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Working On My Magazine Cover!!

Here I will be documenting my progress towards completing my magazine cover. It was a long process and equally challenging, if not more so, than the poster beacsue of trying to balance the use of all the different texts with the images.

To begin making my cover, the first thing I did was search for the perfect font to display the title of the magazine - 'Starlet'. I decided upon 'Nouvelle Vague' and presented it large and pink to begin with. To make it look more eye-catching I experimented with making the lettering sparkle by juxtaposing glitter tinted pink on top of the title. I settled on the image below.

I added the tagline to make the title look more official and professional. I hoped the tagline would really define and give an overview of what the magazine was all about.


I used a photograph of teen actress Keke Palmer to frame the aspects of the cover around as I did not yet have a photograph of Funmi. I replaced the photo once we had done our second photoshoot. U sing this image intially was really helpful, as trying to place all the apsects with no idea of where the photo of Funmi would eventually go was incredibly difficult. The second thing I did was make sure all of the essential information was on the cover before I got carried away adding all the articles and features. As such, I added the barcode, website address and price tags.


Following that I added the main featuring article of the issue, 'Spinning Time.' In an attempt to make the magazine more interesting to the target audience I displayed some of the things that Funmi addresses in her interview that normally attract females; Such as what happens behind the scenes, and about the interests and feelings of the actress herself in and out of character. This isn't an element excercised much on actual film magazine covers, but it's very much a feature of girly magazines so adding it in I think creates a division of movie magazine that is specifically aimed at females as it has features of the magazines that they usually read such as 'Glamour' or 'Seventeen.'

Looking at film Magazines - I recognised a lot of them offer exclusives into upcoming films. With this in mind I thought of some new films in the genre and worked them into catchy sentences including the main stars name in the style of article headlines. 'Xtina Aguilera goes Burlesque = an interview with Christina Aguilera about her recently released theatrical debut in 'Burlesque .'

I tried to use fillms tyhat were all quite different from each other and from the main film 'Spinning Time' so the magazine could appeal to loads of different types of girls. 'Easy A' is for a more mature audience due to it's sexual content and humour. It makes a sattire of several other media texts via intertexuality like Gossip Girl and the Sisterhood of Travelling Pants and so can really only be fully aprecciated by the older range of girls in the target audience.Whereas Burlesque is an all singing all dancing affair - so althoguh raunchy - could attract girls and women alike. Finally at the very other end of the spectrum 'The Roomate' is a horror/thriller film however it should still appeal to a large demographic of girls due to the casting of the protagonist being the very popular Leighton Meester.

I made this sticker for the magazine in Microsoft Word.

To work even more film titles into the magazine I tried to come up with a theme rather than just displaying them randomly on the page. I came up with '2011 Romance Heaven' which would be apart of the edition focusing on romance films and romantic comedies being released in 2011 such as those stated which can be seen in the screen cap below.

I noticed a feature of most Empire cover's was a 'PLUS' feature followed by other films that were also in the magazine as well as the main article. Here I chose films that are highly anticipated, especially amongst females e.g. 'Breaking Dawn'. 'Disney's Prom' is a bit less known, but with Disney as its creators and distributors, closer to the time of it's release it will probably be all other the place and do quite well at the box office. 'Again, to diffrentiate the films to appeal to a diverse audience of females I also featured the film 'The Help'. It is a film I expect would hopefully attract the older bracket of the target audience. It is based on a best selling book of the summer of the same name by Kathryn Stockett, telling a story which is empowers women of all races and backgrounds. I'm highly anticipatign this film and so I hope the subject matter of the film should add another dimension to the quality and content of the magazine.

Many of the magazine for females I looked at offer free gifts. As this was the first edition of the magazine I thought it would make good business sense to offer some kind of promotion with the edition, to encourage people to buy. To tie in with it being a film magazine, I thought offering one free entry to see a film at any odeon cinema would be great for magazine sales and would get even more people into Odeon cinemas. So it would be advantageous for everyone!!!

Some editions of Empire also offer promotional posters of the film so I decided to do that too. Encouraging even more people to buy. People are generally more attracted to buy things when they feel like they're getting something extra or free. The posters and free entry to the cinema tick both pf those boxes! I gave away the actual poster I made for the film, and whipped up another promotional poster featuring Funmi in front of a huge clock.

This is the final product. I am quite happy with it but there are some things that I would change if I could, I will look at these in further detail in my evaluation.
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Looking @ Magazines

As I am making my own magazine which is to be aimed at females I thought it would be beneficial to look in to the best selling women's magazines such as 'Glamour', 'Seventeen', and 'Cosmopolitan'. I intend to include the conventions of these magazines into my own so it will look as authentic as possible.

