Weekly Blog 23rd February 2012

This was the last week of our production and was actually our deadline. If we didn't have our products finished, then we couldn't do what we all had to within our schedule, which was get peer assessment on our work.

Thankfully, I had all of my work finished and was ready to present it to my group and ask for questions. We all had to come up with about 5 questions each for the titles of visual aesthetics, content and improvements. This was easy as we all spoke about this as a class and generally had all of the same questions down.

All we had to do was get into groups and show our products off one by one and ask what our groups thought of it. There wasn't really much else to it, it was just to get feedback and assessment off people who are within your target age group and we could probably relate to your products better than some of your teachers might be able to.

Weekly Blog Thursday 2nd February 2012

In this week of my schedule, I have set myself out to to do my double page photo shoot as well as editing my photos.

This didn't exactly go to plan as I have not yet booked photo shoots for my magazine, but, both of my double page spread shoots are to be conducted outside of the college grounds, meaning that I have to do it within my own time. I have gotten in contact with my other interviewee - Curtis Robinson - and have asked for when we could arrange an interview. We have conversed back and forth a few times but a date and place still hasn't been arranged.

Thankfully, as I mentioned in last weeks blog, I already have the photos for my other double page spread with Kim. Last week I also edited them so that they were ready to just be placed into my magazine when the layouts and everything have been created. Even though last week I said I was going to try and book my photo shoot, I got very busy with work and just forgot to book it. I will definitely get a slot within the next week because it is getting quite important that I do hold my photo shoot for my front cover.


Again, I looked towards what I had scheduled for next week and saw that I wanted to start creating rough layouts with my photos, etc. Even though I couldn't really do this for my front cover and second double page spread, I could do this with the photos that I had for Kim. I got onto Photoshop and created a very rough, initial design, pasted the photos into it where I thought they looked best and then transferred it over to InDesign where I added text boxes onto the layout and pasted some text in just to get a feel of what it would look like and what font that I wanted to be on it. However, this only took me about one and a half lesson to do as I am quite experienced within Photoshop so I was once again left with nothing much to do.

Seeing as I could literally do nothing else, I just continued outstanding work for my blue folder. I have always been quite behind it in and now I am trying my best to get caught up with it as much as I can. Even though time has run out for working on it within lesson, there was genuinely nothing for me to really do so it didn't negatively effect me doing blue folder work within lessons.

Model Call Sheet

The images that are circled are the photos that I chose to use for the front cover of my magazine.

Weekly Blog 16th February 2012

For this week in my schedule I had Masthead creation, Photographic post production and Graphic design processes down.

As this week is the half term week, I wasn't actually in college to do this work, but thankfully I have both Photoshop and InDesign at home so it wasn't a big deal.

On the Tuesday of this holiday I held my interview with Curtis and got some very good content for my article. I also got photos of his band playing a show, which all came out looking great. As I had already created the layout for my double page spread, it was simply a case of  me pasting the photo that I wanted into the layout and then going into InDesign and writing up the interview and pasting that in as well, seeing as I had already chosen on what type of font I wanted. This only took a total of around 2 days, seeing as I had to write up the whole interview and pick and choose bits I wanted. The rest of it, however, was very easy and I got that done quickly.

As all of my layouts and content were done for my magazine, there wasn't anything else I really had to do. Of course, I did have some work left for my blue folder so I tried to finish that off, but as far as the production for my magazine goes, I didn't have to do anything. I just spent the rest of my time doing my blue folder and just enjoying my holiday.

Weekly Blog 9th February 2012

For this week, I had  assembling photographic and illustrative material together to create rough drafts for each page, second draft layout work and create shapes, backgrounds, and other necessary page items which are not photos.

I finally got my photo shoot for the Wednesday lesson of this week, which was great as I really did need to get it done. On the lead up to my photo shoot, I thought that I would actually just go and create the layouts for my front cover and second double page spread. I got back onto Photoshop, and started arranging my sell lines, magazine name and everything else around where I wanted my photo. I took a photo of a model from the internet who would have been in a similar pose to my model and placed her on the front so I had at least a vague idea of what I wanted it to look like, instead of just blinding working away and possibly getting the text far too big or far too small.

