Production log

I haven't had the chance to get as much work as I should have with lots of coursework deadlines. I am trying to get the Digipak done, by the end of this week, but i am working on my time managment

Conventions in the real world text.

Having used many magazines and music videos for inspiration, I tried to use the stereotypical conventions they used in order to make my project fulfilling to its genre, whether it was a pop magazine or a pop music video.

During AS I made sure to have mood boards and plans that helped me stick to the basic conventions of a pop magazine, for example, in pop magazines the role of a female artist is to look like the typical girl next door, so that girls aspire to be like her and men want to be with her. This may look simple, however when shooting I had to make sure I had my mood-board or photos with me, so that my artist could try conveying the same kind of poses and body language. This was hard as some of the actions did not look as well as it did when my model tried to pose, so I had to work with it and try a variety and range of poses.

 So for example I had a photo of Taylor swift in top of the pops magazine, she was posing in a playful cute and cute manner, I had to get my model to look similar. 

Whilst editing I had to look at many magazine for help on the positioning, for example with the masthead, I had to see where most pop magazines positioned it, I found that most pop magazines position it at the top left hand corner or centre of the top. I also realised that the masthead could not interlock with the photo, so if my picture blocked out the masthead it would cause confusion as we would not know what the magazine was called.

The buzzwords in my magazine had to look jampacked but not too busy, it had to look like it was fun and bursting with information, however i had to make sure it still looked classy and poppy at the same time. So when i was doing my buzzwords, i had to postion them carefully, by having too many it would take away the attention of the masthead and image. I also had to make sure i colour co-ordinated correctly as most magazines stick to the three colour scheme, mine was pink white and black. I had also placed a banner and price tag, as they are the typical conventions of ALL magazines not just pop magazines. 

Prior to shooting the actual pictures and editing, I had to make sure that i knew what i was doing, and that i was planning and reflecting my work well, so when i was in the planning stages of the actual project, i needed to have moodboards to lay out my thoughts, i made sure i had plenty of moodboards. I had a moodboard for colour scheme, the reason being because i wanted to see what each colour connoted and symbolized, and which three colours meshed well together. I also had a moodboard for typography/masthead, i went on the site dafont.com to gain a variety of fonts, i realised the masthead said a lot about the magazine, so i couldn't just settle for photoshop, i used one that outlines my magazine well and looked cute and pop-related.

My photoshoot was all studio shots, so instead of taking photos outside, I stuck to more professional looking photographs, when i waas analysing top of the pops magazine, about more than half of the pictures were seventy percent studio shot, as outdoor shots looked cheesy and not as real as it should look, this proved to be true with my target audience, as i handed out surveys, and this was proven true.
 

My interpretation of Scream.

Due to large amounts of film being based on a certain genre, there are many types of clichés and conventions that apply to films of these genre (e.g. romance films often have slow running towards each other or kissing, action films tend to have get away vehicles conveniently appearing when necessary etc). Often Parodies of these films are made and make fun off these convention since they are commonly seen and everyone knows them (e.g. Austin power parodies spy films like 'James Bond', 'Galaxy Quest' and 'Space Balls' parody sci-fi films like 'Star wars' and 'Star Trek' etc). When it comes to horror films one of the most famous parodies is Wes Cravens 'Scream' in which a murder is going around killing people due to his knowledge horror films and how to get away with the murders. The film itself has many moments where it out-right take the piss out of many horror conventions but there are times when then films takes and more subtle approach and this is mainly towards horror theories rather than conventions but what exactly is 'Scream' mocking?
The first thing that is made aware in the being of the film is that 'Scream' is specifically mocking 'Slasher’ films' like 'Friday the 13th' and 'Halloween' in which the killer goes around killing people one by one rather than say a monster like the old 'Frankenstein' and 'Wolf man' films, or films that have a bigger emphasis or drama rather than horror like 'Psycho' or 'Carrie'. This is made aware in the opening scene where a girl gets a mysterious call from someone who is spying on her and eventually ends up killing her by stabbing her to death and then gutting her... nasty. The main parody point of the ‘
Slasher’ genre is when one of the characters in Scream highlight that there are specific rules to surviving a horror film like not saying 'I’ll be right back' or not having sex since these conventions appear in almost every ‘Slasher’ film and the audience knows exactly what ‘Scream’ is saying since every time one of the above rules is disobeyed in a horror film that character(s) dies shortly afterwards. This also happens during the film since whenever a character goes somewhere by themselves or has sex or even drinks a lot they die, which further emphasises the rules that 'Scream' mentions.

