Post Production of magazine

I enjoyed making the magazine overall as it tested my previous photoshop knowledge. Im relatively pleased with the outcome as the front cover, i feel, looks good. The contents page seems a bit plain but its keeping with the colour scheme of the magazine and makes the articles seem more poignont, in all honesty i believe this is the part that lets it down, if i were to re-do this exercise i would definitely invest more time in the contents page because it was a bit of a rushed job. I believe i used photoshop adequately and to an extent that i deem reasonable, in the sense that its semi professional looking, and in that way suits the whole "school magazine" idea because they, generally, tend to be a bit rough round the edges. I used many basic tools like the lasso tool and magi eraser tool but the part im most proud of is the front cover, here i used the brightness and contrast sliders to create a sort of painting style front cover. I did this by accident but I stuck with it because i felt it gave the magazine a sense of uniqueness.

                                            Front cover                                       contents

Magazine Production

To create the front cover and contents page of our magazine we used adobe photoshop elements. Firstly we had to take photos of our models for the front cover of our magazine, we borrowed a camera and went to take our photos, we also took some scenic shots of the 6th form cafe and the theatre cafe for use within our magazine. We then imported them into photoshop to start editing for use within our magazine. I used the polygonal lasso tool to cut around my model and then used the select inverse tool to delete the area around her. I then accidentally managed to make it look like a vintage photo by playing with the contrast and brightness settings, originally i was attempting to change the hair colour. I then searched for some fonts that were fitting and eventually changed them to a more masculine font so it stood out more. I finished it by adding a barcode. I then started on my contents page, which, in comparison, was a lot easier. I just used the paint bucket tool to fill it with the same colour blue as my font on the front page, i also used the same font to mantain the style of the magazine. I then imported the scenic photos and shrunk them to size to fit in my magazine.

Magazine Pre production

For preproduction of our magazine cover and contents page we had to first draw up a plan on an A3 piece of papier. We firstly, had to name our magazine but the name had to have something to do with school life and then make up some sub headers and articles. We also had to plan every aspect of the magazine including text types and the colour scheme, we were allowed 3 of each, we also had to decide the pose of the model.

 I took some inspiration for the layout of my magazine from this copy of  "The Face"

We then had to design the contents page of our magazine, indicating how it would be layed out with our text and pictures, we also had to use the same colours and fonts from the front page. The bits i found hard about this was thinking of articles for the magazine and justification of certain aspects, the model for example. I look forward to the photoshoppin'.

Doors are boring to film

This is the final piece after our editing. We finished filming last lesson and so this lesson we had to edit the film in the mac suite. We hired the cameras and firewire back from the library and uploaded the footage onto the eMacs. After it finished uploading we used iMovie to edit it. Having used the software before the crash course we received was a reminder for me and made it easy to edit it. I finished it relatively quickly with the help of my group. All in all, i think the task went well but we had to take some creative licence on the storyboard part simply because some of it didn't make any sense. But apart from that it went off without any major hitches.

Production

Following creating our storyboard within our group we were told we then had to exchange said storyboard with another group within the class and then go and film the scene they had written up. The first page of the storyboard was good with decent directions and some rather strange camera angles, the second page was good, clear concise and easy to understand. The third page repeated two of the shots from page two which confused us and we assumed it was a mistake and ignored it as they both stated the same thing. The forth page was hard to read and make sense of but we did what we thought was meant from the storyboard we'd been given. Generally our group did well, I was the camera man within the group and Meg and Becky did the acting. We all chipped in our ideas for the direction of the piece and overall I think the filming went off without much of a hitch, sans a few re-shoots due to giggling. We got on well with the tech due to my previous experience and the demonstration that Mr Smith gave us, shame about the costs of the tapes, £2.50 is a bit much for a dead technology. Anyway, most of the shots used were over the shoulder, mid shots, and one very low angle one. All in all, I think the task did went well and hope that we do some more filming soon!

Hot Fuzz

The opening shot of Hot Fuzz is a long shot. Nicholas Angel is seen purposefully striding into the lobby of a building whilst surrounded by a ethereal light which could be interpereted as a sign that he is an angel, backed up by his name, Nick Angel. The cutting is choppy, this is purposeful to keep the speed of the film up and to also show that Angel is generally a quick person with no time for much else but his job. A lot of the shots dissolve or fade into each other. This is usually accompanied by a non-diegetic loud sound or  flash meaning the action keeps pace. The mise-en-scene of the opening is based quite a lot around what we assume to be the police station he works. The composition of the scene features lots of straight lines that could be construed as bars, like that in a prison cell. The fact that at all times Angel is situated in front of them could mean he's not corrupt and that the law is always behind him in his work. During the opening  there's a close-up of his police ID. His facial expression is very stern and almost angry, you then see a close-up of this face again straight and his facial expression is exactly the same implying he's constantly stern or angry. His shoulder number is also a joke as its 777. This is playing on the number of the beast being 666 and therefore 777 must be the polar opposite and partnered with his name it paints the picture of the perfect police officer.

5 C's

Camera angles

There are lots of different camera angles these include: long shots, medium shots, close ups, extreme close ups, high shots, low shots to name a few. The use of these different angles allows the audience to focus on perticular things or see panoramic areas.

Continuity

This is to make sure everything runs smoothly and there's no errors such as characters switching costume mid scene.

Cutting (editing)

This is essential to the film, if it was shown in real time it never end and any errors couldn't be rectified. Editing also allows the director to change location.

Close ups


Close ups show facial expressions and emotions. These allows the viewer an insight because they are allowed to see something that might not be observed had it been a medium shot long shot.

Composition

This is the mise en scene and allows different elements like backdrops and props to complete a scene.

pre-production

For todays lesson we were assigned the task of storyboarding a basic scene. The brief we had was to have a person walking down a corridor opening a door and sitting down with another character. we were each allocated 4 shots to storyboard and i drew the dorr opening scene, we also had to think about the digetic and nono digetic sound within the scene.
I found it fairly easy to due to previous experience but i was a bit rusty on the camera angles.

Hello

My names Sam Cook.
Im doing media because i enjoy all aspects of the subjects. I love music and films.
I dont have one particular favourite band but i have a few that i love, Biffy Clyro, Foals, NWA, basically any music that doesnt make me heave is alright by me.



God and Satan by Biffy Clyro

I want to carry on with media at university and do film studies and maybe one day become a film critic or something like that. According to some people i've seen every film ever and as much as id like to believe that i havent. But one day i will, well at least all the ones worth watching, for example, "insert genre here" Movies, like "date movie". The reason i hate these films are they use the same, tired, overused jokes again and again until what may have initially have been relatively funny is now something that makes me angry.