I also created the layout for my second double page spread. As it only has one main, large picture on the top of the band, I went and took another photo off Google and pasted in it so I just had an idea of what it was going to look like. The layout itself was very easy to create and took barely any time at all. By the time that my photo shoot had come around on Wednesday, I had both of the layouts completely finished and all I simply had to do was paste the photos into where I decided I wanted them to do.

The photo shoot itself went great. I did have to use my backup model as my original model pulled out at last minute. However, I am not bothered about this as my backup model did a great job and I am pretty sure that she did a better job than my original model would have done in the first place. I took all of the photos for my front cover, seeing as I was doing my photo shoot for my double page spread in the holidays. I took a total of around 30 pictures, and the contact sheet will be on my blog. I got her to do various poses, making everything different so that I had a lot of variety to choose from in case I didn't like my initial ideas. As I said, everything went very well and I was glad to have finally done it.

I only had one lesson left for this week on Thursday before we broke up for the half term. I put my photos straight onto my front cover and it looked great, I was genuinely really happy with how it had turned out. My model fit on the front cover perfectly and the size was right and everything. The only thing I tweaked about the front cover was that I took a colour sample from my model's shirt and used it as the sell lines, making my whole magazine just look generally a lot more tied together.

I am very happy with the progress I have made this week and to see I am so close to finishing. All I have to do now is to finish my blue folder and then get my interview and photos done for my second double page spread, which I  have arranged with Curtis for within the half term.

Outdoor Risk Assessment

Model Release Form

Full Name:

Address:

Telephone Number:

Shoot Location: Arts Centre, Darlington

Date: Wednesday 8^th January, 2012.

I hereby give Margaret Newlands , the irrevocable and unrestricted right to use and publish video footage or photographs of me that are taken on the above date. These may be used for educational purposes (that may include publishing to a public video forum, such as Youtube or a blog), film production or advertising.

Print Name:

Signature:

Call Sheet for Alisha Jane (model)

Production Schedule: Call Sheet

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Title: Photo Shoot for Front Cover of The North East Alternative

Client: Alisha Jane

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Staff:  Myself

IT Technician

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Location/Venue: Studio room in Darlington Arts Centre

 CALL DATE:  Wednesday 8^th January, 2012.

CALL TIME: 2.00pm

Transport: Middlesbrough-Darlington train, return ticket.

INSTRUCTIONS:

The Photo Shoot itself starts at 2.10, but please make sure that you are in the Arts Centre by 2.00 so I can brief you fully face to face and also so that we can sort any last minute costume/make up/props out. Please bring an assortment of t-shirts if possible as it would be good to get some varying shots. Feel free to do your own hair and make up as it very much suits the look of the magazine anyway.

If there are any problems, please let me know ASAP. Thank you and I look forward to seeing you!

 

Photo Shoot Planning Document

Date and time of photo shoot:

Wednesday 8^th, 2.10pm

Material to be shot:

Front cover for my magazine

What personnel do you need?

Lighting assistant: IT Technician

Makeup assistant: Myself

Models: Alisha Jane

What props will you need?

Even though I don’t necessarily need props for the photo shoot, I may bring a few extra bits and pieces such as a guitar or a cuddly toy just to get some variation in my shoots.

Describe in detail your make-up & costume needs. (Include reference material to illustrate your needs)

The make up for my model will consist of quite pale skin and very dark make up around the eyes. She will be wearing a lot of black eyeliner and also eye shadow but it will be applied in a very sleek, stylish way as opposed to just thrown on. She will also be wearing long false eyelashes, making her eyes stand out even more. As for her outfit, I will take various ones of her in a combination of different t-shirts and also jackets. This is so that I get as much variation in my shots so that I have many different looks to choose from and to decide which one is most suitable.

Studio shoots: what kind of lighting? (Include reference material to illustrate your needs)

For my photo shoot, I would like to use butterfly lighting as it is the most glamorous form of lighting to use. I want my model to look as good as possible and even by using something as simple as lighting will bring out her features and make my photos look a lot more professional and glamorous.

