A2 MEDIA HORROR GENRE ANALYSIS

Applying theory to “The Kiss of Death” (group trailer)

“The Kiss of Death” is a trailer that has broken a few codes and conventions found in slasher/horror films. The reason being was to be original and not make our trailer so predictable, however the theories that can be applied to horror films can still be found in our trailer.

Narrative is very significant in story telling as narrative is the form in which events taken place are put together to present to the audience. Narrative is analysed by through technical code such as lighting, editing, sound, design and layout, shot framing and composition and camera angles and movement. In “The Kiss of death” the bullies who harass Holly have low angle camera shot to portray they are looking down on Holly as she seem worthless to them. The lighting is dim and melancholy even in broad day light the clouds are grey giving this film a dark atmosphere. Verbal code allows the audience to understand what the film is about. In the trailer we have decided to have a male voice over with a deep voice containing authority, allowing the audience to be drawn into the trailer and their own conclusion of the trailer. Mise en scene is very important in our trailer as it tells a lot about the characters. This is evident as when Holly wears dark clothing during her murderous scheme; her hair is all disorganized suggesting she is not mentally stabled. Her black skirt is short illustrating there is a sense of sexuality in her. Her appearance is supported by the Male Gaze theory explaining how women are portrayed in the media as vulnerable and weak through their clothing and their seductive appearance. Although Holly may carry some of these connotations, in the way she dresses as she becomes bitter with the men in her life, she however holds the connotation of femme fatale in film Noir. Femme fatale is a French word for “deadly woman”. Femme fatale came out after the Second World War where women were obliged to leave their jobs as the men came back for them. Meanwhile they noticed they too were capable of doing what the men could. Furthermore, film noir presented femme fatale as an attractive woman, seductive, sexual allure but dangerous in order to achieve her hidden agenda where in most cases the men found themselves to be a subject of death, or losing their homes and family. Moreover Holly has some of the characteristics of Femme fatale as she gets revenge by killing men for how she has been treated all her life by girls at school, her drunken mother, her abusive father and now her cheating boyfriend.

Russian theorist by the name of Tvzetan Todorov suggests that all narrative follow a three way structure. Firstly everything is balanced and this is called equilibrium until something comes in the way to disrupt that equilibrium which then becomes disequilibrium (beginning middle and end). However there must be a resolution to this and that’s where new equilibrium comes in. “The Kiss of Death” follows this narrative structure. Holly is a normal child but just unfortunate in how life has turned out for her. Her daily routine is that she goes to school in the morning, but unfortunately she gets bullied at school as she is not sociable and not into boys, make up and parties like the other girls in her year group. When she gets home her mother does not give her the attention she deserves as she’s on drugs, having men around the house and a drunken. Her father runs away with a hooker a couple of years back. The disequilibrium is when she matures, begins to get involve with the wrong type of friends and gets a boyfriend. She becomes obsessive over him and mise en scene is portrayed through the trailer as she’s talking to the boyfriend called Freddie and on the wall she has pictures of him, messages such as “my Freddie forever” and heart shapes and flowers. Eventually she finds out he is cheating and goes out to seek revenge by killing him and everyman that comes close to her as by this time she is a very attractive young lady. To solve this issue, Holly must be stopped and the whole country is looking for her. When she is finally trucked down in the woods about to kill the “final boy”, Holly is caught and shot by the police. At this point she is not dead but in a mental institution. After a while the doctors came back to check on her, but she is nowhere to be found. Holly has escaped and ready to strike again, this time with a new identity. Halloween the film inspired us to decide to let Holly live and escape the mental institution home in order to create enigma code as the boggy man escaped after the final girl battled for her life and survived. Todorov’s approach to this theory came from his studies of folk’s tale.

Furthermore Vladimir Propp being a Russian critic, he examined 100s of folk tale and recognised that in most of these tales he was able to identify 8 character role and 31 narrative functions. These characters are the villain, the hero, the donor (who provides an object with some magic property), the helper who aids the hero, the princess (the sought for person)- reward for the hero and subject of the villain’s schemes, her father- who rewards the hero, the dispatcher (who sends the hero on his way) and finally the false hero. Some of these characters are definitely found in all of narratives such as TV programmes, the newspaper, novels and some are found in my trailer. The villain in this case is Holly even though through equilibrium she is seen as the victim. There are no immediate heroes except for the police coming to rescue the “final boy” even though that’s the case; she escapes showing thing that she cannot be stopped even by the high authority being the police. Moreover in slasher films the final girl is usually nerdy, with brown her, virginal and obedient. The monster represents sex and his weapon portrays his penis. The first girl to get killed is usually a blond girl who is sexually active. The representation of this narrative is to give awareness to teenagers to cherish their virginity and put their heads in their books or they would turn out like the blond girl. Moreover my group and I changed the codes and conventions and have switched the roles. The monster in this case is an angry young girl who is sexually repressed but shocks the audience by using her seductive appearance to drive men to her and later she murders them through anger and disappointment through her own life. She is not sexually repressed because it is something she likes doing, however she uses that element to attract the men to her. There is no obvious benefactor in this film however when Holly was in school her teacher was always there comforting her, advising her to take the right path. Moreover the benefactor would therefore be the helper who aids the hero according to Propp’s theory. The reason why we decided to have a female blond killer was to bring awareness to men who are sexually active as society will look down on a sexual active girl and think of her as a damaged hoe, however a sexual active male would be praised and patted on the shoulder for having some many girls. This show how ill and deprived our society is.

