Masthead Ideas

Magazine Barcodes

Instead of getting barcodes straight off of google images like most of my class mates,
I decided to take a different approach and set about making my own on a website i found which produces many different fonts, called 'dafont.com'

Here are the barcodes in which I made:

I have chosen to use the first sample of the barcode as I personally feel that it looks the most like one in which you would find on a magazine cover.

Film Posters

Feedback poster 1:

Positive:
-Faces in the background fills up the page makes it look more interesting
-Faces look like victims of the killer

Negative:
-Cant make out that they are faces from a distance

Positive:
-Image of girl in the corner appears eery
-As female is not mentioned in work makes you wonder who she is and why she is there
-There is a sense of the unknown

Negative:
-Poster looks slightly bland
-Image in the corner could be larger in order to create a bigger impact
-Too much black background, more images could make it look more appealing and interesting
- Writing is too small to read, should make it slightly larger
-Image of the girl is slightly too difficult to see



By asking people of the target age group I came to the conclusion that the best poster in which I should use is the first, this is because it seems to draw the viewer in more and appear more interesting to the eye.

Magazine dimensions

I decided to carry out some research into the different sizes and dimensions of magazines in order to find out how I should go about choosing the dimensions of my magazine

Magazine Sizes

A standard magazine size is set approximately about eight by 11. But if you do a little research, you may be surprised to see other various magazine sizes produced and marketed.

Perhaps, its size may depend on whatever type of magazine you prefer to read and take home, or scan on the Internet. Perhaps, it follows a standard size. To check these things, here are the types of magazines around:

The General Interest Type of Magazines

Old general interest magazines held larger magazine sizes than their modern magazine counterparts.

An example of this is the “Look” magazine which was mainly published during the years of 1937 to 1971 in Des Moines, Iowa with a size of about 11 by 14 inches. During its circulation, it held different company names such as Look, Inc., Cowles Magazines, and Cowles Communications, Inc.

For modern versions of this type of magazine, most mags adopt the typical size of eight by eleven.

The Scholarly Type of Magazines

Some Scholarly type of magazines sometimes has the pocket size measurementof around 21 by 15 cm. Others follow a larger measurement set at approximately at 30 by 22 cm. 

The Sensational Type of Magazines

Most of this type of magazines goes for the 8 and 3/8 inches by 10 and 3/4 inches. Those who use this size say that it is more convenient since it provides lesser trimming needs after the magazines have gone through the printers. Others follow a measurement of about 14 by 22 or 11 by 14.

E-Magazines

The online environment also has its own world of magazines to offer. Typically, most include certain magazine categories with any of the three types aforementioned.

Just like other magazines, the E-magazines are set around measurements for the ads that it carries. Here are some of the typical ad sizes below:

The full page would be about 7.25 by 9 inches. A half page would have measurements of around 7.25 by 4.125 inches.

Others have a full page set at the same specifications but with a half page in a horizontal format approximately around 7.25 by 4.625 inches, and a vertical half page about 3.5 inches by 9.5 inches. There is also a 1/3 page measurement at around 2.25 by 9.5 inches. One fourth page of the magazine would be about 3.5 by 4.625 inches. One sixth page would have approximately 2.25 by 4.625 inches. And a 1/8th page would be set around 3.5 by 2.25 inches.

For a full page space for ads, here are the specifications: A Trim Size of about 8.25 by 10.5 inches, a Bleed Size (which is a trim and about 0.25 inches) that would be measured at around 8.75 by 11 inches. And a safe area approximately set at around 7.25 by 9.5 inches.

From pocket size to a larger size, there may be many to mention when it comes to the different magazine sizes. In the world of magazines, if you speak of size, you should bear in mind that there are certain factors that have to be considered like the space for ads and the text that it would carry.

