Pre-production Techniques

Unit 2 Pre-production Techniques

Photo Imaging is used a lot in the media industry for example; Magazines, Newspapers, Television programs, Internet etc. However most companies often copyright photographs, which means the company has legal rights to be credited for the image. The most important thing to do when using photo imaging is "time management" this means planning is very much needed and perhaps some preparation too other wise you may not meet the deadlines so this means having the location, models (if using), recce sheets, funding (if needed) etc. When shooting images you might have to do a risk assessment at the location first before being able to take photos because otherwise if using a model they could be at risk of injuring themselves. The main thing you need in order to shoot some images is the equipment; you will most certainly need a camera, lights, etc. however you may have the equipment as well as everything else you may come across some restrictions for example if you're using land then you may need to ask permission.

Print is very much like photo imaging as it pretty much has a connection with printing because the photo's get printed in the Magazines, Newspapers, and Advertisements etc. Just like most media sectors you will have a set deadline in which things will need to be published and for this you will need to have a plan that suits your time management. You will need to have staff that are qualified or have experience in journalism and computing skills so that publishing of a certain product meets its deadline, along with the staff you will also be in need of the appropriate materials and software to help you edit any mistakes that may occur on say an advertisement. Some publishers will need to have some contacts meaning have a photographer near by and that is experienced enough to shoot photo images for a specific product.

TV is a great way of showing advertisement, Film trailers, programs etc. In order to make a program you will need a whole crew to help you make it; cameraman, audio engineer, cast, director producer etc. You will most definitely need a story or if you're creating a documentary then you need a topic, a plan of how exactly you're going to begin making it. Television cost a lot of money to create a channel because it could cost you a few thousand pounds to buy the channel but once you have the channel you can go straight on air, however you may have to buy shows that could cost more than the channel itself so you would need some time of funding whether it'd be license fees or subscription fees.

Film is very similar to the television industry, because they require the same crew to help you with the making of the film like; camera man, audio engineer, iconography etc. The film industry has many different however successful companies such as Dreamworks, Warnerbros, Columbia, Miramax etc., which will give you a fund, which will then help you, pay for equipment etc. There are different genres of films like horror, Sci-fi, action, romance, fantasy, adventure etc., this is something very important and is something to think about when planning the story of the film. Also when making a film you will need to advertise the film by making movie trailers and airing them on the television or even make posters so that you can appeal to your target audience.

Interactive is the most popular way of getting information from all around the world, it is also useful for many other things like creating web pages, blogs, social networking sites to share things like photos, videos etc. Every media sector uses interactive media for a variety of things in example if you wanted to watch a documentary about a certain topic then you can go on to YouTube and find what you looking for.

Radio is a way of broadcasting the news as well as doing interviews with celebrities about their new singles. There are both local and international radio stations that are funded by OFCOM. However like other media sectors you need to consider copyright as the music that you put on air must have consent from the record companies. 





Computer Games is part of interactive media; this includes plenty of graphics, video, audio, text, animation and games in which the user responds to. Computer games is interaction with a users interface to generate visual feedback on a video device.



Non-Broadcast Video can be audio as well that has been prerecorded which means that you can replay it as many times as needed without the use of being recorded live. There is many different ways of using non-broadcast such as Podcast and MP3s; an example of a non-broadcaster is YouTube as you can stream videos online worldwide. 



Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge

Edward James Muggeridge had many different names for himself, however many were very opinionated of him as a person and of his work. Growing up Edward was known for inventing a new trick or toy, he had said do a relative that he was going to make something of himself and that if he didn't he would never be seen again. He was a man of many jobs, he like to think a himself as a scientist, an artist, a pioneer and he was adamant to be in the lime light; he made his way to America.   

After five years of being in America it was 1855 when his name was first recognized as a bookseller and went by the surname "Muggridge". He soon realized that it wasn't what he wanted to do with his life, so of course he announced to the public that he was in fact leaving the US. On his journey to leave America his stagecoach had crashed leaving Edward suffering with a head injury causing him to see double vision. He had said that his whole life had flashed before his eyes and that he had experienced a kind of spiritual sign so he went back to England in 1861. Six years later after learning the wet collodion process creating many pieces of photographs one of which was of a light house with he had models pose in very precise places in the image the sky showed up white and so the clouds were taken separately later then to be added to the finished piece.

 

    

In 1867 Edward had changed his name to Helious and He became a chemist alongside being a photographer he learnt from other famous artists such as William Keith's landscape paintings. He boasted about his work to the press calling the photographs the most exquisite views ever created, people descibed him as more of a salesman than an inventor or a scientist. Edward liked the instability, darkness, and loneliness of his photos and new exactly what would and wouldn’t sell. In the marketing industry the wilderness was the fashion of that particular time and that is what Edward sold along with some others, which inspired people to travel to America. Edward started using stereoscopic images (two images side by side) of America's railway as well as buildings which were getting taller and the images sold all over the world. He captured image of himself under a giant tree which was different to the images he had done in the past in this particular image he looks very uncomfortable, serious and some what lonely. 

