The Brief

The Brief

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options: 

• a website homepage for the band;

• a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD package); 

• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD package).

All material for all tasks to be produced by the candidates with the exception of acknowledged non-original sound or image material used in a limited way in video/radio work. Further guidance will be available in the support materials. For music video, permission should be sought from the artist for use of the audio track.

The centre will be expected to allocate marks according to four levels for each of three categories: 

• Research and Planning 
• Construction
• Evaluation

Music Video - The Concept

Music Video - The Concept

Task 1

Today we began working on our music videos. My initial group was Laura, Natalya and Rebecca and originally we were considering metal as a genre, but this was soon ruled out as metal videos are notoriously difficult to combine with good narrative. Next we analysed the song My Medicine-by The Pretty Reckless and presented the perceptive of the song being stereotypically about drugs, which sparked the video concept of following a chosen drug's journey round a party. However a dispute was made on my behalf, that this initial interpretation of the lyrics was stereotypically conforming to teenage cliche, which I personally was trying to avoid. I the project the idea of doing a video under the song Stuck in the middle with you-By Stealers Wheel, with concept being it would be politically orientated around a parliamentary atmosphere, with jokers on one side of the political bench, clowns on the other and an infant child as the essential 'Mr speaker' in judges chair. I then offered the idea of replicating the introduction scene of Stanley Kubricks-A Clockwork Orange with the opening shot of the child's eye and then panning out to show the clownish peers beside him. Unfortunately a transfer was made in groups and i am in team in which our primary focus is around the subculture of the Mod movement, and the song in consideration is I'm Not like everybody- The Kinks.

What is a music video?

Music video is not primarily a commodity form but a promotional one-Andrew Goodwin, 1992


Part of the construction of the image of a particular band or performer (part of the process of construction stardom)


A creative artefact of interest in itself 


The chief raison d'être for music television channels 


Marketing for other media products such as films 

Music Video analysis

Summarised lyrics

When there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son

If you can hold on, hold on
I wanna stand up, I wanna let go
You know no you don't

I wanna shine on in the hearts of men Another head aches, another heart breaks
I am so much older than I can take
I need direction to perfection

Help me out

don't you put me on the blackburner

help me out

I got soul, but I'm not a soldier

Over and out, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done

The central protagonist is most clearly the bands vocalist, Brandon Flowers, given that he is undeniably the only mouth piece for the narration of the song’s essential tale. However the video does not portray a one man band, and identifies a strong air of apparent brotherhood via the cowboy costumes, establishing a gang aspect, but also the visual impact of seeing them walk to the camera at the same pace as one another, giving further evidence of the bands unity.

  

•Fundamentally the video reflects a objective character identity, given that the majority of the screen time is given away to the bands vocalist, as suppose to dividing it up amongst all the members of the band.

 

The singers attempt to ride a midget donkey, portrays him as rather ridiculous but also gives symbolism to the songs theme of men unsuccessfully trying to mount there boyhood activities and having to finally grasp the responsibilities of their actual age.

Given their surroundings being a desert and the vocalist carrying around a set of colourful light bulbs, it identifies a metaphor for the songwriter’s described attempt to fill an inner empty space inside of him with colour.   However it also brings to attention the bands background being Vegas.

evaluation of pop promo prelim

1)      Describe shot choices:
we employed a medium wide shot to start off the shooting, due to our consideration that this was the typical convention appropriate to insure a necessary establishing shot, which we found vital in order for our audience to not get lost in the intensity of the close ups and that the band will be recognized as a band as suppose to a singer with instrumental support from insignificant musicians. We coordinated the shots appropriate to the track is instrumental emphasis, meaning that which ever instrument was proving to be dominant in the song we would give screen time to, giving reason to why the video jumps appropriately around the set to every band member in time due to the fact the track is a collaboration of all the members is input (further establishing them as a band).

2)      What role did you mainly have in the production?

I took up the role of director, the majority of the time, which meant that my responsibility was in the organization of the camera man and the sound engineer, involving the usage of the lines “Stand by”, “Turn it over”, “Action”, “Play back” and “Cut”. Having said this I also participated in the hands on camera work of the production, which I found extremely enjoyable due to the jobs requirements of imagination proving to be challenging but beneficial in terms of the video becoming personalized.

MY TRAILER

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/trailermaker/view/7iaehm

What makes a thriller/horror?

