For this photo shoot we explored cameras angle, framing, distance and how it makes a difference to the photograph in order to tell a story. Another feature that helps tell a story is the body language of the models in the photo along with the facial expressions and gestures.
I chose these nine images for my mood board because they display a variety of different camera angles, distances and framing. Along with these features the body language and facial expressions help each photograph tell a story. When i come to taking pictures my magazine i will be able make the photo tell a story relevant to the genre using angles, distances. framing, body language and facial expressions.
What I did was I made a mood board and explored the conventions of the Rap genre. I conducted research and used my own knowledge of the genre to find what was typical to wear for the MES and discovered that there are many characteristics which are related to the rap genre that give the genre it own attitude. For example I found that commonly rappers would wear dark colours and jewelry.
We then encoded our model with all the typical rap MES conventions such as wearing jewelry, dressing in relaxed clothing and trying to copy the same body language as most rappers.
Our audience were asked to decode who and what he was. They responded by describing him as urban, hip-hop and rap which means that our encoding was successful and they had read him correctly.
We then took several photos of our rap star in various poses which were similar to the poses on the mood board of rap artists, for example we had the model wear the coat he was wearing half way down his arms to give him a more edgy look. We also explored different camera angles, we used a low camera angle to try and create the sense that the rap star is above everyone else.
My favourite image is the one where the model has his hands up to the camera but not the one where his had covers his face, his posture connotes that he is the best and gives a very arrogant look.
When I come to design my star for my magazine I will have to make sure that I make the stars features such as the hair style, facial expressions, posture and clothing specific to the audience and genre in other words that the MES is conventional to the genre and the audience will decode him/her correctly.
Throughout the Media Studies course I am hoping to learn a variety of different skills over a wide range of topics. Also I would like to learn how different aspects of the media are produced, such as magazines, radio, TV shows, Music videos and other producers of media.
The media skills I already have are, creating media on various platforms, being able to identify different types of media. Since I haven’t studied any subjects like media before in the past I am limited to a strict vocabulary and have not yet learnt how to read deeper in to media and learning the meaning behind each individual piece. This would come under what skills I would like to acquire from media studies because i would like to be able to view media much more in depth and detail. Other skills I would like to learn is how to use software for editing such as Photoshop.
During the course we will be working with camera for photo shoots and filming videos this will be useful for me because I the skills I learn from doing the shoots and filming will help me in my photography course. Along with the filming skills that are transferable I am also hoping to learn how to work well in a team, this will always be useful for me because there are many situations in which I have to work in a team and not just in media studies. When learning how to work well in a team I can possibly learn other transferable skills like communication, research and analysis these skills are all vital when working in a team and also when you are doing your own individual work so I think they would be great skills to acquire throughout the course.
When magazine covers are made they use many different features to portray ideas and messages to their audience. These features are things such as fonts, images, colour pallet and facial expressions. The magazines cover is the most important feature of the magazine, in terms of how it appeals to potential buyers. By understanding how the features of a cover attracts customers I can use this information to help me make my cover for my magazine. I will be able to make my magazine specific to my audience that i will be trying to target.
Media is used to inform, educate and entertain the consumer. The task we had was to create a mood board for the different types of media that we are a prosumer and consumer of and how they relate to the Uses and Gratification terms. The Blumler and Katz Uses and Gratification are a way of sectioning the media into Entertainment, Personal Identity, Social Interaction, Education and Information. By sectioning the media aspects it has helped me understand how things such as a new Album or TV show can cause social interaction. However some can be put into more then one section because they might cause social interaction and at the same time be my personal identity. In conclusion the mood board has given me another way to view media and think more in depth about how different aspects relate to the Uses and Gratification terms. I think this will be useful in the future because it will give me the ability to identify different aspects of media which the therefore make it easier to create my own pieces of work that I can relate to what i have learnt from this task. To maximise the popularity of my own magazine i must make media that is in high demand from the audience. For example the most popular magazines are the ones which have the most important/interesting media in them. Also it is important to consider a target audience when creating media because by doing this you can make the media you are creating specific to the target audience and therefore maximising popularity.