First Draft Table of Contents

Yesterday I created my table of contents. I began by choosing a template for my table of contents on canva. I used this as a basis for how to create my table of contents. The only thing I wanted out of a template was placement. I wanted a template that matched how I wanted to place the things on my table of contents. Once I found the template I wanted to use I began creating the table of contents. I titled it CONTENTS. I used all capital letters to match the style of my cover page. I made this white so it would pop on the black background. I made the color of the page numbers red to continue the red theme I began on my cover page. I also placed a picture of the same model use on the cover page on my table of contents. It is the picture of my model pointing to the back of his hoodie showing off the brand. This picture with its naturalistic background fit much better on the table of contents than it did on the cover. It is a good picture for the reader to see first once they open the magazine because it again shows off the rapper's wealth.

I then created my stories for my table of contents. I used real rappers and created many different stories about them. I created stories about albums that were recently released by artists such as Kanye West and Da Baby. I used these well known artists and their albums in my stories to appeal to readers. The intended audience of my magazine would know who these artists are when reading their names and would hopefully entice readers to buy my magazine. I used stories that were true and are relevant in hip-hop news now. I placed the cover story last in my magazine. The reason for this is to entice the reader to red all of my magazine rather than just the cover story. If I placed the cover story first the reader could just read that and potentially not see what else my magazine has to offer.

This is the first draft of my Table of Contents

Cover Second Draft

Today I worked on making revisions to my cover. I made a lot of changes to it that made it look a lot better. One of the major things that I changed was the cover photo. I decided to change the cover photo because the naturalistic background of the first did not fit well with the rest of the cover. The theme was meant to be dangerous and reckless and the red was supposed to evoke these feelings in the reader. The naturalistic background of this photo did not mix well with the dominant red colors of the text. So I decided to change it to a photo of my model with a simple white background. This makes it so the red on the cover really stands out and it really causes the title to pop. The new picture also includes my model wearing a chain which further adds to the sense of wealth I intended to create. On the new photo my models face is also showing, showing is face tattoos and a very intimidating look. All of these things add to the validity of his career and entice the reader to buy my magazine.

I also decided to change the color of some things. The previous decision that I made that when the bar on the side and the font color of the sub titles were both red this was too much red, was a good decision. I originally changed the color of the sub titles to white to counter this. On this draft I decided to change the color of the bar on the side rather than the font. I changed the color from red to black, which compliments the red very well. The font is now all red which causes it to stand out ost on the cover, which is what I wanted. I also changed the red I used from a darker red to a much brighter more vibrant red that stands out more.

This is the draft I created today

Cover First Draft

Yesterday, I began working on my magazine cover. I used the software Canva to create my magazine cover. Me and my group members worked on them collectively since we wanted our magazines to look unique, yet very similar in the stylistic aspects so it would be clear we all have the same magazine, just different editions. We made many stylistic decisions involving our cover. We decided to include a red bar on the side of the magazine that would contain the Issue number and the month and year. We decided to make the bar red to match the font color of our title. We also decided to put our slogan, "The Music Experts" under our title. We made decisions such as font size for our title and word placement on the cover. We made these decisions so they would match on all of our magazines. We needed them to match to show that our magazine has very distinct conventions across all editions.

I decided to use the photo of my model pointing to his back on the dock. I choose this because it is a very visually appealing photo and it shows him trying to "flex" his wealth. He is pointing to the Off-White name on the back of his hoodie which is a very expensive brand. This photo did a good job of showing his wealth and success. I also made the decision to make the text color of the titles of the articles white rather than red so the red was not overwhelming on the page. This is a decision that I may change in my next draft. Nothing is final and I am working to make my cover better.

