New Assignment

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Week 3-8

Week 3

This week we assigned each individual in our group main roles. As Melissa had decided to leave the course we are now down to only 3 members. This means that we each have to undertake more work. Below is what we came up with:


Rob - Script, Shooting Scedule, Treatment, Proposal, Resources & Budget.
Callum - Client and Audience needs, Techniques, Storyboard, Shooting Script, Target Audience.
Jack - Contingency Plan, Similar/Existing products, Risk assessment, Legal considerations, Call sheet.


By the end of the week we have only 4 out of the 15 assignments left to complete, which shows how well our team is working together.

Week 4

This week was a successful week. We each knew what we were doing and therefore did not need to waste time not doing anything. We each talked through more ideas for the advertisement, trying to picture how we would shoot it. I finished my script and also shooting schedule. I had to complete the proposal by myself because the other two people left my lesson without letting me know. This meant I now had an extra assignment to complete. Next week we should be near finishing all the assignments.

Week 5

This week was an unsuccessful week because we were forced to change our idea completely. Jack had not secured the resources in time for filming therefore we were forced to come up with easier ideas in easier places.  We had to change our advertisement locations to involve more of the college.

Week 6

We filmed the footage of our new idea for our advertisement. Not much to talk about this week, as everything went well.

Week 7

We edited our footage individually.

Week 8

We finished the assignment, completed the evaluation and handed in all the work.

Week 2

This week we chose what advertisement to research and also got put in a group four our actual assignment.

I chose to look at Diet-Coke as I thought it would be an interesting product to look at and design an advertisement for. I began by looking at the Diet-Coke website so I could familiarise myself with the brand and it's products. I researched into existing advertisements and how Diet-Coke had portrayed the brand and product themselves. I saw and noted that the company usually played background music instead of dialogue.

 

[1] 

When I researched the product I began to come up with ideas for an advertisement. I wanted to keep the similarity of the exisiting advertisements but at the same time provide a sense of individuality. 

Below is my treatment:

The advertisement will be based upon people’s daily lives and the impact that Diet Coke has to them and others around them. The emphasis will be on the change that they feel when they drink the Diet Coke.

The advertisement will start with shots of a city skyline at night-time showing all the diversity within the people and events. The shot will introduce the music of the advertisement which will be a song from a famous artist but not yet a famous song – so people do not lose interest. Once this shot is over there will be several faster shorter shots of individual people – showing their night. The purpose of this is to create a beginning of a story that the audience watching can see develop throughout the advertisement. The people will be enjoying a night out and all will then seek ways to make their night more adventurous or to get that ‘extra sparkle’, which leads to the introduction of the product, Diet-Coke. The soundtrack continues to play.

The camera will zoom in to the Diet-Coke and the people purchasing it from behind a counter/bar. There will be a slight sparkle around and in the can/bottle/glass, which is to signify the magic that the drink brings.

When the characters drink the Diet-Coke the room lights up with sparkle – to show the change that the drink has brought to the night.

There will then be various shots that have changed since start of the night and the camera will zoom out to show the skyline (which has now got more sparkle to it).

The final shot will show the product on screen with a slogan related to the impact and the magical sparkle that was around the product earlier in the advertisement.

The advertisement will cost approximately £50

After we had researched, we were put into our groups. I am in a group with Callum Young, Jack Waddup and Melissa Palmer. We were told the first that we do when we were put into our groups is to pitch our ideas and choose the best one to put forward. As Melissa was absent in this lesson, the rest of us pitched our ideas and chose among us to take my idea forward. We then had our first meeting as a group and assigned me as the chair-person and Callum as the minutes writer for the first meeting. We discussed many topics but the main idea was choosing where we could develop the chosen idea. We decided that the idea of taking a group of young adult's night out clubbing would prove too expensive and time consuming. So we decided to take some ideas from Callum's advertisement and join them into mine.
This was the final treatment we came up with:

The advertisement will be based upon people’s daily lives and the impact that Diet Coke has to them and how it keeps them going throughout the day. The emphasis will be on the different jobs and the different actions but still keeping the Diet-Coke present at these times and locations. There will be a constant theme linked with life and the different stages people could go through in the advertisement and this will link in with the slogan and the story.

