Slasher Conventions

- There is lots of Blood and Gore is why is named Slasher genre
- It usually makes the audience cringe and brings them out of their comfort zone e.g Saw
- Usually lots of Nudes shown within slashers Such as Psycho - Shower scene
- Usually a connection of rebelling (Drink/Drugs/Sex) and Death  e.g Halloween
- The Antagonist is usually male although there are exceptions
- 'Final Girl' is commonly seen in Slashers, typically a teenage girl who manages to defeat the
- Male Gaze - this is commonly seen which means we see the killers point-of-view
- Its common that the killer is using a disguise or mask of some kind like Halloween
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Zombie/ Monster/Alien Conventions

- Sub-human creatures or adaptations of Humans are the Villains.
- They usually are extremely hard to defeat or have a certain weakness about them. E.g Zombies - Destroy the brain.
- Its often filmed using A Hand-Held Camera such as Rec.
- Often surrounds a group of people who are unfortunate and unaware of what's happening until they start dying off one by one such as 28 Weeks later.
- Alot of mistakes are made, making the wrong decision resulting in a death
- A lot of blood and use of ugly costume such as The Thing which are obviously scary.
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Extra's

I have been to see The Woman in Black and Ghost Stories in Theatre which have a different perspective on Horror and how its portrayed compared to film.

Woman in Black             

- Good Build-up/ Storyline 

- Only 3 cast members 

- One setting throughout 

- Sound and Lighting essential 

- Included an Interval 

- First half they were acting out the play and then it became real. 

- Most like a Psychological/ Supernatural film 

Ghost Stories 

- Narrator almost in the way they presented the story, however he was then brought into it. 

- 5 Cast members 

- Its several different stories within the one Story 

- Several settings throughout the Story - Always in darkness 

- Sound and Lighting essential 

- No Interval 

- The setting the Audience was in, the theatre set as an old derelict house with numbers painted on the wall which is similar to a pre-set and gets you thinking. 

- 4D in a sense, It got cold when it was mentioned and the smell of bleach was in the air when mentioned. 

- Most like a Psychological/Supernatural Film 

Tension is a huge similarity in Theatre and Film, Such as Insidious where there is a scene following the small boy through his attic towards a door which was very theatrical and was again in darkness apart from the significant red and the hallway accessories. Although Tension is crucial in ANY horror film as it means the audience is on edge and more scared. 

Upper Sixth Research :)

Wes Craven 


Writer/ Director/ Producer

1972 - The Last House on the left
1977 - The Hills have Eyes
1978 - Stranger in our House (TV Movie)
 1981 - Deadly Blessing
1982 - Swamp Thing
1984 - Invitation to Hell (TV Movie)
1984 - Nightmare on Elm street
1985 - Chiller (Tv Movie)
1985 - The Hills have Eyes Part 2
1985 - The Twilight Zone (TVSeries)
1986 - Casebuster (TV Movie)
1986 - Deadly Friend
1988 - The Serpent and the Rainbow 
1989 - Shocker
1990 - Night Visions (TV Movie)
1991 - The People under the Stairs
1992 - Nightmare Cafe (TV Series)
1994 - Wes Craven's New Nightmare
1995 - Vampire in Brooklyn  
1996 - Scream
1997- Scream 2
1999 - Music of the Heart (Non Horror)
1999 - Fountain Society (Novel)
2000 - Scream 3
2005 - Cursed
2005 - Red Eye
2005 - Paris Je T'aime 
2007 - The Hills have Eyes (Re-make)
2009 - The Last house on the Left (Re-make)
2011 - Scream 4

Q7. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

Looking back at the Preliminary task of creating a music magazine front cover, Contents page and double page spread; This meant that I had to learn several new skills to be able to take all of the necessary photographs which would suit my target audience which was found through audience research I had carried out, I then had to organise when and where I was taking my photographs and what of, and then once I had the correct photographs I was able to begin editing while again learning new skills based on new software which I hadn't used before all the while managing my time sufficiently.

I am pleased with my result but disappointed as I knew that I was able to do better. Firstly, I had to carry out all of my audience research which was easily done which I actually enjoyed doing, it was based on asking people questions and finding out their opinions. Although I was Ill for 2 weeks which meant that I was behind everyone else and needed to catch up, and ensure I meet all over deadlines.

