Use Of Sound.

The use of sound

The use of sound in films and tv series are very important because they set the atmosphere and helps tell the story. Sounds influence the entire meaning of the story line, they are used to create different feelings and emotions, they also give you an idea of location and the surroundings.
     In my example I have chosen the Hunger Games and the scene where the games begin. I have chosen this because it opens up and the use of a loud drum is heard, and played like a heart beat. This is important because we know the characters are nervous and have adrenaline rushing through them, so to make this even more apparent that 'heart beat' sound is all we initially hear. As the scene progresses the beat get quicker, suggesting heart rate increasing, then we hear a siren.
   I think this is significant because as the scene plays on, the audience can only hear the siren, we can visually see the characters running, as well as stabbing and fighting. We do not hear anything the characters do, like screams or the sound of a knife, as well as the noise of running and clothing moving.



        



By altering the noises we hear in films and tv, will provoke certain emotions and can entirely change a scene ( i.e Happy to sad) on the contrary to this they can also have zero effect. Some films use background music then the narrator will talk over the top, this does not draw out any particular emotion, however if you were to remove the narration and just have the scene play out with the music, we can see a difference and it makes the scene more dramatic, sad, romantic etc.
      In alot of films we hear background noise, then certain bits where softer, quieter music will be played and the once heard background noise of dishes in a kitchen for example, this gives a romantic feeling and emotion

Peer Assessment.

Peer Assessment

Why do we peer assess?  By peer assessing we are able to gain other peoples opinions and receive feedback in which shows us where we have gone wrong and potential ares to improve, this helps both the creator as well as the assessor as we can get the feedback and improve our videos/ideas, but we can also get used to sharing our opinions and improving our feedback skills.



Lola's Film

Today I reviewed Lola's silent film and Lola gave me feedback on mine. Firstly I noticed that her filmed was excellently edited together and flowed nicely together which made the story line easier to follow. There was a clear good use of slapstick humour, visibly adhering to the style of silent films and Charlie Chaplin.
      As well as this I liked the different angles and shots used, by using multiple shots it allows us to give an idea of the location, as silent films do not move the camera whilst filming, therefore I like how they could incorporate this into their video. The length of the video is also good because it is nearly 60 seconds long, however my criticism would be that the storyline could perhaps be extended slightly, just to make the idea of the film slightly clearer. The audio Lola decided to use is also very effective because it again adheres to the key points of a silent film, I think that it fitted nicely with the footage.
   To conclude, I really liked the video 'Ouch!' because you can clearly see all the points of a silent film and how they were thought about when creating this, the length as well as the fact the footage was sped up and turned black and white shows the thought process between making a film with modern equipment and turning it to look like an old silent film, like Charlie Chaplin.



         




Received Feedback


Lola reviewed my short silent film and said that she liked the idea of the story line, the music choice was also good. However the footage and overall film could have been longer, which I completely agree with, as it is only 14 seconds long. In addition to this the storyline could also be developed by perhaps showing the boy stealing.
    In addition to these points she did however express that I could have involved more expression and emotion in the actors in the film, this is an area I would also like to improve as because there is no audio, the film must be acted out and be very over the top in order to convey the emotions. Lastly she liked the camera angles and steady shots which is something as a group we specifically thought about in order to properly adhere to the likes of previous silent films like Charlie Chaplin.

Design Briefs.

Compare & Contrast...

When looking at briefs as a whole there are a number of key points a brief must fulfil in order to be successful, a few of them are...

• Objectives and goals 
• Budget and schedule > in order that things can be done, milestones may be set for example to check we are on track
• Target Audience 
• Available Materials
• Communication
• Overall Style 

When researching design brief templates I came across two in which particularly stood out to me, both being design briefs for websites. Boswell's design template has different sections to it and within these categories are more detailed questions

  

For example the target audience sector involves primary, secondary and demographic features. This will give the company an indication of their main source of audience.
    When comparing this template to another one I can recognise that this does not have as many questions included that will 'tick' the key points to a successful brief, for example it does not include any mention of management for the business, this could lead to miscommunication within the task.









In this example the main points of a successful brief are all ticked, for example they first of discuss the organisation and allows there to be communication giving a brief explanation. Following this is the aims and objectives, in addition to this 'budget allocation' is a question.
    Much like the first example this design brief discusses the specifics of a target audience, it may not be as in depth, however will get the answer and main point across.