In the 4^th century BC Aristotle decided that ‘all drama is conflict’, moreover in the 20^th century Claude Levi- Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary opposition. Binary opposition is recognised in horror/ slasher films such as “good Vs evil, and virginal Vs sexually repressed still exist. Character types are still constant; the binary opposition good Vs evil still supplies the horror genre with monsters and heroes. Social themes are probably the most constant variation in horror films today. Social themes are based on society’s fears at the time of the movies creation, so the themes are based on the era of production. Horror genre is a consistent genre, viewers know what to expect when seeing a horror movie, yet it is still a genre which draws audiences, as viewers still can’t "resist the Aristotelian compulsion to ‘open the door, and show what is behind it" Cook, Pam. The Cinema Book (1985), New York, Pantheon Books, Page 102. In addition the binary opposite within my trailer is monster (being female) Vs victim (being male), dark Vs light, right Vs wrong and revenge Vs forgiveness.

Furthermore Pam Cook gives a description of American film from “4 defining pictures of American Cinema”; the first one being, ‘A linear narrative of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution’. Through this quote I understand that for my film to be affect there must be a story that goes in a straight line allowing something to happen in a film causing something else to happen. The path that the narrative takes is important as there has to be a puzzle where it is then solved enforcing a happy ending to the film. In this case Holly has been pushed around by everyone in her life to such an extent where it mentally deprives her and she loses control by killing everyman that shows interest in her or anyone that has hurt her before. However this disequilibrium will therefore be mended ‘As there will be a high degree of narrative closure’ this implies that all the loose ends will be tide at the end when Holly is taken at the mental institution home when the doctor’s finds out what caused her to kill and where the anger and bitterness had come from. Moreover cook goes on to suggest “A centrality of the narrative agency of psychologically rounded characters”. Through this quote, Cook goes to explain that even animation films always tend to have a recognisable human character such as “Finding Nemo” as it is consistent with this institutional mode of representation. Finally the fourth picture of American Cinema is when “A fictional world governed by spatial and temporal versimitude”. The film has a made up world but real for that play. This is evident in Star Wars when sound is heard even though scientifically there is no sound in space, also when the characters walk in spaceships. However in reality there is no gravity in space.

Roland Barthes was a professor of the 1950s and 1960s. His job was to unravel text and explain how he did so. Barthes describes a text as "a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signified; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language..." (S/Z - 1974 translation). This basically suggests that you can unravel a text in infinite number of times and get different meaning each time. This is evidence as Holly’s actions can be seen as pure evil or a young girl that needs to be rescued from her dark past. It therefore becomes up to the individual audience to have sympathy on her or see her as the enemy. Moreover these threads Barthes suggests are called narrative codes which are Action/proiarectic code which refers to the actions taking place, enigma code when questions are being raised by the audiences. Symbols & Signs refers mise en scene, Points of Cultural Reference and Simple description/reproduction.

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As a class we started our research on music magazine by analysing and annotating them in order to understand how they work. We learned about the masthead and its importance in identifying a particular magazine, the central image has to be dominating as that is what attracts the audience first hand and also how feature stories are eye catching and drives the audience into buying the magazine for a good story.

During this process of learning more about how magazines work, we did a preliminary task allowing us to experience the basics of making a music magazine. At first I struggled to make a magazine that would be relevantly attractive to my demographic audience as it was for students as well as parents. A mean while after, I had a go on understanding what parents and students would like to read in the school magazine and how relevant that would be.

As time came to do the actual magazine, I was therefore confident in what I was doing and understood how important preparation was. So to prepare my self I made questionnaires and handed them out to the youths to answer. From them I learnt that young people mostly listen to kiss 100 which consist of hip hop/ RnB, Rock and a variety of other type of music and most of the people that answered the questionnaire were of working class. This there for showed me what types of magazine most of my demographic audience are after and the price they are willing to pay for it.


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this is a short clip of myself demonstrarting the importance of music magazine and what it means to this generation. I also gathered results on quantitative data and qualitative data in order to express the reason of my chosen demographic audience.

http://www.scribd.com/full/53073274?access_key=key-22zq6ukbsa1g3zpy3mi3

Making this magazine presentation on what my demographic audience are after in music magazine gave me a real insight on what I should include. I learned that connecting with my audience will make them feel attracted and involve with the magazine.

 

1. The social class represented in my magazine is of teenagers from an urban upbringing with a stereotypical view from the society we live in and that have turned their lives over to do something worth it and useful for their future. The artists used in Magnet represent the featuring artists in a way they are not dressed in a stereotypical way that people may expect from a Hip Hop artist. Moreover some are in suits, or casual designer clothing that teenagers aspire to in order to proclaim a sense of individuality. In my experience I have grown to understand that the way some one may dress does not precisely mean that is the way they usually are. I do understand that my demographic is of an urban culture and tattoos and baggy clothes is something they are familiar with, but I am also trying to give out a moral issue to the youth that are growing up into men and women and who want to do something with their lives. Magnet is obviously not trying to raise other people’s children, but because magnet knows what impact celebrities have on the youths of this generation, the celebrities featured in Magnet hold a good example for the audience. These celebrities are from an urban background, they know where they come from, the struggles and prosperity they had to undergo, moreover this allows them to share their testimony with the rest of the youth. My demographic audience will fill attached to the featured stories and hopefully they will have hope in looking forward to a brighter future.

1980 rap took a bad turn as top rappers began to celebrate street warfare. This is evident by the song “bubble gum” that gave way to a gangster life style. The chorus depicted ghetto life as profoundly desolate:

you grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate.
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way.
You’ll admire all the numberbook takers,
Thugs, pimps and pushers, and the big money makers.

