Planning is prominent

 

This is my PMA (Production Meeting Agenda) for my first shoot.

This is my production meeting agenda for my initial shoot. Using an agenda will help me in the final planning stages because they are direct and only hold the important information.

Using production meeting agendas in future will definitely be a must. They are are a vital component if I want everything I have worked for up until now to fall into place because; I know where I need to be, what I need to bring, where I’m going, who is modelling for me and even the directions I am going to give them in the shoot.

What are the messages?

 

When making a star image profile on The Notorious B.I.G I realised these stars in the music industries live anything but ordinary lives.; I want to carry this across to my own work through the repertoire of elements in my magazine.  I need to communicate their extraordinary lives through my language and how I portray them in general; the iconography I use, in the props for my model, the images I use of other stars and the adjectives I use when describing them.

Having now created a star image board, I feel I have improved my word association which will help me in the long run when describing my modelled star and real stars. I can decode information better than before meaning that I am more confident in filling up my magazine with appealing and moreish  content.

https://www.canva.com/design/DAEu2ow5BXg/view

This is my Canva mood board on how I would like my model to look; the styles, the vibes, the connotations and denotations I am after for the appearance and content of my magazine. These Images that I collected from Pinterest help express the environment I want to create In my shoot. I want to have my model looking cutthroat, savage and untamed. In addition, I’d like to have my model in daring and dauntless poses to carry across that sense of fame and that fact he is so unbothered by negative opinions or if he is made to look bad by any media.

Audience, audience, audience

 

Taking closer steps to creating a magazine I need to understand my audience; who they are, what they want to see, what they don’t. My target audience, as a demographic need to be given the correct information. I need to entertain my audience, educate them inducing social interaction. Now having carried out some oppositional reading and research into specific psychographics  and looking more into consumer behaviour  I have started to really decode the hip hop and rap demographic into subsections like age ranges for example. This has given me the confidence and knowledge I need before making a magazine.

YouGov proved itself helpful when I was researching into the demographic ranges of the rap and hip hop listeners community. This knowledge is useful because I can now tailor my magazine content to the tee of my rap and hip hop demographic.

I took a snippet from the ranked most popular rap & hip hop music artists (2021) to help me start to think about what hip hop artists and rappers I can include in my magazine. This made me think I could add a hot this week section to give my magazine a more journalistic feel to it. It also made me think I could add a controversial section where a rapper who is in the spotlight makes a bad choice and maybe cancels their concert at the last second for example. These kind of features could make my magazine more interactive because I can add a text number where my readers can vote for a hot this week artist and song.

 

Creating this dating profile of a typical rap and hip hop listener and fan boy I was given the opportunity to represent my demographic as a rap and hip hop magazine producer.  Considering the details was beneficial because when I added “I teach street dance” to his profile it made me think, maybe I can add a street dance competition or raffle column into my magazine adapting my media to my magazine’s consumer’s preferred reading.

Glancing ahead, now having started to encode all of this information, I now know my content has a higher chance of being successful because of this innovative form of research. I have confidence in my content, now is time to focus more on the appearance of my magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAIN$ is the name of my underground hip hop magazine. When devising a name my thought process was; what would I associate  with rap, hip hop, music and singers- the almost comedically large and bedazzled chains they spend hundreds of thousands on. Below is some prices I found of those who possess these very expensive chains which have become a competition in the rap and hip hop industry; who has the biggest chain? whose is the most expensive?

• Jay-Z’s 11 Pound Cuban Chain – $200k.
• Kanye West’s Horus Chain – $300k.
• Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Necklace – $425k.
• Takeoff’s Solar System Chain – $500k.
• Lil Jon’s Crunk Chain – $500k.
• Gucci Mane’s Twin Panther Chain – $500k.
• Pharrell’s N.E.R.D Chain – $1 Million.

Mission statement – “CHAIN$  is sourcing the hottest and freshest sounds, the juiciest news and, the newest charts updates. As a collective, we live to produce a unique take on hip hop looks, concert culture and upcoming projects. Insider scoops and  one on one interviews with the current main stars of the industry. ” 

I made a word cloud on words that I would associate with the underground rap and hip hop genre.  And since creating a magazine is creating a brand, I need to make sure I use these key words when communicating a narrative in my media creating.  Simultaneously, I want my work to be conventional to the underground rap hip hop genre but I also want my magazine to have a unique selling point. Its stand out features that separate CHAIN$ from all other hip hop and rap magazines and media.  After all, my magazine is a source of entertainment. I want to relate to the rap and hip hop audiences as well as use the magazine as use the magazine as an outlet for social interaction, I want CHAIN$ to be the main talking point of all rap/hip hop conversations. Did you see that CHAIN$ article on Kanye’s new haircut? what an interesting read!

I feel if a magazine isn’t informative it has no appeal whatsoever. Making a word cloud helped me to distinguish between what people want to read about and see what people don’t because I ran each idea through my mind as I added them onto the cloud. For example, I love fashion and I like keeping up with it, so having CHAIN$ include fashion articles, who wore what to what to recent events or galas like the met gala for instance would add a sense of magnetism to my magazine media.

Progressing forward and taking the final steps toward making my own magazine, I will withhold that to add appeal to a magazine it needs the features; unique selling point, mission statement all in order to achieve the majestic grandeur I desire for all future media producing.

What audience do you want?

please click on enter full screen for bigger preview

When dissecting this mixmag cover of Michael Bibi, I learnt that every media text has a target audience. This media text was specified to appeal to a younger generation because of it’s minimal captions and ‘moody’ colour pallete for example.

Every feature of a front cover, the masthead, plug line, colour palette fonts, language, headlines etc, all collectively convey a message, theme or idea to a demographic.

Focusing forward, knowing that different features can add different appeal is a key part of the code in attracting an audience. Tailoring a magazine for a demographic can be quite difficult. This task I feel eased that process because I have some ideas of what styles attract what demographic in the magazine buisness.

What would you expect to see on a front cover?

 

Labelling a front cover of a conventional magazine has helped me grasp what an appealing and conventional magazine will look like. The following features of a front cover:

• Masthead
• Plug line
• Cover lines
• Main cover line
• Main cover star
• Captions

all help convey a narrative and prepare a reader for what kind of magazine they are about to read.

This cover is missing the features, pugs, plug line and insets which are all key features of a title but weren’t used in this issue. This shows that you can tailor a magazine to fit the kind of effects you want for your media, in this case in magazine form to make the reader want to read about Dua Lipa.

Looking ahead with my new knowledge of magazine design conventions I know that an aspect like the masthead for example, is endlessly paramount when designing a magazine. I can now differentiate between a poorly assembled front cover, and a highly innovative and informative one and I will use this going forward to make sure the media I produce is to my best ability.