Lucy Cornelius' Media Blog

Evaluation

2010-05-06T07:21:00.001-07:00

FINAL TEASER, WEBSITE AND POSTER

2010-05-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

TEASER

WEBSITE

http://www.stmaryleboneschool.com/STUDENTSITE/MEDIA/Lucy/Index.htm

POSTER

Progress

2010-03-30T09:01:00.001-07:00

This was my original time plan that I created to help me make sure I was organised and on schedule to complete my work on time. I feel that using Microsoft Project to make my timeplan was and extremely effective way and a software that I would consider using again in the future. It is clear to see exactly what needs to be done and by what dates, and by looking visually at the Gantt chart, you can instantly see which tasks will require more time.

However, looking at my time plan now, I realised that I perhaps did not follow it as closely as I should have done. I was scheduled to finish all three aspects of the project (website, poster and teaser) by 6th March, yet I actually completed these tasks on the 24th March, which is 18 days late. I feel that this is because I did not give hardly enough time for filming. I did not realise how long it would take to film and how many times you would need to re-film parts as they did not look too professional when loaded and watched back on the computer. In this timeplan, I also did not take into account Re-Sits. The main actor for our film along with two of the girls all had re-sit exams in the week I wanted to film and so therefore, they were unable to. Therefore I was already behind a few days. I also realised that I did not allow enough time for editing, giving myself only three weeks. The editing process took a lot longer than I expected, especially due to the fact that for one of the week's that I had scheduled for editing was taken up by a half term break. This then meant that I was not allowed access to the recording studio and therefore did not have the equipment or software to edit at home. This then put me another week back therefore resulting in each of the other tasks that I had planned to finish by a particular date ending late as well.

I have learnt from this project to make sure that I take into account other factors such as Half Term breaks, so that my final time plan is something that I can realistically follow and it would be of a much greater use to me. I will also make sure that at the end of each week I check to see how much progress I have made. This will therefore result in me more likely staying on track and completing the work on the date that I was meant to.

Final Website

2010-03-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

Above is an image of what my final webpage looked like when I had finished designing it in Adobe Photoshop. I have made this webpage very similar to my poster, so that I can establish a sense of identity for my film. I have used the same font for the film heading as well as the same image of Nick, yet I have repositioned and enlarged it. I have kept to the same colour scheme of a white background with black text, and used the dark pink shade to highlight certain pieces of text, for example the last two words of the tagline. I have included many conventions of websites, such as including a date when the film is released, a billing box and a copyright symbol towards the bottom of the page, verifying that LSA Productions own this site and no-one else can take credit for it. I have also included an 'Enter the Site' button, as well as the option to share this page on various other social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. This increases the publicity for my film and allows for media convergence (integrating different forms of media to appeal to a much wider audience). The white space on the left is where I will embed my teaser trailer.

You are able to view my live website by visiting this address:

http://www.stmaryleboneschool.com/STUDENTSITE/MEDIA/Lucy/Index.htm

Website Analysis / Mock Up for Website

2010-03-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

Website Analysis
I have decided to look at three other websites of the same genre of my film to help inspire me for my own website. The genre of my film is a romantic comedy, which is why I have looked at the following films: "It's a Boy Girl thing", "Rumor has it" and "Music and Lyrics". I feel that all three of these websites are successful, yet nto one of them features a trailer on the homepage. I would definitely like to present my teaser on the homepage as I feel that this is the best way to really sell your film and make users want to watch it.

_____________________________________________________

Mock Up for my Website

Above is the mock up for my website. I have decided to keep my website the same style as my movie poster, so that users will recognise it much more quickly. The font for the heading and main image of Nick will be the same as that on my poster, just slightly adapted. The trailer will be positioned underneath the heading, and I will embed my trailer using the website 'Vimeo'. To the right of the trailer, users will be able to see the tagline for my movie as well as the day it is realeased. The 'Enter The Site' button will be in the same font that I have used for the heading ('Elephant') so that my company remains consistent throughout. I will also place a box around this so that users are more likely to notice it. The billing box will also be positioned underneath the trailer.

I will have to remember to include two more things though when I finally get round to making my real website poster. The first includes icons for users to share my page on Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and Delicious. This will increase the number of my site hits, and the film will gain much more publicity. I will also need to include a copyright logo underneath my billing box so that it clearly states this website belongs to 'LSA Productions'.

Final Trailer

2010-03-21T11:22:00.001-07:00

I have now finished editing the trailer and feel that the final result is successful. After presenting our trailer to the Year 12 media class, we received both positive and negative feedback.

Positive Feedback

There is a clear storyline that runs throughout the trailer, and viewers are fully aware of the the film is going to be about. The voiceover helps with this as well.
The storyline is humorous meaning that they were more likely to want to watch it.
There is a good use of editing which helps to make the trailer look professional.
The music fits in well with the scenes.

Negative Feedback

Although the music fits in well with the two different sections within the trailer, the transition between the two songs could have been smoother.
The beginning was slightly too long, and probably could have been simplified more

I am pleased with the final outcome and feel that the trailer has a clear storyline that runs throughout, meaning that users are able to understand what the film is going to be about. The editing is quite simple yet professional, which made the final teaser trailer successful.

Final Poster

2010-03-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

Above is the final draft of my poster. I feel that my final poster is quite successful. I have decided to keep it extremely plain and simple, which I feel helps make it look quite sophisticated and professional. I have followed many codes and conventions of movie posters which also help make my poster quite successful. Firstly, I have included the actors' names at the top and in alphabetical order. If I display the actors' names, then people are more likely to be persuaded to watch it if they are aware that their favourite actor is in the film. Secondly, I have included the film name in the centre of the poster. I have used the font 'Elephant', as feel this serif font is qutie sophisticated and gives users a good idea as to the kind of lifestyle the main charcter leads. Thirdly, I have inluded the tag line "Work Hard, Play Harder". I came up with this tagline as I feel that it is short and catchy, and allows users to gain an insight into Nick's way of living without even seeing the film yet. It suggests that Nick lives quite a hedonistic lifestyle, work hard but making sure he plays harder. It shows that he takes some issues in his life seriously, but is mainly interested in making sure he has a good time. Lastly, I have included a billing box, the release date and the website address towards the bottom of the page. This is all of the legal requirements, and basically states important information that users may want to know.

Whilst looking at other films, I noticed that they normally have two or three different posters. This is probably to keep viewers entertained and also to tell more of a story and allow viewers to see characters that may be featured in the film but not necessarily be the lead. As you can see in the image below, Alfie has two posters, John Tucker Must Die
has three and Hitch has four.

Therefore I decided to make three more posters for my film, each featuring a different girl. I have replaced the tagline with a quote that Nick says in the film, yet I have kept all fonts and colours the same as my house colours so that viewers are still aware that this is still part of the film 'Nick'.

Second Draft of Poster

2010-03-08T04:22:00.000-08:00

After receiving some feedback, I decided to change my idea slightly.

Second Draft of Poster

Firstly, I have decided to use an image of Nick only, as I feel that he is the main star of the film. The other three girls, although they do play a part int he film, it would simply look too overcrowded if all four actors were present. Secondly, I decided not to have film reviews on the page. These are normally found on websites instead, and I wanted to make sure I used standard forms and conventions rather than challenge them. Lastly, I made the heading 'Nick' much bigger. In my previous draft it was quite small with almost 50% of it covered by the images of the girls. This did not stand out and would not attract any attention if displayed on a billboard for example.

Music / Photoshoot / First Draft of Poster / Mock Up for poster / Advertising

2010-03-08T04:09:00.001-08:00

Our teaser trailer is now almost complete. All that is left to do is insert a voiceover.

This past week, I have spent most of my time trying to find some music for the second half of the teaser trailer. This section is a montage of images that feature Nick with the three different girls, and music needed to be romantic yet happy at the same time. I found it quite difficult to find a song that matched this on Jamendo (the free music download website). However, I eventually found the song below and feel that it fits in well with the section. I did not think it would take that much time to try and find music to fit in with the different scenes in our trailer, and I probably should have taken this into account whilst creating my timeplan as it took much longer than expected and put me behind a few days.

Recently, I have also been creating the first draft of my poster for our film. Below is a photoshoot plan that I made, which made it a lot easier for me when I actually came round to taking my photos, as I knew exactly what I needed to photograph.

First Draft of Poster

I feel that this poster is quite a good first draft, but there are many changes that need to be made to make it look much more professional. These changes will be discussed when I make my second draft for my poster.

Mock Up for Poster
I feel that one of the reasons why the poster above was not as successful as I wanted it to be was because I had not created a mock up for it. It is essential to create a mock up as it gives you a much clearer idea as to what your final poster will look like. It also allows you to play around with the layout before you start inserting pictures and text and everything is final. Below is the mock up for my second draft of the poster.

Increasing Publicity for our Film

Whilst creating the first draft our my poster, I also began thinking about what other publicity our film could get to make sure that it receives as many viewers in its opening week as possible. There are many visual ways of advertising a particular film, such as the TV, magazines, billboards etc, which all appeal to a huge amount of people. However, personally I feel that one of the main forms of advertising for films that are soon to be released is on the sides of buses. Buses are constantly running in and around central London, and at busy times such as rush hour, people are very likely to look at them. Therefore I have used Photoshop to place an advertisement for our film on the side of a bus and also at a bus stop, to see what it would look like if our company decided to advertise there.

Film Poster Research

2010-02-06T04:00:00.000-08:00

What I have been doing these past weeks
Recently, because I am the editor, I have been in and out of the studio editing the footage that we have filmed so far. I've been familiarising myself with Final Cut Pro, and capturing clips from our tape and saving them in the right places on the computer. I have then been looking back at my teaser plan and shot lists to remember what we want our teaser to look like and where about on the timeline I need to position certain clips.
I have also been researching some film posters briefly to gain some inspiration as to what I want my film poster to look like. One of the film posters that I looked at was for the film 'Alfie'. Our group has looked very closely at this film, and so I thought it would be extremely useful to see what the poster for it looked like.

