Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Evaluation


Evaluation
My first poster was a plain picture of a black background with simple red writing on it. I was originally planning on filming a story that I had created myself featuring the London Dungeon, hence my first poster being the way it was. I had sent emails to the Dungeon asking if I could film there, but all ended up falling through, as the London Dungeon was moving from Tooley Street to a new location next to the London Eye.

I creatively made my first poster black and red as it gives off a dark creepy effect and a few people who had taken part in my questionnaire thought that it might be some form of thriller/horror, which it originally was, and they would generally watch. But of course I've had to change the whole thing and think of a new project and story, which I managed to do and it shows from the second poster onwards.

I was due to go to the Warner Bros Studio Tour – The Making of Harry Potter with my younger brother for his thirteenth birthday, who plays the lead role in my film. So I sent an email asking if I could film there and use the footage in my short film that I was making as my college project, they agreed but on the condition that I only use it as my college project and don’t broadcast it.


In my second poster it’s made up of two pictures that I put together, one picture was of a shop front in Diagon Ally that I had taken during my visit during the tour and the other was a picture of my younger brother in Piccadilly Circus. To help combined both pictures and make it look like a proper poster, I used Polygonal Lasso Tool around my brother in Piccadilly Circus, to cut away everything around him, leaving only him, so I could take him and place him on the picture of the shop front in Diagon Ally. Before playing with the colour to make it look as if it was one picture, using brightness and contrast, exposure and colour balance. It gives the viewers the elution that it’s actually him stood there and walking past that shop and having the time of his life rather than two different pictures combined into one. Once I had gotten the perfect balance of colour and made it look as if it’s one picture as I possibly could. I added purple writing to it, so people knew what it was called and who directed, produced, edited and starred in it. It gives the viewers the impression that he has had an adventure of being accepted into the wizarding world of Harry Potter and that he loves it. It would make the parents think that it’s the type of film that the whole family can enjoy, especially the children. It will make them want to take their children to watch it or even to visit the Studio Tour.

The third poster is made up of three pictures, a picture of clouds, a picture of Hogwarts and a picture of my younger brother Ryan on Hagrid’s motorbike. I cut around Hogwarts Castle with the Polygonal Lasso Tool, once everything around the castle was gone I placed it on the picture of clouds and played with the colour once again, to drain the colour to make it look like as if there was a spell cast upon it. Before going on the picture of my younger brother and using the Polygonal Lasso Tool once again and cutting away everything around him.  Placing him with the previous picture of the clouds and Hogwarts, but instead of draining the colour I left it the way it was and made it look as if it was flying around Hogwarts and make it look as he was an adventure to save Hogwarts from the spell it was under and become the greatest wizard ever, before putting a few credits on it in red writing, as well as the title of the film and just underneath I wrote “A journey he thought he’d never make”.

When it came to the film itself, it has turned out a little different than I expected it to be, but then again everyone is like it. I had decided to film random clips for my film and make a try and make a film from the clips I had managed to capture. Once I had enough clips, I looked over them and I wanted my film to look as if my younger brother Ryan was on his way to the Studio Tour and have it look as if his remembering going there, before him leaving had having a small smile on his face on the last scene, I added music to it to help give it a more heart-warming feel to it, before the climax ending. I also did a voice-over of my voice pretending to be my younger brother, as it would have been difficult getting him out of school for the morning for him to just to do a voice over. I edited the voice-over, before placing the bits onto my edited film and made sure that the volume on my clips were on silent so all you heard was the music and voice-over, but I made sure that nether over powered the other and that both can be heard at the same time. As the finished touch, I added the credits on the end as well as the title at the beginning so that people knew what it was called. I admit that it turned out a lot different than I expected, but I’m proud of the result none the less.

