Media AS

The main idea behind this blog is to demonstrate my understanding and passion towards the media as I found it a great opportunity to advertise various pieces of work as well as receive feedback.
Last year I completed my AS Level Media coursework of which participated in the overall result of an A grade (miracles really do happen). To do so I created a girl band entitled 'Tara Del' and produced a magazine article, CD cover and tour poster in order to advertise my pitch.. Here are some screen shots of the finished product:




My finished CD cover and back cover

I completed this task on the editing software Photoshop in order to guarantee myself the right positing of text as well as saturation and contrasts in terms of the lighting on the photos.
My album cover is self-titled as I feel this promotes my artists confidence and alternative style. It is also common for debut albums as it gives a personal statement. The image I have selected for the front cover of the album is an extreme close up shot; this gives a clear view of the artists’ smile. Blumler and Katz say that personal identity is one of the uses and gratifications; I have tried to comply with this by making my band look fun and aspirational, suggesting a friendly impression to the audience. The mise en scene of the glasses adds to the dance, electro aspects of the genre. It is simple and iconic which I wished to achieve.  I based my album around the colour scheme of red, blue and green. These colours are associated with dance culture and 3Dimensional vision; setting a recognisable theme for the band.

The final magazine cover

Here is my finished magazine front cover. I selected this shot as the direct address automatically intrigues the reader into selecting the magazine as well as creating various enigmas in terms of the context within the article. I based my research around magazines such as NME for inspiration as I felt they explore the rebellious side of artists with a USP.

The girls promoting my work on the college media department wall!

Terrible quality of a photo but Becky and Ruth made it famous on the wall at college! This is the outcome of my magazine article.

My magazine article consists of one main image of the band. I chose this image carefully as I wanted it to tell a story and to express a lot about the artists, for example the mise en scene of the jewellery: one of the girls is wearing a religious necklace suggesting perhaps a more innocent character in contrast to the other whom has a more careless glam look. There is a clear dominant band member as detected in this photo, character A has her arm resting on character B’s shoulder. This complies with Dyer’s Star Theory that suggests there is always going to be front face member who is the most aspirational and featured. I have edited the photo under a filter that gives off an electro/ techno impression. The effect also emphasises the girl’s lips and eyes creating a sexier impression; promoting Mulveys male gaze (which is added to by the direct address). The existing article’s main image also emphasises the lips and eyes of the artist for sex appeal. There is a distinctive house style as there is a clear purple and red colour scheme that suggests a house style for the magazine. I have used attention grabbing pull quotes such as “We are more than ready for this!” that intrigue the reader and create enigmas as they find themselves questioning why. The use of a quoted exclamatory also suggests the excitement and urgency in what the band have to share. I started off my article with a drop-cap which is a common code and convention, This made the text accessible and gave a clear entry point for the audience.

The tour poster

 

Lastly, This is my tour poster. I maintained the original colour scheme of red, green and blue to help maintain the bands iconography as well as to suggest the pop dance genre. For this task I even invented two more bands 'Radical' and 'The Fusion' to give off a more realistic gig poster. Further more I chose to involve social networking and links such as email address and phone number to create more of a personal relationship with the selected target audience almost suggesting a real life fan base for Tara Del.

My original photos I had to shoot/ direct before taking on the project.