Draft Article

Intro: West London finest and 2013's biggest success story. HardBarzHarvey thought her life was over, kicked out of school with no qualifications and a drug addiction. Now 12 months on, she has toured with Eminem and signed with Aftermath Entertainment. Only OnPoint has the exclusive on her success.

We are sitting in a cafe, tucked out of view in one of London's stylish backstreets. Not exactly a very urban setting but is said to be HardBarzHarvey's favourite place to get food after a long day at the stuido.10am sees HardBarzHarvey walks in fashionably late with her vintage baseball jersey, snapback and her brand new jordan's looking very OnPoint.

We tuck in to her favourite breakfast of a full English with all the works;

bacon, eggs, beans, mushrooms and endless amounts of tea. "I'm not about this whole size 6 image all the magazine talk about, eating salads and exercising 24/7 fuck that! .I love food way too much to be starving myself! " As the public know Georgia is known for her outspoken opinions and she says "Just say it how it is or you’re not going to get anywhere in life". Our researchers clearly found out that Georgia will not hold back on anything she believes in.

A lot of fans love the way she is, wishing they were just like her as her life seems to be perfect. As Georgia proves us wrong

"I lived on a council estate in West London, YES of course I was one of those stereotypical 'chavs' who owned a Just do it bag, sleeked back hair and massive diamond hoops from Primark. I thought school wasn't important and thought bunking school with my mates, hanging round on the streets and getting involved in all kind of shit was a good idea."

"My life was at such a low, I got kicked out of school when I was 14 with no qualifications, no job...nothing. I thought my life was over. Where was I supposed to go from here?"

This was a surprising side to see of the hard and outspoken image Georgia has always portrayed. Everyone believes her life to be a fairy tale and by simply just posting a video on YouTube got to where she is now. This is far from the truth.

We get a deep and meaningful understanding of the hurdles that she had to overcome to get to the place she is today. When asking about her parents she tells us “whenever I get onto that topic it always ends up in tears or anger.” After a large chug of her tea she starts to tell us exclusively her traumatic experience. “My mum and dad both died when I was only 11years old. They were both in a horrific car crash on their way home. I was waiting for them at home for hours on end until my grandma called me hysterically crying on the phone telling me the news.” Through these tough times life was far from easy for Georgia, “I got kicked out of school and thought drugs would make me forget about it all.”

Georgia reached the lowest point of her life. Spending all the money she earn on drugs, taking them day in day out quickly becoming addicted. “I don’t know at what point exactly it started to be a problem. I just remember liking it more and more," she admits. "People tried to tell me that I had a problem, but I just didn’t listen “Ultimately, Georgia was hospitalized and on the brink of death. “Had I got to the hospital about two hours later, I would have died," she says. "My organs were shutting down. My liver, kidneys, everything. They were gonna have to put me on dialysis. They didn’t think I was gonna make it. My bottom was gonna be death.”

After a relapse and eventual detox, Georgia finally got her habit under control. “I had to regain motor skills, I had to regain talking skills. It’s been a learning process, I’m growing," reveals the rapper. "I couldn’t believe that anybody could be naturally happy with their life without being on something. “Almost dying changed my life, I now realise that I have a purpose in life and that is music”. So I would say to anybody, ‘It does get better, you just have to believe in yourself first.’

During Georgia’s recovery she lived with her Grandmother, Margaret and Grandfather Thomas. “I guess that’s the reason why I am so close to them. They are the reason why I am here today. They did everything for me and actually believed I could make something out of myself. ”

So how did Georgia become HardBarzHarvey? Georgia reveals that even though music has always been her passion in life, she never thought she was good enough to make it. However that all changed when she stumbled upon an Aftermath Entertainment competition. They wanted to find the next biggest worldwide rapper. “I thought to myself how sick would that be to win that competition, a record contract with none other than Dr Dre.” “…I just had to it”. The competition required a submitted video to YouTube of an original song or rap. Coming up with an original song was no problem for Georgia, “I‘ve always been writings raps, I have a whole book filled with them. It’s all I would do in class instead of actually working”.