The scenes I used in my film is because they made more of a story, than many of my other scenes I had shot, and with the voice-over and the music it fixed together and made the whole thing much more magical. I started off using a clip of my younger brother on the train leaving a train station, with the voice-over over the top of this scene, the words “Hello my name is Ryan, I’m only 13 years old and today I decided to leave home and enter an entirely different world” are spoken. With this I thought it suited together quite well much like a hand fitting into a clove. As the next scene I used a scene of me rotating across Hogwarts from a certain place, so that way you saw enough of Hogwarts rather than just one general area, like the owlery for example and nothing else.  As the voice-over for that scene, the words “The wizarding world of Harry Potter and the famous Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a world full of magic, where anything is possible and much more better than the normal boring thing we call life” being spoken. I used this scene and the voice-over together, especially after the scene of Ryan leaving the train station, because it showed you where his leaving from and where his heading to. The next scene in my film I put another scene of his on the train, but this time instead of him leaving a train station, it was of him on the train journey in between stations, I placed another part of my voice-over over the top of this scene, with the words “But then again why would the wizarding world except me into a wondrous and glorious world they call normal” it gives of the impression that he wants nothing but to leave his family behind and go onto an exciting wizarding adventure, but his worried that he won’t be excepted by them and just be sent straight back home. In the next two scenes I used the scenes I had shot of him walking through Diagon Ally the panning shot of the Great Hall, which I added onto after the Diagon Ally scene, with voice-over over the top of these scene, saying “Surely I get my chance to enter Diagon Ally to shop for my school supplies, such as my wand, a cauldron, robes, maybe even a pet owl, my god it’s so exciting just to imagine going there, before making a nervous entry into the Great Hall of Hogwarts, the greatest hope to enter the Gryffindor house, to have Harry Potter and Ron Weasley as my fellow house mates” I used these scenes and the voice-over together, to make it appear that his trying to cheer himself up after that very glum moment, by imagining himself entering these places, he feels excited about being able to do this. In the next two scenes I used the scenes of the Gryffindor Common Room and the Boys Dormitory, with the voice-over saying “So I can chill out in the Gryffindor Common Rom and exchange stories, then when it gets late travel up to the Boys Dormitory to sleep or maybe just to have a laugh with the lads” being said, I used these together to make it appear that he is making new friends.

In my film, all of it went pretty well though a few scenes did go missing, but other than that, it came together fairly easy. I wasn’t over struck on editing the voice-over however that was a bit of a nightmare. The angles I used was panning, high and low angle and it worked well. I may have zoomed in once or twice, but it wasn’t too bad.

I have identified from my market research that in agreement my film would be viewed for entertainment purposes, this would be in element with the uses of the gratifications theory.

My film is mainly entertainment for the whole family, but it’s extra magical for the children, despite it originally being a thriller/horror, before it being changed completely into the film it is today. It will give children hopes and dreams, with the influence it may give off, with any luck the children will have enough hope and courage to follow those dreams and that is what I am truly aiming for, to entertain all forms of people and to influence our young children to follow their dreams, even if it’s a dream to become a simple fireman.

Friday, 19 April 2013

Poster Number 3


This is my third and final poster for my film, Something Magical. First I picked a picture of clouds and went into file on Photoshop and opened a new image and placed the picture of clouds on it. I then darken the clouds with using filters such as brightness, Contrast, Exposure, Saturation, lightness and Black & White. On the picture of the castle I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool, before placing it on onto the picture of the clouds, you can drag or copy and paste it, whatever you feel comfortable with. Once that was done and I managed to place the castle into the perfect place before toying with it by using the filters, I wanted it to look as if the castle was under a spell, making it look dark, grey, dull and boring with dark clouds looming over it, to make it look as if dark forces have control of the castle. As for the picture of my brother Ryan, I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool on the picture, before doing the same as the picture of the castle, except I left the colour as it was, so that way not alone did it have some colour in it, but also that it could represent that he was coming to break the curse on the castle and get rid of the dark forces that loomed over it. Before placing the title of the film, a few odd credits and a small sentence in red in various places on the poster.

