Ideas For The Magazine Cover

Ideas For The Magazine

Masthead

For my masthead I have opted to keep it simple so there is no confusion or ambiguity about the content in the magazine. The name I have chosen is “gamer”.

The colour of the text on the Masthead will depend on the colours surrounding the main image.  The ideas I had for colours were green which has connotations of the Xbox console or Blue which has connotations of the Playstation console. This would directly fit well with the gaming genre. For the text I want a bold text that is clear and can be read from a distance, also I do not want the main image to cover any of the masthead as I have seen in other magazines, the reason this was in other magazines is because they were well established so people already knew what they were reading without looking to the Masthead for clues.

Main Image

For the main image I plan to take a real life picture of somebody or something that can fit in with the gaming genre such as a car which can fit the racing genre or a person holding a gun which obviously fits with the shooter genre. After this, to give it the look as though it is in a game I will use photoshop to to give it a cartoon effect so it looks as though it is in a game. The background to the main image will depend completely on which picture I choose to take.  For example if a choose to do  a picture surrounding the racing game genre then it will be fitting to have the background as a road or race track, however if it is for example a person with a gun then the background may be woodlands or long grass.

Cover Lines/Puffs

For the cover lines or puffs I plan to take pictures of things associated with gaming, for example I plan to take a picture of a PC and a cover line such as ‘The best PC games this year’ also for others I will take pictures of games consoles with cover lines such as ‘ An in depth review of the Playstation 4’. I am also considering the idea of taking pictures of the actual games with cover lines about them.

X-Factor Contestant Analysis

James Quickenden

His X-factor audition starts without a background story, the judges thought his audition was pretty bad to start with, one of the judges asks him if he’s ever been through any heartbreak in his life, he explains a story about how he lost his brother last year, it then shows close up of various family members crying, in his first song he performed they didn’t put the music over his voice, this can make him sound worse than he is, after the sad story that he tells on his next song they put the music over his voice making him seem better. The use of the story makes people feel sympathetic towards him along with the music over the top, can make him seem a lot better than the first time round.

Also one of the judges makes a comment about him being “hot” this leads to suggest that he would appeal to younger girls who would like him and maybe older women who would think he is cute.

Rachel

Her X-factor audition starts with very little of a story they have chose to put the part when she was asked what she does for a living and she said nothing, I’m lazy, this makes her seem highly unlikeable to the viewer, she also claims to be better than Madonna and a 10 out of 10 singer this again makes her seem obnoxious to the viewer.

Induction Task 1

ISIS

An issue that has been in the news in recent weeks/month is the Islamic extremist group ISIS (Islamic State Of Iraq And Syria.) More specifically they are a Sunni Jihadist group. They are actively involved within the conflict in Syria and Iraq and have been a big topic within the news recently, the most notorious being the beheading of two American journalists, the videos were posted online and were done with the intention of getting a message across to the West and warning them of what is to come if they intervene. They recently said that the next beheading will be on a British hostage.

The representation that is most evident within all the reported news is race and religion. The manner in which Islam is represented is in a negative light, rightly or wrongly so. Other news has came from this, with right wing groups becoming more active and speaking out to combat Islam.

All though the fact stands that the views of ISIS are representative of  a tiny proportion of the religion, the media exaggerates the problem further with propaganda from right wing newspapers such as the daily mail making comments about these being the views of the religion as a whole.

The typical pictures you would see within newspaper articles are people dressed in the religions clothing, maybe to emphasize and create a feeling of hostility among others to the religion. Also the amount of coverage the topic gets can make the problem out to be larger than it is, new news articles or news on TV shows are reporting about this topic everyday. It is not uncommon for issues surrounding Islam to be in some peoples religion over exaggerated.

The British media in particular tries to bring the problem much closer to home than it may actually be, by claiming that around 500 British Jihadists have went over to join the group in the last 5 years or so. The representation by the British media definitely makes out a minority problem to be representative of the majority. For example there was a case of two Muslim girls from Manchester who collectively had around 36 GCSEs between them and were also aspiring doctors sneaking away from their parents to fly off and join the group ISIS, they have been active on Twitter while they have been away by writing tweets that suggest they still want to be doctors but become doctors for ISIS. As you can see from the story this was only two people out of all the Muslims in the UK however  this problem was possibly blown way out of proportion with the amount of coverage it got and the problem the newspaper said it causes.

