10 December 2012 - School Magazine Questionnaire

Questionnaire on School Magazines

1. Do you like/read magazines?

[   ] Yes          [   ] No          [   ] I don't know

2. If so, what type of genre would you mainly read?

[   ] Sport          [   ] Fashion          [   ] Music          [   ] Other _______________

3. Do you read a school magazine?

[   ] Yes          [   ] No              [   ] Sometimes

4. What would you want to see in a school magazine?

_________________________________________________________________________________

5. When you read/think of a school magazine, do you think it's...

[   ] Useful          [   ] Boring          [   ] Unnecessary          [   ] Other ________________

6. If you pick up a school magazine, which of these would be the first thing you notice?

[   ] Main picture          [   ] Title          [   ] Articles on front cover          [   ] Colour (Theme of Magazine)

7. Out of these three titles which one grabs your attention the most?

[   ] RHS News Round          [   ] News Around the Clock          [   ] RHC Times

8. Would you only read a school magazine IF you were featured inside?

[   ] Yes          [   ] No          [   ] Maybe          [   ] I don't know

9. Would you make the magazine's theme colour relate to your school colours?

[   ] Yes          [   ] No          [   ] Maybe          [   ] I don't know

10. Would you read an article on teacher's lives IF included in a school magazine?

[   ] Yes          [   ] No          [   ] Maybe          [   ] I don't know

10 December 2012 - School Magazine Cover prt1

This is the beginning of my Cover page for my School magazine:

As from what I have done so far I'm quite proud, as I was able to convert an MP4 video file into a JPG image file and then add it to Photoshop as my Cover Picture.

I then searched up fonts for my title and copied that onto my Photoshop and now I had only just started to erase the black box around my title as I only want the text on my Cover Page.

7 December 2012 - Film Editing Glossary

• CUT - A visual transition created in editing in which one shot in instantaneously replaced on screen by another.
• CONTINUITY EDITING - Editing that creates action that flows smoothly across shots and scenes without jarring visual inconsistencies. Establishes a sense of story for the viewer. (Invisible Editing)
• CROSS CUTTING - Cutting back and forth quickly between two or more lines of action, indicating they are happening simultaneously.
• DISSOLVE - A grade scene transition. The editor overlaps the end of one shot with the beginning of the next shot.
• EDITING - The work of selecting and joining together shots to create a finished film.
• ERRORS OF CONTINUITY - Disruptions in the flow of a scene, such as a failure to match action or the placement of props across shots.
• ESTABLISHING SHOTS - A shot, normally taken from a great distance or from a 'birds eye view', that establishes where the action is about to occur.
• EYE-LINE MATCHING - The matching of eye-lines between two or more characters. For example, if 'Sam' looks to the right in Shot A, 'Jean' will look to the left is Shot B. This establishes a relationship of proximity and continuity.
• FADE - A visual transition between shots or scenes that appear on screen as a brief interval with no picture. The editor fades one shot to black and then fades in the next. Often used to indicate a change in time and place.
• FINAL CUT - The finished edit of a film, approved by the director and the producer. This is what the audience sees.
• IRIS - Visible on screen as a circle closing down over or opening up on a shot. Seldom used in contemporary film, but common during the silent era of Hollywood films.
• JUMP CUT - A cut that creates a lack of continuity by leaving out parts of the action.
• MATCHED CUT - A cut joining two shots whose compositional elements match, helping to establish strong continuity of action.
• MONTAGE - Scenes whose emotional impact and visual design are achieved through the editing together of many brief shots. The shower scene from 'Psycho' is an example of Montage Editing.
• ROUGH CUT - The editor's first pass at assembling the shots into a film, before tightening and polishing occurs.
• SEQUENCE SHOT - A long take that extends for an entire scene or sequence. It is composed of only one shot with no editing.
• SHOT-REVERSE-SHOT CUTTING - Usually used for conversation scenes, this technique alternates between over-the-shoulder shots showing each character speaking.
• WIPE - Visible on screen as a bar travelling across the frame pushing one shot off and pulling the next shot into place. Rarely used in contemporary film, but common in films from the 1930's and 1940's.
• CREDITS - The information at the beginning and end of a film, which gives details of cast and crew etc.
• CUTAWAYS - A brief shot that momentarily interrupts continuous action by briefly inserting another related action; Object, or person (sometimes not part of the principle scene or main action), followed by a cutback to the original shot.
• FREEZE FRAME - The effect of seemingly stopping a film in order to focus in on one event or element.
• FLASHBACK - A scene or moment in a film in which the audience is shown an event, that happened earlier in the film's narrative.
• GRAPHIC MATCH - An edit in which two different objects of the same shape are dissolved from one into the other.
• JUXTAPOSITION - The placement of two (often opposed) images on either side of an edit to create an effect.
• LINEAR NARRATIVE - A style of storytelling in which events happen chronologically.
• PARALLEL EDITING - A type of editing in which events in two locations are cut together, in order to imply a connection between the two sets of events.
• VISUAL EFFECTS - Visual effects are usually used to alter previously-filmed elements by adding, removing or enhancing objects within the frame.
• MATCH ON ACTION - A shot that emphasises continuity of space and time by matching the action on the preceding shot with the continuation of the action. For example, a shot of a door opening after a shot of a close-up of a character's hand turning a door handle.