As you can see, this particular poster for 'Alfie' is extremely simple, yet quite sophisticated. The 'L' has been substituted for a photo of Jude Law, which I feel is quite clever and makes the whole poster look much more visually interesting. The white background contrasts with the black text, making the heading stand out extremely well. The letters of the word have also been positioned on different levels, making the poster quite playful and suggests to the audience what Alfie's character might be like before they have even seen the film. For my poster, I want to keep it this simple and professional, yet I would also like to include images of the women that feature in the film as well, to give viewers a much clearer idea as to who is in our film.

Another poster that I have looked at is for the film 'John Tucker Must Die'. Similarly, our group has reasearched this film to gain inspiration, and so it would be useful to me to analyse the poster for this film as well.
As you can see, the poster for 'John Tucker Must Die' is aslo extremely simple yet effective. The white background is something I would definitely like to use in my poster, as I feel it makes it look much more sophisticated and does nto distract users from the main focus of the poser. The film name for this particular film has been positioned on the model's lower back and in the from of a tattoo. I feel that this is quite clever and gives an idea as to what age group this film is aimed at (normally young adults have tattoos, probably between the ages of 18-25 years). The tag line has been positioned at the top of her vest top, which I personally do not feel is a place that attracts a lot of attention from the user. However, there is not really anywhere else it could have been positioned and so at the top is the best place for it. This poster also uses a clear colour scheme of white and maroon, which makes it look extremely professional. I will therefore try to stick to the same sort of colours in my poster as well.

I have focused primarily on 'Alfie' and 'John Tucker Must Die' for my research so far, so I thought it would be useful to look at other films in the same genre as my own to see if the posters and teasers all relate as well. I decided to look at the film 'Hitch', as this is a Romantic Comedy which also focuses on one leading man.

Above is the trailer for 'Hitch', and I feel it is quite a successful film trailer. It is very entertaining, and there is a mix between clips from the film and clips that aren't. The voiceover makes the trailer easy to follow, giving users a clear idea of what the film is about. I also especially like the ending how the name of the film comes up, followed by an 18 second clip of footage and then the final text advertising when it is out on DVD appears after. I feel that this is a good way to keep the audience watching, as they are not expecting any more footage after the ending title comes up. I would like to include something like this in my film as well, but perhaps a shorter scene which is still humorous and keeps the viewers entertained and curious as to what is going to come next. Once I still have their attention, they are much more likely to see the last clip advertising when the film will be released.

I have also looked at the film poster for 'Hitch' to help me get ideas for my own poster.

As you can see, the poster is quite simple with just an image of 'Hitch' in the centre with the film name in red and on a white background. I really like this poster and feel that even though it is quite simple, it is still quite effective. It has all necessary information (apart from a tagline which I would have liked to have seen). I feel that it looks extremely professional having him lean on the film name like that, even though it is clear he was not actually leaning on it in real life. I would like to have the character 'Nick' lean on the words in the same sort of way for my poster, as I feel that this is quite humorous and gives users and idea of the sort of character he is (quite laid back and 'cool' by slouching like this). One thing that I would probably change about this poster, apart from the lack of a tagline, is the billing box. I dislike how it is split into two sections and feel that it would have looked slightly better if it was simply displayed at the bottom as a whole section.

Planning

2010-01-30T05:37:00.000-08:00

Filming Schedule
As we are working in quite a big group, I decided that it would make things a lot easier if I created a schedule for everyone to be able to see easily where each member of our group was during the week.

I created this schedule in Microsoft Excel, writing out when every member of our group had study sessions between the hours of 08.30-3.30, Monday to Friday. I colour coded each member so that it was clear who was who, and I highlighted the different time periods in yellow where we were all in the same study sessions. I printed a copy for each member of our group so that whenever someone needed to know where a group member was, they could check the schedule and easily see. That way, there are no complications and time will not be wasted with groups members trying to find one another.

Contact List
Although the filming schedule shows you where they are meant to be, some group members may not actually be in the common room during their study sessions. That is why I decided to create a contact list so that if a group member needed to get hold of someone urgently, they could easily phone them on their mobiles or send them an email.

(I have blurred out the numbers to protect our group members' privacy)

Time Plan
This is a gantt chart that I made using Microsoft Project. It shows how long each task of this project will take, as well as the dates that we should complete them by. By creating this time plan, it means that our group can stay on track of things, and know what we need to do and when to do it by to make sure our project is finished in time.

PLANNING AND RESEARCH PRESENTATION

Alfie

2009-12-08T03:43:00.001-08:00

Alfie, similar to John Tucker Must Die, is also about a man, this time in his late twenties, who lives in Manhattan and works as a limousine driver. He too lives a hedonistic lifestyle "meeting, romancing, and seducing women" as a hobby.

As the trailer opens, you can immediately see the different audience that Alfie is targetting. First of all, the music is a laid back sort of jazz which is completely different to the more upbeat and technologically advanced track played in the opening of John Tucker. It also shows Alfie, a working man travelling alone in a city, and not at an American High School. This immediately suggests that the target audience is much older, probably women aged between 20 and 35 years of age. Also shown in the beginning seconds of the trailer are clips of Manhattan and its skyline. This immediately sets the scene that it is based in America. However, Jude Law, the character who plays Alfie, is an English -born actor. By casting a British actor to appear in this American film it is clear that it is going to be released internationally, therefore intending to appeal to a much wider audience.

There is a much clearer message that runs throughout this film, and as a viewer, I picked it up much more quickly then I did with John Tucker, which I feel is purely just a film for entertainment value. 'Alfie' possesses much more serious issues, for example the cancer scare that Alfie has during the film. He teaches the audience not to be so shallow and to enjoy every day as if it were your last.

John Tucker Must Die

2009-12-08T03:41:00.001-08:00

'John Tucker Must Die' is an American film of the genre 'romantic comedy'. Released in 2006, it focuses on three girls who want to get revenge on a boy in the year who has secrely been dating all three of them.

The trailer begins with clips of John Tucker playing basketball in an American High School. This immediately suggests that the target audience is probably females aged between 14-19 years. The music playing is also a song by the All-American Rejects, which not only relates to the plot of the film, but also appeals to the modern day target audience of young teenagers. As the trailer continues, we hear a voice over of the second -to-lead character, who describes to the audience the situation. The different shots cut quickly into each other, which adds to the whole chaotic atmosphere of the basketball game, and appeals very much to the younger audience who would have no problem keeping up. The language used by the character also appeals very much to the target audience, using phrases such as 'She's so hot!".

It is clear that this film is a modern adaption of the film 'Alfie', aimed at a much younger audience. However, it was given an age certificate of PG13 in America, due to the amount of sexual references throughout. We want our film to appeal to those between the age of 13 and 18 years of age, meaning that it would receive a 12A rating. This therefore means that we need to be careful when referencing anything of a sexual nature.

Where I am now

2009-12-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

My Role:
What I have done this week: 30th November - 4th December
At the beginning of this week, I was in charge of creating a moodboard for our film 'Nick'. I created this moodboard on Animoto, as this website allows for you to create a short video with exciting and interesting effects. In our moodboard, I decided to include images from other films where we have gotten inspiration from such as 'Alfie' and 'John Tucker Must Die'. I also included images of locations where we would like to film, such as Central London and Starbucks Coffee house. This particular location of central london, and filming in coffee shops such as Starbucks really gives a good impression of where the main character is from and the life he leads. He is extremely busy and earns quite a high salary, due to the fact he lives alone in the central of London.

I have also been in charge of drawing a storyboard and creating an Animatic for our film, based on Susan's (a member of my group) shotlist that she provided. However, the story board does vary slightly from the shots that she gave me as we wanted as many different ideas as possible to make sure that our final shotlist is the best one.

When drawing the storyboard, I remembered to keep all the boxes the same. This was so that when I come to creating my animatic, it flowed better and looks much more professional. I remembered to include every single shot, even drawing a character's movements for example if someone is walking. The more frames you include, the more realistic your final animatic will be. Once I had finished scanning in my images (I chose not to photograph them as the lighting would change for every photo I took), I then cropped them on Adobe Photoshop to make sure that they are all identical in size. I then imported them each individually into Windows Movie Maker, where I set the transition to less then a second. This means that when I played my movie, the images would move extremely quickly and look like real moving footage. I then added some jazz music into the background, which reflects the lead character's personality (laid back and easy going). However, this music that I used was in fact the ssample music already given to me on the computer. Although I felt that this still worked quite well, I could have used a more unique song to make my animation different from anyone has ever seen of heard before.
I used Vimeo to upload my video and copy the code onto my blog.

Next week, I am going to be present when my group is filming, giving my advice and watching to see how it is all going. The next time I will have an active role will be when all footage has been filmed and I will begin editing it on the computer.

Animatic Video

2009-11-29T07:32:00.000-08:00

I created this animatic which gives viewers an idea as to what our film teaser trailer will look like. I drew each image individually in the same sized box, so that when I did eventually put the pictures together, it looked as if it were moving. Although this process was quite long and required me to have a lot of patience, I feel that it was worth it as the final result was quite successful and gave a good impression of what our final teaser trailer should look like.

I created the actual animatic in Windows Movie Maker. I did this by making the duration of each images about 0.75 seconds, so that the images would flick from one to another extremely quickly. This gave the impression of movement. I then added a song by the band 'The Script', as I felt that this slow and romantic music fitted in well with the genre of the film.

MoodBoard

2009-11-22T07:49:00.000-08:00

This is my moodboard that I created using Animoto. I decided to include many images of London City, as this is where we want our film to be set. By choosing well known landmarks, viewers will also be able to clearly see that this is a British film. I also included some images of films that inspired us when we were creating the synopsis to our film. The music that I chose for this moodboard is extremely upbeat, and the lead singer has quite a strong 'cockney' accent. This again highlights the fact that our film is a British film. Inspiration came from films such as Alfie and John Tucker Must Die.