Backdrop:

I will use both black and white backdrops to get different effects for my photo shoot. I will use a white backdrop to make the images look more professional and ‘purer’ and also, using a white backdrop will make editing my photos a bit easier if I want to insert and image into the background etc. The reason I am using the black backdrop is because I feel it would give my images more depth and will also contrast nicely with my model – who has bright blonde hair. As well as this, I feel that a black background would be better suited to the look of my magazine as well as it is alternative and black is generally seen as quite an ‘alternative’ colour.

Lighting equipment needs:

For my lighting equipment, I will need a Key Light and a Fill Light to achieve the ‘Butterfly’ lighting effect. As well as this, I will also need a light reflector to make sure that the light hits the right places on the face and isn’t on an angle.

Drawing of Studio Layout:

Weekly Blog Thursday 26th January 2012

This week I had set myself out to do my front cover photo shoot, double page spread photo shoot and to create a contact sheet with all of the photos I have taken.

Unfortunately, I wasn't ready to book my photo shoot and simply didn't have the time to go and set up a slot. I also still had some of my work from the other week to do, which was to correct and fully complete my article planning documents as well as finishing off some things in my blue folder. One good thing that did come of this though, was that I already had some photos from an interview I held in October with Kim Hutchinson, some of which were going to go on my double page spread. I made a contact sheet of them and chose which ones I wanted to go on my double page spread. My contact sheet will be uploaded to my blog.

As there wasn't much I could do this lesson to adhere to my schedule, I decided to look at the next week's task in my schedule, which was editing my photo shoot photos. As I only had the ones from seeing Kim, I thought I'd save some time and edit them now so at least I was doing something. As I am quite experienced with Photoshop, this only took a short while and I was able to edit all 7 photos that I wanted to go on my double page spread within this lesson.

Before next week, I will try my best to get my photo shoot booked so that I can move forward and hopefully catch up with my schedule.

Weekly Blog Thursday 19th January 2012

The three main things that I had written down in my schedule for me to do this week was model and personnel meetings, writing headers, sells, & copy and testing the effectiveness of headlines, sells & copy.

The first thing that I wanted to complete was last weeks work of my article planning sheets. As I did some work on them over the weekend, there wasn't much to finish and therefore I got them both done and finished within the end of Moday's hour and a half lesson. These are to be uploaded to my blog

However, even though I did have very spesficic things planned out in my schedule, I have heavily been focusing on getting the rest of my Blue Folder ready to hand into my teacher. Within my folder, there was a document that was not quite correct and because of that, it was preventing me from writing up the final document needed for me to hand in my blue folder. I spent Tuesday's lessons correcting my Spreadsheet so that I could write up the rationale for it. Quite a lot of the prices and numbers were wrong on it, so it took my full hour and a half lesson on Tuesday for me to complete and also half of Wedneday's hour lesson to get all of my calculations correct and for my Spreadsheet to be complete and to a good standard. For the rest of Tuesday's lesson and for the whole of Wednesday's lesson, I began to write and complete my rationale for my Spreadsheet.

After completing my spreadsheet and rationale, I could then focus on what I had orignally planned in my schedule, despite the fact that I only had one hour lesson left in the week. The only thing I could really do within this lesson was to write my headers and sell lines. This was easy for me as I knew exactly what stories I wanted featured on my front cover and I had a very good idea of how I wanted my front cover to look like already even though I hadn't held a photo shoot for it yet. This took barely any time at all, seeing as in my mock ups I had created earlier on in the year already had sell lines on, so I had about half of the lesson left to ask my friends what they thought of them.

As it is the weekend tomrorow, I will be able to get in contact with my model, if not face to face at least over Facebook, and have a chat to her about when I want her in and what I want her to do for me.

Article Planning - Kim Hutchinson Interview

Article Planning Sheet

Plan the language use of the primary code of your article in the box below.

