Film Evaluation

Evaluation – By Chantelle Walker

During this project, I produced an interactive video with audio that was accompanied by research, planning and contextual analysis along with attempts of problem solving throughout. Along with making an interactive came a lot of preparation. While planning my film, I had to create a storyboard, draft script, a pitch for my film and other pieces of written work that helped to make my film making process more smooth. While doing this project I also kept a production log which allowed me to document all the work I had completed in the weeks and gave me the opportunity to evaluate my work as I went along.

When coming up with an idea for my film I struggled coming up with something which I felt would allow me to show off my skills and have a great overall look. I made a mind map that was full of different ideas. I finally decided on the idea of doing a film that involved two girls who, like many people today, spend a majority of their time taking photos of places and mainly themselves. The concept of my film was to show people that in this generation we are blinded by technology. Many things around the world happen and even straight in front of us, yet we might not of even realised because we are fixated with our phones and don’t actually look up. I wanted to highlight this issue as I think it’s very relevant to most people.

In preparation of our interactive videos we all sat together and watched many different short interactive videos that were all different genres. This helped show what interactive videos were all about and how they are structured. This was also very helpful in our project because it allowed me to understand how to get across a message in a short amount of time and for it to be meaningful and clear to the audience. Throughout the whole project I always went back and viewed different interactive videos to help remind myself what I needed to do to make the theme and message bold. As well as watching videos we got set two essays which we had to complete in order to give us more help and understanding of the project. One of the essays was an interactive media essay. In this essay we had to discuss traditional and new media along with interactive media and the advantages and disadvantages of them all. Researching these helped with the project as it gave me a real insight into to the different media types and what audience they appeal too. The second essay was a film sound essay. For this we had to research the main sound types which included foley, atmos, and sound effects. We then had to analyse these sound in two chosen films. This research helped as it gave me a better understanding into the importance of sound also what type of sounds to use when creating a certain atmosphere.

Within the duration of my project I did encounter some problems. One of the issues I faced was planning times too film with my actors when they were both free, this having to also coincide with the weather. I did not want to film when it was raining because this would have a major effect on the audio and is not what I had planned. One of my actors was in school and the other actor went to college. I figured the best time to film was after college and school had finished. Due to me and one of my actors having work on the weekend it made it more hard when it came to filming. However, we did overcome this and managed to get all the filming done in time with plenty of remaining time of the project to spend on editing. While filming the main block of the film, one of my actors fell ill. This meant that I had to adjust my storyline a bit in order to let her go home and rest and then to also to make her departure to seem like part of the film. I managed to do this rather easily and when watching the film back I believe you cannot notice any changes were made. Another problem was that when filming the first few opening scenes, it was a windy day. I did not think it was windy enough to have a big effect on the audio, but it did. I then decided to have the first half of my film with no dialogue in, instead I put in some sounds to make up for this. I was worried that it would look strange having the first half with no dialogue then the second half with lots of dialogue. But there was not much else I could of done unless I had more equipment with me.

Throughout this project I think my skills have improved. I especially believe my editing skills have been massively developed. Before this project I didn’t realise how much work does go in to editing and I now appreciate that it’s a lot of hard work. I am now able to include a certain piece of audio from one clip and overlay it over multiple clips to make the audio seem more interesting and edit in clips that make it look more appealing, as opposed to a whole shot for the duration of a conversation. Along with practical skills development I believe my organising skills have also improved during this project as we are the ones that needed to plan and arrange everything. I managed to get everything done and felt organised throughout the project.

In addition to this I also got a lot more comfortable with using the appropriate equipment. At first I wasn’t very confident knowing that I had to do all the filming and thought I would of struggled when it came to using the camera. What I noticed was that some of my scenes came out very clear and then some came out a bit blurry. Although I am more confident with the camera now, I still need to learn more about how to adjust it to fully suit what type of work I am doing. If I had learnt more before the project started I think my film would of came out better as all the scenes would have been clear and not blurry at all.

Along with all the research I did throughout the project, it helped to teach me what conventions are needed in films to attract and interest your target audience. For my film my target audience was 12 and over. I decided on this target audience because I felt it was appropriate for the content that was going to be involved in my film. I do think my film appeals to that target audience because I think my film is relatable to people of that age. It’s relatable because it’s what they are experiencing. My film involves mystery and drama which is what I think appeals to my target audience because it’s intriguing. I was hoping to make the audience feel like they are in the situation along with the characters, I want it to challenge them and make them question what they would do in that same situation.

With peer feedback that I got I am confident that I know what I need to do in order to improve next time. I got told that my filming was good and that the camera shots helped to involve the audience. Although my camera shots and angles were good, it was apparent that some of them did not flow into one another as smoothly as the rest. This is something that I would need to improve on, I would do this by being more careful and putting more thought into how I position my characters in order to make it look like it was all filmed in the same time frame. I got told that the storyline was clear and interesting. The choices were relevant to that situation. Another thing that I needed to improve on is the sound. Although the sounds I used were appropriate to what was being shown on screen at that time, some of the natural ambient sounds made the production look less professional.

I agree with all the feedback I got given. What I think I should of done different is that with the first few opening scenes I filmed them without a tripod. This became very clear as when showing the establishing shots they appeared unsteady. Although this could be fixed when editing I still know it’s something that I could of done better. Another thing that I wish I did was take equipment that allowed me to record voice overs and edited them in which would of let me block out the wind.

I think the sound in my film is where I could make the biggest improvement. All the sound in my film is appropriate for what I have filmed but I was not impressed how they came out overall. At the beginning is when I particular did not like the sound. I was unsure on what music to put in the background and what else to put in to make it more interesting. In the second half I mainly kept all the original sounds in and think it worked really well.

