Monday, 23 March 2015

Focus Group - Findings

I grouped together five boys between the ages 7 and 12, and asked them some questions and asked them to fill out a form. They all did this brilliantly and then I showed them two differently styled football magazines.

Main Findings
The main thing that the boys said was that they preferred the Match of the Day magazine cover to the FourFourTwo cover.

Hayden: “It looks a lot more interesting because of the pictures and colours.”

Will: “I prefer the first one (MOTD) because it looks a lot more interesting. The other one (FFT) looks like it’s for older people.”

Rhys: “The writing isn’t serious. It’s funny which is better for children.”


These findings were as I predicted. The combination of colours and pictures, and many of them, appeals more to the younger audience compared to the very plain cover as it stands out on the shelf and contains more humour and laughs.


Friday, 13 March 2015

Coursework - Statement of Intent

I intend to produce a magazine front cover for a sports magazine, focusing on football and adding other sports such as tennis and cricket. 


I will call it 'Kick Off''Back of the Net', or 'Tiki-Taka'.

The cover will be filled with pictures of players, teams, and use colours that coordinate with the teams or person/nationality.
There will be backgrounds (for each section) on the cover and the other pictures will be forward with text which briefly explains what each picture or section of the cover is focused on, as well as the page that that story is located.


Tuesday, 2 September 2014

Week 6 - Social Media

Social Media

Social Media is a huge part of most people's lives now, and has been for some time. With texting, messaging, tweeting, and much more, it is the main way to communicate in the world with friends, family, and strangers.

There are 6 main types of social media :

  1. Collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia
  2. Blogs and microblogs (e.g. Twitter, Instagram)
  3. Content communities (e.g. YouTube, DailyMotion)
  4. Social networking sites (e.g. Facebook)
  5. Virtual game-worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft, DayZ)
  6. Virtual social worlds (e.g. Habbo Hotel)
Social media is there to advertise companies, be helpful for the public, and overall make life easier for people. It is used by everybody, ranging through all the ages.

I use social media a lot in my everyday life, for entertainment and work, and I do this because, as I said, it makes life easier.

Saturday, 23 August 2014

Week 5 - Website

I am going to visit a website of my choice and talk about it's format, content and more...

Website:
Twitter
Founded: March 21, 2006
Genre: Social Media

Twitter is a website where normal people and celebrities/companies can talk/tweet about what they like/do/watched/played...

With over 271 million people using Twitter, and 500 million tweets sent per day, Twitter is one of the busiest websites online, on the app, and more.

I personally love Twitter. I think it is much better than Facebook and a social website because of it's celebrity use mainly.

Format:
Twitter has 4 main pages:
1. Home - where you see tweets and retweets from the people you follow
2. Notifications - where you see if someone has started following you, retweeted one ofyour tweets, or favourited one of your tweets
3. Discover - where you can see what is trending worldwide or in a certain nation with #'s
4. Me - your profile

Twitter is used because it is a good way to keep up to date with friends, news, celebs, and loads more...

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

Week 4 - Magazines

I am going to be looking at some magazines online of different genre and talking about the format and content...

1: Match! Magazine
 http://www.matchmag.co.uk/
Genre: Sports/Information
First Published: 1979


Match! is a football magazine aimed at teenagers, that I personally have read only a few times. It contains a lot of different things including information about the game and players, competitions, free prizes (posters...), and loads more...


Most of the information given is genuine, although some times there are articles that have been taken from newspapers that are known as 'Paper Talk', which can be true but most of the time, isn't.


2: Top Gear Magazine http://www.topgear.com/uk/tags/Top-Gear-magazine
Genre: Cars
First Published: 1993


Top Gear magazine is aimed at anyone interested in cars and is the magazine for the BBC show Top Gear. It contains a lot of different things including information about the cars, car sports, competitions, free prizes (posters...), and loads more...


The information is all true and helps give an insight into cars and their manufacturers. There is usually an article of one or two sides by one of the presenters of the show: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, or James May.

Thursday, 14 August 2014

Week 3 - Movie Trailers

Trailers Analysis

Godzilla (2014) - Action|Sci-Fi|Thriller
The beginning of the trailer has very dramatic speech from one of the lead actors, Bryan Cranston. At the end of every line of speech, there is a short dramatic sound effect that rumbles as if there is a an earthquake. But as the trailer goes on, there becomes a build up of suspenseful music. Which then silences and then the loud music starts for a fast paced 10 second montage of clips from the movie.
The images used show that the movie contains action as there are plane crashes, damaged/collapsing buildings, and the army.
The clips used are very short and this gives a suspense feeling as not too much is given away. This shows that the movie is also a thriller as, to know what happens, the characters have to find out for themselves.
The panning of the cameras through all of the shots is very slow to give the effect of epic proportion. Also, the close-ups show a lot of emotion, especially when Elle Brody is holding her son whilst running away from Godzilla. However, the camera angles of Godzilla show his enormity by staying low to the ground from the perspective of the people near him.



Captain Phillips (2013) - Biography|Drama|Thriller

The trailer starts off with music that compliments the ocean that the cargo ship is sailing across. The beeps of the radar build up suspense as the two pirate boats approach and concern grows on Phillips's face. The music then builds up tempo as the pirates get close and have access to the ship. Throughout the remainder of the trailer, the music turns to quick and loud music to show the drama of the movie.
Images of the US Navy and US Seals are used to show the drama as well as the images of Phillips in pain in the life boat, and weapons used by the pirates.
The trailer uses short clips from the movie at the end of the trailer to show more about the movie, compared to the beginning of the trailer which shows clips from the long introduction to the movie's main plot.
The angles used are very shaky to show the trauma that Captain Richard Phillips went through, and to show the thriller side of the movie.


The Lego Movie (2014) - Animation|Adventure|Comedy

The trailer begins with music and speech that shows that it's a comedy/feel good film, with the main character speaking. Humour is shown with the animations and speech.
Then we see the main character falling and the mood changes from happy, to heroic.
Then a lot of new characters are introduced whilst comedy is shown in their speech.
The images used help show off the brilliant animation work of Lego pieces, and the humour and adventure, which makes the viewers want to see the movie.

The camera angles used help show the comedy side of the movie as the characters always somehow move closer to the camera.