Glamour

+ white background

+ mid shot on cover - showing stars from knees up

+ varying costumes on stars - dresses and more casual outfits with jeans and top

+ contrastingly coloured bright text


Seventeen
+ white backdrops

+ close up photographs

+ simple girly poses (replicating pictures you would take with friends)
    + flamboyant hair - subject to wind machines!

+ glamorous yet modest clothes as aiming to young audience (not too revealing)

+ bright multicoloured text contrasting and clashing with clothes rather than complimenting



Cosmopolitan
+ coloured backgrounds - that compliment costume
    + mid shots - displaying dress and star

    + sexier positioning - targeting older females

+ figure hugging dresses


Marie Claire
+ more muted colours in text and dress

+ more sophisticated/elegant costume and poses. mature audience

+ set colour schemes

+ variety of close up and mid shot photographs

+ for women rather than girls


Cosmo Girl
+ similar in layout and style to seventeen magazine

+ predominantly coloured backdrops

+ more girly pose and costume
    + contrasting multicoloured dress to capture young audience attention

As Spinning Time has a target audience of 11- 19 year olds the magazine advertising it will be targeting approximately the same people, but with the cap of the audience being extended slighlty. I imagine the audience for this magazine to be 11 - 23. With this in mind I intend to style my magazine around the layout and conventions of 'Seventeen' and 'Glamour' magazine to include aspects that will appeal to girls throughout this age group.
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Film Magazine Initial Ideas

When presented with the task of creating a film magazine cover, this was my brainstorming ideas.














After some consideration of my 'Totally Film' idea I brainstormed some names for magazine if I decided to make up my own. This is what I came up with.



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Film Magazine Industry

When we think of film magaines, we automatically think 'Empire.' However, there are many more magazines and scholarly journals about films that have been being published since 1920.

Film magazines are vital to the film industry as they are another form of advertising. A film magazine can target people who may not already come into contact with tv spots, trailers and or posters.

This is a database of the information regarding all the film periodicals ever published.

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Film Poster

Here is the final result of my film poster.




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Poster in Progress pt.2

These are the final stages that I undertook when making my poster.


Making the backgrounds were fun, as they were the simplest things to do. I got an image of the Boston skyline and changed the hue to complete Funmi's costume. On the opposing side I got a rural country landscape and again altered the hue to be complimentary to her attire.

Additionally, I added as a small bus like the '352' to create synergy between the poster and the trailer. I found a really cool image of an eternal clock spinning round and round and I thought thus would be perfect to add into the poster - so i did.


Although, it seemed the simplest the text was actually the hardest thing to do...after editing the actual photos of Funmi. I used the font 'Coolvetica' the same one that I used in the trailer ,for for the tagline and main title to further create synergy between the two marketing devices, to really emphasis that both the poster and the trailer are united in trying to sell the same thing.

However for the actual credits I used Arial Narrow as it was the closest font I could find to the actual type that is conventionally used on film posters. Making the credits,w as really painstaking as I had to keep switching between a 50pt sized font and 72pt size, whilst leaving gaps in certain places (that I would later go back and fill with the even smaller credits like 'edited by' which are split over two lines) to create that official look that credits on posters have.

The finishing touches to the trailer were the small symbols at the bottom displaying the companies that contributed to the film's production such as Walt Disney Pictures, Dolby Digital SDDS, my home made Sugar and Spice Productions and finally the rating of the film G - suitable for all.

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Poster in Progress

I have been working on my poster in Photoshop for a few days now, and I've learnt more about the program in this short period of time than I have in the past two years I've been using it for art. I tried to be really meticulous when making the poster so every action took ages to complete; Like extracting objects from photos and cleaning up edges.

Here are some progress screenshots of my poster.


The first image I worked with was Funmi's 'before' shot. I was pretty happy with the unedited image, so I just added some extra props to her using photoshop.;like the medical book, a pencil and some glasses. I added the scarf using photoshop and enhanced her hair a bit and then moved swiftly on to her 'after' image.


This one took much more time as there were some initial issues with the picture. As the sun was shining in the second image, Funmi skin tone is lighter in the second picture, so the two images didn't juxtapose well. However, after playing around with exposure, levels bright/contrast (all buttons that I usually stay away from) I was able to make the tones match a little bit more. I also enhanced her hairstyle with the duplication tool and a photoshop hair accessory, and added the swinging pocket watch.

The last thing I did in this session was to put both figures next to each other, on top of a clock. So far I am quite happy with my poster. It looks a bit odd at the moment, but I think after I've added all of the background pictures and text it will look much better and more like a poster. Will be posting again soon!

