Preliminary Print.

Originally posted, 16th October 2009.

After a tiring past few days working on my preliminary print, alone, I finally managed to complete my preliminary print to the very best of my abilities using the software we were given and the deadline which ran alongside it.

I then began to plan out the elements that would appear in my magazine. I began by looking at magazines that I myself had read recently - primarily that of Q Magazine and Kerrang! Magazine - I decided that I was going to incorporate the simplistic style of Q Magazine (the one photograph on a relatively plain background with very little writing around the side), I decided that I then going to incorporate some of the music that would be displayed in magazines which would be for an "alternative" audience.

Whilst planning my piece a large selections of factors had to be thought about and incorporated. The first issue arose when I took the photograph of my model for the front of my magazine; for example, there was the issue of not having a very clear background to work on - which would later be edited out - I decided that I was going to rectify this by choosing a background that only had similar colours on it - a brick wall of very industrial colours.

I began creating my actual piece by choosing the models from the selection of photographs that I had taken previously - see previous blogs for further details - I then opened a brand new Photoshop document on my computer, here I pasted the photograph into the blank space. To add my desired effect of having my model on a colourful beackground, I then set about using the Magnetic Lasso tool, cutting around the photograph making Rhian the sole subject of my magazine.

I then inserted Rhian into my blank file and decided that I would add a background to my piece; I began by using the Gradient tool and then selected the two colours that I believed were most predominant on my model at the time of the photograph - pink and black - and dragged the tool so that the entire page was filled with a variety of different colours of the two merging into each other.

To comply with the rule of three - a rule which must be incorporated into every magazine - I decided that I would add a brand new colour into my piece, I chose on a a pale, lemony yellow, I decided to incorporate this in the masthead of my magazine as well as the stories that are shown within the magazine itself. I then completed my piece by incorporating the barcode and a price into the very bottom of my magazine, both of these would also display on a normal, mainstream magazine.

I then moved on to the design and the creation of my magazine's contents page; I decided that I was going to add a link between the two pages of my blog and I did this by incorporating the same font face as before, as well as the Lutterworth College logo and a similar size of fonts.

I decided that I was going to add a Features list onto my contents page - this time with a photograph that I had taken of a recent  concert that I had been to - I then listed a selection of different venues and events that were occurring within my magazine.

I then decided - similar to the concept of the contents page in Q Magazine - that I would incorporate a series of photographs, I decided that I was going to incorporate a front cover and a photograph of my model by a tree - both of these I made smaller and rotated to attempt to add a different angle onto my piece.

The finished preliminary print; my magazine contents page.

I believe that the finished piece would appeal towards a teenager and young adult market, as the magazine itself is branded as a "school" magazine, it is obvious that the piece would be meant for those of school age - between the of around 14-19. If, however the magazine was expanded to a larger audience, the magazine could appeal to every teenager that would be interested in the "alternative" side of music.

This process has taught me that I am far more comfortable with creating my own magazine then working with a group doing a video; in a group, I always feel that once in a group you are given too little to work with - for example, I was simply placed in my filming group to film and add creative input - however, as an independent worker, I enjoy having complete creative control over what exactly my final finished piece actually looks like.

Whilst designing and creating my piece, I believe that overall I worked well whilst creating my piece; I believe that I worked quickly and well considering that I have very limited experience of using Photoshop. I believe that my biggest disadvantage is that I often seek perfection; in such a limited time my feelings often need to be tweaked and short cuts often need to occur throughout. One of the only few issues that occurred on top of this was that the simple alignment was off on some of the photographs with the ways that they were placed and sized; the remainder of the magazine completed with ease.

Preliminary Print.

Origjnally, I decided that I would attempt to create a magazine that would appeal to a more "alternative" market other then just the mainstream music that a school would be more likely to chose to be played.

The model that I decided on was my close friend, who - from experience - I know has a very large range in the types and genre of music that she listens to. I chose to incorporate Rhian into my piece as she is shown to be very colourful in the designs and her fashion sense (this is an element which could be incorporated into my magazine later), she is also shown to be unique against "normal" models that would appear on the cover of other magazines.

This photograph is a midshot of Rhian; I would use this piece on the front cover of my magazine that I am creating. This photograph is very colourful - prodominantly the pinks and yellows from her clothing - and these colours could be incorporated further when I was to design my magazine spread.

