Sub-Genres of TV Drama

Soap Operas or Continuing Dramas:

Eastenders and Coronation Street

Crime and Police Dramas:

A touch of frost and CSI:Miami

 Casualty and Holby City

Doctor Who and Buffy the vampire slayer

Catherine Cookson and Garrow's law

Contemporary melodramas:

Tale of Mystery

Comedy Dramas:

Family Guy and The Office

Skins analysis : Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of age using the following:

• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise-en-scene

Throughout this clip there is a mixture of different representation towards age. This clip opens with an establishing shot  of a skateboard .  We can only see the skateboard and the the feet on the skateboard to start with which creates enigma as we don't yet know who it is however before we know who the character is we know that stereotypically skateboarding is young, cool and dangerous which gives us an idea of what kind of character we are about to meet.  There is a close up of the characters phone before we get to see his face.  Phones are typically for the younger generation which again connotes to the audience that this character is young. 

When we meet the first character we immediately notice that he is young, good looking and trendy.  First we have a close up shot of his face to allow the audience to see his reaction to the text he has just read and to give the audience an idea of what he's going to do next.  We then see a long shot of the back of him on his skateboard and his surroundings which, is a very dangerous road on a hill.  We immediately see that he is dangerous ad that to get where he needs to be he will do anything. 

 As the character is skating we see him hit into a police mans bike and knock him over.  Before This happens there is a  Mid-shot of the policeman which shows the audience that his focus is on his ice-cream and not looking for crimes.  There is also a close up of the police mans face which happens to be overly ecstatic over an ice cream and makes him look idiotic.  This challenges the representation of age as stereotypically a policeman is scary and looking for crime.  This policeman is so happy about his ice cream he doesn't notice the hazard until it hits him.  When he falls he gets back up and to humour the audience his ice cream happens to fall into the 'wrong' place.  He immediately jumps on his bike to chase the skateboarder. 

When the character reaches his destination we meet two more of his friends who are both young.  Immediately we recognise that the character in the red is yobby and load.  There is a close up of all the teenagers faces which helps give the audience an idea of what kind of characters they are. When we see the boy in red we notice that he is both smoking and drinking which gives us the idea that he is young and reckless.   We also notice that one of the teenagers we meet is geeky. We know this from not only the way he speaks but the way he acts and the fact that he is wearing braces as this stereotypically is a geeky thing.   I have noticed that there is a big contrast between the character in red and the geeky character because of the way they speak.   The character in red has a very common accent however the geeky character has a posh accent and uses very complicated English which rises the idea that perhaps he is more middle class.   As they are talking we know that it is early morning and that they are students however the character is red thinks that smoking and drinking in the sun with his mates is a better idea which connotes that perhaps he isn't bothered about and education and is quite fearless, although the first character is also smoking and drinking and pretty fearless he tries to redeem himself by suggesting that they should go to college which shows that perhaps he a little bit more mature than his friend.  After the character in red orders ore drinks he leans back very slovenly and belches.  This shows the audience that has no manners ad possibly no self respect.

In the next part the geeky character suggest that maybe someone should move the bike out of the ride before it causes an accident which again shows that he is the more mature character out of the group.  As he is speaking a car ironically drives into the bike causing him to lose control of the car and crash into the bollard.  A middle aged man angrily get out of the car swearing his head of and being violent to everyone around him.  Stereotypically you would expect him to act more calmly and civil to others due to fact that he is clearly a successful business man due to his suit and his car.  This challenges the way that age is represented as he is not acting the age that he should be.   The boy in the red again shows his immaturity as he laughs when the car crashes.  The middle aged man then picks on an innocent old woman.  He is shouting at her.  She speaks very slowly in a very strong accent.  There is a close up of the old lady showing her confused face and the fact that she is leaning forward suggests that she is hard of hearing as steroetypically old people are.   We then see the boy in the red top appear in the scene holding his head.  He claims that he was riding the bike and the man crashed into him.  To get revenge for the way she was spoken to the old woman backs up his story.   

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

Planning and preparation was really important so that i could understand the various forms and conventions of different fashion magazines.  During my preliminary task, i did not research enough and therefore wasn't full aware of the conventions and how my magazine should have been layed out.  Since creating my school magazine my knowledge of using Photo shop has increased considerably. For example I now know how to make elements of my magazine stand out more changing the saturation/contrast/brightness of my images. In addition to this, I learnt how to select parts of photos using the quick selection tool in order to cut things out. An example of this would removing the background from my images, which makes my magazine look more professional and effective. I've also learnt how to download newer more interesting fonts, increasing the visual appeal of my magazine. As well as this, the complexity of my page layout has increased as I've done more research.  For my school magazine i didn't do as much research, so therefore my magazine follows the conventions more.  On my school magazine the fonts i used for my cover lines don't look as effective and appropriate as my fashion magazine. I think this is because my knowledge on fonts as increased stupendously. 

