Video Script

 Script for my audio/visual element on the website: 

Celebrity Interviewee: Hi guys, welcome to this exclusive interview I'm doing with Spectrum. 

                                     Right now, we're behind the scenes of a photoshoot I'm doing to promote my                                           new film coming out in December. 

                                     This shoot is a great opportunity to show you more about my daily professional                                       life and all the hard work that you guys never usually get to see. There's so                                               much that goes into the end product that the rest of the world gets to see, but                                             this is just a small snippet. 

                                     Generally, these shoots last me at least a few hours and a good few outfit                                                   changes. We're definitely not all perfect, I have to take critiques all the time -                                           and I do it because I know that it will improve the final product, even if                                                     sometimes it may feel personal I know that it's not.

                                    My favourite project I've done? I'm not really supposed to tell you this, but                                              recently I have done some behind the scenes work directing for a huge                                                      upcoming film and I've absolutely loved every second of it. I really with I could                                      tell you more but I think I'd get in big trouble, you'll just have to keep an eye out                                      for me in the news for the next few months I suppose! 

                                    I think my earliest project was a film where I played the lead's younger self in a                                        short flashback. It was fun but it wasn't a big hit or anything, regardless I'm                                              thankful for it launching my career. 

                                    Okay, I think I see my manager looking at her watch so we should probably                                              wrap this up, thank you guys for watching me today, check out Spectrum for a                                          full interview! 

                                    

Story board

 

website synergy

 My website includes a section for buying recent editions of the magazine, showing the front covers. This creates synergy between the two media products and links Spectrum as a brand. It also offers a UNIDAYS discount as my target audience is primarily student aged - 16-25. 

website progress book club

 I have added a book club section to my website to enhance the experience, the contents pages of my magazine both have book club sections telling them to leave their comments on the website, so I added this section for cross media synergy.

website progress

The link for my website is : Home | Spectrum Magazine (carstonn.wixsite.com)

 Here I have my social media links pages on my website, I photoshopped the Snapchat image using screenshots from my phone as I could not make a real professional Snapchat. The Instagram and Twitter shots are real, and the twitter link works, I will also make the Instagram link functional. This is the Twitter link:  https://twitter.com/SpectrumMagTwt

The video channel will be changed and will have my audio/visual content on it, or a prototype version. 

This section has related articles from the magazine, I will change this to have a background colour and a headline. 

contents drafts

 These are some of my initial drafts of my contents pages, which have not changed dramatically over the process, they needed aligning better and I plan to alter some of the colours and add the Bauer logo etc 

scanned in cover mock-ups

These are my initial drafts of my front covers, here they are boxy and have a lot of white space which I will develop and change to look more professional. 

These are my initial drawings of my magazine that show how my ideas were carried over into my later drafts and how things kept developing and changing. 

website research

 

I want to take inspiration from Kerrang magazine website. Though it is not a Real Life magazine, it is targeted towards a young adult audience. 

The bright colours and bold fonts draw in a more youthful audience, but it doesn't get overpowered and is more readable than some other magazines due to the juxtaposition from the images.  

I love the use of the cover story stamp on the image, making a link back to the magazine, and the font links to Kerrang's brand identity. 

Take a Break is a real life magazine, however I feel as though the website is very loud and a bit overpowering. I do like the use of promoting their magazines as the first feature, and the competitions down the right column, though they don't offer any new features that don't appear in the magazine issues. The entire front page of the website just promotes the magazines without offering anything new. 

Magazine/website articles

Magazine websites such as Kerrang target a young adult audience and deal with their issues. From this, I can draw inspiration for my magazine as I want to focus on queer issues and lean into the rising androgyny pioneered by glam rock artists of the 70s and 80s. These articles invoke emotion as they're current issues facing today's society, some happy and some angry - but either way emotive. The use of 'fight' cements queer and punk culture, making readers angry that this has been going on forever. People are tired of having to fight to get the same treatment as others, but we must continue every day. The third quote outlines music and sexuality as similar, with punk music and culture allowing people to be free.  