Thriller
Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. Thriller Films usual have a plot which involves a build up of tension throughout the film top keep the audience on edge of there seats this is done through mystery and the producers of the film keeping some information vital to the outcome from the audience. The thriller films often have a crime genre involved with detectives and police men in them.

Horror

Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers. Horrors usually involve murders and mutation of the body most horror films have this content, the main characters involved in the films almost always have a flaw or have something wrong with there face which separates them from the audience, this make the audience not feel sorry or relate to the bad guy. weapons in horrors are often knives or bats, as the are more graphic  than some one.

Story Boarding

Storyboards are graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence, including website interactivity.

A storyboard for a Taco Belltelevision campaign.

The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at the Walt Disney Studio during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.

Its important to storyboard as it is a plan for the scene and all the different shots your are going to do, it helps keep your shooting focused on the objective of the scene, also you can tick of the angles and parts of the sequence you have done this makes you waste less time when shooting. 

Account of Post Production

When editing the practical we had to adopt a much more critical eye in terms of deciding upon which shots, among the many, could we consider to be the best, and in what order we should place them to display a suitable smooth chain of camera angles which the audience would recognize as good continuity. However like the prelim, we used 'Final Cut' as the editing programme for our practical.

The sound we used was taken from lots of different parts of our shoot, and then layered over sequences in which we wanted to link certain characters together but also to make the change in location and shot type flow. We attempted to make Seb's 'Youtube' confession look as though it was being shot from a web cam, through editing the shots with bad continuity, and via the actors movement within the frame. The majority of the screen time was given to the suspect, due to the understanding that the film is a depiction of her side of the story, which further more identifies her as the films protagonist. Through this the audience inhabits an esscense of trust in her character, which leads us to consider a potential twist in the story, similar to the usual suspects. We employed a cross fade between our shots to signify a passing of time. We gave the video camera screen time, as well as the tape recorder, to depict one of the major themes of the production, the constant survelliance of our modern society, which can be seen to fundermentally add to the level of paranoia in our introduction. To develop an air of claustrophobia, enhancing the thriller aspect of the film, we used a lift in the opening shot to gradually draw our audience into the commotion of the story line, which can be established to be breaking down the level of space in the already small interview room.

In order to keep the diegetic sound of the speech in our thriller the same level throughout, it had to be mixed. With our discovery of the background noise of the air conditioning, we explored each clip to pick out the best quality of sound. This is eveident whilst watching the introduction, because we highlighted the more important sounds of the story by rasing its volume, e.g. the tape recorder's "Click" noise. We layered the sounds from lots of different parts of our shoot over sequences in which we wanted link characters together, and create a polished and smoother change in location and shot type. We developed this by using a sound bridge we layered over the sound of Alex's youtube confession with Kate in the interview room which reinforces the audience's understanding that they were together.

Due to the thriller being identified as 'Aftermath', our titles of the film come into play at the end of the sequence. The text of the credits are not symmetrical with each other and come in at different speeds, this contributes to the instability we are trying to depict in our characters. We reflected the high school theme of our production through the black background and white text representing a similar style to that of a chalk board. Our production company "Sirated" is represented through the uneven layout of the lettering on thwe credits, as the lines on the letters employs a similar structure to that of a serrated knife edge which falls into the association of the horror genre. Due to the fact that we are trying to draw peope into the film, we made the speed of the titles fairly slow. Given that our thriller contains no American actors and that it is set and based in England, it can be fundamentally established that it has little appeal to an American audience, giving reason as to why we choose a British distribution company, Vertigo. With the shooting taking place after math in a school we included references to the title throughout the thriller.

TASK 7, Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

More in-depth planning and preparation was involved in the making of the Main task, for example the shooting required an organized storyboard in which we had to construct, as suppose to the prelim task pre made storyboard which we were given.

TASK 6, What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

TASK 4, Who would be the audience for your media product?

Richard from skins, I consider to be the sort of character that would view and enjoy our film, 'Aftermath'. His attitudes towards life, such as 'never compromise' as he repetitively announces in the series, can be seen as the attitude that Alex, played by Seb, employs and acts upon in Aftermath.

FILM PRODUCTION

Film production

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The Script

INT: On Camera (youtube) Confession greenlit / computer screen /webcam look. Actor looks into camera and talks to his ‘audience’:

ALEX:

I don’t expect you to understand now, you’ll see though. I can’t show you until it’s done. Every single day, I watch humanity go about their business, so pointless, so apathetic, shit. That’s what we are. And now it’s time to show every single one of you what you could never see, you’re not so indestructible, you won’t feel so hard tomorrow when your teachers and friends are lain out, lifeless, in front of you, if you’re lucky.