Lil wayne and Ciara are one of the biggest hip hop artists and very popular amongst the youth. The representation of the way they dress send out a negative response to the parents and most of the older generation. Ciara falls into the male gaze theory on the representation of women by the way she dress revealing a lot of flesh. Lil Wayne presents a masculine, ghetto and typical look of an urban culture as he is in gold chains and full of tattoos.

For my music magazine, I felt challenging stereotypes would rise the bars into understanding the positive of Hip Hop music and the positive affect it can have on the young youths of this generation.

The image on the right has a young man in a suite holding the microphone in an intimidating way as he looks down at the audience, however the connotation of the suit illustrates as intelligent young man.

There is a lack of research on rap music for the rap culture has not been accepted. John H. McWhorter reports, “In the beginning it was a cultural production available on the underground music scene, appealing primarily to a subculture of Black youth. As rap has evolved and been sustained over the years the audience has grown substantially, allowing rap”. This shows our society has grown to accept hip hop to be the norms and as many youth grows to be more devoted to it.

To break this mentality some people have on hip hop, I wanted the artists I feature in the magazine to hold moral issues and to provide a good example for the youths.

The males and females are represented as young men and women with a future ahead of them. They carry themselves a certain way in the world, by working hard in what they do. This is evident in an artist I introduced on my double spread page named, Rosie Pearl. She is noticeably a beautiful girl, and her beauty is not presented through tight and flashy clothing, but rather through her visual and simple appearance and furthermore her voice if any one goes through the website to listen to her music. Moreover there are representations of the male gaze theory in a sense where, the young lady has a red light hitting half her face, suggesting a sense of sexual danger. And the pink lip gloss illustrates her innocence.

She is also presented 'in a pose' with her hands behind her head... this is consistent with The Male gaze. I have chosen to do this as she seems laid back and in control of her self and her image. The reason for having an image of a girl that has elements of the male gaze theory attracts girls and boys to the magazine to see a beautiful girl. Young men would be attracted for their own pleasures however girls would be attracted to this image as they may wants to have her look and copy her style.

Stereotypically it is seen as black African/ Caribbean boys who cause more trouble and underachieve in schools, but there are also other ethnicities that need to be noticed and recognised.

Moreover hip hop is not just for black people, it has become a world wide music genre across the world. In the summer of 2003 John H. McWhorter wrote an article on the effectiveness of how much hip hop means to the black community in America. In his own experience he comments on a young boy in a café “A couple of his buddies would then join him. Rap was a running decoration in their conversation.” This suggests how rap has become a big part of the youth.

2.  The music magazine which is called Magnet is produced for the young R&B and Hip Hop music fans. I have adjusted typical code and conventions to attract my demographic audience such as the demographic artists that my audience will relate to and are familiar with. The language I used in the text did not include slang or broken English but rather it was of modern English and more intelligent. The reason for this was to attract a positive outlook on a hip hop/ urban community in our society. I felt it is important for my audience to have the right influences and to feel accepted in society for whom they are but also for them to learn to carry themselves in a particular way in the society for they are part of a community.

Moreover, Magnet does not necessarily have a typical R&B/ Hip Hop outlook. The ways the pictures of artists are taken are not of baggy clothes and full on tattoos. Instead it is of young men respectively dressed; some in suits illustrating even an R&B artist can wear a suite and still look the part. Rather than being like everyone else, I wanted to give out a message of confidence in young men and women by how they appear to people and to be happy just the way they are instead of trying to fit in a crowd by trying to be like every one else because they are their own individual.

The young man on my lift features in Magnet. The way he is dressed in a suit gives a message he is serious about what he is doing and sensible as his appearance gives him a sense of intelligence. The man on the right is a rapper called 50 Cents. He is a typical rapper due to his outward appearance; topless, tattoos and big chains and earrings. To many this type of image gives a message that every rapper or RnB singer appears in this fashion and consists with behaviour like they are in a gang.

Magnet is a different type of R&B music magazine, genuinely just by the headings, and the sort of people that features in it. Such as new up coming musicians that they may not be able to hear about else where, and opportunities for the audience to make it into the music industry if even work is put into it. Magnet is a type of magazine that a parent would also recommend their teenagers to read. The stories featured are based on real life experience, people share their struggles and storms in life and how they finally over came it. Young artists who worked hard to get to where they are now encourage the audience to keep working hard and follow their dreams.

Magnet is not like any other magazine I have read but much similar to billboard. I studied billboard magazine and recognised the dignity, fame and fortune the magazine represented. The front page of the magazine usually has one dominant image, and well organised featured stories and eye catching tag lines. Moreover this illustrated a well represented and mature substance to the magazine and that is what inspired me whilst I was creating my magazine. Magnet is almost like a magazine for teenagers who are maturing and developing into young adults, teenagers who have ambitions and aspirations.

Magnet does challenge codes and convergence for the demographic audience in a sense where the language used is not typical slang, the artists are not so much dressed in an R&B/ urban code. My reason for this is to allow my audience to not so much concentrate on the outside appearance in order to define some one as successful but rather its what is on the inside of the person that makes them so successful in the music industry.

My front cover of the magazine sticks with some of the conventions such as centred image dominating the magazine with a couple featured stories illustrate the simplicity of the magazine. 

The reason I named the magazine Magnet, was the emphasis of the attraction it will have on the audience.

