Day 19

DAY 19: Table of Contents

Today, I decided to move on from my magazine cover and continue finishing up my table of contents. I used a template from a magazine called "Frame" that appealed to me as it gave the option to put ideas from multiple stories and also separated the magazine into two different parts. I decided to caption each part "Hip-Hop" and "R&B." At around the halfway point, the magazine will provide no content for hip-hop and start aiming content towards fans of R&B. I also decided to put three pictures of my featured artist on the table of contents to give a more in depth look at his personality without words. The pictures show his side passions and how much of goofy/lovable personality he actually has. Hopefully the audience will be fond of how he is as a person and a rapper after the magazine release. There is also a link to a website where you can download the magazine onto a tablet. This allows for new age technological accessibility. 

Day 18

DAY 18: Table of Contents Brainstorm

Today, since I am finished with my cover, I decided to work on my table of contents to show the different stories in my magazine. Before I can think of any stories, I have to find a template that will be able to fit 10-12 stories in it that are actually interesting. Because the table of contents will include every page, I need to think of stories that will hold the reader's attention by just looking at the title. For example, one of the cover stories I put on my cover was "Tory Lanez Drops Anticipated album: Chixtape 5." This album was a very highly anticipated album for months on end, so maybe the reader, if they are interested in R&B more than hip-hop, will want to read about Tory Lanez rather than K. Walden. This gives diversity throughout my whole magazine as there will be something for everyone to enjoy while reading "The Come Up."

Template for Table of Contents:

Day 17

DAY 17: Crafting the Cover

Since I have my pictures, I decided to begin creating my magazine. I used all the elements I have talked about previously to create the best cover I could create that would encapsulate the feeling of a true hip-hop/R&B album. My headlines have to do with other news going on in the hip-hop industry while the main story will be about the new rapper "K. Walden" and his come up into the industry. On the right side of my cover I placed the issue of the magazine which is the November issue of "The Come Up." The actual picture on the cover is my artist sitting on his roof looking off into the distance with the skyline providing the background of the picture. I like to think of this image as K. Walden is looking off into what he has and must accomplish to boost his career to a point where he is satisfied in what he has achieved. But unknown to the audience, K. Walden will never be satisfied and will always hunger for more influence and success.

Day 16

DAY 16: The Pictures

My partner finally received his SD card reader over this weekend and sent us our pictures for our magazine. The pictures actually came out really well, better than I was expecting. They look great with the natural lighting and it makes the artists I'm covering come out as "natural." There are no special effects added to try and make them look better, they make my artist look extremely photogenic as well. My use of medium and long shots show my artist's whole body and his surroundings. This shows that he prefers his environmental surroundings than a big house with tons of jewelry and expensive clothes.

Here are some of the pictures:

Day 15

DAY 15: Shot Types and Clothing

For my pictures of my artist, I decided to mostly use long and medium shots to create a sense of intimacy and to show off his whole outfit as well. If I were to use mainly close-up shots, then the sense of intimacy would be less defined as you could not see the artist's whole body and it would be too close for comfort in my honest opinion. The medium shots provide the whole picture of my artist and what I would want "The Come Up's" audience to see. I want his clothing, his apparel, his stature, etc. to be the focal point of each and every one of my pictures. I had him wear a t-shirt with designs that catch attention and pants that had rips and chains on them so it would signify his Come Up. Also it shows that he is humble as he does not spend an extremely large amount of money on designer clothing and chains. He likes to continue his life with simple clothes that do not make him stand out from the Average Joe.

Day 14

DAY 14: Technical Difficulties

So, my group and I were expecting to have our pictures for our blogs today, but we had a few technical difficulties. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the laptops at school don't have chip readers for SD cards. So my group member that brought the Nikon camera was going to put the SD card into his laptop at home, but he could not find his laptop. This hinders our progress severely because we need these photos to continue our project an craft the best magazine we possibly can. We most likely will not have any pictures until we make a few more blog posts to give my partner enough time to find his laptop. 

EDIT: I'm adding this the following day. My partner found his laptop, but his laptop does not have an SD card reader as well. He decided to order an SD card reader which he will not be receiving until the week after this. Once he gets the SD card reader, we should be able to get to work on making the perfect cover and adding pictures to our interviews. 

Day 13

DAY 13: Picture Day!

My partners and I decided to take our pictures to place in the magazine the day before writing today's blog. We met together at one of my group member's house and put on different outfits to try and look the most like rappers we could. For my pictures I decided to dress my rapper up in what I felt like he would look the most rapper-esque. I chose bleached pants and a slightly big shirt to show how he likes to dress casually, but fashionably. I chose to get pictures of him on a dock looking into the sunset and I took pictures of him sitting on his roof . Both pictures used the natural lighting I mentioned in my previous blog post. It turned out ridiculously clean and it did not really come out looking like a staged photo shoot. To take pictures we utilized my group member's Nikon camera which produced high quality images. We were planning to save our pictures onto the school's computers, but no school computer has an SD card reader, so we have to wait another day for an actual laptop that can read an SD card.