Overall I am happy with how my film came out. I specifically like the scene where one of my characters woke up in the middle of the night and is looking at her-self in the mirror stressing over whether she has made the right decision. I used short clips to add together to build up the tension. I also like the lighting in this scene as it’s lit up by candles that she blows out at the end.

Evaluation Of Sound

Unit 5

Unit 5 has been a very beneficial project for me. It has deepened my knowledge on sound, teaching me the different types of sound and what they are used for. By doing the research into two films at the beginning of the project allowed me to understand how sound is used in films to better it and intrigue the audience. This then helped give me ideas of what I should do with sound when it comes to my film to ensure its made to the best of my ability.

I believe I did use all of the sound elements discussed in this unit, for example, dialogue, effects and ambient sound. Dialogue was the main sound element in my short film. The dialogue was used to tell the story and express how the characters were feeling. I believed the dialogue allowed the storyline to be clear and also allowed the audience to fully engage in the story and the problems the characters faced. I also used a lot of ambient sound, especially when it came to the outdoor scenes. The day I filmed these scenes landed on a very windy day which had a massive impact on the footage and the wind overpowered all the sound. To overcome this I made these scenes not have any dialogue meaning I had to rely on the acting and sound effects to show the story clearly. I added in natural outside ambient sound, for example wind and birds. I had completely turned down the real sound of the wind before I did so. I also added footsteps on the scenes where there are close ups of the characters feet. This did turn out good however I should of done more searching around to look for a sound effect of footsteps that would of fit in with the characters feet more along with the surroundings. Despite this I do believe the ambient sounds that I added in added a feel of realism that made the scenes more believable.

The main difficulty that I encountered during this project was the effect the wind had on my footage. My original plan was to have dialogue all throughout my film, including the scenes that I filmed outside. The wind however did not allow this to happen. To overcome this I decided to film the outside scenes with no dialogue in at all. Once I had filmed the scenes I had to then go and find sounds to fit in the scenes to make them look real.

I feel my sound mix did successfully fulfil the overall mood I was hoping to convey. I wanted to put across the tension and dilemma the characters were facing, I feel I achieved this by the sounds I used. An example of this is when one of the characters is up throughout the night looking in her mirror, I used the sounds along with the camera shots to express her worries and it came out well. I could of done more searching around for sounds that would of exaggerated these feelings more therefore, next time I will put more time into finding the perfect sounds to give across the best look.

During this project I do feel that I spent most of my time getting the right footage and then editing it together. I could of used more time when it came to making my sound mix. If I had left myself more time to create my sound mix that it would of enabled me to find more appropriate sounds that worked better with my footage. I did have enough time to put a sound mix together, despite this I could of done with more time in order to make it better than what it was. In future I feel I need to plan my project more carefully and ensure that I follow my time plan in order to allow myself to have equal amount of time to spend on each part of the project to ensure that every aspect is done to the best of my ability.

Throughout the process of editing sound I felt fairly confident when it came to putting it all together. I had previous experience when it came to editing sound due to one of the projects we had already done. As we were making our films on Premire Pro I felt fairly confident as I find it easy to use and have had many opportunities to use it and get use to how it all works, this included placing in sound on top of footage. The only issue that I did face when it came to editing the sound is that if I worked on a different laptop to the one I had downloaded my sounds on I would have to go and find them all over again and download them to the new laptop I was on. This was tricky as I found it hard remembering the names of all the sounds I had used. I overcame this by going back to the original laptop and logging down the names on the sounds.

Overall I did enjoy this experience as it allowed me to create my own film and bring it to life even more by including multiple sounds. If I were to do another project like this in the future I would spend more time researching different sounds making sure that I am using the best ones for my film. I would do more research into building up sound from footage with no sound what so ever in order to make it look completely real. In addition to do this I would chose my filming days more carefully to ensure that the wind would not massively impact the sound. Other than this there is not much that I would change. I am overall happy with my final project.

My Final Work: after improvements

My final work

Below I have presented my complete and final work. I have made some changes that I believe have improved my magazine as a whole.

I had received some feedback that lead me on to making some changes. As the plan was to make a fashion magazine that was based on festival fashion and summer clothes. The feedback I had received was that my magazine focused on the beauty aspect more than it should of. This was evident on my double page spread.

When it came to improving my magazine I started noticing things that I knew had to change. These included, the left side of my double page spread looking as though there was too many things going on. It also did not look as though it fully related to the right hand page. I asked a few people what they thought was best to and how I would achieve making it look more like a fashion magazine than it did. The feedback that I received was that many fashion magazines they had seen were a lot more simpler and flowed more better so that I should try and achieve this with mine.

I went on to changing the left side of my double page spread as thought that the triangles with the photos in had no relevance to the rest of the page and magazine. I went and looked at magazine page layouts and noticed that many contained pictures going down the side with some text on the rest of the page. After scrolling through my photos I found that I had three photos that were a sequence of my model pulling different poses with an umbrella. After showing these to some other people I concluded that these would be perfect. I then kept the text the same with the same subheadings and rearranged them. I also got rid of the title that was on the page as felt it made it look unprofessional. I also decided to keep my main image with simply changing the subheading from ‘ Beauty ‘ to ‘ Festival Glam ‘. I feel this small change immediately changed the whole outlook of it. I feel now the double page spread looks more like a fashion magazine with the more simple look.

I also decided to change my advert page. I had always not been too keen on my advert page as its something I really struggled with. I trialled out a few different things until I cam to the design that I did. From doing research I remembered a design that was similar to what I have created. After making it I was much more happy with how it looked and thought it looked more like an advert page than what my old one did. I used the same fonts and colours for the page but presented It in a much more different way. I am now a lot more happier with how it looks.

