Research and Planning Tasks

Sources of Stories in Society

-TV Programmes
-Social Work
-Magazines
-Newspapers
-Gossiping with companions
-Films

Vladmir Propp

Propp was a Russian scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their narrative elements. He concluded that all characters could be resolved in 7 character types which are; the hero, the villain, the donor (the person that gives the hero something that helps the hero,) the princess or price if the hero of the film/television programme is female (the price or reward for the hero for completing his or her task

1. The hero
2. The villain
3. The donor- they give the hero something that helps the hero
4. The princess- Normally a prize or reward for a hero
5. The helper
6. An authoritative figure. For example, the princess' father. These characters are also give rewards in some instances
7. False hero- Someone in a production who attempts to claim glory for the hero's work.

Toddorov's Narrative Theory

This is research into camera shot and angles will be useful when taking photographs of my models for my magazine front cover, contents page and double page. Knowing the different camera shot and angles can also improve my understanding of the type of images typically used in a hip-hop magazine which will enable my final product to be of high quality.

For all of the music magazines above, I chose to include the front covers  in my collage because of their simplicity . The activity showed me that it is not an absolute necessity for music magazine covers to be completely filled with text in order to inform their respective audiences of the content with the publication. As a result, i was inspired to create a music magazine for my coursework final piece in the following style or manner; moderately bright color schemes which can be introduced through either the artist's clothing, the magazine cover or  magazine's masthead. Also, the magazine must inform the reader about the genre of music the periodical focuses on and this can be seen in various music magazine covers in the collage.

For my music magazine, I have chosen to utilize the genre of Hip-Hop. Hip-hop is a Black sub-cultural movement which started in the early 1970s. The man who was the instrumental figure that hosted the historic party was the brother of a young lady celebrating her birthday, Clive Campbell also known as DJ Kool Herc, founding father of hip hop. It was only available to African American’s who lived in the West Bronx, New York City. It is generally known by those with in the Hip-Hop community that there are four strands of the type of music all of which stand for different products of the culture: rap music (verbal), DJ-ing (auditory), dance (physical) and graffiti art (visual). As the music continues to develop across the globe in a variety of ways, these four basic fundamentals provide a clear structure to hip hop culture. The term ‘Hip-Hop’ is normally used in a restrictive manner as identifiable with the verbal representation of rap music. An example of Hip-Hop's impact in music is in the mid-1980s when the then new type of rappers emerged, with Run DMC at the forefront. Darryl McDaniels, Jam Master Jay and Rev Run combined rap music with hard rock and their visually pleasing music videos (to audiences who enjoyed listening to any genre of music) enabled the group to introduce a mainstream audience (as defined above) the "style, sound and attitude" of hip-hop as a culture.

Below is a vintage photograph of the legend DJ Kool Herc and former hip-hop group Run DMC

SOURCE:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hip-hop-is-born-at-a-birthday-party-in-the-bronx
http://school.eb.co.uk/levels/intermediate/article/394587 

I decided to change the name of the magazine to 'BARZ MAGAZINE' as the previous 'BRKZ PERIODICAL' could not be associated with hip-hop culture unlike the current magazine name. The colloquial  term 'barz' in hip-hop refers to the lyrics rapped by artists in their songs. The term is also used by teenagers and young adults which means that magazine will relate to my target audience. One convention of hip-hop magazine masthead to be bold, striking and reasonably bright in order to capture the consumers' attention. That explains why I used that text font and font colour.

HARD LIGHT


SOFT LIGHT


FILL LIGHT



REFLECTED LIGHT

-Picture of musician in the center of the magazine cover

-Magazine title behind the artist's head or on top

-A close up photograph of Kanye West has been taken for the magazine cover

-The font color of the magazine correlates with the artist's clothing (his light blue baseball jacket collar is the same color as the title of the magazine.)

