DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA & FILM STUDIES AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio Production Brief (G321) Main Task Music Magazine Contents Page Statement of Intent Guide

In my layout of my contents page I will use two columns. One column will mainly focus upon the textual information consisting of the articles and the subheadings whilst the column on the right will mainly consist of pictures to give a visual representation of the contents page.

From my research on contents pages they tend to use two columns. I have also chosen to use two columns as it is a conventional layout to hip hop magazines contents pages. The use of two columns allows column pages to be formatted in a structured manor and it also allows the contents page to not be too condensed with information as three columns can sometimes look too much.

From my research I can see that it is conventional for Hip Hop contents page to not use too many colours they tend to only use three colours in their contents page due to this when constructing my artefact I will also be doing the same, this will help to make sure that the contents page isn’t too cluttered.

The types of images that will be used in my contents page will be relevant to the genre of Hip Hop. This will be done through the use of the pictures focusing upon the miss-en-scene as the costume and props will be relevant to the Hip Hop genre. The use of gold chains as props is relevant to the Hip Hop genre as Hip Hop artists are known for their rope chains. This will navigate to the target audience as they will probably have similar values in terms of them

The contents page to the left is an example of an effective design that uses two columns. This is somewhat a style model for the contents page I aim to construct. They have predominantly used the right hand side of the page for the main image, which is the cover story of the magazine. I will also use the right side of the page for images but it will be for three images not one. I will use three images to allow me to make the identity of the genre clearer to the audience this is due to the f ac that they will be more props, costumes, relevant body language and facial expressions in the miss-en-scene that is relevant to the Hip Hop genre.

The design also uses boxes to help structure the layout of the contents page. They have used boxes to separate the different elements of the contents page for instance the masthead is above the box whilst the main body consisting of articles and images is underneath the box that says ‘features’. I will

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construct similar boxes as it allows the layout to be clearer and more cohesive to the audience of the magazine.

Two of my images will consist of a medium-shot. I will use a medium shot as it will allow the costume, props to be seen in the miss-en-scene whilst a medium shot is also close enough to see the body language and facial expressions in the picture. Using a medium shot is the most suitable camera shot in trying to represent the Hip Hop genre as it will allow me to demonstrate various hip hop related things such as a body language gesture relevant to the genre, for example this gesture to the right

Additionally the camera angle will be an eye level shot; this will allow neutrality between the audience and the image. The artists in the image eyes will be directly looking at the audience, this will allow a relationship to develop between the audience and the artists as the direct address will create solidarity with them.

The other image in my contents page will be of an artist’s mixtape cover. I will be placing this image in to represent the means of distributions that Hip Hop artists take. As Hip Hop artists produce mixtapes whilst other genres of music tend to just release singles and albums. So through placing an image of a mixtape will help represent the genre of Hip Hop.

The articles in my contents page will vary however they will all clearly represent the genre of Hip Hop. The cover story will be linked to the main image in the contents page. I will link them together through the use of page numbers; this will also help generate cohesion.

The colour scheme of my contents page will be grey, blue and white. I have chosen to use this colour scheme also to generate cohesion between throughout the magazine as the front cover and the double page spread use this colour scheme. The grey background somewhat reflects the lifestyles that Hip Hop artists have had as grey can be seen as quite a dark and dull colour this is reflective of the harsh experiences and the lack of opportunity that most Hip Hop artists had prior to become musicians.

My Contents Page will be divided into features and into regulars. The features will consist of stories about artists presented through interviews, reviews and commentaries. For example the cover story is an interview of a Hip Hop artist, whilst another feature will be a review of an artist’s album. As part of my unique selling point focuses on Hip Hop tours, as from my research similar magazines don’t focus on artist’s tours and travels. Due to this articles in the features section will mainly focus on tour related things as the cover story interview will consist of questions about the tour, additionally there will be an article that is a commentary of an artist’s tour.

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My contents page will be easy for the audience to find the major cover story as the cover story will be the same font as the rest of the articles Lucida Sans but it will be of larger typography. In addition to making the cover story a larger text size I will be place a box aligned next to it that will say ‘cover story’ inside of it, this will make it clear to the audience that it is the cover story. In addition the major cover story will have a relevant picture in right hand side of the contents page to represent it.

I will use a sans serif type of font mainly, as this is conventional for contents pages as it is a type of font that is easier to read than others. The font that I will be using mainly throughout my contents page is Lucida Sans. This is an example of the font ‘lucida sans font‘. This font will suit my contents page as through it being sans serif font it is easier to read and also the lettering is clear to read. Other fonts that will be used on my contents page is Urban Jungle this will allow me to link my contents page to my front cover and my double page spread as Urban Jungle is the font used

for my masthead and the headline in my double page spread. This is the font that I will be using for my masthead in the contents page.

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