Post production

The post production is a long process, its basically after we have the footage/pictures part. The main focus is to perfect what we have. To better it and make it presentable and to the best of our abilities. I used Adobe premeiere to cut up all my shots and syn it in with the music.
I had to have a lot of practise on it before i could actually start my video as i was completley clueless and oblivious to what i was doing. Youtube Tutorials helped me immensly, so i knew how to utilise the tools and use it for the right reasons, instead of pressing random buttons and hoping one of them would work.

I absolutley thought that Photoshop was largely easier to use than premeire as there wasnt as many tools, also the fact that i took GCSE photography, which enabled me some knowledge beforehand. I still found it a little difficult to remember everything about "layers" and the whole process, however after doing it for a while, i got the hang of it.

I used a site called ipiccy and picmonkey to airbrush my pictures. It helped a lot as photoshop took a lot more time than this site. I mainly used the blemish remover,shift icon and colour editer.
Post production to me is when you try editing and perfecting what you've got. You have an overall view of the work you've done, and it's the basis of improving and reflecting over your work. Also part of the post production is uploading everything on the blog, which i seem to forget quite a bit, After we stop filming or taking pictures, we have to make diary entries explaining what we've done and how we've done it, we could either just type it up or film ourselves.
When i was doing my prelimary task, we had to take pictures, and then edit it. The editing part was what made the pictures in to respectable looking magazines, so without the photoshop it would just be a picture.

Research and planning

Research and planning –

During my research and planning stage I learned to use a lot more formats then Microsoft word and Power Point. I had been so used to word as I was comfortable using it in high school, I had forgotten and been oblivious to all the other formats. So Miss Baker informed us about prezi and slide share so i began using a variety. In order to make my work look more versatile and have more of a range of my work presented. I found Slide rocket, voki and even other websites such as ipiccy and picmonkey to edit pictures. I utilised windows movie maker too, to make mini clips. When showing presentations.

 
I realised that i had to be more innovative and creative so Voki was really good. Voki was visually pleasing, entertaining and gave out the information that I needed to produce. It was aesthetically pleasing too. When making my production log diaries, i had to use my webcam to film myself as it was the easiest machinery available to film myself, this was quite daunting as i had to film myself talking (Which everyone hates)

Research and planning helped me to do my photoshoot and music video, as i had something to fall back on when my shooting wasnt going as planned or if my photos did not turn out right. The planning essentially gave me a boost, so if i wasnt comfortable with the pictures i had taken i could always go back and look at my inspiration and storyboards for help.

Digital technology and creativity

The first task we were given in as was the Preliminary task; we had to create a ‘Haydon Magazine’.We were given the school camera and presented with Photoshop. The reason for doing the task was to show our abilities and have practise with the formulas and technology presented with us.

The school camera was a DSLR Cannon 550D, I had to use the school camera to take photographs, due to the fact that my own camrera was going through some technical problems to do with the aperture and speed.
 I thought my pictures showed potential, however my editing skills were beyond mediocre and amateur at the beginning, it looked as if it could do with a lot of airbrushing
 Photoshop was extremely helpful for my DigiPak and Magazine advert as I was presented with plenty of tools and implements which helped me create a magazine; it was a matter of knowing the tools which was okay as I had created a magazine beforehand last year. Since I had taken photography, I was familiar with shutter speed and aperture. I think I possessed the skills to take a picture, and actually was pretty proud of my chosen photographs.

After finishing my first draft to the magazine, I had to record myself through the webcam at first explaining through what I did and how I did the magazine.
I practised using the DSLR as i wanted to get as much experience as i could, this enabled me to create the best pictures of my ability.

    Creativity is used in my blog through the use of softwares and individual sites I used like IPICCY and the use of my
videos that I found online which helped boost my individualness. I used prezi which is like powerpoint but more please visually.

I liked using different formats, so that my blog didnt look completley plain and had a splash of versatility. I remember beforehand using the same old resources, so i think i've added more range and creativity by having this.
Voki was great to use, as it is entertaing and helps produce the information. I used windows movie maker, to make a lot of clips. I found it resourceful, as it was easy to uitilise and the icons were easy to naivagate.

I think Creativity was vital, as i needed to make my blog look aesethetically pleasing, so i needed as much formats possible.
At the start of the year, i found myself just using the same old formats, for example. my work was bombarded with word and powerpoint, so it looked quite bland. Voki was very helpful, it gave out information and also provided a more entertaining way to look the information.

Recording myself speaking was quite hard, as i detest speaking in front of a camera, however it boosted my creativity as i added in clips and pictures which helped my analysis.
Indesign was really helpful as it made the whole magazine process easier, i could add in columns and the tools were basically made to help make magazines, it was easier to do the magazine on indesign than on photoshop.
I thought alot about costume in my shoot (Mise en scene), so i made sure my artists were made to look like popstars, i had to go shopping and take pictures of clothes that would look good on my model, i made a chart showing how each outfit looked on the models chosen, which i think showed creativity.

Scream - Postmodern