Later on he met his wife Flora Shallcross Stone who was still married to a previous partner but Muybridge paid for her to get a divorce and soon after married her. Eadward went away to work as he was approached by a client who had asked if its was possible to photograph a horse with all 4 legs in the air which Muybridge thought was very unlikely until he created a type of stop motion a shutter which would open and close, although the experiment didn't entirely work he still had captured proof that the horses 4 legs were in fact off the ground and he was still in headlines which caused some reporters to question his discovery and began mocking him but it didn't stop Eadweard.

   

Flora fell pregnant and soon after gave birth to a boy who was named Florado Muybridge, his wife had an affair and so He took the new railway up to Napa Valley journeyed up to Yellow Jacket ranch and shot Flora's lover (Harry Larkyn).

After the shooting Muybridge had changed completely and begun to perfect the photograph of the horse with all 4 feet off the air. He took a different approach by creating a mechanism that took several pictures of the horse. This was called stop motion it improved his discovery. Leland Stanford who was working with Eadweard at the time took full credibility for his work, which inspired Muybridge to create more similar images of different animals then people in the nude. As time went by more artists and filmmakers were inspired by Muybridge’s stop motion theory and began using it in films. 

Evaluation

Evaluation

For each piece of work I have created, all have been within a type of theme; Supernatural horror. l have made different graphics using the same style but different format for example Movie poster, DVD Sleeve, and Magazine cover which you can find on my blog. l had also created a new type face using the Illustrator Software based on a hypothetical Charlie and the Chocolate factory Sequal called Wonka Babies in which l used as my title.

l also explored the different media sectors in example T.V, Radio, Photo imaging, Print, Film, Interactive, Computer Games, and Non-Broadcast Videos. l talked about what they are, why they are important to media and their similarities.

The Magazine cover, movie poster, and DVD sleeve are linked together because it's all about a fictional story in which l created. l wrote out a proposal which has a slight description of the fictional story, but you will also find a brief description of it on the blurb of my DVD sleeve. These three pieces were a success as they fit my proposal and theme I was aiming for, it also suits my target audience. In the future I think I would usea range of different images all taken using my own materials rather than using some imagery from the internet as I feel this will better my photo shopping skills.

The Wonka babies font was set as Futura at size 72pt which l then changed the colour of each letter, and then changing the font by moving around the letters shape which gave the lettering a fun unique look which suited the theme and target audience. The text was a success, because it suited the criteria and added it's own personality which l thought went well. However l feel the next time I will make the text more detailed with more illustration as this will help me get used to the Illustrator Software.

l designed a questionnaire to gain other peoples views and opinions on all my work and 60% said the DVD sleeve, cover and poster looked professional however they would of liked to see different imagery. Out of the 10 people who did my survey 5 out of the 10 said that they would have prefered to have seen more detailed graphics on my Wonka Babies font.

In conclusion, my movie poster, sleeve and cover were more successful than the Wonka Babies font. Therefore l feel l should work on the illustrator software to improve my skills.

Magazine poster

I created a magazine cover to help make my movie more noticed as if it were going to be promoted out to the public and i used the couple i had used for both my movie poster and DVD sleeve put them against a black background for effect. i then created a magazine brand name that is for specifically for new films so i decided to call the magazine "Cinemax" and i made it big and bold so it will stand out also to add colour i thought to it but still keeping in line with the genre i made it into a blood type red so that it stood out. To make it look more like a magazine cover i added a bar code, price tag, and issue date. I then overlapped the image of the couple with some tabloid text and also an image of a new upcoming film but again keeping in line with genre of my supernatural horror genre.

DVD sleeve poster

This is a DVD sleeve that i created to go with my movie poster, I used the internet to find a similar sleeve. I then measured and actual dvd sleeve so i could put in the correct sized page on photoshop and using guides I added a margin where the crease would be on the plastic box.

After doing that i added a background to the right hand side of the margin, the background was the same I had used for my movie poster, Once I added that I then added a drop shadow.

I then added the movie tittle using the transform and the rotate tool i changed the title around so that when the dvd sleeve is being used it'll be readable. I put some dvd and paramount logos to make it look more professional.

Then using my movie poster I moved the supernatural looking figure and enlarged it using the scale tool so it wouldn't look pixelated. I put in a red box so that I could put the special features in. At the bottom of the page I put in some credit to make it more realistic.

I put in a list of special features in the red box to tell my target audience who will purchase the DVD what exactly is included in the film. Using my proposal I created a short paragraph telling the audience a bit about the film and what actors will be playing who. 

For the last few finishing touches I put in the movie title & tag line as well as a short sentence about the creator of the film. I went through the whole of the DVD sleeve to move things around to see if I wanted to keep things the way they were and I ended up doing so. I feel that my DVD sleeve went really well however I did have a few difficulties with the title because I wasn't too sure on how to make the title vertical without making the letter vertical but in all I think the DVD went according to plan. For the next time I think I will perhaps choose a different genre to make the creating of the DVD sleeve a bit more challenging so that it will help me learn some more photoshopping skills.

DVD Sleeves

Design ideas for my movie poster