Final Presentation

2009-11-12T09:05:00.000-08:00

This is an updated version of the presentation that you can see below. I have basically just changed the layout of it, making it much more visually interesting and professional for the viewers.

Research and First Media Presentation

2009-10-23T00:51:00.000-07:00

As a group, we sat down and came out with an idea for our film.

Synopsis
The genre of this film is romantic comedy, and it is set in 2010. The film focuses on a young man in his early 20s, who dates three different women simultaneously. These girls are unaware of the fact that they are all seeing the same man, and the film follows how he gets away with dating all of them. Eventually, two of the girls meet and its later worked out what he is doing. The girls get together and work out how to take the revenge, with them finally confronting him.

Target Audience
The target audience for this film we decided would be be females aged between 15-23 years of age. They enjoy watching romances, yet they also watch films to be entertained. They are either students or women with quite low powered jobs, and are likely to watch the films in the evening after a long day at work. They are unlikely to see the film in the cinema, preferring to watch it on DVD in the comfort of their own home.

Questionnaire
Although as a group we felt that we had chosen a suitable target audience, we wanted to make sure that our target audience was in fact interested in our film. We therefore created a small questionnaire and asked 10 males and 10 females between the ages of 16-18 some questions to help us determine whether or not we were in fact aiming our film at the right audience. These were our results:

Survey Results

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As you can see, 90% of women would be highly interested in our film, whereas only a mere 30% of men wouldn't. This shows that we did in fact choose the right target audience for our film.

Below is a presentation that I created which is a summary of what our film will feature.

Nick

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50 First Dates Website Analysis

2009-10-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

50 First Dates Poster Analysis

2009-10-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

Poster Analysis 50 First Dates

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Mood Board

2009-10-09T02:40:00.001-07:00

Moodboard

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Website Comparisons

2009-10-02T06:20:00.001-07:00

Angels and Demons

2009-10-02T06:19:00.001-07:00

The Firm

2009-10-02T06:18:00.002-07:00

Blindness

2009-10-02T06:18:00.001-07:00

Blindness Trailer

(shot list continued)

Blindess Teaser Trailer
Poster Analysis

Final Productions

2009-04-28T04:12:00.000-07:00

Front Cover

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I have changed three aspects of my last front cover. These are:

The date. I realised through doing more research that most magazines only show the month and year of when it was published, and not the specific date. To make my magazine more professional, I decided to change the date, which is located near the barcode, to '09 February 2009' to just 'February 2009'
I added a button to highlight the price. This button is round and filled with the colour yellow, which is one of my house colours. I decided to place the price in a button so that it stood out more and attracted a lot of attention, as this price is relatively low for a weekly pop music magazine
The font for my 'ONETO1' coverline. I decided to make this font a lot more bolder and exciting, to appeal to readers much more and stand out better. The font that I had chosen before did not attract a lot of attention, and may not persuade customers to purcahse it

Contents

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The aspects of this magazine that I have chosen to change were:

The page number. I had previously positioned this in the bottom left corner with an website address, yet if I was following my standard pattern of the website address only being shown when it is the page on the left, then this would not consistent. I therefore positioned the page number of this contents page, which would be positioned on the right page, into the bottom right corner, so that I am consistent and professional
Article number 23. This text overlapped the special competition, which was positioned beneath it. This made it slightly confusing to the reader, and takes away the attention from the exclusive offer. I therefore deleted article 23, so that all text on my contents could be easily read
The Michael Jackson tickets. I had previously positioned the word 'fake' over both tickets, which made them look as if this 'fake' was actually printed on the tickets in real life! If they were, then clearly they would be fake. I therefore decided to place this word over one ticket, to show that my company has placed the word there to show that they are indeed fake, even though they still look like the real tickets

Double Page Spread

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Final Evaluation Presentation

2009-04-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

Media Studies Evaluation

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Final Evaluation Presentation

2009-04-24T01:31:00.000-07:00

Lucy Cornelius Media Studies Evaluation from St Marylebone Media Studies on Vimeo.

Since presenting my final evaluation, I have added some information about my preliminary task.

From my preliminary task, I learnt many things to improve my documents.

I learnt many more technical skills. This included using websites such as Dafont.com to download unique fonts for my magazine. I also used the cloning button to erase any imperfections, for example blemishes on her face.
I included a bar code, to allow for my magazine to be sold in shops.
My research was much better, and i used more standard conventions of 90s magazines, for example offering a free 90s poster.
I only displayed the month of which the magazine was sold in, rather then included the actual date of that day.

Evaluation Introductory Video

2009-03-30T09:24:00.001-07:00

Evaluation

2009-03-20T06:49:00.003-07:00

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Front Cover
My front cover uses many forms and conventions of real media products. Firstly, I have included a masthead for my magazine. The name of my magazine is “My CHOICE”. I was inspired to create this name by other magazines, such as NME and Smash Hits. Most magazine names are made up of only two or three syllables, so that it can be short, catchy and memorable. ‘My CHOICE’ is all of these things, and so would probably be remembered well by customers. The font of my masthead is “Adamgorry”. I chose this font because it was clear and easy to read by all users. The dots inside the words have connotations of fame, like spotlights. This emphasises how this magazine is theirs, and that they’re the star. Although this sounds quite immature, it would appeal to my target audience of girls aged between 10 and 15 years.
The strapline for my magazine is located above the mast head, in a bright red font. This attracts a lot of attention, and once read, would persuade users to purchase the magazine. The strapline for this magazine reads “The ONLY Pop Magazine Out at the Moment!” This makes users feel that this is the only pop magazine on the market, and so if they want a magazine of this music genre, this is the only one for them.
Another form and convention that I have used are coverlines, kickers and explanatory text. The main cover line reads “Alicia”, and is the name of the model is in the main image. The font I used for this was a decorative font, which looks extremely elegant and sophisticated. Also, because of the curves, it looks extremely feminine, which has connotations that the female artist being promoted aims at women and girls, rather than males. The font colour of this text is yellow, which stands out extremely well. It is also a very bright colour, which shows that ‘Alicia’ is a very upbeat and fun character. The explanatory text is located underneath this cover line, and describes what ‘Alicia’s role is in the music industry.
I have chosen to only use one kicker on my magazine, as I want the main focus of the audience to be on the main cover story, which is ‘Alicia’. I positioned this kicker, which is about the band “ONETO1”, in the left third. The font colour is black, which contrasts well with the white background, making it stand out well. The explanatory text tells readers that this is the band’s first interview, and by putting the word “EVER” in capitals, makes the readers realise this quicker. I feel that I could have, however, had another kicker underneath this one, to give readers more options to choose from to help them decide whether they want to purchase the magazine. This is because if readers are not interested in the main cover story or the story about “ONETO1”, they have nothing else on the page that would make them want to purchase it. Most standard magazine have about six kickers and coverlines, and I only have two, which is definitely not enough. Here, I have therefore challenged a standard convention of real media products.
I have also made clear on the front cover that there is a “HUGE poster inside!” This was a standard convention of 90s pop magazines, and during these times, readers would put these posters up all around their room. I emphasised ‘huge’ by putting it into capitals, so that users are aware that if they buy this magazine, the poster will be of an extremely large size.

Contents
On my contents page, I have used many standard conventions, to make it look professional for the readers. I have included the date and issue number, so that the audience are well informed. I have also included page numbers and given a description of what each page featured will have. This means that it is easier for users to decide wheat they want to read and easily locate it withint the magazine. I have developed the standard form of page number by making the numbers for images bigger. This is sometimes done in other magazines, yet they are not normally this big. I also changed the colour, which is not normally a standard convention.
Another standard form that I have included is the music magazine's website address in the bottom left corner. It is extremely common for the address to be located here, as it means that they are receiving much more advertising, increasing their audience.

Double Page Spread
My double page spread uses many forms and conventions of standard double page spreads. Firstly, there is the use of a slug in the top right corner of the second page. This slug reads “EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW”, and is written in capital letters. This attracts attention, and makes the user aware that this interview is exclusive to ‘My CHOICE’ magazine, which may make them want to read it more. Secondly, there is the use of a pull quote. Pull quotes are meant to make readers want to read the article. I positioned my pull quote in the bottom right corner, as this is where users look when they are about to turn the page. Hopefully, they will read this quite humorous quote, and be persuaded to read the rest of the article. Thirdly, I have taken a photo of ‘Alexa’, and positioned it on the right. This is because this image would attract much more attention, and so by placing it on the right page, users will see it first and would then want to read the article. The model in the photo is smiling, which has connotations that she is kind and friendly. The black and white make the image look extremely professional, which makes the magazine look much more sophisticated. Lastly, I have positioned the byline that reads “Images taken by MediaProductions”. By having this byline of my page, it means that my images are copyright, and no other companies can use them.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Front Cover
My front cover targets females of quite a younger age, probably from the years 10-16. The model on the front is a teenager of 18 years, and so she would appeal to this sort of age group. Her pout is extremely stereotypical and strongly represents girls of this age. The language used is extremely exclusive, and would probably appeal to everyone who likes the bands that are being promoted.

Contents
My contents page appeals to a large group of people. There is an image of a young teenager, to appeal to the age group of 13-16 years. There is a guitar to appeal to musicians in bands, and there are images of fake Michael Jackson in the top left corner, which would appeal to anyone interested in this type of music.
The colours used are red and yellow, both appealing to any gender. The fonts used also appeal to all readers, as it is a sans serif font and of a black font colour.

