Final Piece

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to full product?

The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug

The sequel to the 2012 Jackson film, The Hobbit. Based of the novel by J. R. R. Tolkein.


Director: Peter Jackson
Distributors: Warner Bros. Pictures
Producers: Carolynne Cunningham; Zane Weiner; Fran Walsh; Peter Jackson.


Budget: $225 million.


Opening weekend: $73,645,197.
US Total Gross: $258,366,855
UK Total Gross: $70,275,514


DVD Release: April 7th, 2014


The Hobbit 2's trailer came out on youtube on the 1st of October, only a few months before the film its self was released, and up to date has around 5.2 million views.


The Hobbit 2 is the 4th highest grossing film of 2013 and 24th of all time having made a worldwide total of $953,066,855 and comes just after Harry Potter 7. The Hobbit 2 comes 7 places lower than the first Hobbit did.


The film didn't receive amazing critical success, achieving no awards.


While this film came out about 5-6 months ago it is still being shown on 48,488 screens at 5,382 cinemas in the United States and Canada.

My Brother The Devil

It is a UK film based in London about 2 brothers growing up in Hackney, living lives revolving around the London gang scene.

Director/Writer: Sally El Hoasaini
Production co: Rook Nest Entertainment, Wild Horses Film Company.

Distributors: 108 Media (2012, Canada), Paladin (II) (2012, USA), Verve Pictures (2012, UK).

Budget: £650,000 (raised through private investors)

Opening Weekend: UK- £44,833 (57 screens).

US- $10,305 (Dispite it only being on 2 screens). This was the majority of the grossing this film made in the US.


DVD releases were on the 18 March, 2013.

Distribution: Trailer on YouTube (288,428 views), Trailer on Trailer Addict (2,703 Views)
 

Awards:

Won Best Actor - James Floyd at Milan Film Festival.

Won Grand Jury Award at LA Outfest.

Won Best European Film (Europa Cinemas Label Award) at Berlinale.

Won Best Newcomer - Sally El Hosaini at BFI London Film Festival.

Won Best Cinematography at Sundance Film Festival.


It has also had a re-release on Sky Movies and is available to watch on demand too.

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of creating this product

Question 5 - How did you attract/adress your audience?

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Photoshop - Fixing up photos

I caught a good picture of a girl i wanted to use in the magazine but she had a bit of a slip...

and so she wanted me to cover over it, making the picture look as if the top was fully covering her. To do this i had to use the brush tool and also the eyedropper tool in order to get the right colours. I was also asked if i could covver over the necklace, for which i again needed the brush and eyedropper tool but i also had to blur over the neck to make it all blend together.

 

This is the end result.

Photoshop - Adjusting hue and saturation.

In order to get on of the peopl in the band to have redish hair i needed to select their hair and use the enhance to adjust the saturation of their hair to make it look redder.

I also followed this process on the cover to make her hair look redder.

Classic Rock- Issue 180

Muse interview

Due to the fact that when the magazine was published Muse were going on tour the interview is generally based around the bands live performances and their kind of style (“hailed as the new Queen” and “early influences where Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Rage Against the Machine”). They were said to be a mixture of multiple artists, which could be said was said in ordered to widen the audience and make Muse’s music appeal to a variety of people.

Of course as it is an interview there was mention of where they came from, what jobs they did in the early years to keep them going but also to keep them focused on their music, again there is mention to the bands habits on stage (smashing the equipment). The interviewer describes Matt Bellamy’s look which helps to get the reader to feel like there is a more personal touch to the interview as is expected in a Classic Rock interview.

There is mention of the bands albums and also a review of the m(which is like the other segment ‘Buyers guide’).

But like I stated at the beginning, because of the bands up coming tour the interview was generally all geared towards their live playing and on-stage habits, making it all sound very spectacular. They were also compared to Pink Floyd in terms of live performances.

Preliminary Task Cover

Magazine Cover

From the feedback i got from the preliminary task I was able to apply that to my actual coursework. Straight away you can see that the main feature has changed from being an instument or object to actual people and therefore we can see what the main feature of the magazine will be.

I have also changed the theme, from being quite dark and abstract to colours of a lighter pallet. This is to make my magazine more inviting to the audience and any possible readers.

Although the preliminary task was only based around being a school magazine there are a lot of details i could have added and have added to the actual cover of my magazine. For example, I have added a slogan and a bar code.

The lay out of the actual cover is a lot more conventional as it makes more of the room available, whereas the preliminary task cover keeps all to the left and makes no use what so every of any other space (unless you count the title or the 'exclusive' bar at the bottom.