Within 2 weeks of submitting the video to YouTube, Georgia reached over 1million views.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was actually speechless”. Her video become popular all over the world, getting more and more views every hour. It was no surprise that Dr Dre declared HardBarzHarvey the winner of the competition. He immediately gets Georgia on the first flight to LA to meet in his studio. “The first time I’ve ever even been on a plane is to go to meet Dr Dre in his studio. Madness!”

“It was literally a dream. Meeting Dr Dre for the first time in the studio has to be one of the highlights of my life. It was as if we already knew each other before. We connected immediately, we shared so many musical and general interests. I am so thankful for the success and platform he has given me”

Georgia career has been reaching ultimate heights in just a short space of time. But as she reveals one of the most life changing experiences happened only just a few months later, “I was just in the studio, recording my new track Relapse and none other than the rap god that is Eminem walks in. I’ve never been so star struck in my life. I admire him so much from what he has overcome in his life. He is a lyrical genius plus he is extremely hot in person.” After Dr Dre introducing the pair, Eminem admits to truly admiring Georgia’s story of how she got to where she is now. After just a week of knowing each other, Eminem decides to feature in HardBarzHarvey track It Gets Betters. The track is truly mind-blowing, with deep meaningful lyrics and an old school hip hop feel to the song. OnPoint predict this track to be a worldwide success as it can relate to everyone.

Not only did Eminem decide to feature on one of HardBarzHarvey's tracks but also invites the rapper to support him round his Europe tour. “I was speechless. How could someone like me, who lives in a council flat in west London now been going for a two month tour… I have truly been blessed”. Before preparing for the Europe tour Georgia admits to us exclusively, she has never been to a concert before touring with Eminem “I would have loved to, but as if I could afford paying £40 for a ticket.” After revealing this to her team, Georgia is lucky enough to get front row and back stage passes to Kayne West Yeesus World tour, telling us it was “life changing”.

Inspirations were the key reason why Georgia has her passion for music. Throughout her life she has grown up with the passion for R&B and rap music as it has always been around in any tough situation. “The legends Tupac and Biggie are the reason why rap is the way it is. They are never someone I would even try to mimic, I idolised they way too much.” “Of course I love Kayne West,Eminem,Jay Z Drake.. The list would never end but I truly do idolise female artists like Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea, and Ciara as they have made such a big impact on females finally be accepted in the rap industry.”

There’s no denying the fact that HardBarzHarvey is all that everyone is talking about right now. Her ups and downs are what have got her to where she is now. When asked if this is the “most insane year of her life so far”, the rapper states, “Everything is so chaotic and crazy right now and it’s so much all at once, but I’m living for it. I'm just having the best time ever and everything’s falling into place like it’s supposed to. Even people who want to hate on me, they can’t even shut down the fact that I’m literally what everyone is talking about. I don’t want to say that I’m on top right now – I feel like I’m kind of an underdog in a cool way.”

“I don’t intend on selling dreams to young people or being a role model. My generation has it the worst; I swear life isn’t the big fairy tale that Disney makes it out to be or the image that the hip hop industry portrays that money, drugs and violence is so badass and cool-far from it. I learnt how hard life is but you know what, I’m tougher.”… “Cause when life puts you in tough situations don’t say, Why me? Just say Try me.”

As Georgia is set to release her first album by the end of this year, expectations are high of what HardBarzHarvey has to deliver. So many of her fans and the public admire the rapper of the struggles she has overcome and the blessed talent she has. Her album Unbreakable is set to sell worldwide breaking records already set by the legends. HardBarzHarvey tell us “Instead of turning to drugs, I express all my experiences and problems into my raps. If any one of my songs can help anyone who is in a tough situation and ultimate low, I will be truly happily. I want my music to reflect how life is far from perfect, as my grandparents have always said to be, Remember that life is full of ups and down but without the downs, the ups would mean nothing.”

Contents text

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@OnPoint_Mag

Contact sheet

After producing my contact sheet using Photoshop, I decided to print of my contact sheet and by using a magnifying glass I was to clearly see the detail within all my images. I decided to do so, as seen in many other professional photoshoots, this technique is used to be able to demonstrate how the image will look once printed out in a real life copy of the magazine. After doing so, it was clear that several of the images would be suitable for my magazine by attracting my target audience and suiting the genre of my magazine through the clothing and body language shown.

