Create production materials (P4: U3, M3: U3)

Learning Outcome 3 (U3): Be able to create production materials for an original media product to a client brief.  

P4 (U3): Carry out post-production techniques and processes to produce a final original media product in line to the client brief-
M3 (U3): Create production material that follows the codes and conventions of the chosen genre for the media product.


Body copy-

TJ grew up in the estates of Tottenham living on the 20th floor in a one bedroom flat with his mum and younger sister, this forced AJ to grow up very fast. After being kicked out of school at 16 and several stints in prison, he decided to enter the market oh hip hop. To do this he went back to his old music teacher who taught him at school and always had always had faith that AJ would make it big he told TJ that what he needed to do was to change friendship groups and work on his bars and notes, this was hard for TJ as his friends were the only constant figures throughout his life but he knew what he had to do. This was one of the many sacrifices he had faced on his journey to become Londons and debatably England's' best hip hop artists. Other sacrifices he faced was that he was also told to stop drinking by Mr. Lewis (his old music teacher) this was very hard for TJ as over his youth and teenage years as he became reliant on it and found it as a relief to his hard life. This took him a while to get over, but after a month of rehab, he finally became sober and now doesn't drink even to this day.
After TJ’s first profits he gained from hip hop, the majority of is his profit back to where he grew up, setting up schools and education centers for the teenagers and youth who are living in the areas, he has done this in the hope that people growing up in council flats and that area will stay clear of the gang life and drug life and hopefully gain the qualifications needed for them to reach their full potential in life and succeed as he did.

2 years ago at the age of 18 AJ sat down and made this song we going to perform next Saturday, however, two years he was too embarrassed to sing it however when his auntie who is songwriter heard it, she described it as "magnificent" and finally conceived him to perform it today.

Now with his massive single unnamed ready to premiere in North London. He is ready to talk about the struggles he faced during his childhood, such as growing up with no dad and trying to fill the shoes of the man of the house, On top of thIs AJ is ready to talk about his recent death of his mother, or was very close to, who dies of natural causes a couple months ago. The last year for AJ has been very up and down with the good news of breaking into the hip hop world, but some other lows towards the back end of the year with the death.
Interview:

Interviewer: How did growing up without your father affect you?

TJ: I found it very hard whilst growing up and throughout my teenage years as I had no real male role models to base my life around, however, I look back on it now and I’m glad I had my mum there as otherwise, I wouldn’t be here today.

Interviewer: What have you done to help your community out since your success?

TJ: I have done many things, for example, I donated the majority of my profits of my first album to the area, setting up youth centers and schools, hopefully, this will give the children of that area better opportunity than I had.

Interviewer: Have you always had an interest in music?

TJ: yeah, all my life, however, through my teenage years I became a bit less active with writing songs.

Interviewer: how have you coped with the death of your mother?

TJ: yeah ofcourse I have very hard, aseptically as I was very close to her, but I think I'm starting to get to grips with it and l want to do is to make her proud.

Interviewer: what are you planning to do next?

TJ: I am planning to do obviously release my first single and focus and work very hard to release more and more as well as any album.

Interviewer: where are you currently living

TJ: I have long since moved out of the council flat I have grown up in and I am living in Finchley and a small house with my mum and my two younger sisters.

Why did I choose this interview?


I wrote the article from this perspective of my artist to give my target audience his view. It allows my target audience to connect with the artist and reflects his past, present and future. It was written in first person which is also conventional to music magazines.

Photo Shoot:

To achieve the correct and right photos I wanted, I took them basing them on my rough diagram I prepared before conducting the photo shoot. I knew before I took the photos I wanted a close up of TJ face for the front cover as well as a landscape photo of TJ standing to one side planning g to put my body copy in the other page. 

Thumbnails:

Here are my thumbnails , I didn't choose some of the photos as the lacked the idea of the magazine I was trying to portray. for example with the photo of TJ sitting on the stairs  it was not close enough for the front cover as it could be any male sitting on the stairs and it didn't really let the audience know who this magazine would be mainly focusing on . On top of this following the codes and conventions of these magazines (hip hop magazines) normally hod close of a artist/rapper in the middle of the front cover. 

This is me taking photos of my model TJ, The photoshoot took place during the day as we wanted to use natural light. This kept production costs down and also minimised risk to public safety.

This is me taking photos of TJ. We were taking the photos for the front cover and the double page spread. I used the lighter background to create contrast against TJ's skin tone. Also using the white background meant we had a simple shot that could be used in photoshop if we wanted to cut TJ out onto a different background.

In the image, I was trying to work out the framing of TJ. I knew I had to leave room for the text and wanted to have an image with the furthest possible space. Unfortunately I cropped the image too much. 

This image is too dark and although I could have lightened it in photoshop. I felt I could have achieved better through the camera and location. I also didn't like the car in the background.

I managed to fix the exposure levels and knew this made the image a lot stronger, although I didn't like street lamp going through the top of his head.  

I really liked the look of this image, it had the right feel for the image, but it was too close and didn't leave enough room for the masthead and copy. I also found the Tj's expression was a little to subdue, but also I didn't want him smiling. I just felt that he was a little sad for the overall feel of the shoot. 

I moved further away from the subject so that allowed me to have enough room. For the extra layers for the masthead and copytext, we have to add. The facial expression was improved, I didn't want him too happy as I wanted to keep that gritty feel of the UK hip hop scene 

While I Had TJ I wanted to get some extra shots just to cover all the angles. I thought of trying to use the stairs to show TJ's rise in the hip hop industry. Although the image didn't really work but was good to get it none the less. Low shots of male hip hop artists are done to create a sense of power and strength.

Setting up the software templates - front cover & double page spread

Codes and conventions

In my magazine “TUUNE” I made a big effort to make sure I stayed within and followed the codes and conventions of Hip Hop magazines, these included making sure I had a very similar colour scheme to what is already out there (red and black). By doing this it has allowed us to give the façade that we are an established brand in the magazine and hip-hop industry. Another code and convention that we have used is by having a close up of the main artist in the middle of front cover, this just made our magazine seem a lot more professional on the shop floor and fit into a better extent. 

In my double page spread a used a classic magazine convention, this convention was using a pull-out quote on my double page spread from the artist (TJ) this is evident in this screen shot of my double page spread. The reason I did this was to assimilate myself with the market. By show casing this technique is will underline the importance to the audience.

In my front cover I made sure that I used a close up of the main the artist (TJ) I did this to follow hip hop magazine conventions, this is evident in the screen shot of my front cover. This close up emphasises the importance of the artist to the magazine. As this is a relatively new artist people and potential customers will be drawn and intrigued to see what the magazine in tales.

In my front cover I made sure that I used a masthead this was essentially to just follow the codes and conventions on magazines around. As you can see from my screen shot of my front cover my masthead is the biggest piece of text on the page making in stand out a lot. This will allow the potential customers and readers to see exactly what the magazine is called and remember exactly what the magazine is called there by advertising the brand. The costume also links with the genre of my magazine as it is very stereotypical and follows my competitors.

I chose to have TJ to wear a full hoodie as this sort of attire tied into the genre of Hip hop and rap, this is because hip hop resonates from the street and wearing hoodie has lots of quotations of street wear making him wear this will allow the audience to connect with him better and understand the struggles he has been through to get to where he is today.

In terms of mise-en-scene, I chose my artist to have that facial expression because it reflects the street sense of hip-hop.