Research into one of the magazines

The title of this magazine is placed at the top so it's easily visible, as other magazines are stacked with each other thus causing limited space. The typography is established as the magazines logo, as you can see there is not lines of text 'total' is in clear black bold easily spotted and this is placed in the other title 'film'. This evidently makes it look more neater and prevents the reader from reading too much as it's just the front cover. 'Total Film' is slightly covered by the centre image, this is effective as the magazine is well known and also their regular consumers are welcomed to feel 'loyal'.

The slogan is 'the modern guide to movies' it's a short, catch statement intending to sum-up the magazine's image and to stick in the readers mind. This connotes that the audience are reading the correct magazines, and 'modern' shows the latest films that consumers can grab hold of which is very attentive. Being short and snappy allows it to stick in the readers mind, and would allow them to grab hold of the similar magazine next time as they know they'll be getting the latest feedback, news. The central image is of the protagonist from the movie 'salt' this is effective as it brings the audience closer also as she is looked as a 'sexy' woman which would be attentive. Another point to be noted is the fact that she's acting too as she's holding the gun which makes it more so engaging. The flash is called 'salt' and this advertises the films name flash is an example of a convention- a device to which the audience have become accustomed and whose 'sense' they take for granted. The typography is diverse from the rest which makes it stands out being in lines, informing the audience straight away of what film it is.

The colour scheme is not a lot which is effective as it thus avoids the cover becoming too busy. Sticking to a limited colour scheme is advantageous as it allows the design, font, images to stand out more neatly. As you can evidently see the three main colours which are used are; orange, black and grey. All in which are used effectively displaying the magazine cover very well as it works well together creating a vibe, creating the cool and fresh look effectively. The sell lines are useful too as 'Bikinis in the Movie' underneath the flash is a source of engagement as it's displaying information from the movie inside the magazine which the readers may want to see. This can be a similar thing I could be using for example, Heartbreak in the movie? allowing the audience to assume several things and get's them questioning.

Group Progress

03/02/2013: The picture above was from Ealing Town Hall the area in which we did the shooting in, and ofcourse Mandeep taking the picture of us. From my previous group progress report (which was month ago) we have improved so much. As in this we got together in my house creating a slide show to present to the entire class, on our idea talking about the synopsis, setting, casting, location etc. And we got approved everyone liked our idea we had the downs which were; Locations getting accepted to shoot in local areas otherwise it'd be a lot of trouble, having the right casting because without good actors our film wouldn't be as good. Taking everything to consideration we have moved drastically ahead, having now completed 50 shots in the storyboard, having done all our pre-production tasks and so on. 

Today we went to Ealing Town Hall to shoot a few scenes for the first time, we did get accepted and got the manager to sign on the location papers (which I'll be uploading soon) for evidence.

 We spent 4 hours in total shooting today, from doing various of retakes again and again getting it right also making it easier for us to edit as we will have many scenes. The first scene we did is of rashmi the protagonist we shot her and ashwaira (school friend) inside the class this went very well as we had the correct shots for example: low angle shots, match on action, over-the-shoulder shots and so forth. We also shot the tracking shot of rashmi going down the stairs checking her phone, going outside and having a mid-shot of her. So we did get a lot done and what we needed to in ealing town hall. As we got accepted so we didn't waste any time and moved straight on to it. Overall I think it did go very well and we looked back at the scenes to see if we need to do another take, and this is what we did. Overall We're happy with what we've done so far.

After shooting at Ealing town hall we did eventually go to southall trainstation, we thought we might as well go as we had the time, camera and cast. We did firstly ask permission from the security and person working their and they accepted (signed the form) so we went ahead and shot the scene. What we did was shoot Rashmi from the other end of the platform having a mid-shot of her, showing the platform in a whole then as the train went by stopped then went she wasn't their that's what we wanted to display. And it worked perfectly, as we got everything in time this is were the storyboard helped us a lot as we followed it carefully. 

In addition we filmed rashmi going inside the trainstation and we took several takes but it worked out correctly, we also made sure that people weren't looking directly at the camera and did a tracking shot of rashmi upfront. Which did go as we planned we also added more shots as we felt we needed too from the storyboard, which did get us thinking ahead and we were all in focus today which was very good.