By the time you see this, I’ll be gone and it’ll be done. And you’ll wonder, how could anyone do this, why, what was going through the head of that fucking psycho?!

My answer to you, there is no kindness in mankind, we’re selfish, every single one of us, I’m gonna show you how one insignificant psycho can change everything, not so fucking useless now am I?! By now, I’m dead, literally got away with murder.

Kate, you know you are my world, any time I’ve ever been happy’s been with you. I’m so sorry, but you need to understand that I had to do this. I love you, forever. I love you now, and I’ll love you still when you see this and I’m gone. Don’t go in to school, you don’t need to see this, you’re the only person in this entire fucking world I’m willing to spare.

In years to come, you’ll all be forgotten. Just another kid, tragically killed in that school. But everyone remembers the killer, the psycho that flipped out, killed himself afterwards and claimed it was all justified and in the name of something meaningful. Well let me tell you right now that this is all for the sake of beauty, Kate. The only understanding of real beauty that I ever had. Babe, I won’t let you grow up in a world that doesn’t understand the individual, just like me and you. I won’t let you live in that kind of place, nobody else is gonna change it for you, and you can’t change yourself for the world, so I’ll change the world for you.

INT: CUT TO Interview Room

INTERVIEWER initial insensitive approach, perhaps an element of personal anger over what has happened- shot focused on hand/evidence pictures, Kate out of focus:

 So another senior school boy shoots up his school, posting a confession video beforehand, pretty much claiming it’s all for you and you’re trying to tell me that you had no idea about this? Come on, don’t mess me around here. You know it’s all gonna come out regardless of weather you try and lie to me or not.

KATE focus pulls back to Kate as she replies. She is quiet and emotional, signs of grief and shame strongly apparent:

 (silent tears) are you fucking kidding me? He killed my friends….

Interviewer Same shot pulls back to OTS of interviewer, left shoulder and head in view, focus on Kate:

Just take your time, tell me everything that you know.

Kate Focus changes to Kate’s image in the evidence camera, she is blurred in the background.- Non- diegetic voice over of youtube confession plays over her tears

 (Bursts into uncontrollable tears)

Interviewer Shot cuts to through one way glass, medium wide of the entire interview room, and focus on interviewer here:

 (sighs)

Kate ‘I remember’ said in previous through glass shot, cut to close evidence camera picture.

I remember…. He said don’t go into school (dubbed with au voiceover from video- non- diegetic) – but I didn’t see the video in time, I went to school…..

Interviewer :

What did you see at school?

Girl:

I was in maths, at the very end of the main building……… I heard shots… and screaming…. The shots stopped, I went out…………. (crying)

Interviewer:

 Go on….

Girl:

My best friend…. Was on the floor, I didn’t believe it, I tried to help…….. she was so pale (uncontrollable crying)

Interviewer:

I know it’s hard, is there anything else?

Girl:

There were so many more….. blood everywhere (crying) ………….then I saw him lying there, he was covered in blood….. (breaks down properly) with a gun in his hand (uncontrollable tears)

Interviewer:

Okay, I think we need to take a break. 

TASK 1, In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Distributor

The distributor (in our case Vertigo Films), takes the biggest financial risk in terms of the success of the film, therefore they are mentioned first in the title cards,  upholding the traditional form of most opening sequences. My reason for announcing that it is the distributor that plays a key part in the film's success, is due to my knowledge that, the distribution deal is what creates the film's apparent value.

Producer

 The chronology of our title cards is upholding the film convention of mentioning the producer second to the distributor, due to the fact that the producer possesses a postion of secondry importance to that of the distributor in the films intergration. As a result of the fact that the name seems to fit the genre of the film without conforming to the mundane conventional spelling of the word 'serrated', by choosing to name the production company 'Sirated'. The distributor holds the responsibility of putting together all aspects of the film, such as research, development and the final cut of the post production. The production company is typically presented in the title cards, due to this importance in the impact they have on the life of the film.

Director

It is the director's concept and their artistic vision on which the film is constructed around. Giving reason as to why we have placed his name in the title cards, once again sticking to the codes of convention. However without the presense of the distributor and the production company, it would not be possible for the film to be made or recognized in the industry.  