Posted in Entertainment and Sport | Tags: "what size is a typical magazine",magazine, magazine common sizes, magazine page dimensions, magazine page size cm, magazine size standard, magazine sizes, magazines standard dimensions, news, page magazine dimensions, paper, standard magazine size

http://www.dimensionsguide.com/magazine-sizes/

Poster Photoshoot Favourite Images

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

When carrying out work on our project at college we were expected to use Apple MAC computers, however I had no prior experience to this unlike my fellow group members, so I did find this a struggle. Little help from the lecturers also made this harder as when asking for help they would often forget. By finding my own way around the MAC computers I feel that it made me work harder to try and achieve what I wanted to as it was more of a challenge. Although at first I found it hard to use a MAC, I gradually picked up lots of skills that I would be able to use when producing the work for this topic, for example I became very familiar with different shortcuts, as I was used to only ever using English windows computers, the shortcuts did appear very off to me at first, however after getting the hang of them it did become second nature. I am now very comfortable with using MAC computers and feel that I have gained a wide variety of skills around this project.

I also study photography at a-level and therefore I first felt as though I was at an advantage with the still image side of the project. I regularly use Photoshop when producing work for my other course, and therefore I already knew my way around the programme whereas most of the rest of the class did not, this meant that I was able to quickly go through the tutorials and work we were given on Photoshop and begin my project sooner as for me it was merely recapping basic skills that I gained in the programme last year. However when it came to producing a magazine cover and poster, I did find it slightly difficult as this was not the exact kind of media which I was used to working with, creating effective text I found a challenge as I was not totally sure how to produce something that related well to my work, however after running through several different scripts and asking for audience feedback, it soon became clear which was the most suitable and from there gave me a strong idea of how I was going to go about the different codes and conventions in which I needed to use.

                Final cut pro is definitely my biggest weakness, I find the programme overly confusing and I feel that it has a lot of unnecessary features for students of our age and standard, no matter how hard I tried to pick things up with this programme, it only made me more confused. However I was lucky as my fellow group members were both confident with the programme and helped me along the project. I felt as though I did not really learn a lot about using final cut pro apart from the very basic things. However we did have a lot of fun editing our footage as a group and trying out different things. We continuously made changes to our film as we wanted to edit the footage down to our best shots in order to make our film have strong components making it a successful piece. By doing this we was able to refine our work throughout the project, chopping and changing ideas as we went.

                Last year in our media project we also used an XL2 camera so I had some background knowledge of how to use it, this made the work this year a lot easier for all of us as we all had previous experience with the same camera. We chose to use a tripod whilst filming some of our scenes as we wanted to the footage to not suffer from camera shake, but instead have still smooth movements. On some of the scenes we chose to not use a tripod so that it had a handy cam feel to it, for example like in the Blair witch project where they’re using point of view shots so that you feel as you are the person running through the woods, I felt that this was effective using both methods as it gave it a more interesting feel to our piece, also as it was a horror and always chopping and changing in our trailer to create suspense, it also help to create tension.

We used the photography studio in order to shoot the photos for a film poster and magazine cover, doing this was extremely quick and simple and both paige and I are photography students and work in the studio on a regular basis, however 3 of the flash lights on this day were broken, and therefore we were limited to what effects we were able to use, we thought about the lighting very carefully and decided that having a blacked out back ground with harsh shadows would be the most successful approach as it would suit our plot. It only took us about 30  minutes to shoot all of the photographs in which we needed, and we made sure we shot lots so that we was bound to get a wide variety of images in which we were able to choose from for our poster. We also shot our images using a canon 450D which both paige and I both had previous experience using. Josh did not need to know how to use this camera as he was modelling for us, and therefore unless we used a self timer which is generally less reliable that shooting the images yourself, he wouldnt have needed to.

I also used search engines such as internet explorer, safari and Mozilla Firefox, I used these in order to research background information which i would need to know in order to start my media project. I found these all very simple to use as I use these during everyday life, particularly for research during my previous and ongoing education, this meant that the research process in which i went through was very quick and simple. I made sure that I looked into professionals reviews of work in order to get a good strong research base, rather than bloggers take on certain things. This made sure that I had a clear and concise background knowledge on numerous things which i needed to know.

I used my phone to record videos and clips of people reviewing and talking about my work, again this was easy as i use my phone on a daily basis. As I own an iphone i was able to record the videos and upload them straight to blogger as i downloaded the blogger app so that i would be able to blog whilst I was away from a computer. This made life a lot easier as i was able to publish any thoughts and ideas which i had, exactly when i had them so that i would not forget.

