Representation

Representation of ethnicity in the media:

Ethnicity is based on social groups that share the same history and cultural roots.

It is seen as more social than biological, and refers to

·         Heritage

·         Culture

·         Ancestry

Within media different ethnic groups can often be overlooked and therefore the use of ethnic minority actors is known as tokenism.

Tokenism can be seen in the media by having either:

1.      A reduced amount of ethnical background actors or characters.

2.      The difference between ethnic groups over emphasized, such as exaggerated accents.

Often ethnic minority characters are secondary to white protagonists such as friends or sidekicks.  

For example

It has been said that the TV show Friends fails to explore different ethnic groups with all six main characters being white, from America and living in New York and the only ethnic minority actors being colleagues or love interests.

Demographics and Psychometrics

Demographic:

Marketing within media used demographic information to find out what audience to target. This information helps pinpoint whether or not they will be successful with their chosen audience. 
For example: Cosmopolitan magazine is targeted at women.

Media companies change their ideas to suit a particular demographic and to follow 'demographic trends'

There are different social grades ranging from A to E.
A- upper middle class
B - middle class
C1- lower middle class
C2 - skilled working class
D- working class
E- lowest level 

Psychometrics:

 Psychometrics tests measure knowledge, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. This is used to measure audience suitability It looks at differences between different groups and targets them specifically.

Never Found : Final DVD cover

Media Coursework Report

Media Coursework Report

Pre-production:

I decided to follow both horror and supernatural genres with my teen series, as it is starts with a mystery which stems from a supernatural cause and then as a result develops into a horror. I decided on twenty episodes for the first season and each would be half an hour. I chose to base the series in a school to relate to my target audience of teenagers. The majority of characters will be teenagers as well, including the protagonist – sixteen year old Hannah. The remaining characters will still be relatable to teens as they will be teachers and parents. Although following both genres I wanted the series to be more supernatural than horror with an element of mystery and fear of the unknown. To keep it interesting the protagonist will realise something is wrong with her new friendship and her parents and teachers before, even within the first episode. This is to keep it within the supernatural genre otherwise it would be a risk of being a teen drama. In my research I looked at a few American teen dramas within the supernatural/ horror genres such as Twisted, The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars. All of these seemed to be based in a small conformist town in America, with a group of friends, a romance and a school setting. These shows seem to get a lot of interest from teenage audience, myself included, and so I followed their conventions.


Outline of series:


 Sixteen year old Hannah starts her summer with a big move to a new town. The town is small and old fashioned, and its as if everybody who lives there is stuck in their ways and moreover stuck in the past. The house she moves into is big and old to contribute to the eerie sense of the move and as an obvious component of a horror.  Hannah goes out to familiarise herself with her new surroundings and begins to resent her parents for the move as she doesn't like the new place and how quiet and conformist it is. She meets some people of a similar age down by a lake in a forest on the edge of town. She begins to become good friends with them and soon the summer has gone by and she has spent the majority of it with her new friends.


 Eventually summer is over and it is time to start school so she looks for her new friends on Facebook and finds it strange when she can't find them. After starting school she looks for the friends she spent summer with whilst in school but never sees them during only after when they meet by the lake. Her parents begin to worry when Hannah is never home and always out with her 'new friends', although never seen with them by the tight knit community. After being told that Hannah is often seen wandering and sitting alone her parents worry more and the school gets involved. Waiting outside for a parent teacher consultation about her she begins to look at the old photographs of previous school years on the wall by the office. Peering closely on the bottom left row of a photograph labelled 1972…she sees the familiar faces of the four friends she's been searching for.


The friends went missing shortly after the photograph was taken and were never found. The community do not talk of the friends as it is the biggest and most mysterious event to ever happen to the town and would jeapordise their ‘perfect’ reputation.

The idea behind Hannah thinking the friends are ‘real’ is similar to the film Sixth Sense however because it is series opposed to a film she will realise within the first few episodes.

The themes explored within the series include supernatural, horror, mystery, love, friendships, family and betrayal. In addition, each episode will have conventions of each theme and take on a new name with a hint to that episode’s content, for example:

1^st episode – The Move

2^nd episode - 1972

Production:

I started production by designing t shirts, bags, phone cases and a mug. To do this I used www.shirtinator.co.uk  and www.customink.com . After deciding against this I chose to try a DVD cover. I chose a dark colour to match the mysterious genre. The title comes from a font off the t shirt design website as I liked how it looked like a ransom note cut from newspaper letters as the disappearance would have been reported in a newspaper.  The background is made up of a chalk board to coincide with the school setting, in the same way ‘season1’ is written in chalk. I got the chalk font from a website called www.fontspace.com. I wanted both these titles to stand out as they attract the viewers.  I blended photos  on an app on my phone called ‘instantblend.’ I copied the names and producers from another DVD and ‘set transparent colour’ to get rid of the background. I also did this with the content guidance box and barcode.

I made my DVD cover using Microsoft Word and relied on the re-colour > ‘set transparent colour’ tool, the snipping tool to recapture images, cropping tool, text wrap (square) and different fonts/ colours available. I layered a lot and saved my work as a new image frequently.