Friday, 8 March 2013

This is my second poster for my short film, called Something Magical, i personally think this is much better than the first, it's more detailed with more information

Budget List Used

My budget for my short film ranges up to £300 tops

List for 24th February 2013
  1. Travel: All Day London Travel Train Cards & Return Train Tickets to Watford Junction (1 Adult & 1 Child)
  2. Bus Tickets: Return (1 Adult 1 Child): £2.00
  3. Warner Bros Studio Tickets (1 Adult & 1 Child): £50.50
  4. Camera: £140
  5. Food: £10.00
  6. Drinks: £6

Coming to the total of £230. 55

List for 11th April 2013

  1. Travel: All Day London Travel Train Card & Return Train Ticket to Watford Junction £21.20
  2. Bus Tickets: Return: £2.00
  3. Warner Bros Studio Ticket: £29.00
  4. Camera: Same Camera As Before
  5. Food: Unknown At This Time
  6. Drink: Unknown At This Time
  7. Coming to the total cost of £52.20
For both they come to the total of £282.75

If i had borrowed  professional equipment such as:
  1. Sony HDR - Z1E HDV £120
  2. Sennheiser Gun Mic Me66 - directional £20
  3. Tripod - Vinten5 £10
  4. 3 leg Dolly £10
 It would have come to a total of £302.75, so it would have gone over my budget slightly.

If i was to use any form of professional equipment from South Essex College, i wouldn't have to pay for it as i would only be borrowing it, for that particular amount of time needing to film. Tapes used for the professional camera would cost me £2.50 a tape. As for train fare, it depends on where i would be filming, so it can be various prices and could add up with the more locations within film. Food and drink can be various as well, it depends how long you plan to film throught the day.

so if i was to do a film this way and do a completely different story it would cost me a lot less, no more than £50-£75.

for both dates during filming it came to £513.30, making my losses by -£213.30

Friday, 15 February 2013

Legal and Ethical Codes of Newspapers

Journalism ethics and legal codes include taste, decency and acceptability. one of the legal issues are libel: stirring up hatred. Excample of a libel case would include what had happen to Sheryl Gascornigne, the papers had spreaded lies about Sheryl and she took them to court. It made her life hell and eventurally she won the case and the papers declared that they lied about all the stuff about her. As for the invastion of privacy it is covered by loads of laws, codes and ethics, like the invastion of the Dutchess of Cambridge, when they took pictures of her in a bikini, while on hoilday with her husband Prince William, leaving the Royal Family in an outrage, but it was soon sorted out. Because such things as this is against the journalists code of conduct, which are there for a reason, if you go against the rules of the land and the code of conduct, not alone will you get into trouble but so would the Newspaper.

In News Selection, it is the journalist job not to include the things that are breaking the rules. Whatever they write will go to the editor. The news selection that goes on the front and inside the newspaper is based on the editor's personal and professional judgment. If they don’t' like what has been written by the journalist, for example if it's racist or it would upset someone traumatically, the editor may just disregard it.
It is the same with Radio and News on TV, some of the topics you may just have to tread carefully.

Political Alliances of Newspapers

The Financial Times has been the last newspaper to join the army of the Conservatives during the latest general election, alongside half a dozen other papers including the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Whereas The Sun had declared its allegiance to David Cameron last year in Semptember . The Guardian had asked people of their opinions, where The Observer had come out of the closest and sided with the Liberal Democrats, which could end up being their strongest election yet, but only time will tell. Meanwhile, The Independent is said to have had a tactical voting to keep the Tories out of the main/head seats, in the hope of a Liberal Democrat/Labour fight.

The questions that has been asked when it comes to Political Alliances of the Newspapers is ' "Which way have the national newspapers swung in previous general elections? Do they have an influence over voters and have they flipped their votes according to the issues of the day, or stuck with the political party most closely representing their reader demographics?" ‘but it has been argued, god knows how many times over the years.
Documents have said to 'exsist', which has been taken from the British Political Facts books by David and Gareth Butler which shows a 'mixed' picture, much like a collage of loads of different pictures coming together. The Daily Telegraph is Conservative all the way and has been backing them at every single general election since back in 1945, unlike the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, who have said to have only stayed with them once since then.
The Daily Mirror has no hesitation in backing up the Labour Party though, they have supported by them, since about the post-war years. The Sun is very likely to predict winner of general elections luckily enough, though the Sun has backed up the winning party since 1979, only time will tell if they continue to suck up to the winning party.