-Bold text is used in the entire magazine cover to make every piece of writing legible

-The writers use bright text to draw the reader's attention to the information they want them to be most informed about. The color scheme is also eye catching and easy on the eye

-Genre of the music magazine can be identified on the cover


-The word 'contents' is written using a large font size notifying the reader what this page revolves around

-Kanye West is clearly the main focus of the entire article. The photograph of him posing covers most of the contents page

-Dull colors have been used in this section of the magsine which contrasts with the publication's cover. This may reflect the writer's attitude in the sense that, they have already captured the audience attention so therefore, not much effort must be put into the presentation of the contents page. On the other hand the colors utilized do go well together but they are not easy upon the of the reader



In comparison to the Vibe magazine above starring hip-hop artist Kanye West, the dominant colour in this 'Top of the Pops' publication is yellow accompanied by turquoise. These colours are vibrant and delightful which reflects the nature of the audience of this issue who would most likely be teenagers and young adults. This front cover is also very picture based in contrast to the Vibe magazine above which shows that the publishers of the periodical are aware that their publication has been made for a more matured audience and the readers are expected to actually read the articles instead of skimming through them and looking at arguably 'interesting' photos of celebrities which some of the audience of the Top of the Pops magazine may do.

As opposed to the Vibe magazine's contents page, the Top of the Pops magazine's content page is more informative and engaging. As visible in the far left of this page, we discover that the multiple pictures printed on the cover weren't just for effect. The pictures are a intuitive way of informing the audience about what they will be reading in the various articles. In addition, the magazine doesn't neglect the wonderful design it used for the front cover unlike the Vibe magazine. It appears this publication continually captures its audience's attention.

A masthead is the title of a magazine or newspaper. It is typically written at the the top of the front cover.  All of the magazine mastheads are taken from the front covers of hip-hop magazines. All of them utilize the colours red, black or white or all three colors, with the exception of the Billboard magazine masthead that also includes yellow and blue within some of the letters. Furthermore, all of the mastheads above are relatively simplistic but, the magazines can be easily distinguished from other competitors through methods such as font (font size, font thickness etc.) Overall, my favorite magazine masthead included in the collage above was the 'Rolling Stone' masthead.  I really like and was inspired the style of the font and the font outline. This along with the font color red would in my opinion be intriguing to the read and may provoke them to buy an issue of the magazine. Mastheads are important as they are the first spectacle consumers see when observing the front cover of a magazine hence why mastheads are placed at the top of close or close to the top. They must therefore be bold and striking with the intention of capturing the audience's attention and of course, inform them what the magazine is called. This applies to all magazines and not just hip-hop magazines. However, it is conventional for the masthead on a hip-hop magazine to be written across the top of a magazine front cover like 'Respect' magazine or in the left hand corner towards the top like 'XXL' magazine.

I am currently awaiting audience feedback

I am attracted to the fact that the main cover lines can easily be identified. Through conducting research into different magazine front cover, it is not always easy, from a consumer’s perspective, what the headlines/main cover lines are. That is not good as headlines/cover line should be a key factor in causing the reader to be compelled to reading a magazine or at least checking the contents of a magazine. 

I also like that the magazine’s masthead is visible. One convention of hip-hop magazines is to place the photograph of the musician in front of the masthead so that it is barely visible and I am impressed that the producers of this magazine challenged that convention. 

The first thing that is appealing is the way ‘Contents’ is written. It is written in an unconventional yet creative way and also, as it has been written in large, bold font, consumers are made aware that they are reading the contents page. The first thing that is appealing is the way ‘Contents’ is written. It is written in an unconventional yet creative way and also, as it has been written in large, bold font, consumers are made aware that they are reading the contents page. Another appealing factor of this particular contents page is, the institution’s logo is incorporated into the background of the page. This gives the magazine an identity which I like.

Initially, the contrast in the pages at hand was appealing to and this is something that I would like to attempt in the production of my magazine. The mix of the colours red and light, lime green was attractive to me. The simplicity of the close up photography also appealed to me. I liked how not many props were used and the musician was still dressed in a manner that conformed to the conventions of hip-hop. The relatively formal layout of this particular double page spread intrigued me as well.

