Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire: Hip-Hop / R&B magazine

1)    What gender are you? Please circle.....

          MALE                  FEMALE

2)    What is your age? Please circle.....

12-14          15-18          19-21          22-25

3)    Are you a fan of Hip-Hop or R&B? Please circle.....

YES                     NO

4)    Do you regularly buy any music magazine, if so, how many?

Please circle.....

YES                     NO

1                 2-3              4-5              6 or more

5)    Which magazine cover do you prefer? Please circle.....

              

      

                                           

             

6)    What type of magazine cover do you prefer..... busy, simple or plain?

Please circle.....

BUSY                            SIMPLE                         PLAIN

7)    Which font type do you prefer for the headline of the magazine cover?

Please circle.....

EXAMPLE                       EXAMPLE                            EXAMPLE           

            EXAMPLE                    EXAMPLE

8)    What features attract you most on a music magazine?

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

9)    What features repel you most on a music magazine?

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

10)                       How much would you be willing to spend on a Hip-Hop / R&B magazine? Please circle.....

£1 or less              £2-£3                   £4-5£             £6 or more

Questionnaire Planning

I have started to think of the most appropriate set of questions to present in my questionnaire to gain a variety of answers that cover all aspects to help me with my final piece. Detailed answers will give me the understanding of my targeted audience. I will carry out a questionnaire due to it being very simple and straight forward.  This is also an effective way of getting my audience research. Here are some possible questions I may include in my questionnaire:

• Do you regularly buy any music magazine, if so, how many?
• What is your age?
• What gender are you?
• Do you prefer Hip-Hop or R&B?

These are a few questions I will include in my questionnaire.  By creating this questionnaire I will be able to gain the appropriate knowledge of my target audience and will be able to work of their ideas to help gain the most value for my product.  Therefore I would have a created a magazine which is directly aimed at my target audience. 

Codes And Convections

From my research, I have been able to recognise the various codes and conventions in       Hip-Hop and RnB magazines.

 Firstly, I recognised that majority of the time, the magazine only use one artist for the front page. Very rarely would these magazines have a front cover consisting with more than one artist, unless they are a group.

The main colour scheme I picked up on is the contrast of black, red and white. I believe they choose these particular colours due to it creates a very attractive look, but yet very simple at the same time.

Also, these magazines never consist of much text on the main cover. They rely on the image to attract most of the attention.


Simplicity is their main tool, with the important features such as type face, lighting to perfect standards, it compliments the page as a whole. Where I need to improve is my improvisation of colour linked with the main image. I feel I rely too much on typical conventions to support the structure of my page, and this is what I have mainly learnt from my preliminary task that will help me for my final project.

Audience Theory

The picture above is named “The hypodermic needle theory”, and basically states that whatever news or information any sort of media provides the public, is without any question believed. Some have stated that this is a form of brainwashing where the consumers are unprepared to doubt its validity.

This theory was founded in the mid 1920’s and was never seen as successful, due to the lack of media choices. They were limited to radio and cinema. For that reason, it has only been fully noticed recently because of the increase in media power.

This image demonstrates signs of the hypodermic needle theory. The cover consists of a very popular rapper with a big following group who see him as an inspiration, and he is holding a gun to himself. This to the fans he has may give a negative message. Especially to his younger fans, who can be easily persuaded to believe what they see.

Radial Analysis

Radial Analysis

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Front Page Analysis 1

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Lighting

Lighting is a key part in photography due to lighting being able to attract more attention to certain parts of the image which will attract more attention of the potential viewers. The lighting in this image is being given from the viewers right hand side, giving more attention to her facial expressions and the cover of the book. I will be carefully choosing how I am going to be lighting my pictures that I will include in my main task. For example, my genre RnB and Hip-Hop may not consist of too much lighting as sometimes it can be portrayed as aggressive. Sp too much lighting will be providing a false image, and going against typical conventions. However, the aggressiveness I have realised, is only through male artists, whilst female artists may require more lighting to enhance their beauty they rely on. 

Shot types

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is commonly used in paintings and photography. This shows that an image would have been divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that the main element of the image should be placed along the lines or their intersections.

The basic technique behind applying the rule of thirds is to imagine separating an image down into thirds so that you have 9 parts. As follows:

With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now shows four important parts of the picture that you should think of placing points of interest in as you frame your image.

