News Task

1. Explain your role/responsibility within the team and the task. What were you required to do?                                                                                                                                                 My role within my team for the online section of The Telegraph, was to create a plan for the website which i did with both of my colleagues, however i specialised and focused in much more on thinking of and creating the headlines and stand-firsts that we would go on to use for our website, as you can see in the photo. I also worked with Derek and Zain to help choose pictures that would work well and synergise with the headlines, capturing people's attention.      
2. For one media form, describe the codes and conventions you chose to follow and explain their intended impact.                                                                                                                   For the website that my team created, i followed the codes and conventions that were quite easily identifiable within The Telegraph, and would therefore allow Telegraph readers to pick up on this and be able to see the similarities between the two as i was trying to replicate it. For example, The Telegraph has a large image for it's headline story and it is reflects very well as to what the headline is trying to portray, i copied this convention as it emphasises the meaning of the story but it also gives a visual aid of what it is trying to put across to the reader. Another convention is the placement of the ads around the page and what type of ads they are, usually there is a large banner ad along the top of the page,  which imposes itself onto the reader and creates interest, i replicated this effect with a Tiffany's ad at the top of the page to promote the upper class brand. Upper class advertising is a code and convention of The Telegraph as it targets more well-off people with much more expensive items than other media medians might, hence why we put a long haul travel agency ad in as well as the Tiffany's ad and a Samsung Galaxy S8 ad in as well.                                                                                                                   
3. Explain how your choices reflect the real newspaper's values and target audience.              My choices reflect the real newspaper's values and target audience rather well i believe, as there is a slight gender skew towards the female population on the website with a Tiffany's ad representing that, as well as the luxury island getaway with the picturesque image, however these two ads are not mutually gender exclusive as they will attract both genders. Another similarity is the layout of the page that we created with the images all being located in the same place as they are on the actual website, with regards to how important they are, the images and text also have the right framing size with us cropping certain images to make sure they looked correct. Such as the Samsung Galaxy S8 ad, that we had to crop so that the image didn't look stretched.                                                                                                                                           
4. Explain how your team adapted the news across the three different media forms and the reasons behind your decisions.                                                                                                     My team adapted across the three different media forms of print, online and social media by using similar wording in all of our headlines, and stand-firsts so that they had synergy and collaborated with one another to create the desired effect of capturing the audience's attention. We did however decide to use different pictures for all of the images we used in the stories, as this will stop the reader getting bored and keep them engaged if they are switching between medians. Another thing we did was use almost all the same stories in all three forms as just another way to keep the synergy between the three forms of the newspaper alive.                        
5. In hindsight, is there anything about your team's outcomes that you would adapt or improve?                                                                                                                                       If i could change anything about the work that our team collectively produced it would only to be to work together more during the planning stage of the newspaper, however i believe it came out very well in the end and as we actually produced our newspaper, everyone in the team worked well and collaborated with each other really well while still doing their own individual work and completing the project.

My Magazine Cover

1.  Summarise the music celebrity you have created.  Include name, music genre, personality and how they are being used to comment on contemporary celebrity.           My music celebrity is called Jack Willis and he is in an indie-rock band. He's a very famous drummer and is well known for his musical ability on the drums and his unorthodox approach to playing music, which makes him a hit with many younger and older fans across the world. Jack has a very laid back demeanor, and gives off an aura that he is a very mysterious person. The public and his fans don't know much about him and that's the way he'd like to keep it.                                                                                                                                                              
2. Evaluate how you have constructed the representation of your celebrity through your cover image and cover headline/text (denotation/connotation of text and image).                I have constructed the representation of my celebrity so that he looks mysterious, this is denoted through Jack's squint and tilted head and connotes to the audience that there is something about him that is very mysterious as well as the fact that "An interview" is slightly whited out making it harder to read drawing people in to see and connoting his mysterious theme. He could be very dangerous or an ex-soldier, but the audience doesn't know what it is, they can't quite place their finger on it. This appeals to the audience as it drags them in because they want to know more about him and as the read the cover page they are given more of an idea into what he is like, with the taglines; "It was all about being strong," and "An interview with Jack Willis." This hooks the reader and convinces them to buy the magazine as maybe there will be more info on who Jack Willis is and what he did inside the magazine.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
3. Analyse how far you have used and/or challenged stereotypes of gender/race/age/sexuality in your cover.                                                                                                                                 In this magazine cover i have reinforced gender stereotypes with the phrase, "It was all about being strong," this says to the audience that as a man and especially in the music business he had to always be strong and there's no other way about it. This perhaps gives the reader an indication as to why he is so mysterious and closed off. It could also be an age related problem as well, being a young musician in a tough business, he had to be strong all the time, reinforcing both gender and age stereotypes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
4. Reflect on the production/editing process.  Are you pleased with the end result? Identify what is successful about your shot?  What would you have done differently in hindsight?  I am pleased with the end result of my magazine cover, i feel as though the whole production and editing process ran very smoothly and there were no problems in creating the cover. I believe my cover connotes the mysterious theme very well and i think i was successful in portraying that in my pose. In hindsight i probably would've spent slightly more time on the editing process if i could, but i believe it all turned out fine in the end anyway.