Comparing My Work To Existing Products

Above I have presented a Vogue Magazine front cover with my front cover placed next to it. There are some similarities between my front cover and the Vogue front cover along with some differences. On the Vogue magazine the masthead is written in orange. The colour orange has no relation to anything else on the page where as on my front cover, my masthead is multiple colours and all the colours are used multiple times on the page. By looking at both front covers I can see that there are some things that I could of done to my front cover in order to make it look more professional. For example, for my main image I have used a picture where the model is not looking directly into the camera where as on the vogue magazine the model is looking directly into the camera lens. I think this looks more professional. While taking my photos I should of been more aware of what I needed and I should of told my model exactly what I wanted her to do instead of allowing her to multiple random poses. Both magazine covers have the text aligned to one side. This is due to both covers having there main image include the model who has posed more to one side of the photo. I did this purposely to allow myself to have room for the text. Another similarity between the two covers is that both have multiple fonts used throughout. The fonts on the Vogue cover are very different to mine. The fonts I have used are very subtle and neat looking where as on the Vogue cover the fonts are completely different and much more original, this is to emphasise the way the model is posing and put across a certain theme. I could have been more experimental with my text and used more different text as opposed to text that is almost basic.

Above I have presented an Elle magazine double page spread and my double page spread. There are many differences between my double page spread and the Elle double page spread. The main difference is that the Vogue magazine is all in black and white where as mine is very colourful. Both have a main image on the right hand side that takes up the whole page. The Vogue main image does not have and writing over the top, I believe this allows the image to speak for itself and make a really statement. I decided to put information on mine as I felt it was necessary. I thought that by adding information it would give my photo more meaning and make it more apparent to the audience why it was there. The Vogue magazine did not do this as the whole double page spread is all based around that photo. In future I may do something more like this as I love the affect is has due to its simplicity. After looking at both of these I have realised that my double page spread may have too much going on. The Vogue double page spread has been kept quite simple with a few aspects that give it some originality. My magazine has many colours and shapes that are involved that are not exactly necessary. This is something to consider for future projects. Many fashion magazines feature double page spreads that are kept simple but affective.

Above I have placed a Vogue contents page, an Elle advert page along with mine advert page and contents page. My advert page and the Elle advert page are very different. The one similarity that there is between the two is that they are keep rather simple with a limited amount of information. The Elle magazine has chose to advertise the product by showing how it looks when in use by showing a model who is wearing the lipstick as well as holding it. My advert page simply consists of the perfume itself with the relative information following. I did not use an image of a model holding because when researching advert pages i did not come across many that were presented in that way. Looking back on it now I wish I had used a model to help advertise the product as I think it would of given it a more professional feel. The Elle page does not consist of any shapes like mine done. The Elle magazine did not bed to add in any extra contents due to the main image being so intriguing on its own. I however did add some shapes to try and make the page look more inviting and interesting. A similarity is that my advert page and the Elle advert page both had a colour theme when it came to text and other aspects. The Elle page uses black and pink for the text, the pink coming from the lipstick and the black was used in contrast to the black background. I used black for the writing due to my white background and to replicate the writing on the perfume bottle. Then the pink came from the colour of the lid of the perfume bottle.

My contents page and the Vogue contents page share similarities along with many differences. The Vogue contents page, I would say, has been kept a lot more simpler when it comes to colours and adding other aspects. The page involves text that is all the same colour throughout along with a photo that involves many pastel and light colours. In contrast to this my photo is busting with colour and the text is not just black all the way through. I decided to not go for something so subtle because I particularly loved this photo and thought it worked great for a contents page. In addition to this I thought I would carry on the colours throughout the page in order to make it look more interesting and eye catching. Both contents pages include the name of the magazine that features at the top of the page. I purely did this because I noticed that this was fairly common throughout the contents pages that I had researched. The Vogue contents page does not actually feature the word contents where as mine does. The Vogue magazine has been formatted so that it is clear what the page is. My contents page may not of been so clear if I did not involve the word contents. On the Vogue contents page the information is constructed around the photo which is placed under the magazine name on the left hand side. This is quite a random place for the photo to be but by the way the text is constructed it makes it look very well put together. On my contents page I have gone for a more basic format in comparison the Vogue page. I did this because I thought my photo fit perfectly where I had placed it and it allowed me to have room underneath to place all the information. The Vogue magazine features a lot more information than mine, I believe this is down to the layout as the photo I used did not leave me as much room to include more information. Formatting is something that I need to work on for the future.

My Final Product: Before improvements

Below is my final product which is a fashion magazine. The magazine consists of a front cover, an advert page, a contents page and a double page spread.

FMP Evaluation

I have taken screenshots of my Evaluation and made it so you can click on the image to enlarge it and read them. The pictures are placed in order. I have also printed my evaluation out and placed it in my sketchbook.

Production Log

Wonderland

Week 1 – 5th March

This is the first week of our final project. My aim for this week is to annotate the brief and begin to make mood boards and mind map ideas. Once I had gotten my sketchbook this is what I did. The first two pages of my sketchbook consist of an annotated brief. When annotating the brief I highlighted the key points throughout the slides and wrote notes next the them that I believe will be helpful to myself. I also highlighted some key factors that I was unsure on and what I may struggle with.

EVALUATION

What went well this week was that I had a great start to the project. I came to terms with the brief and I am confident that I fully understand what requirements need to be met in order to gain a good grade. I am excited to get into the project more and start to create something that I will be proud of. I feel that what I could of done better this week was to of done a bit more research into what different paths I can go down when doing my project, for example what type of media products I could create like a magazine or music video… This could of then helped me more next week when it comes to doing research as I’d be a step ahead and have a clearer of idea of what to do next.

week 2- 12th march

This week I will begin to further my research by making mood boards and creating mind maps to help myself come up with a more clearer idea of what I am going to do for my project.