Equipment

Hardware:

The interfit lights work by a trigger, as i pressed the button to capture a photo, the light flash on in sync. This was handy as it helped my photos to look well lit and professional. The Canon DSLR made the photoshoot much easier as it enabled me to take hundreds of photos at great quality that could simply be look back on. Also the white backgroup was used to remove any background from the photos taken and would make my photos look more professional by only focusing on the model and would be much easier to use throughout my magazine.

Software:

After uploading my photos from the memory card and putting them all together in a folder. I decided to create a contact sheet as this would be easier to both myself and others to view all my pictures taken. I create my contact sheet using Adobe Photoshop as this was very simple to do by simply choosing the folder with the photos taken and Photoshop would automatically create this.

Behind the scenes

 I decided to do a behind the scenes of my photoshoot as this would show more in detail about the set up and everything used. I created both a video and pictures on my phone as this would show clearly how my pictures were created.

Model Release

This is the model release form for my photoshoot for my magazine. I have decided that I would like Georgia Harvey to participate in my photoshoot as I knew she could portray a very urban feel.
Before taking photos of my model Georgia, I had to make sure that Georgia was happy with being photographed for my magazine. As she signed the form it clearly states that Georgia agrees to take part in my photoshoot.
Model releases are used in professional photoshoots due to needing legal rights granting permission to publish the photograph. Without having a model release can result in civil liability for whoever publishes the photograph due to privacy and copyrights issues. A model release form is proof that the model is giving the photographer permission to use and sell the photos. Additionally, the release is there to protect the photographer, the model, the agency and the end user of the photographs. Therefore using a model release for my photoshoot was essential in preventing any legal actions taking place after publishing the several photos of Georgia in my magazine.

Props/Costume

Promotional methods

Promoting my magazine is key to make it a success therefore i have begun to think about the various ways of doing this effectively. The numerous amount of methods to promote a magazine means it is easily to increase the readership and circulation of my music magazine. For example, billboards launch parties, bus shelters etc are all effective types of ways to promote a magazine.  When choosing my promotional methods it is key to see what would appeal to my target audience of young people and also having to invest a lot of money from my magazine into expensive types of promotion such as billboards and buses as these are seen all over the country and even world.

One of the most popular ways to promote a product or company is on a billboard which is typically found in a large city, near shopping centres or busy roads. They are known to be very effective as they are very large in size therefore will attract a lot of attention easily and are most often located in a busy area to gain a lot of attraction. I plan to create a very vibrant and unique billboard as this will stand out from the other well known billboards therefore entice the audience. The billboard will include key information such as release date, networking sites and a little teaser of what the magazine is going to offer. I will have to keep in my target audience therefore will located it where young people are most likely to be. 

Another promotional method my magazine will be using adverts on public transported such as adverts located on buses. This is a very effective method as even people not travelling by bus themself are most likely to see buses in their everyday life. As buses drive across the country at all times it will reach a vast majority of the public therefore be very effective. Also this method is key as the majority of my target audience use public transport daily to get to work or school. Similarly using underground trains to promote my magazine will be equally as effective. As by using very vibrant colours and images it will clearly stand out against the dull walls of inside a train station.

I believe these promotional methods chosen for my music magazine will be very effective as they will appear across the country and are most likely to be seen in people's everyday life. When designing these adverts i will include vibrant colours and strong pictures that will stand out against the already well known companies and products. It is important to make sure the adverts fit within the target audiences interests to make the magazine the most successful it can be.

New Media

Colour scheme ideas

 

 

After creating both my name and masthead for my music magazine, i decided another key concept for a music magazine is the colour scheme. Magzines will use colour scheme to make there magazine recognizable and attract readers. Throughout my magazine i will use just simple colours of black,white and grey so my magazine isn't busy with bright colours therefore will be more formal and appeal to more of my target audience. I am most likely to use red in my magazine as it connates danger and violence which a R&B magazine is most stereotypically viewed. For example, in both Vibe,Q and XXL magazine they use a very similar colour scheme of black,white and red. This links with the artists featured on the magazine and the body language used by them. Also, red can connate love or sex will attract the readers as for example cheryl cole sex appeal with attract male readers and the use of her red lips link with the masthead of Q and there colour scheme.
Also in my music magazine i would be interested in using hints of gold as it connates both power and wealth that the artists featured in my magazine will have. It will also link will alot of props/costumes used in photoshoots such as gold chains and other jewellery.

