Mainly suggesting that genre is presented through Stephen Neale’s theory which is this topic has many similarities and differences. There are various types of genres such as a hybrid genre, which is genres that are mixed together such as a film comedy and a comedy musical. They both have elements of comedy to fit the criteria that the audience are expecting but there are noticeable differences within the two products which sets them apart for the audience. Stephen Neale portrays that the main tensions are between repetition and sameness versus variation and change.

Level of verisimilitude = to a certain extent where the media product can reference the real world

Narrative similarities = The recognition of defined story structures

I plan to produce two media products for set brief 6. As this set brief is based on digital media containing numerous news stories, this has taken my interest as I wish to expand my knowledge of media in broadcasted stories and to develop my skills as a journalist when I finish my studies.  This brief has grabbed my attention as I am engrossed in current affairs within the local and international area and how liberal news can substantially alter the views of an audience constructed through sensationalized headlines.  

The audience that I aim to target will be teenagers who are beginning to emerge as political voters, they will essentially be 16-18 years old, educated to Key Stage 5 and possibly looking to go onto university. In terms of Psychographic profiling (Rubicam and Young), I am targeting ‘succeeders’,’ reformers’ and ‘aspirers’. These types of roles presented in society are my main target as they all display characteristics in common, such as the desire to be successful in life and curiosity as to what impact they can achieve to change society for the better. In terms of uses and gratification, I am aiming to create products that provide information about the world that connects individuals, families and communities together through a greater awareness of social and political issues.  

The Guardian and Financial Times will be my main inspiration when it comes to creating my media products. This means that I will ensure the tone, style and register of my web pages will reflect these professional products. For example, the Financial Times uses a lot of quantitative data (numerical) often presented in graphic form, such as statistics, which I shall include on my home and two detailed web pages. In terms of audio production, I usually listen to a radio channel called Radio 4. It is a very successful media representation of broadcasting programmes to display important affairs in today’s world. For example, The Today programme, reveals various details on the current affairs of the day so again my audio products will reflect the formal tone of this news broadcast.  

I would like to make both productions to be connected in terms of content and representation, so my audio will be the same as one of my main articles from the home page, but rather include the actual voices of the people I choose to represent which were originally from my previous article. I will also use consistent branding and iconography, such as the title and strapline to ensure iconic and indexical signs (C S Pierce). As with the written articles on the blog, I intend to use a formal register of language. I would also like to include other opportunities such as sections on my website specifically for the youths to gain a wider range of knowledge in universities and jobs that are available to them to build their future. 

For my front cover of the magazine, I intend to create the theme of beauty as my main style to attract readers. This will consist of makeup, beauty tips and secrets. I aim for these factors to appeal to any genders as beauty is embraced into everyday life. Beauty is known to be most popular styles amongst magazine readers, as many genders of today’s world are experimenting various techniques to use makeup. I aim to promote my front cover in the style of the gentle woman magazine as beauty is most popular amongst females and they need the sense of power and control to portray to the reader and go against stereotypes. The target audience I would like to direct my front cover to is from 18-65 years old with the gender mainly being aimed for females. I have chosen this age range due to the products and information I would like to make available as it is suitable for those in that range. Anyone younger than my target audience would not find makeup and beauty as interesting because they are too young to commit towards it and don’t have the knowledge to obtain the basic makeup skills. Whereas anyone above 65 would not feel the need to know about beauty because they would rather find out relevant information such as health and lifestyle to be applicable towards their life. As the age range starts off young, beauty becomes more of a common interest towards teens. So, I will have to make sure there is an appropriate amount of beauty information displayed, to attract the older audience and make them feel included. I have chosen Meghan Markle in the Tatler magazine as my style model because of her facial expression. Only her face being shown allows the reader to feel a connection to Meghan because of the up-close view.

