Month: September 2020

A Front Cover Analysed

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My chosen front cover!

  • After learning the design elements of a magazine front cover, we were then given the task of analysing a front cover of our choice. We had to think carefully about the target audience of our magazines and how different elements have been designed to attract the intended target audience. My magazine was clearly designed for a young audience and particualry those interesed in music, pop culture, the LGBTQ+ community and current issues in the world. My target audience is people who are passionate about inclusivity and equal rights infering that they are also going to be kind-hearted people.

Billboard…

  • Billboard is a very trendy, modern magazine which is why they are likely to be covering this subject. As my audience is young and ‘on-it’ when it comes to current issues in the world, they are very likely to be on social media to learn and spread awarness as well as to communicate. This works simultaneously with Billboard as they are often using different social media platforms to advertise and spread awareness too. The pose shown by the two main cover stars on the front page shows unison and could also be to represent the BLM Movement that is going on in the current world. This further shows how welcoming this magazine cover is and how inclusive it is. My analysed front cover is shown below…

Finding out about the audience…

During this task, we learnt and used the terms ‘Pyschographic’ and ‘Demographic’. These terms are of particular importance when talking about an audience as they help us understand more about them. Demographics of the audience are factors about them that cannot be changed and generalise a group of people e.g age, race and background. On the other hand, pyshcographics of an audience are more flexiable and can change e.g personality traits, opinions and interests. They all help a designer understand what an audience is looking for in something and what will interest them. This has helped me plan ahead for when I design my own magazine cover as I understand what elements work for a target audience and how to learn about an audience.

Conventional Design Features Of A Magazine

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The Design Elements Of A Magazine Cover!

Every magazine cover has conventional (typical) features which can commonly be seen. This is becasue they each play key rolls on a magzine cover. We were taught the names of the different conventional features and we then had to identify them ourselves. We were put into pairs and were given a magazine cover to analsye between us…

Masthead- This is the main title of the magazine. It needs to be recognisable and represent the magazines brand. It is often bold and bright to attract the audience and to communicate what the magazine is going to be about.

Coverlines- Coverlines are often used on a magazine front cover to advertise what else is on display further inside the magazine. This can give the audience an idea as to weather or not they are interested in the magazine and can help encourage them to buy it, which works in favour of both the audience and he advertiser.

Main cover line- The main cover line of a magazine is often bright, bold and catchy. It is to advertise the main story being covered in the magazine and needs to entice the target audience. The colour of the masthead is usually coordinated with the theme of the rest of the magazine and can set the mood for the theme.

Main cover star- The main cover star on the front cover is always big and covers the majoraty of the space on the front cover. The use of mine-en-scene is essential as to how they come across to the audience.

Barcode- A barcode is essential on every magazine and is on every product that is for sale. It is usually on the front cover but can also be on the back. It is used for scanning and purchasing the product.

Price- The price of a magazine is often advertised on the front cover. However, it is usually written in a small font so the audience cannot see it to avoid them thinking about the price before they purchase it.

Plug- A plug is a selling point of a magazine. It is a catchy phrase which entices the audience and catches their immediate attention. Example “Best preview issue ever”

Pug- A pug is a shape that has been created on a front cover- often a circle. A pug will usually have a number in for example ’30 must-see movies!’ This is to further entice the audience, add a vareity of designs to the front cover and advertise the other stories inside.

Insets- Insets are extra images which are added to the magazine front cover as well as the main cover star. They are usually snipets of images which are displayed on other stories further in the magazine. Insets on the front cover are usually images deemed as shocking or exciting to further attract the audicne into buying the magazine.

Captions- Captions are written under the insets on the front cover to quickly give them some context for the audience. They can sometimes be whitty and over exaggerated to create more suspense surroudning the story that image is from.

For the future…

All these design elements are going to be extremely useful for me when it comes to designing my own magazine front cover. I need to have an understanding of the elements that make up a front cover in order to use them efficiently and correctly. With a greater understanding, I can use them to communicate better with my audience and really sell my music magazine to them.

My image that uses mise-en-scene to communicate meaning

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Mise-en-scene!

