I have finished my drafts of my pre-production tasks ready to hand in to be marked. I significantly changed my ideas as I was not fully representing my genre of 'soap opera' and TV guide which I had originally planned. Changes I made were headlines to advertise more soaps and celebrities relating to soaps. I also added more headlines as, analysing a TV guide cover, I discovered that this was a key feature.

Preparation for Production

In order to prepare for creating my production piece: part of which is to design a magazine cover, I have been taking pictures of settings and people that I may wish to include on my front cover. Previously, I had organised to have one model, but having researched more TV guides, I have realised that will need a few more models of different genders and ages. I have found a few more models but need to contact others. As for writing an article, I have been brainstorming ideas for the topic I will write about, and the style, by analysing articles in TV guides.

PowerPoint Presentation

Katie spencer research and planning

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Re-drafting my Pre-Production

At the moment, I am editing my two drafts for magazine covers and my PowerPoint presentation. I have more adjustments to make to my drafts compared to my PowerPoint, as I followed guidelines for the presentation, but didn't pay enough attention to the conventions my two covers should have. For example, I didn't focus enough on the fact that I am creating a magazine in the genre of 'Soap Opera'. Now I will continue to perfect my designs and presentation in order to hand in a high standard of work, for my deadline in January. By completing this work to a high standard, I will also have myself well prepared for my production piece.

Above is a ticklist I made for myself after recieving feedback from my first draft of my pre-production task: two magazine covers

A Change of Ideas for Pre-production

I have now also started both drafts, and will finish them on Photoshop today, as well as ensuring my powerpoint presentation is completed to a high standard. In order to do this I need to check all of my application of audience theories and media codes. Since my last post, I have decided to still do a draft on young adult women, but have changed my teenage girls, to girls aged 6-10. I have made this changed in order to show true contrast between the features of both magazines, to show my understanding of different audiences. I felt that teenage girls and young women were categories that were too close in age for me to successfully show contrast. Both drafts will on the theme on winter wonderland and I think by using a consistent theme across the two drafts, the contrasts for the different audiences will be clear.

Pre-production

I have started to create my first draft for a magazine cover, of which I have to do two, using some of the guidance the results to my questionnaire have given me. I have done this on Photoshop, spending time on layout and colour scheme, rather than neat lines and seamlessness. I will complete a hand drawn plan for both designs, focusing on achieveing features allocated to my target audience: young tennage girls and adult women. I will describe the contrasts that make them appropriate for both audiences.

Questionaire

I have emailed my questionaire around, hoping to get good results for my audience research. I am aiming to get between 25 and 65 results, so far I have sent my questionaire to 5 boys and 5 girls in year 9, 5 boys and 5 girls in year 12 and 5 girls in year 13. I hope to get 5 boys in year 13, and some results in years 7 and 11. My TV guide will be aimed at late teenagers, so I wil have sent the majority of my questionaires to people aged 16-18. In my questionaire I have included questions about the audiences taste in media and opportunities to improve my ideas.

My continuity video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FarJn_Xhyg

My Windows Movie Maker video

Studying Print Production

I have been working on my coursework presentation, completing research on two TV guide magazines so far: Radio Times and TV Choice. I have only used information from the internet so far, but I plan to buy I copy of each, which will enable me to analyse the magazines in more depth. I will be able to demonstrate more detailed analysis by scanning articles in, as I think I want to produce an article for my production.

Photshop

I have had a friend helping me practice using Photoshop, as I want to familiarise myself as much as I can with the programme, before stating to use it for my final production. I have had one ‘lesson’ so far, where they showed me the basic such as importing and manipulating images. Next session, I will demonstrate all that I can remember and they will teach me some more complex technique, that will aid me getting a high mark in my production.

Audience Theories

I have been studying audience theories, and I think that they all apply well to the print publication I want to do. I have included definitions of each theory in my presentation, and hope to present my application of them in my presentation. I need to find out what the equivalent of certification of video is for print production, as I need to produce slides on these, to finalise what type of magazine I would like to make.

Continuation of experience with programmes

On Thursday 4th November, I returned to my media A level, having many pictures illustrating a day in the life of myself, ready to use Windows movie maker. I have used this programme before so this task was finished significantly quicker than when I used Photoshop. I successfully imported my photographs and a music track to accompany it: Sandi Thom - Little Remedy. I chose this song as the first verse has lyrics on the topic of days and time, which I thought was relevant to the title of my movie. Also, it wasn't to fast in tempo but not slow and depressing, just a comfortable pace and I wanted a light hearted feel to my movie. I was pleased with the angle and frame alignment for the majority of my photographs, which made me more confident that I might choose print prduction over video production.

Experiencing different programmes

At the moment, I am concentrating on getting as much experience with both print and video production programmes. So far I have used Photoshop and Adobe premier pro CS5. I worked on Photoshop individually, creating a cover for a TV magazine: Radio Times. I had used another version of photoshop before, but not in much detail, so this was a chance to familiarise myself with it. I found it fairly easy to use, as I managed to find all f the effects I needed. I could definately use this programme to create my final production. I think I may set myself some tasks using photoshop, so I am more comfortable with it. When using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, I worked in a small group and our task was to film a short sequence including a 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on action. We managed to include all of these details, as one of our group member had a lot of previous experience with filming. We also edited the video, complete with audio adjustments so that when a door opened the sound from inside the closed room became louder, and other details. I didn't have full control of the filming or editing, but this allowed me to learn from someone more experienced, who was able to give me advice. It also meant that we created a successful sequence. In the future, I will be experimenting with Windows movie maker, which involve me taking pictures of 'A day in the life of Katie Spencer' and creating a short film with them. I have used this programme before and I found it easy to use, so I am sure I will make a successful film.

Starting my coursework

I have looked at the options for my coursework and although I don't have a definate idea of what I would like to do, I do have some initial thoughts. For genre, I would like to cover either 'Soap' or 'Documentary' as I feel I don't have enough experience with thriller or horror. Out of these two genres, I feel that soap would be better suited to my skills. As for pre-production, I would like to do 'at least two draft designs aimed at different audiences', although that does restrict me to only print-based production. I don't have much experience with video-based production so I would like to trial that before making any final decisions. Becuase of my lack of experience with video production, I am leaning towards print based production. For print based production I would most likely do the front page for a magazine and a double page feature.  For my media A level I would like to get an A/B but my 'APLs' grade is B/C.