In this example existing websites that the company like and do not like are also included ( as well as links to those specific sites), this will give those working to the brief an idea and style to the business, which is again one of the main points to a good brief. This is a good thing to include in a design brief because it allows the individuals working on the project to get an idea so that they are all working on the same page, therefore miscommunication or perhaps disagreement in the project should not occur as much as everyone will have the same ideas

This final example is interesting because it contains different pieces of information in comparison to the other examples. This design brief states contact information as well as a large portion in which is dedicated to key dates/hours. Including details for regular meetings and reviews, allow the business to effectively communicate and it also allows them to ensure they do not miss any deadlines.
   This is one of the few examples I found in which specified the project's requirements 






To conclude, all of the design brief templates I researched all contain quality content in which adds to making a successful brief. They all contain separate elements, some having more information on segments compared to others, and there are also examples in which miss out pieces of vital information such as contact information. However they all adhere to the key points to a brief in which will make it successful.

Adobe Illustrator Basics.

Fill , Stroke , Path & Object

On Adobe illustrator, when creating a new piece of work there are a few basic things in which allow you to create your images.






Fill: This is a colour, gradient or pattern inside an object

Stroke: This is the visible outline of an object/ path. The width of the stroke can be controlled along with the colour. In addition to this the type of stroke can be altered by changing the brush type ( artistic brushes option and more ) the thicker you make the size of the stroke, the bolder the line will be.










Path: As you draw you create a path, this is created up of straight lines or curved segments, lines are known as open paths and path in which create a square for example, are called closed paths.



Object:  Objects are the things in which you create with paths, they can be duplicated by clicking Alt-Drag, this creates a double of the already existing object.

Media Passport : Photomation.

Large screen specific vs Mobile use

   When looking at different types of video / trailers they are often created differently depending on their purposes. Something like a film trailer will have different camera angels and shots as well as quality compared to videos in which are intended to be watched on mobile phones. Sizing of the videos completely depends on the use, for example Instagram videos will be more square compared to a trailer which intentions are to be shown in the cinema and on larger TV screens.


       


I have chosen two very different videos that show the different types of angels, quality and intentions, the first example which is above is from Joe Sugg's Youtube channel 'ThatcherJoe', and the second example I decided to use is the trailer for The Walking Dead Season 6, which is shown on Fox.
    The first video is more of a vlog style which is recorded on a small handheld canon camera, and although the quality is 1080p the video is not stabilised and the motion is rough. When watching these specific videos on a mobile device the video automatically goes to horizontal orientation but can be changed, which is what these types of videos are specifically intended for.


        




When comparing Joe Sugg's vlogs to something like a film or TV series trailer there are little similarities. The Walking Dead Season 6 trailer is filmed using multiple pieces of footage in a dramatic way to build tension and emotions, trailers have an aim and are perfectly sequenced and timed out, comparing something like this to a vlog is interesting because in the majority on vlogs, the footage is not planned, whereas in trailers the cameras have specific marks and points to hit, as do the people featuring in the film.

Demographics.

The Importance Of Demographic Data

Demographic data has a massive influence on marketing and research for the majority of businesses, for example here in the UK we have an ageing population, so when researching ideas and possible improvements on already existing products we can use demographic data to collect all of these results  thus making marketing easier.

     There are a few main aspects that are important when discussing demographics such as:

• Understanding the ideal customer
• Lowering marketing costs 
• Identifying the opportunities 
• Discovering and creating a Unique Selling Point 
• Increase the revenue 

    All of these points are vital and are paramount to consider when researching, understanding the ideal customer can be done through collecting data in different locations ( in order to collect different results due to the different cultures in multiple cities etc) this can then give you an idea on the location and popularity of the specific thing you are researching.

    Marketing can be very expensive, therefore by using demographics to target your ideal customer by location, you can determine the best way to market products, one example being social media vs flyers. Printing costs for flyers is expensive, so if the majority of your target audience are on social media the best way to go about advertising could be on popular social media applications, or advertisements on tv during popular shows / days / times.

   To conclude, when doing research the importance of demographics is crucial in order to hit the correct audience and sales, without spending too much money or having things go to waste. We should consider demographic data when improving existing products and creating new ones. 

Making A Silent Film.

My Silent Film

In todays lesson we created a short silent film, basing them off Charlie Chaplin and the style in which is used when those silent films were created. We made sure to pay particular attention to the style and conventions of the silent film genre, these points included ensuring that the film was static i.e lack of movement in the shots. As well as this key point I ensured to put the film in a black and white filter, this meant that I was adhering to the classic silent films by removing the colour.

