Progress on the College magazine & contents page

Meet the typical reader for Artline

Meet Alexandra M. She is 19, goes to an arts college in London and represents the typical reader for my Artline magazine. Every morning she eats a healthy breakfast, possibly oatmeal, with her parents at home. She doesn't own a car and travels by bus as it gives her time to quickly peruse her notes for upcoming lessons. She drinks mostly bottled water or coffee and spend lots of time at Starbucks reading books or fashion magazines. She watches little TV and mostly news or educational documentaries. She listens to soft rock music, bands such as U2, The rolling stones, Sting, Three Days Grace, One Republic, Nickelback etc. Her favourite meal is Tofu Noodle Bowl as she is vegetarian. She wears ruffles & lace and shops at Hollister, Gilly Hicks & Zara. She doesn't have a boyfriend as she can't seem to find enough time for one. She goes on holidays with a close friend or family to places like Paris & Monte Carlo. She isn't interested in and doesn't quite understand politics so she doesn't vote. She also doesn't frequent bars or pubs and goes there only on special occasions: birthdays etc.

Handout 1: Producing a School/College magazine

I have started off with thinking about the concept and decided to create an arts college magazine cover. Next I had to choose a title, so I took a little survey around the school:

and outside the school: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YFKT962

After deciding to use the title ARTLINE, I have sketched the flat plan:

Then, I took several photos in the photography studio( including medium close-ups, big close-ups and two-shots):

and chose this last photo to be on the cover, then modified it in Photoshop Elements 8. Finally, unsure which one looks better, I went 2 different ways with the design of the first draft of the cover:

Activity 8: Electronic evaluation of the film poster

I have given a lot of thought to the film I was supposed to create a poster for. So, I imagined the plot to be something like this: 'A group of the worst students of an university decide to kill all their smart colleagues, one by one.' My idea for the poster was originally conceived in school, in the common room when, in order to surprise a colleague, one of the students put a hand over her mouth and one over her eyes. Then, I remembered that I had a similar photo in my computer, taken by me last summer, back in Romania. I have therefore drew the plan of the poster on my way home that day and I stuck to it without making any major changes, but further developing that same idea. I have decided to change the slogan, to make it a bit more explicit as well as the font of the title: instead of the 'nice and calm' font I have drawn, I chose to use something more appropriate for a thriller. The idea of the film companies logos came at last, after seeing that most film posters have them. Also, all throughout the process of editing it I have observed the film posters that were really everywhere I looked: on the buses, phone booths and billboards, and kept making small changes to the size and position of the texts I used in order for it to look as real and professional as possible. Finally, I have learned that in order to create a good media production I needed to plan it thoroughly at first.

Activity 2 to 7: Creating a Film poster

To start off, I have sketched a plan of what my poster will roughly look like and scaned it:

The picture used is a high quality close-up, and was taken with a nikon n90s, originally set on black & white. It was taken on a local theatre stage, using a dim spotlight. Here it is, edited and darkened in Photoshop Elements 8:

Next, I have considered a font for the title that I thought was suitable for a thriller genre. Therefore, inspired from the hit thriller Fight Club, I have downloaded the font below.

Then, using a normal brush I have drawn a few spots at the end of it to to make it look like blood.

I have used a crimson red colour for both the title and the credit blocks, for which I have again downloaded a font, called Univers LT 39 Ultra Thin and made up some fictional names for producers, actors etc:

As for the final touches i put at the bottom the logos of some famous American production companies such as CBS and Escape as well as the 15+ rating logo:

Here it is as a work in progress:

And finally, this is how the poster looks like after a few finishing touches in Photoshop:

Activity 1: Researching film posters for teen films

Here, the majority of teenagers are represented as typically American, acting like they are always in a popularity contest, valuing style over substance and not the other way around. The main character is presented in a positive light contrasting with the others. On the poster we can see the main character, dressed casually, and three 'Barbie Doll' girls posing in the back, their picture considerably smaller. Given that the genre is 'comedy', the poster is colourful and bright, the predominant is pink therefore the poster appeals mainly to teenage girls. The layout is slightly unconventional with the title being placed vertically. There isn't a film certificate on the poster, although it is rated PG-13 meaning that it is suitable to almost all audiences. Finally, the poster does have a slogan: 'WATCH YOUR BACK', which is written in bold -> a mock warning to prepare us for the 'war' that is high school.

For the second teen film I have chosen a completely different genre. The Invisible is a thriller teen film and therefore the teenagers are presented in a rather negative light. The image used for the poster is bleak, we can see a silhouette of the main character fading away in the pouring rain making the audience wonder about him. The poster is dark, the main colours used are blue, white and black and the layout is conventional with the title in capital letters in the middle, the Credit Blocks are small, at the bottom. We can notice at the top the names of other well known films in order to attract audience more easily. The film is rated PG-13 for violence. This, however, does not appear on the poster. The slogan used: 'LIFE, DEATH AND SOMETHING IN BETWEEN' gives us an insight into what the film may be about.