Title

After the initial opening sequence and not alonside the opening titles we have chosen to include the actual title of the film. The purpose of this is to give it a greater sense of significance and impact on screen via the seperating of this main title card from the crediting title cards and also to keep the concentration level and attention of our audience alive, hence why there are no lenghty title shots during the opening sequences, which we can establish as conforming to a modern convention of film.  An instability of the characters and themes of the thriller is indicated by the writing style in which 'Aftermath' is written, and a further acknowledgement of a school society and life can be depicted through the chalk board style background.

Two different frames of narrative from Kate is presented from this angle. It signifies she is re-telling the events from a subjective point of view, although she is essentially the narrator in this scene. This shot may prompt and encourage an audience's perspective that Kate may not be telling the truth. This can be classified as considerably conventional to 'Neo Noir' style films.

TASK 2, How does your product represent particular social groups?

A social group I believe to be apparent in 'Aftermath' is the emotionally unstable, more commonly known in today's society as "Emo". The stereotype normally refers to people who have a negative perspective of the world and coincidently it is often found that they declare their unsettling hatred through the usage of video. These characteristics of the 'Emo' stereotype can be seen through Seb's performance, depicting some emotional instability through his depressed facial expressions, and through the dialogue of his video confession, fundamentally establishing the character's perspective as negative.Ultimately, we tried to represent Alex (played by Seb) as frustrated, disturbed and bordering on being mentally insane. Simialar to what Jack Nicholson is doing in the image above, of 'One flew over the Chuckoo's nest', we had Seb look directly into the camera for the majority of the screen time in order to intimadate the audience, making them believe his anger and frustration of the world is sincere and will be acted upon.

TASK 3, What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I would choose Vertigo to make and produce my film.  The main reason for this is because they support low budget films that promote raw talent often employing first time directors. Nick Love, a joint owner at Vertigo alongside producers James Richardson and Allan Niblo (who co-founded the outfit in 2002) and distribution head Rupert Preston, says the company ethos is simple: Keep budgets at the right level.

My film is a horror that would especially appeal to teenagers as they will most be able to associate with and recognise many of the underlying phenomena in the film.  The film would be targeting teenagers and marketed over the Internet extensively using many free sites such as Facebook and Twitter. 

A film produced by HBO called Elephant made in 2003 by the particular alternative and artistic director Gus van sant upholds our essential plot of a high school shooting which co-incidentally reflects similar themes of adolescent frustration with society.   Although HBO films fund their movies with a fundamentally higher budget thatnVertigo, they are prone to produce obscure plots.  An example would be Last Days which strangely possesses no dialogue and narration.   It is easily assumed that the films produced like the Last Days  would not be very successful in terms of “bums on seats”, however an audience was found and the film proved a viable business proposition due to the gross revenue of $2 456454.  

TASK 5, How did you attract/address your audience?

Aftermath I believe would appeal to a variety of age groups, with the minimum age for viewing I assume to be roughly 15 years of age. Taking into account major themes of adolescent confusion and depiction of different teenage perspectives enrolled in the production, it can easily be predicted that that the majority of our audiences would be teenagers who are in a current institution of learning (Secondary school or University). The other members of the audiences I believe would consist of parents with children the same age as our protagonist and members of staff from learning institutions that include teenagers. I believe that majority of our teenage targeted audience would be dominated by the female teens, as suppose to the males. This due to the fact Kate, played by Sabrina, possesses waif like characteristics which attracts essentially a lot of female sympathy, because it’s about a girl as suppose to the boy who did the crime, furthermore reflecting feministic beliefs that women pick up the pieces men leave behind. Arguably a female audience might also be apparent because of Seb’s physical appearance, which they may find attractive. Having said this with the genre being ‘Thriller’, it would appear more likely to attract a male dominated audience, due the assumption that men a more prone to seeking interest in the unexpected horrors of society, then females. However this an assumption made by analyzing common stereotype, and generalizing personalities of human beings by their physical differences to each other will almost certainly prove to be inaccurate. 