Firstly I researched the word ‘ wonderland ‘ to see what came up. As expected many things came up about the film ‘ Alice In Wonderland ‘ along with forests and places. The reason I researched wonderland was to get an idea of what most people associated it with. Many of the things coming up were not surprising as it was the same type of things and thoughts that I had. My next move was to figure what I could make that related to the theme wonderland. I also went onto instagram and typed in the word wonderland to see what pages came up, there was loads. There was two that caught my eye,one was an instagram page for the magazine called ‘ Wonderland ‘ and the other was a page of so called wonderland clothing. i then printed off some images from both pages and annotated them in my sketchbook.

EVALUATION

I am very happy with the progress I have made this week. I have completed more research which has helped to give me ideas for my final project. I mainly targeted my research on magazines as thats what I would like to focus my project on. I am also a lot more confident on what is needed when it comes to completing the pitch. There are many things that are involved in the pitch, including primary research, which I yet have to do.

So I am now confident that I want to make a magazine for my fmp. Depending on time I would also like to make a short promotional video to go along with. What I could of done better this week was be more clearer on the content and purpose of my project.

week 3- 19th march

This week I want to of completed my pitch and feel confident about presenting it next week. I also want to make sure that I keep on top of my research and continue to develop my idea. I want my idea to be completely certain so that I am confident with what the content of magazine will be and have a rough idea of the overall look of my magazine. I have a few ideas of how I would like my magazine to look. I have gained aspiration from the likes of vogue and Elle magazine.

EVALUATION

This week I am pleased with my progress. My aim at the start of the week was to complete my pitch and continue to do research. I have successfully achieved both of these aims. When doing the pitch I had to do research that would help me further the information that needs to be included in the pitch. This included researching the production of a fashion magazine and the codes and conventions of a fashion magazine. Along with this I collected information on certain fashion magazines in order to create a bibliography that would help me throughout the project.

week 4- 26th march

This week I want get my test products done. I want to create a magazine cover that expresses the typography that I will be presenting with my work. I want to make a magazine front cover and a contents page. Just like every week I need to make sure that I keep on top of my research.

EVALUATION

This week I have completed some of my aims that I set at the start of the week. I managed to get the magazine cover test product done but did not complete the contents page. I will get the contents page done in the first week back. Our deadline for our test products is at the end of the first week and I am confident I will have both completed by then. I do not feel that I will run out of time for this as I have done a lot of research into fashion magazine contents pages and already have many ideas of what I will do.

This is my test product, the magazine cover. With this I just wanted to explore using photoshop again and practise improving my skills. I have not used photoshop in a long time and needed to remind myself how to use it. When it comes to making the contents page I will make it in Indesign. I will also need to familiarise myself with using this as well. I am not overly happy with my front cover test product because the colours that I have used blend in with the models’ clothes and make it hard to read them. I am happy with how the change in fonts look as this is relatable to other magazines. From this I can move on and be careful when it comes to using colours for the fonts. I now believe is the right time to start planning when i am going to take my photos and who i am going to get to model in them.

easter holidays

During the easter holidays I am aiming to keep on top of of my research and spend time ensuring that I am up to date on work. This includes making sure that I am happy with my test products and that I have started my textual analysis. This is all to allow me to be ready for the assessment panel which will take place in the second week after being back.

EVALUATION

During the two week period I did manage to get some research done based around themes of magazine covers. I also printed out my test product, put it in my sketchbook and then thoroughly analysed it. In the end i was not completely happy how it turned out. This is evident in my evaluation in my sketchbook. Along with this, due to my magazine being a fashion magazine, I started gathering clothing that I can put together to make an outfit. I took pictures of these and have started to place them in my sketchbook. I still need to create another test product but this will have to wait until I go back to college. This week my original plan was to have hired a camera from college and begin to take some test photos from my project. Before we broke up I did forget to hire a camera out which should not of been much of an issue as I could of taken the test products on my phone. I did not end up doing this which has put my slightly behind on my time schedule. When i get back to college my main priority should be planning my photos along with keeping up with all the research and preparation for the assessment panel.

week 5 – 17th april

This week I will be preparing for the assessment panel that is next Wednesday. For this I need to make sure that I have my test products complete along with a textual analysis and other work that will be presented in my sketchbook. The week before half term I did complete one test product which was a magazine cover. This week I will be making a contents page and completing my textual analysis which I have started. Once these two jobs are done I feel confident that I will be ready for the assessment panel.

Also this week I need to start gathering fonts that I am going to use in my final magazine. For this I will need to keep referring back to existing products to endure that the fonts that I am choosing are appropriate for a fashion magazine. Once i have found these fonts I can then use them in my test products to check that they do relate to the theme and look appropriate.

EVALUATION

This week I have managed to complete the goals that I had set at the beginning of the week. I gathered a few different fonts that i thought were appropriate and that i had liked. I then went on to using some of these fonts in my contents page test product. Below is an image of the fonts that I had picked.

These were the main six fonts that I ended up choosing. As wonder is the name of my magazine I thought displaying them like this would give me a clear idea of how they would look on my magazine. I think i have chose a good variety of fonts as some are bold and some are regular. I also included one italic font that has a posh look. This was due to the fact that many magazines I had looked at have a small bit of information that is written in an italic font to stand out from the rest. Therefore I thought that it would be good for me to include this on my magazine as it shows that i have done research and am now applying it to my work.