Double Page Spread
My double page spread appeals to young girls, but may also appeal to mothers as well. Not only does the pull quote mention how 'Alexa' is signing autographs for older women, but these mothers may also have children this age, and want to know what another woman's daughter is going through, compared to their own.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
This magazine would probably be published by IPC media. This magazine publisher owns many different magazines, which includes music magazines. The three that they own are NME, Guitar and Uncut. These are all very differnt to my magazines, meaning that there is a place in the market for something new and exciting. Also, these music magazines they own range from £2.20-£4.30, meaning that my £2.00 would probably attract more attention and be quite popular (as it is the cheapest out or the magazines that IPC Media own).

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience of this magazine are females from the ages of 10 to 17 years. This is clear by the use of females for the main cover image and double page spread, and the average age of them, which is 16 years. The font for the main cover line is extremely feminine, and woul dnot appeal to males.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
Front Cover
My front cover attracts quite a lot of attention from users. This is mainly due to my magazine house colours of red and yellow. These colours are both extremely bright, and when put together, they contrast greatly, therefore attracting a lot of attention from passers by. What also attracts attention is the medium shot of 'Alicia', and her strong eye contact with the readers.

Contents
Attention is attracted to this contents page mainly by the colours. The red and yellow contrast well against the white background, which attracts attention. Also, the main image of "Alexa", because of the size of it, attracts a lot of attention from the audience.

Double Page Spread
What mainly attracts attention my double page spread is the image, heading and pull quote. The image is extremely high quality, and takes up most of the right page. This instantly attracts attention from the user. The heading is in a large size, and the font is extremely unique. This attracts attention as it is not a standard font that people will recognise, making them look twice. Lastly, the pull quote is also in a big font size. Yet the colours are also split in half. This is so that the words can be read easily, and contrast well against the background.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt many techniques whilst constructing this magazine. The technique that I felt most useful was the magnetic lasso tool on Adobe Photoshop. This tool allowed me to highlight sections of images and delete the background, which came in extremely handy for my front cover when I needed to delete the background of my photo. Also, the clone tool was extremely helpful in deleting unwanted areas. For example, I used this tool to delete the 'Reading' words on Alicia's wristband, and the blemishes on Alexa's face to make her appear even more youthful than she is.

7. Looking back at your task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that the main thing I have learnt is that it is extremely useful to produce drafts. In my preliminary task, I did not create many drafts, and so my final product probably wasn't as good as it could have been. However, in this project, I made sure that I created at least two drafts of each document, so that it could be an extremely successful final product.

Final Double Page Spread

2009-03-20T06:49:00.001-07:00

This is my final double page spread, which I feel is quite successful. I have used many standard forms and conventions to make my document look professional.

Firstly, there is the heading. I chose to use a font called 'Hand of Sean' from the website www.dafont.com. This font is similar to that of handwriting, which has connotations of young students. This reflects the artist that the double page spread is featuring, therefore making it look as if she has written the heading her self. Also, the words "Say hello to the new girl in town..." suggests that she is a new artist, which would appeal to those who always want to be kept up to date as to what is happening in the music industry.

Secondly, there is the image, positioned on the right page. I decided to place this image here for quite a few reasons. One of those is because this page is normally looked at first when readers are flicking through a magazine. By placing a strong close up image on this page, it is much more likely to attract their attention and make them want to read the article. Secondly, I decided to place this image here so that it takes up the entire page because this was extremely typical in 90s pop magazines. Readers would often want to tear the page out and stick the poster on the wall, and if I had made my image any smaller, users would not have been able to have done this.
I made many decisions when photographing this particular model. Firstly, I made her look into the camera. This was because users would be more attracted to it, because she is making eye contact with the reader, but also because she looks extremely youthful and innocent, which is what her image is. Another decision that I made was to make her hair 'windswept' slightly. I did this because it has connotations again of innocence and even makes her look slightly angelic, which is what she is meant to be seen as for her to appeal to her audience of young children and their family. I decided to make the image black and white, because I feel that it attract much more attention. If the entire magazine is in full colour, this feature will stand out and make people stop to read it. I also used text wrapping to make the image stand out well on the page.

Thirdly, I included 'paparazzi' style photos. This was so that they gave readers an idea of the lifestyle that she is living. I decided to not use flash when taking these photos, and set the mode on my camera to 'continuous shooting' so that they would be blurred and have a slightly blurred trail. This was so that they looked as natural as possible.

Lastly, I positioned the pull quote in the bottom right corner. This is because this corner is where they look when they are about to turn the page, meaning that if they had flicked past this article, they would read this humorous pull quote and be drawn back to the article and maybe this time read it.

I have also included other standard forms to make my double page spread professional. This includes page numbers, a slug (located int he top right corner), text and the company website.

Second Photoshoot and Final Contents Page

2009-03-20T06:48:00.001-07:00

Second Photoshoot for Final Table of Contents

Final Contents

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This is my final contents page, which I feel is quite successful.

I have kept to my house colours of red and yellow, and chosen to use a white background to make them contrast well and attract the readers attention better. I have also used a sans serif font so that all text is easy to read. The features are clearly listed with the page numbers positioned next to them. This makes it clear for the user to follow and understand.
I have included three graphics to make the page appear much more visually interesting and exciting. Without graphics, the page would not attract a lot of attention, and because of the age of my target audience, they are likely to get easily distracted if there are no images.
Positioned at the top is the issue number and date. This means that the user can be kept well informed and up to date.
Cover stories are highlighted by the phrase "___COVER STORY". This is a unique way to inform the user of the features that are on the cover, meaning that it will attract attention more quickly, and readers are more likely to look at those pages.

Final Front Cover

2009-03-13T07:58:00.003-07:00

Final Front Cover
This is my final front cover.

The aspect of this cover that I have changed from my first draft is the main image. I have moved it down slightly, as it was covering more that 50% of the masthead, which would not normally happen. This is because with more than 50% covered, people will find it difficult to read. It will also mean that it is less memorable, and so therefore the user will not recognise it if they saw it on the shelf. This is not good for my company, as it means that our sales could decrease.

I feel that this front cover is quite successful. I have used two main house colours, those being yellow and red. These colours are known in the media industry for working well together to attract attention. They are highly contrasting, which make them extremely eye catching. Music magazines, such as NME, and even gobal food companies such as McDonald's use it for their logos. I have used these colours for my magazine so that it would stand out extremely well on the shelf in a newsagents, for example, and make people want to purchase it.

Secondly, I have included all necessary information to make the document professional. This includes the bar code, price, issue number etc. This gives it a much more realistic feel to it as well.

Thirdly, I have a used an image that is of a high quality, which makes my front cover clear and professional looking. I have also kept the amount of different fonts to about four, so that the reader isn't too overwhelmed.

If I were to approach this task in the future, I would probably have included more coverlines. If the reader was not particularly interested in the main cover story, then there is nothing much else on the page to persuade the user to purchase the magazine. If I included more cover lines about different features within the magazine, there would be more options for the customer to choose from, increasing the chance of a sale.

Double Page Spread

2009-03-13T07:58:00.001-07:00

This is the first draft of my double page spread (DPS). I decided to do my double page spread on a 14 year old teenager, who is about to become a famous singer. I chose to focus on this topic as I felt that the story was extremely unique, and would make people want to read it.

I feel that this double page spread is quite successful:

The main image on the right looks extremely professional, which makes my magazine look quite sophisticated. I used strong lighting to highlight 'Alexa's' face, and dressed her in darker clothing so that there was great contrast in tones and she would stand out much better on the page. I asked the model to smile, as this would appeal to the right target audience, and would give the impression that she is friendly and innocent. To emphasise this innocence, I also created a 'windswept' effect to make her look almost angelic!
The heading is written in a font that looks very much like handwriting. This reflects how young Alexa is, and makes it look much more personal to her.
I have positioned the pull quote in the bottom right corner. This is so that if users were quickly flicking through the magazine, they would look at this corner before turning the page. If they read this quite amusing quote, they may be pulled back and want to read the actual article. Also, I changed the colours of this pull quote, so that all text could be clearly read by the user, making my magazine user-friendly.
I used text wrapping, so that more attention is drawn to the image on the right. This is because it is the image on the right which will mainly draw the user's attention, and I need readers to be quickly attracted to this to make them want to read the article.
I have included the magazine's website address in the bottom left corner. This is more advertising for the company, and users who may not have known that they had a website will be able to realise here and 'My Choice's' audience may increase.
The slug is located in the top right corner of the second page, and it read "EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW". This makes the user realise that this story is only exclusive to the 'My Choice' magazine, and they are more likely to purchase this magazine as it is the only magazine that offers this story.

However, some aspects of it need to be changed. Firstly, some of the text is not aligned properly, making it look unprofessional (for example the word 'privacy' in the third paragraph). Secondly, there does not need to be a byline reading "Images taken by MediaProductions". I added this to make my document professional, yet because there is not a company called "MediaProductions", it would not be necessary for me to place this on my double page spread.

Mock up for Double Page Spread

2009-03-09T02:57:00.001-07:00

Mock up for Double Page Spread
This is the mock up for my double page spread on 'Alexa'.

I have taken into account many standard conventions of double page spreads, to make mine as professional as possible. This includes the use of a slug, pull quote and drop cap. It also includes the use of text wrapping. I have chosen to make the text wrap around the image, so that it attracts a lot of attention. This is because users will only probably be interested in this article to read about how young this new star is, and the only way they will realise how young she is is by seeing her in this photograph. That is why I have used text wrapping, enlarged the image to a whole A4 side and placed it on the right, as this is the page readers look at first.
One thing that I will change about this mock-up is the position of the pull quote. I feel that I should position this on the bottom right page, as this is the place readers look to turn the page. If they have just skimmed over this article, the pull quote will grab their attention and may even persuade them to look back the article.

Photoshoot for Double Page Spread

First Draft Contents Page

2009-03-09T02:54:00.000-07:00

First Draft Contents Page
This is the first draft of my contents page for my magazine.

