Monday 19 October 2009

Media and Me

Media and Me

My Name is Jessica Dunford. In my GCSEs I achieved two B’s, three D’s and all the rest C’s. For my A levels I am studying Media, Psychology, English Land and Lit and Photography. My Hobbies include Photography, Gigs, Traveling, Horse Riding and Music.
I read magazines more than I read newspapers but I tend to read The Sunday Times sometimes as well as local newspapers such as the EDP. I Read them because my family always has, and it’s a nice routine to have on a Sunday. I use the BBC website or watch the news to access the headlines rather than reading newspapers everyday. Radio is a Large Gateway to the Music I listen to. I Listen to Radio One and Radio Two. I like most of the Radio Presenters and the music that they play is usually the music that I enjoy listening to. I really Like Kerrang Magazine and Rock Sound too. They Spotlight the Music that influences me most.
The Music Industry plays a monumental role in my life, my father has been in the music industry his whole life and I have grown up around live concerts and musical instruments. My Favourite Genres of music are Rock, Indie, Acoustic and Punk. I am not in a band but I play the guitar and piano. I find out about bands by using the internet and going to gigs. Illegally downloading is a large problem for many musicians at the moment. A band I admire greatly once said to me that they would not be angry at me for illegally downloading their album, I paid to see them live, which means more to them than album sales. I used to download all of my music but have since bought the albums of bands that I really, really like. I still however spent astonishing amounts of money on gig tickets and band t-shirts. The Music Industry influences my life style, the company I choose to keep and the clothes I choose to buy. The bands I listen to influence my attitude towards life, I find a good band cannot only play their instruments to a high standard but are able to write their own Thought Provoking lyrics and can perform on stage.
I do not play nor have I ever played Video Games. I don’t find that I ever have enough time to be playing video games nor do I find them entertaining. I don’t really understand the world of gaming, I think it’s great that gaming has got so advanced, however anybody that has enough time to be sat on an Xbox all day clearly needs to question how well they spend their time and why they don’t have anything better to do. Although saying this I do have great appreciation for people that spend a lot of time developing the graphics for these games. They’re incredibly clever and well thought out and are ideal for their target audience. I am a firm believer that games should really only be aimed at children and younger people that don’t have a job or anything that they do after school. In that respect video games are great for occupying children but I feel that I don’t have enough time to play them.
New Technologies have greatly opened my access to films and television and the music industry. Wherever I go the media is following me, Advertisements on Bus’s and music playing in shops. There are many shops and websites that sell films, books, music etc. You can find a massive library of any band or any film you can think of. Computer Software is advanced to the stage now where I can make short films and edit them using just a camcorder and the software that came with my desktop. I can then publish these short films to a site such as youtube, where my video can be accessed by the whole world.
I really, really love television. I like television shows that have something different about them. I really enjoy friends, it was such a massive part of television in my generation and was one of the biggest, highest rated television shows. I also love shows like never mind the buzz cocks and mock the week. I think the show Ugly Betty deserves more credit for what it actually is. The diverse ranges of characters in the programme are incredible and the actors play the parts of the programme so well. I like the contrast between them and watching how the personalities clash. Five Memorable Television shows in my eyes are probably Only Fools and Horses, Minder, Friends, The Simpson’s and A Touch of Frost. For a long time I disliked
The Simpson’s, until I was older and realised that the script writing is extremely clever and I can now appreciate the underlying jokes that the writer aims at an older audience as apposed to the cartoon being aimed at children. I always wondered why my father liked it so much. I don’t like stereotyping television. Like cartoons only being suitable for children, I disagree. South Park is a major example of a cartoon show that is completely unsuitable for children.
I don’t have a favourite genre of film, I like films that I can walk away and rethink about and I like films which change the way I think about something. Films that I find outstanding are probably Trainspotting, because the book was amazing and im a firm believer that not many films can capture the characters, the relationships and the Story as well as the book. It is written in a Scottish accent which I think is very original. I also really like the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, again I prefer the book however I think that the film is very original and the characters are portrayed very well. I really like the film Cruel Intentions, I think that the story line is very original

As Media Advertising Campaign


As Media Advertising Campaign

Empowered Lipstick.