Banner- additional information

Featured stories- this gives the audience a glance on what is featured in the magazine. The more interesting the featured story may be the more attracted to the magazine the audience will be.

Tagline- taglines are usually under the featured story and gives you a brief idea of the story

Colour scheme- for the colour scheme, I kept to a minimum of three colours which being gold, purple and black. This allowed the magazine to have a constant flow in the colour scheme and attract both genders as purple is liked by males and females.

Free giveaways- this is a great way to attract the audience to the magazine as they know by buying the magazine they would get something in return that they can use and keep.

Earpiece- Free downloads is there to promote up coming artists and a great way to encourage the audience to know more about the magazine.

The centred image has a designer polo shirt emphasizing his job allows him to support his needs. This may also attract attention to the viewer to do well in their career in order to afford what they want.

The centred image of the young man looks so humble revealing this magazine as being a magazine about real people in real life situation and coming clean with issues they face. 

Buzz words are a way of attracting the audience to the magazine. Words such as “exclusive” is also a way of attracting attention to the magazine. 

banner- this is for additional information and buzz word. 

My most tough task that I encountered in making the music magazine was the layout of the contents page. As different magazine had different ways of laying out there magazine, I did not know how to make sure my content page did not look so similar to another content page or be so different to how a content page would normally be viewed. As I analysed Q magazine and its content page, I learned that this magazine had more then one picture but always included a dominant picture as their main focus to the magazine. Not only they had features but other sections of the magazine were placed, such as monthly issues and reviews.

Features- I did not bombard the content page with a lot of feature stories as I was not too sure of how to fit everything on one page. I have now learned to use my space efficiently

Images- from the previous contents page I have studied, I have learned that pictures are very important to grasp the readers attention. So for some of the features I placed a few pictures to give the reader some kind of idea what type of images will be seen on that current page.

Regulars- regulars are for subjects that will be seen most often in the magazine. In this case, as this magazine is to do with music, it will feature activities and oppertunities of people trying to make it big in the music industry, hopefully giving my audience the chance to per take in these enrichments.

Background- the background behind the image is almost like bars, a barrier. The young man looks serious and the way he stands seem dominating this is mise en scene representing he is against the bars and barriers in his life and serious about his career. Reading the article on him will make much more sense.

Featured image- one of the star of the magazine in this issue I made sure his image stood out in the content page for the reader to understand how important he is as well as the young man on the front cover.

Film- addition- occasionally when a popular film comes out and one of Magnet's favourite artist is involve with it, Magnet will feature the film in the magazine by talking about it and interviewing the characters playing in it. This is also part of promoting the film to my demographic audience.

For the reader to understand and have a clue of who the musician standing dominating the page is, I put his name at the side of the page next to him.

By the time I got to my double spread page, I had a lot of confidence with in my self due to the process of making the magazine. As I did more analysing on the spread page I learnt the essential ingredient of making a double spread page stand out. Centred image is partly important especially if it spreads through the next page, if not, the heading would be essential to spread to the next page to show a link between both pages, demonstrating it is of one story. Other issues can be placed on the same page to illustrate a preview of up coming bands. Although it has nothing to do with the story in itself, the reviews has links to the band as it all has to do with music and performing.

Centred image- the centred image is of a young man smiling and holding his microphone directly to the reader almost urging them to take it and do something with their lives. This is an encouragement for the reader to make them feel they too can make it into the music industry.

Heading- for the heading I used the same colours purple and gold as the front cover to bring the same recognition that this is the same magazine. And the more the colours are noticed together, the reader will automatically think of Magnet for it has purple and gold lined up together.

Previews – previews of the up coming artists are very important as the readers can link them to the article. Although they have nothing to do with the main article, there is a resemblance between them for they are all to do with music and bands. This is a type of promotion for the artists.

Quotes- quotes are very affective in articles for readers as they firstly glance at them before reading the whole article. For an article to be read, I made sure I picked out the right quotes which would attract the attention.

Text- for the main article I did not want to drag the article for too long and especially as it is my first issue. The tone of the words are encouraging and affective for the reader to engage as it has elements of making the right choice that any of my readers could relate to.

Colour scheme- with the colour scheme kept tot the purple and gold as it has become a colour that resembles Magnet. And the more the readers see those two colours together, Magnet will always appear in their mind and have a huge affect on them wanting to read more of the magazine as they will feel connected to it.

3.  To get my magazine out there in the open I will need to find a company that would be able to distribute it. Unlike a film I do not have to thing about the release date, however circulation can be vital depending if it is a nich market.  Major companies that can distribute my magazine would be EMAP and IPC, moreover, the smaller independent publishing companies such as Development Hell Ltd.

A major company such as IPC will be a great instituition to distribute my magazine. The reason for this is IPC produces over 60 iconic media brands and with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. This illustrates that my magazine will be noticed by so many people as the IPC website is reached by over 20million users every month. Moreover this could also be an advantage for marketing.

IPC distributes a wide range of different type of magazines such as

leisure brands, Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME. As much as IPC does not specialise in music magazine, it distributes NME which is a massively popular music magazine. Moreover IPC would be able to set me up with a music channel on TV where I could have guests from my magazine featuring. This is evident as IPC have set up TV programmes such as What's on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week. 

Emap was first formed as a regional newspaper in 1947. Emap is also a business-to-business multiplatform media group which involve Emap connecting with the audience on issues such as media, fashion, health, education, government and automotive sectors.