Image ideas

Using PowerPoint I decided to gather images from the internet and social networking sites to show clearly what I would want to be seen in my music magazine. Ideally I would like to recreate a majority of these images as I'm very inspired by them as they give an urban and current feel,which exactly what my music magazine is about. 

The first set of pictures of Miley Cyrus and Iggy Azalea highlight how I intend my front cover to be powerful and give a statement. Both wearing just simple bold colours however the statement chains,clothes and body language will grabs the readers attention. Emphasised in many of the pictures included, i would include a very urban setting in my photoshoots such as graffiti,brick walls all on the streets of London. This will clearly identity the genre of my music magazine and being aimed at young people. I also would want to include very stereotypical images associated with R&B such as aggression,violence, drugs etc but in a more fashionable. 

Even though rap music is mainly associated with males, in my magazine I'm going to use a lot of females in my photoshoots as this will make my magazine more unique by showing powerful and strong women throughout.

Names Ideas

Using simply just a pen and paper i decide to create a brainstorm of names ideas for my music magazine.

I decided to brainstorm words that were associated with a stereotypical R&B music and urban slang that my target audience were likely to use. I came up with a wide range of name ideas as this would give me a lot of variety to chose from and give me the best possible name .

I found it very difficult to chose a name for my music magazine due to knowning how important a quality name is to make the magazine memorable. I believed my best name ideas were; OnPoint, Off The Chain , Prestige and Takeover. 

Recieving verbal feedback from friends and peers I decided to call my magazine OnPoint. This is due to being an urban/slang word so would relate to my target audience of young people as they are likely to use this word or be similar with it. The name OnPoint highlights that everything included in the magazine is on on trend and the best of the best. The artists included will be only the best and the fashion seen in the magazine will be 'on point'. My magazine's name also clearly states the genre of the magazine to the audience as OnPoint is typically used by R&B artists in their songs or seen used by the famous artists themselves in interviews.

Masthead designs

After choosing my music magazine name 'OnPoint', I decided to then go onto to creating my masthead as this is a very key concept on the front cover to make a statement and attract my target audience.

I first started by going onto Dafont and downloading fonts that would suit a R&B/urban feel music magazine. All these fonts were big and bold as seen in other music magazines such as Vibe & XXL,all they use simple yet powerful masthead  to portray the very aggressive and hard image R&B has.

I created many possible designs on InDesign so I would a great range to chose from to give me the best masthead. This would also show what worked well by experimenting on the size,width and fonts. I realised that On Point would look better as one word as it makes more of a statement by looking more powerful.On a majority of the masthead i decided to join both the N and P from 'OnPoint' so it would look unique and stand out to the readers.Also on all mastheads created I increased the height of the O&P so the phrase would clearly be seen.
Overall, my favourite mastheads created were the 2nd, and 6th as I believe my target audience would likely be most attracted to these types of mastheads..However i believe the 8th masthead was most stereotypically R&B and has a urban feel due to be very similar to graffiti. Even though this would show clearly the genre of music my magazine is,it is quite unclear and too unformal.

Target Audience

Becca is 18 and lives in London.She is a passionate music fan and like to keep up to date with everything to do with music and fashion.Her style is very up to date wearing her favourite chain and timberland boots every where she goes. Always keeping up to date with her celebrities icons style and looking through thrift shops to get all her vintage clothing.

 She is a student who always drives to school with her friends with her music blasting in the car to her essential R&B 2013 and R&B The collection cds.She spends her free time at home reading her favourite music magazine to discover new music and be up to date on all the behind the scenes with her favourite artists.

Becca is addicted to social networking, having every app on her phone possible that she can be up to date with everything going on and enchance her social life. Forever posting on Instagram with nights out with the friends and close of concert pictures of her favourite artists. Also following her favourite artists, Drake,Macklemore&rihanna on twitter and always tweeting them to ask for a follow back.

