Learning Photoshop - Text photo effect

To enhance my Photoshop skills I have used the Text Photo Effect on Kanye West.

As you can see here I have just written Kanye West for the text and used to to make the artists facial features.

This is relevant to my music magazine front cover because on the front cover of most rap magazines there is usually a quote from the artist. I can use a quote and do this effect on the artist when it comes to creating my own music magazine.

Magazine Front Cover: Consistent Features

So I know how to construct a professional magazine front cover, I decided to look at the consistent features that are in each issue of VIBE. This will help me to construct my own because I will be aware of what VIBE's target audience will expect when they purchase an issue and then I can apply this to my own expectations on what I want my front cover to look like. Please watch my Prezi on the consistent features of VIBE.

Front Cover Analysis: VIBE

What is the House Style?                   

What is the concept behind the cover?

How does the cover attract it's target audience?

How does the Mise En Scene suit the genre?

What proportion of the page does the Masthead take up?

What is the formula of the front cover?

What Photoshop work has been done to the cover?

Music Magazine Annotation Using Voki

I have been asked to use Voki software to annotate a magazine front cover in my chosen genre. I have already posted an introduction to this software so I am aware of how to use it. The more I analyse music magazine front covers of my chosen genre, the more I will have a better understanding of how I will create my own. This Voki that I have embedded will annotate the magazine front cover that I have chosen.

Introduction to Voki

To be able to fully understand how to use the program I have created a short Prezi to familiarise myself with the program in order for me to use it in future blog posts. Please take a few moments to watch my Prezi.

Big Top 40 - Rap artists

Top 40 - The best 40 songs currently in the UK (updated weekly)

The top 40 is the best way of finding out the most listened to tracks and the most popular artists. I have decided to look at the charts to see how many rap artists and songs are in the charts this week.

The songs that I found are:

• The Monster - Eminem (Rank 3)
• Hold on we're going home - Drake (Rank 26)
• Skip to the good bit - Rizzle Kicks (Rank 33)

I have done this because when it comes to creating my own music magazine I can have a clear understanding on what artists are currently popular and the most listened to.

Analysing a Contents Page

This Prezi I have created is analysing a contents page from my chosen genre and compare the page to others within the same genre and get ideas. This is has helped me understand what I need to do to make my contents page successful and look professional. Please watch my Prezi.

Ideology

Ideology 

Ideology - This is considered a comprehensive vision, which is how we perceive things. A set of conscious and unconscious ideas that we use for our perceptions.

Stereotype - A thought that has been created about a certain group of people.

Ideology applies to music magazines because producers of music magazines consider their own ideology when creating the front cover of the magazine. This is because the stereotype of a certain genre can be visual on the front cover. Stereotypes can be made visual through:

Rap Magazine

• Colour scheme
• Artists facial expressions
• Artists attire
• House Style
• Artists posture

Even though in certain cases stereotypes can be considered negative, but some stereotypes regarding certain genres are embraced and used so people can easily identify artists with the genre.

As you can see on the cover of XXL magazine, this magazine has shown that the artist on the front of the magazine is embracing the stereotype of the rap genre. This is because the magazine's house style and colour scheme is mostly black and red which is associated with this genre.





I have embedded a video which explains the definition of ideology.

House Style

I have created a short Prezi to analyse the house style of rap magazines, I have done this so I can have a better understanding of how music magazines design rap issues and what the colour scheme is. I have embedded my presentation.

College Magazine - Contents Page

Contents Page

This is a contents page mock up that I have done following the front cover that I done a while back. I created this contents page before my other research so it is not as good as I would hope for.

The font that I had chosen looks hard to read and doesn't look professional to what you would normally expect the font to be on a contents page.

Also I don't think the overall design is good because the border around "THP contents"looks amateur and doesn't look natural on the page.

Now I have researched contents pages I know have a better understanding on what a contents page in my chosen genre should look like to look professional.

I also now have a general idea on how my next contents page will look like so it is relatable to my chosen genre and make my music magazine look more professional.