All in all I think that my use of technology has been very wide spread, and even though i found a few aspects of it both challenging and difficult i have accumalated many new skills which i will be able to use if needed in the future. If i was to re do this project i would make sure i took more time in learning how to use the editing software so i was not as reliant on my group for help, to do this i would be able to watch tutorials in order to help me progress without having to ask subject specialists or other members of my group and class for help. I believe that this would have made the editing process a lot quicker and easier.

Ken Ohara

Ken Ohara

For my shoot, I would like to use a similar approach to Ken O’Hara’s approach he used in his series ‘One’. He took blank, expressionless headshots of his subjects, highlighting no emotion and giving not much away in the image as to what they are thinking. I will not be using an overly well groomed model as i want them to have some sense of character without emotion showing.

This image looks as though it was shot indoors, perhaps in a studio in order to use artificial light. You can tell this as the whole image has not been lit up by light, but instead shines upon the center of the face. This could be because he wanted to enhance the sense of symmetry that the image already had.

The image is in black and white, which yet again helps to get rid of any emotion in the image. If I was using a straight image, without line drawing, I would also consider using this effect. However I may use this during a later shoot as an experimental effort to see as to what makes my images more understandable and flow more.

He presents faces with a standard size and tone and in his series he presented more than 500 tight close ups of faces.

About my poster photoshoot - Deadpan

For my images I wanted to produce a set of deadpan images in order for the image to convey no emotion, this was because it would come across that the murderer was heartless and had no sense of emotion, which is what we wanted to put across about the film.

Deadpan

Deadpan is a phrase used to describe something that has no emotion.  Deadpan is created by having the sitter/subject show no emotion in the image, for example the most common deadpan technique is shooting a portrait of someone. For the image to be considered as deadpan, a straight face must be pulled without tilting the head. The subjects are often posed by the photographer in order to make sure that the image will appear as deadpan.

The Photograph as Contemporary Art." She describes "the deadpan aesthetic" as "a cool, detached and keenly sharp type of photography. . . .what can be seen in a glance . . . is the seeming emotional detachment and command on the part of the photographer" (Charlotte Cotton, The Photograph as Contemporary Art, p. 81).

Pentax K1000

The pentax K1000 is the film camera in which I shall be shooting the majority of my images from. This Is because the camera is both reliable and easy to use. The camera itself has a manufacturing longetivity of 20+ years, and although it is not quite a vintage SLR, it is a Classic. The K1000 was based around the Pentax KX, which seemed to resemble the earlier 42mm mount Spotmatic.

You are also able to use interchangeable lenses with this 35mm camera, which enables you to successfully shoot a wider range of subjects as you are able to find lenses in order to suit your concept, and produce images to the highest quality.

The Pentax K1000 is almost completely metal, and is mechanically controlled by springs, levers and gears. One main advantage about this camera is the fact that it is completely operable without batteries, however the camera does require batteries for the light metering information system.

Product Identifiers
Brand	Pentax
Model	K1000
MPN	K1000
EAN	27075045002
Key Features
Camera Type	SLR
Film Format	35mm
Lens Mount	Pentax K
Focus
Focus	Manual Focus
Shutter
Shutter Speed	1 to 1/1000 sec
Dimensions
Depth	3.3 in.
Height	3.6 in.
Width	5.6 in.
Weight	21.7 Oz
Miscellaneous
Additional Features	Interchangeable Lenses

Above is some research into the pentax K1000, we was debating using this to shoot our magazine covers, however we all came to the descision that it would be too much of a lengthy process with a very similar outcome to digital, so instead we shot our photos in a photography studio against a black backdrop with a digital camera.

December 2012 movie Releases

Out of curiostiy I carried out some reseach into what films are being released in December 2012 in order to see if ours had a different concept which would make our film gain a larger audience due to the fact no other films that were similar would be able to draw away our target audience.

Kill Bin Laden-  The Navy Seal team 6 track down wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:  A curious Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, journeys to the Lonely Mountain with a vigorous group of Dwarves to reclaim a treasure stolen from them by the dragon Smaug

The Great Gatsby- Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy.

