shooting

A few of my favourite shots

Possible outfits-

Preparation

prep.
I chose to have my photo-shoot during school in an available class room. As planned I managed to get hold of rolls of paper to stick on the wall to create a background

Shooting

Potential poses.

These are some of my personal favourite poses, all of which captured by the photographer Terry Richardson. I hope to recreate these poses to experiment with for my own cover. 

Preparation

Preparation

There are a few things I will need to decide on and plan before taking photos for my cover image, such as:

• who I choose for my model
• where the photo-shoot will take place
• what the model will wear
• type of poses the model will perform

I think it's key to choose the right model, especially seeing as the model will be the main focus on the magazine cover. My magazine genre being hip hop, I think its important to find a model that could easily persuade the audience that they genuinely are a hip hop artist. For example a female model dressed in very formal clothes and only politely smiling will not give this persona.

It's also extremely important to find somewhere suitable to have the photo-shoot. I hope to use a plain white background, I plan creating this by using rolls of paper stuck against a wall, then any marks or lines visible I hope to edit out. I plan to do this in an available class room during school.

Background

Background

Many of the magazines that have a similar style that I am trying to capture often have plain backgrounds. For example these vibe and notion magazines have a plain white background, giving the effect that there is no background at all.



 This style is a personal favourite of mine as I think it gives the magazine a very classy and high standard look. Not only does it come across extremely effective but it is very easy to achieve. I hope to interpret this into my own cover.

Audience feedback

Audience feedback
Survey

After finalising my magazine interpretation I performed a short survey to view peoples opinions on the cover.

name: Laura Teck
age:16
gender:female

1. What are your first thoughts about this cover? "it feels very familiar to me as the layout looks so professional. i really like the colour scheme, it presents the magazine in a classy but eye catching way."
2. How much would you pay (min-max) £3-£4
3. is there anything you would change? to make the title bigger/bolder

name: Avneet Gill
age:16
gender:female

1. What are your first thoughts about this cover? "I love the colour scheme, it looks so classy"
2. How much would you pay (min-max) £3-£5
3. Is there anything you would change? "no I like it all"

name: Harry Smith
age:18
gender:male

1. What are your first thoughts about this cover? "Its really eye catching"
2. How much would you pay (min-max) £2-£3.50
3. is there anything you would change? "more colour"

magazine cover

 

This is my first attempt of a magazine front cover.

 

 

I created this front cover through several stages. firstly I chose my main photographs. This didn't matter too much as to who was on it, just as longs as the artist is a well known artist, they must be hip-hop as that's my magazine genre. The photograph I have chose is black and white, so I had to add in a colour to make the cover more appealing and less boring. I have chosen a deep blue for my additional colour as it keeps the mood very chilled and gives a classy feel to it.

 

I was inspired by a few of the magazine covers from 'vibe'. whilst constructing the layout of my own cover I referred to vibe quite often, for example on their front cover it is a recurring theme to have a a catch line above the main title so I interpreted this into my own cover.

 Another feature I was inspired by was the barcode, scan code and date line placement. They are always placed on the left rim at the bottom of the magazine horizontally. This feature particularly stood out to me as it makes the magazine have a very define structure which shows professionalism.

mood board

This is my mood board

My genre of music magazine is hip-hop, I have chosen hip-hop as not only is it a genre that I enjoy to listen to, but I think I can be very creative with the style that most magazines portray hip-hop in. However also I think by experimenting with the style of hip-hop, going against the usual portray, will be very interesting.

Here are some hip-hop artists:

 

Here are some hip-hop album covers:

magazine article

This is my first attempt of a music magazine article.









I have chosen Miley Cyrus to feature in my article as I feel she is a popular artist in the current spotlight.
The construction of my article is inspired by a cosmopolitan article that has a very similar layout. On the left hand side is a simple photograph of the artist, I have interpreted this into my own artical. It then on the other side has the text, I have again interpreted this within my own article. Something that I thought was key for this style article is the background, for example on the Cosmopolitan artical there is a pink background behind the photograph and white behind the text. This gives the magazine a define structure. I again interpreted into my own magazine by having black behind the text, fading into white for the photograph. Another key feature of the magazine article is the colour scheme. The artist, Miley Cyrus, is wearing pale pinks and purple colours, so therefore the font colour and background colour co-ordinates this. I did this in my own artical by picking out the key colours featured in Miley Cyrus' clothes, which is green, black and white.