The advert I have designed is specific to women. The picture I have used of the main backdrop is feminine and artistic. The woman is applying red lipstick and has an expression on her face of glamour and femininity. She is very colourful and the image uses a very feminine colour theme. She is wearing a lot of pink and black make up, which red co-ordinated well with. I chose the lipstick idea because it is something that I myself purchase a lot and when I see an advert for a new brand of lipstick I thought about the way I interpret the image when considering to buying it. I really like the artistic theme to the advert. The colour theme in the advert is pink and reds which I think are associated with women and cosmetics. When I came up with the idea of a lipstick advert my original idea was to use a gothic vampire theme, this however proved a challenging task to manufacture as gothic and images of vampires are hard to make positive and appealing. I reason I chose this idea originally is because red lipstick is commonly associated with gothic culture and is the same colour as blood, which is commonly associated with vampires. At this point I changed my idea to the current idea I have now; I think that this idea is better because it appeals to more people and a better audience than my original idea.
I think my advert is aimed at 16-25 year old women. This age group tend to wear make up more often than women older and they also take fashion and their appearance into great consideration. Make up is an essential part of feeling good about yourself and making a good appearance. Most women wear some form of makeup everyday and lipstick although is more common for formal events and going out can be worn for every day events. I think that my advert does not give off the impression that you can only wear this lipstick when dressing formally, the advert is quite laid back and general and not specific to any time in which the product can be used.
The text in my advert stands out but is also simple, this way the attention goes more towards the woman in the image and the lipstick at the bottom of the advert. The text reads “Be Artistic. Be Empowered. The theme of empowerment I personally think is a crucial factor as empowerment is something that women are everyday getting more and more of. We live in a male dominated society and dominance and power and very important to most women. I used the Phrase “Be Artistic” because make up in a sense is art. And the way you apply your makeup and the make up you wear says a lot about you. The image of lipstick which I chose also fits in with the artistic theme of the advert. I think that it is very important that all of the images in the advert are in keeping with each other. This image would be printed in women’s fashion magazines such as “Elle” and “vogue”. These magazines are focused on women and female interest. They cover topics on image and the shopping industry and Fashion.
I think the strengths of my advert is that it can be produced for a lot of different varieties of women and that it is feminine and sticks to the theme that I created. I think that some of the weaknesses are that it doesn’t contain enough information about the product itself and the price, where you can buy it etc.

Diesel Jeans Advert Analysis


Conceptual Analysis of a print advertisement rooted to 4 key media concepts.






I am analysing the diesel jeans campaign “live fast”. This particular advert was taken out of the July issue of Cosmopolitan. It depicts a tall and attractive woman running down a road in heels whilst changing a baby. This is a large risk to the baby, and inconsiderate. This represents a fast paced action which corresponds with the title of the advert.

Codes and Conventions (Purpose and Effect)
The woman pictured in the advert is in the middle of sprinting down the pavement. She had extremely long, skinny model legs and is wearing a pair of diesel jeans. There is a baby in her arms, lying on a towel. It seems to be unphased by the woman running and may possibly even be asleep. She is putting talc on the baby, which would be an impossible task to do whilst running. The writing in the bottom left corner says “Live Fast”. The font is made to look like the text is moving, in the same direction of the girl. In the top right hand corner there is the brand logo and its tag line “for successful living” and in the bottom right corner it says “high speed shopping: diesel.com”. The woman is the main focus of the advert, at first glance you would assume that the advert would be referring to her clothing but it is also advertising the “high speed shopping” that diesel.com offers.
The image is not very culturally specific; I feel the advert is American and the woman looks fairly young and independent. There is nobody else in this advert apart from the baby, which we assume is hers. The advert is associated with an appealing lifestyle because the woman is beautiful, slim and dressed well. She is running with a sleeping baby down a sunny road without any hassle. She is independent and confident which is a good message to diesels audience but she could easily hurt the baby in her arms which is irresponsible.

Representation
The kind of lifestyle being represented is nice at a first glance, I think most women would want to look like that and find running in heels with a sleeping baby easy. However in the real world that would never happen because of the colossal risk of dropping the baby or falling over and hurting her. There is not much detail about the location; all we see is a tall white wall and grass. I cannot recognise any negative representation of the woman, the tag line says “for successful living” and the woman is successfully carrying out the task in the photo. She is wearing expensive and stylish but simple clothing. It’s purely for the love of money, the “live fast” tag is meant to encourage people to die fast but spend all of their money while they are at it and just let materialism take them over. I only realised this when I looked at the other ads in the campaign I realised that they were actually really sickening.

Audience
I think that they are trying to attract young, stupid, fashionable and well off people with a fashionable lifestyle. The woman in the picture represents their target market age group. She is Rushing about wearing diesel jeans and attractive like most young girls want to be. The picture is sunny and the baby is sleeping which makes what she is doing look easy and that she has no morals to what would happen to the baby if she landed on it. The advert is almost comical. I didn’t realise some of the subliminal messages when I first saw these adverts. At first glance you see independence, glamour and nice clothes but after researching this particular ad campaign has a deeper message that is “don’t care about anything else apart from looking good” the picture below is from the same campaign and shows a girl who is oblivious to running into an ice cream truck because she’s obsessed with looking in the mirror.





Institutions
Tagline: High speed shopping: diesel.com
Product : Fashion jeans and clothing
Agency : Marcel Paris
Photographer: Laurie Bartley
Executive Creative Director: Frederic Temin / Anne de Maupeou
Art Director: Nicolas Chauvin / Romin Favre
Copywriter: Eric Jannon / Dimitri Guerassimov
Country : France


Evaluation
These adverts are aimed at young people that can afford to spend a little extra on clothes; they have a strong message that “image is everything” I disagree with this concept however I think they have been clever enough to disguise that concept in this image in particular. If you see the whole campaign together you get a better idea of the message they are putting across.