Silent Night - The abandoned home of Wilfred Butler, a wealthy but troubled man who committed suicide, has been willed to his grandson, Jeffrey. But an Axe wielding maniac has set up residence in the house - and he doesn't take kindly to strangers.

Lincoln- The sixteenth President of the United States guides the North to victory during the Civil War

Life of Pi- The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.


As you can see there is only one film being released of the horror genre, which although is not perfectly ideal, it is still not a similar storyline to us and therefore we anticipate that it will not affect our viewings.

Q: Why do people watch horror films?

A: Horror films have been attracting viewers since the beginning of cinema. According to some psychiatrists, the modern horror film serves many of the same functions for the adolescent that the fairy tale serves for the child, for instance to warn of evil in familiar places. Horror films are designed to elicit strong emotional reactions from viewers, including fear and dread; and this they do. Nearly everyone reports having been disturbed at some time by an image from a film or television program.

The appeal of horror depends on characteristics of the viewer, the film, and the viewing circumstances.

The viewer and the film

Researchers have identified various motives for viewing horror films, including the need for excitement, the desire to feel intense emotions, and distraction from everyday concerns. Although dramatic films can fulfill some of these needs, movies depicting violence and horror have features that other forms of drama do not, including the violation of social norms and the portrayal of events seldom seen in real life.

People rarely view horror films alone. Violent entertainment appeals primarily to males, and it appeals to them mostly in groups. For many young people and adults, horror films are a topic of conversation, a source of shared experience, and a means of self-presentation. Not everyone will like the blood and gore, but many may continue to watch because of other goals, such as demonstrating their ability to tolerate it, or the desire to master the threatening images.

One study identified three factors that were important in the appeal of horror films to males aged 15-45: the excitement generated by the film (called "sensation-seeking" by psychologists, the enjoyment of stimulation or physiological arousal), the wish to see the destruction found in horror films, and the satisfying resolution usually found at the end of the film.

The setting

Horror films are typically viewed in comfortable, familiar surroundings with friends, or at least co-viewers, nearby. Violent entertainment is less appealing when one is under genuine threat or experiences fear or anxiety prior to viewing.

When humor accompanies the film, emotional reactions are milder. Viewers can limit the effects of disturbing images by distracting themselves—by looking away, thinking about something else, or analyzing the film dispassionately, like a film critic. When the violence is too real, when cues to its unreality, like music or film editing, are removed, violent entertainment loses much of its appeal.

Jeffrey Goldstein, Ph.D.
Department of Social &Organizational Psychology
University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

References:

Goldstein, Jeffrey, Why we watch: The attractions of violent entertainment, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998.

Tamborini, Ron and James Stiff, Predictors of horror film attendance and appeal: An analysis of the audience for frightening films, Communication Research, 14: 415-436, 1987.

Costume And Character Synopsis - Main character

Santa Murderer:
A santa outfit will be worn to portray the feeling of christmas. Christmas is meant to be a happy time where time is spent with family, however this lonely man will be spending it alone with the corpses of the deceased. He contradicts the whole atmostphere of christmas and puts fear into innocent peoples lives. As a young boy he was neglected by his family and spent every christmas alone in his room. He never recieved any cards, let alone presents and was always made to feel unwanted. He found it hard watching his fellow classmates being so happy around this awful time for him, and therefore hated the season. He sought revenge on those happy around christmas and took to killing to suffice his pain. He always wears the same outfit and likes to think of himself as "The demon of Christmas".

Budget

As we was borrowing the equipment from our college, we did not have to worry about providing expensive filming equipment, this saved us a lot of money. However followed is a list of props and other accessories that we did have to purchase:

• Tape: £2.50
• Santa Outfit: £10
• Fake Blood: £4.99
• Photography paper 3 sheets: £1.50
• Tinsel £1.50

Total Price: £20.49
Individual money paid: £6.83

As you can see we ended up spending very little money

Cabin in the woods trailer analysis

The beginning of the trailer sets the scene that a group of friends are going away together, it is important that they have already shown the relationship between the characters that are starring in the film as this makes you instantly form a relationship with them. It shows them driving off down an empty road surrounded by trees which suggests that they are in a remote location, the perfect setting for a chilling horror. Even though the trailer has not yet shown any gore or scary parts of the film, you can already gather that the film is not going to be any other type of genre due to the fast cuts, and locations in which it has been shot in. The fast cuts makes the trailer appear more jumpy and as though more is going on. You are always expecting action and something to happen, and when it doesnt it only adds suspense to the clip.

