A2

After completeing AS level media, we moved onto A2. In this we are working our way up to being able to create a professional looking video.
We started off by taking photos of different shots and angles such as High angle and extreme close up. This task took us around 30-45 minutes. After completing this task, we showed them to the class and discussed what was good and bad about them.
Our second task was to use these camera skills to make a short film. Our film topic was a tour around the school. We were given 2 hours to plan and shoot our video.
I found that background locations were hard as there was alot of people and objects around so it was hard to perfect. another hard bit was getting the cuts right. here were times where our video kept having strange cut scenes and showed quite clearly where we had try to record over.

Our next task is to make a film about a 'phone call' and in my group are Stew, Adam and James. We did our planning today and hopefully are ready to start filming on thursday, ready for editing on friday

Evaluation

1st slide - headings

This slide lets you know what headings will be disscussed in each slide

Slide 2 - Research on magazine

This is the research i did before i started any of the tasks

Slide 3 - Photoshop

This shows how i laernt to use photoshop and what i found easy and hard

Slide 4 - Preliminary task

This shows my preliminary task and how i came to do it

Slide 5 - Picture Taking
This shows how i took pictures and tells how to manipulate them

Slide 6 - Research into final
I show what i did to prepare for the final and also a image showing the presentation on music magazines

Slide 7 - Similar magazines
These are similar magazines to the one i designed

Slide 8 - Layout
This shows how a designed the layout and also a compariosn of Kerrang!

Slide 9 - Images
I show how i edited the images to suit the magazine and background. I also show how i edited my main image

Slide 10 - Articles

This slide talks about the articles i used. It says hopw i tried tpo keep them less formal and more appealling to a younger generation

Slide 11 - Why i chose it?
This slide informs on why i chose that particular style of music magazine

Slide 12 - Conclusion
This slide is the conclusion. It shows what i felt i did good, bad and how to improve it.

Final Touches

as deadline day is monday 27th april, it was time to start finishing all the work. After finishing my final task, it was time to do the evaluation. This year, instead of an exam, we are doing it as a powerpoint presentation of about 12-15 slides. I am going to draw up a plan in my exercise book and see what ideas are good for showing what and how i did in the final.
The topics i am going to talk about in the presentation are:
reserach on magazines
Prelimanary task
picture taking
photoshop
research into final
similar magazines
llayout
audience
images
articles
why i chose it?
conclusion

The presentation should show everything i have looked at in this topic and show some of the flaws i had to overcome.

Main Task final

Over the last few weeks i have been creating my final design. we were given around 3 weeks to finish it all which at the time seemed hard but after while got easier. I started off with some plans and mock ups. I showed where i was going to put some of the content and how the layout was going to be. I found that doing a plan, i was able to decide what would be good or bad in the magazine. I also asked some of my friends to comment on it and give me any advice regarding improvements. One bit of improvement in particular was to put the main picture in the middle. i applied this as shown below:

This gave the image a sense of importannce which is good for attracting readers.

I also arranged the images (mainly of the people) to show where the bit of the article about them is. To show that the magazine isn't dull and to suit the type of magazine, i added a questionnaire featuring one of the band members and i made it so it was a bit of banta and isnt a dull survey type thing.

The main issue with making this project look professional was the images i was going to use. As we wernt allowed to use any of the internet, we had to take our own or use ones that we had previously taken. I asked 3 friends to stand and look away from the camera so as to make it look like a natural shot. As the background was in one of the computer rooms, i edited the image and cropped out the 3 actors. I then added the cropped image to one of the pictures i took of wembley. I also edited other images so that i only got the face of the actor and added it to the black background of the magazine.

As most magazines have a bar code, i had to make one in Paint:

Regarding the front page, i followed the same style as kerrang magazine. I tried to make the content locations similar and add similar images but not to copy it exact.

I have added a top bar featuring bands, the main title in top centre, main image and other bands and images below.

In this task, i found that using photoshop can be challenging and frustrating but once you get the hang of it and using all its functions, it can be pretty usuful. One problem i had to overcome was getting the images to appear in colour and not black and white. I tried to play around with the colour options but in the end i asked a technition for help which was successful. I now dont have any trouble with black and white images.

Photoshop is also good at bringing out the best in the images you edit. It allows you to edit them to what ever you want them to fit or be.

One negative thing about photoshop however is trying to get to grips with all the different uses of the prgramme. For a first time user, it didnt offer a lot of help and guidence as some of the other microsoft programmes. This posed difficulties in the beggigning.

friday 13th March

today we wrote plans for our articles.

Thursday 12th March

Mrs wernt in again today so we carried on with our magazines. I designed a plan showing the colour, background and images.

Tuesday 10th March

As our teacher wasnt in today, we were given some cover work, but obviously still to do with our main task. I made bulletpoints and outlined my articles for the mag and then started to draw up a layout.