Today's Plan Of Action

Thursday November 18th

i plan to deconstruct a magazine layout today, to find out what is typical of a magazine front cover (what are the conventions, and how do they differ across magazine genres such as Fashion, Trashy and Music).

I have brought into class today a variety of magazines, i will then give my own interpretation to what is typical across them all and what's different, what is important.

i plan to cut up the magazines i've brought to remove the important parts and maybe even construct out of the pieces - the most typical magazine.

i will then experiment with how i could make my magazine different, whether it be with the magazine front cover layout itself, or how the magazine is shaped/folded/opened.

ideas have already been discussed with my teacher about:

• the magazine being fold out rather than an open book, that gives access to an interactive and more in depth version.
• size of the magazine
• content advertised on the cover
• name of the magazine
• collaboration with youtube

Oh! one minute animatic..

After choosing our favourite music video, we were then asked to re-create a chosen one minute of the video as an animatic.

What is an animatic?

In animation and special effects work, the storyboarding stage may be followed by simplified mock-ups called "animatics" to give a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with motion and timing. At its simplest, an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in sequence. More commonly, a rough dialogue and/or rough sound track is added to the sequence of still images (usually taken from a storyboard) to test whether the sound and images are working effectively together. definition taken from Wikipedia.

And so the recreation of my chosen minute had to show the audience the same shots, transitions and camera angles used in the original video. This shows that i recognise important features and techniques used in the video, and i can identify why they were used, what effect they are trying to create.

The plan is to create an animatic and then a rough recreation of the one minute via amateur filming.

By doing so i can show i am able to create and follow a plan with ease, to achieve a chosen standard, also that i am skilled using a camera to get a desired effect.

In order to do my video i have to use my animatic, therefore deconstructing the minute down to each individual shot, constructing a storyboard, this would make the reconstruction of the one minute far easier.

My Animatic, Kings and Queens - 30 Seconds To Mars from Megan-Jayne Forster on Vimeo.

for learning purposes, very helpful in understanding iMovie software more fully and how many frames there are in a music video.. a lot :')

excuse the spelling mistake at the end if the video ;)

Presentation Of My Proposed Project, pppppfffffttttt!

• A promotional package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the subsidiary tasks.
• An advertising package for a new product or service, to include two television advertisements alongside other advertising forums (pop-up)
• A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately 5 minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both together with two of the three subsidiary task.
• A five minute documentary, along with a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary and a newspaper advertisement for the documentary.

just an overall explanation of my project in the workings, reasoning behind my choice and where I took my inspiration from.
The first half of the video, is pretty much me outlining what I want to do, the background research i did on Youtube and it's popularity and my vague idea of what I could produce.

That video I then briefly posted on Youtube, and linked to many social networking websites such as Tumblr, Facebook & Dailybooth to get feedback, I then responded to said feedback and combined the two videos to display below.

video also accessible here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3M5um6yQ2g&feature=channel_video_title

link to youtube 'homepage' of favourite channels and users, including the multiple categories

moneysupermarket.com adverts first and second.

I have chosen to do a television ad (or an ad that could be featured before and/or after youtube videos and other web-videos featured on iPlayer, 4oD etc) for a brand new magazine aimed at people who use the internet regularly, mainly those interested in blogging and social networking, age range i predict to be teens to late 20's.

The idea behind the magazine being that most editorials in the modern world are available online.

Youtube attracts a vast amount of internet users on a regular basis and has created many 'Internet Celebrities' including Justin Bieber and Lauren Luke.

how will my work be evaluated,

Film/Television/Video

Level 3
The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
holding a shot steady, where appropriate; i am able to do this after doing so well last year, i am confident this will be achievable.
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, a proficient contribution to construction is evident.

Level 4
The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
holding a shot steady, where appropriate; i am able to do this after doing so well last year, i am confident this will be achievable.

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate; i will consider what shots to use when i have chosen the "script" for my advert, then i will use a storyboard to plan out each shot, although i may find considerable inspiration during shooting.
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate; ( same as above )
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting; again, i would create a story board and plan what was to be included based on it's purpose ( symbolising something, relating to the time period etc )
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer; i am confident with editing and again would refer to the storyboard to check the meaning is coming across, could allow others to watch many edited versions of ad to see where the ad's "point" is strongest.
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately; i feel i could be very creative with captions and effects as it IS an advert so can be exaggerated and fun in comparison to something that's more reality based.
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task. confident..
Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident. I am working alone so will prove efficiency as a worker, will get assistance from audience to show that i'm aware of the market.

i am hoping to aim for a high Level Three or Level Four,

feedback in purple.

