Unmalipulated Photo's

This is one of my photos i will use for my contents page. I like this picture because the key lighting is around the subjects face, there's alot of NVC and the white background makes him stand out.




This was an option to use for my contents page. I don't really like this picture due to the face the white background looks kind of scrappy and the key lighting seems to be on my subjects jacket.



I was going to use this picture on my double page spread, but as you can see the person at the front's face is very covered. It's to dark and the prop (mic) blocks half his face away.
This is a better picture to use then the other one. Reaons being are that this time you can see the subjects face clearly and both of them stand out very much on the black background.



This is going to be my image for the front cover. This is simply because my subject stands right out from white background. The key lighting is exactly where i wanted it and his NVC is very powerfull.



Here is another imagine i will use for my double page spread. I like this image alot because it has been taken to side to allow writing to be put next to the subject. It's a very pro sort of thing to do and the image itself is good.

Main Task: Mood Board

Main Task: Case Study Of a Publishing house

Publishing House Case study

My chosen publishing house is called Curtis. Curtis has been running now since 1876. They first started in Philadelphia after successfully publishing “The people’s lodge2 for six years in Boston. Curtis founded the Tribune and farmer.

After becoming very successful in editorial direction of his wife Louis Knapp Curtis, in 1883 it expanded to Ladies home journal.

In 1890, Cyrus Curtis formed the Curtis Publishing Company and in 1897, purchased The Saturday Evening Post for $1,000.

In 1911, Curtis acquired Country Gentleman, which also became a profitable addition. Jack and Jill for Children and Holiday were launched in 1938 and 1946, respectively. These five publications formed the nucleus of one of the most influential and profitable publishing ventures of the early twentieth century.

The Curtis Publishing Company circulation department became a separate subsidiary company, Curtis Circulation Company, in October 1946. Curtis Circulation Company continues to be an organisation whose expertise is still widely recognised today and whose market share has grown from 6% in 1982 to over 33% today.


The company “Curtis” publishes more than one big branded magazine. These include:
· The Saturday Evening Post
· Country Gentleman
· Jack and Jill for Children
· Holiday


The magazines that Curtis produces and sells are aimed around the age range of 25+. The magazines they produce are not really about gossip that most magazines do. The ones they produce are mainly about politics and usual things like how to cook or generally about something that will benefit you from reading it. The magazines are very intellectual and to must have a pretty good reading level to understand most of them.


Which each magazine Curtis makes they always switch it around. Sometimes they will focus on their male magazines and put themselves far out to make them the main attraction of Curtis. For instance one magazine they publish is called “country gentlemen” clearly by the name alone we know that this magazine is aimed at males only. But another way Curtis is so successful is because they produce magazines for both sexes. Also they produce magazines and books for young children; this will defiantly pull in more money due to the good standard of the books/magazines.

Looking at their website they seem to be happy and most of all successful enough and don’t seem to have plans to do anything more then what they’re doing.

Here are some examples of the magazines they have made:

Main Task: Audience Research

Person 2

Main Task: Double Page Spread Conventions Diagram

Main Task: Double Page Spread Texual Analysis

Denotation
Image looks interesting. We see a man sitting on a bench in front of a studio or somewhere. The layout of the double page looks neat.

Connotation
The image we see will pull us in and make us think why is a superstar that big in somewhere like where he is? From what we see the place he’s in looks very ghetto and run-down. However the layout of this double page looks very neat and tidy for starters. It looks easy to read and from what we can see it looks like the text is about the man (the game) sitting down.

The prop here is the setting. A big star like The game sitting on a dirty bench like that and with a nasty looking building is not what you usually see. The meaning behind this suggest that he is visiting a place where he grew up because he always talks about how life was hard for him as a youngster and how the gang life affects his music that could be the case.

The lighting is definatly foccussed around his face, cleverly though the way he is wearing his hat covers his face from the light and keeps his face dark. This suggests he's hiding emotions or could even be scared to show his face around this area.

His non-verbal communucation is very strong, with the look on his face it may suggests he's not happy at all being around where he is or maybe he could actually be upset.