I then had to plan based on what I had found out what each page would look like and what details would be included and by doing several sketches I finally came up with the final design that I wanted for each of the pages. I am a very indecisive person so I found it hard to finally decide on what I wanted, and I even changed my final sketch for the better as it enhanced my front page drastically ensuring that some of the most conventions where followed.

I then had to think about my pictures, Originally I wanted two Mixed-raced girls to be my Medium shot on my front cover, however one of the girls was unreliable and wouldn't conform when she was free which meant that I chose to only work with one of the girls. I was able to take some good pictures during the lesson however, before even touching the cameras I had to learn how everything worked.

I learned how the softbox and the light worked and the best way to position the reflector, and also how dangerous the trigger was, which all meant that my knowledge was progressing severely.

Once being taught I thought that I had everything down and understood however from the outcome of a few of my pictures it was clear that the lighting wasn't as it should have been which meant that one of the pictures I really wanted to use, I couldn't as the light was reflected across the whole picture making it uneven. I finally decided on the picture I wanted to use but then changed my mind as I thought I could create a better one.This involved getting two of my friends in the same place, dressed accordingly while I had the camera, I like to think I am a very organised person and I like to think that everything went to plan, we all met and I was able to take pictures, making the models pose in the ways needed, which worked well for the many different pictures I used on my double page spread. After that photo-shoot I changed my mine once again and returned back to my original front cover idea leaving my newer photos for my double page spread.

I had originally used Photoshop so setting up wasn't hard, I was able to use the skills I already had although when incorporating dafont.com, psbrushes.com and several of the things I was unsure that photoshop could do, things got much more tricky. I had to sit down and play with photoshop and try and make what I saw in my head on the computer which was a lot harder than I thought it would be and it also resorted in me changing and adapting my ideas.

One example of my progression which is shown through my work would be my contents page, as I started with that I made the background physically by using the stamp tool and then I was introduced to psbrushes, which meant that I had wasted a lot of time however I couldn't afford to lose time on my double page spread by going back and fixing my contents page so I had to leave it. This is evidence of how my knowledge of photoshop and the skills which I didn't know could have helped me from the beginning.

Before evaluating this I believed that I was a lot better at keeping time, however I did eventually run out of time on my Front cover as I left it till last which on reflection I wouldn't have done, but I managed to make the deadline with work that I was pleased to call mine, Several others said they liked mine, my teacher also liked it eventually after suggesting critical improvements.

Certain negative aspects to my progress in my work would have to be that if I had managed my time wiser then I would have been able to give each of my pages more details which would have overall given it a much more professional style. I had definitely improved as I have had the ability to reflect my creative thoughts onto my front cover, my double page spread and contents page.

Feedback

I was very curious what people thought of my work, when asking them generally what they thought, the comments were very vague and simple so I decided to put my work on facebook and asked my friends to give me constructive criticism, it was optional so i'm hoping that they were attracted to it and wanted to see it.

Overall the comments seemed to be pretty positive and people liked the colour consistency which went throughout all three of the pages, and also where I had positioned my photos on my double page spread and also on my contents page which was influenced by a collage I had seen a few months ago in Dulwich picture gallery. Improvements which were suggested where to re-position my coverlines and maybe add something else as it seemed to simple and empty which I would agree with. One person also suggested that I included more of a column structure to my article on the double page spread, all of which are practical and fair comments which I would agree with.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Q4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When first planning my magazine, I stuck to all of the conventions which make magazines much more recognizable for example:

1. Conventionally speaking, I have kept my masthead at the top of the front page and also top the left which follows the norms of how magazines are usually edited reason being that in shops when being sold there wont be enough space to show the whole front page and have to overlap several of the magazines meaning that even when this happens, Any magazine will still be noticeable and representative of the whole magazine.

However this wasn’t my original plan as firstly I intended of having the Masthead in the centre of the page with the effect that someone had ripped the page to reveal the masthead, this looked like this.

But because my Photoshop skills wasn’t enhanced enough to reach the effect I wanted and it wasn’t as easy as I first thought which made me rethink and realise that by challenging the conventions it has to be perfect in order for you to have that change that could be possible, although not everyone likes change; Which again made me adapt my masthead to use the convention of it being on top shown through Number 1.

