Conventions Of A Front Cover

The model on the cover is Rita Ora, she is looking directly at the camera - which is a convention of lifestyle magazines. A medium long shot is used, this is very common for these magazines as it highlights costume, as well as face, text is not laid over her clothing as the magazine aims to encourage readers to be more like the model. Her makeup and hair is soft glam, this goes with her light pink playsuit to give very feminine representations and links to the mise en scene of the background and the text. The masthead is usually at the top of the magazine, stretching fully across. Cosmopolitan is always in the same sans serif font, but changes colours with every issue. All of the fonts on the page are sans serif and very easy to read, they are all black, white or pink. Cosmopolitan targets older teenage girls with their extremely feminine representations, using the colour pink extensively along with the glamorous makeup. These aspects are stereotypically symbolic of femininity and being a girl, especially for teenage girls. Front covers always have institutional details such as barcodes, price, issue number & date; an example is the 'H' in the bottom left corner which represents the publishing company Hearst. 

How Music Video Has Changed

 there are 3 different types of music video -

> Performance: when you can see the band/ singer performing, usually involves close-ups and shows power.

> Narrative: fragmented displays of a storyline.

>Concept: ideological power and distinct themes.

1975 - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody 

This is possibly the earliest music video made, it is a performance style the entire way through, with no hint of storey whatsoever. The close-up shots and the overall performance make it clear that this video was made to promote the band, the video's purpose was to allow fans to watch the video as if it were live. Bands didn't do much touring back then so it would be very difficult to see them live.

1980 - The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star 

This music video also contains performance as well as concept. Close-ups of the band are overlaid onto the background images. This is still to promote the band and their performance, however the conceptual aspects highlight the meaning of the song, and their concern that video will 'kill the radio'. The futurism of the mise en scene further conveys this. 

1984 - Madonna - Material Girl  

This music video is a great example of the distinct change in music videos, it incorporated narrative with performance. Before the song even begins, there's a small scene to begin the narrative - this was something completely new that has continued. The performance includes choreography which matches the music and is highly voyeuristic. The narrative also fits with the lyrics well, about a girl who only likes rich men and ends up with a poor one that she actually loves. 

1999 - Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way 

This video highlights the rise of the boyband era. The video contains a minor narrative with the airport, but is mostly performance, seen with the close-ups of the singers and the matching choreography. This is done to promote the band and to please fans, in this era of music, fans all loved members of these boybands and obsessed over them. Therefore, videos showed close-ups for girls to go crazy over. 

2009 - Lady Gaga ft. Beyoncé - Telephone

This video starts with a fairly long scene for a music video, the music doesn't start until almost 3 minutes into the video, there are a few short scenes like this throughout the video. Other parts of the video contain both performance and concept. It is extremely voyeuristic to attract certain audiences, and the choreography matches the music well. The video also contains intertextuality, with allusions to Kill Bill, Michael Jackson and Thelma & Louise. Their car in the video is the 'Pussy Wagon' from Kill Bill, Beyoncé wears shoulder pads like Michael Jackson and they do the 'Thriller' dance, and at the end they drive away from the police while holding hands like Thelma & Louise. 

Half-term Photography Work

Close up shots show details and emotion in the face, this closeup shot is not very serious as you can see by the pose and it has social, cultural context being satirical of teenage boys who do that pose - unironically - as a means of flirting. 

Medium shots are good at showing facial expressions with posture and actions, this shot shows a smiling girl with her hand playing with her hair, giving an element of playful movement. This also showing some of the background, it was taken under a bridge where you can see dark colours and graffiti, which contrasts the models bright clothing and smile.

Longshots show the whole person in the frame which reveals much more than a medium shot. This longshot depicts movement as the model is crouching on a ledge with her arms outstretched, it shows childish and fun behaviour with the big smile - the arms suggest that she's about to fall and is trying to keep her balanced. This also has social context around the graffiti and dirty area. 
 

First Elements 11 Practical

 

While making this advert I learned the basics on how to use photoshop - such as how to import and crop a picture, how to adjust light levels, how to add different layers and how to add text and symbols. I used complimenting colours to the picture, with a slogan, a title, and a phone number to make the ad more interesting and appealing. 

Cultural Context in Media

 

This album cover for the Reytons album called 'Alcopops & Charity Shops' has cultural contextual representation. The band are working class from Sheffield and their music is relatable to the lower and working classes. 