This was the first draft of my cover

Photo Extraction

Over the weekend, the adapter that I needed in order to extract our photos from our photo shoot arrived. It was an adapter that allowed me to access an SD card on my personal laptop at home. I had to hook up my SD card to my laptop along with a flash drive. I then copied the pictures from the SD card to my flash drive. It took a long time to copy due the amount of pictures that we took and the size of each, After it was done I went through the pictures to see if the had turned out as I wanted them to. All of the pictures that I took turned out very well and I found many that I could use to create my magazine. I am now able to begin the process of creating my cover for my magazine as I have the pictures necessary to begin.

I brought in my flash drive today to school in order to give my group members their pictures as well. Since the pictures were on my flash drive we could now access them at school. What we did to get them their pictures was plug two flash drives into one laptop. We then went through all of the pictures to find which ones they needed and copied these ones from my flash drive to theirs. This took the majority of the day as the pictures took a long time to copy and it took a long time to go through them all. Now that we have all of our pictures we are ready to begin making our covers.

Shot Types

While doing my photo shoot I made many decisions on what shot type to use in the different photos that I took. In many of my photos I choose to do medium close up shots. The reason I did this was to show a sense of intimacy with the subject. I wanted the readers to feel a connection to my model when they saw the pictures of him and the best way to do this was take closer shots of him in order to create a sense of intimacy. The closer shot type also better shows the models emotion. The emotion was something that I really wanted to emphasize. The emotion was used to capture the feel of rap music. Rap music is typically very dangerous and explicit music. For this reason I had my model look very intimidating and dangerous. This was also very typical of rappers in other magazines I looked at.

I also used some long shots in order to relate my model to the background. If I found something that, for example, would show his wealth, I took a picture of him from far away enough to make sure that it would be in the background. This was important because one of the major aspects I wanted to capture was wealth. This was to show success and establish my model as a valid rapper. This validity as a rapper would entice potential readers to buy my magazine as they would be reading about a very successful new rapper.

Technical Difficulties

After the photo shoot we had to find a way to retrieve the photos to start making our covers. Since we took the photos on my camera we had to extract them off of the SD card from my camera. We planned on bringing the SD card to school and using the computers here to do that. When we got here, however we learned that the computers had no SD card readers. This proved to be a problem because my laptop at home also had no SD card reader. What I then had to do was find an adapter that converted a USB C plug, which is found on my laptop, to an SD card reader. I went online and found an adapter that did just this on Amazon and ordered it. The problem after that was the shipping time. It would take three days to be delivered. Now we may not be able to receive the pictures until Monday November 18th.

Once the adapter is delivered I will have to move the pictures from the SD card to a flash drive in order to give them to my group members and access them on the school computers. We will most likely be able to do this on Monday. In order to do this, however, I will probably have to bring in my laptop and the new adapter to school. Being unable to extract the pictures for three days has been a set back, but we have found other things to work on while waiting.


The adapter I had to buy in order to access the pictures

Prop Decision Explained

For my photo shoot I made many conscious decisions on what I wanted my model to wear. I had my model wear an Off White hoodie for the top. The reason I had him wear this is because Off White is a very well known brand. It is a brand similar to Gucci and Supreme in the sense that their supply is very limited. This leads their products to typically be very expensive. The reason I wanted him to be in knowingly expensive clothing was to emphasize the point that he was a successful rapper. The every expensive clothing shows that he has a lot of money and conveys the sense of extravagance and wealth. In all of the photos I took of my model I had him wear this hoodie in order to convey these points.

Another prop used in some photos was a gold chain provided by one of my group members. I did not have my model wear this in all of the pictures taken because the chain seemed a bit over the top. When going for the idea that he was successful and wealthy, I did not want to go for the idea that he was also very arrogant. With the inclusion of the chain it would have seemed too much like he was trying to brag to the readers rather than just simply show his success. I did have him wear it in some of the pictures just in case I wanted to go with an overwhelming sense of wealth to really emphasize the point I was trying to make. My model also drew on face tattoos with a sharpie for the photo shoot. The reason I had him do this was because it is something that is becoming very common of rappers now. Face tattoos essentially have been a sign of dedication to modern rappers to their music. They decide to get face tattoos because once they get them they use this as motivation since they would no longer be able to get a normal job. I had my model include face tattoos to show his dedication.