The advertisement will start with shots of a city busy during the day time with a diversity of people. The shot will introduce the music of the advertisement which will be a song called “Keep Going” by Taio Cruz – We chose this because the advert aims to depict people in different jobs and they drink Diet-Coke to keep them going throughout the day. It will continue to play throughout the 30 seconds and will help tell the story.

Once this shot is over there will be several brief shots of people in different jobs ranging from nurses to students. The purpose of this is to show the Diet-Coke appearing frequently so that the audience watching can relate to some of them.

The camera will zoom in to the Diet-Coke and each individual drinking it to keep them going. There will be a slight emphasise around and on the can/bottle/glass, which is to make sure that the product stands out and looks the same in each scene. The final shot will show the product on screen with a slogan related to the impact and the emphasise that was around the product earlier in the advertisement. The slogan will be: Taste Life.

The advertisement will cost approximately £4, which includes free travel, free video recording equipment and the price of several Diet-Coke cans.

Next week we plan to assign people roles and finalise the advertisement so we know what to do and when.

[1] http://www.studentstuff.com/2010/06/30/the-truth-about-diet-coke/

Skills Profile - Filming

I do not have much experience when it comes to filming but I have used previous software that is used in photography. Both would be used in this topic and both for different things.
I have previously learnt about camera angles in media studies last year, and learnt about cinematography, editing, sound, techniques. I also went into depth in these areas learning about things such as Mise-en-Scene (everything in the frame/scene) and also jump-shots (where the camera jumps from shot to shot).

The software which may link to this assignment will be software such as Adobe Premiere and Adobe Photoshop. I have never used Premiere before but am advanced in Photoshop as I have been using it for two years now. I would like to find out about Premiere as it would be beneficial to know how to edit videos differently to Encore. Also knowing how to use Premiere would mean I have covered a vast area of editing software, from photos to videos and also how to create DVD menus. Which is all important when I want to work in the media industry.

Television Advert

NEW ASSIGNMENT

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My DVD Menu

Below is the weekly diary of the processes I went through to create my DVD menu. It includes some problems I encountered and also my personal opinion on how I was feeling about the project.

Week 1

This week we were given the assignment brief which included what we had to create. Looked at existing DVDs: Stranger than Fiction, The Wrestler, The Plank and Michael Moore ‘The Big One’. We noted codes and conventions and gained an idea of what I needed to include. We were told that I had to choose between Independent Horror, Independent Sci-Fi, Independent Drama/Thriller or Children’s Animation. It was not until Friday that I decided to take idea of Children’s Animation further. I produced a moodboard on it and scanned it onto Photoshop and edited it with colour. I created a contingency plan explaining problems that may arise and also resolutions to these problems – this would save me time if I have a problem and also could stop me using up valuable time.

Week 2

This week we had a recap of Photoshop as a class. We were told to find an image on the internet with a neutral background (white) and then we edited it to find techniques we could use in our work. I found a pictures of some banana’s and decided to blur some of the image while overlapping in other parts. I could use this in my DVD menu to create a motion effect or dramatic effect. We were also told about codecs, what they were and how we use them in Encore. This is to help us because next week we’re going to produce a DVD menu! I’m looking forward to it, as this will be the first time I’ve ever used Encore.

Week 3

This week we created a DVD menu with links. We were given a booklet to look through that Simon had created, and were told to go through each step and the outcome would be a DVD menu. The booklet instructed us to use pictures and video-clips already on the hard drive at college. I struggled at first because there was a lot of buttons on Encore that I had never used in other Adobe products and software. We created a DVD with working Menu, Scene Selections etc. all on Encore. Along side this, we researched graphics such as Raster graphics and Vector graphics with Andy, so we had a theory side as well as a practical side. I thought of initial ideas for Children’s Animation: Toys, Animals and People, mainly because I could find existing children’s animation films with these in and therefore I could use ideas from them and this could be used as looking at existing DVDs as well! I sketched up about 4 different vague designs of how I wanted the home page to look.

Week 4

I researched into the final product looking at 6 main areas:

-          Client and audience needs

-          Target audience

-          Resources and Budget

-          Techniques

-          Similar/Existing products

-          Legal and ethical considerations

This information would be used for my pitch I am going to create next week. I managed to find all information but came across a problem with the Budget as it was the most difficult to find on the internet. I need to look at this over the weekend so that I don’t leave it out of my pitch.