 

Magazine contents pages

 Contents pages such as that of Kerrang are targeted towards a more modern, young adult audience. The front splash is featured in the top half of the page, with the bottom half being columns of page numbers and contents. They feature games and prizes, but they cater to a niche audience. They also have a feature on the page written and signed by the editor, David McLaughlin. Kerrang has a synergetic brand identity across all platforms, with their unique font and colours. The page includes conventions such as the date and issue number under the title 'contents' and has the magazines name in the middle.

Chat Magazine is a lifestyle magazine that targets middle aged women, but it has the conventions of a real life story magazine. the page has a side column that gives page numbers and contents, while the rest of the page shows a few short snippets in more detail with large pictures. They have a feature at the bottom of the page saying you can earn money for sending stories in. 

Audience Segments

 16-18: 

Marketing to this demographic often happens through social media, 'Engagement' is the current marketing mantra, but research suggests that almost half of the young adults surveyed said explicitly that they do not want to talk to brands using social media. Social media is often used o channel online traffic to the official website of the magazine, it is used to get their brand out there for people to see and remember so they want to learn more. This age range are not likely to pay for magazine subscriptions, as they readily have access to free information online, also they're usually just leaving college and aren't likely to be spending money on magazine subscriptions. 

18-21: 

85% of millennials own smartphones, therefore websites and marketing need to be fully accessible and clear on a mobile device. This age group aren't all doing the same things, so magazines aimed at them shouldn't suggest that they should all be at uni or serious relationships etc. These age groups prefer visuals to lots of text, they're a 'fast living' group and don't spend their time reading information that is irrelevant to them. Main magazines for this group include Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue etc. 

21-25: 

Magazines for this age can be a bit more serious or niche, as they generally are more involved in world issues. At this age, people are generally working and out of uni, or doing further education and ae likely to be up to current affairs. For this reason, magazines such as Time, The New Yorker and GQ are targeted at them. People at this age are likely to be on social media such as Facebook and Instagram rather than Snapchat or TikTok. 

Research - Similar magazine ideas

Magazines that cater more to a LGBTQ+ audience already exist, such as DIVA and Pride, however I want my magazine to target everyone. DIVA, for example, targets primarily wlw (women loving women), whereas magazines like Hello Mr. target more towards mlm (men loving men). This issue of DIVA is fairly simple, showing a lesbian couple on the cover and adopting a pallet with only 3 colours for the text. 

This cover of pride shows Rege-Jean Page. The magazine generally caters towards a queer audience, so while Page is straight, his gentlemanly image is desirable to most. Pride also includes black issues in their intersectional activism, as seen by ‘the mixed race debate grows darker’ which is great to see represented and included on the front page.  

Magazines such as Attitude also cater more towards gay men, as we can see in this front cover Glow Up special. Their cover focuses more on the main picture than the content, as they don’t want to cover the model. Their colours are also limited to two, matching their brand identity. 

Video game timeline 2015-2020

 

Research - masthead ideas

 I want to explore representations and really play around with gender identity as a malleable concept. 

Initial ideas and phrases: 

• against the grain
• against norms
• gradient
• spectrum 
• fluidity
• androgyny 

Both gender and sexuality can be described as a spectrum, so I think that it could be a good name for my magazine. 'Across the spectrum' could be a tagline or used for a call to action. The gender spectrum visualizes gender as a continuum stretching from men to women and masculine to feminine. Gender identities other than man or woman are considered to be non-binary. 

I could use something like these for my logo, and choose one of the colours to use for my main theme and masthead. I am thinking of using the colour green as it isn't as commercially gendered as red, pink, blue, purple etc. 

An example of a gay magazine is DIVA, their main colour is purple and is mostly catered towards WLW and non-binary people. They use the space next to their name to showcase that edition's main focus - in this case lesbian visibility week.

initial response to briefs 3 and 4

Brief 3: 

There is a gap in the market for real life magazines that are targeted for 16-25 year olds, they are mostly aimed at middle aged women. Gender, sexuality and age could be easily represented and could be used to break conventions. I could look into playing with gender stereotypes and breaking conventions, in a similar way to Vogue's Harry Styles cover. 

Lifestyle magazines such as That's Life! are outdated and exaggerated, I would want to be more realistic and showcase an intersectional and youthful view on life, catering to all sexualities and genders. Images could be taken in a range of locations and link to different stories regarding current affairs, personal stories, environment and relevant themes such as gender expression and personal experiences with identity. I could do relevant stories such as one on the current obsession with true crime, and a themed photoshoot to go with it. 