Above I have presented my second test product which is a contents page for a magazine. Overall I am happy with its outcome. I did not use my own photo as I wanted to focus on the typography so that when it came to doing my final product I had an idea of how I was going to place all the text. Just like I did with the front cover test product, I used a variety of text fonts in attempt to make the page look more appealing. This is also a common trait within many famous, successful magazines which I noticed when doing my research. In this contents page I used the fonts that I had gathered and was happy with how they looked. For the masthead I used the font Bebas. I really liked how this came out as I feel it immediately grabs attention and is really appropriate for the title. For the word ‘ contents ‘ I used the font called carson. I chose this font as i wanted the font to not be as bold as the title because I did not want them competing for attention. I also used the carson font for the text that I have placed at the bottom in attempt to tie it all together, as well as for the ‘ Features ‘ title. Although I do like how the word Wonder looks on this contents page I believe that It is taking away the importance of the word ‘ Contents ‘. This should be the most important word on the page as it is allowing the reader to know what the page is in order for them to be able to find things. I will keep this in mind when it comes to making my final contents page. When making this I kept referring back contents pages that I had researched. This was so I could compare and ensure that I was meeting the requirements of a contents page. I decided to place the name of the magazine at the top of the page as i believed it was appropriate. I had also seen this on many magazines and thought by putting it on my contents page it meant that I was including conventions of a contents page. This would then let it be more recognisable to others. Again another mistake that I have made is choosing the wrong colours for the writing. Just like last time I have managed to chose a colour for the font that clashes with the main image, making it hard to read when it should be very clear. When it comes to my final project I need to ensure that I do not repeat this mistake. If I had taken some test shots I would of been able to use them for this which would of allowed me to trial out different font types and colours to see which would of fit my theme. Over the next few weeks I need to make sure that I am more prepared and have a more clearer lan of what I am going to do.

I was going to write a textual analysis for one particular magazine cover. Despite this i have decided against this and I will be evaluating and analysing previous media texts continuously throughout my project to deepen my knowledge.

week 6- 23rd april

This week is assessment panel week. I feel I am nearly ready for this. The work I still need to complete is my textual analysis and a bibliography. I did, however, do a small bibliography for my pitch despite this, I need to do a more in depth one with cultural references. Also this week I want to get some production planning done, to allow myself to be prepared for when I take all my pictures for my magazine.

EVALUATION

The assessment panel went really well. I got given plenty of feedback that is going to help me further my project. I am confident on the direction I am going with my research. I am going to do research into fashion designers and fashion photographers. I will then be able to relate this research to my final work showing how my research would have impacted my project. In addition to this i need to do some deconstructions of text to help understand why certain fonts are used and why. Lastly I need to get some shots done in order to be in a comfortable position to say that I know exactly what shots I am looking for. I need to be aware of the time and how long we have got. I do not want any work to be rushed.

At the beginning of the week I stated that I wanted to create a more in depth bibliography, this did not happen. I felt confident with all the work that I had with me already to show at the assessment panel, however I do feel this is something that i should do before the project shows as it helps show that where I got my information from.

All Friday afternoon I spent time in the studio taking some photos. Some of the photos I believe turned out great and I could possibly use these for my final product. Some however, did not turn out so well with the camera being out of focus and the models not being ready for the shot.

week 7- 30th april

This week I am going to get my production planning complete and also get some photographs taken. For the production planning I need to draw up some ideas of what photos I want to take and write about the locations that I want to take them. I have already taken some photos in the studio which I need to print out and then evaluate. In addition to this I want to have taken all the photos that I need for this project. If I do this it will leave me three weeks to complete all the editing which I believe is a good amount of time.

EVALUATION

This week I believe I have successfully achieved all the goals that I set at the beginning of the week. I have taken all my photos that I need for my project and I am happy with how they have turned out. I am confident that I have a big variety of photos to choose from when I come to edit my magazine. I have put all my photos into my sketchbook and evaluated them all. Before taking these photos I also conducted some production planning which is all presented in my sketchbook.

After I had taken some photos I decided to experiment with them. These two photos above show a contents page and a magazine front cover that I put together using my photos and generic conventions of magazine covers and contents pages. While making these I kept referring back to magazines to ensure that I was including everything that is normally included. When making the front cover and contents page I trialled out with different photographs until I was happy. The photo that I have used for the front cover I thought was perfect for a front cover. It allows me to have plenty of opportunities when it comes typography. The background is also more grey than white which meant that I could of used white writing as well, but I did not decide to do this. All the colours that I used for all the information come from what the model is wearing. This is in effort to make the cover look well thought through. Although I have included some generic conventions of a fashion magazine there are multiple things that I could change to improve it. On this cover there, in my opinion, is way to much going on. The writing is overpowering the main image which should be the main interest of the cover. This has then lead on to making it the cover look a bit messy. In addition to this, another reason why I believe it looks messy is down to the formatting. All the texts on the cover should have some sort of form or pattern that they follow where as mine do not. I have almost placed there where ever i thought looked good at the time but i haven’t actually evaluated how they would look to other people. When it comes to making my final project I need to be extra careful with what fonts I use and where i place them.

This also applies to the contents page, it has a green and blue colour theme, this is down to the dress that Caitlin is wearing. I am overall happy with the final outcome of the contents page. With this i believe the formatting is not a major issue. I have placed the texts carefully in line with other texts. This makes it look as though more thought has gone in to it. Despite this, the size of the text on this contents page is defiantly an issue. The information text is far too big. The information text should not big nearly as big as the subheadings as the importance of them both is different.

week 8- 7th may

This week I need to begin to make my final magazine. I am hoping to get most of this completed this week to allow my self time to finish everything and evaluate. If I do these I will be in a very comfortable position and will get everything done in time for the deadline. To ensure that I get my work done to my highest standard I need to be continuously asking for feedback throughout so I can make any appropriate changes.