Emap has the capacity online and offline publications, conferences, awards, exhibitions, festivals, data and intelligence services. This will therefore be a great advantage for me as I will have access to marketing. Emap also distributes 20 magazines in its business-to-business portfolio and some of these magazines contains Architects' Journal, Architectural Review, Broadcast, Construction, News, Drapers, Health Service Journal, Local Government Chronicle, Nursing Times, Retail Week, Recycling & Waste Management and Screen International.

This disadvantage of Emap is according to the division it has. Emap split up and sold itself to The Guardian, also to Bauer. Moreover due to the split, Emap do not have much of the say overall in the company. This suggests that Emap is obliged to answer to The Guardian or Bauer for any distribution and fundings that goes in to my magazine.

Furthermore, on the subject of smaller independent distribution company, Development Hell Ltd is based in Islington, London. Development Hell currently publish two magazines every months which are, The Word and Mixmag. This company was set up in 2004. This is a some what a disadvantage as it is a new company with less experience then Emap and IPC has. Moreover Development Hell is more directed to a niche market whilst my magazine is more approached for a wide range so Development Hell will not be useful to distribute my magazine.

In consideration of all the different distribution companies lined up for my magazine, I have chosen to use IPC as it seems more suited for my type of music magazine. IPC has a huge media institution, however they do not publish RnB and Hip Hop music magazine. This is an advantage as I would not worry about competitions.

4. My target audience are young girls and boys from the ghetto/ urban life of all ethnicity who are on their journeys to adulthood years and need the right influences and directions in their lives. My reason for this choice was the friends I know and the life they have lead, due to the influences of media, home life around them and the wrong choices they have made.

To have a better understanding of what my target audience are after in general, I thought interacting with them and listening to what they really wanted is a great way for me to know what to place in my magazine and to be sure that people will have an interest in it.

Making a questionnaire on Questionpro.com, I asked the young people what radio station they mostly listened to, and the popular remark was Kiss 100.0 which plays RnB/Hip Hop and other varieties of songs. This allowed my confidence to maintain for I then felt I was making a music magazine that a lot of people wanted to read and know about. This method of research is called quantitative data, allowing me to store up my research in tables and charts. The advantage I get from this type of research method means I am able to scan through my results and understand the patterns of the results. However quantitative data prevents the person being opposed to question to express themselves fully instead of placing one answer which they may not feel as comfortable as being their final answer.

The result clearly shows the majority of the youths are after Kiss 100.0 as they feature RnB/ HIP HOP and Urban type of music. Moreover Heart 106.2 also has high rating and due to my research on what types of songs they play on that station, I have discovered pop and rock is mostly played. In conclusion, to have a wide range of audience I would feature some form of pop and soft rock music in the magazine to also attract the youth that also listen to pop and soft rock as well as RnB and rap music.

The price of magazine is very relevant. In one of my questionnaires, I asked the youths what kind of jobs their parents had. This would then enable me to figure out their income and give me a better idea on how much the youths are willing to pay on music magazines. Most of the job titles I got were of working class citizens. To ensure they could afford the magazine as a new issue would be released weekly, the price would then have to fit their budget so I made Magnet to cost £1.

 

To gather my research on the colour scheme of my magazine and the layout, I used qualitative data which suggests putting my information into graphs. That enables me to compare research in which I was able to understand my demographic audience. Qualitative data was much useful in a sense where the people I would ask particular questions for the magazine production would be free to express themselves fully without just giving a one singled answer. The method I used to gather the qualitative data was simply type down the questions I would like to ask and allowed them give their view and response without my presence as I did not want to influence their answers by being around which would later make the results invalid.

I created two templates of equal layouts but contrasting colours. Getting the feedback from my target audience meant I had a better idea of what they wanted and I could work on that. I got positive response from each of the templates but the one with the most approval was the one with the gold colour scheme. And from there I applied the feed back to my end product of the magazine though adjusting some of the colours and layout.

Hip hop emerged at the beginning of the 20th century when black people were not considered worthy enough to express the pain and hurt without physical violence. So they found music to do so for that was something lawful and which was permitted, also in a language that they all understood.

The chance of making a music magazine gave me the opportunity to evaluate on what makes a good music magazine more influential in the right manner and also ethical.

Marc T. Parker in 1999 comments on the great affect hip hop has on the black community, especially for the working class. "Expression through the use of voice and instruments or both has provided him with the means to release joy, pain, hurt and agony, while at the same time becoming a powerful medium which is heard by both those who can identify with it and those who aren’t willing to, but are quick to judge and condemn it." This shows that in the media, hip hop is partly considered as a bad influence on young men and women due to the appearance of over rated tattoos and the love of sex and money. Moreover Parker comments "because of rap’s much more violent and explicit content, it isn’t viewed in the same sense of its predecessors nor is it taken in the serious manner that it should be." Furthermore because of this stereotypical view, I personally wanted Magnet to view the positivism of Hip Hop and its original culture. Rap is no different to jazz, blues or other type of music that allows people to express them. So taking this advantage for the youth is silencing their view as rap allows them to evaluate their anger, happiness and issues they are facing in today's world. As Frederic in 1994 comments, "To ignore these feelings would be to deny their very existence".

There's more to rap then it being beats and rhythms. In-fact rap has transformed the face of the youth in America and more different ethnic background is responding, appreciating and getting involved with rap. This is evident as Eminem is a famous white rapper and very successful. When Eminem first came out, the stereotypical view of Hip Hop being mainly for black people was challenged and the fact that Eminem was white encourage music to have a whole new meaning to itself in the process that many different races had the confidence to engage them in any genre of music they preferred.