Mise En Scene
Props – there aren’t any props in this. There is a bench which he’s on but that’s already there and it part of the scenery already.

Lighting – As for lighting he doesn’t really seem to be in the main light of the picture. To me the main light is on the background, I believe its like this to emprasize the surroundings he’s got around him.

Setting – From what we can see he isn’t in the richest place. To the audience it looks like he is in a ghetto place. We can tell this because in the background there’s a building with a lot of graffiti over it. Also he’s sitting in what seems to be a lot of dirt around him, you don’t usually see rich people in places like that.

Non-Verbal Communication (NVC) – His NVC is very powerful in this image. Without knowing what he’s story is about we can tell that he isn’t in the mood for anyone’s crap. He looks quite fed-up and angry. From the way he’s sitting we can tell he’s not posh but quite the opposite.

Costume – From what he’s wearing we can tell that he is from a ghetto area. He wears the style of what many rappers/Mc’s wear. If he was in a suite we could maybe think he’s showing of he’s money or is going somewhere important but clearly he’s not.

Anchorage
Double pages don’t really have anchorage lines because there usually just for the front cover.

Masthead
Double page spreads don’t have mastheads.

Date
Once again DPS don’t have dates on, there usually on the front cover.

Barcode
Barcode’s are always on the front cover or on the back.

Main Task: Contents Page Conventions Diagram

Main Task: Front Cover Conventions Diagram

Main Task: Front Cover Texual Analysis

Denotation
From the image alone we can clearly see she’s not wearing a lot. She’s clearly been soaked. She’s standing against a white background.

Connotation
She’s obviously not wearing a lot which will attract mainly the male sex and even possibly women as well. When you take a first look you think wow and make you want to know why she’s half naked and wet. She also has a very seductive look which seems like she’s looking right at you.

The props on this magazine front cover are only her clothes. She is wearing these sorts of clothes because they fit the whole sexy look, for instance if she was wearing jeans and a jumper but was still wet it wouldn’t be as effective as what she is wearing now.  

The key lighting is around her chest area and by her bum. This is clearly to catch the eye of the audience so they look there. Clearly with the whole sexy look, these are the keys areas off where people are going to be looking anyway so they even hint at us the audience to look.

Her non-verbal communication once again is a very seductive look and looks like she wants who ever is watching her to come to her. This is another very smart way the producers have blended her in with the whole sexy theme. If she was just standing there looking at the wall it wouldn’t be as effective as it could be but that look will defiantly attract and audience.

Mise en scene
· Props - there aren’t really any props in this at all apart from the wall behind her.
· Lighting – The main light of the picture is on her body and her face, this shows that the producers of the magazine cover clearly want you to be look at her and it makes her seem the main attraction of the front cover which she is meant to be.
· Setting – From what we can see, we don’t really know where she is but from looking at the way she’s wet and dressed plus the wall in the background it kind of looks like tiles that you would find in a shower.
· Non-verbal communication – Her NVC is very strong on this front cover, just alone from her posture we can tell she’s being a bit “saucy”. Another thing that backs that theory up is her look on her face. She clearly is looking at the audience in a very seductive way, without there being any words it’s almost like she’s saying she wants who ever is viewing the cover.
· Costume – Her costume is very explicit. She is wearing very very short shorts that are clearly made to reveal her legs. Also the shirt she is wearing is designed to reveal a women’s breasts plus the fact its wet which sticks to her to make her breasts look better.


Anchorage
The anchorage line on this front cover is defiantly “Beyonce strips down”. This is basically the main line on the front cover that links with the main image. Clearly in the image she is stripped down and has been wetted, we can use this line to get us a slight insight why she is exposed.

Masthead
The masthead on the cover is very attracting. It’s big! And also its red. The red sticks out from the white background and it is very eye grabbing.

Date
The date isn’t very important at all but it does have to be on there. It’s on the barcode box and is very small but like I said it doesn’t tell readers anything about the cover itself so there’s no need for it to take up space over the main image.

