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Typography worksheet

Magazine Layout Overview

I looked at issue 234 of top gear magazine. The front cover is made dominated by a big picture of a Ferrari F12 and an Aston Martin One-77. The masthead is in the Top Gear font and above that is the BBC logo on the left and an inside quote filling the rest of the top strip. On the left, the big stories (coverlines) of the 2 cars are displayed and at the bottom there is a slightly diagonal strip that gives an idea about a couple of other stories to expect inside. On the bottom right is the bar code, dateline and price.

The big picture is there to catch people's attention and give the theme of the magazine. The top gear logo is well known and the big, iconic masthead will definitely draw in an audience it is also at the top of the page so that it can be seen in the stacking of magazines. The BBC logo is simply to show that it's a BBC magazine and the quote is there to give an insight to the celebrity story in the magazine (in this case, about Jeremy Clarkson). The coverlines are there to give an insight on the magazine's content and are normally on the left, also due to the way the magazines are stacked.

Lifestyle Magazines Worksheet 1

homework on positive and negative representation of women in music videos

1st negative video: Meek Mill ft. Young Chris  -House Party

Mise en Scene: Most women in this music video are wearing clothes that show a lot of skin, which suggests that all they want to do is get together with the men by looking attractive. They are also (as the song name says) at a house party, which normally have bad reputations for things such as trashing the house, as well as having reputations for everyone being careless, getting drunk and a lot of people getting sexual. There appears to be a scene at a bar which gives the impression of women (although, in fairness, men too) getting drunk at parties.

Cinematography: A lot of the shots zoom in on the girls and track them, which could imply that they want to get noticed, this is also portrayed by the close ups of them. The mid shots/long shots of them with the men suggests that these women are there more for the reputation of the party than the party itself (by that I mean that they want the men to notice them and they try to get involved with what the men are doing). There are a few 360 shots and pans which could be suggesting that the girls want to show themselves off.

2nd negative video: The Roots -What They Do

Mise en Scene: The women in this music video are wearing either their underwear or bathing suits which is an immediate implication of them being eye-candy or objects of desire. They all seem to be at the house of a rich person and go with them to other places which could suggest that they are trying to impress the rich guys and only care about representation instead of the person they're actually with.

Cinematography: just like the Meek Mill song, almost all of the cinematography consists of zooms, pans and mid/long shots. This, once again, suggests that the girls are trying to show themselves off to the men and be involved with them. Which is kind of the entire point of the music video scenes that involve the women.

Positive Video: Lindee Link -The Next Time

Mise en Scene: Lindee and all the other girls in this music video are wearing perfectly acceptable clothing, which doesn't even need a description to why it's positive, it's just the opposite to the others. The scenes involve a forest pathway (specifically on a bridge over a river), a coffee shop, a silver back wall, a black back wall and a runway. A forest is a nice, refreshing, natural place to be which could represent the personality of Lindee by saying that she is kind and happy with who she is. The coffee shop is a general place for people to be when they want a break and it is almost the opposite to a club or party, which are the places normally shown in negative music videos. The runway is an open place which could suggest she is happy to be free with who she is and not narrow her choices down to just rich guys or celebrities. The black wall was mainly just there to represent the sad moment and the silver wall for the good times. She is wearing minimal jewellery (an earring and a ring) which are perfectly reasonable things for a woman to wear and they're not there to give her a representation of looking rich to buy it all. Her make-up consists of eye-liner and lipstick, which, once again, is a perfectly reasonable and normal for a sensible woman to wear.

Cinematography: There are many close-ups in this music video which I think are there to make the viewers feel more connected to her. The camera shakes a lot which could be a suggestion of her having strong feelings (relating to her lyrics). Other cinematography used are pans, tilts and 360 shots. The tilts and pans are mainly there to show that what she's feeling doesn't stay the same and her feelings are constantly changing whilst the 360 shot is probably there to show that she's made a turnaround (because she's forgetting about the past and moving on which is what the song is about). The final usage of cinematography are long shots which I think (again, relating to the meaning of the song) that she's keeping the ex-boyfriend away so that he stops hurting her feelings).

photoshop 2

Last time, i wrote instructions on how to make a hollow circle. I knew this but I didn't know how to make thick, curved lines

to do this, you use the pen tool, tap on one spot and then hold your mouse on  another spot and drag. This creates a curve. You can then right click the curve and select 'stroke path' to turn it into a line made with the same thickness of your brush.
The pen tool can also be used to easily make straight lines.

The pen tool may sound easier than making a hollow circle, but it's not. If you use it incorrectly you'll end up making loops in your curves or, if the lines are wrong in comparison to your brush, you may get an ugly line at a thin part. Making a curved point (cat's claw shape) can also be difficult to do if you don't know what you're doing (you need to tap, drag, tap in the right positions). It takes a lot of experimentation to succeed with the pen tool, even if you do know how to use it. It's not the most complicated thing in photoshop but you must make sure that you use it correctly and drag (or not drag) the mouse correctly to not make a mistake.

Representation homework 2

Statement 1: In many rap videos women have no identity except as sexual playthings and "eye candy"

Statement 2: These images do provide pleasures to some viewers. But the concern is that men may internalise the notion that women are nothing more than sexual objects waiting to be used.

Statement 3: These sorts of images are not unique to hip hop. Objectified female bodies are everywhere. They appear throughout our culture in films, advertisements, television programmes etc. However, within music videos, this is virtually the ONLY vision of women available.

Statement 1: This is a fairly reliable explanation of women in rap videos. This is shown in many videos such as: 50 cent - in da club, the roots - what they do and Sir mix a lot - baby got back.

Statement 2: This is most likely true. No-one can say that it definitely is but it's likely. The concern is also possible because human nature is to see everything of a certain 'category' (e.g. women) that they like as the category as a whole (so they will see these women like this, like it and then that idea will get stuck in their heads) this is, in essence, humans being stereotypical towards women after seeing them in those videos because that's what they've seen them as and, as I've said, because we focus more on what we like, that's how that particular stereotype forms.

Statement 3: this is mainly true because this is how the media wants to display women. The media wants a sort of 'beauty standard' for women to get a wider audience interested in the media, they mainly do this to get this wider audience to spend money on magazines, etc. for the women, earning companies money. One difference is that it isn't the ONLY vision available. It may be the main vision, but not the only one. In a few videos women will just be seen as an audience or a general friend. The media wants to display women like this but there could be problems and complaints if they only portrayed women as eye candy or playthings.

This is only my view on the statements because anyone can see them differently but in general, I believe that these statements are almost completely true with a small amount of exceptions.