The way in which others would react to this given the news stories and coverage may be with feelings of hostility to Muslims within the UK which may lead to racial tensions among the UK. On the opposite side people may react in a more positive way by seeing the problem as a chance to help and change the ways. Also the fact that the problem has been reported as being within the UK has lead to Muslim leaders and other speaking out and trying to stop the problem before it starts. Some Muslim leaders have made TV or Youtube appearances condemning the actions of ISIS and giving a speech about how there views are not representative of the rest of the Muslim Community.

Daily Mail - Media Text

The Daily Mail

The daily mail would particularly appeal to a middle-class person around the age of 30+, these people would take the preferred meaning and understand and broadly agree with the values of the right wing newspaper. These could include people from the A and

People who may take the negotiated meaning would maybe still be middle class people but would not agree with their position on the political spectrum, they may agree slightly with their view on immigration etc. however they may be politically more liberal or left wing than the newspaper.

The oppositional meaning would be took by people who are maybe poorer and also hold a left wing political view, and would completely disagree with the political stance of the newspaper

George Ezra Music Video

Mise-en-scene

The start of the music video shows it to be set in a town on a road, an average place that has a vehicle driving down it. He is dressed up relatively smartly wearing a shirt. He is also holding a guitar case. The vehicle driving down the road features two people in the back of the truck wearing balaclavas

The video for the most part takes place in the road seen in the start of the video, there are factories in the background, trees and streetlights, mostly the average things you would find on a street. One shot features two women walking down the street, the next features two women laying on top of a car. One scene features a rugby team running aggressively up the road, then just before they get to him a ball drops out of the sky and he is tackled, the fact he is tackled to the ground might signify his feeling at that point in time, like he has been knocked down, after that he gets hit by a car, this further emphasises his feeling of being knocked down. The guitar he is carrying gets smashed by a police car in a scene on the video, this could be representative of his dreams being smashed for example.

Camera

Tilt show at the start of the music video this basically sets the scene in which the music video takes place.

Secondly, there is a close up of the man who speaks in a foreign language, followed by a long show of both the man and the artist holding a guitar, this could be to further set the scene of the video.

Also the video features a tracking shot which tracks from the back of him around to the front he then throws a drink in the air behind him, this could signify that he doesn’t care or something of that nature. Then next scene shows a close up, the camera starts from behind a car window that then comes down to show a close up of his face and upper torso. Also featured is a scene in which he is walking down the street and the camera is bouncing around a bit as though  you are walking which brings a sense of realism about it. Another tracking shot is featured in which he is walking past a car with some women laying on top of the car, where the women are laying in the sun, however over him is rain and it is following him, this could reflect his expression in comparison of everyone else.

Lighting

The start of the video appears to show natural light, the scene is quite sunny and looks like a warm day, this may reflect the happy mood of the video, the lighting in the second shot of the video is more low key although not enough to give a miserable mood from it. The next scene in the video features two girls and the lighting is lighter, the girls are good looking and this could signify the happiness or feelings he feels when he sees the girls. The video after this carries on with high key lighting with bright skies etc. for the most part of the video the lighting is bright apart from in the parts mentioned above including the scene in which he is walking in the rain.

Editing And Sound

Diegetic sound is used at the start of the video,  you can hear the vehicle coming down the road, also there is a guy who speaks in a foreign language, the use of the diegetic sound adds to the realism and makes you feel like you are in the scene.

Further use of diegetic sound includes gunshots which are going on within a gunfight in the video. The scene which features the vehicle travelling down the road lasts for around 5-7 seconds and the camera remains static apart from when the truck is about to go out of frame it turns around to follow the truck slightly. The time in which it takes to switch from scenes is pretty instant and relatively fast paced, particularly when two girls are seen towards the start of the video, it features the girls walking down the street and then switches back to him walking down the road towards them to show his reaction on his face to them, this is done through the use of a close up shot, all of the transitions in the video are straight cuts.