Active vs passive

Active vs. Passive Audience Theory

Active audience theory argues that media audiences do not just receive information passively but are actively involved in making sense of the message within their personal and social contexts. There is no one 'reading' of a text, but a multiplicity of reading. Things such as family background, beliefs, values, culture, interests, education and experiences may have an influence on decoding media messages.

Readings:
Preferred reading/dominant reading.
The intended reading of the text.

Oppositional Reading:
You dislike/disagree with the preferred reading.

Negotiated Reading:
You dislike and like different aspects.

Aberrant Reading:
You don't understand/misinterpret.

audience pleasures

Audience pleaures

Group A - This is the group often referred to as the 'landed gentry'. This type of audience are usually wealthy and aristocratic, typically accomplished big- business owners and/or archbishops.

Group B - This category is often the 'professional working people'. For example headteachers and teachers of schools, doctors, lawyers and soldiers.

Group C1 - These are the 'professional admin workers' such as people working in any form of junior management and supervisors.

Group C2 - This group is often specific to the people that do more practical work such as plumbers, carpenters, mechanics and builders.

Group D - People that fall into this category are mainly considered to be the 'unskilled workers'

Group E - Lastly, this group is identified as the unemployed. However the majority of students also fall into this group due to being unemployed while studying.

 

terminology

Media Terminology

Typography- Font
A Masthead- The title used by known typography to make the readers become familiar with what magazine they are reading.
Main image: Typically showing the person or object directly associated with the main feature/article.
Selling line/strapline: Seen as an introductory headline below the masthead describing the magazine.
Pug: 'The ears of the magazine' can either be at the top left or/and right-hand corner on the front cover. the picture of the paper, the logo or a promotion are positioned there or even a freebie is placed there to catch the readers eye.
Tag: The word or phrase is used to engage a readers interest in a story by categorising it.
Cover lines- The essential articles inside the magazine are stated through sell lines, these are regularly seen at the right-hand side at the corner.
Top and bottom strip: These are the strips below and above the magazine that give further into what may be included in the magazine. Mostly being the interesting parts of the magazine.

Print Terminology

Bleed -
Bleed is a term used in media to refer to the printing that goes past the edge of the sheet before trimming. The bleed is the part of a document that enables the printer to have some space to move the paper. Any design that may be included on a document can go within the bleed area.

 

 

Gutter-



The gutter is the blank space on the inside of page margins where a publication is bound or folded, or in other words the space between columns of the printed text.

Pull quote-
This is the line or phrase, in a larger or display typeface, that runs at the top of a page or in a mid-column box to draw attention to the text of the article or story. A pull quote can also be referred to as a 'lift-out quote'.

 

Straplines-

Also referred to as 'slogans' and 'tag-lines', straplines are short and catchy subheadings, this is often used to grasp the audience's attention and promote the advert or magazine.

david carson

David Carson

David Carson is an American graphic designer and art director. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the magazine 'Ray Gun', this was an American alternative rock n roll magazine, first published in 1992. David Carson's widely imitated aesthetic was defined as the so-called "grunge typography" era. He only produced these magazines for three years, then left the industry. However the abstract style of 'Ray Gun' lives on.

 

 

 

Examples of David Carson's abstract Ray Gun covers.

 

 

This is extremely unusual compared to any magazines produced before as the photograph is positioned upside down. Although it does look edgy and abstract which was the aim of David Carson, I personally think it is not a very effective feature. Another strange feature of the magazine cover is that printed very big and boldly in nearly the centre of the page is the price, this is very unusual as normally the price is very hidden. Again I personally don't think this is very effective as the price might be too much for the buyer and straight away put them off.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Music and Ideology

Music and Ideology

An ideology is a belief. Every music genre has an accompany ideology, often genres divide along binary opposition or a dichotomy. This will effect all aspects of a genres representation, and will be reflected within music magazines.