28 November 2012 - Mock Exam Q 'n' A

Three things I found easy

• Types of Sound/Music
• Mise-en-Scene
• Taking notes

Things I found hard

• Timed writing (Need more time)
• Composition
• Editing skills



12 November 2012 - Photoshop

Using Photoshop

Here is how I had learnt to use Photoshop in order to start making some sort of progress in my School Magazine;

•  First I will go on 'File' and then click 'New' which will then lead you onto a drop box where it will ask you the Title of the Document and also what kind of document it will be. I had chosen 'International Paper' which you can select by clicking on the drop box that says 'Present'. (Make sure that it's also in A4 as the size may come out different) What should appear is a blank A4 paper.
• In order to add colour to the background there are two options; The first is going onto 'Edit' and then clicking onto 'Fill...' A drop box will appear which you will then have to select on 'Use:', that will help you choose what you want to to add as a background. But since it's my first time I clicked onto 'Colour..' which then led me to another drop box in which I could select which colour I would like to use for my background. Another way is to look at the right-hand side of the Photoshop page layout and near the top corner you should be able to see a box which says 'Colour'. In the same box you can click a different heading (Styles), and that will lead onto a selection of patterns that you can use for your background.
• Then I would insert an image by getting up the picture in the folder and then I drag and drop in into the page on photoshop.
• After than I played around with the tools that could add some sort of effects onto the images.
  Blur tool and Magic lasso are 2 of the many tools there are for you to use.

9 November 2012 - Sound

Types of Sound or Music

• Film and TV largely effects the audience because of what they see, and especially what they hear
• Dialogue recorded on location - Sound of people speaking whilst filming
• Dialogue recorded after filming - Sound recording is done after and then added to the film clip, lip dubbed
• Diegetic sound or music - Sound that relates to what is shown in the clip and recorded when it happens, eg. Seeing a door slam and hearing it slam at the same time
• Non-Diegetic sound or music - Sound such as music or sound effects that are then added after the clip is used. Perhaps music that doesn't fit in with the scene, eg. Soft music being played in the park but there is no source where the music could be coming from

More types of Sound and Music

• Sound bridge - A sound that leads in and out of a scene/ a sound that overlaps between scenes
• Layering - Different types of sound on top of each other helps to emphasis the scene that it's perhaps busy
• Sonic Flashback - Sound from one diegetic time is heard over images from a later time (Flashback out of sound instead of imagery)
• Direct Sound - When using direct sound, the music, noise, and speech of the profilmic event at the moment of filming is recorded in the film

22 October 2012 - Mood Board & School Magazine

In class we had started to look at different types of Music magazines and we were told to do a Mood Board on a magazine in which would be an idea for our own, and this is what I came up with.