     It was important to use physically visible humour to convey emotions as there was no audio/dialogue, otherwise known as slapstick comedy.



         


      Today was the first day for me to have used a camera to shoot a short film as well as edit it to fit a certain brief / overall style using Adobe Premiere and overall I thought it went okay. Initially getting used to new camera equipment and editing software can be difficult but despite this I was able to know how to use Adobe Premiere and enough features on the application to put together the film.
     In regards to the actual content of the film I feel like next time I would like to make the video slightly longer and have more substance and content, this would make editing it together slightly harder in the aspect to ensure it fits and works well together, but easier to watch the final outcome as it would flow better and have more meaning as well as this it would draw in a wider audience.

       Another thing I would like to improve on for next time is editing the footage together, as previously mentioned this was my first time using Adobe Premier so next time I would aspire to be more comfortable and confident with the software and extend my knowledge in order to create an overall better film.

Type and Layout.

Typefaces In The Working World

In the working world today image is everything. Whether it be to attract customers to purchase products or to present information clearly, the way in which we present this is key. The main things people think about when picking a font is how easy it is to read, and unique it is at the same time.
    There are a few variations of font in businesses that are easily recognised for their simple typeface, and they all promote different businesses in which sell different products.

These fonts all have similarities in which are easy to spot, the majority of these examples are black bold typefaces, some more bold than others and some in which alter the colour ( Toyota and Jeep for example )

              Typeface vs Font

The difference between a typeface and a font may be confusing at first, however a typeface is the design of the alphabet, different shapes make up the typestyle. The most popular typeface currently is Helvetica, followed by multiple others as you can see in the example to the right

A font is the digital file in which describes and contains the typeface. This almost tells the computer/ printer how to display the typeface.

Serif & Sans-serif 

A typeface without serifs is called a sans-serif ( 'Sans' translated from French to English with the meaning 'without' ) Serifs are most times easily recognisable as you can see in the image

The most commonly used serif font is Times New Roman and the most common sans- serif font is Arial. 

     Work in which is done in order to be printed is often done in Serif fonts as they are easier to read, this is because Serif fonts make the individual letters a lot more distinctive therefore easier for our brains to process words at a quicker pace. Without the serif our brains are required to spend a longer period of time identifying the letter as the shape is less distinctive.

  Typically serif fonts are used for the body of a piece of text, leaving sans-serif fonts for headings, subheadings , captions etc.

            Sans-Serif on the other hand is used for online work, this is because of the resolution size being low, if you were to use serif fonts for online work the smaller characters will be more difficult to read compared to the sans-serif fonts.

Type Family

 In typography a typeface is also referred to as 'font family'. There are multiple variations in which contain common design features, each font of a typeface has a specific size, weight, width , slant etc.Back in the early 16th century, when typefaces were first invented , there was no notion to have a family of fonts in which correlated to one another. It was only in the 1700's that typeface families were invented, this is when they paired Roman and Italic together for example.

Parts Of A Typeface

         Here is a diagram consisting of the main elements that are used on a typeface.


Upper Case - Capital Letters.

Lower Case - Lower Case Letters.

Base Line - Bottom of majority of letters.

Serif - The small decorative 'flick'.

Ascender - The part of the letter that extends above the top.

Descender - The part of the letter that extends below the base of the letter.

X-Height - The height of lower case letters.

Ligature - When two letters are joined together to form one glyph.

Kerning vs Tracking

 In the world of typography, Tracking is a term used for letter-spacing. This being the space between a group of letters to affect density in a block/ line of text. On the other hand to this letter-spacing can also be confused with Kerning. Kerning is the spacing between a pair of letters, numbers etc and is used to correct visually uneven spacing.

     Kerning adjusts the letters closer together (negative spacing) and Tracking adjusts the letters further apart (positive spacing) 

What Is A Grid...

 In regards of typography, a grid is a structure in which is made up from intersecting straight lines, these being vertical, horizontal and angular. Grids are used to organise graphic elements on a page (glyphs, paragraphs)

First Day Post.

First day at college

Today was my first day at college and initially I was very nervous to be in such a different environment from school with people I do not yet know. Despite this I now know that I did not need to be as anxious about the day.
  I am exited about the coming weeks to meet new people and learn new skills I previously did not have.