Day 12

DAY 12: Scheduling Problems

Due to scheduling problems, my group and I could not take pictures at the time we wanted to. This puts a huge burden on our project because we cannot add pictures to our front cover and interview portions of our magazine. We decided to reschedule our picture takings to the day I am uploading this blog post. The day of the original picture taking was postponed due to our group members having important obligations that ended up conflicting with the original plans. Our picture reschedule will be taking place at 3:30 PM which will be peak lighting hours and will provide the best possible pictures when taken outside. The element of natural lighting will make the picture look more natural and less like a staged photo shoot. Also, the area in which pictures are being taken is a natural forest-esque area which add to the natural, environmental look as well.

Day 11

DAY 11: Rapper Research

Inspired by the end of my last post, my group decided to research the looks of different rappers to actually get an authentic look of what a rapper behaves like, looks like, talks like, etc. For example, rappers like Jay-Z keep them selves, despite their upbringing, classy and hold themselves to a role model standard. This is because they know how their fame can influence the younger and older generation due to his career. On the other hand, rappers like Lil Pump rap about heavy drug use and has an extremely braggadocios attitude. Despite their influence on the younger generation, they do not seem to care about how they appear to their audience. My group and I need to decide if who is being featured in our magazine is going to have a no care, fun-loving attitude or if they are going to be humble and realize their impact on their audience when they gain fame. The rapper research also helps us achieve the look of a generic rapper. We will decide whether or not our rapper will need props like big chains, a LOT of money, and face tats. Overall, this research helped come up with an idea of  what we need to do to achieve this "look" and how we will reenact it.

Day 10

DAY 10: Photo Shoot Planning

Yesterday, my group and I decided to plan on when to shoot photos for our magazine. We plan to meet at a house of one of the group members and take pictures that look like they will be perfect for a magazine. As I mentioned previously, I am going to take a picture of one of my group members on their roof, reenacting the 2014 Forest Hills Drive J.Cole album cover. We are ordering backdrops and plan to use  actual photo taking techniques to accurately display the atmosphere/mood of our whole magazine. We are also hoping that we have time to get clothes from Goodwill that will emulate what a rapper would wear for a photo shoot. For example, items like big jewelry, over-sized clothing, stuffed animals, etc. We are also planning on making our actors (Us) to look as close to the most generic rappers as possible. Maybe use of face tattoos or fake grills. One of us plan to look like this:

Day 9

DAY 9: Magazine Inspiration

Because we were decided to use the color red based off of the most popular color for hip-hop magazines, we decided to look for magazines to inspire us for more than just the font. We used Google Images to look at a plethora of magazine covers and we seem to have been going in the right direction. Multiple magazines either use red or white as their title color. They also use bold and massive font to stand out, but it helps the cover picture stand out among the scattered words on the cover. There are magazines that make sure to make the artist look as "hard" as possible with either an angry face or a ridiculous amount of jewelry. Other magazines will prioritize the artist over the words and font which can also grab a reader's attention depending on how famous the artist actually is. Here are some examples:

Day 8

DAY 8: Fonts and Colors

Today, my group and I decided to try find what font and colors we would be putting on our magazine. We chose the font "Adumu Regular" because we feel like it fits our genre well as the letters are bold and they stand out in contrast to the picture I already had as my mock background. We also chose the color red as our font because it represents aggressiveness, represents danger, and it captures the attention of someone looking at the cover. This color is used by the already popular hip-hop magazine: XXL. XXL uses red and white as they stand out on their cover and it is instantly recognizable what magazine it is. I have an example from Canva showing my mock cover and the new red font that should be an attention grabber for my audience and those interested in "The Come Up"

Day 7

DAY 7: Mock Covers and Pictures

Today, my group and I decided to think about what props and backdrops we needed for our pictures. We decided that one of our covers could be a recreation of J.Cole's 2014 Forest Hills Drive album cover. This picture would feature one of the group members sitting on the roof of a house looking off into the distance. We feel like this image actually resonates within the hip-hop and rap community because it is J.Cole's one of, or best albums. We think that this picture could intrigue our audience and give them a reason to check out what the magazine is about.

On the other hand, I decided to continue crafting a mock magazine since we do not have our pictures yet. I used a template from Canva.com that a thought would be the most aesthetically pleasing. I then thought of my main story which will be about Ken Walden who is a rapper who wants to get his name out there. So I will feature him as my main story to try and boost his numbers/audience. My smaller story will be about Snoop Dogg giving tips on how to become a successful icon in the hip-hop/rap industry. This will help people who are famous but not successful enough to cause an impact on the rap game to start becoming prevalent.