This piece could be incorporated into my contents page, this piece does again show that colours that she is dressed in - again, referring back to the colours that I could use for my magazine - this time however there is a possibilty that I could incorporate text around this photograph to list the page numbers and synopsis of each article.

This photograph I am unsure whether or not to incorporate into my finished piece; if I was to actually add the piece at the end I believe that I would do so for a comedy aspect and intrigue the audience making them want to read more. The downside of this photograph is that the context of this piece is a little of subject for this style of photograph.

Preliminary Print.

To conclude our preliminary pieces that we are creating in class we were given the brief to design and create a magazine front cover and a contents page that would be appropriate to be sold or shown in Lutterworth College and schools in the immediate area.

During discussion about what each magazine should include I was thinking about previous experience that I got in Year 11; some of those pieces are shown below.

This first magazine that I created was designed in the ICT BTec that I was placed into for Year 10 and Year 11; we were given the brief to design a magazine that would be appropriate for showing and selling to any child. I decided that I would attempt to reconnect with children of today's world and compile a magazine front cover that would be appropriate to be sold in any news shop and I attempted to do so by incorporating a High School Music-esq theme into my magazine, as - at the time - the third installment of the film was being developed.

In the same class I was then given the brief to design a music magazine that would also be appropriate for teenagers and young adults.This time I thought about the magazines that were already available on the shelves - such as Kerrang! Magazine and Q Magazine, both of which I was very well educated. To finish off my original thoughts I decided that I would attempt at creating a magazine that was based on the best pieces of each of the magazines based around music that I had researched.

My final magazine that I designed previously was another music magazine. This time however, I created it in the induction week of Sixth Form for my Media coursework. I decided that unlike the previous magazine I was going to attempt to develop a more sophisticated, "grown up" magazine that - if produced - could rival Q Magazine and magazines of a similar genre. I decided that I would stick to a more mainstream audience - unlike the previous which would probably be considered to be a niche audience - and in the allocated time I produced this magazine cover.

Preliminary Print.

We have been given the brief to design and create a mock up for a music magazine which would be distributed within Lutterworth College.

The most importance of the magazine have to be fully discussed and reasons correctly; these elements include the name and genre of the magazine; as well as the audience and the special features which must appear within every magazine; when we are given time to design and create our piece we must assure that we have fully discussed and thought about the use of different fonts and different content of the piece; we must also deliberated as to how the magazine should be laid out - including the important elements, such as the magazine's masthead.

Preliminary Filming.

Following a short delay in editing our final piece of video after the issue concerning the finish piece on the tape, together as a group we set aside sometime together in the designated practical lesson and in our own free time and began to edit our filming.

To begin, together we began by editing down the original piece of film; the raw piece of action that we wanted to capture was the character - Dan - walking around the corner of the building, walking through the English corridor, then down the corridor past the drama and media rooms concluding with him entering the room that we were in and ending with him and the character already in the room divulging in the conversation. The enigma code can be applied to this piece of sequence, the audience watching the piece is left wondering why exactly the person is rushing to meet the second character in the room.

In our group we decided that we were going to attempt to make our piece stand out against the normal, bog-standard piece which had been developed; due to each of us - especially  Dan - having some previous knowledge of using editing software on the MacBook, we decided that we were going to experiment with different colours and editing techniques.

Together, we decided that we were going to parody a series of dramatic thriller style movies that together we all have some knowledge of.

To begin this process, we decided that we were going to make each segment of the piece to be shown in black and white, thus bring about the idea that the piece that a person is watching is dark and mysterious - again referring back to the enigma code and tying in with the cultural code; showing that black and white generally mean that something unpleasant has - or is about to - occur within the piece of film.

I believe that the most successful piece of editing that we created within our piece was when we overlapped tow scenes into the same one; we had the first character walking to the meeting point, whilst over the top we had a scene of the second character - already in the room, waiting - looking at his mobile phone and using the computer in the room.

When we began filiming I believe that our piece started off very disjointed and unorganised, however as the piece progressed and we began developing ideas we managed to produce a good piece of work. Again, the group had a few arguements which arose due to some person editing preferences which occurred, however we each managed to produce a piece which showed off each element of the piece to it's full potential.

Preliminary Filming.