Minecraft Pocket Edition Gameplay video for Youtube

1. How you did it(what videos did you look at, what technology did you use and how?)          I recorded my Minecraft video on an Ipad in a portrait framing, whist "playing" Minecraft Pocket Edition on a second Ipad in front of me. I then superimposed my voice-over video on top of the gameplay video, using the free editing app Filmaker pro. For inspiration on what to say i watched a few popular Minecraft youtubers such as, DanTDM and PrestonPlayz and I realised that a common convention of popular Minecraft youtube videos, were the youtubers being loud, cheerful and upbeat, but also laughing at them selves and just being quite relaxed and chilled. I attempted to recreate that feel within my video through my voice-over for the gameplay.                                                                                                                                                          
2. How your video might attract the attention of Mojang and/or Microsoft, and how it might influence them.                                                                                                                             My video could attract Mojang and/or Microsoft from a variety of ways. They could potentially see me as an investment if i get a lots of views on my video and gain a lot of subscribers, they could therefore use me to promote their game by sponsoring me. This would also be useful to them as i'm promoting the game on a separate platform and can give Mojang any feedback i've had from the subscribers on my youtube channel, relating to Minecraft. 

Video Games and Me

My video gaming experience is very limited to say the least. Most of my gaming is done playing games on my phone but even this i don't do often. When i was younger, the only time i really played games was when i went to my friends houses and as such I've only ever really played Fifa and GTA. As a child i spent a short amount of time playing on my dad's Megadrive, Ps2 or Wii, however neither of us are really gamers and as such most of my game time at home was spent playing Super Mario Bros on the Wii with my family for about two weeks at a time every year.

Minecraft Mission

This is my first attempt at playing Minecraft, and as you can see i'm not very good, i wasn't able to build a proper dwelling. I played the pocket edition of the game on an ipad rather on a computer or a games console like most people do, but the game is exactly the same just played slightly differently. Minecraft is what's known as a sandbox game which means it's an open world game and you can travel anywhere. It can be played on almost any device or console and can therefore be played anywhere, with the user mining materials and then using anything they've mined to build whatever they want.

Breakfast show

1. Did you fulfil all the content requirements; both in terms of including all the correct features and as well as the actual choices made.                                                                         Derek, Zain and I included all the correct and required features for our radio breakfast show. We did however also add some things in such as, and outro song which was "She sells Sanctuary" by The Cult. During our radio show we also included the three required jingles, a game of celebrity gamble with Derek as the guest, but also the news section with myself as the anchor.
2. Have you nailed the conventions and style of Nick Grimshaw and the Radio 1 Breakfast Show?                                                                                                                                              In our radio show Zain was very upbeat sometimes, which is a perfect convention of Nick Grimshaw and is what he is, most famously, known for. Another convention of the Breakfast show is British music, we copied this convention by including songs by The Cult and Madness, which are both British bands.
3. How well did you manage your running order/timings?                                                            We struggled quite a lot with our timings, our first take was over 6 minutes long which was twice the allotted time. We then however were able to get it down to 4 minutes consistently throughout the next few takes, in the end our final product was just over 3 minutes long, coming in at 03:08 minutes. In regards to this our running order was mostly good, although we did cut it down in some places. The main issue however was being able to talk quickly but still be enthusiastic and audible, as this was where we struggled and found most of our problems.

Current Music Video Analysis

Close-Up Shots

Close up shots are a convention of music videos as they give the audience a detailed view of the person on the screen, and show what they are thinking, with the audience being able to see the singers emotions and facial expressions as they deliver their lines.




Visual Illustration of Lyrics


In the video lead singer Nicholas Petricca says, " You and I will walk into the emptiness," and this is sung as the shot changes to him walking alone in a desert, 'the emptiness,' which helps emphasise to the audience what he is trying to get across, with a visual stimulus.