I would like to challenge gender norms and present more feminine men and masculine women, in both subtle and then more outlandish ways. This could link to stories to do with modern gender identity and representation, and how we are progressing as a society with that. I could explore androgyny and the growing number of young people who feel disconnected with their assigned gender, and the rising acceptance of they/them pronouns. People are becoming more open to genderless clothing, so I would love to explore that. 

I think that this works well for youthful audiences, as they are generally more progressive and fluid with their gender expression and sexuality - saying this I wouldn't want the magazine to be purely aimed towards the LGBTQ+ community, I think that could be divisive. 

The androgynous glam rock ideas of the 70s and 80s, headlined by people like David Bowie and Motley Crue, are coming back into the spotlight in an exciting way. Media personalities such as Tripp Kilpatrick and Harry Styles play into their femininity and draw from icons of the past. 

The magazine would link to a website, both having the same branding, I would try to stay clear of the colour red as I think it is overused. The website would include articles and pictures to go with them, and must have a short video. I could do a short documentary-style intro such as Vogue's 73 questions, or the Wired autocomplete survey etc. 

Magazines such as Pride and Kerrang cater more towards a younger audience, so I may draw inspiration from there when thinking about my target audience. 

Brief 4: 

 The requirement for brief 4 is that we use a love song, so there is no gap in the market - especially targeting 16-25 year olds. I think the best way to go about this brief would be to choose an older song so that there is no pre-existing media with it, such as something by Etta James. Due to the fact that the video has to be in a performance/narrative style I would try to use creative shots and mise en scene in order to make it more unique and less cliché. A slow love song such as A Sunday Kind Of Love or At Last by Etta James could be used, and the video could have scenes of juxtaposition with the lyrics where the couple are singing happy lyrics, but the atmosphere and actions in the video suggest the opposite. 

I would use a young couple, as to represent the target audience. I could also use a homosexual couple, which would represent different sexualities and go against conventions. This choice would be able to be used to amplify the hardships of a relationship as, in general, they face more struggles than heterosexual couples. However, using a straight couple would enable me to vary my gender representation in the video. It could be difficult to get any age representation in the video as the couple would be the same age, but I could perhaps feature a parent or sibling as part of the narrative

intertextuality in Stranger Things

Stranger Things has been called a "Frankenstein's monster of 80s influences" due to its many intertextual references within the show. Not only does it draw on the styles of Stephen Spielberg, Stephen king, John Carpenter and many others from that ear of pop culture but it makes clear references to their works. 

One big intertextual reference is to Alien (1979). The Demogorgon in ST is similar to the creature in Alien in many ways, both use a gooey substance that they leave as a trail and trap victims with - also, to enter the creatures netherworld, the characters have to claw their way through the goo. The 'face-huggers' in Alien come out of eggs that peel back in quarters, and ST's Demogorgon's' faces do the same. 

Eleven in Stranger Things is very similar to Carrie White in the film Carrie, both girls have supernatural powers that are a factor in their outcasted situations, and both have had sheltered upbringings - Carrie with her extremely religious parents and Eleven with her experimental scientist. They are also both normally sweet and good-natured but can become angry and dangerous when provoked. 

Stranger Things plays homage to Close Encounters of the Third Kind as can be seen clearly with this picture from season 2. Both shows deal with parents who have an obsession with the supernatural that everyone else deems as crazy. In Close Encounters, Roy constructs Devil's Tower out of mashed potatoes and shovels dirt into his living room while his family call him mad and leave. similarly, in ST when Joyce realises her missing son is trying to use electrics to communicate with her, she uses Christmas lights to make a wall Ouija board of sorts and even drives an axe through the wall (much like Jack Nicholson in The Shining) to try to reach him. 

Stranger Things has many intertextual links with Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, even down to the basis of a suburban boy making friends with a powered being in need. Both Mike and Elliott hide their new friend in their homes without anyone finding out and form a strong and powerful bond. Many moments in the ST universe parallel E.T. such as powers being used on the bicycle, use of a make-shift communication device, curiosity of the other being, government agents in hazmat suits, fear of the other being, and dressing up in a wig. 

