Post-production techniques and processes (P5: U3)

A review of the suitability
My media product meets the client brief, they asked me to create a magazine that had to do with the music industry in North London. I chose the genre of grime due to its growing popularity not only in North London but all over the world with artists such as Stormzy gaining global recognition from the public and even celebrities such as Adele. I also chose this genre because my favourite genre of music is Rap/Trap which without that grime would have not gotten to where it is now and for that reason i also get alot of inspiration from rap magazines and put that into my grime magazine.

I did not need to ask permission from anyone to do my photoshoot due to the pictures not being of a person but of the KOKO venue. That was however my second plan so there was a lot of time wasted trying to find other places for a photoshoot that after all did not take place. After picking out the suitable picture for my front cover i needed to add some codes and conventions to make the cover look like a grime magazine. To do this the first thing i did was use a special font called ‘AIRLOCK’ which i got online and moved into photoshop to add to the front cover. I also added bullet holes into the header as an edgy touch to relate to things that are spoken about in grime. I got the bullet holes from google images and simply dragged them on behind the header to make it fit in, in the background without it disturbing the letters. In order to do this i used the magic wand tool in order to get rid of the background of the bullet whole image. Then i used the move tool in order to drag the image behind the masthead. This is suitable for my target audience because it shows the grime fans that our magazine is not scared to face the harsh reality that is spoken of within the genre. This is also a strength for the magazine as it shows legitimacy and knowledge about the gene. The tools i used for this can be seen bellow.

I finished with a few simple touches to perfect the magazine and bring it to its full potential with a few more codes and conventions such as having page numbers in the same font as the masthead. The only problem that i could think of about my final products is the quality of the image on the front cover due it being a bit blurry but it was the only picture that fitted in the way i wanted it to. This is something that i could have overcome by making the image smaller there for it wouldn't be as stretched out. Another solution to this problem would be simply taking another picture All my ideas where inspired by rap magazines due to grime being born from rap and without rap grime wouldn’t exist. There where strict dead lines i had to work by that specific parts of the products had to be ready by which although put a lot of pressure on me helped me organise the project well and not let it go out of hand. In order to edit the page numbers on the magazine into the same font as the masthead i used the text box tool to insert the page number which then aloud me to treat the number as a letter and change its font. This was suitable for the audience as it keeps up the same theme of the eye catching masthead which may have encouraged them to read the magazine. These where the tools that i used -

The brief asked me to create a front cover and double page spread and have the theme of a  North London music genre. I chose grime due to it being a sub genre of rap which is my personal favourite genre of music therefor i could easily relate to the product and enjoy working on it. I used many codes and conventions to indicate the theme of grime and North London in the front cover and double page spread. I mainly used text font and imagery to portray the theme of Grime and North London.  The font that i used for the masthead of the front cover is called 'AIRLOCK', i did this by entering the text using the text tool which then aloud me to change things about the text such as the font. In order to create the compass logo with only the 'N' for North showing i used the magic wand tool as well as the eraser. The eraser was in order to remove the rest of the letters from around the compass. This is suitable for the target audience as they can easily relate to the compass that represents North London. This is a strength because the target audience may be encouraged to purchase this magazine due to them being able to relate to the magazine. The weakness of using the compass was that it did not really fit in with the rest of the colour scheme of the magazine however i overcame that by simply removing the background of the compass so it now fits in with the black background of the front cover

eraser tool - 

 I also used a bit of white colour for the front cover text for the to be something that the audiences eye can catch standing out. I did this by using the Colour Picker tool which allows me to change the colour of my text to a variety of different colours. For my front cover and double page spread images i used KOKO the venue, i did this because it is a well known venue in camden that commonly hosts grime artists to perform some of the best performances to date. I spent a lot of time thinking of a reasonable pricing for the magazine due to general audience of grime music being teenagers with a low income if any income at all. I also decided to have my magazine published online which will help me reach as many types of audiences as possible and it is also just simply keeping up with the times due to everything being done online these days.These decisions are suitable for the target audience for several reasons. Firstly KOKO is an affordable venue which actually gives the target audience the opportunity to go and experience a concert there. Secondly due to the primary target audience being fairly young which means they are consistently on the internet which means making the magazine available on the internet increases the chances of them being interested in it. This is a strength to the magazine as the target audience knows they can actually afford what is being advertised in the magazine, as well as them being more encouraged to go get the magazine as it is conveniently waiting for them on the internet.  The weakness of the use of this content is that it may be hard to keep on writing articles on only affordable venues and shows however we can over come this maybe collaborating with the venues we speak about to give our consumers discounts and more.

In the double page spread i didnt have much space for codes and conventions to create meaning so i did the best with the space that i had. This was a weakness as codes and conventions are extremely important as they make a double page spread what it is. We over came this by using every detail that can be enhanced to make the double page spread more special. I changed the page numbers to the font that i used in the header of the front page which just helps the carry the theme of of grime throughout the magazine. I also added the same compass symbol on the right hand side next to the page number to remind the audience im speaking about North London. This is suitable for the target audience as it helps remind them what this magazine is about no matter what the article is about. So if they are reading an article about a venue, the codes and conventions can help remind them that this venue must be related to grime in some way such as hosting many grime performances. This is a strength for the magazine as it maintains the credibility of the magazine and what it stands for.