EVALUATION

My aim for this week was to get a majority of my magazine completed. I did not reach this target. I ended up spending a few lessons fixing up my production log and then some more updating my sketchbook. I did manage to complete my double page spread which I am happy with. It took me a couple attempts to get the look that I was hoping for but I eventually did it and am happy with the results. I also got feedback throughout this process which helped me a lot as it enabled me to notice things that I would not of found myself. Also as my target audience starts from mid teens I was getting feedback from people that were in my target audience range. Below are some pictures that show how I got to the final piece that I was happy with.

I had already had an idea of how I was going to format my double page spread. I knew that I wanted to to keep the pink colour flowing through the magazine. In my sketchbook I had done a few sketches of how I wanted my double page spread to look. While making it i kept my sketchbook close and followed the sketches that I had done. The right side of the page is the page with the main image on then on the left is the page with the small article on. Firstly I tried using the font ‘ Bebas ‘ for the title for the page. This to me did not look right as I thought it looked out of place and not appropriate for the page as it looked almost too formal for something that is meant to be fun and uplifting almost. I then decided to try writing the title in the font Florence. This then worked perfectly. It flowed a lot more nicer and look very appropriate for the page. I believe it looked more appealing. I then stuck with this font, I also made the title green. I did this because I thought it would be a nice subtle way of tying the pages together as the background of the photo is green. Some other text that I included on this page was then made pink, to again, tie in with the colour theme that I had going through. I decided to put the two images in triangles rather than leaving them in their square format. I did this because I thought by doing so it shows my creative skill and makes the page look more interesting and original. I liked how it looked so decided to keep them like that. After doing this I was unsure on how to place the main bulk of text. As you can see i tried placing it above the triangles, this to me, did not look good and made the page look as though it was not based around the same thing. I then went on to changing the shape of the text to fit in the triangles which I really liked. Now it looked like it was all together.

For the right page, I had a clear image in my head of how I wanted it too look. After placing in the main image I placed a pink rectangle on the left of the page and a white box down the bottom. The colour of the rectangle came from the models makeup. I then added in a title and the text. I changed the font style of the title as, like before, the first font I chose did not look appropriate so I went on to change it to something that was appropriate and appealing. As for the text in the box, I decided to leave some of it black and make some of it green. This was in attempt to make it look more original and interesting . I then did this to the text on the other page but with pink instead. This is the final product.

week 9- 14th may

This week is our second to last week of the final project. I still have to make my contents page, advert page and finish off my front cover. I am confident that if I work hard this week I will complete all this. I would then of saved the last week for all evaluation and any changes that are necessary. I have already made a test product for a front cover then a further two test products for a contents page. I already have some ideas of how I want these to look which I believe will make the process faster.

EVALUATION

This week I did manage to complete my magazine. I am overall happy with the outcome. I especially struggled with making my advert page. This was due to the lack of research i did into them. When it came to making it I gathered magazines from around the college and compared them to what I had made. This then lead me on to making multiple changes until I was satisfied. I also created two different advert pages and ask many people which one they thought was best suited for a fashion magazine. I realised that keeping it quite simple came across more appealing to a majority of the people. In addition to this, I also made two front covers. One was in colour and the other contained all the same information except the main image was in black and white. I did this because at first after making the coloured front cover, I thought there was something missing as I was not quite happy enough with it. This then lead me on to making one containing the black and white image so I could compare them. After i did this I ended up sticking with the coloured one, This was down to people giving me feedback. Everyone that I had ask all agreed that the coloured front cover was better.

Below are some images showing the steps I had taken in order to complete the front cover to a standard that I was happy with.

When making my front cover I was quite confident with what fonts I was going too use for certain aspects of the cover. I knew that I was going to use Carson for my masthead as I found out that I particularly liked how it looked when I had made me test product. I had also already picked out my fonts that I wanted to use and was confident that they were appropriate for my front cover and magazine as a whole. When I thought I was happy with how the masthead looked, I realised that on many fashion magazines the masthead is partially hidden by the model in the main image. I then decided to do this show that I was including codes and conventions in my work that I had found out while doing my research. In the images above you can see the steps I took in order to do this. As my main image included the model and the background it was not as simple as just placing some of the letters behind the model as that would make the letters completely disappear. I then came up with the idea of cutting out the models head in order to place it ver the lettering. To do this, in photoshop, I used the quick mask tool to cut out the head and copy and paste it so I had two. I then brought the copied one to the front of all the other layers and placed it back onto the models body. This then allowed some of the letters from the title to be behind the model, making it look more professional.

Also demonstrated above, I did a lot of moving around when it came to the test. I wanted to make sure that I had placed everything in the right place to ensure that the cover looks well put together and neat. I decided to place the date of release and website at the bottom of the page and along side the masthead. These are both in the same font and colour. I decided to place the date along the title due to the fact then when doing my research I notice this was very common throughout many fashion magazines. I feel that on my front cover , the date looks as though its in the right place, along with the website. I decided to include the website as I also noticed that many magazines include their website name. I did not think of including a website until I had done more in depth research and realised its something hat is almost always included. Compared to my test product, I believe my final product looks more put together and I believe this is due to the change in fonts for certain sections. The fonts I used in my test product I have used in final product but in a different way for different parts. I decided to change them from my test product as I think my test product looks as though every part of information on the page is fighting for attention. It all looks very packed and squished together. I feel the way I used fonts in my final front cover look more subtle and allow the more important bits of information to stand out to the rest which is what my aim was.

When making my front cover, advert page and contents page there were changes that I made along the way that I felt were necessary.