Account of shoot day

As a group we depicted and presented Kate (Sabrina) as vulnerable, captivated, distressed and imprisoned. The primary reason for our established choice in character was that our story was in want of an evidential bad result of what has happened, this being the essential thrilling side to our high school tale. We achieved this necessary film requirement through high camera angles, over the shoulder shot of the interrogator, set design of the tables being slanted to the corner of the room, the mixed spread of documents and images carelessly displayed on the desk to give an indication of the thoughts engrossing Kate’s mind, the lose tie enabling the audience to view skin giving hints of this vulnerability mentioned previously and also giving the connotations that, in comparison to a fixed tie, Kate is un-civilised and neglects this ordinary requirement. I believe this is her attempt to differentiate herself from this world, in which her boyfriend defines as a place which doesn’t consider the “individual”, and there by obtaining this aim for individualism.        

We set up the interview scene (with Kate and the interrogator) in the studio; however the filming of the Youtube confession was all shot in the Hurtwood House common room. For the studio we constructed an interview room, made of a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum is used for the relief surface to create the fake depiction of brick walls. With the assembling of the desk and the chairs, we rotated them to the corner of the room to gain the feel of imprisonment.

In terms of lighting, we attached ultra violet light string around the computer in the Youtube confession scene, to emphasize the automatic glow produced from a computer when it’s switched on. After a few takes of the scene, we came to the realization that the computer wasn’t necessary, if we were aiming to create a shot that looked as though it was being filmed by a web cam, the computer didn’t need to be in the frame. Although the glow we produced from these UV lights was visible in the shoots, we concluded that they were extremely exaggerated and could be considered to be un-realistic. However in order to make this point appear clear to the audience, an exaggerated effect was necessary, because dimmed UV lights will be too undetectable to our viewers.

My roles undertaken on the shoot day varied from being sound recorder, involving me to find appropriate angles of the room in which the microphone could pick up a clear resonance of the actor’s speech. This proved challenging, for the clearest recording was most obviously nearer to the actors then further away, however I had to take into consideration that the microphone cannot be captured in the take. A steadiness of the hand was required and also a clear sense of recognizing the right levels for recording. It was very much a multi-tasking job. I was also for a short while camera man, in which I undertook the responsibility of discovering the best angle in which to shoot the web cam scene. We made the discovery that the scene looked authentic if it was from just above the actors head height, to give an effect of isolation from the audience he’s talking to. This involved bubbling the tripod to reach the required level. We instructed the actor to reach up towards the right hand corner of the top of the camera, to create this allusion that he was switching on his webcam. The action looked realistic and proved to be a successful usage of camera trickery.

I also created the storyboard for the camera man to follow, which was mostly followed and abided by. However some of my initial ideas were scrapped in the process due to the time they would have taken to shoot, and how little a time we had to capture all the necessary requirements. One idea I had, that was abandoned just before the shoot day, was the ideas of the interview room having a see through mirror Kate’s right hand side.

In terms of the script, we played with the notion of narration. From Seb’s confession of what he believes to be the truth, to detective Ted’s accusing of ‘Kate’ being a liar, to Kate’s betrayal of being perplexed at the current circumstances which then ends with the anti climax, “No, let me tell you what really happened”. A tripod of perspectives becomes apparent to the audience, adding to the attractiveness of the film, being that it leaves the audience ravenous for the truth.  You instantaneously form an opinion on who you believe to be the innocent character, but yet the introduction provides you with some uncertainty of who to blame.

Seb, as an actor, possessed physical features which may have been appealing for the young girl members of the audience. His characterization of the role was played suitably, due to his straining of the eyes, fearsome tone of voice, lowering of eyebrows (indicating the extremities of his disapproval with the worlds) and his occasional direction of vision to look a way from the camera (highlighting insecurities the character possesses). All actions he made gave connotations of anger, instability, hatred and resentment towards everyone (except Kate).

Mood Board

Freaks and Fears

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This mood board is a mixture of the non obvious fears, that appear fairly rarley. You may see certin fears of your own, or something you may have read or heard about which might have seemed strange.

A clockwork orange

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Prelim Post Production Blog!!!!!!

Today we started editing a preliminary production. We began by selecting the appropriate shots from our various takes of each angle, and placing them what is known as a 'Log Bin'. We view each footage becuase there could be errors made either by the camera man, or the actors in which the shots might confuse the audience. To get a Log Bin you go to FILE---->NEW----->BIN. We then renamed the bin preliminary. Once we had selected all your favourite shots, we then had to drag the cilps on to the line in order of the storyboard. This is because we wanted the story to make sense and have some sense of continuity, this process is called sequential editing. We then trimmed down each individual shot, so that they could interlink each other with relevance and to not look disorganized. We needed to consider who we wanted the audience to favor, in terms of actors, this would then be determined by how much screen time we allow them. I believe that our actors recieved fairly balanced screen time, due to the fact we gave JJ the establishing shot and Luke the close up, however if i were to pick the actor the audience would be in favor of it would be Luke. This conclusion i make was not due to how much screen time the actors were given, but simply due to their performance. JJ didnt deliver enough facial expressions for audience to formulate an opinion about him, Luke did and a level of sympathey was summoned up from the viewers.