One way in which I developed the conventions would be that most mastheads include some sort of sign or design which takes place of one of the letters but also relates to the magazine at hand, I went for more a simple and clean look and let the font relate to my magazine. I also slanted to masthead which isn’t what you normally see when looking at different magazine mastheads.

1. Another convention which I used would be including a Medium close up as the main image of my front cover, which most magazines do and the reasons why I did is because even though its following conventions, its still representative of my music style which is what the magazine is based on.

2. Usually when looking at a Rock Music magazine, on the double page spread you would see several different shots of the one person/band that the article is written about all showing different poses, or different angles all representing them in a different way. I followed this convention by taking several different pictures of the 2 people in the band in which I wrote the article on and placing them in my double page spread.

3. I also developed the convention of columns which is usually noticed on all articles however based on the positioning of my images, the columns would have been to thin in width making columns not appropriate although I overcame this by splitting the article across the double page, metaphorically making the line dividing the pages the line dividing the article making it visually seem like columns.

4. One similarity I noticed throughout most Rock magazine contents page would be the simplicity of listing what is included in the magazine, I have used the convention of having a name related to certain parts of the magazine which are there every week which jump across several pages, as well as the featured this week. I have also developed it by having small summaries of what is included within the main subheadings which aren’t a normal convention.

5. Another convention I have followed would have to be the images used on the contents page which shows more than one group interviewed for the magazine, however I have developed it by having more than one picture of each band which isn’t usually seen, the reasons why are so that I am giving the audience more on each band which initially should want to read about them and get them interested and even start listening to their music.
   
   
   6. One main convention of Rock music in itself would be that it targets Caucasian males, I have gone Against that convention by using Black models for my magazine which in itself is going against what would normally be expected of a rock magazine. My intent is to give those who are not Caucasian and who do enjoy the music a platform and let them have their chance of making it in the industry, By making this choice i could be creating a Change. 

 

Feedback

I asked friends to give me feedback on my finished work through the social networking site of Facebook, Here is what they have said about each page:
This is for my Contents Page:

This is For my Double page spread:

This is for my Front Cover:

I agree with most of what they said, although the sizing was down to having it uploaded to facebook which reduces the size meaning they didnt see it in the actual size However the feedback was definitely useful.

My Double Page Spread

My Contents Page

My Front Cover

Sketch Designs

My Front cover sketches

My Contents Page sketches

My Double Page Spread sketches

Some of the Magazines Bauer Publish:

Bauer Publishers

My first impressions of how Publishers worked were very basic and followed the concept that each Publishing company had roughly no more than 10 magazines which they worked with, however I was wrong. Take Bauer Media who joined Bauer Media Group in 2008 to work collectively, the German company publish over 300 magazines within 13 different countries. Not only are they publishers but they have set up online and on TV and also have a radio station. They are the Largest privately owned publishers in the whole of UK and since opening in 1875 it has remained within the Bauer family, starting as a small printing business and progressing to become what it is today.

Their business is based on Brands and the relationships with readers, some of the magazines several years after first being published have crossed-over to Radio, such as Heat. Bauer publish other peoples material, however its much more complicated. The publisher is usually in control of the marketing tasks, but there are some marketing companies which you could subcontract to get them to organise it. Or even for specific jobs you could get freelancers.

Here are Some of the Magazines published by Bauer which fall under the titles of:

• Women’s: Closer/Heat/More
• Men’s Entertainment: Mojo/ Kerrang!
• Men’s Lifestyle: FHM/ Zoo
• Equine: Horse deals/ Your Horse
• Gardening: Gardening Answers
• Transport: Model Rail/ Rail
• Football: MATCH!
• Golf: 2 Fore 1/Today’s Golfer
• Pets: Pet product marketing
• Angling: Gofishing.co.uk/ Angling Times
• Motorcycling: Bike/RiDE
• Motoring: Car/ Classic Cars
• Automotive B2B: AM/ Fleet News
• Outdoor: Live for the outdoors/ Bird watching
• Photography: Digital Photo/ Practical photography
• Lifestyle: Pregnancy and Birth/ Mother and Baby

The First Magazine launched was in 1953 called the Angling times which is a magazine based on the news behind the Anglers and gives them the information they need to get the best out of fishing; it would target men who liked to fish with their friends or even by themselves which still runs today. However, the first published magazine in the UK was Bella which was published in 1987, it's a magazine which appeals to women because of the wide-range of topics covered within the magazine such as, home, cookery, fashion. It is also very popular because of the real-life stories which relate to the lives of the women reading it. Following Bella, H Bauer launched Take a Break, TV Choice and Total TVGuide.