Barcode
The barcode is an essential to any magazine, it doesn’t matter how big or small the magazine brand is, if it’s a selling magazine it has to have one on there. It’s been printed at the bottom right of the page. This is ok because there’s nothing there that it would cover anyway.

Main Task: Introduction

My name is Jordan Di-Giovanni. I am currently studying media at Christ the King 6th Form College. In my current and future lessons i shall be working on a music magazine front cover, contents page and a double page spread.

In order to get a high grade i need to keep my main images clear of everything on the page, i need to remember to make it unique and use my own ideas as long as there good enough and lastly i need to remmeber to keep all the writing on each page visible.

With my music magazine i want to keep it on the Hip-Hop/Rap theme, my reason for this is because i have always been intrested in this type of music and i have grown up on it.

Preliminary Task: Contents Page FINAL

My contents page

Preliminary Task: Front cover FINAL

Done on photoshop

Preliminary task: Front cover & contents page mock ups

Preliminary task: Conventions diagram

Preliminary task: Cover texual analysis

Denotation
· The first thing we see when we look at the magazine cover is a man in a suite.
· He is clearly staring directly at us.
· He has his hands in his pockets.
· He’s standing with a white background.
Connotation
· When we look at the man, the first thing we notice is that he is in a suite, we don’t know why but we get the point that he clearly wants to look formal.
· From the way he is staring directly at us gives us the idea that he is very serious and that he means business. This is strong non-verbal communication, without us even know who he is and what he wants we can already sense that he’s got a story behind him.
· Although he looks very serious, one thing that makes him seem less threatening is that he has his hands in his pockets. This seems to make him appear slightly less serious and makes him look quite laid back.
· From where he is placed on the front of the cover we know that he is the main story of this magazine, but what the makers of it have done which is really clever is put him on a white background. This makes him stand out so much more then he would if he was against a wall or something. Dressing him in a black suite as well defiantly makes him stand out; the makers want you to notice him.

Mise-En Scene
Costume – Looking at the mans costume like I said before he looks very formal. He’s wearing what seems to be an expensive suite. Something out of the blue is that he is wearing trainers with it, but they look good.
Props – In my selected photo there are no props at all. There is only a man, nothing else.
Setting – The setting in the picture is actually quite basic, all you can see on the front cover is a white background. You can’t work out where it is or anything like that.
Lighting – The lighting in the picture is actually quite basic. There is no bright lights or anything, the lightest part of the cover is his face and that’s not even that bright.
NVC – The cover has a lot of non-verbal communication. For starters from the way the man is standing we can tell he’s quite serious and that there may be a story to why he is standing that way. Also from the way that he is starring at the audience makes him seem even more serious then what he actually is.

Introduction: Movie Poster Textual Analysis

Denotation

• He has a whip in one hand and his fists are clenched.
  



• The markings at the bottom of the poster.



• He wears his clothes loose and undone.
  



• He's also standing in the dark and is at the bottom of the stairs.

Connotation

• The skull behind him must clearly relate to the title.



• The colours seem to make him look like he's somewhere hot or is going to be near heat.



• His clothes make him look old fashioned. He wears them like a hero/main character would.



• From where he is standing at the bottom of the stairs in the dark it looks like he is about to start a adventure or he has either just finished one.



• He clearly seems quite confident with himself from the way he is standing with his arms out and his fists are clenched which may suggest he's aggressive or just ready to fight.

Introduction: Re-Creation of a movie magazine front cover

This was the first time i have ever used photoshop properly. At first i was struggling but then i have a little play with all the tools and took in mind what Mr.Haylock said to use so i tried it out and then i noticed that it wasn't that hard, after a while i got the hang of it and boom i was done. The main tools i used was 'eye dropper tool' and 'Text' but i also used 'Layer style' for that was a big part of correcting the parts that were out of focus and when the layers were a bit wrong. Another tool that came in handy was the 'selection tool'. This was easy for clicking on what i needed to work on very quickly.

The first image is the picture i was given first. The second one is what i created myself, you can clearly see the difference. It's not a work off art but i feel pleased considering its my first turn.

A good thing i learnt here was how the not so important stories around the edge don't get in the way off the main story and image. This is what all big magazines do.