ACTION PLAN:

Finish of other scenes which need doing
Add more shots in shot list, as filming we know we need more shots in other scenes
Come together as a group discuss sound
discuss editing
look upon doing title-sequence

Progress Report

01/02/2013: My previous action plans were;
Show Mr Bush our storyboard, scripts and casting etc.
See whether or not it's up to scratch and is good. 
Start Shooting 

As a group we showed sir our Pre-production elements, he agreed on the script however the storyboards were exceedingly short this is because we only done 15 shots and were being very precise. This was a huge drawback as we needed as many shots at possible because when it comes to shooting, we have to keep taking diverse shots and retaking the scenes. So we needed to add in detail all of the shots we will be using from the start to the end. Me and a group member Ashwaria have started doing this dividing the sheets up 5 me, 5 her altogether having 50 shots as their are 5 shots in each paper. As a group on Monday's lesson we came up with diverse camera angles we may be having and put it down, we should have this completed by Saturday. 

As the other casting and pre-production, ideas were good we are therefore going to start our shooting, as If you can see on Rashmi's blog she had asked permission whether we can shoot at Ealing town hall or not and the date we got was 3/02/2013. As a result me and the group feel confident enough to commence the shooting as we have our cast (Rashmi & Ashwaria) for the chosen scene. Moreover I have completed scanning sketches for our ideal scenes, this is useful as we can visually see how it looks like. Also I have asked several pupils ages 15-18 of how effective this looks and if they are willing to view this, and the answer was yes also the teacher agreed so we'll be using that as an influence and help with the acting. In addition I have also described our synopsis in detail so it's understood by us and the teacher too as it's a tricky synopsis, outlining the storyline is short for our whole clip "A Step Back".

ACTION PLAN 
Complete the 50 shots (storyboard) by 03/02/2013 in time for shooting our first scene.
Complete shot list after storyboard. (Mandeep)
Print out all the essential forms needed i.e  permission for the location.

This is the collage I created for my audience profile, I added in pictures suited for the stereotypical teenagers such as teen boys with hoody's ages at 18 and above. I added trainers as a lot of young men ages 18-30 wear Nike trainers as this is a famous brand too so it represents and relates to them. I added two famous rappers who are Snoop-dog and Tupac this is because these are internationally famous rappers and some teens look up to them, also they smoke and have done drugs too which relates to typical teens. The Ferrari I added connotes teenagers dreams as most of them are struggler's and they want to become someone and make money, also have dreams one of the dreams could be having a really nice car such as the one above. I added a character from Ill Manors as this can be engaging towards the audience as he is holding a gun connoting a significant iconography. Behind my title Ill Manors I have a faded picture of someone smoking this is to show what teens do in their teens, taking advantage of their large amount of freedom.

First draft of Print Magazine

INSTITUTION: For the magazine E4 is the institution to inform this to the readers I have put it in big on the top right hand corner, this is beneficial as E4 is a programme designed for teens to adults. So identifying this it would instantly attract teen audiences. I think it's beneficial as E4 helps promote the teen series 'A step back'. As evidently it's not well known so to have E4 on their would enhance and make our programme more known, as already E4 is well known. I will be colouring it in the same colour as E4 to make the icon stand out to the preferred target audience. 

TITLE: I put the title as 'A step back' as it is a souvenir magazine, but as it is quite long I have put it so the 'step' is in the a, this is useful as there is therefore not that much going on and I don't want their too be too much text as it's only a front cover. It's placed in the top so it's easily visible. The typography fits in line with the whole context as it's not too loud or too quite it's just right. I wanted to show the tension and diverse emotions so that's why I went for this type of typography. 

TAGLINE: After the title I put the tagline underneath in a obviously smaller font this is to that audiences are clear and can therefore work out it is the tagline. The tagline is 'the road will never be the same again'. I went for this as it describes the series in a whole connoting that life is not going to be the same, as she will be facing hard consequences showing glimpses of reality. This will allow the audience to assume several questions and get their mind set thinking which would want them to perhaps read the magazine. 

CENTRAL IMAGE: I sketched a picture of the main protagonist (Rashmi) as I think this will be engaging towards the audience as they will looking at the trailer already be familiar with the character. I employed a singly, strong central image which serves to anchor the cover and it helps establishes the magazine's core values and identity. Using for example, the mouth and eyes is useful as it's the most expressive part of the face. I drew it so the 'protagonist' is looking directly at the camera using Direct Mode Of Address. This is effective as it allows the audience to engage more so as the character's addressing the audience in a particular way. 

SELL LINES: There are text placed around the central image to advertise the content of the magazine in a whole, there are larger sell lines and samller ones. The larger ones I did I wanted to connect it towards the 'central image' as this is an example of convention allowing the audience to become accustomed. For example, I wrote 'RASHMI SHARMA' in bold so the audience directly looks at it underneath it I wrote 'exclusive interview'. So as to say there employs a balance and again there is therefore not that much information which could bore the audience, especially when aiming it at teenagers they read something which attracts them; having big letters. 

