Research and Planning: Shot Type Research

These are shot types that I have drawn for media research. We have done this so we can identify different shot types and to know why, how and when they are used. These are the shots that I have done:
A Long Shot - to show somethings at a distance on screen. An Over The Shoulder Shot - We can see what the character sees, feeling their emotion and we can see the character as well. A Medium Close-Up Shot - Shows the characters face and top half of their body, letting us see their emotion and some of their body language. An Extreme Close-Up - This lets us see something like a pair of eyes, used to create fear or bring tension. An Establishing Shot - Shows Everything On Screen. A Close-Up - Showing the main part of an object e.g. someone's face. An Aerial Shot - This shows everything from above. A Point Of View Shot - This shows us only what the character can see, therefore making the audience feel the same as that character.

Research and Planning: Preliminary Task

This is the cover of my College Magazine and to produce this I had to use Photo Shop. The first thing I did whilst creating this was to click on 'View' then I clicked on 'New Guide' and then crated two new columns and rows and dragged them across the top and sides of my cover. I did this so that I could make everything that i needed to go on my cover fit on there without overlapping or going off the page. I then clicked on 'Window' then on 'Layers'. To make my title for my magazine I clicked on the 'text' tool and then typed in the title. After doing this I clicked on the layers palette and clicked on the move tool to place it in the centre of the page. I then did this again with the other text on the page. When I put my picture on the page I had to click on 'File' then on 'Place' and then upload it onto the page. I then selected it on the layers to move it and stretch it out on the page so that it fit the typical conventions of any other magazine. I did this procedure again to put in the bar code.

This is My Contents page. I made this by using Indesign. The first thing I did once I had opened up this document was to select the 'rectangle' tool and drag it across m 'a4' document. I then clicked on the 'fill' tool and made sure that the background was completely black, therefore matching the background of the front cover. I then selected the 'text' tool and made sure the font was the same as my slogan. Once I'd done this I then selected the fill tool and made sure that my font was turquoise, therefore fitting in with the colour scheme of my magazine. I also made sure the font on the contents page for my features was the same as the font on the front cover. I also had to put in my picture for the contents page and I did this by clicking on file then on 'place' and then I had to click on layers to move the picture where I wanted it to go. Once I had done this I then made sure I put in an editor's note so that it would have more conventions of a normal magazine.



My Evaluation:The only thing I actually like about my magazine and contents page are the font of it and perhaps the layout. As it was my first attempt I wasn't expecting it to be great, but I don't like the layout on the contents page. This is because there's too much space and the colour of the font doesn't look good as it overlaps the picture. I also don't like the fact that my picture takes up too much space and that it doesn't really fit in with a Film and Media Magazine. I also would've like to have more feature articles too make it more interesting and I wish that I would've put more in my editorial.

Students Evaluation:

Research and Planning: Imaginary Fonts for Magazines

These are Fonts that I have chosen for imaginary titles of imaginary magazines. The first title 'Death Metal' has been done in a sharp font this represents how serious it is. People who listen to this type of music have been categorised into people who are dangerous or shifty. The font is sharp and has jagged edges to show its dangerous. 

The title 'PopWorld' has been put in the colour pink because people associate 'pretty' colours with pop music. Pop music is also associated with young girls which is why I have also put it in a simple font to represent this. 

The title 'PopCorn' has been put in the colour yellow because this is the colour of popcorn  and lights which fits in the film world. The title is bold to show that it means business and also like this so that it's simple and that the audience know what it means and what its all about.

Research and Planning: Research on Semiotics

Semiotics: This is a Greek word which means 'sign'. Semiotics is the signs and meanings of any physical object. It ties in with Media Studies when someone analyses the print or film of something.
    There are three different areas of study:

• The sign - picture, object or sound
• How signs are organised
• The culture of how these signs operate.

As you can see this Magazine Cover of 'RollingStone' shows a picture of Jay-Z. There are many different meanings brought to this article as The title itself represents the colour of a stone. There are other meanings as well brought to this article Jay-Z is obviously 'dressed to impress' on this cover and maybe this has been done like this to show he is 'rolling with the times' also fitting in with the title once again. the background is a simple white and maybe this has been done to show that this issue will not be containing all that many articles. The Sub-Headings have been changed to the colour red and the contents have been put in a bold font and have been changed into the colour black. This has obviously been done for effect because the colours red, black and white all look good together.