The contents page is laid out well. This means that it is extremely east to read and follow, which make the magazine much more user friendly.
Everything is well aligned. This makes the document look extremely professional.
I have been consistent with the use of colours and font styles, meaning that users can instantly recognise that this is my magazine by just looking at this page.
The type of language that I have used will appeal to my target audience. It is quite informal and talks to them directly, for example, "New band DAZZLE offer you the chance to see them backstage!"

How I feel it could be improved:

I feel that the main focus of this contents is the guitar, yet this story was not even on the front cover. That is why I feel that this main focus of the page should be on a main feature within the magazine. Also, my magazine focuses more on artists, whereas by having both images of instruments may give the wrong impression and make readers feel that it is more of a magazine about instruments.
I have not listed the stories about the instruments in my list of features. This may leave the viewers feeling as if they are not well informed, which makes the document unprofessional.
The word 'features' looks far too plain and uninteresting, which would not appeal to my younger target audience. I need to either change the font, or add an effect to it such as a shadow or bevel, to make it attract more attention and look more visually interesting.

Mock Up of Contents Page

2009-03-09T02:53:00.001-07:00

Contents Mock Up
This is the mock up for my contents page.

How am I being consistent?

Colours: My company's house colours are red and yellow, and to achieve a consistent style, I have used them in my table of contents as well. The background for this page will be a pale yellow, and the page numbers will be in red. Red contrasts well with the yellow, making them stand out and making it easier for the readers to understand easily.
Font: I have used Arial for most of the text, as this is a sans serif font and easy to read by my whole target audience. I will also use the same font as my masthead for the contents heading, so that users can recognise my magazine's style.

Photoshoot for Contents Page

Front Cover - First Draft

2009-02-13T06:27:00.000-08:00

Front Cover
This is the first draft of my front cover of my magazine. I created this front cover on Adobe Photoshop, as I feel that this software allows me to use many tools, such as the ability to add different layers, add shadow effects and being able to insert pictures, to create a successful front cover.

I added a few things to this front cover, which were not previously on the mock up. Firstly, I added the offer 'HUGE POSTER INSIDE!" This was because my magazine was inspired by 90s pop magazines, and all of these, because of the time period, would offer a large poster for the reader. That is why I too decided to include this offer to help persuade the user to purchase the magazine. Secondly, I positioned the selling line more to the top of the page, rather that below the masthead. This was because when I had positioned it below the masthead, it would distract the user from the main image, and this is the image that is going to sell the magazine. Lastly, I decided to add the word 'only' underneath the price. The makes the magazine sound relatively cheap, and therefore persuades the user even more to purchase it.

Mock Up of Front Cover

2009-02-13T06:23:00.000-08:00

Mock Up of Front Cover
This is is a mock up of my front cover.
On my mock up, I realised that I had forgotten to include the Issue number and a selling line. These are two important parts of a magazine. The Issue number keeps the user informed and the selling line helps persuade the user to purchase the magazine. This mock up has been extremely useful to me as it means that I can remember to include these things on my real front cover.

Original and Edited Image

2009-02-12T10:19:00.000-08:00

Original and Edited Image
These are two versions of the photo that I took for my front cover. The original image is on the left, and the edited version is on the right.

I decided to change my parts of my original image, as I felt that this would not be appropriate for my front cover.

I decided to erase the background and replace it with a white background. This was because the background that I had taken my photo on was irrelevant, and may have distracted the viewer from the main focus of the image, which is the woman.
I used the clone tool to erase her facial piercing. As she is meant to be a ‘pop’ star, it would not be good for her image to have a piercing here. It would also not appeal to the younger members of her target audience.
I added a ‘lightening’ effect onto her necklace. This makes the jewellery that she is wearing appear to be much more expensive and interesting, rather than the original and more dull necklace that she was wearing before.
I had to use the clone tool to erase the words that were on her wristband. I decided to keep the wristband in the image, as it shows that she is into music and attends music festivals. However, it is illegal to advertise any other brands without their permission. It would also not be good publicity for the singer that I am advertising, as it means that their attention could be lost.
I decided to add a shadow behind her, so that it gives the effect that this photo was taken in an actual studio. This looks very professional and more realistic.
I made the brightness and contrast greater, as the lighting in the photo was quite dark. There was also an orange tint over the photograph, meaning that I had to adjust the saturation slightly so that her skin colour was more realistic.
Making the image brighter highlights the lighter areas of the photo, therefore attracting more attention to it.
I decided to airbrush her face, to smooth her skin. This made her appear much more presentable for the front cover of the magazine. After I had used the guassian blur tool to do this, I used the sharpen tool to emphasise her eyes, lips, necklace and flower in her hair. This makes it far less obvious to the viewer that this image has been airbrushed.

Archive Photos from Photoshoot

Why did I not use these images?

I did not paricularly like the lighting for this image. Because of the time that I took it, there was not natural lighting from the window, and I had to use the lighting that I had indoors. This created a slight orange tint on the image, which looked quite unprofessional.
I chose to take this photo with flash on, because of the problem I experienced while taking photo one. However, i feel that this flash made the model look pale, and light had reflected off the wall behind, which looks quite unprofessional.
I had tried to cover the floor and drawers with a white towel, to make it easier for me later on when I wanted to erase the background. However, I did not place enough white towels around, which made it very difficult for me to erase the background well.
The angle of this image is not particularly good. It is not close up, nor is it a whole body shot. This makes it quite unclear for the user as they do not necessary know where to look. I should have either taken a close up image to attract more attention and make it clearer.
This image is quite unsuccessful. Not only do I have a glare for a light that I had used, but my thumb can also be seen in the bottom left corner. This looks highly unprofessional, and distracts the user from the main focus, which is the model.

Planning my Photoshoot and Mastheads

2009-02-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

Planning my Photoshoot
This is the plan for the main image of my front cover. I have chosen to call my magazine "My Choice", as while I was researching magazines, I realised that magazines tend to only be called names made up of 3 or less syllables (for example "Rolling Stones" and "Smash Hits"). This is so that they are more catchy and memorable, and longer magazine names would not easily be remembered.

Possible Masthead Fonts

These are my possible mastheads for my magazine.

The font used for my first masthead it called "A Star is Born". I liked this font because it is extremely different and unique; no other matheads use it. The stars in the letters have connotations that the person on the front of the page is also a 'star' and is extremely famous. However, I feel that this masthead is quite immature, and would not appeal to older members of my target audience.
This second font is called 'Starburst'. I chose this font because the letters are quite big, therefore attracting the attention better of users. However, because of the different lines that cut through the letters, it makes it quite difficult to read. They also have connotations of laser beams, which is does not suit the 'pop' genre of my magazine.
This font is called "Adamgorry". This font is clear and easy to read. It appeals to everyone and is extremely unique. The white dots create the illusion of light bulbs, normally associated with famous celebrities. This would therefore suggest that the person being promoted on the front cover of my page is also a well known star.
This final font is called 'Graphic Attitude'. This font looks as if it has been written by hand, therefore appealing to my target audience of teenagers. However, the use of scatchy lines is not associated with the pop genre of music, therefore not being particularly appropriate.

I have chosen to use masthead three.

[All fonts taken from www.dafont.com]

Double Page Spread 2

2009-01-23T06:01:00.000-08:00

1) How does the choice of band featured in the article suggest who the target audience will be?

This double page spread focuses on Suzanne Shaw, from the pop band Hear'Say. The facial expression that she is pulling is quite humorous, and the clothes that she is wearing are very young. This suggests that this band aims at quite younger people, therefore meaning that the target audience for this magazine are young and fresh teenage girls, aged between 12-14 years.

2) What type of language is used in the article? Give examples of words or phrases which are specific to the style of the magazine.

The language on this page is extremely informal and colloquial, quoting phrases from Suzanne that read "That was wicked" and "No, I love 'em!". This type of language represents the kind of band that Hear'Say are. They're a very young band, and this type of language would appeal to their listeners.

3) How is colour used?
There is a lot of blue used in this article. This blue is extremely pale, therefore targeting their younger audience. It is also a very bright colour, which has connotations of the band being bright and vibrant themselves. It is in the background, the borders for images and the speech marks that are positoned at the top. Throughout the magazine, there are also other interviews, and the same blue colour has been used in each one. This makes the magazine have a consistent colour scheme for these type of interviews. Therefore, when the user is flicking through, they can instantly recognise what this double page spread will be about.

4) What style of text is used? Is it similar to any other pages? What does it say about the image of the magazine and the audience?
The style of text is a basic sans serif font, with the answers to the questions being in Arial. This is quite an easy font to read and understand, which appeals to younger people who may not be able to read as well. It is also extremely informal, which has connotations of the magazine wanting to have a friendly relationship with its readers.

5) How is the double page spread laid out? How much of the pages are taken up by images and how much by text? How does this reflect the audience? What do they value?
One A4 page on the left is taken up by an entire image of Suzanne Shaw. This is because during these times (the years 2000-2003), people would often rip this page out and stick it on their walls as posters. By having this whole image on this A4 sheet, it is allowing the readers to do this.
On the right, there is mainly text, with a picture of her when she was younger. The pull quote spread across the page, in a much larger font, which attracts attention to it. There is not much text, which suggests that this audience do not like to read much, and prefer to look at images. This is because they are younger, and are more used to just flicking through a magazine.

6) What tone is the magazine using when addressing the reader (as a close friend, a member of an 'in' crowd or an informed intelligent fan?) - provide evidence
The magazine does not address the reader much throughout this interview. The only part which addresses the audience is the text that reads "Suzanna on starting early and finishing up a pop star". This is quite direct and tells the reader exactly what the interview is going to be about. This shows that they want to have an honest relationship with their readers, and want to be very clear about what they want to say.

7) How is the artist/band presented to the audience through the images? You may wish to carry out a contextual analysis.

