Evaluation Task 5
Above you can see a movie I have created on Sony Vegas. It consists of annotations around the 3 pages of my final work and tells you how I have attracted and addressed my audience. The one thing I haven’t written on the movie is the unique selling point, or USP, of my magazine. The Beat focuses greatly on new and different music – my artist, Zoe Paterson, is portrayed as a folk rock singer from Sweden who uses her acoustic guitar and violin when creating music. There are also articles in my contents about the reunion of several Brit-Pop bands. Although my magazine does concentrate on Rock and Indie, I believe the unique selling point is my mention of folk and Brit-Pop throughout.
Evaluation Task 6
I often used my Blackberry to write notes, blog, or send emails back and forth to myself when working. It was useful for when I was away from a computer so that I could still work.
I used this Canon Powershot SX120 for the majority of my photography as it takes sharp, bright photos without the flash. I could change the settings so that I focused solely on what I wanted to - the background isn't important.
As I was taking many outdoor shots for a folky look I used a Gorillapod rather than a conventional tripod. This is because I can attach it to anything I need to (I.e. Trees, fences) in order to get the perfect angle which I might not achieve otherwise.
Canon Digital Ixus 95 IS. I used this for some of the indoor shots as it can take more and focuses more easily than the Powershot. It also takes better indoor photographs.
I used my computer most when creating my magazine.
Throughout creating The Beat magazine I have used my computer to research and learn a lot about photoshop and other software. I used a program called Polaroid 0.9 6R0 to give the photographs on my double page spread a sepia tone and to make them look like polaroids; giving them an old fashioned, folky feel. This kept with the theme of my double page spread and magazine.
I learnt a lot about using photoshop as I practiced between my preliminary task and final piece. I learnt how to better cut pictures out; rather than solely using magnetic lasso I chose instead to use the pen tool, eraser and smudge tool to give the photos a professional, smooth look.
I found the smudge tool the most useful as when used correctly it helped to smooth the edges of my photographs without having to feather them. This made the edges softer and made my photos blend in with the pages. I also increased the contrast a little on most of my photographs to make them look more colourful and professional. Adding a glow around my titles and front photograph made my photos look more natural on the page; they do not look stuck on.
I also used scribd to share my double page essay draft and audience feedback. This made my work look more professional on my blog and showed my technical knowledge. I also used slideshare to share my pitch and ideas with my peers. This helped as a slideshow is more interesting to look at than an essay or pictures - by sharing using slideshare I will have kept my audience engaged.
Evaluation Task 7
If you click on the image you can see I have used split screen to show my preliminary work against my final piece. I have also included annotations on the differences. Here is what I have learnt in the progression between these pieces.
In the progression between my preliminary task and final product I have learnt a great deal about photoshop, other software, and the way that magazines fit together and need a cohesive style. Looking back on my task I can see the help that my planning and research contributed. By reading other magazines and examining and imitating their style I learnt how to make my work look professional and slick. I learnt a lot about layers of font and photographs, the use of straplines, and fonts that look professional in a magazine.
Creating my moodboards was also another task that contributed greatly to the planning process. It helped me to develop a clear idea of the genre I was targeting and the photography that I would need to set up. It also helped me to realise how I should represent my artist as acting within the interview.
On my final piece everything fits together neatly unlike my preliminary task where the words look like they don’t belong there. On the contents page of my preliminary I put thick coloured lines around the photographs which looks childish and unprofessional; in my final piece I imitated the technique of cosmopolitan magazine and used no border; this looks more slick and professional.
Front Cover
I have started creating my final front cover.
I am still debating whether to have the photo in colour or greyscale so here it is in both so you can help me decide!
Media Terminology
Conglomerate - A group of smaller companies owned by a larger company.
Vertical Integration – When 2 or more steps of the production process are done by the same company.
DSN - digital screen network – Update and modernise cinema screens with digital distribution, 3D screens, subtitled showings etc. Can be transferred via the internet.
Logistics - How a film is transferred and transported. 240 screens in 210 cinemas in the UK.
Escapism – When you are so emotionally invested in a film you can escape the real world. I.e. Cinema sales rose during the credit crunch.
Social realism – A genre true to real life; deals with issues. Fourth wall removed.
35mm print - The standard reel that the film is processed on.
Tim Bevan – A founder of Working Title.
Pre-fabricated set – A set already built that requires putting together. I.e. Star Wars.~
Four Quadrant audience – When a film appeals to all. Old/young/male/female.
Viral marketing – Word of mouth advertising, passing on through facebook etc.