Market Research

I did a questionnaire as part of my 'Market Research' and put the results into charts.


This pie chart shows the ages that took the questionnaire.

Blue: shows the most number of people aged 13-18.
Red & Green: shows the number the same amount of people from different age groups aged 19-25 and 45+ taking the questionnaire.


This chart show the number of male and females that took the questionnaire. There being more females then males.

This chart shows that the most people who filled in the questionnaire are in Junior High or High School (in Red), followed by people in College (in Blue), then the least amount being unemployed/non-student (in Green)
This chart show which ones have answered with the same answers when asked 'What do you think about this poster?', 2 answered with 'I like it, it's mysterious' and 2 with 'I like or rather wicked but needs more detail', where the rest all answered with 'I like the less is more' 'Dull and boring' or 'It's intriguing'
This chart shows that when asked 'What stands out  about this to you?' 6 answered with the red writing on the black background, where the reminding 1 person answered with 'It's rather spooky'
This chart shows more people answering 'Yes' when asked 'From first impressions, would you watch this film?', whereas less have said 'possibly'.
This chart shows that a great deal of the people who took the questionnaire, answered 'Yes' to the question 'From first impression, do you think this is would be your type of film?'

This pie chart shows that each one had their opinion, when asked 'From looking at the poster what type of genre do you think it would be?' each one said 'Horror/Thriller' 'Horror/Supernatural' 'Horror/Romance' 'Thriller' 'Horror' 'Romance' and 'Action'

Thursday, 14 February 2013

How my research will influence my work

After doing a questionnaire of my movie poster, i have come to realize, that everyone is different and have their own opinions, some may like it, some may not, some might find it intriguing or mysterious, some may find it dull and boring. But no matter what you do in life, there will always be critics, you take their opinion into consideration, some might say what seem to be horrible things, but it has made me realize that i can do a little be better, or that i can make my poster just that little bit more interesting. I admit that my poster is a little bit dull and boring, but what i have to remember is that it's just a first poster, a teaser, the next and second one will be a bit more interesting with a bit more information.

I think that a little bit of research can influence your future work a great deal, it may not be what you expect or what you may want to hear, but it's there to help you and to better you and your work, to help you to your full potential.

Target Audiences

Each Newspaper as it's own individual audience, some may have different sections for different people. The Sun Newspaper for example, i would say it was for people aged between 16-24 and 25-34, middle class to skilled manual workers, maybe even housewives. The Sun has a page three girl and a sports section for men, for ages between 16 and 24. It has it's section involving what all the famous people are up to, events like the Grammy Awards etc. for 16 to 24 year old girls, as well as reporting any news for mothers and housewives, like of recent with the whole meat situation, that has horse meat, and the incident with the fox and the baby, as well as having advice columns.

whereas The Guardian is more for the educated people, who wish to know more about the economy, as well as education itself, it does however show stories of famous people, but are not big stories or will make front page as if would in papers such as The Sun or The Mirror perhaps, it's informative and straight to the point, i would more likely see business people or University students between the ages of 24 and 44 more likely to read it

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Film Questionnaire


Name:

Age:

Course Attending (optional):

What do you think of this poster?



What stands out about this poster to you?



From first impressions, would you watch this film?



From first impressions, do you think this film would be your type of film?



From looking at the poster, what type of genre do you think it would be?



Do you think this poster gives off the illusion, of being a particular genre, only to be the opposite?



Do you like the lay-out and the way this poster is presented?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MxuyeNtQuzXxbm_LU4dAuGZ9Mp8Dj-wP9KLJWUV-dqg/viewform
This is the finished (first) Poster




In making my poster, i tried to use as many of the tools (as shown above) I started off with a white background to begin with. 300 by 500.