Shots of the Artists Performing

Another convention of music videos are shots of the artists performing their song. It usually has a shot of the entire band together, but then breaks away into different shots for each member of the band, when their instrument is the main one playing.


Direct Address

Direct address is common for male singers, this involves the character looking towards the viewer. The male is seen to be addressing the viewer directly. He is supposed to be singing directly for you. This helps the audience pay attention and engage with the video as they feel required to continue watching.

Cutting to the Beat

Cutting to the beat is very common in music videos and is done in this music video, with the main shot suddenly switching to the band at the start of the chorus, and then changing shots in time with the beat until the end of the chorus.

Film Trailer Analysis: The Expendable's 2

Audience Appeal

• The trailer opens with the Lionsgate logo which is synonymous with action movies and will appeal to people watching the trailer, who are fans of Lionsgate's other action films.
• My film is also the second instalment in the series, and as such many fans are already attracted to the film and this is helped with the expendable's logo's we see.
• My film features lots of action shots and is appealing to the target audience because of that, it gives them a sense of everything that is to happen in the film.
• Another appealing factor of my trailer is that it features many famous actors, so it may entice fans of those actors to watch the film, and their names are put up at the end of the trailer helping the audience find out who is in the film.

Branding and Studio Identity 

• At the start of the trailer the Lionsgate and Millennium logo's appear and help the audience identify with other films made by them, and give them an understanding of what the film is about. 
• The film is also branded at the end by using the actors names to attract people because the film features some very famous actors.
• There is also a link to the films facebook page at the end, which will help the audience learn about the branding of the film and what it's about in even more depth.

Character and Representation

• All the main characters in this trailer are presented as ex-soldiers who have now turned into mercenaries, which gives the audience a hardcore feel about the characters and helps set the scene for the characters to develop.
• The protagonist, Barney, is seen to be doing an ex-employer a favour and gives a bit of detail about his life, as well as when he says, "it's my lucky ring," we feel as though we know him better.
• Finally we also see that they all mess around and joke with eachother which gives off the appeal of a film all about camaraderie and sticking together while including comedy and action scenes as well.

Genre signifiers

• There are many action shots in my trailer, such as the very first shot which shows the characters zip-lining over a forest, and immediately gives the audience a sense of the action genre.
• The genre is also signified by the soundtrack which builds tension for the audience and lets them know that the characters are in trouble, which signifies the action genre.

TV Drama Still Evaluation

1.       My chosen shot features two actors and is framed as an OTS shot. Both of the characters are wearing white and are facing each other, with one of them standing in a lift as the doors close. This signifies an important element in the legal drama genre as these type of shots build up tensions for the audience and creating a cliff hanger with the audience wanting to know what happens next, that's why it's common for them to feature at the end of episodes.

2.       To achieve my desired effect I positioned my first actor in the lift and had him look at my second actor, with a disappointed expression, to express to the audience that my second actor had done something wrong to him. For my other actor I had him facing away so that the audience cannot see his face and therefore do not know how he feels which creates a sense of mystery to the scene. I also had both actors in white so that it connotes that they are in a uniform and that they work together, and finally I took the image just as the doors were shutting to create a closing effect on the scene and the audience.

3.       I intended for my dominant reading to be that there had been some wrong doing between the characters and that one of them was leaving as he looks disappointedly, at the other character. This narrative is intended to leave the audience asking questions as they don't know what happened next, and intrigue them to find out how the situation was resolved.

4.       My shot is successful because it features many of my genres convention, for example, there is a sense of mystery between the characters as we don't know how they are feeling or who they are entirely which intrigues the audience. My shot is also successful because it gives the audience a sense of setting and allows them to relate to the situation.

5.     In hindsight I would put my first actors hand on the lift button, and I would also position my actors closer together to give the audience a more personal feel to the shot.

Continuity Task Evaluation

1.  My story is about 2 boys playing football on the school field, passing the ball between them. When one of the boys kicks the ball too hard and the other runs backwards to try and catch it, and he ends up falling over another boy sitting on the floor and hurting himself.
2. We attempted to create a narrative flow by filming all our scenes in a sequence and only getting the essential shots so that the film flowed and there was no excess footage, for the most part.
3. We achieved continuity in most of our scenes, however there were a couple of scenes where the footage went on for too long. Such as when character 2 kicked the ball, as well as when character 1 was running backwards.
4. I would try and cut down my shots if i could do it again so that i could create a better sense of continuity and create a more inclusive and in depth feel for my audience. This would increase my match on action effect and help me to prioritize my story line, this would also include the introduction of the third character, earlier on in my story.