Preliminary Filming

Print Questions

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
I worked on my own on this piece, i did all of the work for this task.
2. How did you plan your cover and contents page? What magazines did you use for your inspiration?
I drew out a basic plan for my cover and contents, i used magazines such as Kerrang, NME and GQ magazine for inspiration.
3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
I used a digital camera on a clear background for my task as it is easier to edit on a distinguishable background and i used photoshop elements 8.0. I used photoshop to cut out external images and layer them to form a magazine.
4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?
When planning, i needed to arrange to photograph my friend in there spare time. I needed to allow lots of time to edit as i wanted to be very precise with my editing.
5. Which magazines conventions does the magazine follow?
I used the title to be on the top third of the page and over the forehead of my photo.
6. Which does it break?
I went over the 3 colour rule, but this attracts more to my TMG as they are into lots of different colours
7. Who is your target audience and how does the layout/images/fonts/colour pallate/cover lines appeal to them?
My target audience is teenagers and young adults. The colours are very modern and the fonts are bold and trendy, the text is usually the most eye-catching piece of a media text so this is key. The image is very plain, i have included the dress sense to be modern and neutral so it does not offend a particular group of people. The layout is traditional to a magazine as people who tend to read magazine allready do anyway so they would like a them which they can work there way around easily and that they are familiar with.

8. Does the magazine appeal to new or regular readers – how do you know?
My magazine appeals to both readers as it has regular features, which regulars would be keen to buy to read about which are located on the contents and new readers would find my cover stories interesting which would appeal straight away.
9. How successful was your magazine cover? Identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?
To improve my magazine i would add more depth into my picture and use a more high definition camera and possibly use a white background so its easier to magnetic lasoo on photoshop. Also i would use a consistent colour pallete on my cover and my contents page so it has a feel of consitency.
10. What have you learnt about producing a magazine front cover and contents page? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework?

I have learnt that i work better on a print piece as i prefer working alone, as i can edit my work without grouping together which takes alot of time, also i can make my own decisions on the downside i miss bouncing ideas off of people and using other peoples ideas so it appeals to more people

Film questions

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
I worked with Bradley Cooke Catchside and Josh Irons. We decided for Bradley to the majority of the filming and for myself and Josh to do the majority of the editing on iMovie.

2. How did you plan your short filmed piece? Did you use any other films for your inspiration?

For our short film we created a story board. this gave us a clear outline of what to do, where to do it and in what order. We used a horror stalker affect at the start as we had frequent shots of someone walking.

3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
We used a video camera for our task, with this we used a tri-pod to add a stediness. To edit the movie we used iMovie on the apple Mac's. We used the editing software to add transitions. shorten and organize clips and to add effects.

4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?
We needed to film someone opening a door, sitting down and in converation so we planned around this. We decided on having a mysterious effect, so we would use different camera angles to others. I wanted to use a very high angle shot to show a CCTV effect.

5. Which film conventions does the piece follow? e.g. music, match on action, 180 degree rule, camera work etc

In our piece we used the 180 degree rule, this was to establish the position of people in the conversation. The music we created on garageband, it matches the action and fits in themystery genre.

6. Which does it break?
Our piece was designed to not brake the roles and fit into contemporary art of media text but we coulld have changed some things such as the ending to the conversation.

7. How did you consider mise en scene? e.g. lighting, camera work, setting, costume, props etc
The settings we chose were limited to school grounds so we decided on a wide variety of locations around the school. But we had to film on 2 seperate days of which i was in different clothes, so this looked very unproffesional. We used some chocolate fingers as props, they were used in our conversation about biscuits, which has a underlying message of when leaving something on show (biscuits) someone allways takes it and munches it away.

8. How did you consider narrative? Is there a sense of a storyline? Can any theorists be applied e.g. Barthes, Todorov, Propp, Levi Strauss

We used Barthes code such as the semantic code due to our underlying meaning of our conversation and the cultural code as the mysterious effect of the man could be assumed to be a stalker due to our culture.

9. How successful was your filmed piece? Identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

Our variety of camera angles worked very well and our unique converation and editing skills. I would improve the introduction and ending to our conversation as it does not flow well.

10. What have you learnt about producing a short piece of film? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework?

I have learnt that completing a short piece of film is quite simple to do but take alot of time and precision, and it is alot harder to produce a good piece of film in a limited period of time. It will be significant to the rest of my coursework as i will have to prioritise my time to fit in the hours of filming.

Preliminary Print

The Mind map above is about me thinking of ideas for a magazine title.



To start with I drew out sketches of my design, they consisted of a large mid shot, covering 2/3 of the front cover with a bold title. The contents page consisted of numerous images, appealing to different audiences. They would be the cover features. The contents list would be on the right hand side, this is similar to many other magazines. I would have 3 or 4 subheadings, these would be used to show the audience clearly were features are located.

Firstly I needed to take pictures for my magazine. I could not use someone elses image for my front cover as i couldn't get the expressions how i wanted them. So I got one of my close friends to take the picture on my camera. For the other pictures on the front cover, i had visited the Babycakes store that weekend, i managed to take pictures then to use on my preliminary. For my contents page it took a picture of a fellow student Molli Betts, I took a high shot, to show the lack of expression shown. Other images used were of previous concerts i had attended and taken photo's of for example the wombats and the babycakes party.

