Angles

I was given the 'Jelly Baby' task, which requires me to research into various camera angles, still and moving. To show my understanding of each camera angle i used my classmates as models so that i could demonstrate each angle.

Mid Shot

Close Up

Still Shots:
Close up – A close up is a shot that keeps the camera on the face at all times, used to show the significance of a characters reaction and/or facial expression.

Mid Shot – Also known as the medium shot, this is the most common camera angle in the filming industry, it shows less than a long shot however it’s closer so detail in setting, props, characters etc. is more easily visible.

Long Shot

Extreme Close Up

Long Shot – This camera angle reveals more of the character usually from head to foot revealing more of the setting.

Extreme Close Up – Like a close up however different, it magnifies to see past what the human eye can generally see.

Aerial Shot – An outside camera shot, taken from high up

Establishing Shot – Similar to an Aerial shot however it stats the name of the location.

Low Angle

High Angle

Low Angle – A shot often looking up at a character making them appear bigger than what they are, creates a sense of power for that character.

Eye Level – A neutral shot, the camera is positioned in a point of view, as if it was a human, creating the sense that you are there. It’s positioned at the characters head (about five or six feet).

High Angle – A shot often looking down at a character, giving of the feeling of isolation and creating a lower status for the character.

Two Shot

Over Shoulder

Birds Eye View – A shot from directly above the scene, making people look small and insufficient giving the audience a feeling of godlike empowerment.

Two Shot – A medium shot depicting two characters, used to show the links and contrasts between the characters.

Over Shoulder –The camera is positioned over the shoulder of the character, this is most commonly used in conversations, making audience feel as if they were there.

Inital Ideas

When I was looking at a name, genre or even layout for my magazine, I realized that most popular mainstream magazines had titles that where short, bold and iconic, words that stuck out to grab the attentions of the targeted audience, simple words such as vibe or blender; something that is easily remembered.
I used magazines such as:

• Vibe
• We <3 POP
• Q
• Entertainment Weekly
• Clash
• Rolling Stones

I looked at a variety of magazine types to find similar and reoccurring conventions that I would then use as inspiration to produce my magazine cover. 

So when I started I throw around a few ideas as my magazine is going to based on a music magazine, most likely either 'Pop' or 'R&B' being the genre of my magazine as I've not decided yet. At first I came up with tune and produced a mathshead and background with the name 'Tune productions' the colour scheme was also going to be orange and purple, although as I later progressed through my work I discovered that dark colours such as purple didn't connote pop very well and I asked my of my peers what genre would they think my magazine would be based on, the most common response was 'classical music'.
This made it very clear that I need to change the theme, I wanted to use warmer colours such as pink and white yet I didn't want to follow the same scheme as many of my peers, it was clear I needed something more unique. So I decided to keep with the orange and play about with various shades of orange and red. My second problem was the name of my magazine, I didn't really scream pop therefore I decided to reinvent the name, creating 'The Beat'. I would then redesign all of my themes and backgrounds based upon this.

Conventions

I started to look at major magazine publishers, looking at the conventions between each magazine on there title pages, i saw many similarities and differences that i noted down that i play on using as influence as well as inspiration for my own magazine that i plan to create.

In music magazine covers there's a general convention followed by the publishers:

• You will find with most popular magazines the artist on the cover will overlap the actual title it, although this can vary depending on the artists popularity and global recognition, and with the less known magazines the name is bold and always viable as they want people to know, recognize and remember the company.
• The title will generally be bold, short and memorable. Most commonly a single word the pops up in your face, e.g. Vibe.
• There is always an artist on the front of the cover, this is because they sell the magazine, there face, gossip and music is what people want to see, the magazines are also promoting this artist to help them receive more global recognition.
• The colour scheme is also important, there is normally a small colour pallet used, generally two colours that contrast each other to stand out more, if there was a vast array of colours it becomes confusing as well as complicated to look at as your brain is trying to processes so many colours at once alongside and text and imagery. The colours are normally black and/or white or warm and cold colours, e.g. Orange and white.
• It's also common to find that many key words have been highlighted or in a different colour/font. This is because this is what the publisher wants you see first, it's what I like to call the fishing method, these words/artists are the bait that attracts you, followed by the short phases and stories promised within that's advertised on the front cover that reels you in to buy the magazine, lastly once you read it your 'hooked'.
• Lastly a variety of language techniques are used to make the magazine more memorable, cleaver puns and metaphors are used to attract the targeted audience into buying their product, e.g. "A hot girl spits fire".

Research

When i was given the task the task to research into the history of my chosen genre, i was stuck i didn't know what genre i wanted to use, so i decided to keep an ope n mind and decided to reseach into both POP and R&B as i was indecisive between these two genres.

POP

Pop comes from an abbreviated form of the word 'popular'. The genre in its most modern form originated in the 1950's as it diverted from 'rock and roll'. The genre contains a plethora of various styles of music this can vary from; jazz to country, rock and roll to rap or be-bop to hip-hop., therefore is consistently changing depending on what is most recognizable and loved at the time, it can be easy to identify what songs are pop by their success on the pop charts. Pop music appeals to a mass audience hence why it’s called pop, it has to appeal to large quantity of varying people, so the guidelines and conventions don't have to be followed to the dot, as different people have different tastes and preferences. Over the past 50 years the most successful styles of music have been continuously changing, although there are still ways to identify pop.

R&B

R&B which means rhythm and blues, is made from a variety of different although related styles. It is often comprised of style like; jump blues, club blues, rock and roll, soul, funk, disco, and rap. Although since the turn of the 20th century R&B has had a large influence on popular music all over the world, it can be identified in forms of rock, country and jazz. Even though there many different styles, the music rhythm is clearly the most important and distinguishing part. All forms of R&B normally depend on a 4 beat and a back-beat, except rap which is something completely different.

Genre

To start with creation of my production company as well as music magazine i started by doing research into genre so that i had a better understanding of the different types of genre and how people respond to different types of genre
.
What is a magazine?

What is Genre?

Every different type of genre is governed by a set of codes and conventions, or rules that are followed for that genre.

Genre - Is a specific type of music, film or writing.

Genre is relevant to magazines as it can give the magazine a targeted style, audience and purpose, by following the conventions set out by particulars types of genre the magazine become a representation of that genre, a media text that reflects the style and demand set by that genre. Different audiences mass or niche that respond to various types of genre will respond to the magazine as it meets the expectations and requirements set by the audience and genre. 

Rick Altman - Genre Theory

Pre-Task

This is the original image that i used to create the mock for the school magazine, I've used my classmate as the model for magazine. Below you can see the drawn version of my front cover and contents page that had done on a A3 piece of paper that i copied and uploaded to my computer so that i could upload it to Blogger. 

After i created a version on the computer using Adobe Photoshop to test my current Photoshop skills, as well as I can use it to look at my progression throughout this course to see what areas i have developed.

I cropped out the image of my classmate and placed it in front of a photograph of my school which i blurred out so that i could bring more attention to the foreground rather than the background.