For more understanding of what the audience wanted to read about and find out in a music magazine, I set up a questionnaire on questionpro.com and asked relevant questions that would allow me to have a better idea on what my audience favour. I personally knew for myself that I would make a music magazine for the youths and young adults, preferably the ages between 15-21 ages. My reason for this was so I too could relate to my target audience and the people I knew I would give the questionnaire to do would be around that age range.

After gathering all my information on the magazine, I turned the results into graphs to enable me to compare the results and adjust more to the research. I later on created a slide show on publisher to show my results on what will be in the magazine and research of what my demographic audience are looking for. I then presented the slide show to my class which was in meanwhile being filmed.

Hip hop emerged at the beginning of the 20th century when black people were not considered worthy enough to express the pain and hurt without physical violence. So they found music to do so for that was something lawful and which was permitted, also in a language that they all understood.

The chance of making a music magazine gave me the opportunity to evaluate on what makes a good music magazine more influential in the right manner and also ethical.

Marc T. Parker in 1999 comments on the great affect hip hop has on the black community, especially for the working class. "Expression through the use of voice and instruments or both has provided him with the means to release joy, pain, hurt and agony, while at the same time becoming a powerful medium which is heard by both those who can identify with it and those who aren’t willing to, but are quick to judge and condemn it." This shows that in the media, hip hop is partly considered as a bad influence on young men and women due to the appearance of over rated tattoos and the love of sex and money. Moreover Parker comments "because of rap’s much more violent and explicit content, it isn’t viewed in the same sense of its predecessors nor is it taken in the serious manner that it should be." Furthermore because of this stereotypical view, I personally wanted Magnet to view the positivism of Hip Hop and its original culture. Rap is no different to jazz, blues or other type of music that allows people to express them. So taking this advantage for the youth is silencing their view as rap allows them to evaluate their anger, happiness and issues they are facing in today's world. As Frederic in 1994 comments, "To ignore these feelings would be to deny their very existence".

There's more to rap then it being beats and rhythms. In-fact rap has transformed the face of the youth in America and more different ethnic background is responding, appreciating and getting involved with rap. This is evident as Eminem is a famous white rapper and very successful. When Eminem first came out, the stereotypical view of Hip Hop being mainly for black people was challenged and the fact that Eminem was white encourage music to have a whole new meaning to itself in the process that many different races had the confidence to engage them in any genre of music they preferred.

For more understanding of what the audience wanted to read about and find out in a music magazine, I set up a questionnaire on questionpro.com and asked relevant questions that would allow me to have a better idea on what my audience favour. I personally knew for myself that I would make a music magazine for the youths and young adults, preferably the ages between 15-21 ages. My reason for this was so I too could relate to my target audience and the people I knew I would give the questionnaire to do would be around that age range.

After gathering all my information on the magazine, I turned the results into graphs to enable me to compare the results and adjust more to the research. I later on created a slide show on publisher to show my results on what will be in the magazine and research of what my demographic audience are looking for. I then presented the slide show to my class which was in meanwhile being filmed.

Concerts and gigs are a way of getting fans to support their favourite artists on the stage and have that life time experience of being there with them performing. This kind of experience allows the audience to understand more about music. Moreover this will also make the artists gain a living for people will spend so much money on a ticket to see their favourite artist. And since people are not purchasing music legally as they used to, artists need to make money and more and more of these artists are doing a lot more concerts, gigs and touring for such reasons.

To really have a good understanding of the type of music my demographic audience engage in helped me to understand what they would like to read about in the magazine. Kiss100.0 came up top followed by Heart 106.2. To my knowledge both these FM channels play hip hop, rnb, garage, soft rock and rock. This demonstrates to me that my demographic audience have a rage of taste and would like to know a bit about the other genre of music. To attract more publicity and audience, I would therefore have to include some news on the other genre of music in the monthly addition.

This information about how people store up music is vital for my production of the magazine and the music industry. As said before, the music industry are losing out on money for people are not spending money on storing up music as they should which is in a legal way such as buying CDs and purchasing music via internet and paying for it. Rather people are downloading music illegally which is bleeding the music industry dry. To prevent this, illegal downloading sites have been denied and itunes have taken place for people to spend money that they should do for the music they would like to listen to.

The front cover of the magazine is essential for that is what attracts the audience at first hand before thinking about buying it. The centred image allows them to want to know more about that artist and what else is featured in the magazine. As shown on this graph, most of my demographic audience believe free giveaways and story headings are what grips there attention to the magazine. So my aim for the magazine was to have a warm feeling centred picture with a heart gripping story line and a free giveaway that they would keep for a while.

Knowing what my magazine will involve I had to make an audience profile page which will portray the type of gadgets, celebrities and fashion will be included in the magazine. As seen in this audience profile, I have gathered images that demonstrates what teenage life is about which is fun and excitement. This is illustrated through the video games and brand fashion. I also included artists that they love knowing about and to also be an inspiration to them succeeding in life.

5. 

According to the responses I got from the questionpro.com, my demographic audience were in favour of free gifts, downloads, and lower price for the magazine it self. For them to even notice the magazine at first I thought the colour co-ordinates must be eye catching and the central image must be gripping for both genders. Andy Chen from ClickZ wrote an article on 24 October 2007 about "Targeting Youth Behaviour". He comments in his first paragraph, "Youth is perhaps the most difficult demographic group to communicate with...simply challenging to engage and entertain." This suggests the amount of work and thinking needed to enable me to understand what my audience are really after whether they know it or not.