Also in class we got told to plan out a School Magazine title in which I had chosen the name 'News on the Clock' as I thought this was relevant to the magazine topic. We then added comments on which why we had chosen the title and also why the font we chose is relevant too.

19 October 2012 - Obama's Favourite 'The Wire'

Obama’s favourite – The wire http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/jul/19/television.wire

5 Reason's why Omar (The Wire) is an interesting character?

• He's mean, funny, cooler and braver than any character even seen on TV
• He's a challenging character and he has quite a high determination in what he does
• He challenges the stereotype of a 'Gangster' as his character is in fact a homosexual
• He's clever in his use of words (on other words he's manipulative)
• He has a moral code in which he ALWAYS follows (only steals from drug dealers)

Crime Drama usually includes 3 types of Characters:

• The ones that solve the crime
• The ones that commit the crime
• The victims

Character types and Stock Characters (Crime Drama, eg. Sherlock)

• The grumpy detective
• The sidekick
• The troubled police officer
• The crooked police officer
• The brilliant genius

Media Theory

Vladimir Propp analysed character types and came up with a list:

• Hero - Who goes on the quest
• Villain - Who's against the Hero
• Dispatcher - Helps the Hero off on their quest
• Donor - Helps the Hero
• Princess - Prize for the Hero

Analysing Characters in these Video Clips:

The Crime Solvers

• Can have the program named after them (eponymous)
• Can work in pairs where they are equal 
• Can have a lead player and a sidekick
• Can be an ensemble drama (where are team of crime solvers work together to solve the crime)

Criminals/Victims

Criminals:

• Often transient characters: They only appear in one episode or one series as they get caught in the end
• Different criminals in different episodes (usually)

Victims:

• Also transient characters: Only appear once as they could either 'move on' or die
• Always different victims in each episode

Lead, Pair or Ensemble

Lead:

• Sherlock
• The Wire
• Morse
• Monk

Pair:

• Starsky and Hutch
• Scott and Bailey
• Rosemary and Thyme
• The X Files
• 24

Ensemble:

• The Wire
• The Bill
• CSI: Miami
• Law and Order

Theory Alert: Binary Oppositions

• Good VS Evil
• Heroes VS Villains
• Victims VS Criminals
• Criminals VS Law
• Police Officers VS Criminals
• Truth VS Lies
• The Law VS Crime
• Bad Police Officers VS Good
• Innocent VS Guilty

Law and Order - Binary Oppositions:

• Victims VS Criminals
• Law VS Criminals
• Police VS Criminals
• Truth VS Lies
• Innocent VS Guilty
• Prosecutors VS Criminals

10 October 2012 - Media Analysis

Media Analysis

• Posh outlook due to furniture and clothes
• Image is similar to a Family Portrait; Symbolic in a sense of being a ‘Perfect Family’
• Possible evil family members due to the facial expressions of the characters
• Mentally deranged twins; Bloody clothes = Murder
• The title foreshadows what’s to come in the film
• Denotation - Bloody clothes
• Connotation - Possible murder scenes, Blood and Gory, this links to the genre of the film (Which is horror) 

5 October 2012 - Advertisement

Advertisement 

Denotation - straight-forward meaning

Connotation - extra meaning to the denotation (personal symbolism)

Signs - what you see (denotation)

Signifiers - the meaning (connotation)

Evian advert:

Denotation                                                  Connotation

Toddlers on roller skates                              Sponsors the slogan
Toddlers dancing/tricks                                 Having fun, liking the music

‘Boom Box’                                                   The music they are dancing to
Add at the end                                              The add works withe the slogan
Water                                                            Foundation of Youth
Brand                                                            Fun, new and young

3 October 2012 - Audience

Audience

 In terms with Media studies, and audience are normal people (public) which view or listen to different types of media.