She attended a lot of gigs this summer including Wireless Festival and by far her favourite acts were Jay Z,Justin Timberlake and Eminem at Reading Festival. She loves being in the crowd and the atmosphere&vibe of festivals.Being able to sit on her best mates shoulder and belt all the lyrics to her favourite song.

Feedback On Proposal

From doing my proposal for my music magazine, i thought it would be a good idea to get feedback from my target audience on my magazine to understand their opinions of it and also any suggests for improvement to make my magazine the best it could be.

Jennifer Aged 20 “ I think your magazine will be a success as it has a lot of things the readers would enjoy like the photoshoots and behind the scenes.I think you need to come up with your unique selling point so that your magazine can be recognizable and stand out from the rest ”

 

David  Aged 18 “ I like how the magazine sounds very visual with photos and has a trendy feel to it.Also competitions and use of social network will make it popular.I think you just have to make sure the pages are all to busy and messy with all your ideas and concepts. ”

 

Georgia Aged 16 “ The music magazine sounds exactly like what young people would like in a magazine.However i think you could make your magazine more expensive as you are including a lot in it. ”

  

 

 

Overall, i am very pleased with the feedback that I have received as it was very positive feedback giving me a lot of confidence that my magazine will be a success. I am glad I have received improvements from all the feedback so that I have many ideas now to adapt to achieve the best music magazine. I am surprised for being told to raise the price of my magazine as I believed it would be the most popular at a lower price however with a higher price of £2-£2.50 my magazine will be able to include all the concepts they have said they like such as competitions and photoshoots. I plan to figure out my layout and style so is isn't doesn't look very busy and messy as I do not want my magazine to look unprofessional. I plan to use very simple colours such as black and white on all the pages but include a lot of splashes of colours such as gold&red or blues&pinks.Using both this feedback and my survery feedback i will be able to create a magazine that will appeal to my target audience very well and easily become a success and popular.

Proposal

At this stage I propose to do a weekly music magazine for an Urban/R&B genre. I think there is a gap in the market for this magazine as there isn’t a lot of urban/R&B out there for people to purchase. I believe this magazine will do very well as is different to the other entire urban /R&B magazine out there as will contain song lyrics at the bottom of the page of other artist and will have far more behind the scene such as inside tour buses, photoshoots and how to get the look for certain artists.

My magazine will contain a higher ratio of photos to text as due to my target audience being teenagers and young people, I believe they will be more interest in photoshoots and posters rather than lengthy text about the artist life. My magazine will be vibrant and colourful however not be too busy and full to give it a very calm and cool feel. Also the magazine will be rather low in price as it unlikely for young people to pay allot of their own money for a magazine. The price is most likely to vary from £1-£2 to encourage all young people to purchase.As the magazine will be weekly is it likely to be cheap as there is less time to produce it.

The magazine itself will contain alot of social networking as due to technology being so advance nowadays, this will advertise the magazine more and encourage young people to purchase by having such things as a Facebook page, photos sent to the magazine of artist/concerts through instagram and the magazine having a twitter account which will tweet exclusive previews to upcoming editions.All of this will make the audience feel more involved with the magazine.Competitions will also be included so the audience will more likely to purchase the magazine as they feel there are in with a chance to win prices such as tickets to a concert, a signed CD or poster etc. My music magazine will contain sections of the latest gossips of artist such as their upcoming tours and albums and any related news in the press. The magazine will mainly include famous artist as it is more likely to grabs the reader’s attention than an upcoming artist. There will be a variety of artist used in the magazine to show variation.I will also include a page on a upcoming artist once a month to help advertise their music and get them more well known.I will do this by including interviews and pictures so the audience feel they know the new artist more personally.The upcoming artist are most likely to come from social networking such as Youtube.As famous artist such as Justin Bieber started out singing on Youtube, it is likely to find a upcoming star to feature.

Due to the music magazine being urban/R&B, as seen in other magazine such as 'Vibe' i will also focus on fashion with the artist.They will be photograph will very trendy and fashionable clothing that the audience can admire and what to look like.These clothes will be very vibrant and cool to carry out the theme of the magazine throughout. There will be how to get the look pages of fashionable artist of the week to let the audience know it is possible to look like their favourite artist.

I think my proposal for my music magazine will be a success as there is a gap for in the market for it as it is very up to date with young people using all types of social netowrking.