Drafts/mock-ups of 4 pages

I created these drafts/mock-ups for the purpose of planning how I was going to lay out my final production. This means that I can see how I would like my final production to look and can then decide on any changes I would like to make from these drafts. They also allow me to picture where I want certain things across the four pages, to make it easier to then design them on the computer, with the drafts to then refer to and gain ideas from.

Location Recce

Before my photoshoot I traveled to different locations to assess which I preferred to use in my production, with the purpose of thinking ahead as to what I wanted in my final designs in terms of lighting, background and the conventions of these locations when combined with the costumes/props I would also use. The pictures below show the locations I visited when planning where to base my photoshoots, with models included to help me get an idea of where I wanted them in the shot for my final shots I would take.

Model Planning - Decision making process for my models

I considered many different models when planning who to use in my production, by thinking about whether they reinforced the typical/expected conventions of the hip-hop/r&b genre I had chosen or subverted it. My options that I considered varied in ethnicity, race and gender, to give me more thought into who would best target the specific audience tied to our genre of magazine, as the better targetted the magazine is at its audience, the better it will sell and be recognised. I mainly focussed my magazine on more masculine models that audiences would look up to, and also for the purpose of being able to show their stereotypes which reinforce the hip-hop/r&b genre, for example, how the black model I used stereotypically links to this genre the most. Because I wanted to stick to a more stereotypical magazine for my chosen genre that best focussed on its target audience, I didn't include a female model, as this didn't seem the right way of best displaying the genre and its typical conventions, as women are stereotypically known to have less authority and dominance, which I don't want my magazine to portray to its target audience.

Model Release Forms

The purpose of these model release forms is to gain consent from those who I include in my production, saying that they all allow me to use the pictures I take of them on my blog and in my production.

Risk Assessments

The purpose of these risk assessments for the locations I plan to use for my photos in my production is so that the risks are assessed, indicating the hazards and their level of risk when taking my photos, therefore outlining any key issues or hazards that may be dangerous. However, filling in these risk assessments for each location, I found that there was no hazard outlined that was too dangerous.

Costumes

Conventions of existing mastheads for R&B

From searching R&B magazines into google search I discovered the large variety of mastheads that appeared. From the results, I gathered that the typical conventions of the mastheads relate to the music of the magazine and the words are often associated/link to the genre it focusses on. Looking closer at the names of the masthead, such as 'Vibe' and 'XXL', they all have their own deeper meaning that would have been thought about carefully, which are created to capture readers more. The masthead/name appears to be a big factor on magazines as they are one of the first conventions seen by the audience, so with it relating to the music and genre, this would create more of an effect than a random name would have.

Masthead Final Choice

This is the final choice for our masthead. 'Unveil' was thought of by wanting to aim the name at the target audience/reader, therefore we thought about the meaning of 'discovering' new music, artists and information from the magazine, so the word 'Unveil' has the meaning of showing new things and presenting unique information, which persuades the audience that they may uncover more in this magazine. This name wasn't our initial idea, as it took a while to come up with something like this with a number previous ideas, such as 'Deeper', which was supposed to connote that there was more to the stories and music than what there seemed to be, however, receiving feedback showed us that other meaning may have opened up that were not suitable for a music magazine.

Online Tutorials and Response

My Tutorial


This is the tutorial I used to develop my skills in photoshop, although I understand how use some of the features already, I still learned a few more skills in this tutorial, by it showing how to do each skill in detail, step by step.

Kyra's Tutorial


This tutorial does not go into much detail with many techniques on photoshop, as these are simple skills that I already know, therefore I do not learn anything from this youtube tutorial.

Oliver's Tutorial


This tutorial is quite detailed with the advanced lighting effects/techniques it shows and explains how to use and can help me in my production if I used these certain effects in some way, however, this tutorial shows more specific techniques and it would therefore be difficult to implement this into my production.

Resources/Equipment