The image is positioned on the left side of the magazine. It is very fun and silly, which shows the viewer that she is quite young and doesn't mind people seeing this more laid-back and casual side of her. The fact that it is also medium shot, showing her from the waist up, also proves that she doesn't mind her audience knowing about her. Her clothes are also of a very young style, as well as her hair style and cap. This appeals greatly to her target audience.

8) How does the style of the article match the style of the front cover?
This magazine is similar to the front cover in some ways, mainly due to the image of Suzanne Shaw. She is pulling, as mentioned above, quite a funny and excited expression. On the front cover, the image of the whole band are also pulling the same expression, showing that they are having a lot of fun and don't take things too seriously.

9) Does the article demand any prior knowledge? Give examples.
This magazine does not require you to have any prior knowledge, as the interview asks her most things about her life up until now. However, the reader may find it helpful to know that she is quite famous, as the pull quotes both describe her opinions on fame. For example "I wanted to go to Hollywood when I was three!" and "A few platinum disks hanging in the bathroom would be nice".

Smash Hits Powerpoint

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Double Page Spread

2009-01-19T01:46:00.000-08:00

Double Page Spread

1) How does the choice of band featured in the article suggest who the target audience will be?
This double page spread is dedicated to letters htat people have sent in, and so there are many bands that are featured within these pages, for example, Oasis, Blur and MGMT. These bands are quite indie, which suggests that this magazine is dedicated to indie music. The target audience is probably 16-35 years. This is due to that fact that MGMT is quite a recent band for the younger generations, yet Oasis have been around for a while, therefor aiming more at the older generations.

2) What type of language is used in the article? Give examples of words or phrases which are specific to the style of the magazine
The language on this page is quite informal and colloquial, espeically the letters that have been sent in. The magazine asks questions such as "Anyone else delighted to see Blur back?". This is very informal, and creates quite a 'chatty' and conversational atmosphere.

3) How is colour used?
The colours on this page are white, black and red. Red is clearly used because it is this magazine's house colour, meaning that the magazine can achieve a consistent style if they use it throughout their magazine. The black text on the white background makes the text stand out well, as they are both greatly contrasting colours.

4) What style of text is used? Is it similar to any other pages? What does it say about the image of the magazine and the audience?
The style of the text is quite informal throughout the magazine, such as on page 23, the opening sentence is "Professional northerner wanted", which is clearly quite humourous and not meant to be taken seriously. This suggests that this magazine is quite laid back, which may represent the people who read the magazine and are into this sort of music. It also suggests that the magazine want to create a friendly and more personal relationship with its readers, to make them want to continue reading.

5) How is the double page spread laid out? How much of the pages are taken up by images and how much by text? How does this reflect the audience? What do they value?
This double page spread is laid out in a quite structured way. The text and images are positioned in columns, making it easy for the user to follow. There appears to be an even balance of text and images, probably due to the fact that the main image on the left page is quite big. This represents the style of the magazine, which is quite casual and laid-back. The readers do not want to read huge paragraphs of formal text; they want to to be able to read some text, but be able to flick through images as well.

6) What tone is the magazine using when addressing the reader (as a close friend, a member of an 'in' crowd or an informed intelligent fan?) - provide evidence
The tone is very casual and appears to be addressing all readers, instead of just you. "Anyone else delighted to see Blur back?" is a very casual question, open to anyone. It makes you feel as if you are part of a community of NME readers, and assumes that you are well informed about what uis happening in the music world (as it suggests you know that Blue have made a comeback).

7) How is the artist/band presented to the audience through the images? You may wish to carry out a textual analysis.
The main image is on the left page of Blur. They have made a comeback recently, and the caption that describes this image reads "Blur: middle age ain't rubbish". This suggests that this band, although they are slightly older, still feel that their music is not bad. The image shows the four band members, looking extremely casual and laid-back, which matches the style and theme of this magazine. The fact that it is in black and white represent that fact that they are probably a bit older than the other younger bands that are on this page in colour. The clothes that these band members are wearing are extremely dark, most of them in all black. This shows that they are quite plain, suggesting that they do not need to attract attention through their fashion, but with their music.

8) How does the style of the article match the style of the front cover?
The colours red and yellow are used quite a lot through this magazine, as these appear to be their house colours. The front cover and this article are both quite eye catching, drawing attention from the readers.

9) Does the article demand any prior knowledge? Give examples.
This magazine requires you to know something about this type of music, as the artists within are all from the indie genre. If you are not interested in this style, then the chances are that this magazine will not appeal to you. As mentioned previously, the question on page 14, "Anyone else delighted to see Blur back?" requires the user to already know that this band has made a comeback. If you did not, then you probably wouldn't be able to have an opinion on the article.

Front Cover Analysis 2

2009-01-16T06:34:00.000-08:00

Front Cover Analysis

What type of magazine is it?

This magazine mainly focuses on music, politics and popular culture.

From the front cover what kinds of issues/articles are going to be inside?

From the front cover, you can tell that there the main feature is going to be an interview with Zac Efron. This is clear because the main cover line reads “THE NEW AMERICAN HEART THROB ZAC EFRON”. He is also featured on the main image of the front cover. There are also going to be articles about “Clapton’s guitar goes festival” and “Punk rock fight club”.

Who is the target audience for the magazine? What particular age group? What are their interests? How do you know all of this?

The target audience for this magazine is probably younger people, between 16-27 years of age. They enjoy reading about the latest music gossip, yet they are still interested in what is happening in the world. The target audience for this magazine in particular is female and probably between 16-20 years. This is due to the person that is on the front.

What mode of address is the magazine using? What does this tell you about the type of relationship it wants with its reader?
The mode of address used for this magazine is quite informal and very direct. It is also quite ‘slang’, which tells you that they want quite a friendly relationship with their audience. It also shows that they want to maybe be more personal with them, as you normally speak in slang to your friends.

Who is on the front cover and why?

Zac Efron is a mature teenager, known for being an actor, dancer and singer. Although he is well known to younger children for being in films such as High School Musical, it is clear that this interview is aimed more at older teenagers, due to the photograph where he is standing in quite a suggestive pose. As this magazine appeals to these older people, it is appropriate to have him on the front, as long as he was being presented in this way. Zac Efron is extremely famous at the moment, and a lot of people want to know about him. By having him on the front, it will attract attention from people and make the want to buy the magazine.

What does the main cover line say? What does this imply about the artist/band?? What overall message is the artist/band giving?

The main cover line reads “THE NEW AMERICAN HEART THROB ZAC EFRON”. This implies that this artist is new to the music scene. It also implies that he is going to be liked by a lot of people, probably due to his good looks.

Are any (social/ethnic/political) groups being represented? How does the magazine represent them?

There are not any groups in particular being represented on this front cover.

Are there any ‘buzz’ words? What effect does it have on the reader?

The words ‘HEART THROB’ stand out extremely well on the page, probably due to the large font and bright red font colour. This draws the user’s attention to them, causing them to want to make their own opinion as to whether they believe he is the latest ‘heart throb’, as this magazine makes out.

What does the design of the mast head tell you about the magazine? What does the title of the magazine tell you about: 1. the readership 2. its image 3. its style
The masthead for this magazine is normally always covered slightly by the main image. This is because their masthead is an extremely well known design, they do not need to make it stand out. However, the masthead can still be seen slightly. It is in quite a professional looking font, especially because of the 3-dimensional effects that have been added to it.

What do the ‘kickers’ in the coverlines suggest will be inside the magazine? What does this tell you about the type of audience the magazine expects to get?
The kickers in the coverlines are highlighted in a different font colour, which is grey. The rest of the text is written in yellow, for example “Clapton’s” and “M.I.A”. Clapton is an artist aimed at older people, yet MIA is an artist at people who are younger. This shows that this magazine is extremely diverse, and can appeal to people of most ages.

Is there a strapline/selling line/slogan? What does it tell you about the magazine? How does it help to attract readers?

There is not a strapline on this magazine. This is probably due to the fact that this magazine is extremely well-known and popular already, that it does not need to stand out and try to sell itself, as those who want the magazine will go specifically to buy it on their on accord.

What colours are used? Do you find them attractive?

The colours used on this front cover are quite simple. The masthead is written in grey, the background for the image is plain white and the coverlines and kickers are written in grey and yellow. These colours do not stand out very well, yet the Rolling Stone probably feel like they don’t need to make the colours stand out, due to the reasons I explained in the question above.

What fonts are used and why?

The font remains the same on the front cover, making it extremely consistent. It is a sans serif font, to appeal to the younger members of the target audience. The font is also extremely plain and basic, meaning that the user is forced to focus directly one what they are actually reading, and not the distracted by different font styles.

What strategies does the magazine use to attract the audience?
This magazine does not need to attract attention from the audience that much, as it is an extremely well known magazine that has been successful for many years. However, the close-up image and bright red colours of the text accompanying the main image makes the front cover stand out slightly.

Front Cover Analysis

2009-01-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

Front Cover Analysis

What type of magazine is it?
This is a pop magazine from the 1990s.

From the front cover what kinds of issues/articles are going to be inside?
You can tell from this front cover that this magazine covers a large amount of content, as there is an extremely large number of coverlines and straplines featured on the front. Some of the articles that are featured within include information on “Hanson…the movie”, Peter Andre’s shocking secret and the main story, an interview with the Spice Girls.

Who is the target audience for the magazine? What particular age group? What are their interests? How do you know all of this?
It is clear that the target audience of this magazine are probably young teenage females, between 10-17. Their interests include knowing the latest gossip that is happening in the pop world, adding to their collection of posters in their room and wanting to be up-to-date with all the latest happenings. You can tell that they collect posters of their favourite bands, as there are two coverlines on the front page advertising free posters that they are giving away. There is one cover line located in the left third reading “15 ACE POSTERS!” and there is also a section in the right third that reads “FREE BOYZONE POSTER…IT’S THIS BIG!” As the target are interested in this, they have decided to emphasise it greatly, even showing them an image of what the Boyzone poster will look like, before they even open the magazine.