This is a contents page that is in my chosen genre that I would like my contents page to look like. I will try to design my page like this but also including some of my own ideas.

College Magazine Front Cover

This is my mock up of a front cover of a college magazine. I have decided to go with a red and yellow colour scheme because these are the colours on Cardinal Heenan's logo, also because red and yellow are eye catching colours. The design that I have went for is a circular shape in the middle of the page to place my main image, I have done this because I thought that this looks like a professional layout.

The masthead is THP (The Heenan Press) and is in the top left corner of the page. The yellow font also stands out on the red background to make the magazine more attractive. Underneath the masthead i have included the school's motto, this is because this is an important statement of what the school stands for so I felt it was important to include this. In the bottom left corner of the magazine I have included the school's logo so the magazine can be identified as being a product from Cardinal Heenan.

The headline is red and shown across the image in the middle of the cover, I decided to change the font of the headline so then it is easier to recognise this as the headline and it also stood out more than yellow on the image. The font is also smaller than the mastheads so it can not be mistaken for the masthead.

The anchorage text below the headline is in yellow font again so it is not mistaken as the headline, I have also decided to include a puff because this is makes the magazine look more eye catching because the red text is standing out in the yellow circle. The date the magazine was created is in the top right corner of the magazine in a yellow strip so it stands out, this is a pug.

Positives of Photoshop

After analysing the mental and physical effects of enhancing the features of models on Photoshop, I have now created a short Prezi presentation on the positives of Photoshop. Please take the time to watch my presentation.

Effect of Photoshop on Women

Effect of Photoshop on Women

Photoshop is used to alter the looks of models that pose on the front of magazines, this means that they can alter them to the point where there body looks "un natural."

This has led to thousands of women aspiring to look like the model when the model herself does not have that figure and it has just been altered in photoshop. This shows that Photoshop is being used to make women look like what they are not and this is damaging for women's self esteem.

Effects on women:

• Starve themselves to get the figure of the model
• Lowered self esteem because society expects women to look like the models
• Depression because they are trying to have the model figure but failing

Because of the way that Photoshop alters models to have near impossible figures, this has led society to believe that this is the way that all women should look. This means that men and women are more judgemental towards how women look. This applies to all women but this is more likely to take place in young women.

I have embedded here a video that shows how models are altered by Photoshop to look more photogenic and look more beautiful than they actually are.

This video shows the steps required to make the models look the way that they do and shows what they do to alter women isn't even noticeable.

Learning Photoshop - Crack and Peel effect

The crack and peel effect is where you take an image of a person and then make it look like that there is skin is cracked and peeling off. This effect can be used to make it look like someone has come back from the dead, so this can be applied to artists that have "come back from the dead" and released a new single or album after a long time. I have learnt this effect so I have more knowledge of Photoshop when it comes to producing my own music magazine.

Crack and peel effect used on Eminem.

As you can see here I have used Eminem to test out the crack and peel effect, his skin looks like it is cracked as well as his hand; I can successfully say I know how to fully do the crack and peel effect.

Photoshop: 50 Cent & Susan Boyle merge

So I can develop my Photoshop skills, I have been asked to merge images of both 50 Cent and Susan Boyle that can be used on the front cover of a music magazine. The image that I have produced has been displayed to the right. I am going to analyse both the positives and negatives of this collaboration.

Positives:

• Shows artists from two different genres coming together
• Experimenting with new methods of using Photoshop
• Gives me a better understanding between professional and amateur images
• Gives me a better understanding on how to successfully manipulate two images for my music magazine

Negatives:

• Image looks amateur because of the difference in size of the two images
• If this was done both artists would lose fans of the target audience due to the difference in genre
• Unrealistic that the two artists would agree to a collaboration
• Artists will not want to associate with each other because they represent different genres

Learning Photoshop - Colour Effect

The colour splash effect is where you take an image and then you change the colour of the image to make it look like the colour is splashed on the screen. I put the image on a paper texture background so it creates the effect that the image has been painted on to the page.

This is the effect used on 50 cent. This can be used on my music magazine because I can use the colours to blend into the magazines colour scheme and integrate this into the house style.

