you wanted to do full time? Did you get inspired?

Well since I was 5, I loved singing a lot and as I grew older, I was really and to be honest, ONLY, into hip hop/rnb music. Like my role model at the time was Cassie! I loved her and still do. (ofcourse)

So tell us how did you develop your sound?

Um basically it all started when I was 16 years old when I performed in my school talent show in 2009. Someone had recorded me performing solo and it went all over twitter, facebook and youtube and I started getting a lot of likes and thumps up for my talent. This made me think to take my singing further as my career which I did so with the love and support of my family and friends. My older cousin had links to local record labels and when he told them about me they seemed really impressed as he showed a demo of my singing/rap. Before I knew it,  I had few offers to make songs locally and within a boom! I started getting more offers from other well known record labels. I could not believe it! This is how I am here right now and wish to go next level with my sound..

You must have plans for working on new projects? Or are you currently working on something right now?

Well I am currently working on something right now, but I will not leak anything out just yet, let’s keep it a surprise shall we haha

Describe yourself in 3 words..

Mad, fierce, ghetto!
 

Who would you love to collab with in the future?

I would LOVE to collab with a couple of people who are Cassie and Drake! Their my top favourite female and male hip hop artists! One day lets see..who knows..
 

Sounds sick! But what we want to know is what do you do when your not making music?

Haha oh no.. hmm I often spend a lot of time with family and friends when I am not focusing on my job because with their love and support, I am what I am today! Also love to go out late nights for a drink with friends on the weekends, dinner, parties at each others, chill sessions really! But when I have alone time, I often like to read which you guys are probably getting shocked when you hear this! But its good to snug up for a change in bed with a book i guess
 

We want to know where you see yourself in 5 years time?

Now now now, I’m not good with thinking too ahead but im hoping to be very successful with my career, drama free life and maybe find my Mr right..

Edited front cover image

As the mast head and clothing are red, my main colour running through the front cover is red. The image I took to be my potential front cover image fits in well of what I expected apart from one thing which was the camera did not pick up the vibrant red lipstick that would of stood out if the camera did catch it. Then I went on the editing website (befunky.com) to apply fake red lipstick and apply it on her lips. This is how I did and looked like in the end..

Playing around with Indesign

From the lesson last week when I was introduced to Indesign, I started to play around with it and by using my actual flat plan for my contents page I thought I would see how it would look like by creating the basics of my flat plan. I added in boxes of where my images would be places and a one big box of where my text would be placed. Here is what I came up with (so far):

1st step - front cover page

I decided which image of my model I would be using for my front cover page which as you can see is the one of my model wearing red. Why I chose this image to be on my front cover is because I thought the shot angel is a mid shot which is one of the conventions of Hip Hop/ R'n'B magazine covers that I have been researching on. Also because the eye level is looking direct and the camera which is effective as it looks more like the 'artist' is engaging with the readers.

I then used photoshop to make a start to creat my front cover page. As the orginal image as an effect of the background being faded from black to pure white (bottom right side going up), I thought this would look really effective as I would not have to play around with the background so much. I also wanted to see how an all plain background would look like. I did this by cropping the models image itself and pasting it on a black page. Why I did this is because I wanted to put both my potential front cover ideas together and see what makes a better background for my front cover. Here is what it looked like:

I asked my teacher Miss Silva and my class mates which one looks better and everyone had said the left one (with the faded background) looks better than the plain one.

From their feedback, I decided to stick with the faded background image.

Indesign

To help me create my contents page and double page spread, in class I was introduced something new which was a program called In Design. This program would basically help me create my contents page and double page spread with the use of the templates. Here is the tutorial video that helped me understand the basics of In Design.

Potential front cover images :)

I made my model wear two different types of clothing that were in my mind and from that I would assess which one would look better for my front cover page of the magazine. Here are the two images I decided that could be my potential front cover image:

As you can see, my model in both pictures is wearing red lipstick. In the picture where she is wearing blue and black, I thought I should make her wear something more red so it would match with the font I would be adding soon. So in my 2nd photoshoot which I took today, I made my model wear all red, with a bit of 'bling' shown by the gold necklace and hoop earrings. Hopefully, I would ask people about which one makes a better front cover image and take their feed back and from there I would decide which image I would be using in my final front cover page. 