I believe Spin Media, a digital publisher in the U.S which owns a number of pop culture websites, including Spin, Buzznet, Idolator, Stereogum, and The Frisky! And Vibe, is an institution that might produce and distribute my music magazine. They already publish Vibe magazine, another hip-hop music magazine which could mean even before I pitch my ideas to Anthony Batt (CEO) he and other important decision makers in the firm may be interested in publishing my periodical. Furthermore, the ideas for this publication are conventional particularly for a magazine focusing on the music genre hip-hop. The owners may believe that this a good and safe decision to make as my magazine will be something their customers will be used to.

I looked at existing hip-hop magazines sold around the world such as ‘The Source’ and noted the key conventions I saw in the magazines and put them into a list format

I researched many hip-hop magazine double page spreads and discovered what should be included in this sector of a publication and created my own double page spread flat plan

The genre of my music magazine will be hip-hop as, this is the music I enjoy listening to and I feel it will be easier for me to publish this style of music magazine. I will target the audience through the use of conventions on my front cover, contents page and double page spread such as the colour scheme of my magazine which will be red, black and white. These colours are conventional and are would be typically be seen in a hip-hop magazine. As a result, my audience will hopefully be intrigued as this is what they are used to encountering when reading a music magazine focusing on hip-hop. My target audience is young adults (14-21+ years of age.) This age group are most likely going to be more interested in this genre of music compared to young girls who may be more inclined to listen to popular music (pop music)

The Rolling Stone magazine categorize their audiences through utilizing demographics. Demographics are investigations into a population focusing on factors such as age, race, sex, economic status, level of education, income level and occupations etc. Demographics are used by governments, corporations and non-government institutions to gain a better understanding of a population's characteristics for many purposes like audience research for instance.

I can fit my magazine to their ideas but only to a small extent. The Rolling Stone magazine's audience from what I have gathered when reading through reading the demographics section of the publication, the magazine is aimed at mass audience as, their ages range from ages 18-24 to ages 55+. My target audience is solely young adults (14-21+ years of age.) Other demographic factors as mentioned above such as race, sex, economic status, level of education, income level and occupations are not relevant in answering the question 'Can my magazine fit with the ideas of the Rolling Stone Magazine' are irrelevant as, regrading race for example, if an audience member enjoys the genre of hip-hop their ethnicity should not determine whether or not they listen to that style of music. However, especially for Caucasians, it stereotypically expected that they enjoy genres of music normally created by individuals of their own race such as house, rock or popular music, just as black person is more likely to enjoy and relate to hip-hop, reggae or music of African descent (afro-beats)

According to the research I did looking into what is the character/appearance of a member of my music magazine audience, I decided that the musician who feature in my music magazine will wear this costume showed in the image above. Through this, my audience will be able to relate to the artist and may even be inspired by the choice of costume which may provoke them to be interested in my music magazine. Hip-Hop fashion is reasonably simplistic with artists usually not wearing apparel that is too brightly coloured. The brightest colour that can be seen on a piece of clothing worn by a Hip-Hop artist is red. This contrasts to 1990's Hip-Hop fashion which was loud and made artistic and political statements. Furthermore, regarding hair, this is not entirely important as, although the model has a considerable amount of hair, they styled it them self prior to the shoot. Finally, the artist will not be wearing any make up as some editing in terms of using filter to improve the appearance of the photograph if needed. 

Picture auditions from brkz18

One respondent also stated that they like 'Vibe' Magazine the most compared to the other choice available. However from all the data visible above, we can see that 'The Source Magazine' was the magazine that the majority of people who responded to the survey said they enjoyed reading the most. Therefore, I will model my music magazine around the conventions of this particular hip-hop magazine.

Of the twelve people that answered this question, the majority stated that they are enticed by the fact that hip-hop magazine keep them informed. However, in one of the comments in the question below, somebody expressed that hip-hop magazines 'Focus on gossip more than music' I will bare this response in mind during the creation of the double page spread for my music magazine

Based on the fact that the majority respondents of this question stated that they believed hip-hop magazines were too provocative, I will not utilize photographs of a woman or a teenage girl to ensure individual belonging to that sex are sexual objects.