Then i constructed my magazine on photoshop elements. For the front cover i applied a destroyed/torn effect. This added a distressed look and that the image has survived alot and come out strong. For the name of the magazine i chose "UNPLUGGED" as it represents extra. This makes the audience want to read as they feel they cannot read the same information in other magazines. I chose to use the lutterworth college logo as my magazine is a school magazine, i used the magnetic lasoo to cut out the L and C and moved the layer was on the top. I arranged the two so it looks like UNPLUGGED is a sub section from Lutterworth College which is the effect i chose to achieve. I then magnetic lasoo'ed my head onto the cover. I then took the second image i took from that shoot, i cut out my right eye and eye brow, then placed them on top of my hand where my eye would be, achieving the effect that you could see through my hand. I then highlighted my head and extra eye and made them black and white. This gave the effect of distressed and confused. I then added a shape from the create shape tool, i then painted it pink to match the 3 colour rule which were black/white/pink. I then used the text tool in the bottom right hand side, using an arial black font. This is a clear and easy to read font. To finish off cover i added the pictures from the babycakes store and rotated them to show a collage look.

For the contents page i used a plain background as with the quantity of images and text, it would look too busy. I then added four red sub-headings, after looking at numerous magazines this was common within all of them. I then added text in a Times New Roman font, this is clear to read and is not over powering. I added a main story which i chose to be the babycakes party, i had taken photos from this concert and chose to use them within this piece. I magnetic lasoo'ed key characters from the event and put them on a higher layer to add a collage effect. I then used a ariel black font for the title of this article, it is bold and in a high size, this was to draw attention as this is a common article and would be the common reason why people would turn to the content page. I then added images that i had taken from concerts and of my friend. I added shapes on a higher layer and coloured them a bold red colour to keep with the rule of 3 colours. I added the ariel black font in white over the top of this to inform the reader what page the article would be on. After that i added my own image to the top of the magazine to show the reader the editor. This forms a personal relationship with the audience and puts them at ease. I added a brief description of what the magazine is about this week. And then added the magazine logo to the top right, to personally brand this. Finally i added a cartoon rocket to add humour and entertainment, it makes the audience feel a sense of professionalism. Then added a picture of my college that i took and added a lassoed image over the top. All of this makes a professional contents page, it looks sophisticated yet informal. It is a colourful and entertaining piece.

Comments:

"I like the wide range of techniques used" Bradley Cooke (student)
"The textured background adds alot of depth and meaning to the cover" Alex Farnell (student)

Prelinary Filming

For our preliminary filming, we were asked to make a piece of film involving someone opening a door, walking, sitting down and having a conversation with somebody. We have drawn out 16 panels in our storyboard, we are using a variety of different camera shots, including a long shot, a panning shot and a low angle shot.

On Tuesday we are going to be filming what we have planned. A good idea we have come up with, is a cctv shot. We have incorporated this by studying imovie and discovering what effects are available, we will use both of these, to create a different and unique piece.

The Following Tuesday myself, Josh and Bradley. We set up the camera with a tri pod. We had some difficulties, for example our camera we were given had technical issues, it would not record, the battery kept dying and the buttons would not function correctly. This resulted in us losing half of our filming time, so we filmed after school, we filmed a total of 20 minutes.

This consisted of us having an argument in the French block, we had difficulty finding a spare room to film in, Bradley insisted on us repeating each piece of film, so we had spare copies and we had a choice of which piece to use.

We used iMovie to edit our preliminary filming, as we filmed some very high shots on purpose, we were able to encorporate this into iMovie to give a CCTV effect and to show the audience different angles and giving the reader more confidence. We used extreme close up shots, panning shots, low angle, high angle, mid shots and long shots, to keep the audience entertained and not repetitive.

The high shot was used when the character walked underneath a walkway, this was to show us a personal view of someone witnessing the event, the low shot was used when we walked over the camera, this is to give the audience the impression of fear. The panning shot was used to give the audience a wide view of the scene, the viewer now feels confideent that he knows what is going on. The extreme close up shot is used for the door handle, it adds detail to the film and focuses our attention a key point.. We have also many close ups of the face, these are used so the audience know the expressions, shown by the characters.

Using iMovie we decided to use a different opening style to the rest of the film, this was to separate the readers attention, and to clearly show the difference between the two pieces. We used lots of titles with iMovie, these were used to introduce ourselves, the title of the piece and the the ending. They show the audience what is going on, without trying to work it out just by the film. We decided to edit the whole film into black and white, this gave the film a dark and mysterious feel, the questions the audience, saying why is it like this?

Using garageband we produced three different pieces, one for the titles, one pre-convo and one post-convo. This was used to show the feelings and emotions shown, as this is non-diagetic, it tells us it does not directly concern the film, but simply summarises it.

We had difficulty removing the external sound from the film, but after precise editing we managed to achieve this. Some external sounds were going to be saved to add effect and to make the audience feel closer to the action, but we decided it looked strange as some clips had no sound and some did, so we decided against this.

First Practical Practice

Myself, Bradley and Josh, were required to film a series of shots to show we understood them. We went to Auburn Place in Lutterworth College. We took 30 minutes to record and we filmed nearly all of what we wanted to. It worked really well and we all got on superbly. We then were told to edit, via iMovie on the Mac's. I used my Macbook to use a variety of openings, and various transitions. We used lots of short cuts to match with the soundtrack. We deleted all sounds made while filming so it shows non-diagetic sounds. The final product is shown below.