Preliminary magazine cover evaluation.

Task.
We were asked to produce a magazine cover and contents page for our first preliminary activity, we were told to use a mid shot for the picture.

The making of my magazine.
Firstly we drew out an idea of what we wanted our magazines and contents page to look like. We included in this a basic idea of what we wanted our picture to be and where we wanted it to go, our masthead and the cover lines.
We then went out and took our photos of our models to be on the front cover, this had to be a midshot of the person. We then had to upload this into photoshop and begin to produce our magazine cover and then to continue to do our contents page.

Skills.
The skills i learnt from doing this preliminary activity are how to use basic tools on photoshop such as layering and inserting a picture.

Hot fuzz and This is England table

Media Table - Miss Elger

What we learn about Tony.

Tony

What we learn about Tony?

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  He takes pride in his appearance , shown by the folded up clothes in his draws.
• 
  
  He keeps fit
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  He's confident and knows he looks good
• 
  
  Vain, he knows he is good looking and gets attention
• 
  
  He's clean and tidy shown by his bedroom
• 
  
  Crafty and Sneaky, he gets his sister in and climbs out the window
• 
  
  Eccentric , the bed sheets and the neatness of them
• 
  
  Arrogant, this is shown when he's standing by the window getting attention from the girl
• 
  
  Sexually Ambitious
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  He has a precise routine, work out, get dressed, letting sister in.
• 
  
  Classy and Mature , shown by the 60's posters 'Blow Up' and '8 1/2'

The Family Burnham

What do we learn about the family ?

• Repetitive
• The father and daughter use to be close
• The family photos show they use to be happy ( this also shows a traditional family)

Mise en Scene.
When the camera is facing the dinner table the father (Lester) is more slouched that the mother or daughter , also we see the red roses standing out and they are placed infront of the daughter , who also has red on her jumper, when they are sat at the table , the mother and father being far away form eachother suggests they are only really there for their daughter.

Music.
At the dinner table they are listening to 'Bali Hai' , we know this is the mothers choice of song and this shows she is old fashioned and either music she has grown up with or even what her parents would of listened to.
When Lester and his daughter talk in the kitchen the music is sad and slow but then when we see the boy filming them the music gets creepy which is also shown in the boys face aswell as anger.

Camera Work.
It starts off with a long shot of the family at the table , the camera gets very slowly closer, it makes the audiance feel like they could be spying or ease dropping on them.

Warp Films and Shane Meadows

Warp Films
It was set up in 1999 with funding from NESTA. it is based in Sheffield , England with another office in London.
Warpl Films have released four films:
This is England
My Wrongs
Dead man's shoes and
Rubber Johnny.
Shame Meadows
He was born 26th of December 1972,he is an english film director , screen writer and occasional actor.
Most of his films have been set in the Midlands area.
when he was 20 he moved to nottingham and here he made around 30 short films with the friends he had made there. Him and his friends started a film festival in the local cinema to watch them , this became popular.

Hot Fuzz Story Board

Hot Fuzz Story Board

magazine cover and contents page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSSCo3ncYag

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Being Trapped.    

Lester Burnham in American Beauty is trapped , we learn this by loads of different things shown in the first ten minutes of the film       

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  The only time he is shown leaving the house he is going to work
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  In the shadows when he's in his bed
• 
  
   Trapped by his wifr, made to wear slippers
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  When he's in the shower , he is shown behind the door
• 
  
  When hes looking out of the window and his wife , this shows him behind the window
• 
  
  His image is reflected onto the computer with bars infront of him
• 
  
  He sits in the back of the car , like a teenager

Family Hierachy

Normally in the family , the hierachy would go ; father, mother and then child. However in this case it goes; Mother, child and then the father being last. this shows that Lester should be in charge of his family but instead he just gets controlled by his wife.

Colour

The red, white and blue in the film represnt the american flag, when Lester drops his briefcase red and blue are the colours of his folders. Also the rose that the wife holds is also red and the roses on the daughters jumper is red.

All of the other colours in the film are mainly neutral. This helps to create an atmosphere and also links to the representation of Lester being a boring perosn.

Having mainly neutral colours helps to make the red, white and blue stand out. 

Music

The music adds atmosphere by being repetitive, having awkward sounds makes an awkward atmosphere and having an uncomfortable sound makes an uncomfortable atmosphere.

The music fits in with Lester and his life , being awkward and uncomfortable at home.

+Representation.
First Impressions.

• scruffy
• trampy
• homeless
• poor
• no pride in appearnace
• smoking.

This man is actually very confident , and fashionable. We can tell this by the way he is posing and holding his cigarette.Also the patchwork onhis trousers are very neat and his turns ups look like they have been turned up and ironed neatly.This shoes are also very smart and clean. He works for Ralph Lauren andthis photo is taken outside Ralph Lauren is NewYork.

My GCSE results are ;

• maths - B
• english - B
• textiles - B
• english - C
• science - C
• science - C
• drama - C
• history - C
• business studies - D
• learning skills - pass 

The a-level courses i am tsking are maths, psycology, textiles, media studeis and general studies.
Media Interests..
films - The Holiday, Ghost, Bridget Jones, Dirty Dancing, Superbad and Nowhere boy.
tv - friends, one tree hill, eastenders, coronation street and desperate housewives.
music - rihanna, pixie lott, kids in glass houses, elvis.
magazines - elle, company , OK , heat.

I am doing media studies because i thought the subject sounded fun and interesting and it will also help me to improve my ict skills.