My Inspiration - 

I mainly tried to follow (in my own style and use of colour) the 2nd magazine front cover image of Nicki Minaj and with the 1st image of KESHA, I used that for the format of where my text would be placed on my front cover page (as shown on my improved flat plan.)

Potential Fonts for my Front Cover

I went on the website called dafont.com and was testing out different types of fonts that could be used on my music magazine front cover. I had to look for fonts that looked 'Hip Hop and RnB' type so it goes with the conventions. I found a selection of different fonts and decided to put them altogether as a collage.

I have not decided which font I would use for my front cover, I probably will get people's opinions on which font for a title looks better and fits in more with my front cover image (that I will be editing real soon), and my genre itself.

Interview prep

Now its time to start planning and researching on the type of questions I will be using for my interview. I got given a sheet to start me off with planning my interview, here is what it included:

GENRE-

ü  What genre is the magazine?

ü  What type of artist might you be interviewing?

AUDIENCE-

ü  Who are your audience?

ü  What will your audience want to know?

PURPOSE-

ü  What information are you trying to get out of your artist?

FORMAT-

ü  How can you phrase the questions to make the artist give you the information you want?

ü  How many questions might you include?

Test Shots for Contents Page

Today during my lesson time, I thought it would be useful to take some test shots for my contents page as this would help me decide what type of image fits in and what I am looking for on my contents page. I used my friend to be a model in one of my contents page images so I used her to try out some poses. This is the results of the test shots:

I took these test shots to try out different poses with my model so I did not take the background in consideration today because I thought when I decide on my final shot I want to go forward with, I look into the background/scenery for my shot to be taken at. 
Any ways, after looking at the pictures I took today, I did not think there was enough variety to chose from so I will be taking more in tomorrows lesson. Also, I decided to play around with effects and came across an effect that could potentially work on my contents page as shown below:

In this image, I have used the effect of a strong/sharp black and white. Why I like this effect is because it stands out and looks quite effective, so I would be taking this in consideration when deciding/editing my images for my contents page.

Wordle ..

I thought of some words that are associated with my chosen genre (Hip Hop/R'n'B.) By putting all the words together creatively I thought this looked more effective and used a website called www.wordle.net to do so. 

Updated flat plan

Taking in what was had been noticed on my old flat plan by my class mate as she peer assessed my work last week, I have re-created my flat plan (only the front cover and double page spread) as that is what I also thought my work needed improvement and tried to follow the Hip Hop/R'n'B conventions. Why I also had to re-create my flat plan for my front cover and double page spread is because the male artist I tried to get in contact with did not contact back which is why I had to find an alternative model to be my 'artist' who is female so I had to change the images I drew.

Here is what I came up with for my potential front cover and double page spread:

Front cover

Double Page Spread

Flat plan - peer assessment

My class mate had peer assessed my flat plan and here is what she had said what she thought about it:

Appropriate material for target audience – Excellent
Understanding on conventions of layout and page designs – Proficient
Awareness of variety in fronts and text size – Proficient
Accurate of language and register – Excellent
Planning of the photo - Excellent

What she said to improve on is to come up with an potential colour scheme that would work on my magazine. Also she said since I would not be doing the artist I tried get in contact with, I should re arrange my flat plan and base it on a female model which I have got hold of (mainly on my front cover and double page spread which I have applied changes on to.)

More Research!

In the lesson yesterday with Miss Silva, what we as a class was discussing was what makes a good interview for your magazine and analysed three double page spread interviews. By doing this, it has alerted me what type of questions to include in my interview when I'm asking my 'artist'. Of course I must relate back to my genre as this is important what are the conventions of asking questions in the Hip Hop/R'n'B genre.
Here is the work I did with the class:

Because in class we did not come across a Hip Hop magazine, I decided to look on-line on YouTube for interviews with famous hip hop or R'n'B artist. I found one interview which was with Rihanna and found the questions being asked is based about her personal life. This tells me when I come to design my interview questions, I would mainly base my questions on asking personal questions in a informal format. Here is the video I thought would be a good example towards designing my interview questions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_E2AhbbwdY&safe=active

Updated Shot List

In my first shot list, I was not sure of who my model would be since the artist I tried get in contact with did not get back (Shide Boss). Now that I have my final main model, I know when I would be taking pictures, what she would be wearing and other models for my contents page would be wearing in what scenery.