Week 5

This week I pitched my idea of my DVD menu to the class and to the camera. It went well but stumbled in some places – it gave me more confidence in class and also helped me think how the media industry works. I thought I could of included more content but I did not have enough time because I was working all weekend. I managed to find budget for a graphic designer off the internet and I put this information in the pitch. I created the presentation on Prezi (www.prezi.com) which was different to other people who just used Microsoft Powerpoint because it used animation and was a more interactive presentation which I hope captured their attention a lot more than pages of information and boring transitions. I looked at all what my DVD menu would include but forgot to include how it would look (visually). The lecturers said that we will be given feedback in a few weeks.

Week  6

This week I sketched ideas of my story-boards (process of the transitions of the DVD pages) and created brief sketches of characters. The characters are very basic but I am more confident with the ideas of the menu now. The film is going to be called ‘SAM’ after the main character (teddy bear) and also chose names for the main boy character (Alfie). Most of the menu now is still just ideas and I need to develop them next week and gain more finalised ideas.

Week 7

This week, I finalised the pictures of my characters and other little details which I then sketched, scanned and edited on Photoshop. I also finalised my storyboards and added annotation to them. I generated my backgrounds for my menu on Photoshop and created a new project for my menu on Encore. I used codecs which are things that tell Encore if it’s a button, a picture or a rollover effect. A button would use the code (+) and would be a group format on Photoshop; a rollover effect would use the code (=1) and would be under a group in Photoshop; and a picture without animation would have no code on Photoshop.

Week 8

This week I began to finalise backgrounds of my menu on Photoshop and started to link the DVD menu pages together on Encore. We were given feedback from the pitch and I did rather well but could of improved in places such as more visual content but was told I was confident at the way I presented it – which I’m happy about! I need to stick to more deadlines though as the work is due-in in 2 weeks!

Week 9

This week was rather dull, the snow restricted me from going into college and using the Encore software at home so therefore I just got on with my paperwork. We’re already 2 weeks behind schedule and now we’re going to be 3 weeks behind so I have to really crack on with Encore next week!

Week 10

I carried on with linking the pages using the pick-whip tool and i got ready to burn my DVD.

I came across a few problems. I forgot to bring in a DVD for start, so I had to borrow one of my friend and I also forgot to add music to it, so this will probably bring my mark down. I wrote my evaluation as well, explaining problems and resolutions of my project. Now it’s time to hand in the project!

A look at online newspaper websites

I was looking at several newspapers the other day, and I noticed that different newspapers portrayed a same story but with a different view on it. Usually one would be negative and others would just state what the story is about. It got me wondering whether the newspaper websites targeted different people and why they did this. I looked at a broad range of Britain's most read newspapers and researched them and the companies who run them, to understand why they reported in different views.

Newspaper owners:

Trinity Mirror plc. - Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People.

Northern & Shell - Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday.

Daily Mail and General Trust plc. - Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Metro.

News Corporation - The Sun, News of the World, The Sunday Times and The Times.

Guardian Media Group plc. - The Guardian and The Observer.

The Telegraph Media Group - The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, and The Spectator. 

Alexander Lebedev and Evgeny Lebedev - Evening Standard, The Independent and The Independent on Sunday. 

Pearson plc. - Financial Times.

The People

http://www.people.co.uk/

Established in 1881, The People is a magazine that is printed for every Sunday, and therefore is a weekly newspaper. Instead of reporting on important issues, The People tends to focus on celebrities and regularly reports on scandals with famous people. This is shown very clearly on the homepage of the website, by pictures of celebrities in the public eye (predominantly X-Factor) and short words and phrases as opposed to long sentences. The news is on the 4th tab on the heading bar at the top of the screen, with Celebs+TV and Sport ahead of it, meaning they report more of these stories as a newspaper.

The Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

The Daily Telegraph is one of only a few British broadsheet newspapers and was the highest selling British broadsheet in 2009 beating big newspapers such as The Times, The Guardian and The Independent. It is a paper that promotes Conservative policies and this is evident in the way the newspaper will either back the current government or criticise it, so I wondered if this was evident on the online website. Upon first glance of the homepage I could not see anything to support Conservative beliefs but maybe this was done because at the moment there is no big political problems with the current Conservative Government, and therefore they do not want to pick up on any negative news about the Government.