Picking the paint brush, I made it the right size and glided it over the white background turning the backgound black
 

For the title I opened a new window, but making sure not to get rid of the first one, and made the title red and put 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' as part of the first and teaser poster, as not to reveal the title of the film just yet

Here are two screen shots of both background and title, so that way i can flick back and forth to both and to combined the pair.
Here are the results of the finished first poster, it will change over time, maybe not by much, or maybe by a lot. only time will tell.

Friday, 8 February 2013

Photoshop: How To Guide

this is the controls of Photoshot, this will help you with, brush, pencil, eraser size so you can get the right size and right type, not mess up your whole poster. It is also useful for font sizes, text styles, as well as other controls.


This is where your poster history sits, as well as contrast, colour, adjustments, styles etc. which is useful if you wish to make your poster, darker, lighter, softer in colour, heavier in colour etc. It also has a tool to change the background and have a design to it, it has levels and curves adjusters if need.




All these are tools you can use to create and make poster look spectacular and professional, it has tools from paint brush to chop, zoom to text, colour changing to eraser, which all come in handy to help create those little things and even erase if you make a mistake.

if you wish to take a screen shot, hold down Shift - Cmd - 4, then hover the curser over the desired area.

This is just some of the images of the tools of photoshop, so people get a glimpse of them.

This is the Brush tool, if you click on it, it will give you a few options, so I went with the 'Brush Tool' at the top of the list. and played with a few effects on. The effects are shown below.







It starts off with a size 13 brush stroke (at the far left) then with a size 43 next to it, giving that thick and more blurred effect. Next up is a pen effect at size 43 which gives it that thickness with shredded and tattered at the end. Next to it is the same effect in a size 13, which gives it a more smooth and refined effect. Last but no least, we have a charcoaled effect first we have it in a size 13, which gives off the chalky and dusty effect, where as the size 43 (far right) gives off a more refined look with chalky, dusty ends.





The Quick Selection Tool can be used to create a good way to get rid of all those areas that you don't want or need which can be seen on right hand side of the picture of the German Shepherd below, but on the left hand side of the picture you can see The Lasso Tool, being used and more messy looking to used, specially if you are wanting to create a professional looking picture.


The Path Selection Tool, can be used to move objects around the picture, much like is the in the picture of the German Shepherd below, it gives you the chance to put them in other places that may be perfect for their pose. But with this picture i simply toyed with, to simple show you as some form of an example.








The Blur Tool, can be used to blur things together to make them combined or to take that sharpness of an object to make it look more softer. much like what I have done with the German Shepherd's fur on his chest  and leg, as well as with his ears.






with The Crop Tool, you can cut the picture and make it a lot smaller and able to work on the object wanting to use for your professional picture. Like what i have done with the German Shepherd picture.














This is the layer menu, with a long list full of things to do with the layers on your poster, whether it is to create a new, duplicate or delete a layer.










I have fool around with a few layers on this picture and moved
them around, but no matter where i moved the layers, it has only made the picture just that bit darker. Which if you look carefully, you can just about make it out.























































On this picture I went through the filters and placing a few on the picture, but only a few are visible. I used Distort, Noise, Pixelate, Sharpen and Stylize.



















This is a picture is of The Colour Swatch, you can pick as many colours as you want and name them, once you clicked 'ok' on whatever colour you have chosen it, will appear in the top right hand corner, ready and waiting for you to click it.

This is a picture of Image Size, you can have the size of the picture to however you want, in height, width and resolution.

With resolution it can change the appearance of your picture.  For example the picture below was very poor in resolution at number 2 and as a result it has become very bad on it's quality but would be a very small file. But if you would change the resolution not alone will the file size become much bigger but the quality would become much better.



The picture below of the German Shepherd is on 500 resolution and is still very visible and but shows the pixels
This picture of an icon that changes your screen mode, it changes the size of the screen.









This is a picture is of the references better known as RGB, CMYK and GRAYSCALE

The pictures below show RGB (Bottom Right) and GRAYSCALE (Bottom Left). RGB is good if you want your picture full of colour and life. But GRAYSCALE is good if you want to give your picture a unique look to them.










This picture is of a file size of the main picture I have used while making my Photoshop: How To Guide.