Cardinal Bulletin Analysis

I have been asked to analyse the Cardinal Bulletin which is Cardinal Heenan's newsletter, I am going to look at the features of the newsletter that make it attractive and engaging with the target audience and also to point out selected improvements. This will help me understand key features which make this newsletter successful which I can apply to my own music magazine.

School newsletter

The masthead is the first feature that stands out on the page because of the way it is presented. It has been done to look like there is snow on top of the text, this helps the reader to understand that this newsletter has been released in winter and makes the newsletter more engaging. Secondly "bulletin" is in a different colour and italic which makes it different to the first word of the masthead, I think this has been done because the word "cardinal" is displayed in the same colour as the name of the school, so bulletin being displayed differently helps people who don't know understand that this is just the name of the newsletter not the school as well.

Secondly the "Head's Message" down the left side of the newsletter this lets the reader know that the headteacher plays an active role in the school and is involved in what the school does. Also the pictures of the students also emphasizes that the school take pride in their students achievements and that the students are proud of what they can do for the school. Also the black text on the red background makes it stand out more than the other text on the page.

The headline is bold, above the images and this is done so the reader understands that this will be the main topic in the newsletter.

Example of another newsletter

Improvements

The improvements that I would make for this newsletter are:

• I think that the house style of the newsletter is too plain, because it's not an exciting choice of colour scheme and if this was on a shelve in a shop, wouldn't stand out compared to other newsletters.
• The "Head's Message" is not engaging enough for the target audience, because there is too much text. I would start the article off with a drop capital, break up the text more and maybe display another image to make it more eye catching.
• The headline is not eye catching enough because it is only bold black text above the story, I would change it completely by making it bigger, change the colour and by changing the font to make it more attractive.
• Also the title for the second article "Christmas Concert" looks too childish because it is just white with a black outline word art. To make this more engaging I would change the colour of the word art and make it a bit more bigger.

VIBE and Q Front Covers - Comparison

After annotating both VIBE and Q magazines I have know gained a better understanding on what the expectations of a professional music magazine front cover are. The analysis of both magazines has helped me understand what is needed for when I create my own music magazine, from this I can now clearly identify the similarities and differences between the magazines.

Similarities:

Q front cover

• Both have big and bold mastheads which are the biggest text on the page to emphasize this is the masthead which is the most important feature of the magazine regarding identifying the genre of the magazine.
• They both display their content around the main image on the front cover.
• The main image is largely displayed in the middle of the front cover to show the audience that this will be the particular issue's main focus.
• Both magazines contain sell lines which are used to reveal the other content of the magazine.
• They both have the same colour background (white) which is an important feature of the house style.



VIBE front cover

• Both magazines contain buzz words which are used to attract the reader to the magazine.

Differences:

• The masthead on Q magazine is in the top left corner of the magazine which means it also can be referred as a pug, while the VIBE masthead is stretched across the front cover above the main image.
• Q magazine has a slogan "discover great music" while VIBE magazine doesn't have a slogan. 
• The headline on VIBE is smaller than the headline on Q magazine because it is congested next to the main image, whilst the Q headline is displayed in a banner across the bottom of the front cover.
• Q has a puff on the top right corner of the front cover.
• Q has pugs on both the top corners of the front cover.
• The colour scheme of the VIBE magazine is white, blue and pink whilst the Q colour scheme is red, white, black and gold and this what is the difference between the magazines regarding house style.

Magazine Front Cover Annotation: Q

I have annotated another front cover of a magazine, this time the magazine is Q and I have chosen to annotate a band of another genre. I have created another short prezi presentation analyzing the front cover of the magazine, please take the time to watch my presentation.

Magazine Terminology

Magazine Terminology

In order to fully be able to analyse two magazine covers from different genres I need to know all the magazine terminology to do this. I am know going to go through all the terminology I need to know. The reason my first annotation is before this post is because i was absent one lesson.

Copy - This is the main text on the front cover.

Strap line - This is a memorable and catchy phrase that is recognisably associated with the brand.