 The Financial Times

www.ft.com/home/uk

As with The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper which was founded in 1888. It is the only newspaper in the UK which provides reports on world financial markets in particular, London's Stock Exchange. The Financial Times is also a Conservative newspaper, and this is more than likely because it is aimed at the upper middle class (which Conservative policies target) as opposed to the working class (which Labour policies target). The upper middle class tend to read broadsheet newspapers as opposed to tabloid newspapers which the working class tend to read. The website shows how little it focus's on the news and instead focus's on the economy and money, with stories linked to American politics and on the menu bar at the top of the screen there are pages such as Management, Personal Finance and Life & Arts.

 The Sun

http://www.thesun.co.uk/

The Sun is Britain's most popular newspaper and this is surprising as it was only founded in 1963. It is one of four huge newspapers that is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. It is not a politically aligned newspaper but instead changes it's view depending on what Government party is popular. They have therefore been responsible for being victorious at many elections, for example the Conservative victory in 1992, Labour's several victory's with Tony Blair and also the more recent victory for the Conservative party under David Cameron (although it was a coalition Government). The website uses predominantly short slogans and brief descriptions of news stories. The Sun targets the working class and therefore focus's on things such as Football, Showbiz and TV - things that are linked to the working class. The Sun has been criticised in the past for writing about articles that have not been proven to be true and have been completely made up, often it targets certain people and can persuade people because of the amount of readers.

 The News of the World

http://www.notw.co.uk/

Often referred to as the Sunday sister of The Sun, The News of the World is a tabloid newspaper owned by News Corporation. Although it is the sister paper of The Sun, it was founded in 1843 whereas The Sun was founded in 1964, roughly 80 years before. On average, it sells approximately the amount of newspapers a week that The Sun sells a day. The News of the World is a Conservative paper, and prior to the recent elections, featured many articles backing the Conservative party and opposing the Labour party. The website is very much the same as The Sun's website often featuring the most popular news from the week. More recently, in bid to gain more money, The News of the World are charging money for people to read their stories online. This could gain them money but could also mean they lose people, and therefore people would switch to other newspapers.

 

 The Daily Star

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/

The Daily Star is one of the more recent newspapers, founded in 1978. It is a daily tabloid newspaper that is aimed at the lower class people of society through it's demeaning stories and it's cheap price. Upon first glance of the website, I thought it looked very tacky. The featured storylines include: 'JORDAN: MY SEX ORDEAL' and columns such as: 'BABES' and 'DATING'. I personally feel it is a very cheap effort to gain an audience, but the paper is clearly read by people looking at the figures.

 

 The Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

The Daily Mail is a daily tabloid newspaper founded in 1896. It is the second biggest selling newspaper in the UK after The Sun. It is the only British newspaper that is read by over 50% female. It is often referred to by some as a fascist paper because many feel the use of language and the storylines featured, target individuals or groups of people. From looking at the website, I can see how certain storylines are shown in different ways and their perspective in comparison to other newspapers.

 The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

The Guardian is a daily national newspaper whose website is one of the most visited daily English-language news websites. It is a newspaper that has previously supported the Labour government and more recently the Liberal Democrats government. It is not a tabloid newspaper but instead a Berliner newspaper which is just a bit larger than a tabloid and smaller than a broadsheet. From looking at the online website I can see how sophisticated it looks in comparison to websites such as The Sun's. It is a subtle website, not attempting to capture the audience's attention but instead just to inform people of the news. This is shown through the colours but also through the way the language is written.

 The Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/

The Independent was created by journalists who wanted to set up a newspaper because they were fed up of editorial control. It is one of the youngest newspapers in Great Britain being created in 1986. It was originally produced in Broadsheet format but has more recently been produced in a tabloid format to appeal to a wider audience. It is a Liberal Democratic follower as it believes in Liberal views but only subtlety puts across these views in it's newspaper. From looking at the website I could see how similar it was to The Guardian's website. It had the same subtlety in both content and it's views on news stories. I got the impression that the website was aimed at more intellectual people instead of a younger audience.

The Observer

observer.guardian.co.uk

The Observer was the world's first Sunday newspaper being founded in 1791. It was originally a broadsheet newspaper but as with several other broadsheet newspapers it is more recently produced in a Berliner format. It is politically alligned the same as it's 'sister paper' The Guardian and the website can be found through The Guardian's website. The website is very much the same as The Guardian's but there is less imagery and more written content. This may not happen everyday but you can see how both papers show the same storyline but in a different way, it shows the diversity but also the similaritys between the daily newspaper and the Sunday newspaper.

 

For more information on British newspapers see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_England