QUOTE: I wrote a quote next to the central image to show what the person is thinking and its useful as it allows the audience to engage too. I too noticed in many souvenir magazine's that they had quotes and it had me enticed. Therefore I used one, it's a simple one saying 'I've never been so happy'! With a smile on the protagonists face. This is useful as the two connect in a evident way but not only that it moves the audience to think what made her so happy? Therefore they'd want to turn to the page and find out. Moreover, I put this in bold so it instantly attracts the audiences vital attention.

COLOUR SCHEME: In order to avoid becoming too busy and difficult to decode, I stuck to a limited colour scheme it allows it to feel more relaxed and provides a particular 'vibe' which is effective. I chose the colour purple and I'm still thinking for another one or two more to go with it to make it look relaxed overall. I will do a trial on photo shop and thus base my decision on that.

BAR CODE/PRICING: for straightforward selling purposes I've used the price '£2.99'  as I want to show it's not expensive especially prior being the fact it's to teens. However, I've put it small so it doesn't compromise integrity.

SCENE FRAMES: at the bottom I drew scene footage snaps and put them in a frame and underneath said 'BE THE FIRST TO LOOK AT SCENES! this is highly anticipating as most teens like reading or visually seeing stories ahead as it really intrigues them and keeps them going. So therefore I came up with the idea to have this as it will mentally and visually engage them as they will be visually seeing it but when they also read it it will be emotionally good too, depicting the context again of the magazine in a whole. 

Pre-production: Synopsis

The Absurdity Of Teenage Angst Is Never Rewarded

Teen angst is the phase that teenagers go through where they feel that no one understands them, that no matter how good they do have it, life is not giving them enough. They thus feel isolated, alone and unhappy, very angry at basically nothing.

An absurdity is something that is extremely unreasonable, to be foolish or not taken seriously.

The message we are trying to convey  is that teenagers being in that frame of mind is a wrong attitude to have and to portray and you won't get nothing in return for having that mind. So we want to portray the negative aspects of having that sort of mind frame and what consequences teenagers will go through. We as a group instead want to show why and how teenagers should appreciate life and be thankful for what they have.

Pre-production: Sketching visual scenes

This is something that I sketched out not basing it entirely upon the specific protagonist (Rashmi) but just showing how one of the shots are going to be taken place. For example, this is the scene were she comes out of the building (college) and there occurs a mid-shot of the girl as we want to show the facial expressions and body-language very closely. I have analyse two aspects; two bags, as these two are the only props needed for the specific scene. The image we are trying to present to the audience is how she's on a 'mission' seeking out to find a resolution type, and this is the point where the audience will be assuming diverse questions. What I feel is effective is as you can see I drew some windows/door this is to show some of the building but we want to show the reflection of what the protagonist is seeing, this is because it will allow the audience to be in the character's point of view and therefore set the scene in a whole.

In this image I have sketched out a draft of a close-up of when the girl looks in her pocket to seek for her phone, this is a clever shot as this is our first close-up shot in the whole of our 2-minute opening clip. The audience can see the use of her body-language and in particular the costume she's wearing how that connotes the character in a whole for her. And this is one of the shots we want to do as this allows the audience to be in the protagonists point of view because it's like the audience are looking for the phone too. Underneath this I drew a sketch of her face the close-up after the previous shot is done. This is because I wanted to show the group how it'd look effective if we proceeded with this, also the facial-expressions on her face is very effective looking down towards what she is finding.

After and before scenarios are sketched by me too showing the cases of when the protagonist is in the building their is a tracking shot from behind, but this is effective as their is going to be use of low-key lighting as depicted on the picture. We want to black everything out so all the audiences are entitled to view is the scenery on the 'before' image, as this allows the audience to be in the character's point of view and aid them into engage towards the short clip. The binary opposition here is between the character inside and the world outside are as there are bright colours outside and very dark inside this could perhaps connote the psychographics which are 'strugglers'. In the 'after' image it shows of when she's out and due to her facial-expressions the audience will perhaps be able to realise that she is an explorer and is ready to go and search, even though they are not aware of the storyline this would probably give them a huge insight cleverly. Also when this shot takes place we will be using key-lighting as it is not only the brightest but also highly influential. For this we will be using a mid-shot as the audience are able to identify the character's body-language and facial-expressions closely. However, you can see the contrast in the 'before' image as there consists of a long-shot from behind showing full body language as audience will be viewing how she's standing etc.

This is just an extreme-close up of an eye I did as we want to see how it will visually look when we do start filming, and we think this is very effective as it will engage with the audience and is a good way in using camera angles also keeping the audience on the edge of there seats.