Research and Planning: Draft of my College Magazine

This is a draft of what my College magazine should look like. I have included a masthead, slugline, barcode, issue no, date, price, a main feature, other articles, a competition and various pictures of what's going on around the college. My magazine draft here is displaying the typical conventions of any magazine and this is one of my aims. I want my magazine to be simple and to get straight to the point. I have found my target audience and also he niche of what articles I will be writing about. I have added a competition in there so that people will be more tempted to buy this magazine if there's a chance that they could win something. On the front of my cover I will show the main feature's headline and the first paragraph of what it is about to entice the reader. I am also including other articles that are to do with things outside of Film and Media, (contents of my magazine) I am doing this because then the reader will not be reading about the same things over and over. I will also include some pictures of students in my Film and Media class to show students who will be applying to a Film or Media course what sort of equipment they will utilise. 

Research and Planning: Target Audience for College Magazine

My College Magazine will be focused on students doing the subjects I am currently taking. I will do this because the subjects I am doing are all interlinked with each other. Therefore the target audience for my piece will be boys and girls aged 15-19 who are looking into a Media or Film course at college. The interests I will be presenting in my magazine will be the features that are used in these courses e.g. the technology and software used such as 'Photoshop' or 'Video Cameras'.

The education requirements of my magazine will be aimed at people who are doing GCSE's and are thinking of attending college and doing a Film or Media course either in A Levels or choosing to do an NVQ. I will be choosing the subjects of Film or Media courses maybe also paired with an English Course. I will talk about upcoming enrichments that will be available for students to attend. I will also talk about the requirements expected of these courses as I am doing them both and an English Language Course. I will also be highlighting that if the student also wants to go into further education e.g. University then they will need to complete key skills as it will give them a boost of Ucas Points which they will be grateful for.

I will be aiming my course at mainly working class and middle class. This is because the Film and Media department require a lot of work, however most of it is very practical and this may be what working and middle class people would like to do in life. I will not be aiming it at upper class students as in today's society people expect them to do more academic subjects.

Research and Planning: Examples of Medium Close Up's

These are Medium Close-Up Shots: You can tell this as the camera focuses on the face of the character, but also shows the person from just below the shoulders upwards. By doing this the shot shows the features of character and also a part of the position they have been placed.

Research and Planning: Analysis of College Magazine

This is a college magazine that I uploaded from google and you can tell that it appeals to college students who want success by the features it presents:

• The title of this particular magazine is named 'aSPiRe' which means to do well in life, therefore showing that this college does well. It is also American and in this country everyone who wants to be anyone needs to be a success.  The title is also in a mix of lower and upper case letters, I think this is done deliberately to show that although the magazine is showing how to do well it is trying to appeal to it's target audience.
• There is also a slugline on the cover although I can't make it out I'm sure it has something to do with grades or how well the college does.
• The sub-headings of other articles in this magazine however also contradict that it is showing how to be a success as the first article has the title of 'Celeb & Student Fashion', which in my eyes shows that maybe this magazine isn't just about grades, but also about having fun whilst at college.
• The main picture shows a girl who has obviously graduated as she has a  gown and a graduation cap. She also has her certificate and is smiling, therefore showing that she has graduated and implying that she has passed with good grades. 
• There is also another article called 'Get A Grad Degree' showing hints no doubt about how to get ahead and get the grades you need.
• On this cover that I have uploaded there are the typical conventions of a magazine as there is a title, different articles based on what the magazine is about, therefore fitting in with the genre, there is a slugline and also a slugline for the main feature 'Real World' which is 'Advice, Guidance & Tips' - this will be telling the target audience what its like once you've finished college and left to work in the 'Real World', the picture on the cover also fits the typical conventions of someone at college as although she's not wearing what she's usually wear she's smiling and the picture makes her look free as the background is a bush giving the sense of freedom in a place where there's a lot more space.

