Trialing Spike Backgrounds

http://www.slideshare.net/lilyvalentine/spike-background-edits

Questions for Evaluation AS Production

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

Who would be the audience for your media product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

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

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

Analysis double page spread article

Here is the writing that will be included in my double page spread -

“When there’s a movement, there’s always gonna be haters.”

Zack talks to us about why hate mail is no issue for The Uncommoners.

In the nine years since The Uncommoners formed, they have definitely faced their fair share of ups and downs. Back in 2004, where they performed their first ever gig, getting heckled off the stage for their alternate music style was a blow to the band. Obviously it was not the best of venues for them to begin, a punk rock band in sleepy village pub, The Drum and Monkey, surrounded by authoritarians. The band's rocketing success didn't really come about until 2006, when they blasted out their “What’s the Fucking point!” album at the British Invasion 2K6. With modesty, the boys claim that the £8 a ticket was what brought them their breakthrough but we all know it’s the total boom noise they can burst through the amps like the government is going to nuke tomorrow away. But the journey has still been tough, with unfair accusations, the Punk Riots of 2006 following the Punk Rock festival in San Bernadino, California. Beaten down alongside other bands by worldwide newspapers, The Uncommoners were on the verge of breaking apart due to hate mail and death threats and announced their split in 2007. But then, from the ashes they rose, with more power, more punk and more noise than ever before. No one was ready for them, but committed fans came back for the reunited band. Zack found himself being interviewed by MTV whilst recovering from an after party in 2009, and even in his hung over state, stuck up two fingers to a mouthy anti punk in the audience on daytime television. “I was a bit of a pussy before, I wasn’t strong enough for what I was getting into.” He admits to interviewee, Dan Jacks. “But it was the push I needed, I got angrier and angrier, it was like poison. I toughened up and now I can handle the hate. That’s why we got fists, you know what I mean?” He laughs menacingly. “I had to learn, I was young back then. Now I know that if you’re not getting hated for what you’re doing then you aren’t making an impact. And that’s what it’s about isn’t it? We’re part of a movement, a punk rock movement, and this is a war against the big guys. We just gotta learn to be bigger!” Zack has big plans for this year, rumours of a European tour are spreading like wildfire across the punk nation. When Dan pressed him about this, all Zack said was “Piss off,” before spitting in Dan’s face, lighting up a fag and storming out of the studio.

 

This piece of writing is partly an interview and partly background information on my fictional band, The Uncommoners. The last sentence describes "Zack's" dramatic exit of the studio during the interview, where he spits in the interviewers face. I found out about punk rock and spitting on a tumblr blog

http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/gobonyou.htm

where it is referred to as "gobbing". I thought this would be a good inclusion in my article, as it demonstrates some of the attitudes and behaviours of punk rockers. As well as this, I took advantage of the punk's use for swear words and rude gestures (the picture shows "Zack" blocking his face with two fingers for the story's photo) and also included them, again to portray the rude and aggressive attitude of punks.

My use of real life events, the punk riots of 2006, are to show my research into the influences of punk the movement in the modern day, as this is a modern magazine.

Editor's Picture

In my contents page, I have included a message from the editor (myself) along with a picture. In this post I will be analysing my choice of facial expression, clothing, hand gesture and make up.

Facial Expression -
Punk was built up around the basis of anger, anger towards the government and other establishments. They expressed their feelings of anger through the clothes they wore and the music they listened to etc. In this picture I have tried to recreate the look of hate and anger my glaring aggressively.

Clothing -
The American punk band, the Ramones are sometimes thought of as the first punk rock group. In this picture, I am wearing a Ramones top, linking to the genre and target audience of my magazine.

Hand Gesture -
The devil horns sign is often linked to Satanists and rock music. I have used this pose to portray myself as a punk rocker.

Make Up -
I have used basic black eye shadow, punk girls would wear more heavy black make up.

Animal Prints

I did some research on the leopard print and its links to punk and here is what I found:

Banksy used an image of a leopard and a barcode -

http://belldininews.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/the-history-of-animal-print/
"The dangerous side of animal print appeared in the 1970′s. The Punk Rock movement brought about leopard print accents and torn cheetah print stockings. Rebellious music paired with the wild equals chic, sexy and dangerous."

I researched the psychology of animal prints, and discovered something interesting about how an animal print can link to fear. Especially as leopards are a type of wild cat that are considered dangerous, causing fear.
http://www.marketingfutures.com/2012/09/15/cougafication-the-psychology-behind-animal-print/
"Fear is, amongst other things, a form of arousal. One noteworthy research example is a famous study that was conducted (Dutton and Aaron) to show fear being ‘translated’ into sexual arousal.
The experiment had men walking across two bridges – one scary (arousing) bridge, and one normal (non-arousing) bridge – towards a young lady (experimenter) at the end who gave them a survey and her phone number to call her if they had any questions.
As expected, subjects committed the error of Misattribution of Arousal, with significantly more males calling the female after having encountered her on the scary bridge. They experienced general arousal (fear) and assigned a different cognitive label for that arousal, ie the attractiveness of the female they encountered at the time. Numerous other studies support these results defining various types of MoA. So, in this case, the perceived attractiveness of potential mates (‘mates’ in the Discovery Channel sense, not in the blokey aussie barbecue sense) was much more sexified during the experiment due to the increase in general arousal (fear) which was translated into perceived sexual interest. The relatively scary experience of the high bridge increased the appeal of the female for the males. The mind thinks “I was aroused when I saw that person so it must be that the person is attractive.”"

Here are some of the items of fashion that show leopard prints that relate to punk.

 

Vivienne Westwood opened the shop "SEX" at 430 King's Road which supported controversial punk clothing. It was totally different and obscene to other shops. Some of the clothing had animal prints on, sometimes worn to portray sexual feelings.

 

 

From my research, I have found that animal prints are again another example of the way that Punk's take a recognizable object and give it their own meaning. In this case, the leopard print is representative of the way Punk's were openly exploiting a print that linked strongly to sexual arousal (Vivienne Westwood's SEX clothes shop and psychological research into animal prints).
 I have changed the background of the barcode to a leopard print as it links to a more in-depth style of punk rather than tartan which is much more obvious.

Front Page Feedback

Terminal Moraine Concert Photos

I will choose at least 2 of these photos and edit them to be included in my coursework magazine.