With my contents page I already knew how I was going to this, with exception of a few changes. Just like in my test product I used the same photo, along with the two coloured lines, and the same placing of the word ‘ Wonder ‘ and ‘ Contents ‘. On this one I decided to make the word contents slightly bigger than what I did on my test product as I felt it needed to stand out more in order to let the audience know exactly what they are looking at without having to guess. I also decided to place a small black line along the side of the word contents as I believed it added to the importance of the word and again made it stand out even more. By adding this line it also related to the two lines that I used at the top of the page. For the two small subheadings I decided to use the font ‘ Kiona ‘. I used this font because I thought it was very suitable as its clear to read even when made smaller. It also looks nice when compared against the other font used on the page, which is Carson. I was aware that the information that followed these subheadings had to be made smaller due to how my test product looked. This is what i did and I immediately noticed the difference on how it looked more professional and thought through. In attempt to keep a certain look throughout my magazine to link it all together, I repeated what I had done on my double page spread. I left some of the text black and made some of it blue and green. These colours coming from the models dress. By using the green also related the pages together even more. The blue then also being relatable as I used blue on the front cover. For the contents page I did not have to trial out many fonts as I was already quite confident on what I was going to use.

Above I stated that I had struggled when it came to making my advert page. I did not know where to start. Fir my advert page I got inspiration from a vogue magazine that had an advert page that was advertising a perfume. As the top of the bottle is pink, i thought this gave me the perfect opportunity to add in the pink lines. This is repeating what i had done on the right hand side of my double page spread. I decided to this as i thought it added in a simple affect that helped tie it into the rest of the magazine and give the page more colour but in a subtle way that is not overpowering. When it came to choosing the font, I was lucky enough to have gathered fonts that I had used throughout the magazine that were very similar to the fonts used on the perfume bottle. I then had the idea to replicate the writing on the perfume bottle. This was very similar to what they had done in the vogue magazine so I tried it out. I used the fonts ‘ Kiona ‘ and ‘ Florence ‘. This turned out to look good and I think thats what made it looked like a proper adverts page. After moving around the image I decided to place the writing underneath the photo . I decided this as I thought the image should have more importance than the text.

week 10- 21 may

This week the aim is to be in a comfortable position with my work and be confident with it all. I also need to write up my final evaluation which will be evaluating my work in great depth. Another thing that I need to do this week is ensure that I am presenting my work in the best way that I can. For example instead of just publishing my magazine alone, I could place in on a background like a desk to make it look more real. This week I also need to ensure that my sketchbook has all the relevant information in it which is done to my best standards.

Evaluation

This week I managed to get all of my project completed. This included ensuring my sketchbook was complete, writing my final evaluation, making sure my blog had all the necessary information and finding a background to help present my final work. I am glad that this week did not feel rushed and I am glad that I was in a comfortable position for the deadline. The project as a whole has gone really well. I believe I managed my time well which meant that there was no fear of not getting everything done in time. This kept me calm throughout the project and allowed me to put all my focus into the work rather than worrying about not completing it all.

Below are my final products. I will also post them on a separate post, presenting them on a background to give them an overall better and professional look.

Production Log

Week One ( 11th December )

This week we got given the brief for our new project which is called ‘ Revolution ‘. We then had to annotate the brief. This was to help us gain a better understanding of the task we were being set and to point out any points that we might struggle with. Also this week we had to start to think of ideas for our short films and start to mind map them. We had to come up with multiple choices to give us more of a variety to chose from.

Week Two ( 18th December )

This week we had to come to a final decision on what we wanted our film to be based on. When we had our final idea we then had to write a synopsis for our idea. It took me a while to come to a final decision for my film but once I had I was very happy with what I had chosen. When coming up with an idea I struggled thinking of something that I really liked. I made a mind map with multiple ideas then asked other people for their opinion. It made me a lot more excited for this project and immediately I started to think about who I would include, what locations I would use and how I would make the story line plan out as a whole. Below is the link to my synopsis;

https://chantelle1010.wordpress.com/2017/12/19/short-film-synopsis/

Also this week we had to make a mood board that expressed all the different ideas and topics that we associate with the media revolution.

Week Three ( 8th January )

In this week we had already came up with a film idea and now had to make a pitch to show to the class. The pitch had to consist of our film synopsis, our film locations, and all the other key factors that we needed to consider when making a film. As well as making a pitch we also got given another task which was to create multiple mood boards which expressed what tone we wanted to set for our films. The mood boards also had to include pictures of equipment that we might need and also pictures that showed what camera angles I might use when shooting my film.

Once our pitch was finished we all had to present them to the class. We then got given feedback on our pitch which helped us too improve our work and fix things that were unclear and needed more work put into.

I then wrote up a short evaluation on the feedback I had been given, describing what I had been told to do to improve and what my next steps were.

Week Four ( 15th January )

This week we had to ensure that we were all confident with our ideas and had a clear synopsis which allowed us to show that we had full understanding of our films narrative. This synopsis had to be put on our blogs. This week we also got set a task that was completely separate from our revolution task. We all had to individually create a stop motion animation. This animation only needed to be 15 seconds long. Before we began to make our animations we all got given an emotion that we were meant to show in our films. The emotion that I got was fear. My animation ended up being around 40 seconds long which was unexpected but when making it i feel that if i had made the story any shorter it would not of made sense.

Week Five ( 2nd January )

In this week we had to make a test product. For our test product we got given a storyline that we had to bring to life. We went off in groups of three – four. One person from the group had to be the actor while the other two did the filming. Before we went off to film we had to create a shotlist. Thus was so we could go out and film knowing exactly what had to be done, this way it took less time and made us more confident in all the process. We also had to make a a draft script. This was to make our storyline more clear to ourselves. The draft script will really help when it comes to storyboarding.