Buzz words - Short, engaging words used to attract the target audience, examples of this are "wow" and "exclusive."

House Style - A magazines distinctive house style which is unique to the magazine.

Pugs - These can be the price of the magazine, the logo or a promotional offer; they are placed at the top left and right corners of the page which are known as the "ears."

Banner - This is text that is on a coloured background to stand out.

Puffs - Promoting features inside the magazine in colourful boxes.

Slogan - The magazines motto.

Masthead - The title of the magazine.

Caption - Small description of the image on the front cover is.

Headline - The magazine's main story.

Sell lines - Text on the front cover that helps sell the magazine to the audience.

Anchorage text - This is text that helps describe the meaning an image.

As you can see here this music magazine has the following:

• Masthead (NME)
• Pugs (Logo)
• Headline (Arctic Monkeys)
• Sell Lines (The 10 best punk bands)
• Anchorage text (On the third album that changed them)

Magazine Research: Masthead

Masthead - Title of the magazine.

The masthead is one of the first things that a person notices when picking up a music magazine, I am trying to think of a name for my magazine that is unique and different to other music magazines. Popular music magazines all have big, bold mastheads to identify that this is the title of the magazine to the reader. As you can see here the front covers on both NME and Q magazines they both have two similarities:

NME front cover

• The mastheads are the biggest text on the page
• The colour of the mastheads match the house style and colour scheme



Q front cover

• The mastheads are on the top of the page as they always are

A masthead has to be the biggest text on the page, this is so that the audience can easily identify that this is the masthead. They also are identifiable on each magazine through different ways. On the NME magazine the masthead is highlighted in bold so that it is eye catching and the first thing that the reader notices when picking up the magazine. On the Q magazine the colour of the text is different to the rest of the text as you can see the rest of the text is black and gold. Also the masthead is on a red background which makes it stand out more because the rest of the magazine is white, this also matches with the colour scheme.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

There are several factors that need to be taken into consideration when designing the front cover to a college magazine.

This is an example of the front cover of VIBE magazine, I am going to analyse this front cover for ideas for my own:

• This has a very structered layout.
• Balanced colour scheme of black and green.
• Medium shot of Chris Brown
• Facial expressions emphasise an arrogance about him to match the genre of music he is representing.

The artist on the front cover of my music magazine has to be displayed through a medium shot, this is because:

• Close up is zoomed in too much.
• Long shot can make artist unrecognisable.

I also need to find a suitable artist that relates to my chosen genre, so that the magazine looks professional. As well as the front cover I need to design a mock up of a contents page to do this well I need to consider:

• The contents of the magazine
• Genre of music I will focus on
• Balanced colour scheme
• Professional layout

This is an example of a double page spread about a band called The Vaccines, this helps me in thinking of my design because the pages are split one side a picture of the band and the other side the article on the band. The text also stands out in the background as an aspect of the colour scheme, and it starts with a drop capital as well as a pull quote which is the text in blue.

To design this I will be using photoshop, but because I am not skilled at the software I will need to improve my skills if I am to create a professional looking magazine.

Magazine Front Cover Annotation: VIBE

To create a successful magazine I have had to identify some of the key features of another magazine front cover to aid my research. I have done this using my understanding on the terminology and produced a short Prezi presentation. The production is my analysis of another magazine front cover, please take the time to watch my presentation.

Applying the Male Gaze

Applying the Male Gaze

The Male Gaze is a media concept used in today's society, it is associated with how women are represented in the media. This concept applies to a variety of media such as:

• Television
• Magazine covers
• Advertisements

In this clip of Hollyoaks I will analyse how actress Jennifer Metcalfe is presented in the scenes, I will be applying the Male Gaze to this clip.

The drink is split on her top at the beginning of the clip and this is used to show off her body in a seductive way. Throughout the clip her body language and facial expressions emphasize that she is enjoying the male attention. She also takes her top off to once again show off her body to the audience, this is used to attract more attention to her body than the scene itself. The Male Gaze theory is supported by this clip as Hollyoaks have used the attractiveness of Jennifer Metcalfe to attract the male audience. The clip is not very long but you can clearly see how the Male Gaze theory can be applied to the scene, the camera angles also support this.