What mode of address is the magazine using? What does this tell you about the type of relationship it wants with its reader?

The language used on the front cover is very informal and colloquial, making it appeal to the user more. This appeals to them as it makes it appear to be more conversational, as if this magazine is speaking to them in particular. This then leads them onto purchasing it. This informal mode of address also appeals to their target audience of younger teenagers, as this is normally how people of this age group speak.

Who is on the front cover and why?
Many bands and artists appear on the front cover. However, the main image is of The Spice Girls. This image is a long shot, as most of their bodies are featured in the image. They are seen holding a globe, which coincides with what the main coverline is about (The Spice Girls ‘ruling the world’). The Spice Girls are featured on this magazine as, during the 1990s, they were an extremely popular band, and everyone wanted to know more about them. By having one of the most popular bands of the decade featured on the front cover of you magazine, it attracts a lot of attention and would make people want to purchase it to read about their favourite band.

What does the main cover line say? What does this imply about the artist/band?? What overall message is the artist/band giving?
The main cover line reads ““WORLD POWER! Spices getting away with murder!” This implies that the Spice Girls are an extremely popular band, and have the power to get away with anything.

Are any (social/ethnic/political) groups being represented? How does the magazine represent them?
There are not any groups in particular being represented on this front cover. However, apart from the main storyline, the magazine only really advertises the young teenage boy bands and artists on the front, which is there to appeal to their target audience.

Are there any ‘buzz’ words? What effect does it have on the reader?
The words ‘WORLD POWER’ are buzzwords, as they relate to the Spice Girls’ own personal catchphrase, which is “girl power!” Changing ‘girl’ to ‘world’ might have connotations that this band feels that all girls have the power to dominate the world, as proved by them.

What does the design of the mast head tell you about the magazine? What does the title of the magazine tell you about:
1. the readership
2. its image
3. its style

The masthead for this magazine is located at the top, and reads “Top of the Pops”. It is in a unique font face, which makes this magazine stand out and different from the rest. It is also meant to be a representation of their actual logo, with the ‘of the’ being positioned in that way. The font is quite young, and looks quite like handwriting, which therefore appeals to the target audience.

What do the ‘kickers’ in the coverlines suggest will be inside the magazine? What does this tell you about the type of audience the magazine expects to get?
There are not many kickers use don this front cover, mainly because they have made the coverlines short and to the point, excluding the need for explanatory text. This appeals to the target audience, as younger people tend to get distracted easily, the magazine needs to keep their attention, any if there was any explanatory text, their attention may be lost.

Is there a strapline/selling line/slogan? What does it tell you about the magazine? How does it help to attract readers?
The strap line is located underneath the masthead, and reads “The UK No1 Music Magazine!” This is extremely persuasive, as it makes it sound as if this magazine is the best magazine in Great Britain. This selling line has been positioned in a yellow rectangular shape, which attracts attention to it.

What colours are used? Do you find them attractive?
The house colours of this magazine are blue, white and yellow. I feel like these are good colours to use, as they are quite bright and attract a lot of attention. The choice of clothing that the band members are wearing, such as the red trousers and tops, also add to the brightness of this front cover.

What fonts are used and why?
There are many fonts used on the cover of this magazine, which makes it stand out very well. These fonts are always sans serif, as this makes it appear to be less formal, hence appealing to the correct target audience. All text is written in capitals and normally with an exclamation mark at the end. This makes the magazine appear to be extremely exciting, making the user want to purchase it.

What strategies does the magazine use to attract the audience?

This magazine uses many strategies to attract the audience’s attention. Firstly, there are all the bright colours and different fonts, which make it stand out very well. Secondly, the amount of coverlines and images that feature on the front. In total, there are five different photographs of ‘popstars’ and bands, and ten different features advertised. This complicated page draws the user’s attention to it, making them notice it and want to then purchase it. Also, not only does this magazine feature what the coverlines are saying, there are also more features at the bottom. The user’s attention is drawn to the ‘PLUS!’ sign, which advertises that there is even more within, including ‘Coolio!’ ‘Oasis!’ ‘Robbie!’ etc.

Results from Survey

2009-01-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

Results from Survey
These are my results from the survey that I asked. I conducted my survey on 20 people, as this is a good survey size to receive accurate and reliable results. I will use these results to help me in the creation of my own magazine.

Analysis Of Questions

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Mood Board

2009-01-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

MOOD BOARDThis is my mood board. As you can see, I have focused on female popstars, and used many feminine colours such as pinks and purples for the background. The phrase 'Here come the girls!' also fits into my theme of female artists, which would appeal to my target audience.

Evaluation

2008-12-17T06:02:00.000-08:00

Evaluation for Preliminary Task Draft

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Front Cover
My front cover uses many forms and conventions of real media products. Firstly, I have included a masthead. This masthead is eye-catching, short and precise, which are all features of what a masthead for a school magazine should be. I have also positioned a strap line below this, which reads “YOUR monthly newsletter”. This is persuasive and would attract readers, which is what a strap line is meant to do. It is extremely direct to the reader, making them feel as if it is aimed specifically to them. Secondly, there is the use of kickers and explanatory text, which promotes the features within the magazine. However, I should have probably included more, as most standard magazines have about six kickers, and I only included three. Here, I have therefore challenged a standard convention of real media products. Thirdly, I have erased the background of my main cover image. Most magazines normally have a plain coloured background, to make them look a lot more professional. That is why I chose to delete my background as well. Fourth, I have included a button on my magazine cover. This is quite conventional on real magazines, and they are used to promote special features and articles within the magazine. My button advertises a competition that can be found within. Lastly, the mode of address is extremely informal and exclusive to students and parents. This, I fee, is the right mode of address for a school magazine, as it is aimed directly at students and, because of their age, it would have to be informal for it to appeal to them well.
My cover also develops normal conventions of magazines, for example, with the fonts. Normally, a standard magazine would use about three different fonts on their front cover. I decided to use four, as I feel that this makes the front cover more visually interesting and appealing to readers.
My magazine cover, I feel, challenges the forms and conventions of real media products in one way; I have chosen not to include a bar code or price number. I have not included these because this is a school newsletter, and students would not have to purchase it. Instead, it would be given out by hand, which is why there is no need for a bar code or price.

Contents
My contents page uses many standard conventions and forms as other real contents pages. I have included images, page numbers and information about the different features within. It is also laid out in a well structured way, making it easy for the reader to understand.
However, I have challenged many conventions of real contents pages. Firstly, I have chosen to place images with just the page number next to them, without any text about the feature. This looks quite modern and a fresh way of laying out the page. This means that it would appeal to my target audience of younger students. Secondly, I have chosen not to include a section for the editor. Seeing as this is a newsletter for the entire school, I felt that there was no need for a section about just the editor, as the magazine would have probably been created by a group of students. Thirdly, I have chosen to add different shapes onto the background, instead of having just a plain background. I felt that a white background was extremely plain and uninteresting, and did not appeal to the readers. Adding the green shapes behind the text made the contents far more eye catching. Choosing the colour green also matches my colour scheme, allowing me to have a consistent style throughout.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Front Cover
My front cover represents a large and varied group of people. Firstly, there is the model on the front. Because the lower school of St Marylebone is an all girls school, I decided to use a female model to appeal to them. Secondly, the cover lines are very inclusive to students, and appeal greatly the students within the school. For example, cover lines such as “World Culture Day” and “Finding the new term hard?” appeals to every student in the school.

Contents
My contents page appeals to the lower school and the sixth form, as it includes images of both males and females. They are also participating in different activities such as sport and music, therefore my magazine appeals to everyone. The cover story is also inviting parents and external people to come to the Christmas fair, therefore appealing to people who are outside of the school community.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
This magazine would be distributed at school, as it is extremely inclusive to students and school life. The fact that I have not included a bar code shows that my newsletter would probably be distributed by hand and would be a free magazine, as there is not a price on my cover.

What would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my magazine would be students at St Marylebone School. This is clear because the language is extremely inclusive to the school community. It is also clear that the students are quite young, as the mode of address is very informal and conversational, which you would not expect on an adult upper-class magazine. My magazine targets girls as well, due to the female model on the front.

How did you attract/address your audience?
Front Cover
My front cover targets young students from St Marylebone in many ways. Firstly, there are the colours that I have used. The dark green appeals to people from the school as this is on of the school’s house colours. Secondly, there is the model that I used. She is young herself and is holding a notepad. This appeals to students as it shows that she is hard working. Thirdly, there are the cover lines. These all promote different activities that are happening within the school community, therefore appealing to students who would like to take part.

Contents page
My contents page also appeals to students. Not only have I used green for the background again, I have also used images of students taking part in different activities. These activities would appeal to students as they are available to everyone in the school community. Thirdly, the shapes in the background resemble stars. Stars are quite young and feminine shapes, which would appeal to the lower school of St Marylebone.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt many techniques whiles constructing this magazine. The technique that I felt most useful was the magnetic lasso tool on Adobe Photoshop. This tool allowed me to highlight sections of images and delete the background, which came in extremely handy for my front cover when I needed to delete the background of my photo.

2008-12-01T02:13:00.000-08:00

Contents Page
This is my final contents page, which I feel was quite successful. However, I did make a few adjustments from my original draft:

I chose to make it landscape instead of portrait. This, I felt, allowed me to be more creative, making my page much more visually interesting for the reader.
I decided to change the colour of the page numbers to red. This stood out a lot better than if I were to use the dark green.
I added green shapes in the background. I felt that the white background was far too plain and unappealing to the reader. The green makes it that bit more interesting.

(Please click to enlarge)

I used this contents page for inspiration, specifically how the photos were laid out. Some were rotated with the page number placed in a bigger size on top of the image. I felt that this was an interesting way of positioning the images and numbers, which is why I chose to place my images in a similar style to this.
However, I did not like the white background, which is why I added some interesting shapes to mine to make it more visually interesting and appeal to my target audience.