Breakdown of a Magazine Interview

Classic Rock - January 2012/Issue 179

An interview featured in this magazine is 'Led Zeppelin - Celebrate the Good Times' in which some of the band members look back on their time performing.

The lay out of the article is simple. It starts with the subtle promotion of the bands DVD 'Celebration Day' of their 2007 comeback show. Not only does it promote the DVD but it also informs the readers of the recent news about the band. Following the DVD release information there is a slight introduction to the interview, speaking about who was there and the atmosphere of the press room.

The next two pages consist of Q&A. The questions are all quite formal and genuinely inquisitive, which reflects the identity of the band, as they are so iconic and to be taken seriously. The order of the questions follow on from the introduction paragraph as they start by speaking about the DVD and how it felt to watch and so on. Following that it gets more personal by speaking about the idea of Zeppelin getting back together or forming a new band.

On the third page of the Zeppelin article we see a full discography of the band, therefore promoting all of their albums and describing them in ways that are fairly analytical, allowing the reader to decide if they want to by the album.

Following the discography is another page of interviewer questions. These questions are all quite personal due to the fact they are aimed at specific people and also mention their late manager, Peter Grant. It also mentions a few products by people in the band and also the potential second album of 'Them Crooked Vultures'.

The content of this interview appeals to the reader as we get to hear the personal oppinions of the band that we dont get to hear elsewhere. We also gain knowledge of CD's, the new DVD and also the type of things the band members are doing now.

PreliminaryTask Feedback

For the feedback of my preliminary task I was told that for the front cover I should have had a person to be the main feature. However due to the fact that I did have the bass on the front I should have had a picture of someone playing the featured bass, which I didn't.

Also on the cover instead of the actual date I should have just had January edition or maybe have even made it a ‘per term’ magazine. As well as changing the date on the front I should have also had the date on the contents page.
The exclusive bar at the bottom should have featured the same text as that on the rest of the page as it broke away from the standard magazine font style.
My contents page was not as conventional as it should have been. For example I should have used columns instead of the strange zigzag pattern I used. Seeing as I used this I should have also used more pictures beside each piece of text to fill in the dead space.
I was told that my contents page could have been a bit lighter due to the fact it was a college magazine.

I took a poll of the 5 titles i came up with for my rock magazine and got people within my target audience age (16-29) and the results for my poll was:

Download - 6

Session - 3

Tune - 5

Overdrive - 13

Remastered - 2

Ideal Audience

This is Kaimen McCreed. He is 17 years and 4 months old and lives in a council flat on a run down estate in north London.
He enjoys online gaming with his few select friends and spending the occasional weekend looking around the Camden stalls in search of Anime-themed nik-naks and band merchandise to add to his pile of clothes and junk he keeps pushed to the side of his room.
Due to being kicked off his apprenticeship course for lack of attendance and negative attitude towards putting in the required effort because "he couldn't be bothered", he spends his weekdays getting up at 2pm. He rolls out of bed to throw on yesterdays yesterdays clothes, which consist of dark blue jeans that are two sizes too wide and one size too long, fit with a bike chain hanging from his waist to his mid-thigh and one of his many dark coloured tees. He pulls his frayed hat over his greasy bed head. After "dressing" he is forced by his pub owning parents to go and look for a job, at which point he leaves his house to meet friends under a Camden bridge to consume substances until 6pm when he returns home to dive into his room to hide from his parents and brothers.
While he spends the majority of the daytime asleep or under the influence of substances, from about 8pm until approximately 4am he likes to alternate between illegally streaming films and music to reading books like Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and a variety of Manga series. His taste in films is very similar to his taste in books and, due to this, the number of views of his downloaded file of Lord of the Rings is reaching 100.
While in transit to places, he likes to read one of the magazines he is subscribed to (however it is his parents that pay for the subscriptions) such as Classic Rock. Not only does he read Classic Rock, but he likes to stop by his local corner shop to pick up the weekly editions of Kerrang and Revolver.
Along with reading the magazines, he likes to use his cracked iPhone 4 to listen to his downloaded music via his Skull Candy Crushers. He enjoys listening to Paramore, Alexisonfire, System of a Down and Metallica along with others.
I believe that he would be the ideal audience for my magazine as it will contain information on bands as well as giveaways (like posters). Despite his lazy persona and lack of social interaction, he still has a good sense of humour which is good because the magazine will be a lighthearted and funny magazine and therefore aimed at a wider age range.

In the lesson today i have nearly completed the flat plan of my front cover and it will be complete by the end of the day. I have also thought about the type of cover picture I will want and how this picture will help me with my pictures that i will use on the double-spread interview.
By the end of the day i will also have used social media and in person techniques in which i will ask my target audience what name for my magazine i will use. By asking the target audience what name they prefer i will be able to reach the audience easier due to the fact that they have had an influence in the choice of name.