Synergy marketing – Where two companies join to benefit both. I.e. McDonalds happy meals, Orange Wednesdays.
Above the line marketing – Adverts, posters, trailers, billboards. You don’t choose to see them and the company pay to have them put out.
Below the line marketing – Interviews, reviews, etc. The company don’t pay to have them put out.
Stock writers/Directors - Associate with the same film company e.g. Shane Meadows (Warp Film) and Paul Greengrass (Working Title).
Product Placement - A product used in a film to advertise it e.g. James Bond driving Aston Martin.
Vertical Integration – When 2 or more steps of the production process are done by the same company.
DSN - digital screen network – Update and modernise cinema screens with digital distribution, 3D screens, subtitled showings etc. Can be transferred via the internet.
Logistics - How a film is transferred and transported. 240 screens in 210 cinemas in the UK.
Escapism – When you are so emotionally invested in a film you can escape the real world. I.e. Cinema sales rose during the credit crunch.
Social realism – A genre true to real life; deals with issues. Fourth wall removed.
35mm print - The standard reel that the film is processed on.
Tim Bevan – A founder of Working Title.
Pre-fabricated set – A set already built that requires putting together. I.e. Star Wars.~
Four Quadrant audience – When a film appeals to all. Old/young/male/female.
Viral marketing – Word of mouth advertising, passing on through facebook etc.
Synergy marketing – Where two companies join to benefit both. I.e. McDonalds happy meals, Orange Wednesdays.
Above the line marketing – Adverts, posters, trailers, billboards. You don’t choose to see them and the company pay to have them put out.
Below the line marketing – Interviews, reviews, etc. The company don’t pay to have them put out.
Stock writers/Directors - Associate with the same film company e.g. Shane Meadows (Warp Film) and Paul Greengrass (Working Title).
Product Placement - A product used in a film to advertise it e.g. James Bond driving Aston Martin.
The Soloist Interview With Robert Downey Jr
Cole Haddon: Steve Lopez said that you asked to go into his closet to see who he was. How do you decide how much you want to get to know a person when you're portraying them? Where is that line for you? And, of course, what did you find in his closet?
Robert Downey Jr.: Oh, well, you're supposing that he allowed me into his closet. He marvels at the idea that I asked. He never even dignified it with a response nor would he allow me to interview him at distance or at close range. We had a cigar together, and we talked. He wanted to tell me that to impersonate him would be to do a disservice to the movie. But it's different every time [for me]. I knew that the technical prowess and the degree of difficulty was going to fall on Jamie, and that I was to observe and report on that as if I were an audience member, and [director] Joe Wright said it was really important that I do next to nothing and listen a lot, which is very counterintuitive to my kind of ectomorphic disposition so it was an equal challenge for me in that way.
CH: How important is it not to get so involved in a character that you become indistinguishable from them?
RDJ: Job one is aesthetic distance. Mr. Jellison, my theater arts teacher from Santa Monica High School, it's right there in the first three pages of the book on Theater Arts, you know. But then it's that thing that just because you've read the owner's manual doesn't mean you can use the machine that way. But I think it's really important. I guess the thing here was it was this journey. By the end [of the movie], Catherine [Keener, who plays my ex-wife] and I were talking about [this]. We were literally talking about and writing this end scene with [our characters] in the house that [they] used to be married in, about what happened to this and that. I had this idea about likening it to the Northridge Earthquake which is something that I think every Angeleno could relate to, and then that having to do with when my own first marriage and things had started to tip up for me, and what it was and all the promise of L.A., and what it really is. So, to answer the question: You don't want to cross the line, but what you want to do is bring as much of yourself to bear as you could.
CH: This couldn't have been an easy shoot, especially considering that much of it was shot on Skid Row. As you've said, your characters had to go to some pretty difficult places, too. What did you take away from this experience?
RDJ: I took some of Jamie's wardrobe [referring to Foxx's Jesse Ventura-grade accoutrements]. [Laughs] I just remember, honestly, if I had to put it in a principle, there's was just a sense of humility, of feeling kind of right-sized when it was done, and it's hard to feel right-sized when you're done if you weren't somehow out of balance with your own perception when you started. And hopefully we are self-correcting enough, and we have enough support, and we have enough whether it's friends or the peripheral people that help make us OK, a sense of community or family or whatever it is we do to be OK. So, it's not like I need a movie to help me get my head right, you know, and I would take umbrage at the idea that there was some lesson I had to learn from the thing and all that. It's a way of infusing some Hollywood venture with profundity.
