My evaluation

My evaluation was done on prezi, this is the link to view it:
http://prezi.com/c1mbyojdsa3a/

Ancillary tasks part 2

This is my advert for my music video.

Ancillary tasks

This is my album front and back covers.

Daniel Chandler – Personal home pages and the construction of identities on the web

Asynchronous mass communication
The web is unlike any previous modes of presenting yourself in everyday life. You are able to mass communicate in an environment that is more accessible than the print publishing and conventional mass media. They are asynchronous communication unlike modes of telephone and face to face interaction that requires real time. This asynchronous nature makes them comparable to textual forms such as diaries however they have a potential mass audience that makes them different from any other forms. Owning a web page is almost like owning your own printing press, however they are audio-visual texts and more dynamic. The re writing of pages make it easy to change previous identities and edit them so previous ones are unrecognisable.

Bricolage

Bricolage is the creation of the web page and the information about you that comes with it aside from the pictures and the text. This information is easy for people to copy from each other which lead to notable academic paranoia about student plagiarism. These backgrounds, layouts etc are a way for people to differentiate each other. Bricolage can help represent a persons values.

The building blocks of webpage identity

Creating a personal homepage can be seen as building a virtual identity as it flags up many parts of your personality. Links between a person and his friend can be seen as a creation of a ‘virtual community’. The question people ask of themselves in these pages is ‘who am i?’ and the people realise that publishing this is available to much larger audience than just immediate friends. The web allows substantial amounts of people to publish their ideas. However many home pages are badly executed and bizarre and many are generated to satisfy objectives of employers or educators. Many of these pages are practically useless to anyone apart from their owners. Web pages have several features that make them different from printed media. When pages are grammatically correct, they are more pleasing and stand out more to the literate reader.

Constructing identities
The structure of web page can sometimes say as much about their authors as does the content. Some people even feel that they are their own audience for their web page, posting their feelings helps to validate them. The web seems to be leading to people posting information that previously, they would have kept private. The appeal of a pages content can lead to it having a global audience. Some critics are anxious that the web has allowed people to manipulate their identities too much, however these pages do often contain many ties to a persons real life such as photographs of themselves and real addresses etc. We are more in control of the image we present on a personal home page than in day-to-day life. Basically, the ability to mask or change certain details about yourself can be seen as a positive or negative thing. It means people can choose what they reveal to people on the internet, which means they can hide or change things that could have an influence on whether you would associate with that person or not. People worry that the younger generation will increasingly socialise online and less face-to-face, although this has been argued as a positive trend as it makes things like working through problems easier. ‘The label ‘home page’ itself ought to remind us, one supremely disadvantaged social group amongst those without home pages is that of the literally, physically homeless in the cold reality of everyday life, who could be forgiven for regarding this textual genre as an irrelevance. Virtual homes provide no shelter for anyone’.

Essay Introduction

Explain how stereotyping in British TV drama and British film contributes to a sense of collective identity.

Collective identity is made to represent a certain group of people, whether it be based on their age, race, sex, religion etc. The idea of collective identity is commonly constructed through stereotyping. This is the easiest way to put people into a certain group as they are put together through one shared, basic characteristic. Within British TV drama and British film, stereotyping contributed to a sense of collective identity in different ways. It creates this sense of an image that the country portrays to the rest of the world, as well as this it also helps people to give an idea of what they are about as an individual and as a British person.

Filming Essay

On Thursday the 11th June we had to split into groups and make a video of a tour around our school and sixth form. The class got split into three groups of about 4 or 5 people. We chose to basically do a day in the life video with someone from our sixth form and we filmed in various every day school situations doing the sort of stuff he would do in a normal school day. This was our first proper attempt at filming and so we, as well as all the other groups encountered a few problems.

The first major problem that all the groups faced was the steadiness of the camera. A lot of our filming we had to walk with the camera in our hands so it was difficult to keep it steady. There isn’t a lot that we could do with this problem other than trying to get the person with the steadiest hand or for shorts where we didn’t have to move with the camera we could have used a tripod. This was a major problem because it meant that it ruined what otherwise good shots we would have had that had been planned out.

Another problem that we had was the gaps between clips. In our video especially, there was a couple of times where there was a couple of gaps in the video where the screen would just go blue. This happened because we accidentally turned the camera off a couple of times and so were careful not to record over what we had already done. The only way we can make sure that this problem doesn’t happen again is by just getting in practice and getting used to the camera so that we can get to use it easily without making mistakes.

The other major problem that we had was with sound and noise. The narrative was often lost in our videos and there wasn’t much we could actually do about this. The real problem was the other sound that we would have in the background such as traffic and wind. To sort this problem we would obviously need to film in locations that were away from roads, or on a windy day try to film as much as possible inside. This was a problem as the sound quality isn’t brilliant on the camera to start with, so other sounds that aren’t needed make it almost impossible in some shots to hear the narrative.