For this task, the class were split into groups and had to blindly pick out a genre of music from a hat to work with. I was partnered with Elijah and Nathan and we picked out ‘Psychedelic Rock’ as our genre. At first, we were unsure of what this was so we looked it up and immediately saw a common theme and understood what it was. We noticed…

  • Bright, bold colours
  • Hallucinogenic drugs
  • Spirals, shapes and symbols
  • Distortion/ distorted thoughts
  • Religious symbols/ God
  • Organised chaos/ messy use of colour

We then created a moodboard of Psychedelic Rock images and thought of words to describe each image…

Made with Padlet

After we completed this task and had a better understanding of our theme, we then had to choose one person from our group to model for a photoshoot. I was the chosen candidate to model and we spent the lesson planning for the shoot. It was important that we thought carefully about the following factors…

  • Makeup/hair- Psychedelic rock makeup uses very bright and bold colours. The makeup is used in very ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ ways by drawing different shaps and patterns on the face and making them stand out. Hair is typically long and if not, it is often short and curly.
  • Facial expression/body language/pose- As pyschedelic rock is based around hallucinogenic drugs, a persons body language is going to be relaxed and laidback. They may be laying down or looking up at the sky. They are not going to be in their normal frame of mind and may be experiencing distoted thoughts and visions.
  • Props- A guitar is a very fitting prop for this theme as this is a crucial instrument in rock music. A guitar also helps to comminicate to an audiecne that this photo is about a type of music genre to further exaggerate out theme.
  • Style/clothing- Clothing in psychedelic rock is very ‘hippie like’. There are lots of patterns, symbols and bright, chaotic colours involved. These are direct connotations of the hallucinations caused by drugs often associated with this type of rock music. Flares, tassles and buttoned jackets are also popular in this music genre.

Our photoshoot!

This is an image of our evaluation at the end of the lesson- not our final image! We were given the task to label all models with adjectives to describe them in costume. I got lots of labels with words such as…

  • Relaxed
  • Calm
  • Edgy
  • Fun
  • Colourful
  • Quirky
  • Accentric

and more…

These adjectives given to me indicate that we were successful in this task. We had used mise-en-scene to communicate meaning to an audience as they were able to guess our theme and used words to describe me that we had planned to look like beforehand.

Before our evaluation task, we spent lots of time on our photoshoot. We thought hard about the different poses we could use to best represent what we were trying to mirror. We went outside to use two different settings and we then took many, many pictures in order to get the perfect shot.

This photo represents our theme well as all the factors combined work well together. My clothing is bright and colourful and contrasted nicely with a dark, buttoned jacket. I am holding a guitar which is a perfect prop for rock music and indicates that I am posing as a mucisian. I am pretending to strum the guitar to indicate this further. My body language is relaxed and I am looking to the side and up at the sky. This shows I am feeling relaxed, calm and possibly hallucinating due to the drugs associated with this theme. My facial expression is somewhat neutral as I am at peace and in my own world.

We decided to experiment with different poses to see what we liked best. Personally, I prefer this pose to standing up. This is because it shows I am not rigid, further showing off my relaxed body language. It shows I am more down-to-earth and hippie like.

Final image!

This was one of the final images we took on shoot and we experimented with a different pose. As you can see, I have progressively moved further and further down to the floor in these images as we realised these poses best represented being a hippie. I am laying on the floor, staring up at the sky, representing what it may look like if I were to be listening to this type of music whilst on hallucinogenic drugs. My direct contact with the ground shows my sense of peace and love for the planet.

In conclusion, this task has massivley boosted my knowledge of mine-en-scene and how it is used. It will help me when creating furture projects such as my music magezine because I know how to use my models to communicate meaning. I undertsand all the factors that go into creating an image with a purpose.

Print Media that Communicates Meaning

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All media has meaning!

Every denotation (thing) has a conotation (meaning) as to why it is there. When you view a piece of media, every denotation has been placed there and in that way for a particular reason by the creator. They do this for multiple reasons weather that is to make you feel a certain way, to make you think a certain thing or to signify something in particular. There is always a conotation for why a certain image is positioned there, why the creator has chosen a certain colour, why they have chosen that font etc…

I was given a task to analyse a music poster and I chose to analyse ‘Birdy’s’ poster to advertise her tour tickets.

What I thought…

I thought her poster was fasinating and had many conotations if I dug deep enough. Once I got stuck in and deconstructed her poster, I found many possible meanings and factors as to why it was designed like this. I particularly focused on colours and positioning of denotations and thought hard about what they meant and how they linked back to the artist herself. I think that lots of factors on this poster reflect many of the artists songs and lyrics as they are often emotional and meloncholy.

This task has really changed the way I view media as I never truly thought about why certain things were the way they were. Beforehand, I never realised how well thought-out every aspect of media had to be in order for it to correctly fulfil its purpose. This will definetly improve my own media I produce as I am now aware of how it will be percieved by my audience by the way I create everything.

I am a media prosumer!

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How am I a media prosumer?

Personally, I would consider myself a media prosumer! Not only do I absorb media through reading, watching and listening but I also contribute to the media myself through posting my own pictures, videos and text. Therefore, I am a PROsumer!

