Evaluation

My evaluation is now completed! To access each question, there are links to the pages along the right hand side of my blog.

Countdown

Only 3 days left! I haven't been blogging much about mine and my groups progress because we have been so busy! We're just adding the final touches to our blogs and we've uploaded the final version of our teaser trailer, Deadline. I've also been hard at work writing the evaluation. Question 1, the group podcast, is completed, so is question 4, which I have done as a powerpoint. I am currently working on question 2, but still unsure of the best way to present it.This may be my last blog post as I'm so busy with the evaluation! I have made seperate pages for each question of the evaluation, along the right hand side of the blog, or you can access them from these links:

Evaluation
Question 1: http://soullessproductionskathryn.blogspot.com/p/evaluation-question-1.html
Question 2: http://soullessproductionskathryn.blogspot.com/p/evaluation-question-2.html
Question 3: http://soullessproductionskathryn.blogspot.com/p/evaluation-question-3.html
Question 4: http://soullessproductionskathryn.blogspot.com/p/evaluation-question-4.html

Started Question One

We had originally decided to make a video blog, however we weren’t all comfortable about being in front of the camera, therefore thought a podcast style audio would be much better. Instead of writing a script, which would have made us sound boring and robotic, we used our notes as guidance and talked as though in conversation, so it was natural and we could bounce off each other thoughts and ideas. I think this idea worked really well because it got across all our individual opinions as well as the group consensus. Also, we hope it will sound interesting and authentic to the listener.

Evaluation

I have made good progress for my evalutaion today. For question 4 I have planned out each slide and discovered how to add hyperlinks and make it more multimedia for a more exciting viewing experience. I have also made notes on question 1 (group video blog) which my group will read over and evolve into a script. We hope to film this in our friday lesson so we have time to edit.

My Magazine Deconstruction

View more presentations from Kathryn Peers.

Final Magazine Front Cover

A larger version of my final magazine front cover can be found on  a separate page. There is a link to it along the right hand side of my blog, or from this link: http://soullessproductionskathryn.blogspot.com/p/magazine.html

3 Lessons Left!

In lesson today I added the final touches to my magazine and poster and they are now both complete! That leaves me with 3 weeks to do my evaluation, which I began today.

Evaluation
We decided we would answer question one as a group as a video blog, but then individually answer question two, three and four because we will have to discuss our indiviaul posters and magazines. We will make it clear whose evaulation is whose by putting the individual evaluations on each of our sepearte blogs, including question one. I also decided what format would be best for answering each question:
Question one: Group video blog
Question two: Essay with images in In Design
Question three: Essay on word
Question four: Powerpoint

Before adding my chosen photograph to my magazine cover, I edited it. I wanted a very natural looking photo, therefore did not want to edit it too much. Using Photoshop, I cut around the body so that there was no background and then slightly enhanced the contrast. Once the photo had been placed on the cover, I could put on the coverlines, arranging them around his shape.

Editing magazine photo

 This is the original photograph I chose to edit and use for my magazine front cover. Using Adobe Photoshop, I cut around Ben using the magnetic lasso tool that allowed me to easily cut Ben from the background. This allowed me to put him on a transparent background, so when placing it on my magazine, I will be able to lay text over and under the image.

Magazine Photographs

Here are a few of the photographs I took for my magazine front cover. I chose to use the villain stood as he is in the trailer. The hood up and holding a knife makes him look very threatening. For my magazine I chose a photo where Ben has eye contact with the camera because his gaze engages the reader, but I also think his mean stare adds to his threatening nature. the image is very striking and powerful and I believe it would draw a prospective buyer to my magazine.

FINISH

This is the start of my magazine cover I have been creating in In Design. I began by choosing the colour scheme of red and black. I chose the red and black because they are universally known as colours associated with horror as both colours represent death and fear. I also decided to make my magazine a 'horror film special' because I wanted to connect the image (character from my film) to the coverlines.

I had a few options for the title but 'Scene' really stood out to be because its short and simple but I also thought it was really clever because it is a homophone, which is a word that's pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. Scene and seen-they both have association with films, therefore making it instantly clear this is a film magazine.