The picture on this album cover looks like something you could take on any British, working-class high street (especially in the North). the mise-en-scene of the run down & boarded up shop with the graffiti of the album title is clever and works well to give people a good idea of what kind of music the band makes. 

The cultural context of this is working class, Northern Britain - Indie Garage Rock has always had ties to this, such as the Arctic Monkeys and the Courteeners.  

This picture of a British high street highlights how similar the album cover is and how it reflects the lives and 'culture' of British people. It is something that people resonate with and see in their daily lives. 

The use of this represents a lower demographic who do use charity shops, it highlights how it is normal. However, due to the fact that the band tries to have a 'bad' 'rock image' - it perpetuates the stereotype that the lower classes are rough and dirty. 

Historical Context in Media

 

This poster for Miley Cyrus' new cover of 'Heart of Glass' (originally by blondie) contains historical context. The original song was released in the early 2000s, but the band became popular in the 70s with the new wave scene. 

This poster for the 2020 cover has mise en scene which reflects that of the 70s & 80s - she has a mullet which was an extremely popular hairstyle from that time and bright red lipstick. She's also wearing a full mesh bodysuit which, while it is a more sexualised version that shows more skin, it reflects the mesh tops that were popularised in the 80s by both men and women. 

The red serif font for 'Miley' is very similar to that of 'Blondie', as well as the singers blonde hair, another ode to the original band and the historical context of it. Miley's media team have used all of these things together to create nostalgia for older audiences who listened to Blondie on records and cassettes. This also brings in a new audience who grew up with Miley on their tv and have seen her 'rebellious stage' turn into this where she turns out to have a great voice and image for rock. 

Blondie used more black and white binary opposition with the distinct parallel lines, this reflects the historical context of racism at the time that the band was popularised. This type of binary opposition was a fairly common art technique for albums at the time. Also, the lines directly link to the name of her album 'Parallel Lines'.

Fun With Fonts

 

The font on this poster is a serif font with a very curly 'g', this font is supposed to represent Rapunzel's hair in the film. Also, because it is a serif font it looks fairly old, which fits the film as it is set in a medieval era.

This font is very 1960s inspired with the 'groovy' curved letters. the letters are very rounded and larger at the bottom, which is usually accompanied by psychedelic colouring and patterns for the 60s vibe.

This font is supposed to be spooky and it achieves that with the skinny sharp lettering, it almost looks like some sort of knife of weapon and could very easily be used on a film such as Addams family.

 

Statista: most popular newspapers.

 

these images are snips taken from Statista, showing recent data for the most popular daily newspapers, and the most popular news papers in general, many of which are owned by the DMGT. 

How News Differs Online To Print

Online news differs to printed news in many ways; for example, printed news generally shows snippets of a few different stories to bring in a wider audience, whereas online news has several small links under a main picture, online news websites also have different sections of news so people can just look at the sections they are interested in. Printed papers generally feature few stories that are highly focused upon, unlike online news which can upload many more stories in one day, furthermore, online news sites can quickly upload story developments on breaking news throughout the course of one day, along with having the ability to add videos to their articles so viewers can get much clearer pictures of a story. As shown by the pictures above, headlines are usually similar online and printed but online can go more in depth and use different images and add other story links underneath. 

Stereotypes In Magazines And Advertising

Stereotypes

Age: stereotype that old people are always angry and shout at children - people perpetuate this because they think old people are angry when they see young people having happy lives because they can no longer do that.

Gender: the stereotype that women should be caring and stay at home doing traditional housekeeping chores, this is commonly shown because traditional ideals are still valued by older generations and people who have traditional views.

Ethnicity: the stereotype that black women are very manly and loud, this is used in media because they create good stories for entertainment.

Sexuality: stereotype that all lesbians are butch and manly - this is used because people like to use the idea that lesbian couples want to imitate heterosexuality.

Class: the stereotype that lower/working class people are all dirty and 'chavvy' which is perpetuated so that the class systems will stay in place which benefits upper classes and the government. 

differences between broadsheet and tabloid

broadsheet: 

broadsheet papers are much more formal than tabloids, you could originally tell that these were broadsheets straight away because they were A2 sized; they have since become smaller in order to reduce costs. This type of paper is highly researched and factual, covering serious stories on subjects such as politics, finance and current affairs.  

tabloid:

tabloid newspapers are more informal than broadsheets, as depicted on the Daily Star's front page, the images, fonts and language are much more dramatic and sensationalised. The content of tabloids are less factually researched, speculation-based and obviously biased. the use of bold pictures and print along with slang are clear indicators of a tabloid paper.