I am going to compare the ideology of rock and pop genres of music.

Pop:

• Clean
• No drugs or alcohol
• Non-sexual
• Euphemistic 
• Happy
• Upbeat/fun
• Professional/ 'good' singing

Although this ideology seems very good, a view upon pop is not all that great. Many pop artists seem fake or artificial, thought of as only in the music industry to make money rather than doing it as something they are passionate about.

rock:

•  Violent
•  Loud
•  Sexual
•  Literal
•  Drugs/ alcohol
•  Angry tone
•  Less competent or concerned about professionalism

Rocks ideology clearly is not portrayed as well as pop, infact seems to be quite the opposite. However this genre of music is known to be a lot more authentic and 'real', by this meaning the artist doing it for the love of music rather than to make money.

 

 

 

The male gaze

Laura Mulvey; The Male Gaze

"visual pleasure and narrative cinema"

 

 

The concept of the gaze is how an audience views the people present. This can be thought of in 3 ways;

• how men look at women
• how women look at themselves
• how women look at other women

Jonathan Schroeder (1998)-

"To gaze implies more than to look at- it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object at the gaze."

 

Laura Mulvey invented the term 'male gaze' in 1975. she believes that in film audiences have to 'view' characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. she argued that most media reflect a 'male' eye where women are looked at, and men are 'lookers'. women are often objectified.

 

Features of the male gaze;

The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction of these events. It relegates women to the statues of objects.

 

Some theorists also have noted the sexualizing of the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised. For example this theory works for many food product adverts. An example that stood out in particularly for are Galaxy adverts, that almost certainly include a beautiful women.

 

Criticism of Mulvey

This theory doesn't always work, as some women enjoy being 'looked' at, for example in beauty pageants. The gaze can also be directed towards members of the same gender for several reasons, not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing. 

research methods

 

Research Methods

Whilst creating my school magazine I needed to learn what would appeal to my chosen target audience and research into magazines that already exist on the market.

Research is split into two different categories; primary research and secondary research.

 

Primary research is research carried out by yourself, for example:

• interview
• questionnaire
• survey
• internet forum
• textual analysis
• email
• letter

I have personally already used a few of these research methods myself whilst creating my school magazine cover, for example I have performed a survey on which font types were preferred. This proved very successful as I then could see which font types were proven more preferred by the audience.

Secondary research is research found that someone else has already carried out.

• internet
• search engines
• industry and individuals websites
• books
• journals
• magazines, newspapers

I again have personally already used a few of these secondary research methods myself, whist doing background research into school magazines already on the market. I used the internet, search engines and many industry websites, this helped me to find out current selling rates and general background information on successful existing magazines.

 

These can then be split into further data groups; quantitative and qualitative.

 

Quantitative research helps identify any patterns or trends within the data. For example by using surveys and questionnaires, we can discover things such as that more men than women read 'Karrang'.

Qualitative research is looking at peoples opinions and feelings within their feedback. This would be retrieved from research methods such as interviews and focus groups, this type of data tends to use open-ended questions which means we can get as much details within the feedback as possible.

 

 

 

 



preliminary task

Preliminary Task



For our preliminary task we had to create a school magazine cover. In order to do this successfully I firstly needed to do some research into previous magazine covers, and school magazine covers particularly in depth.




Whilst exploring the different magazines already made, this one instantly captured my attention due to its professional format.
By having the text surround the image and not overlap, makes the cover look very clear and organised. I adapted this into my own magazine.

Another intriguing feature of this cover is the colour scheme. The colours purple and black, presumably the iconic school colours, not only looks professional as they are very calm colours but also portrays a more mature business style look. I again interpreted this into my own magazine by sticking with red and black, my school colours

This cover is very different to 'The Griffin', as the text is overlapping on the photo making it very busy and confusing to read. This was beneficial for me to see as my first initial ideas on making my own cover had lots of overlapping of image and text, which would have been very ineffective.