I had my Model Wear an Off-White hoodie along with a chain and face tattoos. 

Photo Shoot

Yesterday me and my group members went to take pictures. We decided to go to one of our group members homes to take the pictures. We decided to go here because he has a very large piece of land with many places to potentially take pictures. We each used each other as models and each of us used a different model. We all took pictures individual to what we wanted our magazines to look like. I used my group member Matthew as a model. I found any different places to take pictures of him for the magazine. I decided to take many pictures that represented him and his extravagance. I took pictures that represented that he was essentially 'on top.' My pictures represented success and wealth which is what I wanted to capture in order to show that this rapper is beginning to blow up.

In all of the pictures I took of my model I had him look very intimidating and serious. I wanted to capture a very dangerous and reckless tone in my model. This look signifies rap music and what it is. The music itself tends to be very reckless and dangerous music and caution is thrown to the wind. I wanted my model to embody this and show that he is capable of making this kind of music. I essentially wanted him to look the part. This increases his validity as a potential new artist to readers, and earns him and my magazine respect from readers.

All of these are photos of me taking pictures of my model

Further Complications and Planning

Yesterday me and a group member tried to go to Goodwill to get necessary props for our photo shoot. After the gym we planned on going to a nearby Goodwill. We found out however that upon researching their hours it was only a book store. We tried another Goodwill that was also very close and when we got there we realized it was only a donation center. Due to this, we were not able to go to Goodwill yesterday and buy anything because by the time we had done all of that it was too late to try and go somewhere else. We decided that we would go home and simply use what we had at all of our homes for our photo shoot. Today we are all going home to get our necessary materials and then meeting up after school to take pictures.

We made these plans by communicating on the app Snapchat. We created a group chat on this app last week so we could communicate outside of school. The group chat has proved very helpful in helping us to communicate and make plans for meet ups. We have planned to meet at a group members house today, November 12th, after school at 3:30. The reason we cannot go right after school gets out is because we all have to first go and get all of the necessary materials for the photo shoot from our homes.

The Snapchat group chat we created to communicate

Scheduling Issues

We were supposed to take pictures Friday, November 8th, but ran into complications on why we could not. On Friday one of our group members had band practice and could no longer take pictures after school. This complicated us because we had to reschedule. Since we were planning on taking pictures over the weekend now we could not communicate in school to make plans. To combat this, we created a group chat on the app Snapchat. This gave us a way of communicating outside of school. Using this, we made plans to take pictures on Sunday morning, but yet again our plans were unsuccessful. One of our group members made other plans for Sunday morning and we could no longer take pictures this day. We now have plans to take pictures after school on Tuesday, November 12th. The reason we are taking pictures on this day is because it s the only day our group member does not have band practice. 

We also realized this weekend that we did not have all of the necessary props to take the pictures. What we decided to do today is go to Goodwill in order to buy what we needed. We are going to buy the clothing we need to wear in the photos and other things that may help enhance our pictures. My group member and I often go to the gym together so we decided it would just be convenient to go after the gym today. 

Research for Photo Shoot

Today we did research to further plan out what we would be doing in our photo shoot. We wanted to focus our research on what rappers wore, how they typically posed, the faces they made in pictures, and other aspects of how they acted in photos. Through looking up pictures of many popular rappers I found a lot of valuable trends in the way they dressed. Typically rappers dress in very expensive clothing. They wear things such as fur coats that are very clearly expensive. They also wear a lot of designer clothes and wear big brand names such as Gucci, and Supreme. There are other rappers though, such as Jay Z, who do not dress as extravagantly. Jay Z dresses very casually and typically only wears a t-shirt and jeans. What I have to decide is what I want my model to reflect. I have to decide if I want my model to follow the trends set by rappers wearing extravagant clothing, or if I want him to dress humbly.  Two common themes between both though, are that in most pictures a lot of the popular rappers are wearing hats, and expensive chains.