Magnet would be free to access on the internet and free downloads would be made possible to encourage more viewers which will also encourage more buyer for they will be interested in buying the magazine to get free giveaways and engage with the celebrities that features. Illegal download is very high rated among the youths. They do not buy CDs and records as they used to and even downloading music legally off itunes is unlikely for some of them. To prevent or rather try to prevent the illegal downloading, (for the music industry is suffering) free downloads will be placed on the Magnet website along side other competitions to encourage more publicity on the website which will allow synergy to be taken place. This will therefore promote my magazine and create a symbiotic relationship between my audience members, the magazine and the website. Giving out free concert tickets will get the fans and the artists connected better, as the fans will continue to buy the magazine hoping to win a free ticket to a big music event.

Free giveaways are another way to encourage the consumer to buy the product. For the music magazine I in put a big Eminem poster in the first issue. Moreover this is also a way of promoting the artist. Furthermore the music industry is losing out on money due to the advanced media technology allowing the consumers to download music illegally rather then legally. Giving my audience a chance to win or receive a concert or gig ticket will encourage them to attend more concerts and experience the live atmosphere of live music. Furthermore, the majority of the artists are touring more, as this is the only way they can make money knowing the fans will pay so much to see them perform even from a distance.

This picture of Eminem would feature as a poster in my magazine for the way he dress is similar to how most of the young men and rapper in the first issue of the magazine dressed. Although the tattoos goes against what I believe would encourage people to take hip hop seriously and not assume it has a bad influence on every child that listen to it, the tattoo is not over rated in this image compared to various artist.

A few years ago CDs were very popular and from the old generation and all the way to the new generation every one had a pride of collecting albums. As time has gone buy, there has been a massive growth of music storage, from ipod, to phones and computers. This means people are not as enthusiastic to own a CD as before. Moreover the smaller the music storage the better which also brings us to synergy. Synergy comes from the Greek word synergy, meaning joint work and cooperative action. This suggests that music can be stored up on various media technology, giving the consumer the freedom to listen to their music as preferred.

The mode of address used towards my demographic audience will be one that they are familar with but also langauge that can help them improve their writing skills and English. I will allow a big f a challange in the way things are written in Magnet but one that my audience can understand. My reason for this is to show them and the critics, the people that buy this magazine are young men and women who want to do something worthy with their lives, also ones that are intelligent and talented.

The tone used for the article will be intelligent but not so serious at times. This is to have a relaxed atmosphere for the reader. I have learned due to the studies I have undertaken of other articles, the way my words are formed will greatly affect the response of the reader. As the article will not be about war and crime, the tone will no be so serious, also the article is not about a film comedy, moreover the tone will not have elements of jokes at all times. However the articles will be about real life changes and experiences so the serious and fun tone will have to be balanced.

Use of slang will be limited. According to Shirley Johnson in the article concerning “What is Slang”, she comments, “Slang often suggests that the person utilizing the words of phrases is familiar with the hearer’s group or subgroup—it can be considered a distinguished factor of in-group identity”. This illustrates slang as being a way of communication with in a group and a language that that certain group understands each other making them feel a part of something great. To make my audience feel belonged and to communicate with them through the language they understand, slang will be used occasionally.

Moreover due to typography, I used standard fonts with italic embraced on it to give it a swirl of talent and passion.

I struggled at first to come up with a colour scheme that will impress my demographic audience. I did not want any colours that attracted one gender and not the other, so finding colours that did not seem so sexiest was difficult. Creating the template and making questionnaires which allowed me to carry out qualitative data was very useful in knowing what my target audience were after. Using the gold in my final making of the magazine allowed Magnet to have a sense of belonging in the Hip Hop industry. The magazine did not seem so manly or lady like but perfect enough for both genders.

Making the templates on the magazine was challenging at first as I was not too sure where to place all the valuable ingredients to make a successful magazine. I wanted things to be ordered in a particular way that the magazine will be recognisable as a magazine. Sticking to three colour scheme was very useful in a sense where I would not wonder around and make the colour scheme look unprofessional and all over the place. I had to research colours that portrayed my demographic audience so they would feel connected. As I was creating the magazine, I realised how the blue made the whole magazine seem so masculine. To prevent this I changed the blue to purple as purple is a feminine colour as well as masculine.

Making the questionnaire on the template proved to have worked well with the out come of the magazine as most of the people who answered the questions favoured this template.

 

For this template I kept the same structure and layout but constructed the colour scheme differently. I used purple, sky blue and lime green to give a bright affect as hip hop is all about colours and the bright side of life. However most of my demographic did not think these three colour schemes were appropriate for a hip hop type of magazine.

In conclusion I went for the gold, blue and black and I worked through those colours to have a complete ending to the magazine.

Maslow is a perfect example of introducing the human needs. Moreover media is seen as a bas influence on the young generation or in any case for any one, however the message that we are given by the media we tend to accept it and this is the process of Hegemony. The media is used for entertainment however hundreds of years ago entertainment was seen through sport and theatre as evident through the Greek history.

a.Physiological Needs: for food, drink, air, sleep, sex-the basic bodily “tissue” requirements.

b.Safety Needs: for security, stability, protection from harm or injury; need for structure, orderliness, law, predictability; freedom from fear and chaos.

 

c.Belongingness and Love Needs: for abiding devotion and warm affection with spouse, children, parents, and close friends; need to feel a part of social groups; need for acceptance and approval.

 

d.Esteem Needs: for self-esteem based on achievement, mastery, competence, confidence, freedom, independence; desire for esteem of others (reputation, prestige, recognition, status).