But, I do know that because of the process and the way that we did this, and the close proximity we were to each other, and the kind of stuff we wound up talking about -- and when you're downtown at 4:30 in the morning and you're seeing people who are extras, and you're seeing people who are literally going to be looking for where to sleep when the sun comes up when they're done making whatever pittance they were given for playing extras in this movie or whatever -- it was just this sense of how little direct contact I'd had with so many of the things I thought I was sure of. But really what I took away from it more than anything else was, "My God, sometimes you make a movie and sometimes the movie makes you," and this was one of those type things.
CH: Finally, what can you give me on Iron Man 2 and Sherlock Holmes?
RDJ: We start Iron Man 2 Monday [a few weeks ago now]. We're going to make a kick-ass follow-up to the movie that you all enjoyed. I got to see some footage from Sherlock at ShoWest when they were introducing it. It was really well received. We're really excited about it. I can't wait to come back and sell you some soap on Sherlock Holmes before Christmas time. I think that's going to be something special, too.
Robert Downey Jr.: Oh, well, you're supposing that he allowed me into his closet. He marvels at the idea that I asked. He never even dignified it with a response nor would he allow me to interview him at distance or at close range. We had a cigar together, and we talked. He wanted to tell me that to impersonate him would be to do a disservice to the movie. But it's different every time [for me]. I knew that the technical prowess and the degree of difficulty was going to fall on Jamie, and that I was to observe and report on that as if I were an audience member, and [director] Joe Wright said it was really important that I do next to nothing and listen a lot, which is very counterintuitive to my kind of ectomorphic disposition so it was an equal challenge for me in that way.
CH: How important is it not to get so involved in a character that you become indistinguishable from them?
RDJ: Job one is aesthetic distance. Mr. Jellison, my theater arts teacher from Santa Monica High School, it's right there in the first three pages of the book on Theater Arts, you know. But then it's that thing that just because you've read the owner's manual doesn't mean you can use the machine that way. But I think it's really important. I guess the thing here was it was this journey. By the end [of the movie], Catherine [Keener, who plays my ex-wife] and I were talking about [this]. We were literally talking about and writing this end scene with [our characters] in the house that [they] used to be married in, about what happened to this and that. I had this idea about likening it to the Northridge Earthquake which is something that I think every Angeleno could relate to, and then that having to do with when my own first marriage and things had started to tip up for me, and what it was and all the promise of L.A., and what it really is. So, to answer the question: You don't want to cross the line, but what you want to do is bring as much of yourself to bear as you could.
CH: This couldn't have been an easy shoot, especially considering that much of it was shot on Skid Row. As you've said, your characters had to go to some pretty difficult places, too. What did you take away from this experience?
RDJ: I took some of Jamie's wardrobe [referring to Foxx's Jesse Ventura-grade accoutrements]. [Laughs] I just remember, honestly, if I had to put it in a principle, there's was just a sense of humility, of feeling kind of right-sized when it was done, and it's hard to feel right-sized when you're done if you weren't somehow out of balance with your own perception when you started. And hopefully we are self-correcting enough, and we have enough support, and we have enough whether it's friends or the peripheral people that help make us OK, a sense of community or family or whatever it is we do to be OK. So, it's not like I need a movie to help me get my head right, you know, and I would take umbrage at the idea that there was some lesson I had to learn from the thing and all that. It's a way of infusing some Hollywood venture with profundity.
But, I do know that because of the process and the way that we did this, and the close proximity we were to each other, and the kind of stuff we wound up talking about -- and when you're downtown at 4:30 in the morning and you're seeing people who are extras, and you're seeing people who are literally going to be looking for where to sleep when the sun comes up when they're done making whatever pittance they were given for playing extras in this movie or whatever -- it was just this sense of how little direct contact I'd had with so many of the things I thought I was sure of. But really what I took away from it more than anything else was, "My God, sometimes you make a movie and sometimes the movie makes you," and this was one of those type things.
CH: Finally, what can you give me on Iron Man 2 and Sherlock Holmes?
RDJ: We start Iron Man 2 Monday [a few weeks ago now]. We're going to make a kick-ass follow-up to the movie that you all enjoyed. I got to see some footage from Sherlock at ShoWest when they were introducing it. It was really well received. We're really excited about it. I can't wait to come back and sell you some soap on Sherlock Holmes before Christmas time. I think that's going to be something special, too.
Mock-up Sketches of Front Cover and Contents
These are my rough sketches of my front cover and contents. The title of my piece has changed since I drew these mock-ups however the layout has remained similar throughout my photoshop mock-ups and plans.
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