The rappers in most of their pictures tend to have very serious faces. They often give off a very intimidating look. This is something I will try to achieve with my model in order to replicate the rapper feel. Also, the rappers tend to have very basic poses when being photographed. I found that there are not really any common poses in the pictures I looked at. The only common actions in he pictures were pictures of them performing. I have not yet decided if I want my cover photo to be an action shot or just a still picture.

Jay Z in very casual attire at his show

Kodak Black wearing a very expensive fur coat

Photo shoot Planning

Today we planned our photo shoots to get the pictures for our magazines. We decided a good day to meet up and take the pictures that worked with all of our schedules. We decided to take the pictures Friday after school since this is the only day we are all free. We are not quite sure where exactly we want all of our different photos to be, and were going to decide that once we meet up. The only criteria for my picture that I want for my cover, is that I would like a very dark background behind my model. We've decided we are going to meet up at one of our group member's house to take the pictures, since he lives on a very large property, and there is a lot of good spots there to take pictures.

We still need to get props and things for the photo shoot and we are trying to decide what exactly we need and when we will get them. The props we need are baggy clothes, extravagant clothes such as fur coats, or very nice jackets, chains, and other things that are typical for rappers to wear. We need to do further research on typical wear for rappers before our photo shoot so we can know exactly what we want to wear in our pictures.

Research

Today I researched other hip hop magazines in order to learn common themes between them. I looked for language used in the puffs and titles and looked to what kind of language was used. In most of the magazines the language is very informal and some use well known slang in titles and captions. One big common design theme is almost every hip hop magazine contains a lot of red on the cover. This was a factor in our decision to make the font color red on our magazine cover. Another thing that was common of hip hop magazines is in the picture of the model on the cover they always have a very serious face. The models are made to look almost intimidating to the reader and give off a very serious tone.

We also looked at the other hip hop magazines for conventions. We looked at things such as anchorage, and where they placed certain things on their cover. The magazines almost always have a picture of a certain artists, and the largest piece of text on the cover is the artist's name. In the banner the magazines included either one of that main articles in the magazine or their slogan if they had one. In the sweet spot on the cover the magazines almost always had the title of their main article there. This research helped to make us begin to think about how we would use certain conventions in our magazine,

Font

Today we choose what font we would use for the title of our magazine and what color it would be. We choose the font type we wanted to use was Adumu Regular. We choose this font type because it is a very distinct font. It is also a very bold font so it really stands out as a font for a title. The letters are very structured and we believe this font is very good for a hip hop magazine. It follows the pattern of other hip hop magazines as most use very distinct and bold letters to make their magazines stand out.

We have also decided that we want the color of the font to be red. We researched what specific colors meant and what emotions they evoked. We also researched other hip hop magazines to see what colors were predominantly used. Red was a very common color throughout the other magazines and we also found that red evoked a feeling of danger which was good for the dangerous nature of hip hop. Red is also the most eye catching color.

The research done about the color psychology

Photography

Today we discussed what pictures we would be using for our magazines. We have decided that we want to use each other as models. We are going to pose as new rappers and photograph ourselves. We are still trying to figure out where exactly we want to take our photos but have a general idea of what we want them to be of. For my cover the general idea that I have is I want a medium close up shot of one of my group members with a dark background behind the. I want the background to be very plain so the main focus is the person. The person will be dressed in clothes that are typical of rappers, such as baggy clothing, or very extravagant clothing, and chains. 

I want my cover to be a photo like this so it will relate to my story. The model in the picture will be the up and coming artist that I will be writing about in the magazine. I want them to be dressed like a rapper would in order to appeal further to hip hop fans, so they will know my magazine is a hip hop magazine at first glance. The plain background will make sure the focus is on the model, who will be the focus of the magazine. I want the background of the photo to be dark so that the writing on the cover really stands out more. Also, if we follow the trend f red font, it would really stand out on a black background.