Stranger Things manages to borrow from Poltergeist, while simultaneously living in a universe where the film exists. Joyce can communicate to Will who is in another dimension that is somehow connected to her house, like in Poltergeist. Both mothers venture into the other dimension in order to retrieve their children.

Both films feature a group of young boys in the 80's who ride around on their bikes and specifically looking for something. Some of the characters parallel each other such as Dustin/Chunk, Mike and Will/Mikey, Lucas/Mouth and Nancy/Andy. Both groups have a joyful spirit and execute their plans without intervention from adults. 

Fandom in Stranger Things and Forbrydelsen

Stranger Things has gained a huge fanbase since first airing in July of 2016, from viewership to social media presence to merchandise - the show has it all. You can get stranger things merch in virtually any form, from thousands of websites, and mainstream retailers such as Primark have entire ST ranges with their logo plastered on phone-cases and hoodies alike. Stranger things has its own page(s) on Fandom.com and it's entire layout is Stranger Things themed.

The online presence of Stranger Things is overwhelming, with millions of results showing on google and social media platforms. The stars themselves have gained millions of followers on Instagram and Twitter (such as Millie Bobby Brown who was before virtually unknown and now has 43.2million Instagram followers). Almost everyone in western society has at least heard of Stranger Things if they haven't actually seen it. 

Stranger Things has also inspired countless fan-creations in the form of fan art and fanfiction, where people write and draw their own version of events for the characters, often changing their relationships or placing them in an 'alternate universe' where readers see how the author thinks they would act in different environments. 

Stranger Things has a very varied fanbase, from young teens to older adults. The 80s setting harbours nostalgia for older viewers, and for younger viewers it comes across as retro and vintage. Younger fans tend to be more involved in 'fandom' with buying merch and actively talking about it on social media, but older viewers are more likely to just watch the show and talk about it with their friends. Fandom is a huge part of this series as they don't heavily rely on marketing and adverts, but more so on fan promotion such as word of mouth and merchandise. 

Forbrydelsen has a slightly smaller fanbase than Stranger Things as it has a more mature viewership. The critically acclaimed show first aired in 2007 in Denmark and was soon translated to The Killing in the UK. The Forbrydelsen page on Fndom.com is also themed just as ST is. 

While Forbrydelsen doesn't have the same scale of fandom as ST has, it does have a wide audience. companies such as Nordic Noir Tours provide a Forbrydelsen tour in which fans an see the famous bridge from the show, which is apparently a 'must see' according to some fans. Also, you can buy Sarah Lund's infamous sweater online or download knitting patterns to make it yourself. 

Forbrydelsen relies less on fandom than that of Stranger Things. This is partially due to the fact that when it first aired in 2007, fandom was much less popular and less relied on - social media was not the consuming presence that it is today. 

Music Video Emeli Sandé: Star Persona

 Sandé was born in Scotland in 1987 and raised near Aberdeen. Her father was a teacher at her school and she loved to learn and do well. Music was a big inspiration for her, writing her first song at the age of 11 for a school talent show - however school was also a big part of her life. She attended university and obtained a degree in in neuroscience so she had a stable career to fall back on. Later, she married her long term boyfriend, who remained unnamed until their wedding, she cared for him and didn’t want him to be affected by her fame. They later divorced in 2014, just 2 years after marriage. 

Sandé’s music is inspired by Nina Simone after seeing her performance of ‘Why?’ when Martin Luther King JR was assassinated. She said that she thinks music should be poetic and meaningful, wanting a real connection with her music rather than writing throwaway pop songs. Sandé doesn’t make music for the fame and she doesn’t make music that she doesn’t connect to, she’s passionate about her messages within her well thought out lyrics. As well as her own music, she wrote for both Susan Boyle and Leona Lewis; saying that she never actually met them but wished to as she admired them. She also says that her songs are about world peace and political issues, using “honesty” and “raw emotion” in her lyrics. Another inspiration for her in life, as well as music, was Frida Kahlo - she has a tattoo of her on her forearm that she got after university - she says that her bravery resonates with and encourages her. 

In 2017 Sandé was made an MBE for her contributions to music, and in 2019 she was appointed as the new chancellor at the University of Sunderland.