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Taking Photos

Today I took photographs from my poster. I came to school equipt with two outfits for Funmi to change into, and we were able to pull off the shoot with hardly any complications...one of the tops were a little too big, so we clipped it with clothes pegs :)

Here are some of the photos from the shoot.

I will be posting my progress in photoshop creating the poster soon!!!
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Final Poster Idea


I've decided to go ahead with the poster design influenced by the movie poster above. I have changed aspects of the design to make it more original and relevant to my movie. Here is what I came up with.
In terms of this design, I'd like the two different photos of Myles to present her before and after finding the magical watch, to show how it has impacted her life. In this case, I need to show a significant styling difference between the two photos of the protagonist on the left and the right.

In the before picture, (on the left) I would like Funmi to be wearing attire similar to that of the protagonist in the original poster; Jeans, converses and a casual top. The accessories and props that she's carrying should really help communicate her personality to the audience. Some text books, glasses in hand and an exasperated comedic expression on her face. Showing she's stressed and pressed for time.

On the contrary, I would like the after picture in which Myles is holding the watch, to be completely opposite. I want her to be happy and relaxed and dressed a bit more glamorously. In the second picture she won't have all the props of the first image, as she's become much more chilled out since finding the watch as now she can control time. However, I think there should be at least one thing that is consistent in both shots. In the actual poster there are ice skates recurring in both images. Possibly in my poster I could display a bit of sentimental jewellery, like a bracelet, to show that Myles' has changed in some aspects but not completely; this new power hasn't made her completely loose track of what's important.

The last thing that should really differentiate my poster from its influence and make it more relevant to 'Spinning Time' is that Myles is sitting on a big clock. Showing the audience that the focuse of this film is the protagonist Myles and time - the impact it has on her and vice versa.

In deciding the finishing touches for the poster like the backdrop and juxtapositioning this website, advising guys on how to spot a chick flick was very helpful...and a good laugh ;D

http://www.bite.ca/bitedaily/2010/04/how-to-spot-a-chick-flick/
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Poster Designs

The next part of my coursework is to create a poster for my film 'Spinning Time.'

I have had many ideas for the design of my poster while making the teaser trailer. Here are some of my ideas...

I would like to go ahead with the 1st poster idea, based on the poster for the film 'Ice Princess' as this was my initial and favourite one. However, I will probably take some photos to facilitate some of the other ideas as a back up.

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Looking @ Posters

Film posters are useful to film marketing as they are able to target a much wider audience than a trailer can, for what I imagine would be a cheaper budget.

Adverts in print can be seen by more people as it can be displayed publically, on buses, billboards, trains and so on - this gives them opportunity to make an impression on people of all demographics.

Whereas, a trailer for a film of this genre would only have small airtime slots at times and on channels that the target audience would be watchng and as such wouldn't reach anyone outside the target audience.

This demonstrates just how important posters are to the marketing of a film, and so I made a prezi looking at different posters to get inspiration for my own poster designs.



link if prezi doesn't work
http://prezi.com/yi-eqdwiedf7/looking-at-posters/
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Title Design 2.0

After downloading my fonts to the Mac and experimenting with the title options I realised I didn't really like any of them and that iMovie 9 had better titles to offer.

Unfortunately, iMovie 9 doesn't allow you to import your own fonts so I had to choose my favourite from the few fonts they had programmed. I was quite disheartened by this as I did have my heart set on 'Action Jackson'. However, I did also really like the font 'Coolvetica' (which is the one I ended up using on the titles) and the title looked to good to pass up.

I thought the title was especially fitting for 'Spinning Time' due to the animation of it. With the words flying in from both directions before rushing off in opposing directions was represntative of Myles always being in a rush and how little time she has.

Another thing iMovie 9 wouldn't let me do was create a pink backdrop for my credits. After many weekes of frustration about this an idea struck me. 'I could choose and backdrop and tint it pink in regular iMovie using 'colour monochrome.' Long story short, after some trial and error, I had my custom made pink titles with white flying font that I had imagined originally.



heres the link if the video doesn't work -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRn_sL2f0us
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Voice Over

To document my voiceover I thought it would be only right to do so in an actual voiceover. :P

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Editing

In order to reduce the time of trailer to one my appropriate to that of a Teaser Trailer and make the story of what is happening in the trailer more simple, I decided to make some split screens.
There were two ways to approach a split screen. To small squares of the full clip in the top and bottom hand of the screen. Or cutting off the edge of each clip and placing the two screens side by side.