According to Blumler and Katz (1975), there are four different uses and gratifications for media…

  • Entertainment/Diversion
  • Social Interaction
  • Personal Identity
  • Information/Surveillance

My uses and gratifications for media…

Elements of your audience participation- when and how do you evidence these aspects, elements?

Below is explanations of the media I consume as well as contribute to and my personal uses and gratifications. I was also given a task to create a college of the media I use and this is also shown below…

Entertainment/ Diversion- 

  • For entertainment, I typically use Youtube, Netflix, Amazon Prime or Channel 4 to watch videos, documentaries, TV programmes or films that I like. When completing this task, I was forced to really think about what type of content I enjoy watching. I realised that the majority of my favourite programmes and series were comedies or dramas (sometimes both). I enjoy these most as I am a humorous person, enjoy laughing and like to be able to share funny moments I see with friends and family. This also provides a social interaction which I will mention in my next sub-heading. I also thoroughly enjoy wathcing horror and violence for the thrill factor. Some of my personal favourites at the moment include- Breaking Bad, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Derry Girls, This Country and The Young Offenders.
  • On Youtube, I love to watch a women called Colleen Ballinger. She vlogs her daily life with her family and also provides other content. She is a role model to me and I think of her as an inspiration. I can watch her to give me advice, motivation or to fill a void of boredom. I use these elements on a daily basis and often at home. 

Social Interaction-

  • I use many forms of social media for my social interactions. I often use Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and TikTok in order to communicate with my friends and family. I also contribute my own images and videos to some of these sites as a way of contributing to the media and sharing what I enjoy.
  • Online posts myself and other see, as well as popular TV programmes we all watch always provide a social interaction as it gives us something in common. This allows us to have a conversation about it and share our own views and opinions on the subject. For me, programmes such as Too Hot Too handle and celebrity instagram posts often provide conversation starts for me and my peers. Me and my family all enjoy watching Coronation Street so this provides with something in common. It always us to spend time together watching and discussing the program.

Personal Identity- 

  • Expressing my personal idetnity has been made easier for me through media sites I use- In particular Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. This is because I am able to share a side of me I am happy for everyone to see (although this is not a true picture of how I always am). It allows me to express myself and share things that interest me/ I am proud of/ I want people to be able to view of me.
  • Not only does media allow me to express my own personal identity, but it also allows me to acess resources to improve and change my personal identity in a positive way. This ranges from allowing me to access online shopping, places to give me motivation and inspiration for life in general to places allowing me to improve my health, fitness and education. It works both ways!

Information/Surveillance- 

  • I recieve a lot of my news and information from online tabloids. The most useful source I use is Sky News on my iPhone. I recieve an instant notification everytime a ‘Breaking News’ story is released. This is useful for me as I am instantly updated on what major events are going on in the world and ensures I am kept in the loop of what is going on in order for me to keep up and also engage in conversation about current events.
  • It is rare I will pick up a newspaper and read the news as a hard, paper copy as I think watching it on TV or reading it online is a mucher quicker, efficient way of absorbing information. The only paper copy news I read is my local Alderney Journey and Alderney Press. This allows me to learn and explore local events and news in an easy way.

In conclusion, I have thought much more about the type of media I consume and how I consume it. In addition to this, I have realised what I contribute to the media in my online posts and that I am definetly an active prosumer. I look forward to discovering more about my personal media use through my media studies course.

About me!

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Welcome!

My name is Holly Neill and I am currently studying at the Guernsey Grammar and Sixth Former Centre taking A-Level Media, Photography and Psychology. I recently moved to the island as I am from Alderney and am currently situated with a host family.

 

My skills…

  • I have developed many skills from activities I enjoy taking part in outside of school. Completing my Silver Duke of Edinburghs Award back in 2019, I believe that this challange has developed my determination, navigation, commitment and teamwork skills.
  • I was part of the KFA dance team in Alderney and commited to this team for 10 years! (Age 5-15). I had to work closey with my peers for these to take place and it was vital I was organised, commited and punctual in order to support the team.
  • In my spare time, I thoroughly enjoy photography, snorkelling and swimming. The skills I have developed through photography will assist me greatly through my Media Studies course as I have experience using a camera, editing software and useful platforms such as Google Slides and Google Docs.   I also thoroughly enjoy editing videos and have lots of experience using iMovie. I have created many videos of me and my family in the past and I believe the skills I developed from these experiences will help me through my Media Studies course.

 

 

From taking this course, I am hoping to improve my photo editing skills as I feel this is something I lack knowledge in most. Despite having lots of experience in editing video, I am excited to learn more regarding editing photographs and discovering new editing software to allow me to do this. I also hope to expand my knowledge on the general world of media, how it works, the purpose of it and who makes it all happen! I look forward to a good two years at the Sixth Form Centre.