Final Outcome:


After the photo shop workshop in class I decided to develop my DVD cover and try and use the Photoshop skills I learnt. From here I made my final piece which is a promotional poster for 'Never Found' and I often looked at posters for dramas such as The Vampire Diaries and other CW network shows for ideas to see ways in which they targeted a teen audience through their posters. I used an image of an eerie woodland setting and blended it with a jigsaw puzzle image from Google, removing the colour and changing puzzle image to gray scale as it was in bright colours. The puzzle was to coincide with the mystery theme throughout. From here I added the title and actor names and I wanted these to be quite bold and simple, with a small shadow to draw attention to it. Next I added the ITV2 logo as this is where most credited teen dramas are aired. Finally, I added in a photo from Google of what I picture the main protagonist to be like, as I feel this helps draw an audience in and gives them an insight helping attract them. I used the lasso tool to remove the background and just get the side of the girls face I wanted.

Visual, technical and audio codes

Insidious Chapter 3:

Visual Codes:

·      Short extracts from the film to give audience an insight into film

·   Varying shot sizes

·      Information about the film ; the release date(THIS SUMMER)

·      Introduces characters

·      Dark colours as a component of the horror genre

Technical Codes:

·      Shot Sequences edited together

·      Make-Up on actors 

Audio Codes:

·      Calm/Classical Music to sound eery and contrast against loud music on jumpy scenes

·      Loud sudden noises, make is more jumpy

·      Scary/Loud music to add suspense and intrigue audience

·      Extracts of conversations from characters to give further insight

Narrative:

·      Young girl and her dad move into a new house due to the girl becoming temperately disabled because of her broken legs. Whilst in the house she discovers it is haunted because of unexplained happenings. A relatable narrative makes it more realistic and therefore scarier narrative.

DVD Cover: Wanted

Visual Codes:

·      Main protagonist on front hows that a well known actor stars making people want to come and see it

·      Large Titles so name of the film is clear

·      Name of actors to again target fans

·      Information of release date and awards etc..

·      Attractive colours and fonts to attract people

·      Synopsis (summary of film) gives a brief insight into the film

·      Barcode for selling purposes

·      Producer(universal)

 Technical Codes:

·      Fake Background with light showing hope against a villain

·      Photoshopped protagonists on the front so its easy to see who's in it. 

·      Weapons

Billboard Magazine Cover

Visual Codes:

·      Celebrity taking up most of space to target fan base

·      Stands out against background

·      Covers title

·      Minimal information but enough to make you want to read

·      Simple colour scheme to easily read headlines

·      Price and Barcode for selling

Technical Codes:

·      Photoshopped

·      Large centre ‘M’ 

John Lewis TV Advert:

Visual Codes:

·      Bright colours- Keeps audience interested

·      Narrative focused on little boy yet also focuses on selling products

·      Relatable- Children at Christmas

Audio Codes:

·      Calm music/links to the narrative

Technical Codes;

·      Sequence of shots to develop narrative

·      Edited- penguin not real

Music Video-MGMT

Visual Codes:

·      Bright colours throughout to keep you interested

·      Characters in the videos are dressed in hippie like clothing such as headbands and are shown doing free spirited things

·      Use vivid imagery and changing in brightness which has an illusion on the brain

·      The characters use drugs in the video which shows pills are their religion

·      The first part of this video is the song titles followed by artist name and album name to give clear information

·      The video is very naturalistic and includes no modern materials such as technology, all we can see Is plants, animals and the characters

Audio Codes:

·      You can hear the use of the drugs(sniffing cocaine)

·      The song itself aids the narrative

Technical Codes:

·      The video has been edited to fit the audience target which is younger genders who enjoy going to festivals and believe in peace and the protection of the environment

·      The video is made to give the viewers the feeling that they are in the video to and have taken the same drugs.

Development of Production

I have chosen to design a poster for the series as part of the production and merchandise. I looked at some of the shows in my research from ABC family and CW network to see the types of clues about the show they gave on the posters. Most of them used dark colours and were obviously very relevant to the show.

The left poster shows the silhouettes of the friends she makes and has the backdrop of the forest they went missing in and therefore can only communicate with Hannah in. The title is eye catching and links with the tag line at the top of the poster which gives an insight into the series.

I prefer the left poster to the right as it shows more about the series. In the right poster I went with the police investigation side of the missing friends with the stamp and unidentified face. I think this poster lacks an insight into the show for advertising and won't grab a passers by attention. Although it may be a good poster for merchandise for fans of the show after it had aired.

I used Microsoft Word to design the posters, layering images such as the silhouettes onto the forest.I then chose a font and a colour that would stand out against the dark background and put the title more or less in the centre of the poster. Underneath is the times and days for people to see and this is all very clear as the poster is not busy. The silhouettes adhere to the mystery theme within the show.

For the second poster I also used Microsoft Word and I designed the stamp on a font website and put the face onto a stained page backdrop to show the time period.  The font is in red to stand out and I put it in a red box to make make it look like a stamp. The time and day is in the same font however because it is smaller it is not very clear and so in my next development I will have to change this.

I would like to use Photoshop or Illustrator to develop these designs and make them look more professional, and maybe try out different fonts and colours whilst doing so. I am choosing to develop the poster on the left as it is the one I prefer and think matches the ideas I have more than the other poster.