Independent Record Label - Street Soul Productions

Street Soul Productions is an independent record label which was first established in 2005. It's based in London and California and was created by James Kennaby. Street Soul Productions orginated from Birmingham which involved artists from all over the world helping singers, DJs, Producers and emcees. This helped them create a unique brand of Hip Hop for the future.


Street Soul Productions run workshops! These workshops specialise in Apple mac software (music), Adobe photoshop (graphics) and Final Cut Pro (editing). They also offer team building exercises which will help you gain the skill to work better in teams, lyric writing and creative writing sessions. Street Soul Productions help all age groups from infants to adults varing from different ability levels.
They broadcast their music through TV, radio, the film industry and more. This is a great way for people to recognise how much they have to offer.

EMI

EMI was found by the inventor of the gramophone, Emile Berliner during the 1990s. Since then EMI has always been at the front of technology. EMI scientists invented stereo recording and of electrical television.
It is the fourth-largest business group, family of record labels and one of the "big four" record companies.

EMI owns EMI Music Publishing. This is known to be the largest music publisher in the world. It has won the 'Music Week' Award for publisher of the year each year over the past 10 years. In 2009, for the first time ever, the award was shared with 'Universal Music Publishing'.

Article extract from XXL

My magazine I purchased of my choice was 'XXL', I chose this because it included RnB celebrities and this type of music interests me.

An article that most interested me was a short summary about 'Don Trip'. As I have neveer heard of him before, this was a new and exciting experience for me.

Don Trip is currently a rapper who raps about his life. He expresses his pain through his lyrics and this was one of the things that inspired me. He made a video recently for his song 'Letter to my Son'. This rap expressed his love for his son and how the mother of his son is keeping them apart. One of his quotes that got me intrigued to read more was 'I fell in love with how fast the money was comin', but I never loved it'. This shows that the majority of the celebrities that are currently out there have so much money, but aren't happy with this. This explains the famous quote 'money can't buy happiness'. 

My Evaluation

I was given a preliminary task to do. My assigned task was to create a front cover and contents page with a target audience relating to school life, whether it was sixth form life or start high school life. I had to come up with a title that would attract my target audience. As I went along, I learnt a lot and realised how hard it is. Unfortunately, I encountered a few problems but were solved efficiently in the end.

Firstly, my task was to draw a flat plan of both my front cover and contents page of how it would look. This had to be a detailed flat plan which included whether my mast-head would be serif or sans serif. It also included to of the two colour contrasting colours I would use, which picture would be my main picture, the layout, the font of the texts, the price.

My next step was to get familiar with photoshop. As I have never used photoshop before, it was quite difficult for the first week as everything was very complicated! Downloading photoshop at home and getting used to the tools and the layout, helped me a lot with my front cover and contents page.

Photo time! My next task was to start taking pictures. This was another difficult task for me as I have never used a proffessional before, so it took me a bit of time to get used to it. The part of this task was thinking of ways in which I could get snapshots of students as I wanted my front cover and contents page to be unique. After taking the pictures and getting used to the camera, it was time to upload the pictures and see which ones would be effective for my magazine and which ones wouldn't. Eventually, I came up with the two pictures that would be my main pictures for my front cover and contents page.

Time to get down to work. After deciding which two pictures I would keep, it was time to start producing my front cover. I experienced a few problems with the masthead and spent most of my time on my front cover. I had many problems with my masthead because I had to use a font that would attract my target audience. This took me a while to achieve, But I eventually came up with the perfect masthead! My original idea to make the 'A' in 'A-Chance' to be enlarged and for the 'Chance' to be slanted on the 'A'. However, this didn't appeal to my target audience as it was hard to read.

As my front cover took most time during the whole task, it eventually got done. So, it was now time to start producing my contents page.

Colour Scheme

I've changed my colour scheme back to the original two contrasting colours - red and black. This is because although green and red contrast well together, the green stands out a bit too much. However, I wasn't sure whether I could do this, so I asked permission from my teacher. She agreed and gave me permission to do so.

Change of name..

My title at the beginning was "Manor Timez" but I then changed it to A-Chance. I got the idea from 'A-Levels' but replaced the 'Levels' with a 'Chance'. This is because 'Manor Timez' wasn't short and snappy like my current title is.

Colour Clash

An important part of my magazine is the colour scheme. Two colours have to be contrasting well in order for my magazine not to look professional and organised. As my magazine is aimed at NMBEC sixth form students, I thought black and red would go well together as red represents Norbury Manor. Unfortunately, red and black was already chosen by another student. To solve this problem, I had to go onto google and find a colour wheel. This would help me to choose two contrasting colours that go well together. I came up with the two contrasting colours of red and green.

Shot List

For the front cover of my magazine " Manor Timez' " I will use a mid shot of 3 people (Mosene, Cleo and Karwin) talking between themselves with folders in their hands. This shows everyone is being socialable and having a conversation and no one is being left out.
However, for the contents page, I will take a picture of a boy (mid shot) sitting down in the common room revising. This shows that people in our sixth form is committed to their work and takes their education seriously.

Reader profile

Sara is a typical 16 year old who is currently confused about her A level options. She has finished her GCSEs and is looking for a sixth form that will give her all the help and support she needs. She is interested in the Law department but isn't sure on what she wants to become as Law is a broad subject. Her parents wants her choose options that relate to Media, but she disagrees as she hates Media and has an interest in Law. During Sara's spare time, she reads Law books and feels as if this subject is right for. She has done an online career finder that her school has advised everyone in her year to do, but she still feels uneven. My magazine will benefit Sara as NMBEC will give her all the help and support she needs and as our career advisors is one of the best, they would give her the help she needs. A part of my magazine will have different career pathways including Law. This would help her as she would be confident and certain as it's someone else's thoughts. My magazine " Manor Timez' " has a target audience for 16-18 year olds (sixth formers only).

Group project - homework

As a group (groups that we were put into - not chosen), we were assigned a task. Our task was to take pictures of the exterior, a person and an object that relates to our task. Our target audience was year 6 and our pictures had to relate to our target audience. We had 1 week to complete this task and present it to the class. Each individual was assigned a job. Mosene - camera man, Bianca & Rukhsana - we were discussing locations and deciding what pictures go well with our target audience.The pictures above was the photos that was taken and photoshopped by Mosene. 19th September 2011