Presenting to the Class (A-Level Media Studies Related)

During this lesson, I presented what was ideally the final copy of my Film College Magazine (Reel College for Film). Justifying my principal layout and choices in regards to the content used and the overall style of the magazine, I made sure to explore to great extent the reasonings behind my choices and descisions made. This overall made clear the thought process I had put into the production of my magazine and the planning of content in the issue.

After presenting my magazine, I was supplied with a welcomed of feedback which I took note of. Such notes would overall help me form my final, finished front cover and allow me to venture on to starting my contents page.

The following are such pieces of advice I took on board:

-Include the year along with the already present Month and issue number

-Add a bit more of variety to the images used in the film reel graphic (top of cover).

-Swap around a few of the images. (I valued this as just nitpicking so I will not be putting that bit of advice into action).

Photos (Media Studies A-Level Related)

Today was a rather productive day, being that I managed to get my mits on a super cool and expensive camera to take a load of pictures for my front cover/content page. Before I put this amazing creation to use, I began to draw up a mental plan regarding the style, look and angles of my images. I knew I wanted to get a load of low angle/high angle shots of a student grasping a super cool film camera, so this shot remained high priority for the day. I managed to get such an image (very impressed regarding how it came out), and in some terms consider this as a contender for the front page. After this, I took some behind the shoulder shots of my subject filming someone for a project/film ect. These images are amoughst my favourite, due to how the focus really draws in the use of technology and the productive element to the activities.

I also more importantly wanted to capture images of pertentual editing suites, so I quickly snapped a dozen or so images (which turned out VERY well I must say), of students using and working on the provided computers. I later on plan to take these shots of the subjects using the computers and super-impose an image of my editing program onto the screen. This, if sucessful, should hopefully communicate a broad range of available facilities in the college and the standard of these appliances.

By tommorow, I should be finished regarding my pictures and from there will embark on deciding the best of the best.

Surveys, Fonts, and Colours (Media Studies A-Level Related)

After undergoing by survey on the 12th, I recieved great indication in relation to WHAT I should be doing and HOW I should be doing it. Let me expand on that. After issuing the list of titles to peers in the classroom, I found a strong liking most of all towards "Reel" or "Reel Magazine". Confident on this title, I began to get down to work on titles/logos/possible fonts. I was however brought smack down to earth when I was given a pleasent reminder that my magazine title should be in reference to the actual college/school my magazine revolves around...meaning I had to re-think a thing or two. After much head scratching and lead snapping, I finally came up with a title. Taking into account the liking towards "Reel Magazine" in my survery, I decided to put this into play and go with, "Reel College for Film". Not only did this provide a school/college perspective, but it allowed me to tie in the theme of filmmaking into the actual title (alike to Total Film-Clockwork Orange Font/Eagle Bold).

After deciding on my eventual title, the process of looking for suitable title/s and fonts came into perspective. From the begining, I knew that it had to be distinctly eye-catching and overall unique. Not the typical clique Arial Bold or Times Roman...but something which guranteed a swift flick of the eye or glance. I enventually found a fantastic font named "Eight Trade". This font overall alighed with the look and style of the magazine I had in mind, being of cool, casual, slick and "funky" nature. This more importantly tied into the very target audience and age-range for "Reel College for Film", being 16-19 year olds with a distinct interest of film production and technology. Like any other magazine logo, big and loud stands as the order of the day. Alightment and visibility towards the buyers/students eye is PIVOTAL, meaning the simplest of change in font size or colour could deem my magazine as invisible. And talking about colour...I decided to keep things simple. It's not a rainbow I thought. So BLACK became the final choice here. Why you ask? Black is bold, stylish, and contempory. This overall aligns with the use of modern and "contempory" technology.

For content title font, I decided to put to use "Franklin Gothic Medium Cond". The reasonings behind this choice came down to what extent a paticular font could "show off" my displayed contents in a striking mannor. Franklin Gothic Medium Cond, to me, seemed mature yet casual, communicating my words to my target audience without patronising or dumbing down my readers, regardless of it's ease of reading.

Possible Newspaper/Magazine Names (A-Level Media Studies Related)

The following are possible names I've created for my school magazine/newspaper. I'll be testing these names in a survey of which I'll be giving out tommorow (12th October, Monday). If you could also post your opinions in comment or what not that would be amazing. Thanks!