Second Photoshoot

2008-11-28T01:58:00.000-08:00

Planning my Second Photoshoot

This is my plan for my second photoshoot, which I will conduct on Friday. The photographs that I take here will be used on my contents page, and will relate to features within the magazine. Each photograph will be placed on the second page of my table of contents, with the page number written next to it.

(please click to enlarge)

Contents page Mock Up

2008-11-21T06:15:00.001-08:00

Planning my Contents page
Here, I have designed the mock up of my contents page. I have used the same colours and font style as my front cover, so that my magazine can be consistent and recognisable by the readers as the school magazine's.

(please click to enlarge)

Magazine Front Cover

2008-11-21T01:55:00.000-08:00

Front Cover

This is my front cover for the preliminary task. I created this front cover on Adobe Photoshop, as I feel that this software allows me to use many tools, such as the ability to add different layers, add shadow effects and being able to insert pictures, to create a successful front cover.

Whilst creating this cover, I had to keep many things in mind. Firstly, the colours that I used had to be the school house colours, which are green, white and yellow. I will use these colours throughout my magazine so that I can be consistent. Secondly, I had to bear in mind the rules of third. I purposely placed my model in the two right thirds, to keep the first third empty for the kickers. I also directed my model to hold the notepad quite high, so that I could place the competition box against a plain background and not confuse the viewer. Thirdly, the fonts I used had to be different, but not be too different so that they distract the reader. That is why I chose to only use three different fonts on my cover. This made it interesting yet not too overwhelming.

Mock Up

2008-11-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

Creating my Mock Up

(Please click to enlarge)

Why did I choose this font style?
I chose the font 'Arial', as I felt that this font style is extremely easy to read by everyone. I need to make sure that it is a clear font to understand, so that the younger members can read the text easily as well as the older students.

Why did I choose the colour green, yellow and white?
These are my house colours. They are also the colours of St Marylebone School, and so by using these throughout, my magazine is easily recognisable as being the school's magazine.

Preliminary Task

2008-11-13T03:11:00.000-08:00

Planning my Photoshoot 06/11/08

This is a plan for my photoshoot. It describes what I am going to do for my photoshoot, and what I want to achieve from my photos.

(Please click to enlarge)

Photos for Preliminary Task 07/11/08

In this lesson, I took multiple photos for my school magazine front cover. I feel that this task was done quite successfully, however there were some aspects of it that I would change for next time. Firstly, I would have taken many more photos to try and get the most successful photo that I could possibly get. I only took three different photos, which were all taken in the same lighting and position. This wasn’t very varied, and I feel that if I had experimented more, I could have come up with a much more interesting photo with different lighting, stances, facial expressions etc. Also, some of the photos I took were not very appropriate. This one, for example (right), the flash was kept on. This means that there were many shadows around the edges of the wall and around her body. This would have made it difficult for it to be successfully Photoshopped out and edited.Secondly, I would have drawn out my design better. This would have given me a clearer idea as to what I wanted my magazine cover to look like.

2008-11-13T03:08:00.000-08:00

Using Brushes 10/10/08

In this lesson, we learnt how to download brushes to create a successful banner and logo for our media blog. We first downloaded a Photoshop brush from a website. I found the website Brusheezy, which allowed me to download brushes for free.
I then started a new Photoshop document from scratch, and adjusted the size to A3. I decided to make my logo and banner using different floral patterns. I made the background a deep blue by filling it with the paint bucket tool. I then loaded my saved brush, changed the paintbrush colour to white, and ‘painted’ where I wanted my flowers to be on my page. I only clicked the mouse once, as this created a sharp and accurate picture of the design that I had chosen.
I then added another layer. This allowed me to draw even more brushes and designs, but I could layer them on top of my previous ones. I then adjusted the blending mode of this layer to luminosity, as this created a very transparent and more subtle effect, which I felt looked extremely professional.
I lastly added my text. I made my name bigger than the text that read ‘Media Blog’, by highlighting the layer that was just my name, and making the font size bigger. I also placed the ‘media blog’ layer below the text layer for my name, so that my name slightly overlapped the other text. This looked made my logo look very professional.
The font I chose was a script font, as I wanted to keep my logo very sophisticated. The font I used was ‘Pristina’. I also made the font white so that it contrasted well against the blue background a stood out.
I also added a drop shadow to both text layers, which just makes my logo look a lot more interesting.
I then created a new document, adjusting the size so that the length is a lot longer that the height. This is my banner. I chose to keep the background colour and used the same brush, as I wanted to achieve a consistent style.

2008-11-13T03:06:00.000-08:00

Signs and Semiotics 10/10/08

In this lesson, we learnt about signs and semiotics. I found out that the three main semiotics are icon, symbol and index. Icon is where the sign looks like what it represents, such as a non-smoking sign. This is easily recognisable and the viewer can clearly understand what it means. A symbol needs to be culturally learned, such as a thumb up. Once this symbol is learned, most people will understand what it is. Lastly, an index is suggestive and connected to what they represent, however it can be interpreted in many different ways, for example, smoke is a sign of fire.

Airbrushing

2008-11-13T03:02:00.000-08:00

Airbrushing
In this lesson, we learnt about air brushing, and how to change certain features of a person, for example eye colour and hair colour. We did this on Photoshop, using many tools such as cloning, the eraser tool and changing the opacity.

(Top image was before, and the bottom image is after).

As you can see, I have changed many features of this woman. Firstly, I have airbrushed her skin, and removed any imperfections using the cloning tool. I added another layer and used the Gaussian blur tool to make her skin smoother. I then erased the eyes, lips, nose ring and earring from the new layer, so that it appears much sharper. This makes the image look much more realistic, and it appears that she does in fact have skin this smooth.
I then changed the eye colour to a darker blue. I added a new layer and used the Select tool to outline her eyes. I then coloured them in with a dark blue using the paint tool. To make them appear much more realistic, I changed the layer style to Overlay, which made the colour a lot more transparent and subtle.Lastly, I changed the hair colour to a lighter blonde. I did this the same way as I did with changing the eye colour, except I coloured it in with a yellow colour.

Colouring Effects

2008-11-13T02:59:00.001-08:00

Colouring Effects

In lesson four, we looked at colour filtering in Adobe Photoshop. This tool makes the image much more interesting to the viewer. I used colour filtering when editing a photo I took for a ‘Skins’ advert.
I did this on Photoshop by changing the Hue and Saturation of the background layer to
-70, adding a new layer and changing the blending mode to soft light. This means that when we colour it in using the paint tool, the image is still visible through the colours. To make this image look much more official, I added text that read “All New Skins” and I added the E4 logo, by saving the image from the internet and importing it into Photoshop.

Fonts

2008-11-10T02:27:00.000-08:00

Fonts
In Lesson three, we learnt about different types of fonts, which included:

We then learnt how to download different fonts from websites, such as ‘Dafont’ and ‘1001freefonts’.
We learnt about the effects that these fonts can have on the viewer.

For example, you can use a grunge font if you were advertising a topic such as acid rain. As you can see, this looks like it is corroded and has been worn away, which also represents the effects of acid rain.

Colour Filtering

2008-11-10T02:24:00.000-08:00

Colour Filtering/Colour Popping

In our third lesson, we learnt about ‘colour popping’. This is where we select a certain colour and make the rest of the colours black and white. This is a good tool for when you want to highlight a certain part of the image, so that if that is the only part that is in colour, the viewer’s attention will be drawn to that section.

In this example, I have chosen to leave the hand in colour and the make the rest of the image black and white. This draws the viewer’s attention to the hand that is stealing from the girl, which is also the theme of this poster.

I have also made the text in colour so that this and the hand both make the viewer completely aware of what the poster is advertising.

Cloning

2008-11-10T02:15:00.000-08:00

Cloning

In the second lesson, we learnt how to use the cloning tool. Cloning is a technique used on Adobe Photoshop, and it involves copying a section of an image exactly to another part of the same image. We used cloning to erase certain brands that were in a photograph we took of students at St Marylebone. These are the before and after shots:

As you can see, I have managed to erase brands such as “Dior” and “Zara” from the students’ bag, as we cannot advertise corporate brands in the school prospectus. I have also cloned out the woman from the stairs so that she is not distracting the viewer’s attention from the actually students. I have also used the ‘crop’ tool so that the focus can be entirely on the students.

Image Analysis

2008-11-10T02:14:00.001-08:00

Image Analysis

In our first lesson, we learnt about how to analyse images, looking at the denotation and connotations of the image.
For example, in this advertisement for DKNY’s perfume range, we can see that the image is split in two. On the left is the more official page, with the logo, the perfume bottle and the slogan. The perfume bottles are also clearly positioned in the centre of the page. This is called framing and the editors choose where they position items for a purpose.

On the right hand side of the advertisement, we can see two models (one male and one female), and the woman is eating a green apple. As the new DKNY perfume is meant to resemble an apple in scent, shape and colour, the apple the woman is holding is also meant to symbolise the actual perfume. The lighting used in the image on the right is very warm and has a tint orange to it. This colour has been added to resemble the colours of the apples that are positioned on the left, hence making the whole advert focus on the perfume.
We then learnt about camera angles. For example, the image on the left has been taken as a close up camera shot. This allows the viewer to see the apples surrounding the perfume extremely close up. At this angle, we can see all the shades of the apples and the water droplets that are on them. These droplets have been added to make the apples look extremely irresistible and delicious, which reminds the viewer of what this poster is advertising.
All of these choices have been made for a reason. What we can see in the image is the denotation and the reasons as to why they are there and what they mean are the connotations.

Introduction

2008-11-10T01:58:00.000-08:00

The first entries of this blog have been back dated over the previous weeks.