Research and Planning: Introduction to Indesign

This was my first introduction to 'Indesign' and I was told that for this lesson I had to create a document that showed a review of a current film or dvd. The first thing I did was to open up Indesign and and open up a document and I left the default settings as they were. I then went onto 'Google' and opened up a picture of the new 'Sherlock Holmes' DvD as this is what I was going to do my review on. I then selected the 'rectangle tool' and pulled it around the document and changed the colour to blue. I then clicked on the 'layout' tool and selected columns and margins and selected how many I wanted. After I'd done this I then clicked on the 'text' tool and typed in the title on my top row. I then had to paste the text into the document I did this by clicking on 'file' then i clicked on 'place' and opened up the review I'd pasted from the 'Empire' Website from my folder. Whilst pasting the text in the columns I had to click on a red '+' button that would let you copy the rest of the text into the other columns. After this was done I did the same again for the Picture of the Film Sherlock Holmes. After I'd placed this picture I then clicked on 'object' in the tool bar and clicked on 'fitting' then 'Fit Content to Frame'. Once this was done I clicked on object once again and then clicked on 'effects' and clicked on 'drop shadow' and others that were there. Then for the final finish I clicked on text once again and typed in the No. 1 so the reader would know what page they were reading.

Research and Planning: Introduction to Photoshop (Creating a document)

In my lesson today I used photoshop to create this document. The point of this document was to get us used to using photoshop and getting us used to using the correct tools. The first thing I did to create this document was to open up an 'a4' page and then I clicked on the 'fill' tool and i changed the colour to blue so that my background would then become blue. I then clicked on he 'text' tool to type in 'AS Media Studies' I then clicked on the colour tool and changed it to red. Once I had done this I opened up my layers palette and then clicked on the layer then on the move tool to move the text into the centre of the page. I then had to change the look of the text by adding a 'drop shadow' to it by doing this I had to select the text then click on 'layer' then I clicked on 'layer style' and then selected drop shadow and with the options I changes the opacity of it to how I wanted it. I then selected the rectangle tool and drew a box on the document then selected this on the layers palette then, using the mouse dragged it onto the background by doing this the box was then visible on top of the blue background. I then selected the fill tool and changed the colour of the box to grey. Once i had done this i then clicked on file and then I clicked on 'place' and selected the picture I needed then once it was placed on the document I went through the same routine of making sure the picture was placed on top of the box. Once I had done this my document was completed I then proceeded to save it and turned it into a 'JPEG' file.

Research and Planning: Introduction to Photoshop (Skin correction tutorial)

I am learning how to use photoshop once again and now I have managed to use skin correction and change the features of how someone looks by using the many tools provided. The first thing I did was using the 'healing tool' and selecting 'spot healing brush'. I then decreased the brush diameter so that the brush fit the size of the spots, I kept doing this until all the spots had been removed. I then started to correct the skin so that it would look more attractive. I did this by selecting 'layer' then 'duplicate layer'. I then had to click on 'window' then onto 'layers' therefore opening the 'layer palette'. After clicking on duplicate layer a 'dialogue  box' opened up I left the default settings as they were and continued. Now that I have my two layers I clicked on the one that was the 'background copy' in the layers palette, and then clicked on filter, I then selected 'Blur' then 'Smart Blur'. Once I clicked on this it came up with an option to change the settings but I kept the default ones. As I had the new layer selected I then changed the 'opacity' of it to 45%. Now the picture of the model was looking more realistic for a magazine cover. However, the eyes and mouth of the model were still blurred. To change this I had to click 'add layer mask' from the layers palette. I then went over to the tool box and selected the brush tool and started to brush grey on the eyes and hair, therefore making the picture look more 'natural' for a cover.

Media Work - Research and Planning: Introduction to photoshop

In my first Media lesson I created an image on photoshop. This was the first time I used photo shop so it was quite confusing to grasp it straight away. At first we opened up a background and then opened up an image of a Piano that was in the shape of a disk. We had to get the Disk on the background and by doing this we had to select the 'elliptical marquee tool' and hold shift and then drag the tool around the disk, therefore selecting it and adding it onto the background. We then did this again with the 'horn' and the 'musical notes'. We also change the colour of the items by going onto 'image' then 'auto colour'. We also used the 'magic wand tool' to change the colours of the items and to rotate them. This tool was also used on the horn as we had to select different areas of it as the shape of it couldn't be selected by just going around it because the shape wasn't a circle or rectangular shape. We also had to distort the background and we did this by selecting 'filter' then I clicked on 'distort' and it came up with a list of options of how I could distort it and I chose the options of 'waves'.

Welcome to my Blog

This is my first Blog and I will be using this to publish any work that I have done in Media. I will be creating a Music Magazine, Contents Page and a Double Page Spread. 

Hope you enjoy.