I did some research and found out the different features and conventions of tour posters and album covers of rap artists. From my research I have found out that it is typical of a rap artist to include the following features:

• Bright colours.
• Graffiti font or a block font which is easily readable, although some have a serif font.
• Majority of the posters/album covers which I found had an image of the artist or a symbol which fans would recognize them from.
• Illustrations rather than actual images.

please click on the image for a clearer image (PDF)

I created a tour poster in this task reflecting my particular music genre of rap. I added suitable conventions and included my knowledge of creativity on Indesign and Photoshop in order to make it.

please click on image to see the PDF

My Magazine cover

ORIGINAL MAGAZINE COVER^^

This week we talked about indesign and now I know the basic skills on how to use it. Putting my knowledge into practical practice I created a duplicate of the magazine cover, these skills allowed me to  make it as similar as possible. From creating my own copy of the NME cover I have further been able to include the different magazine conventions, many of these were the Masthead. cover star lines and captions, all of these pieced together the final product.

What went well in creating my cover?

• I managed to find a similar picture of the the original, it was not the exact same pose but looked as if it was from the same shoot.
• I was able to use the correct colours for my font etc.

What did I struggle with?

• In this task I struggled with finding the font which was close the to the original. I found some but had to do a lot of alterations to the size and spacing between, thankfully the skills which I was taught using indesign meant I had a slight chance of making it similar.
• Another thing which I struggled with in this task was getting a correct layout of everything. Personally I feel i struggled with this due to the positioning of the image. On the original magazine cover Rhianna is quite slanted meaning where the space was writing was able to be included. Where as the picture which I selected she was straight in the middle with limited room for writing.

These particular youtube videos are great tutorials on how to use indesign. They all give detailed instructions and advice on how to use it and create the best piece possible.

As part of the tasks within my photo shoot I had to pick my favourite 9 images. On top of the selected 9 i had to annotate each of them with connotations and denotations.

Out of the 9 my favourite photo is the extreme close up of my two models. This close up demonstrates how close this friendship is and the serious face is a representation of how serious it is also. Therefore this close up image is very successful in portraying the intended narrative.

After learning about the DSLR in lessons and then putting it into practical work I have gained a knowledge in how to use them. Although, in some of my images you can tell that there are improvements to be made before actually making my own music magazine. In a few of my photos the focus is a bit off and the background is quite dark, taking that into account next time I will need to put on a slower shutter speed and reduce my F numbers. It is also important that I make sure the angle and distance is appropriate for the magazine. All of these will be important for inclusion as it will have an impact on sales and popularity etc.

This task consisted of me creating a mood board containing any image of person, symbol or object associated with a rapper. This was to influence what would be included when making my music magazine. It also related to Mis en scene which when translated to English means  everything on the scene. As a media producer it is important that you make sure you have everything on scene that will make it all come together, all aspects considered.

please click on photo to view all

Following on from the creation of our rapper mood board in groups we had to allocate one member to dress up as a rapper and then have a photo shoot. With this we had to make sure we included all features of CLAMPS (costume, lighting, actors, makeup, props and setting) so that our photo shoot had the right aspects to be successful in portraying the right thing.

After we had completed the photos we the added post it notes with adjectives on to the different people dressed up, using words that we thought best described them and their outfit. This is a picture of our rapper with the words that describe the character.

These were useful as it was a reassurance that the conventions of the style of our rapper was suitable with the genre. As a result of this my Music Magazine will be successful as I will know what to add from the feedback given previously.

In this task I was taught how everything is shown for a reason and to represent something in the media. For example, in the Ariana Grande poster, Ariana is wearing a nude outfit to not show much attention to what she is wearing but for people to pay attention to the reasoning for this poster, the sweetener tour that she is going on. On order for me to talk and understand about all these things I had to analyse ‘mis en scene’ and thought about how every aspects has a meaning in this specific poster. This information will help me to create my music magazine as:

• I will be able to make sure my model has the right body language and costuming/makeup. With this all in mind I will be able to portray the right vibe for what my music magazine will present.
• From my leaning of the theory Blumler & Katz I will be able to add the 4 features which make up that theory to my music magazine so I will be to suit all audience of the media.
• I will use the right colours and typeface to give the right vibe for my Music Magazine and present the write message for it.

With all of these considered my final product should hopefully be successful in conveying the right message i’m trying to put across for the media.