A medium shot is used so that the audience can clearly see her appearance and the fact that the camera stays on her despite their being another person in the scene outlines what Hollyoaks are trying to do in this scene. Edits also approve the theory as high key lighting is used to connotate that she is the main person to look at in the scene.

Feminism

Feminist propaganda

Feminism

Feminism - Various ideologies that defend and establish women's rights. 

Feminism has led to women gaining more rights regarding politics, economics and social rights. Feminist activist groups are the reason that women have so much equality today and examples of the rights they have gained from these groups are:

Marie De France

• Right to vote
• Equal rights in law
• Equal pay to men
• Freedom to decide whether or not they want 

First feminist - Marie De France lived in the 12th century is the first recorded feminist, she was a poet and used her poems to portray her feminism. 

There have been three major waves of feminism throughout history they are:

Kate Upton

• 19th century - early 20th century (over turned legal equalities) this mostly known as the woman's suffrage movement
• 1960's-1980's (cultural inequalities and women's role in society)
• 1990's-2000's (considered as part two to the second wave)

There are many modern day feminists that strongly appose attractive women exploiting their sexuality, an example of this is the picture I have found of Kate Upton. This is a picture I found of her from a photo shoot, a traditional feminist will appose to this picture, the question with this is; are the apposing due to feminist beliefs or jealousy.

Change in Feminism

Even though there are some very strong minded modern day feminists, there are also women who aren't particularly a feminist but just jealous of the woman they are looking at. An example of a modern day feminist is Lady Gaga, here is a video of her outlining her feminist beliefs.

The issue of NME of a revealing Beth Ditto on the front shows the negative side of feminism, because coincidentally there seems to be no objections from feminists regarding this cover despite it being against feminist beliefs. Raising the question of is feminism really just jealousy?

Semiotic Theory

Semiotic Theory

Semiotic Theory is the relationship between a sign, an object and the meaning behind it, when a person interprets the sign they believe that the sign represents the object. The sign is the interpretant which means that is the representation of the object; according to C. Morris people are the interpreters of signs and interpretations are concluded through three stages:

1. Perception - the person becomes aware of the sign in front of them.

2. Manipulation - the person starts to interpret the sign and decides how to respond to it.

3. Consummation - the person responds to the sign.

Denotation

Denotation is the literal meaning of the sign, this can be referred to the dictionary definition of the sign. Denotation can be contrasted to connotation if the sign does not have the same connotation as the denotation. An example of a denotation is that a red rose is red with a green stem.

Connotation

Connotation is the person who views the sign personal opinion on what it portrays, the connotation can contrast with the denotation depending on the sign. This is the emotional suggestions or the associations connected to the sign and then we can choose to respond in either a negative or a positive way.
Connotation is people's own personal opinions as this differs for different people. An example of this is that a rose has a connotation with love and lust.

This theory can be applied to all music magazines for example I have chosen this issue of VIBE and Eminem is on the cover. The denotation is that he has an angry or arrogant expression on his face. It says on the cover that he "comes clean" so his body language is a way of expressing the seriousness of what he is going to say.
The connotation of the magazine cover in my opinion is the fact that he is using these facial expressions and using his body language to show his image to the readers. He is going to be talking about a sensitive subject because he is coming clean, so there will be a side to Eminem that his fans have not seen before; I think this is way of doing this while reminding the fans of his image.
Also the colour scheme the main colours are red and black, this is because these are dark colours and red is associated with danger and I think this is why this colour scheme has been chosen.

Rap Representations

The rap genre is one of the most stereotypical genres because of the way that it is represented to the audience. The representations are:

• Arrogance
• Bad influence on children
• Drugs
• Violence
• Sexually explicit material

All of these negative representations make rap artists an easy target for the media to criticise which has led to all the negative publicity. The general colour schemes of music magazines are:

• Red
• Black
• White

As you can see on this music magazine front cover that the colour scheme I have mentioned is the same for this front cover.