Teenage Film Posters

The Inbetweeners (2011)

The stereotypical views of teenagers are all portrayed in 'The Inbetweeners', (4 STEREOTYPES HERE)!!!.
Due to how they are portrayed their facial expressions are used to represent their personalities. For example the cynical look on Will's face, the want-to-be-cool smile on Jay, the look of awe from Simon and finally the open mouthed smile/laugh from Neil.
Also, their costumes portray the characters as Jay's shirt is an England football polo. This shows that he is a 'lad' and very British. Will's shirt shows us that he is a smart, supposed know it all.
It could be said that once you have watched the film that the arrangement of the characters that it is intentional to put Jay and Will at the front. Not only can Will be considered the main character (due to the fact it is him that narrates everything) but Will and Jay could be said to have had the most development of themselves throughout the film and therefore that is why they were placed on the front. It may have also been that they are possibly they are the two favourite characters and it was a marketing technique used in order to draw in more viewers.
The placement of the title is centre top, written in a text that resembles neon signs outside clubs in foreign countries, this font was obviously chosen due to the setting being in a foreign country in clubs.
Not only is the title in the neon on font (and a neon blue) but the sides of the poster stand out due to the bright colours and blur effects added to them.
Also, as the 'movie' is in yellow and obscure to the bottom left of the title it stands out, signifying it is not part of the TV series. Almost as if it is a sign hanging off the title.
The tag line 'This summer four boys become men' signifies they are going on a 'lads' holiday and that it is a right of passage for men to do.


Juno (2007)





It could be said that in this film teens could be said to be irresponsible due to the teenage pregnancy, and also that teenagers are clueless in regards to consequences (in the poster Cera is scratching his head and staring blankly, this is a good use of facial expressions).
The background of the poster is the same pattern as Page's shirt possibly signifying the fact that she is the main character, although that is fairly obvious.
The font of the title is like it has been drawn, making it look slightly childish due to the fact the sides of the letters are only roughly coloured in.
The layout of the poster overall leaves quite a bit of dead space. However, this sticks with the theme of quite a simple and yet complex film.
It sticks to a clear colour scheme of orange, white with the green of the title (and speech marks) standing out.
The tag line is 'A comedy about growing up... and the bumps along the way.' which is clearly a reference to Juno's pregnancy.



Kick-ass (2010)

 

The representation of teenagers in this film is that they can be seen to be dreamers and that they shouldn't be taken seriously. Another thing we are shown by the poster is that it is quite a made up and very fictional film, due to the effect on the characters. This effect is that of a paint splash, possibly signifying the ideas of being in a comic book or at least being influenced by comics.

The majority of the poster is of the characters. This is because at the time this was released it was the biggest, if only, 'superhero' film and therefore the background (which says Kick ass) didn't need to be seen.

The colour scheme of this also points to a comic book theme due to the reds, greens and yellow. This gives off the impression of being childish/light-hearted as they are very bright colours on a black background.

The tag line is very plain and simple. It doesn't need to be explained and also includes the title of the film. This may be a marketing technique as it means there are two things that say kick ass, and therefore people are more likely to remember it.

College Magazines

The college magazines use similar concepts to that of music magazines in that they generally use a picture of a person and have them centered with text around that person - A good example of this is:

This picture uses good use of the space without obstructing the main focus, the girl. Another way this cover has shown she is the focus (as well as framing the picture so that she is center but also they have used an effect so that the back drop is all out of focus.

A similarity found in most music magazines is that most or a lot contain an artist with blank space behind them, this blank spance is then filled in be information and therefore gets rid of any 'dead space' - Examples:

These are all mid shots. The concept of a person in blank space is also used with close ups - Examples:



In 'Kerrang' magazine a main concept is to have all of the band members on the front and have text on the sides or possibly on a body part of a band member - Examples

This Paramore cover is very smart about both the pose of the band and also the placement of the text as the text doesnt obscure any of their faces and yet still doesnt leave any space left open.

A common feature of guitarist magazine is to have an instrument (and possibly and amp) on the cover. This is expected due to the name - Examples:

This cover shows a Gibson Custom 1956 Les Paul and this is what would display what the magazine is about straight away, drawing in the audience.

Another magazine is Top Gear magazine, which is aimed at motor lovers just like music magazines are aimed at musicians and people that like music.



Just like the concept of having a music artist on a music magazine, instead just replacing the artist with a car and/or motor-vehicle of some kind (usually with more cars behind the main feature) - Example:

Due to the fact it is a car magazine that focus's on not just engines and the internal but the aesthetics of cars too, the text is placed to that it isnt covering any of the car, including the title.