When I first begun studying Media in my first year, my knowledge of the Media Industry and the ability to adjust to the terminologies was limited.
My awareness of the range of technologies available was little, and by creating my magazine covers I have experimented with Photoshop, using layers, the effectiveness of opacity and basic knowledge on editing photo’s.
For our first project, we were asked to create a magazine cover for a college. My first step here was to analyse existing music magazines, by doing this I looked at the stereotypical conventions of a college magazine. This included consistency, chosen colours, images and composition of the text in comparison to the images.
After this I thought of a range of title’s for my magazine, which were relevant to a Collage. After I had selected my name ‘TrueWYKE’ I looked at a range of fonts to decide which was the most suitable for my magazine. Once this was chosen, I then took a range of photo’s using a Canon SLR camera. This allowed me to familiarize myself with a camera, and taking into consideration the lighting and composition of the chosen subject.
For my range of photo’s, I specifically chose my friend who had a young and friendly face, this was done intentionally as it presented a warm welcome impression, which was what I needed to promote the college.
I asked my model to wear glasses as they are stereotypically a connotation for ‘Cleverness’. This is what is usually associated with college’s, endorsing achievement, and therefore I think this is reflected in my image. The newspaper was also a connotation for intellectuality, but it also deliberately covered part of the model’s face, this is mysterious and not only could make the reader want to read on to find out who she is, but also it reflects the idea of individuality.
The use of the newspaper was a good way of displaying my sub heading as I used the eraser tool on Photoshop, removing the original headline of the newspaper and replacing it with my own, I was able to make this look more realistic by the use of the ‘Transform’ tool on Photoshop, this allowed me to change the scale and angle of the text so that it was in the right alignment with the text box.
I chose several subheadings which were placed down both sides of my main image, these content of these subheadings were chosen specifically to fit in with the college brief. These advertise fun things that occur by attending the college, such as the wyke parties, however it also demonstrates the academic side and suggests there is help at hand.
Even though this was only a starter task, I enhanced my technological skills, aswell as learning all the new terminology which helped me when I was making my decisions as to what specific clothing would denotate and connotate.
My main task for AS Media was to create another magazine cover, yet for a music magazine. Like what I did previously by analysing college magazine, I looked at existing music magazines and once again looked at the conventions.
I thought of a variety of names for my music magazine, and entered them into a poll which was displayed on my blog. Doing this allowed peers to vote on which was their preferred name for the magazine, which resulted in the name ‘XX INDIE’ being the most popular.
However, I don’t think I advertised this poll well enough as not enough people voted, therefore for my A2 Music video I am going to advertise the poll’s more so I can clearer results.
As the title ‘XX Indie’ the genre is apparent, which is indie/alternative. I then looked into imagery and the conventions of the specific genre, doing this allowed me to realise that it is usually stereotyped with a male gender, with a ‘grufty’ look. Therefore I tried to find people that fit this criteria, it wasn’t until a small indie band in which I had connections with asked me to do a promotion shoot for their social network page. I thought this was the perfect opportunity for my images as they fit the principles and were willing to do it. I took the band to certain locations, such as a boat yard and gold course. I chose these two in specific as the boat yard devised interesting background with dull colours, this was a nice contrast with the bright clothing of the band. I also chose the gold course as this was a more basic background, ensuring that the main focus was on the band members. I was lucky with my timing here as the sun was just setting, ensuring a warm glow from behind the band.
Once I had edited these photos on photoshop changing the contrast to ensure the photo’s were dull against the text. I chose white and red as the connotation for red means danger, this creates a strong image for the band members as people like those that are rebellious. The white has no connotation, however it was a crisp contrast against the background and stood out well.
Overall I am pleased with the outcomes of my designs, and have used my skills of digital technology well, adapting to them over time. Not only have I learnt how to use these skills, but to use them in a way to adapt to the audience’s needs using the aspects of genre, connotation, denotation, conventions, composition and more.
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