 We need to study audiences because there are many different types of audiences that all fit in to specific target markets (like diagrams within a diagram).

Key terms:

Niche Market - is a focused, target-able proportion of a market eg. Dave.

Mass Market - a wide range of people with different topics.

Segmentation - deciding the appropriate target market.

How are people different? 

• Age 
• Gender
• Topic of interest
• Genres
• Types of media (some like magazines whereas others like TV)
• Background (ethnic group, location)
• How they view media sources (radio, TV or magazines)
• Hobbies
• Urban/Inner City or Countryside
• Lifestyle (how they live, free time)
• Society they live in (community)
• Personality
• Music choice

Different types of ‘Tribes’ in the school:

• Alternatives - keep to themselves, don’t bother others, the art students, skinny jeans and converse/vans
• Make up lovers - covered in fakery, possible not logically smart
• Normal (invisible) - normal everyday people, seen as an acquaintance, don’t try very hard, keep to themselves
• Gangsters/Street Rats - Low trousers, bad mouthing, low standards, bad attitude/behavior
• Y.P - late 20’s early 30’s
• Parents - workaholic, not-stop, never understandable
• SLT - non sociable
• The brains of the operation/Nerds - the A* achievers, normal dressed 

1 October 2012 - Representation

Representation

Mediation - taking something that is real, a person or an event and they change its form to produce whatever text we end up with.

EXAMPLE: The new Oasis album has been mediated; sound has been modified and the artists have been made to act/dress specifically to their sound.

3 Things to look for (Explained in terms of Magazines):

• Selection - what’s been chosen to be included for the magazine as intended to be the most interesting news/info.
• Organisation - the way in which the text and images are layered out and in which order due to the pages.
• Focusing - what’s the main attraction to the magazine and what form of text is mainly focused.

21 September 2012 - Institutions and Audiences

What do you know about institutions and audiences 

OFCOM - in charge of complaints and anything in order to regulate to make it legal.

BARB - market researcher = depend what people like.

MP4 - images and audio to make media.

Media institutions;
 Companies that provide media content:

• Audiovisual
• Print-based
• Internet based
• Interactive (Games)

The differences between BBC and Warner Brothers; 

BBC:

• Consumers are the public
• Wide range of audiences
• TV shows, documentaries
• Money from TV licence
• Regulated

Warner Brothers:

• Own other companies
• Use adverts, interviews

How companies provide their ‘Media Content’;

In the ‘Old days’ one media content would be by itself.
NEWSPAPER = NEWSPAPER ONLY
MAGAZINE = MAGAZINE ONLY

(There would not be any other way of reading the newspaper online or on your phone)

Convergence;

Media institutions in the 21st Century produce several media platforms, eg. Guardian; Newspaper, Web adds.

Cross Media Convergence - Film to Game / Book to Film ETC.

Technology Convergence;

 When technology comes together to perform more than one function.

Why audience are important?

 They help control the flow of money.

Audiences change over time, and tracing this change helps us to understand why a modern-day audience is important.

17 September 2012 - Magazines

What do we know about Magazines already

What’s the definition of magazines?
It’s a form of printed media which contains information that relates to the genre type of the magazine. (Medium for adverts)

Why do you think we have magazines?It’s a way to inform the audience (public) as well as entertain them about the topics related to the genre. (Media format - people who don’t want to consume online media) 

 Genres of Magazines:

• Sport
• Music
• Men entertainment
• Real-life/Gossip/Showbiz/Tv Spoilers
• Gaming
• DIY/Technology
• Girl/Boy based (Children/Teen)
• Hobbies (Knitting/Planes/Trains)
• Fashion
• Graphic Novels
• Outdoor (Gardening/Hiking/Camping)
• Educational (School/Universities)
• Food & Drinks
• Business

ETC…

Basically what we did in class today was understand in depth how to analyse a magazine.