Overall my understanding of the software has improved greatly throughout this project because at the start I'd barely used Photo shop and now I have produced a professional looking magazine using it.  I also feel that during my 2nd project i came more aware of my target audience.   

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

During the construction of my magazine there has been a few problems accessing technology which has made it hard to produce work of a high standard in these challenging circumstances.  Spite these problems i have used laptops at school and my own computer to create my magazine. The majority of my work was done on my own computer. 

 I created my magazine using desktop publisher.

To transfer my work from one computer to another a used a memory stick as this was more efficient than emailing myself my work.

To take pictures for my magazine i used my own camera from home (samsung).  To edit my images i used a programme called Adobe Photo shop Elements 2.0

Below of some of the images that i edited

I created my fonts on dafont.com as this website contained the font that i wanted to use for my magazine which is found on the double page spread.

I then edited my font which i had found on dafont.com on fireworks.

In addition to this I created a blog account using “Blogger” to post all of my research and evaluation.

To transfer my magazine content on to my blog i print screened them from viewing them in print preview and then copied them onto paint before saving and uploading onto my blog.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my audience i used direct mode of address in most of my images.  This is because i wanted my magazine to be able to stimulate an interaction with every individual reader.  On my front cover there is a central image which follows the conventions of a fashion magazine.  It helps the magazine to look professional and effective as the cover lines are moulded around the sides.  This is the same for my double page spread.  From my research fashion magazines tend to have an interviews about an idol.  The interview is moulded around my models shape which is following the conventions.  Not only is it doing this but it looks effective and attractive which encourages my audience to stop and read.  On my contents page i used more than one image because i wanted my audience to see the different outfits that are featured inside my magazine, which would help attract them because they will be interested in fashion and looking good.

I used costumes in my magazine to interpret the genre of my magazine.  My model wore clothes and jewellery that is related to the season and fashion.  This made it clear that my magazine was a fashion magazine which helped to attract my target audience.  My model is very thin and beautiful which is stereotypical for a fashion magazine.  This follows the conventions of other magazines. 

 Throughout my magazine i used superlatives such as 'free' and 'exclusive' to help attract my target audience and interest new fans.  These words make the audience think that they are getting something original and unique which encourages them to buy the magazine. 

 The register i used in my magazine was standard English as this was appropriate for my target audience.  This is because i expect my target audience to be educated. 

 Throughout my magazine i used the same colours.  As my magazine was a 'winter special' i did some research on other magazines to help me pick my colours. Here is an example of a magazine i looked at for conventions. 

I think that the colours i used a stereoptypically wintery and relevant for the season.  This helps attract my audience as the colours represent winter for example bluue connotes ices and white connotes snow etc.  I think that the colours used are bright and attractive colours that stand out.  This is important as magazines are placed next to their competitors, so consumers will choose the magazine with the most attractive front cover. 

The variety of size/colour/font of my coverlines helpes attract my audience as it creates excitement and enigma as to whats inside.  They make my audience want to buy the magazine and read more. 

The price of my magazine is fairly reasonable and cheaper than the majority of fashion magazines.  From my research the majority of my audience said they would pay between 1 and 2 pounds.  So with my magazinebeing in competition with others and being priced 2pounds and others being priced at 3 and 4 my magazine is more likely to become more popular and therefore more attractive. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Demographic

I expect my target audience to be between the ages 18-26 year olds and mainly female of any ethnicity. It is aimed at people born in the 21^st century so that they will understand the content.  I expect my audience to be of middle income because i think that the pricing of my magazine (£2.00) is average priced.  It’s not cheap and not expensive.  I expect my audience to be at a GCSE level to understand the content and language of my articles.  I don’t expect my audience to be married people but i expect couples or single people that are students or who have recently come out of education.  I expect them to be and extrovert person that is bubbly and confident.   They will listen to indi/alternative music that is out today and shop in the high street shops such as topshop and H&M.  They will enjoy education and will be an average student.  Not extremely clever but not stupid.  As a career they may want to go into retail or designing as they have such a high interest in fashion. 

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

I think that a media institution such as IPC Media would be the best to distribute my magazine. This is because it has already distributed magazines such as 'Elle' and 'Look'.  My magazine is aimed at a slightly younger audience than these, therefore there is a gap in the market for it. Also the fact that IPC media already distributes well known fashion magazines means that they have alot of experience, they are well known and have loyal customers who may be interested in the launch of a new fashion magazine.