Week Six ( 29th January )

We were now nearing the time when we needed to start filming. Before we can film we need to storyboard our idea to make it more easier for ourselves when we come to filming. When doing a story board we had to document every scene and write about who will be in the scene and where the scene is taking place.

I only did one storyboard as I was happy with the outcome. However, I should of done more than one which would of allowed me to compare them and let me see which one works best and is more clear. In future this is what I will do.

As well as doing a storyboard we also had to plan when we were going to start shooting scenes for our film. Following my production schedule I asked my actors which day worked best for them. Luckily my filming was quite flexible and didnt need to be filmed at a very specific time of day, this was until the last few scenes which did have specific times that they needed to be filmed.

Week seven ( 5th February )

This week I started to film. I managed to get all of the opening scenes done which I was happy about. The day I chose to film on was very dry and sunny but was quite windy. Although I didn’t think the wind was that bad, when reviewing my footage the wind was very overpowering. The scenes did have some dialogue in which was an issue. Instead of getting the actors to redo the scenes I decided to crop out the parts where they spoke and decided too keep the first half silent and add in all the sound effects.

Week Eight ( 19th February )

This week I met up with my actors again to finish of the filming. I managed to get most of the filming done this day however, when filming, one of my actors was ill which meant that she was not able to stay as long as needed. For this reason I had to do a slight change to my story which allowed her to leave the film with with it all fitting in. In the end this actually worked out fine and all the scenes I had done worked really well today.

Some of the scenes were set in the night time and some were set in the morning so i had to arrange dates when my other actor was free. We got the night scenes done one evening and I still have just one scene left to do which is set in the morning. I have planned to do this on the weekend which allows me to come into the final week with everything I need.

I also started editing this week. I have edited all my film up to the point where we need to edit in the two endings. I am currently confident with my position and feel I will most defiantly get all my work complete by the end of next week.

Week Nine ( 26th February )

This week mainly consists of us making sure we have completed all the work that was set and that our films were completed and ready to be uploaded to Youtube. I feel I am currently in a very comfortable place and do believe that I have everything done. My main priority is putting my film on my blog then completing my evaluation. In order to do my evaluation I need to show some of my peers my film so that they can give me feedback which I can put in my evaluation.

Draft Script

Scene	Where	When	Who	What
1	Field in Madron	Early afternoon	Two main characters ( Shannon and Phoebe )	Walking through the field having general conversations
2	Field in Madron	Early afternoon	Two main characters ( Shannon and Phoebe )	Finding the abandoned building deciding whether to go in or not
3	abandoned building	Afternoon	Two main characters ( Shannon and Phoebe )	Looking around the abandoned building
4	Abandoned building	Afternoon	Two main characters ( Shannon and Phoebe )	Taking pictures of each other posing around the place
5	Field	Later afternoon	Two main characters ( Shannon and Phoebe )	The girls leave the abandoned building and head back to one of their houses
6	Bedroom	Evening	Two main characters ( Shannon and Phoebe )	Walking into room with camera showing various photos of the girls and their other friend together
7	Bedroom	Evening	Two main actors ( Shannon and Phoebe )	Sit down on bed and get the laptop up, putting stick with photos into it
8	Bedroom	Evening	Two main characters ( Shannon and Phoebe )	We now see the girls flicking through the photos, shots showing them and the computer
9	Bedroom	Evening	Two main ( Shannon and Phoebe )	The realization of what they have found, they know it is their friend
10	Bedroom	Evening	Two main ( Shannon and Phoebe )	Now it’s the dilemma in which the girls have to discuss whether or not to go to the police or keep it quiet
11	Screen			This is when the audience get to choose where the story goes by either choosing option A or option B
12	Option A – Living room	Night	One of the girls Phoebe	This girl is being shown on the phone to the police reporting what has happened
13	Option A Bedroom	Morning	One of the girls Phoebe	The girl gets woken up to the sound of her phone going off, she has received a text from her friend saying that the person has been arrested and that their friend is in trouble
14	Option B	Morning	One of the girls Phoebe	She gets woken up to a text on her phone from her friend saying that her other friend has been taken to hospital because she has taken the drugs which turned out to make her really ill

Project Metric

		Positives Personal Strengths	Negatives Personal Weaknesses
Time (how long have you got?)	9 weeks along with holidays Christmas hols – 2 weeks February half term – 1 week	I am not retaking maths or English which allows me to completely focus on this project and no more work. I have done filming before and enjoyed it.	I have a job which takes us some of my own time which I would dedicate to this project.
Cost (do you have a budget?)	At the moment I do not have a budget. I am hoping that whatever I focus my short film on, I will have a lot of the equipment already.	If there are things that I need to get for my short film I am defiantly willing to go out and get them.	I may not find things that I am looking for, therefore this may cause a problem. To overcome this I will have to find a substitute object.
Resources (how much time are you spending on the project, what resources do you have? Need?)	We are spending 9 weeks on the project.		I am unsure what I am going to need for my short film, so at the moment, knowing what I need is unclear.
Scope (what is the scope of the project?)	The project is interactive. The film will have two different endings which the audience can decide how it ends.	I can use previous media texts to help with my projects.	It might be difficult coming up with two equally good endings that completely show the two different possible outcomes.
Quality (What are your quality aspirations? How long, complex are you planning the narrative to be? Are you willing to fix quality problems?)	I am aiming for my narrative to be very descriptive. I want the message to come across very clearly. If there are any problems I will fix them.	I am willing to do a lot of research to help with my understanding of my chosen storyline.	I may struggle with ensuring that my film is very clear and easy to understand so this is what I have to keep in mind when making it.
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