Final decision on DPS flat plan

Since I created two double page spread flat plans, I finally decided which one I will be going with which is shown below. Why I have chose this as my ideal double page spread because in comparison with the other one I created, the image I drew on was coming over the middle crease line. In this double page flat plan, the image is large on the left side of the page and another smaller image on the right side blended in with the text. Also since I had tried get in touch with an artist (Shide Boss), he did not get back at me which is why I had to make few adjustments and had to change my main model to an female who would be done by my friend (Aaminah.)

I created a presentation on prezi.com to show examples of hip hop/r'n'b magazine front covers.

Shot List

By creating this shot list, this helped me from having ideas of what type of pictures I would like to have on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I also tried to manage my time of when I would be able to take my pictures. Also, I thought about the type of shot angels I think would work well on my magazine. By doing my shot list, it has saved me time from when I come to actually taking my pictures, I would not have to think on the spot as I have my shot list as a backup. If I think some things do not work well, I would apply changes to where I think something else would work better then what I have wrote down firstly.

Flat Plans!

Here is my flat plans I designed. I havent quite thought of a actual final colour scheme which is why my flat plan is not fully coloured in. Also I am not sure whether or not my model would be a girl or boy, seeing as the artist I tried get in contact with did not reply back. So I probably will be making changes later on. I also created two double page spreads as I am not sure which one I am going to work on.

Today’s photography session

In today’s photography session, I learnt about planning different types of camera shots when taking pictures of my chosen person, the positioning, lighting and focusing the camera by using IOS and aperture. I also learnt the proprotion of how a standard picture should be taken for example where the eye level should be. This helped me think about the types of shots in different lighting when I come to take pictures for my magazine, especially my front cover so when I come to planning, I would know what sort of lighting I would like to have and what looks more effective on the person I would be taking pictures of. 
We got put into groups and got given a camera to play around with to adjust the lighting and to find out how the pictures in the room with full light would turn out. Then my and group and I took pictures of the photography teacher to experiment with different poses.

I then played around with one of the images by editing it. By doing this, it gave me ideas and practice to when I come to edit, if so, my pictures for my magazine. What I have done in this image is I set the effect of the picture to black and white than went over the person (who was the photography teacher) to go back in its original colour. This looks effective as the person is in colour in a black and white background which shows all the attention is on the model which is ideal for a magazine front cover.

Creating Flat Plans

Now my next step is to design a flat plan for my front cover, contents page and double page spread which is to be done by the 22nd January. My flat plan must be as detailed as possible with text and colour completed. It should look like your completed magazine will do (apart from your interview.) I should also show my research has influenced the design of my flat plan and should include a minimum of four different images. The design can and will change and adapt but I must always explain and justify the changes that might occur.

Market Research - Focus Group!

Here is the focus group I bought together. As the magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread is shown on a computer screen, it is not clear on video. So I would post below the actual images my focus group was talking about. 





The questions I asked -

''What do you think makes a good front cover for a hip hop magazine in general?''
Afreen had said the big main image of the artist the magazine is focusing on. This tells me that most readers find images more appealing whilst looking at a magazine front cover.

'' What stands out on this front cover you can see?''
Nadia said the colour scheme and the artist because he is well known & the yellow and the black works well. This tells me that colour scheme should be limited and should link to the genre as a part of the colour itself representing the genre.

'' What age group do you think this would be targeted at?''
Afreen replied the teenagers aged 14-20 year old because Jay-Z is more involved with rap. This tells me that I should think about who I would put on my front cover according to the target audience I would be aiming at. Nadia said the artist is been out for a long time so their would be different age ranges this is aimed at.

''What attracts you on the contents page and why?''
Nadia said the celebrity image and Afreen said she likes the way the layout of the picture is on the left hand side, its not busy and the use of the colour scheme it looks good overall.

''On the double page spread, does it make you want to read it?''
Afreen said it is too simple, the text is small and would prefer a bigger picture. Nadia said there is too much text and colour scheme is plain.

''What would you expect to be on a double page spread for you to want to read it?''
Nadia said less text and Afreen said a drop down cap to make it look more appealing. This implies that many readers do not want to read a lot of text on a page but at the same time the text should be bigger and clearer along with larger images.

                  

Front Cover

Contents Page

 

Double Page Spread

 

Questionnaire Results

I asked 16 people during a period of time to take my questionnaire and from that I analysed my results today. Here is what I ended up with: