This is my final completed evaluation for my AS Media coursework.

2. In what ways does your media produc
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media work?

3. Front Cover
I used the XXL cover with the artist NAS as a template to what my magazine was going to look like.
It helped me decide on what kind of feel I am going for, which is aggressive and serious.
My front cover follows the main scheme of colours that most magazines follow and this is because I
want my magazine to have a rap feel to it so I am going to use more violent and masculine colours,
like red, white and black, so that I can appeal to the target audience and overall increase sales.
This brings me to my next point of the clothing that my artist is wearing, a black hoodie and
bandana, this helps the audience know that this is obviously an artist involved with rap and hip hop
rather than pop or rock. I included a black hoodie and a black bandana so that the artist would fit in
with the rest of the colour scheme of the magazine.
As you can see, my masthead is very similar to theXXL
one, this is because I felt that the XXL logo is bold and
eye catching which is what I need for my magazine.
Although my masthead spreads out through the whole
magazine, it has the same boldness and colours.
However I felt that my logo needs to stand out more
and this is why I chose to have a microphone instead of
an ‘I’ for the word ‘Open Mic’. I also followed the codes
and conventions in the fact that most rap magazines
have the main cover start positioned in front of the
masthead and this is why I chose to do the same with
my front cover.
I have the artist in the centre of the front cover, because this follows in a key
theme with other rap magazines likeVIBE and XXL.The artist fills up the whole
frame well and I added a bit of tone to his clothing and skin to make the image
look more crisper
Also as you can see the masthead is the only text that has a black outline
instead of white like the rest of the text. In addition to this the text uses a
different font and all of this helps the masthead and the magazine have a more
sophisticated and serious look rather than have it in bubble writing which is
more linked with pop music magazines.

4. I laid out my main sell line similar to the VIBE magazine, I have all of
the text in line with the text above and below the artist featured is the
second largest text on the front cover. I chose these colours to keep
consistency through out the front cover and to help the sell line stand
out like it does in the VIBE. However for me the VIBE magazine lacked
in an eye catching sell line so I went a step further to have an outline
for the sell line to take it away from the clothing behind the text and
to help it stand out that little bit more.
I also used an intriguing sell line like the VIBE magazine does with their sell line to allow the audience to want to read more about the main feature of the
magazine, which is, the face reveal of the cover artist. I believe that this will help the magazine sell because they will want to know more about the artist
‘Rapid L’ because he is new to the rap genre. My sell line is a bit of a twist of what it actually means because although some people may not know what he
looks like, what I am really trying to get across is not just a face reveal but to learn a little more about the artist and Ihope that the target audience will
pick this up and make them want to buy the magazine. Also both mine and VIBE’s headlines form in the bottom third on the lefthand side of the
magazine, which follows the rule of thirds.
Most rap magazines have their barcode in the bottom corner of their
magazine, some on the right and some on the left, I chose to feature my
barcode in the bottom left of my front cover as I felt having it here doesn’t
distract the reader from the flow of the magazine but still serves its
purpose of telling the reader how much the magazine is and allows the
magazine to tell the customers what their website is in case they want to
visit that in the future.
Most rap magazines use bold and simple text, I have followed
this but I have gone one step further by having both red and black feature in the text as it helps the
text load settle into the front cover and keeps the audience interested in reading the magazine.
I have also included a ‘+’ sign that features in some rap magazine. I think that this was a more simple
way of having ‘Plus’ written on the cover. It also helps that part of the magazine separate from the
rest of the text on the front cover.
Although on the XXL magazine you can see it only shows one more artist, I thought this part of the
magazine is a better place for me to add who else is going to be featuring in this magazine in one way
or another
On my front cover I have the text on left and the right but in a downwards
motion because this follows the rule of thirds, so the most important sell
lines are on the left.
Having the text at different sizes allows different words to catch the
audience and the others to fill the res t of the space and to make sense for
the bigger text on display.
Overall the magazine follow the main conventions of a front cover for a rap
magazine but also has its own twist to make ‘Open Mic’ more unique.

5. On this page of my evaluation I am going to cover my sell lines and why I
thought they were appropriate to use on a rap magazine front cover.
The first sell line I am going to be talking about is “2014 EYECANDYOFTHEYEAR”.The reason
behind this sell line and why it featured on my front cover is because I wanted to follow the main
codes and conventions of hip hop. One of the main conventions in rap is that women are seen to
be very sexualised, you can see this in rap videos, other rap magazines and as the target
audience is mostly proven to be young males, it would make sense to why women are so
sexualised.Therefore having ‘EYE CANDY’ in bright red on the front page will hopefully draw
theTA in and want to read and see more of this article inside.
The second sell line that I am going to be explaining about is “JAY Z SPEAKS SEX DRUGS
VIOLENCE”. Once again I have followed some of the main codes and conventions of rap,
with references to sex, drugs and violence.This will allow me to stay on a common
ground with the readers, in the fact that I have used direct address so that the magazine
can speak to audience as they walk into their local newsagents.
This is a question that everyone who listens to rap wants to know. All though it is
the last sell line my audience is most likely going to see, because of the rule of
thirds, I think that this sell line will seal the deal with the audience purchasing the
magazine. I have shown that the audience most vote inside this edition for their
best rapper because this will spark up conversation with their friends and this may
make their friends also purchase the magazine.
This is my main sell line which is going to be the first thing the audience will
see, apart from the masthead. As you can see mo0st of my other sell lines do
not feature a lot of red in them and this is because most of the red has gone
into the main sell line to draw more attention as this is the most focused topic
that my magazine has covered. Also it links with the main cover star so it has
to be the biggest and boldest text on the page so the audience will know that
the two are linked. I said face reveal as I think this will entice the audience to
want to read about the new and upcoming star. I used ‘FACE REVEAL’ as a way
of luring the audience in to that specific article to see the rappers face.

6. Contents
My original contents page was quite poor and didn’t look very professional. I had bright colours and messy, floating text with a lot of open space. I asked my
audience what they thought of the contents page and they didn’t really think it fitted the genre type because the colours were to warm and that it almost
looks like another front cover. So I went and done more research and found more conventions that I could follow to enable my contents page to look and feel
like a rap magazine contents page. Above you can see that there is 3 smaller images of previous contents pages, the bigger image on the right is my final
attempt and I believe that it is a big improvement from the first contents page I did compared to now.
As you can see this is my Contents page for my rap music magazine and I have gone for a different approach on what the background is compared to other
typical rap magazine contents pages. They are usually plain white or a plain solid colour which lays behind the text and artist. The reason why I chose a brick
wall for my background was because I wanted my magazine to have a more urban feel and because this issue is specific to this artist, it helps the audience
understand and maybe relate to the artist as the background shows that this is where the rapper has come from, the streets.
However I have followed the main conventions of a rap contents page because I don’t want to stray to far away from the conventions that will end my
magazine to not have a clear view of what genre of music it is. As you can see that, I have placed my artist on the right and a medium long shot. This is to get
the whole view of the artist and what his style is. I did play around with a few different colour styles for the contents page.
I firstly had the contents page in a stronger, warmer colour, but I soon played around with the different colour settings on Photoshop to make it in black and
white. However I did not think that either the brighter/warmer colours or the black/white colours suited the genre or went well with the front cover. I decided
to meet half way and now I have a light but dark image at the same time to keep consistency with the genre of music and the rest of the magazine. The main
overall colour brings of a cool vibe and the clothing items that he is wearing also help this cool vibe.
Page

7. I used this contents page with the artist 50 Cent as a real
inspiration to what I had done with my contents page. I have
used the layout but I have just flipped it. In the XXL contents
page you can see that 50 Cent is standing on the left hand side
of the page with a serious look and custome that people will
know that this artist is to do with rap or hip hop. I followed this
custom with my own artist and had him in a serious but laid
back manor but also having the artist on one side of the
contents page.
The text of the XXL contents page is mainly on the right hand
side of the page and runs down all the way from the top to the
bottom. The word Features is in bold, strong text at the top
and the page numbers and subtitles in smaller text but still
bold. Then underneath the subtitles, a short line of words to
further entice the readers to turn to that page. I followed this
theme as it looked good and gave me the idea to almost copy
the layout of the XXL contents page. Accept I used different
colours, outline and shadows for my text because that was
needed to make the words readable.
In addition to this, the XXL magazine has a side page number on the opposite side of the page and in bigger font than the rest of the text. This gave me
an idea to place my main article on the bottom right hand side of my contents page so that this is the main article that I want my readers to view, so
therefore it is bigger and bolder than the rest of the text. As the text is isolated it means that the reader will look at that part of the contents first.
I took this and it gave me an idea to have the microphone from the front cover brought into the contents page to give the magazine
consistency and to give the magazine a brand identity to help customers acknowledge that because of the black and red microphone
that the magazine that they are reading is an Open Mic.
So following this I turned the mic on its side and had the word ‘contents’ on the image but the letters would go smaller as this goes
with the flow of how the microphone is shaped. This brings a unique perspective to magazine and separates itself away from the
other rap magazines out there.
As I did my research, I found out that some rap magazines had a unique layout for the word contents. Such as this
Vibe contents page, which has the word contents split up into three parts ‘CO’, ‘NTEN’, and ‘TS’. I’m not quite sure
why they did this but other magazines have started to do a similar sort of arrangement for their contents.
My artist follows the main codes and conventions of an American style rapper, he has the baggy clothing, the chain
around his neck, the sunglasses and the backwards baseball cap. This helps create a feel of the genre of music; cool,
confident, somewhat aggressive. This all helps anyone who picks up this magazine to instantly know that the this
artist is in the rap genre. Also the body language of my artist suggests that he doesn’t care and that he is arrogant
which is common for rap artists to have because they want to be taken seriously. You can see this because he has
crossed arms, straight face and sunglasses on when its not even sunny.

8. Double Page Spread
For my double page spread, I researched a few rap magazines and found out
that most double page spreads for this genre is to have a main image on the
left hand side of the page and then the text on the right hand side. So I used
these examples of existing double page spread magazines to use as a
template to making my own. As toy can see in the XXL DPS you can see that
the artist is mid ranged from the camera and the image is taken up two
thirds of the double page spread. I took this and had my own artist feature
the whole left hand side of my double page spread. This allows the readers
to get a bigger picture of the artist and what they look like. This was a great
way for me to make a connection with the main sell line on the front cover.
‘Rapid L Face Reveal’ Which I can now show off the exclusive content on this
double page spread as you can now see the rapper fully. Also the content
allows you to get to know the artist a bit more.
The artist has a slight back shadow as I felt this helped him stand more in
the page rather than just be floating on it.
In most rap dps you see a column after column of text about what ever is
featuring on the pages. I felt like this was too much on the eye and allowed
the audience to become disinterested. I decided to have an interview with
the artist and have the questions laid in a different colour on the right page
so that it can help the reader find what they want to read straight away
because it breaks the flow of the overloading text and they don’t have too
read through a big paragraph, so these questions act as subtitles.

9. How does your media product represen
particular social groups?

10. Representation My magazine focuses on the genre of rap/hip hop and
for it to been seen to belong to this genre of music, it
must have the correct representation that other artists
and music magazines have. Representations such as
colour, costume, setting and mise en scene..
For example the hip hop genre usually targets a youthful audience and
the social group that likes subcultures such as rapping, dj-ing,hip hop
dance and street life.
My magazine name works well as a play on words because only my target
audience and a few others would understand it. The word Open Mic
means; an open underground event where young people get together to
see other people (MCs) rap against each other, which is known as rap
battles. This represents the hip hop culture that is most artists come from
the streets and poverty and most came from battling underground with
other rappers in these Open Mic events.
The costume of my artist is one of the main aspects that I have to get
right because they need to be able to relate to the audience and show that
he is a hip hop artists. I had him wear a ‘baggy’ costume which included a
black hoodie and black joggers.
As hip hop came from African American culture, most of the target
audience are young black males because the genre is still seen as a
predominantly black audience and artists. This is why my representation
of a young black rap artist follows the conventions of the fans and other
rap artists in the genre, with the costume and mise en scene.
This would follow the stereotype of rappers and their fans having less expensive taste of clothing. This will allow the audience to relate to the rapper because
they will be wearing the same costume. Also rap artists are know for being arrogant so having him wear a big piece of jewellery makes him seem arrogant
about him showing off about how rich he is so he can just spend money on things like that. He also wears a hoodie and mainly wears black costume because
he wants to been seen as very masculine because this is a main theme in hip hop. It is predominantly male dominated accept from the few female artists like
Nicki Minaj.
The background for my contents page shows of the fact that my artist, like most other hip hop artists, is from the streets. The wall represents the streets as
it is a worn out wall and is not clean. The costume advances the look of the street life so it represents that most hip hop artists come from the streets but are
still proud to be known for their upbringing.
The representation of women in my magazine is going to match the conventions of the genre of hip hop. This means that they are going to be sexualised
and objectified in they way they dress and act. The women who usually feature in rap magazines are usually wearing the bare minimum and are seen to be
sex objects because the audience are young males. I have followed these conventions because I don’t have many articles on women but one of the main
articles on women is the sell line on the front cover “2014 EYE CANDY OF THE YEAR”.

11. What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?

12. Distribution
IPC has been around for about 150 years, giving them experience in handling a range of
media types, such as magazines.This would make sense of why I have chosen IPC media to distribute my
magazine because not only do they have the experience of selling big magazines, such as NME, which is
another music magazine, but they can and have created websites and mobile/tablet applications that
audiences can download and read magazines. So having a multimedia platform for my magazine will
make sense, the target audience of rap is young males, so they aren’t going to bother that much with
purchasing a magazine and because the magazine industry is on the down fall and the younger
generation have been exposed to luxury of modern media and technology, it would make sense that I
went with IPC who can create multimedia platforms for me.As a young person who listens to rap music
myself, I would much prefer reading articles on an app because it is easier and you can do so much more
on an app, such as; videos, music clips, audio interviews etc.
They know how to launch and promote new publications and send them successfully on
their way, which is great for a new magazine like mine.They also have skills in working across multi-
platforms, which should come in handy in terms of the future of my magazine.This is, surely, the
direction I would want to go, considering my target audience is young.They would expect a website and
would appreciate the visual and audio benefits of aTV, radio station and applications.
IPC Media is a well-established institution owning some of the most popular brands in the
UK.They have a good reputation and their brands are well received.This breeds audience trust and
loyalty. IPC also have a twitter account where they have just under 5k followers.They tweet about their
magazines and other publications which they could do for my magazine to create a bigger audience.
IPC Media is the UK’s leading publisher of print and digital magazine content.They cover more than 60 iconic brands such as;
NME,What’s onTV,Country Life and more.They cover a wide variety of magazines and at the moment they do not cover any rap music
magazines.This would be a gamble for me to distribute my magazine with them because I'm not sure if the right people will find it. But as
they are the UK’s leading publisher then this would be ideal form my magazine because it will reach more people than another publisher
would.And as they already cover a large variety of magazines, it wont be too hard adding a rap magazine into the mix.
Another reason why I have picked this media institution is because my audience are computer literate which means the
majority of them will know how to and will use the computer and the internet everyday, this will mean that they can also see a digital copy of
the magazine as that is what IPC media do. My music magazine will also be sold in the main high street shops such asWHSmiths and HMV so
that my audience can easily go and pick one up. But also they will be located in local newsagents near the surrounding areas that my
audience live, so urban areas, to increase sales.

13. Who would be the audience for your media
product?

14. Because there isn’t many female artists in the rap industry, and the fact that I used a male
artist for my magazine, it shows that my target audience is mainly male and young men for that matter.
Young working class male’s who live in more rural and rough areas because this is what the artists of the
genre rap/sing about, so that they can connect to the fans on a personal level.Also as the origins of rap is
working class African American males who did not have a lot speaks a lot about the genre, the more pain
and struggles a rapper had to go through, the more respect they will gain and this is why the genre has
stayed popular throughout the working class and not middle class. The main stereotype for my target
audience is that they have had a tough upbringing in a lower class family with not much income. Rap
music helps them stay strong through tough times, but usually the target audience is misbehaving,
whether it be at school or on the streets.Also the fan base is not well educated and because most of the
rap artists drop out of school at an early age, the target audience will follow this behaviour.
Target Audience
As they are young they have grown up in an information era, where there is new technology being made everyday and communication between
friends has never been easier.This makes them have the skills to use a computer and the internet like its second nature to them.They will also
have a slight interest in fashion as most hip hop artist have some sort of style, so the fans will adapt their clothing to fit in and be just like there
role model.
Most of my audience have big aspirations to make it in the rap game or even just to be rich or famous.This may seem like a wild dream, but
many artists have started from nothing to becoming rich, famous and successful, such as artists like; Eminem, P Diddy and KanyeWest.The
interests that my audience have are as follows; rap, deejaying, graffiti, break dancing, music production. From these interests my audience will
try and make it big by doing one of these.
My artist is from mixed ethnicities as I want to broaden the
audience of rap so that all ethnicities can enjoy listening to
rap. My artist is also from the UK so this will also influence a
larger audience to become involved with rap. In future
articles I will have a range of upcoming artists from all
ethnicities so that rap music can be performed and listened
by all.This will increase the size of my audience and
therefore my magazine will sell more and will hopefully be a
talking point between all ethnicities.
ME AT EMINEMCONCERT
This is me at an Eminem concert, you can see that the target audience is mostly young
males and know all of the words that the artist is rapping. You can also hear that the lyrics
are explicit due to the nature of the genre, with swearing and references to violence.
My target audience is also both black and white but they mainly live in rural/urban areas with access to
drugs and violence.This means that they are seen as a threat to the community and sometimes they get misjudged because of the clothes they
wear and the music they listen to. My audience are daily listeners trying to learn all of the lyrics of their favourite artists so they can hopefully
reach there dreams of becoming a successful hip hop artist. Mainly teenagers will listen to this music but some young adults will also listen to
hip hop music.

15. How did you attract/address your audience?

16. Enticing the Audience
Colour +
Costume
Interests Women
Featuring
Artists
Getting
Involved
Big Exclusive
Sell Line

17. This sell line will be one of the biggest
sell points for my magazine and will help
it attract.This is because most of the
audience is male so they will want to see
sexy lady’s, so the ‘Eye Candy of the
year’ will entice them to buy the
magazine.
This is the feature part of the magazine. it
shows a few artists here who are well known
from all hip hop fan, so seeing these well
known names on the magazine will increase
the sales in case they don’t want to read
about the cover star. Having the names in
different sizes allows the flow of the
magazine to continue and is easier on the
eye.
This sell line will attract not only Jay Z
fans but most hip hop fans because of
the trigger words placed; sex, drugs
and violence.Three of the main things
that hip hop fans take interest in.
The main sell line is to help the artist who features on the front
of the magazine. so the main story is about this artist and so the
audience can know that the main sell line is to do with the cover
star.This will attract many hip hop artist because they will want
to know what the artist looks like because it is a face reveal.
The clothing of the artist is a black hoodie and a bandana which
can help the fans relate to the artists as they would be wearing
similar clothing. Also the clothing is black to show of masculinity.
In addition to this the artist will entice the audience to purchase
the magazine because the artist is of a darker skin which is one of
the main stereotypes of being a good rapper, you have to be a
darker skin tone as most rappers are black.This will mean that the
representation of the artist being this skin tone and having this
costume will be a familiar look that rap fans see, so they can
relate and therefore want to purchase the magazine.
This will entice the audience to
take part in a debate on one of
the biggest questions in hip hop,
which is, who is the best?...
The different items of costume
used on the artist represent rap
using to common codes and
conventions and this is why I used
this costume, the bandana and the
black hoodie are both masculine
colours and typical conventions of a
rap artist.This will enable the
audience to know that this is a hip
hop magazine.
All of my sell lines on the front cover also help to lure in my
audience.The well known stars in hip hop feature in these sell
lines which is one way to entice. Another way is having the word
‘Eye Candy’ appear on the page will entice my audience because
they are mostly heterosexual young men.

18. What have you learnt about the technologies
from the process of constructing this product?

19. TechnologiesI have managed to learn how to take professional photographs in a range of different environments for this project
and I have learnt that I need to have a picture in my head of what I want the image to look like before I take it. For
example I had to imagine what the front cover was going to look like if my artist stood in a certain way or how close
the camera was to his face, if I was going to have a full body shot or a close up.
This was the first time I used Photoshop, I learnt how to use the magic wand tool to crop my images out of their
original background easily and them place those same images onto a different background. I managed to play around
with the colour settings to make my artist look to have a healthier skin tone and for the brick wall in my contents page
I managed to colour in some of the faded bricks but still have the wall looking natural. However I did struggle when
placing text as I learnt that it was better to have text on there own lines which was very time consuming in making sure
everything was in the right place.
Blogger is a great way for me to upload my work all into one place where I can review my work and so can my
teachers. This helped me to do this evaluation because I could find all of my work in one place rather than scattered in
different files on my computer. I learnt how to upload and create a blog so this made my organisation skills a lot
better.
In Photoshop I have learnt many skills throughout my period of doing media at AS-level. Before this I didn’t know how
to use Photoshop at all, now I know most of the tools shown from the screenshots that have helped me to create my
final product.
Using the ‘Eye Dropper’ tool, I was able to click on the image,
present, and get that specific colour in the image that I could not get
from the default colours. This allows me to get the correct colour
when filling in the image to make it smoother. In this example it was
used to get the colour of the artists skin colour and then use the
brush tool to smoothen out his tone to get a more vibrant skin colour.
From using the ‘Eye Dropper’ tool in gaining the colour of the image,
I could then go onto using the ‘Brush Tool’, which would already have
the colour collected from the ‘Eye Dropper’ tool set as default, to
make the image smoother. In the screen shot, left, it shows that I can
and know how to change the size of and the hardness of the brush
tool, in addition to this I could change what shape the tool would
create the colour from the icons below.
Furthermore I have learnt that changing the opacity has an effect on how the colour will
come out on the image. Having the opacity usually didn’t work well for me because the
colour was too strong and didn’t look very professional when it was on the image. So I
changed the opacity so that the brush wasn’t noticeable but made the image look
sharper.
When cropping an image I learnt how to do so
with the ‘Crop Tool’. This enabled me to crop
my image of the artist out of the background so
that I could have just a plain white background.
The reason I did this was because one of the
codes and conventions of rap magazines is to
have a whit background behind the featured
artists, so I followed this convention.
So overall my skills have changed dramatically.
Before I started this course, I didn’t know how to use
Blogger, Photoshop and I didn’t really know how to
take good photos. Over the time I have been
completing my coursework for media, I have
managed to successfully create a front cover,
contents page and double page spread for a rap
magazine using Photoshop and a camera to take my
images. When I finished I also learnt how to make a
blog and upload my work using Blogger, which
before I didn’t know how to do confidently.

20. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from
it to the full product?

21. Preliminary
Full Product
I feel like I have progressed massively from when I started media to now. Before media I wasn’t very confident in using Photoshop or taking
good images. Now I am confident in using Photoshop as I have learnt ways to make an image more vibrant and text more visible along with
other skills learnt in Photoshop. I have also realise that taking an image in front of a plain white wall will make it easier for me to crop the
main image out of the original shot.
As you can see my skills of mise en scene were lacking in my preliminary task compared to my final front cover page for my magazine.The
reason for this was because when I completed my preliminary task I was new to the subject and I didn't have an prior knowledge of editing
images and using Photoshop. However I was glad that I completed this task as it allowed me to gain some experience of editing, lighting,
imaging and the use of Photoshop before going straight into my main tasks of creating a hip hop magazine. In addition to this, my
preliminary task was rushed as I didn’t use my time wisely, I have managed to use this as a learning cure and use the time that was allocated
to me for my main task to complete a well done rap magazine with a front cover, contents and double page spread.
To conclude this evaluation, I personally think I have made a huge improvement since starting this course to now, I have clear evidence that
I now know how to use Photoshop to edit an image using the different tools and I have improved even greater from my preliminary task to
my final pieces of coursework. I hope this improvement will continue into the next year, in the fact that I can learn more skills and become
more professional with my final pieces of work.
Overall, I think that I have improved a great deal
from my first preliminary task to now my finished
full product. I have learnt so much more from when
I first started, I can now use Photoshop confidently
and independently. My first cover looked unfinished
with all of that empty space and the text and sell
lines looked like they were just floating around on
the page, even the masthead didn’t look right with
the font that I used.Thankfully to my research and
planning, before attempting my rap magazine front
cover, I learnt the key conventions and styles that
most rap magazines have.This really helped me
have a basis on what my magazine was going to
look like. I feel like I spent a lot more time on my full
product which is a good thing because the hard
work has paid off and I believe that it looks 10x more
professional than my preliminary task.