The Task At Hand

There were twelve different tasks on offer, twelve different case studies that would complete the greater part of our A2 coursework, and so i had to choose something that appealed to me and i was confident i could complete comfortably and to as high standard.

I narrowed it down the the four that appealed most to me, this did not include the music video option or the "design your own website", i felt with both i couldn't easily apply personal interests to, i would've found it difficult to find a band for a music video which would've been problematic, and although skilled in IT - to make a website in it's entirety is out of my depth.

I chose to consider the following:

• A promotional package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the subsidiary tasks.
• An advertising package for a new product or service, to include two television advertisements alongside other advertising forums.
• A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately 5 minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both together with two of the three subsidiary task.
• A five minute documentary, along with a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary and a newspaper advertisement for the documentary.

I've only completed one year of Media Studies and so only ever had experience in creating an Opening Title Sequence, and so it would've been the easiest choice to choose the promotional package for a new film as i could easily stick with genres and techniques i had experience in.

But I've decided to choose:

3. An advertising package for a new product or service, to include two television advertisements alongside two of the following options:

• a radio advertisement
• a television programme sponsorship sequence
• a web-based pop-up

i chose this because i felt it's "new grounds" to me, also after discussion into initial ideas already - i've realised that my television ad can greatly relate to the postmodernism studies completed in class, i can use not only postmodernism in the advert content but i can use postmodern techniques to promote it and the product such as:

• a new approach to magazine advertising and layout
• social networking, use of audience feed back and participation
• youtube content and ability to promote

i have decided to continue into my second year working alone after the misfortunes of last year, i would've liked to work in a pair or three as it would lighten the work load and allow for multiple opinions within the project.

But i felt the same problems could arise and also nobody else in the class chose to do the television advertisement. I think choosing a project to allow myself into a group would mean my work wasn't up to as a high a standard, as i wouldn't be as interested in the product.

My Favourite Music Video

We were told that we had to bring our favourite music video to class, we were to pick our favourite and then we had to justify to the class why so.

Points we could expand on were those such as the lyrics, the location, the genre, the visuals, the period of time in which it happens, costume, props and the general content of the video.

I chose "Kings And Queens" by 30 Seconds To Mars.

30 Seconds to Mars is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1998.

reasons why i chose it?

• visually overwhelming, the location was downtown LA which was emptied for filming, and hundreds of people on an array of bikes in a variety of costumes were the focus of the video itself, the video uses the sunrise and a white horse, all majestic and powerful symbols.
• i really like 30 Seconds To Mars and i really like this song personally.
• the lyrics fit the video content well..

"We were the kings and queens of promise

We were the victims of ourselves

Maybe the children of a lesser God

Between Heaven and Hell

Heaven and Hell"

I researched the lyrics and the intention of the band was to show how humans have devastated the natural world, and now we suppress each other. They use the terms of Heaven and Hell which brings it back to natural imagery of the sunset and horse, but shows how they are trying to find the defining difference between right and wrong. The use of the cyclists was to show freedom of speech and identity, they are all dressed outlandishly and creatively, and they ride their bikes freely in wide open space despite the location which would nor ally be full of vehicles and crowds. This could be juxtaposition, as the cyclists roam freely in an area that they never would normally be able to.

"You get the sense, from listening, that something MASSIVELY IMPORTANT is going on, something that Jared needs to HOWL AT THE BLAZING SKY about. He is so good at this that he often makes me think of a man with a flip-top head, hinged just behind the ears. His high notes are there to speak for every one of us who has found themselves needing to express an emotion which combines total FRUSTRATION with NOSTALGIA FOR THE BEST OF DAYS."

- BBC CHART BLOG

I then decided it may be helpful to analyse the lyrics, as i could decipher the real meaning behind the song, and make my own interpretation.

This way i could also put myself in the mind of the video director, consider what they were trying to convey through the video, upon sighting the lyrics.

30 Seconds To Mars - Kings &Queens on Prezi