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.