Focus Group Questions

All about GurlPower

Real media deconstruction: 

Introduction to my preliminary task - Music magazine front cover

I have recently been assigned to complete a preliminary task to create my music magazine  front cover using Photoshop. I am planning to create a pop magazine because the popularity in the music industry is very high and everyone loves it the most which will help me make a good front cover too. My front cover is mainly going to be inspired by the magazines: Billboard, We love pop and NME. I plan to make my front cover simple but unique so not having too much information on the front apart from the important information. Overall, I’m genuinely confident about this task because I have an idea about how I want my front cover to look like and I have taken surveys to find out on people’s opinions and what attracts them.below is the moodboard I put together to help me decide on what colors and font style i would want for my magazine. I also used it to help me  decide how I want my model to come out on my magazine front cover.

The theory of the male gaze

The theory of the male gaze

•This theory suggests that the male gaze denies women identity, regulating them to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance.•It also suggests that women not only watch movies or the media from a secondary perspective but view themselves women from a mans perspective.

•Often in the media female characters has no real importance, it is the male characters that are the providers, the way women make the male characters feel or acting out their importance.

Camera shots and angles

Camera shots and angles
•Extreme close up – this is a really detailed shot as it is zoomed in a certain area far too much. This shot limits what the audience can see but is helpful for scenes that are dramatic or upsetting as you can see the actors emotions better.  
•Medium close up – this shot is in-between medium and close up shot. It shows the body parts instead of a proper close up shot, showing more of the body language and facial expression. 
•Medium shot – this shot is taken from the waist and aren't really good for facial expressions but are effective to capture body language in the scene. 
•Long shot – this shot helps you focus more on the subject that is in the shot at that moment. It is effective because it shows the audiences a clear understanding of what is happening in the shot as a whole.
•Very long shot – this is basically like an establishing shot, it is zoomed out to a level where you can’t see everything in a good level of detail. The use of this shot is important if you want to inform your viewer with the location or weather. 
•Two shot – a similar shot to wide shot but has two people in the same frame. This could be used for scenes when people are communicating with each other and its effective as you can see their facial expressions and body language at the same time.
• Over the shoulder shot – this shot also includes two people in the same frame but only allowing to see one persons face and body language, this is effective as it looks realistic and more believable. 

Semiology:
Heres the YouTube video i found really useful for the theory of semiology.

Colour Theory:
Everyday..literally everyday when we are online our mood changes and we constantly take in information and remember things easily all because of the colours that we consume. It totally changes how we feel about something. "people react very emotional to the wide range of different colours. By looking at one we connect it with our memories to associate the colour with personal experiences. Especially for marketing activities colours are perfect to arouse emotions."

3 Different Effects:

• Psychological effect - this effect is based on your personal experiences. for example the connection between yellow is 'holiday', 'heat' and 'freshness'.
• Symbolical effect - 'sky-blue' is a good for this affect, such colours that can be associated with specific objects.
• Cultural effect - different colours have different meanings in different places. for example white is usually associated with pureness and innocence in the western culture but in the eastern culture is a colour to show death or sadness.

Some words that associate with these colours.