THE FILM SCHOOL
SCHOOL OF FILM PRODUCTION
REEL MAGAZINE
FAQ ABOUT FILMMAKING
CUTS AND CAMERAS
CREDITS
REEL

The Grand Plan 10th-12th October (A-Level Media Studies Related)

Let’s take an insight into what I hope to achieve over the next few days in relation to the production of my school/college magazine. The dates, the objectives...It’s all here!

10^th October, Saturday

1. Completion of a basic sketch to gather an idea for my initial layout and style for my magazine. Scan image and post on blog.

2. Come up with at least 7 ideas for titles. Post ideas on blog.

3. Consideration of possible title fonts, sizes and colours. Explanations of these decisions to be posted on blog.

11^th October, Sunday

1. Decide on the style of my magazine. Acknowledge the difference between COLLEGE magazines and SIXTH FORM magazines. Post on blog.

12^th October, Monday

1. Issue a survey amongst other sixth formers to find the best title. Post the results on the blog.

2. Take as many pictures as possible for images to use for magazine. Blog the process of this (e.g. how it went, how many images were taken).

3. Transfer images and begin to play around with them. Lay them out ect.

Magazine Research (A-Level Media Studies Related)

Magazine Research - Part One

Lesson Objective: Why does a magazine cover carry a certain appearance/visual/layout?

· Who is the TARGET AUDIENCE?
· How are they represented?

1. What is the STYLE?
Slick, cool, and stylish. Aligns with the atmosphere and visual style of the featured film “The Spirit”. Heavily eye-catching.

2. What are the CONTENTS?
Large iconic logo of Total Film. In small lettering to the right, the issue number and website of the magazine. World exclusive of blockbuster film “The Spirit”. Looming and visual image of the main “hero” peering downwards....toward the readers eye line. Graphic design/positioning of text is unique and suitably retro and comic-style, matching the nature of a typical comic book. Top headline announces freebies consisting of free posters for the likes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Dark Knight. Exclusives of other films are listed below which would attract the interest of the viewer.

3. What are the COLOURS?
The colour used is of identical nature to the style and grading of the film featured. A striking array of Whites, Reds, Greys and blacks. Such colour co-ordination is extremely attentive and captures the reader’s eye instantly.

4. What is the font?
Total Film Logo is “Eagle Bold”, slightly squeezed.
Same font as “A Clockwork Orange”, of which is a cult British film. Such a font as this can therefore be put in relation to film, justifying the decision of the magazine editors. Headline font is of retro and comic-book style, inverted outwards. Appeals towards comic-book fans and fans of the comic of the film “The Spirit”.

5. Summary of findings
Concerning magazine content of “Total Film”, I would state here that the choices made concerning fonts, sizes and colour are in some cases decided in relation to the film/s covered in the particular issue. This is an interesting spin on magazine presentation and heavily allows the cover to stand out amongst others to a great extent. Colour grading used GREATLY compliments both the images and the logo of the magazine and can instantly attract a potential buyer. Regarding the font choice for the iconic Total Film logo, the relation to a particular Cult-British film is heavily ingenious and is a concept I may perhaps introduce into the production of my magazine.

Hi.

Well, the reasoning’s behind this first sudden emergence of this brand new, fresh and amazing blog is partly down to my Media Studies A-Level work. Time to time you'll see random appearances of class summaries and coursework related shenanigans which will have utterly no relevance to you if you’re here for other reasons.

But yeah, I'm scarily new to this kind of thing so hang in there. I thought however it would be reasonable to give you some sort of introduction to me myself and I; so....my name is Alex, short for Alexander and what follows from that is the sir name McNeill. So, Alexander McNeill. Brilliant. Now let's unscramble the meanings behind "The180Curse". This little name happens to be my youtube username, and seeing that the majority of visitors to this blog might indeed be fellow subscribers or random viewers, I thought it would make a degree of sense to link it to good old tube; you know, so no-one gets lost at all. And the actual meaning of it? Well, "180" is a reference to Final Destination. 180 happens to appear randomly throughout the series so kind of curse is implied there. So, thats all done and dusted-on to the dreams and aspirations area:

I'm an aspiring Director and Editor, and make my own short films, music videos and trailers on a site called YouTube. I'll make sure to post some of my new work on here time to time so that should give you a reason to come on here; and as a bonus, I'll give some insight into some upcoming projects and the progress which goes along with it. Lovely! So, yeah...I'll be more then definitely updating this blog on a frequent basis (I actually don't have a choice. Seriously) so make sure to bookmark this.

Let's hope this thing works out.....CYA!