As they turn up to the campsite in which they are staying in, at first glance you can tell that it is abandoned, which already seems as though it poses a threat. Why has no one been there? Why has it not been well kept? Is there something wrong with it? Derelict buildings are left abandoned with the closed sign still visable, but the door wide open. This automatically suggests an intruder has been there. However they tap on a window and an old grubby man walks out. The un washed look in which they have given him suggests that he is not well kept and lives a rough life, already making him look like a threatening figure.

"If this trailer is any indication, Cabin in the Woods goes beyond merely being a self-aware flick where characters try and resist the stereotypically stupid behavior that traditionally dominates these sorts of films. It also throws what appears to be a strange sci-fi angle into the mix, complete with giant honeycomb-patterned force fields and sinister operatives surveying the main cast as they attempt to escape deadly (inhuman? alien?) creatures." Dec 5, 2011 by Sandy Schaefer

During this trailer they use a lot of close ups in order to show emotion and detail in the film, we shall also be using this technique in order to portray main emotions in our piece such as fear, anger, and threat. I believe that this works extremeley well as you are able to see the expressions very clearly in the actors faces. We shall also use a lot of mid shots in our piece as it can show the stances of characters, and give away vital information about them. For example, a slouch may suggest a submissive character or victim, where as a character with a strong stance may suggest that they have a lot of power.

The dark lighting used in this piece makes it hard in some parts to see what is going on, therefore when editing our footage we will have to make sure that we keep a good balance of lighting in order for the audience to not miss out. However the dark lighting can be extremely effective in horror films as you do not know what is in the dark, which makes you fear the unknown.

When using script in this trailer, they make the writing a glowing white with a red edge, this makes the text stand out against the black background, we will also use a similar technique in our trailer as it appears effective to the audience.

Simon says film poster analysis

I have chosen to analyse the simon says film poster as it is very similar to our concept. This film is also a horror film, and by looking at how the makers went about portraying this will make it easier for me to produce a successful poster. The title of the film is presented in a large font at the top of the page, which draws your attention to the name of the film, this is a good idea as it makes it extremely obvious what the film is called, as it is sitting on a white background it is very easy to read and the orange scruffy text gives you a creepy feel, i think this is because the colour orange is recognised to be related to the season  of halloween, known for scary creatures. The writing almost looks rusty to which I feel adds a lot of effect to the poster. Rust is related to neglect and decay, and in horror films the sets are never well kept but instead are abandoned and unused.

The image depicts a dark shadow which you assume is a dark creature such as the grim reaper standing over a body which looks as though it is dead, it is holding a tool in its right hand which appears to be sunken into their victims body. The surroundings of the image are set in what appears to be a dark gloomy woods, this is a good set for a scary film as people seem to be most afraid of the unknown and the darkness imposes this feeling upon you. We considered using dark lighting just like this in our film posters, and ended up shooting our images in a photography studio using harsh dark lighting in order to create strong shadows and black out the face of our main character, the murder in order to try and make you fear him as you do not know his identity.

At the bottom of the poster is other information including the Directors, Producers ETC. This information is still important as the Director may have directed previously successful films and therefore may attract a previous audience that liked their work. In the middle of all of the white text is larger red writing stating that the film is coming soon. It is important that you state the release date or when its due to be released so that the audience known when to roughly expect the film.

Finalised Editing and evaluation

We have finally finished editing our film, I plan to ask an audience what they think of my film in order to get an outsiders opinion and make it more interesting to evaluate. I will be filming them because I want to make my evaluation more interactive and interesting to read/watch.
I will ask each person that I show our project to a set of questions about their opinions on the work in which we have produced and get them to elaborate in order to help me improve my work.