Prelim Evaluation

Our filming took place in the studio. This enabled us to play with the different levels of lighting. The only filming we did outside the studio was a shot of one of our actors entering the door of the main school building, in which we would edit to make out it was the door of the studio. In filming the opening of the door sequence we used the actors jacket, which he was filmed in during the shoot in the studio, and made Oscar (Camera man) wear it whilst filming himself walk to the door so when his hand came out to turn the door handle, the audience would notice the sleeve of the jacket and identify it as the actor. This is known as a point of view shot.

My role in the shooting of the scene, was to be the director. I dished some instructions for the actors in scene to follow, set markers for where they should stand, working close with the camera man. I aslo had to percific directing words such as "Standby", which would get the response of "Standing by", "Roll it", which would get the response "Rolling", and finally "Action". As the director it was important to make sure that before i say my last line, "Cut", that i should leave a long pause for editing purpose later. This I found slightly hard in our first few takes.

In terms of lighting we played with the exposure on the camera, and white balancing the camera was important. By white balancing we held a piece of white paper in front of the camera where the actor whould eventually stand, we did this inside the studion which we found fairly easy, and outside which was slightly more harder due to the sun at the time. Whilst filming it was important that the camera mans shadow wasnt actually in the shot. This proved difficult when the camera had to be at an angle in front of the light we were using.

In terms of filming i think the four of were quite successful. Being that our actors selected were slightily taller then usual, it was important that whilst doing an over the shoulder shot we adjusted our tripod to level with their shoulders. A few mistakes were made in getting the actor who was walking in to stop in right postion we needed him in the frame. Mistakes were that we were only getting half of the actors face, untill we came to the conclusion to put a marker down were he's suppose to stand. We manged to get a colse up of one of our actor's, Luke, face. We felt this was appropiate to show levels of tension and frustration in the scene, this proved effective. The filming and shots were suppose to be based on a storyboard we were given at the begining of the shoot. The story board was based on wide shots, over the shoulders and close ups. We followed a strict pattern of filming the whole scene in one camera angle, and then "Cutting" and filming the whole scene again in another camera angle. This was a long tiersome pattern, but whould prove to be a successful result in terms of editing our material. We conformed to 180 degree rule, because we felt if broken the audience would get confused.

How to use Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a graphic and picture editing tool. It enables the user to after, manipulate and create images either from existing photos or found images.

We used version CS2, which provides us with a set of tools such as Rectangular marquee tool, Move tool, Lasso tool, Crop tool, Slice tool, Brush tool, Clone stamp tool etc. The clone stamp tool allowed us to take certin elments of one photo, copy that element and moulde it on another photo. This enabled us to add depth to a photo we have already discovered, and visualise it in a completly different way. The spot healing tool allowed us to neaten up are photo, but failry subtle clearence, withouth seeming too fake. This is a useful tool to perfect, for example, a facbook profile picture of you not looking spotty.The dodge tool is applied if you need to brighten up an area of your photo, or simply just make it white.

I found the most effective tool we used for my photos was the clone stamp. I say this because i liked the transportation of how my orginal image looked to what it looks like now.

basic skills, camera work and composition

Composition:
Photography brings a visual language that is universal in understanding. We must then understand its vocabulary which consists of shapes, textures, patterns, lines, colours, shade of light to dark and sharp to blurry images. Just as we must learn to arrange words in a coherent order in order to make sense when we write or speak, so too must we put visual elements together in an organized manner if our photographs are to convey their meaning clearly and vividly.
Composition means arrangement: the orderly putting together of parts to make a unified whole; composition through a personal, intuitive act. However, there are basic principles that govern the way visual elements behave and interact when you combine them inside the four borders of a photograph. Once we have sharpened our vision and grasped these basic ideas of principles, then we will have the potential for making our photographs more exciting and effective than ever before.

The rule of thirds is one of the most popular rules in photography. Most popular amongst artists.