I would like my title to be in front of my model because my company would need to be well known towards the audience, if I need to grab the reader’s attention in the future. Even though the title is in front of my model, it still doesn’t undermine the role of her playing as the protagonist. I would like her to have direct mode of address to portray her confidence and self-empowerment. This opposes the theory of ‘the male gaze’ by Laura Mulvey, claiming women are represented as objects that fulfil men’s pleasures of looking etc. However, I would like my model to challenge this theory by looking directly towards the audience (camera), wanting to be the looker rather than being ‘looked at’. I intend to make my model display piercing eyes towards my audience and inform them of the power that she has over drawing the audience in. I would like my colour pallet to consist of three colours, red, white and black. I aim to use red as my prime colour as it is considered as a seductive tone. This would create a sense of passion and attract the attention of the model as she would be looking at the camera in a seductive way.  

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This project is an online marketing campaign that includes two movie posters and three Instagram posts about a coming-of-age teenage melodrama, entitled Age of Summer. These posters will appear in an entertainment magazine for people who are artsy and adventurous. The target audience for my movie will be between the ages of 15-35, with the gender being female as this portrays a buoyant perspective of the world, which links towards the gentlewoman magazine. 

These posters and Instagram posts encourages the theme, coming-of-age, where a group of teenagers are faced with joy, comedy, and difficulties portrayed throughout one summer. A group of protagonists, introverts, extroverts, artistic, social etc… illustrates warmth and kindness through the poses, eager to start summer. The posters contain neon yellow colour we title to stand out towards the audience and indicate the warmth of this film. The title, ‘Age of Summer’ portrays the timeline of a group of teenagers spend one summer together to make last longing memories. This is effective towards my target audience as they would possibly have some resemblance with the main characters and relate to the various personalities within these people. Underneath I have added a heading in smaller font compared to the title ‘It is easy to forget now how spirited and fee we all felt that summer’. This quote indicates that this film may not just be in the theme of a feel-good summer film, but it may also have some sorrow as the word ‘forget’ shows that this was memories that no longer exist within the group. Whereas the other film poster portrays subtle colours such as dark blues and whites to produce calmness within the film. Here we have a single protagonist portrayed on the front cover looking towards the camera (breaking the fourth wall) from a distance. As there is only one character displayed, it makes the audience question where everyone else is and if he has anything to do towards the plot of the film. I have changed up the style of the title with different font and moved the title to the bottom of the poster to not make it as noticeable and let the main character take the lead of the audience’s attention. I have decided to add awards the film has won to display the success this film has had. This once again persuades the audience to watch my film as many critics have agreed that this is worthy of the awards. Underneath the title I have added that it was based on a novel, meaning people who have read the book may want to watch the film to see the similarities between the two or vise versa.  

For my Instagram posts I have used the first one to have quotes from expert reviewers to persuade the audience to watch my film. This is because viewing other people’s opinion can alter your perspective of what you view. For example, one of the quotes I have used is ‘the best movie I’ve seen this year’. This makes the audience intrigued to find out if the reviewer is telling the truth, while seeing if they will enjoy it. By adding many quotes within the post surrounding the protagonist of my film creates an overwhelming feeling of FOMO, which allows the audience to want to see the film because they feel like they are missing out on it. For my second Instagram post, I have used another photo to portray the main characters in a fun summer vibe. On the sides of my post there is many top-level reviewers such as the daily mail, guardian etc. As these are well known media companies, it is easier for the audience to think their opinions are trustworthy and agree to watch the film. I am using stars to show the reviewers ratings on what their opinion of the film was, this contained bold colours and a bigger size to grab the attention of the audience. For my last Instagram post, I wanted to achieve the more aesthetically pleasing look to once again grab the viewer’s attention. This post would show the type of theme this film would have to please the audience. I have used a group photo for this post to provide comfort and reassurance for the audience. ‘STREAM NOW’ is added at the side of the post to indicate to the audience the film is available to be seen and is accessible for the audience. It is in capitals to immediately grab the audience’s attention, so they feel pressure to quickly stream my film otherwise they will miss out on the opportunity. 

With these film posters and Instagram posts, I wish to allow the audience to gain all aspects of what my film is trying to portray, which is a sense of togetherness, adventure, heart-warming and trust.