The last thing we struggled with was the cuts. A couple of shots were cut too quick and so if it came to editing we wouldn’t of had a lot of film to work with. In one particular group the shots being too short also lead to some of the speech being lost. The only way to solve this problem is to allow the camera to run for a few seconds before and a few seconds after.

evaluation

evaluation

Before even starting on my main task, I had to do a preliminary task that would help boost all my skills I needed to do well with my music magazine. For my preliminary task we had to make a school magazine. This was useful to get an idea of how to structure both a front cover and contents page, it was also useful in practising the skills I needed to use photoshop well and get the best out of it.

evaluation

My genre of music that I wanted to focuse my magazine on was indie. So before I started my magazine I needed to research into a magazine that also focused on the same genre of music. The biggest magazine in the country for this kind of music is New Musical Express (NME). Researching this wasnt that hard as I usually read the magazine anyway, but I took a deeper look at how they structure things within the magazine and the sort of language they use.

evaluation

Before I could start the production of my magazine I needed to look at the history and present of a music magazine that I hadnt previously done much research into. For this I looked at Q magazine. This would help because you need to have an idea of the history of a magazine to understand why it does the things it does in the modern day and how they came to publish things on that genre/genres of music.

The front cover is essential to get the audiences interest, this is has to be eye catching and sum up that issue of the magazine otherwise the audience will never even think about buying the magazine. You need a clear title and listed features so that people get an instant feel of what the magazine is and what is inside that weeks issue. The picture is key to representing what kind of magazine it is and showing what is the main feature without having to even read the contents, title or any of the feature inside.

evaluation

For me, the sole purpose of the contents is to help the reader find what they want quickly and easily. So for this reason it needs to be as easy to read and understand as possible to help the reader find what they want. The plain background make it easy for people to read and the bold heading helps split up the contents into sections which makes it even easier to find what you want, this is very similar to what they do in NME.

evaluation

I felt that the most important thing on my double page spread was the black on white contrast. I feel it needs to be this way because it needs to be easy for the audience to read otherwise they just wont read it. If the colours dont stand out well against each other it will make it difficult to read and you will lose the interest of the audience. A clear headline and an obvious quote from the text also help to get the attention of the reader and give you a good idea of the text. This is like what NME do with their double page spreads.

evaluation

Before you can attempt to attract your audience, you need to know who your audience are. The slide above lists the typical person that I believe the audience type is based on. I got these ideas from looking at a magazine I think is most similar and looking at its audience.

evaluation

It was key while making my magazine, especially the front cover, that I knew how to attract the audience. The ways I used to attract my audience are shown on my presentation. To attract my audience I first need to get their attention, this is done by using things like bold colours, clear title and clear text. Once the persons attention has been gained it is important to sell the magazine to them and things such as free offers and a well related picture help to interest the audience into buying the magazine.

evaluation

While making my magazine I used various different technologies. The main one I used to construct my actual magazine was Photoshop. I found Photoshop quite difficult to use because of all the icons and different things available to do on it, also before this project I had never previously used Photoshop. After my preliminary and practise tasks I was better at using photoshop which allowed me to use it fairly well while constructing my music magazine. I also used various music websites to make research into how to make my magazine and I used powerpoint for things like this presentation.

evaluation

Looking at the publishers, I think that the best oppourtunity for my music magazine would be with the publisher emap. As far as I could find, emap dont currently publish a major music magazine. Both Bauer and IPC both publish major magazines already and so this would be difficult for them to start to publish my magazine in the first place and then starting to compete with these magazines in terms of sales would be even harder.

Music Magazine - front page

This is the front cover for my music magazine 'The Scene'. I wanted the front covers main focus to be on the picture of Billy Lunn and I think that I have done that. The black and white fonts stand out clearly and are easy to read while they dont take away the focus from the picture. The title and information circle being in green help to blend in with the shirt Billy is wearing in the picture so they blend in rather than stand out. My only problem with the front page is the free offer square in the top right corner. The colours of it dont really go with the rest of the front page and if I had the chance to do it again I would do it with another colour apart from red.

Music Magazine - contents page

This is the contents page for my music magazine 'The Scene'. This also is a very basic layout placed on a white background to help make the pictures and text stand out. The layout of the contents page is very simple which makes it quick for the reader to find the page or pages that they want to look at. The green and white section headers make each section easy to find and then once youre on that section, the red font makes it easy for you to find the text that you want. My only problem with the contents page is that bits of it, particularly the right hand side is a bit bare. I could have done with adding a bit more information to fill it out a bit more.

Music Magazine - Double page spread

This is my double page spread for my music magazine 'The Scene'. The double page spread is set out with the title in bold black font. This setting is what makes up the whole two pages, black on white is a simple setup that makes it easy for the font to be read while also making the black stand out which helps to make it more eye catching for the reader. The font is also a bold and plain which makes it easier to read. These are both traits that a magazine aimed at an older audience would normally have.