The theory of the rule of thirds is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines then apparently your photo will become more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to see the image as a whole and easily spot the main point on the image. Studies on the rule of thirds have shown us that when the normal public view images, they naturally go to one of the intersection points rather than the centre of the shot.

As you can see in this image, the picture was cleverly taken so the head of the subject is on the intersecting points, and more closely to his eyes. This is very clever due to eyes are the natural focus point for a portrait.  Just below his eyes which is his tie and white flower will take the role of secondary interest.

In a very similar way, for such shots as landscape is likely to be horizons. Mainly because there is mostly only one part of the image that can be the point of interest, shown in the next image:

Finally ,when considering using the rule of thirds, it is taught there are two simple questions that have to be asked to get a successful shot. These would be:

• What are the points of interest in this shot?
• Where am I intentionally placing them?

conclusion of preliminary task

As you can see, I have uploaded my preliminary task of a 6^th form magazine, talking about the stress that can come from the exam period. I developed this magazine cover using the application Photoshop. I had used a variety of tools within Photoshop to perfect my final piece. I had purposely made the background image black and white to show the depression that can come from revision and its stress. Secondly, I had aligned a variety of miniature pictures which relates to news about the school. Lastly I had placed a few clever quotes around the page to prompt the audience to favour this particular magazine.

Official preliminary task

Colour schemes

Typefaces

These are some typefaces I researched. I used a website called Dafont which has a wide variety of different fonts and texts. As you can see, some of the typefaces are very standard and not very eye catching. But as you continue to look down the, the creativeness of each you believe will be able to help attract the attention of the younger audience.

Flat plans

These two images above are flat plans of ideas for my front cover layout. I have created them on the paint application. I have made one flat plan seem more sensible which will appeal more to my audience who are suffering from stress. It will make it seem more professional. My second flat plan is more exciting that will attract students who are looking for exciting news.

Ideas for the title of the magazine cover

Ideas for title of magazine cover

• HCS-6form
- This is an idea for a name of a title as it relates to who the target audience is which is Heston Student. I have abbreviated the full school name to HCS to make it seem modern to attract the younger audiences.

• HCS News
- This title goes straight to the point of what you are getting.

• 6th Times
- This idea gives a professional and more serious view to the magazine due to I am trying to relate to the New York Times, one of the most popular news papers in America.

• HCS Mag
- This idea is not very creative and I don’t feel it will attract much attention.

• The Happening Heston!
- This title links to the younger generation. It uses the word ‘happening’ which will not be well known to adults. However, for my magazine, I don’t feel it would be appropriate due to my theme is about stress.

Preliminary task introduction

Introduction

The set preliminary task consists of producing a front page cover of a magazine to a 6th form audience. On my front cover I am using the idea of stress that comes from the exam period. I believe this is a sensible idea due to every student can connect to this and therefore will have an interest in reading it.

In the preliminary task I am going to use Adobe Photoshop CS3 to produce my front magazine cover for a 6th form audience. Certain features which i must include consist of a photograph of a student in medium close up, appropriately laid out text and a mast head. I will also have miniature long ranged and birds eye view photos taken by myself to decorate the page. Firstly I will take a photo of a student revising by showing his head close to the text book giving the impression he is reading. From this particular task I hope I am to achieve a professional magazine front cover which appeals to the 6^th form age range and I hope to gain more Photoshop skills which will help me in future tasks.

My specific target audience is going to be 6th formers. I will appeal to this audience by using specific images of students from my school and not writing as much text to relate to what 6th formers will like to see and what they enjoy. There is also the important information to do with exams that students who are choosing to do education will find helpful to read.

The overall theme and idea for the front cover of my school magazine is the stress that comes from exams, however I will include features such as which universities will be best suited for you and tips to help with stress. The style I hope it to be simple, but trendy and effective.

I will hope to attract my audience by using a lot of photos on my cover to show different stories that will be inside. Different stories about the school or students will hopefully attract their attention. From the front page, i want the students to know they will get worthy stories.

The elements I will experiment with to reach my full creative potential is by taking lots of different types of photos, creating many lay out pages so I have a wide range, and by using Photoshop more often to make my work more creative and different.