Bauer, alongside any other publishers have a high profile record of media brands which include some of the best Magazines in the business, This means that because Bauer in particular has such a wide-range of different magazines relating to every general topic being it's a great way of advertising. “Magazines, as the most trusted medium, are particularly effective at building relationships with their users” This means that magazines are a much more effective way of getting through to the audience. Publishers usually have control over the advertising, although Bauer themselves have the promotion designed and written in the style of the magazine and give their advertisements the same attention as for example, the editors page as they want the most successful result they can get by getting the brand heard. The promotions are made under the different sectors being the Magazine editor, the Client and the Creative Solutions team which mean the impact is as big as it can be. With advertisement, the promotion should be in relation to the magazine you place it in and when you do so that you target your specific audience which it was intended to while remaining the most practical when relating to cost.

The target audience which Bauer targets range from children and teens with the likes of Life Story or AstroGirl, Middle -Aged people with the likes of Closer or FHM, and even elderly people with the likes of Gardening Answers. By having such a large audience range, it means the company can aim for a national audience, covering all aspects of the magazine publishing industry which is why they are number one. Another aspects which helps them could also be the fact that they also work with other publishers such as Emap for example. 

Taking Pictures.

   I used different distances away, and zoom on the camera to enhance the look. 

 I used different Camera Angles which gave a good effect considering my genre.  

 I tried moving to a different setting.   

  

• Here are several photos of me taking the pictures.

This is me trying to get focus.

• This is one of my better pictures, The Lighting of the image lights up her face well and enhanced her features, I used a range of different styles for my model to pose in and a range of different facial expressions. This pose meant looking over her shoulder, which made you see her hair to the full extent adding to the genre of the magazine and also adding a twist, However one negative thing about this photo would be the facial expression as the model is smiling which makes her look pretty but its not what you would normally see on the front cover of one of the rock magazines, But this could be tied into the spin that I'm trying to put on rock magazines. Not all of the Costume of my model can be seen which means that the style doesn't seem as fitting as it actually is but the red is very vibrant. This is possibly my front cover image however it works well for my contents page as well.   

• The styles and positions of my models in this photo works very well, with one of the boys standing leaning against the scaffolding and the other crouching lower, The Costume fits the Genre and the Facial expressions are suitable as they are stern and sulky. The Only Thing wrong with this photo and stopping it from being a front cover photo would have to be the Lighting as you are unable to see the model standings face because the reflector wasn't positioned correctly. This could possibly work as a Contents page if the Lighting could be edited.  

• This is a photo which went completely wrong, the positioning and pose of the models is fine and the angle in which the camera is taking the shot from works, But it was out of focus which ruined the whole picture.  

• Here is some other examples of the photos i took. 

Equipment Used.

Taking pictures was a fun process and gave me the opportunity to work with lots of interesting equipment as follows:

- Canon EOS 400d 

- Bowens Gemini esprit 6m500 Flash 

- Bowens Radio Trigger 

- 60cm Soft Box

- Circulator Reflector

The Canon EOS 400d was the camera in which we used to take the Pictures. 

The Bowens Gemini esprit 6m500 Flash is what was used to Light up the model correctly and suitably for the picture to be taken how the photographer wishes. 

The Bowens Radio Trigger is a Trigger which is connected to the light and the camera, The Sending devise sends through to the receiving trigger attached to the light which means that whenever the button is pushed to take a picture the light flashes appropriately. 

The 60cm Soft Box is attached to the lights, the reflective sides within the box reflect the light and make it bounce and control it creating a softened effect on the model and removing all shadows. 

The Circulator Reflector able the light beams to be controlled manually, meaning you can enhance the lighting on a certain part of the model by reflecting the light.