Beginning My Magazine Cover

Before I begin creating my magazine cover in In Design, I am going to research into what makes a successful film magazine cover. As the genre we are concentrating on is horror, I tried to find magazine covers with horror films on, however the cover is usually a big blockbuster film, which horror films rarely are. Therefore, I had to research into magazine cover conventions, rather than horror film magazine covers.

I am deconstructing 4 different magazines covers, 3 film magazines and 1 entertainment magazine that regularly has film themed covers. I wanted to look at a range to see the common conventions throughout different magazines. I have  also chosen really current issues because I want my magazine to be modern and look as professional and current to rival the competition. These are the four magazines, Total Film (which I will refer to as TF), Entertainment Weekly (EW), Empire, and Sight & Sound (S&S).

Image- All make the image central (why), all full body/ medium shot, eye contact (TF, EW) connects and engages the reader, all actors as character 3/4 not extracted from the film itself. 3/4 images cover part of the mag title, this shows that it's been in the market for a while (gained status?) and is very successful because people still know what mag it is even though letters are missing.

Masthead- From my research I found that all magazines place the masthead in the top third of the page. Also, the majority of magazines make the title central, 3 out of 4 of the above have. The masthead is the most important element of a magazine cover because it is how the reader deciphers which magazine it is. Therefore it has to stand out, so a convention is to make the font in big, bold capital letters to make it impossible to miss. Through research I found red is a very common colour to use for the masthead because it is unisex and a bright colour that stands out and catches the viewers eye. However only 1 of the magazines above uses red, but the similarity is that they all use a colour that contrasts with the background making it clear, obvious and stand out.

Coverlines/font- Around the edges. 3/4 have a main central coverline. Have to be catching and alluring to make you want to read more. For example, two of the above magazines main coverline uses the word 'preview' because this word makes it sound like they have exclusive stuff that you can only read about in that magazine.

Selling Line- TF- The modern guide to movies. EW- The world's biggest movie magazine.
S&S- The international film magazine. All selling lines boast that their magazine is the best, or unique in some way to entice the audience into choosing theirs to read.

Colour Scheme- All the magazines keep to a limited colour scheme of about 3 or 4 different colours so as not to overwhelm the page. The colours are chosen to suit the film and genre of the main film featured. Most magazines use red because it is a power colour and it stands out against anything. Also it has been found that red is the first colour the eye sees. Black and white is also used a lot as they are contrasting and generally work against any background.


Empire, EW and TF share most similarities because they are all mainstream popular magazines, whereas S&S is a smaller film magazine, not found at local newsagents, it's a subscribe only. It doesn't have to use the exact same conventions because it's not trying to catch people's attention in shops and newstands, it's for real fans of films. However they all still share many magazine conventions. My magazine will be mainstream like Empire, EW and TF, therefore I will use and develop the conventions I've mentioned above to try and rival other successful magazines.

Final Version of My Poster

A larger version of my final magazine front cover can be found on  a separate page. There is a link to it along the right hand side of my blog, or from this link: http://soullessproductionskathryn.blogspot.com/p/poster.html

Poster Deconstruction Part 2

Editing my photo for my poster

Picking photos for my poster

Examples of experimenting with light

When shooting the photos for my film poster I had a clear idea in mind of what I wanted. From the previous research we did, I found that many of the horror films poster had a close up of the main character or villain, for example The Blair Witch Project and One Missed Call. Many horror film posters used images of faces with shadows cast across their faces blah blah. I liked this idea and thought it suited our style(?) so I experimented with light and torches to try and cast shadows across our actor, Alex's, face. However if we used the flash on the camera it completely lit her face up showing no shadows, and without the flash the photos were blurry. Therefore I came to the conclusion to take a photo in good light, then add shadows when editing. I chose to use Alex because she is a main character and is the character that appears most in our trailer. Because she is a girl she represents vulnerability blah blah.

The photo I will use on my poster

Creating my poster/ deconstruction part 1

Choosing a font for my poster

My Individual Blog- Kathryn

I am from the group Soulless Productions and this is my individual blog. We decided to make individual blogs because we had to do our own poster, magazine and evaluation, therefore it would make it clear whose work it is. On the group blog we have already analysed 4 horror film posters which we all contributed to, therefore I will use that research to help create a professional looking posters that uses the conventions. However we haven't researched any magazines so before I begin creating my magazine I will research and analyse common conventions of current, successful magazines.