Article target audience:

	Planning Comments
article genre (purpose, type)	The purpose of this magazine is to hold an interview with popular local tattooist and piercing, Kim Hutchinson, and to show her in a positive light to the readers. As most of the people reading the magazine will already be interested in tattoos, it is more about giving her coverage and making people aware that she is local and that they can get tattooed by her if they are at the legal age. It will be a humours interview, asking both serious and funny questions in order to show Kim as positively as I can.
Narrative voice (1st, 2nd or 3rd person)	This article will be in first person seeing as I am having an interview with the person and that means she will have to answer the questions for herself.
Register (informal/formal, colloquial, dialect, taboo words?)	As my magazine is quite provocative in the fact that is features things that people would normally see as ‘taboo’ such as tattoos and piercings, the language used doesn’t have to be particularly colloquial but at the same time, I do not want overly explicit language used, especially as in this interview I am supposed to be portraying Kim positively. The language will however be informal as it will connect my target audience better and there will probably be the occasional mild swear word – but as mentioned before, I do not want anything too explicit due to the nature of this interview and also considering the lower age ranges of my target audience.
Stylistics (repetition, strong verbs, adjectives, alliteration, similes, metaphors, sentencing, rhythm)	As I am conducting an interview with my subject, this means that it isn’t actually down to me what type of stylistics are used in this article as I cannot change what they have said. It literally will be a matter of me asking a question and then having to relay their answer back in my article. I can try my best to word my questions so that I could possibly get a certain reaction, but the main content of my article, which will be the answers, would generally not have a particular stylistic.
Tone of address (hectoring, sarcastic, ‘matey’, ironic, etc)	Once again, as this is an interview article, I cannot change how my interview reacts and gives answers. As previously said, it is up to them how they answer my questions, whether it be in a sarcastic tone of address or if in a helpful tone of address. I can, however, give my questions to my interviewee a certain tone, which might give the article a hint of a tone, but I personally feel like it wouldn’t really be worth it.
Structure and pace (discourse structure, logical paragraphing, connectives, conclusion)	The structure for this article will be set out like: 1) Question? Answer. Each question and answer will have their own paragraph and number so that is very easy to read and look at, but also very easy to skip straight to a particular question if the reader does not want to read all of the questions. I feel that this is the best format for an interview as it is clear to the reader what the article is about and it is also very organised.

Weekly Blog Thursday 12th January 2012

According to my schedule, the main things that I should have been doing this week was creating my photo shoot plans, doing my article planning and creating my contigency plans.

The first thing that I did was create my contingecy plan as to me, it was the easiest and less time consuming, meaning that if I did this first and completed it, it would be compeltely out of the way so that I could dedicate more time to the other things I had planned in my schedule. My contigency plan was very easy to create as I simply had to make a list of different scenarios within my production process that could go wrong. For example, I had to create a contingecy for if my model doesn't show up for the photoshoot. I simply had to list the scenario and then what back up plans I would put in place in case anything went wrong and how I would solve it efficiently and without any problem to the prodcution of my product. This document will need to go on my blog.

Once I had finished my contigency plan, which only about one lesson, I then moved onto my photo shoot plan which also was another small document that I could create and finish quickly. In this document, I had to list what props I would need, how my model's costume and make up would be, what type of shot I wanted to achieve and then other things such as back drops and what lighting equipment that I would need. Fortunately, I remembered a lot about the lighting and what type of shoot they achieve from last year, so this section was easy for me to do. The same applies to the make up and costume needs of my model - I know exactly how I wanted my model to look and what type of poses I want her to be doing, so this document was not a problem. This document is also one to go on my blog.

After finishing these two documents, I then moved onto to article planning. I already had some article planning from earlier on in the year when I was creating mock ups of my double page spreads. However, these articles were quite out dated, so I had to go back over them and tweak some things within them. I didn't actually get these documents finished during the course of this week because there was actually quite a lot to them. I had to write about things like narrative voice, stylistics, tone of address and quite a few other things and all together this was time consuming. I am however hoping that I will get these documents finished within next week in order to keep up to date with my schedule.