He also has the arrogant expression on his face which is one of the representations of rap music. On some magazines the masthead is across the image, but because it is not it relates to the arrogant image because he wants to be the centre of attention so the masthead is behind the image.

The music video I have embedded is a music video of 50 Cent's song "21 questions" and you can see here the "gangster rap" image in the music video.

Music Magazine Questionnaire

I have created a music magazine questionnaire to find out how many people buy and don't buy music magazines and then discover the reasons for this. This questionnaire will help me understand in detail why people purchase and don't purchase music magazines, and this will surely help me in my research. The questions in the questionnaire are specifically designed depending on whether you purchase music magazines or not.  Please complete my questionnaire it is displayed below.

 

Types of data

Types Of Data

There are different types of research that can be carried out the two methods are qualitative and quantitative research. The data that you collect can be both primary and secondary depending on where the information came from.

Qualitative Research

• Qualitative research is where more open questions are asked to get a more detailed answer to your questions.
• This type of research helps you understand thoughts and opinions of the people you are interviewing to aid further decision making.
• Qualitative research is used to develop a hypothesis you have already conducted and can be used to help generate ideas and identify needs of an target audience.
• This research is traditionally carried out through either one on one interviews or in focus groups.

Quantitative Research

• Quantitative research is where closed questions such as yes or no questions are asked to gather statistics and get an idea about the general consensus of how people think.
• This data can be used to offer validation on what you think you already know.
• The data can measure the satisfaction of the target audience and determine the average price that customers would purchase a music magazine.
• Both the types of research can be combined to find the most accurate and effective results.

Primary Data

• Primary data is when you conduct your own research manually making it unique and relevant to your research, this is original data.
• The advantage of this data is that you can address specific research issues because you are the one finding the data.
• There is no chance that the data will be outdated which can be a problem with secondary data because you will be finding this data at the time that you need it.



Example of  music magazine article

• The most popular ways of collecting this data are surveys, interviews and focus groups.

Survey

Secondary Data

• Secondary data is data that has already been conducted in the past and collected for another purpose.
• The data might not be relevant to your research and can also be outdated.
• You can get this type of data from sources such as newspaper and magazine articles and internet websites.
• Secondary data is less time consuming than primary data and can support findings of primary data, and you can use secondary data to compare with primary data results.

Music Magazine Task 1

NME magazine

Music Magazine Task 1

A music magazine is a magazine that tailors to music and music culture, the first recorded magazine published worldwide was Billboard magazine which was released in 1894. Interesting facts about music magazines are:

Q magazine

• The first UK music magazine released in 1903 is BMG magazine which is still running to date making it the longest running music magazine.
• NME leads the sales in the UK and has since it was released in 1952.
• Q release magazines that are revolve around lists such as "100 greatest songs ever."
• Q is considered the "world's greatest music magazine."
• The Fly is the most popular music magazine in the UK.
• The Fly is a independant magazine which means it is free.

The Fly magazine

I think that there is a bleak future if not no future for music magazines due to the rapid increase in technology in today's society. Since the internet, music magazines have been recording declines in circulation and due to the fact that technology is only going to go from strength to strength, circulation shows no sign of increasing.
Magazines have now released websites showing articles from the magazine but in an attempt to raise profit do not contain all the articles that the magazine but this has still failed.

I think all the magazines that target one specific genre will try to include content in their magazines that are attractive to their target audience such as the bands and artists reviewed and interviewed and the colour scheme.

VIBE magazine

I don't have a favorite music magazine because i'm not that much into music but I have found my favorite artist Eminem on the cover of Vibe. I listen to all types of genres but I have more rap songs than any other and is the genre I know most about.

This "Real Rap" issue of Vibe has a very balance colour scheme of red and black and that is why I like it. They can be considered as dark colours and because that most of rap music can be considered dark through the meanings of the songs I think this makes it a perfect colour scheme.

Introduction Blog

Introduction Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog!

As a part of my AS Media Study A-Level I will have to keep a blog, in this blog you will find:

• My Planning throughout the course
• My research throughout the year
• My Evaluation

About Me