Also, a colour scheme has been attempted to be used, however has not been successful as it does not stand out against the back ground. This was useful to see as it shown me how without the right background and a complimentary colour scheme the magazine will not look as effective.

Constructing my magazine cover-

Firstly planned what the basic structure of the magazine cover would look like. I knew I wanted to have a bold heading and very clear eye catching sell lines surrounding a mid-shot of a student at Southfield.









Secondly I captured the image. This is a long mid-shot, however I edited this into a mid-close up as I felt it added depth to the cover as the student fulfilled the page more. Also I edited  the colours in this photograph, effectively giving it a more warm feel.

This is my final draft.

As you can see the outcome is extremely similar to the plan, which means the previous research into school magazine covers was very useful. I made a few changes whilst developing the cover, such as adding barcodes and official school logos to the bottom.

media language

Media Language  

Key concepts of media studies-

the key concepts are the single most important frameworks for the whole media course.
I remember the key concepts by using the mnemonic 'RAILING'
Representations;

Audiences
Institutions
Language
Ideology
Narrative
Genre

Media text-

In media studies the word 'text' is used to describe any media product, such as photographs, TV programs, adverts, web pages etc.

Image analysis-

Denotation-
what an image actually shows and is immediately apparent, rather than the assumption the individual reader may make about it; the everyday or common sense meaning of a sign.
Connotation-
the meaning of a sign which is arrived at through cultural experiences that a reader brings to it.

When analysing an image you have to take into account absolutely every aspect. here is an example;

Facial expression:
Eye brows can be a key feature here, for example fully raised eye brows often indicate disbelief, whereas fully lowered eyebrows communicate anger.
Gaze:
The focus of a persons look, for example when two peoples gazes meet, this eye contact can be very powerful.
Bodily posture:
Clearly a slovenly stance communicates something different to an upright one.
Bodily contact:
This could demonstraight intimacy, so is restricted in this photograph.
Spatial behaviour:
The distance between people gives you information about their relationship.
clothes and appearance:
Clothes make a statement about us.

Often photographs are only looked at, rather than really interpreted and analysed like writing is, when in actual fact the word photograph means 'writing with light'. When analysing images it is common to distinguish between their 'form' (how created) and their 'content' (what's in the image).

Framing

Framing defines the position from which the image was created. All frames have a shape, in terms of framing a still image, you can vary:

Angle:
The angle of vision refers to the cameras angle in relation to the vertical, for example straight on position, low angle, high angle etc.
Height:
This is the height at which the shot is taken (often eye-level)
Level:
This refers to the cameras horizontal angle, this usually is 'straight on'
Distance:
This is the distance from the object to the camera.
1. extreme long shot e.g. landscape
2. longshot e.g. a group of people
3. medium shot e.g. one or two people
4. medium close up e.g. part of body
5. close up e.g. face
6. extreme close-up e.g. art of face
Depth of field:
This is the distance between the nearest and furthest area from the camera which is the focus.
Lens type:
Wide-angle lenses make the scene appear deeper than it is. Tor example an extreme wide angle will give a ;fish eye' effect while a telephone lens pulls objects closer together.
Film shock:
This is the spread at which the film responds to light.

Mise-en-scène:
Literal meaning 'put into the scene'
Mise-en-scene refers to anything that goes into the shot- sets, props, costumes, actors, costumes, camera movements and performance.

Semiotics

One of the key theoretical tools to help us deconstruct media texts is semiology. Semiotics is the 'study of signs'.
Signifier- This means the signs physical from, and not its possible interpreted meanings.
Signified- This is the meaning or ideas expressed by a sign.

An example of this;
if we perceive a four legged animal with a very long neck (signifier) this evokes the mental concept of a giraffe (the signified)
This is very similar to connotation and denotation. (denotation is simply identifying a sign and connotation interpreting a meaning from it)

welcome

This is my AS Media blog, where I will be posting frequent blogs for my media coursework.
Hope you enjoy.
Chels x