 

e.Self-Actualization Needs: for self-fulfillment, actually to become what you potentially can be; desire to actualize your capabilities; being true to your essential nature; what you can be you must be.

6. 

During the process of making the music magazine, I learnt so much about technology and how useful it is in the media. For the photos and the process of making Magnet I used serif photoplus. It is very simple to use PhotoPlus especially when the basics have been learnt such as fixing red eye removal, spot repair and also cropping. This photo editing software makes advanced tasks, like editing RAW files and HDR imaging. Serif also allows u to Fix old and damaged photos using powerful restoration tools or get creative with filters, effects and brushes.

Microsoft PowerPoint permitted me to illustrate and present the results of my research for the type of magazine I would be creating. This is evident through the video of my representation which is uploaded on this blog. Powerpoint also allowed me to set out my templates which made it easier for my audience to make a decision on which one they prefare and to ask the relevant questions which I had provided.

Microsoft word was very useful for typing down questionnaires for my demographic audience to give me their response on the magazine. Not only I used text for Microsoft word, the software permitted me to add pictures from the print screen to show evidence of the magazine making and the process I had to undergo.

Firstly, Microsoft publisher was my first choice in the software I would use to make the magazine but I later changed my mind as the software was too basic and was no use into producing an identically professional magazine. However for the text of the spread page, Microsoft publisher really came in handy.

For the photographs, I took pictures from a digital camera and some from an iphone 4 which has a magnificent 5 megapixel with LED flash. This allowed me to a better photo quality meaning I was able to air brush the skin, zoom in and out with out the quality of the photo being reduced.

From these software’s and technologies and creating the magazine I have learnt how useful these software are and what a difference they can make to a simple image. The representation of the male gaze was obvious in a sense where images of women as well as men can be manipulated to make them seem the more attractive to the demographic audience. Through out this process of manipulating pictures I have learnt how even small editing can make a big difference on an image.

7. 

During the making of the preliminary task I have gained a lot of skills such as planning, technical skills and knowledge.

I now understand the significant of planning the magazine before the actual process of making it, as I knew exactly what I was going to do in my actual magazine afterwards. Planning involved questionnaires which enabled me to learn more about the type of magazine I would create. Moreover Microsoft Powerpoint allowed me to present my results in a way that gave me a better understanding of the results for the way they were laid out on different pages. Moreover the templates gave me a visual understanding of how my final magazine may turn out to be like.

Looking back at my preliminary task I am confident to say I worked much better on the final piece of the magazine for I knew what music magazine consists off. For the preliminary task I had less time to work on it then I did for the final. This was a disadvantage for the way the preliminary task turned out for I did not have enough time to plan or organise the magazine properly. At first I struggled with the magazine in itself, the kind of things I should add as the magazine was going to be created for parents, students and teachers. This was therefore I tough demographic audience. As I got hold of the task and began working on the magazine, I was not so pleased with the software I used, which was Microsoft Publisher. This document did not work well with the task of making the magazine look professional. Working on serif photo plus was even more complex when it came to the final magazine. The reason for this was because I did not know how to work the software. I was baffled in a sense of how to use the tool bars and all the special tricks I could work with to make my magazine look professional. As I played around with the software, I was confident in some areas such as air-brushing the skin tone and using text on the image. This later on allowed me to produce a front cover, content page, and double spread page that seemed like effort and time was taken on it, which it did.

During this whole development of the preliminary task I have learnt so much about the whole organisation of creating a music magazine. I have learnt that to create a good music magazine, the producers have to know there target audience first of all and from there they are able to research on what exactly their demographic audience are attracted to.

The end result of my preliminary task was well done however I believe on the actual magazine I worked much better as I understood the task. What also helped was the analysis of content page, front cover and double spread page of other magazines I done. This allowed me to feel more confident on the final task.

My strength in this task was organising the magazine. I knew what I wanted to see on various pages and the reason being; nevertheless I was struggling on colour co-ordination. I kept changing the colour of the magazine but on the later date I tried to keep at one particular colour that kept appearing which was gold. By this there was continuity through out the 3 pages which pleased me.

The preliminary task was ever so helpful as it gave me the essential skills and knowledge I need to produce my final work.

Working on my front cover was a bit of a night mare at times. Knowing my self not to be a very technical person with computers and complex software such as Serif photo plus. I struggled to get the image right. At first I was working on Microsoft Publisher, then after realising how unprofessional the magazine will turn out, I changed my mind and had a go on Serif photo plus. Working on such a professional photo edit was complex and difficult but as I understood the basic methods I was able to produce a magazine that was nonetheless to a point of looking professional.

 

The contents page was the only page that I struggled with. I had no idea where to place pictures or what to include. I was confusing myself with the colour scheme even though I had a great idea of the colour scheme due to the front cover. I changed the colour of the text from gold to blue and settled with purple.

 

As I started working on the double spread page, I was confident in my self and how I was to set out the page. I did not struggle on this part of the magazine like I did with the other pages. I suppose I was because I worked so much on the magazine and the content page that I knew more about the magazine and what to apply on it. I tried to make the text not to seem too long but rather to get straight to the point. I added previews of artists to enable my audience to tune in.

Using Microsoft word, Publisher and Excel for quantitative and qualitative data and serif photo plus was very useful in a sense where the software made making the magazine much easier and quicker. At first I felt I would not be able to produce a well organised and completed task however, during the process of the final magazine, I learnt how to air brush, crop images and to manipulate the whole content in order to produce what seems like a professional magazine.