I decided to go with this one as I thought it looked better. The other was good in the fact that you got to see all of both of the clips without comprising any of the frame. However, the gaping black space in two places was a bit off putting because there wasn't really much I can do with it, and it looked messy. This one on the other hand also has black space but I thought it looked more organised than the other option (if that makes sense) and builds anticipation of the view that is going to show itself there.

My second split screen, I made for the same reason; to cut down time and make the story flow better. This time I was juxtaposing the reversal of time on Myles' watch with the reversal of the bus.





Again I chose the latter for the same reasons as before. I thought it looked better and it would keep a uniformity between this split screen and the previous split screen.

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Production Company Title Creation

To authenticate my teaser trailer I wanted to put some production company titles in it. I started brainstorming ideas; thinking of plausible titles for a company that would produce a film like 'Spinning Time.'

One idea I definitely wanted to go ahead with was Sugar&Spice Productions. I thought the name was appropriate considering the genre of the film - The 'sugar' suggests sweet films for girls, whilst the 'spice' suggests an additional element to the films that make them different to your average girly film.

I spent the best part of the day looking for pictures of cupcakes, and sweets...consequently making myself very hungry.



Anyway after a couple hours in Photoshop this was my final product...


When I started out I didn't think it would look good at all, but I think this came out quite well. the picture is light, dainty and very feminine - what could be more so than pink cupcakes and champagne flutes? The brightness of the image also presents connotations of happiness and laughter, which is great because these are the main themes of the film. I chose this font not only to set off the image colour wise, but also to add another dimension to overall title. The title was always supposed to be cute and pretty to appeal to girls watching, but having a really feminine calligraphy or cursive typography would've been too much. This more edgy fun font presents the 'spice' of the title and company and I think helps create a balance between elegant femininity and fun. I am really happy with the way this turned out.

Another company I experimented with making was Feline Features. Due to the format of my trailer, and the music I made for the beginning of the it, I need to fill at least 5 seconds with production companies. It doesn't sound like it, but this would be a long amount of time to look at just one companies logo. So with the second company I tried to be a bit more creative (and as a result gave myself a headache) trying to make a logo that moved.

To represent the 'feline' of the title I got a picture of a cat. I thought this was particularly fitting as cats have connotations with females. Thus making this 'company' a plausible one to produce 'Spinning Time.'

In Photoshop, I selected the head of the cat and saved a new copy of the image rotating the head a little bit every time so when compiled and sped up it would look like the cat was moving it's head.



It didn't come out as smooth as I wanted it to, but I still like it. I tried putting a title on it in Windows Movie Maker, but it just ended up looking really amateurish. Hopefully I can find a font and effect on iMovie that will make it look more professional.




In the end I was able to use some very complex looking software called Live Type to add some more professional looking titles to my Production Company. I came up with this.
The software was quite difficult to use as I hadn't used it before, but after a bit of playing around with it I was able to get a handle on it. I am quite happy with this title, considering how bad it looked in the beginning. It looks a bit odd here, but when incorporated into the trailer I think it looks quite good.
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Title Design

The titles for Spinning Time are very crucial to creating the genre and right tone for the whole teaser. I wanted to keep the theme of time and clocks running in the titles and so I wanted to incorporate them into the title screens somehow. These were my initial ideas.

I have been scouring sites like urbanfonts.com and 1001freefonts.com to find the perfect to typography to display my titles in.

Here are some of my favourites and my opinions on them;

After looking at all of the fonts I've narrowed it down to 'Action Jackson' and 'Milk Cocoa'. I'll insert them both into my trailer in turn and see which one fits best to make my final desicion.
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Garage Band

In order to obtain some uncopyrighted music for my trailer I decided to try my hand at Garage Band. It was really confusing at times but on the whole incredibly fun.

Conventionally Chick Flick trailers feature a number of musical tracks. They are not teaser trailers, but for example, in The Backup Plan trailer I counted 3 changes and in Confessions of a Shopaholic, 4!

The Backup Plan



Confessions of a Shopaholic



Taking this into consideration I made several small pieces of music in the hopes of incorporating them into my trailer in the style of conventional trailers of this genre.

Here is the music I came up with :D

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Final Filming Session!!!!!!!!


link if video doesn't work :)

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Next Filming Session...

This is my schedule for my final filming session to be conducted tomorrow!

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Behind the Scenes on Spinning Time!!!

a bit of padding to break Funmi's fall!!! :)

I don't wanna get up :(

Welcome to my crib :e

CHEERS!

What to have for breakfast? :$

Remember to brush twice a day kids!

Zoolander :$

The bus was due any minute...according to the timetable

so we waited...

and waited ....

...and waited. The sun was shining but it was by no means warm!!! :P
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