Our brief was to design and create a piece of media that showed a person entering a room and having a conversation with a person in there waiting for them.

Once myself and my group finished our original storyboard together and set about filming our second preliminary piece. In our piece we decided that we were going to film the build up to entering the room, then we were going to film the conversation as inspiration hit us.

We started with a high angle shot of the character - Dan - walking around the side of the building, this shot then faded into another long shot of the character walking through the English area - this time from a different angle - we then decided that we were going to move into the English area of the school, here we decided that we would show the character walking over the camera and out of the door at the far end of the corridor, we did this through the use of a low angle shot of the character's legs and their feet. We then decided that we were going to move to the action sequence into the H Block corridor, he we were going to film a long shot of the character walking down the corridor from a series of different angles.

Whilst filming the piece, collectively, we decided that we were going to attempt to add the use of narrative codes within the piece of filming we created. The most obvious code that we used with the Enigma code which is placed in our piece to try and make the audience question as to why exactly the first character is on his way to meet the second.

After school we decided that we were going to go down to the French area of the school - a place that, from experience, we knew would be virtually deserted - he was used the Teacher's Assistant's room to use the door handle, we filmed this sequence several times from a variety of different angles - we started with a long shot, then a high angle shot, then a close up of the door handle being turned - as the room we were using was being used for an after school meeting we decided to use the room next to it, in here we had the second character - Josh - using the computer and then waiting for Dan to come in. We decided that we were going to try and use two point of view shots of each of the characters as they see the other enter the room. As the two divulge in their conversation, uses of a two shots and mid-shots and the majority of our piece is shown as these two shots flip between one and other on the 180 degree rule.

Overall, we worked well as a group. The only issue that occured during filming was that as it was after school we all had an issue that we was that the timings we had seemed very limited as we had already run over the allocated time and we just wanted to finish filming. Another issue that we had came when arguments arose in our group, however the majority of these were retified through coming to a so-called "happy medium" within our group.

Preliminary Filming.

Our main brief for our preliminary task was to design - and eventually film - a short piece of media which shows somebody coming into a room, sitting down and then having a conversation with a person that is already situated in the room with them. This piece would be marked accordingly and the results given in our frequent grading system.

In our group, we discussed possible situations that would mean that a person would come through a door and have a conversation with another; the normality of a date or a meeting through to the almost unbelievable with a plot between two baddies to take over the world!

We decided that we were going to draw a few brief sketches; the story that we have currently tells the story of the two characters, one of the characters is running to meet somebody in an empty, unused room and when he meets the character sitting at the table the two get into an argument, the climax of the piece shows the character being shot by the person that he is talking to, leaving the piece on a cliffhanger and using the enigma code to question why the character has been shot.

Throughout the next few weeks, Dan, Josh and myself will record and edit this piece of media using the iMovie software on the Apple Macs.

1st Practical Piece.

Our first practical piece was to set up and record and piece of video that incorporated the camera angles used in everyday pieces of media. We were giving the task of designing a brief storyboard that we decided was going to develop a quick idea that we had all agreed on, we were then we were given free control over what exaclty we recorded.

We decided that we were going to develop the idea of a person being stalked and then chased throughout the school. In our piece, I designated myself as the director; with Dan and Josh given the jobs of actors.

We began with a pan and high angle shot as you see the victim - Dan - in the piece leaving Auburn Place being followed by the character of the stalker - Josh - through the building. The next shot shows the pair leaving Auburn Place with a long shot and then a two shot of the two characters together. Again, the camera cuts and we see a close up of the victims face as he realises he is being stalked; the final scene shows the two characters chasing each other with a long shot through a pan.

Throughout the filming of our piece we had a few problems and diruptions. For example; when it came to filming the pieces over again - we tried to film each piece twice - the continuality was a little off, in the first scene we filmed in Auburn Place, people were shown in the scene, the next scene this people had either left or moved to the other side of the building.

When it came down to editing, we used a famous Muse song - Stokeholme Syndrome - when we came to editing, we decided that we were going to add a series of quick cuts to incorporate the music playing in the background.

Although Dan took over as the main editor of the video, both myself and Josh decided that we would add our own creative imput and together we all developed our own unique idea of the original concept.

This is our finished piece below. Unfortunately, due to YouTube's coppyright laws, the soundtrack has been muted.