My Contingency Plans

My Contingency Plans

My Top Ten Project Killers

What could go wrong during production	How are you going to avoid this issue? What’s your back up plan?
Models not attending the shoot	I will make sure that I have various models as a back up just in case. I will store all of their numbers on my phone and that I can contact them if need be.
Not enough time scheduled for shoots	I will have to make sure that my time management is good and that I arrive to the shoot early to set up and get my models ready. I will have to work quickly and efficiently in order to get the job done.
Personal not turning up	The same applies to if the models do not turn up. I will have various people as back and will too save their numbers on my phone in case I need to get hold of them quickly.
Bringing files in from home that are not compatible with college equipment	Before I take any work home/create any work, I will have to double check that the programs on the college computer are the same that I have at home. If not, I will either have to download the right version of these programs or simply finish the work at college.
Not having battery on the camera	On the night before my Photoshoot I will make sure that the battery for my camera is charged up 100% so that it will easily last the whole of my shoot.
Not having correct software at home	Again, I will double check the programs at college and them see if I have them at home. If I do not, I can download them or just complete that particular piece of work on the computers at college.
Losing a memory stick	I will make sure that my memory stick is kept safely on my car key and as well as this, I will make sure to have various back ups of my work not only on the college computers but also on my computer and laptop at home. This ensures that if I do lose my memory stick, I will at least have most – if not all – of my work backed up on my computers.
Running out of Network space	I will clean out my user space of unnecessary files to make sure that I have enough space to store my photos on. As well as this, I will bring my memory stick with me as a back up in case I cannot fit all of my work on my computer due to lack of network space.
Files getting corrupted	In the case of a file getting corrupted, I will make sure that I have various copies of it stored on my memory stick, my college computer and my computer and laptop at home so regardless of what it corrupts on, I will always have a working copy of it.
Having a shoot booked but no camera	To avoid this happening, I will bring my own camera from home which is  Sony DSLR and is very similar to the college’s camera so if they cannot supply me with a camera, I will be able to use my own.

The North East Alternative - My Media Pitch

The North East Alternative Media Pitch

View more presentations from margaretnewlands.

Production Schedule and Monitoring Document

Week	Date	Activity
-2	5th Dec	-          Pitch
-1	12th Dec Planning Deadline	-          Treatment -          Finish Bible Homework: Bible
Xmas hols	19th Dec	General work
Xmas hols	26th Dec	General work
1	2nd Jan	-          Creating photo shoot plans -          Article planning -          Language planning -          Creating contingency plans -          Creating call sheets -          Booking equipment Homework: Whatever isn’t finished within the lessons during the week.
2	9th Jan	-          Colour research -          Creating organised file structures -          Flat planning audience testing -          Locating reference material to co-ordinate lighting, costume, poses for photo shoots -          Prop list Homework: Whatever isn’t finished within the lessons during the week.
3	16th Jan	-          Model and personnel meetings -          Writing headers, sells, & copy -          Testing the effectiveness of headlines, sells & copy -          Testing equipment techniques Homework: Whatever isn’t finished within the lessons during the week.
4	23rd Jan	-          Front cover photo shoot -          Double page spread photos hoot -          Creating contact sheets and reviewing photo shoot material -          Contingency photo shoot time Homework: Whatever isn’t finished within the lessons during the week.
5	30th  Jan	-          Second Double Page Spread photo shoot -          Photographic post production (contrast & colour manipulation, vignettes, cropping) Homework: Whatever isn’t finished within the lessons during the week.
6	6th Feb	-          Assembling photographic and illustrative material together to create rough drafts for each page -          Second draft layout work -          Create shapes, backgrounds, and other necessary page items which are not photos Homework: Whatever isn’t finished within the lessons during the week.
Half term	13th Feb	-          Masthead creation -          Copy creation -          Photographic post production (contrast & colour manipulation, vignettes, cropping) -          Graphic design processes (adding vectors, headlines, additional artwork, filters) -          Adding institutional info to rough drafts (logos, addresses etc.) Homework: Whatever isn’t finished within the lessons during the week.
7	20th Feb Unit 5 Deadline	-          Inviting assessor reviews of your product** -          Testing your product on your audience -          Inviting assessor reviews of your product -          Producing second final drafts Homework: Whatever isn’t finished within the lessons during the week.