Preliminary Task - Dolly and Boom Mic

When filming our piece, we could record the sound using a built in mic from the camera, or we can use either a directional microphone or high definition audio recorder.

This is a directional microphone. The discretional mic is good when you want to keep the main sound the loudest so the background noise doesn't drown it out. They are useful when recording dialogue. Also, since it can be mounted on an arm, you can bring the microphone closer to the source of the sound, therefore get a recording that records your dialogue clearer than anything else. Also, it doesn't need to be very close to the sound so you are able to keep the sound equipment clearly out of shot. However, if you are planning to capture sound over a wide of area, a directional mic is not ideal as you will need multiple to capture all of the sound. 

When recording moving shots, the video will appear shaky and unstable. To counter this, we can film our video using a dolly. 

A dolly essentially a stand to put a tripod on, or a tripod style camera mount with wheels. Using a dolly means you can keep the shot steady when you are required to follow one of the actors with the camera. 

Although a Dolly is useful, it will only be useful on fairly smooth surfaces. You can use it on all terrain if you have a track for it to roll along as this will give it a smooth surface regardless.

By Reece Hack

Preliminary Task

Roles:
Director - Myself (Reece Hack)
Cinematography, plot and storyboard - Alex Jones
Location scout - All
Actor 1 - Emily Wicker
Actor 2 - Gabby Edwards
Editor -  Jack Nicholls

Idea one

A bloodied man enters a mostly empty room, which has just a table in it. On the table is a briefcase and another man, who is in a suit and neat. The bloodied man sits down and the other man is talking about his back history with authorities and offers him an assignment. Only then does the man speak.

 Idea Two

Somebody is seen nervous waiting for an interview. When they are beckoned in they sit down and are visibly shaken. Some dialogue is exchanged but soon enough they begins to dissociate and panic.

We have chosen to use idea one for our preliminary task, as we felt it was the most effective interpretation of the task we were given. 

Idea One Plot

Fade In:

Room scene

Camera is at foot level and follows a man in a suit as he walks down a corridor, he stops at a door and another man opens it, the camera is on the far side of the room as the suited man walks in. In the room is a table with a chair on either end. In the chair closest to the door sits another man in scraggy clothes, head down hands on lap, the suited man walks in and puts a folder on the table before pulling out the chair, the camera changes to face the empty chair, the man sits down, his face has several gashes and his right eye is closed,

Suited Man

Tea?

(Camera faces the other man who doesn’t answer, camera back to suited man)

suited man

I’ll take that as a no

(Suited man takes a tissue from his inside jacket pocket and wipes away some of the blood)

suited man

You put up one hell of a fight, I have to say

(Other man doesn’t reply)

suited man

Let’s have a little look-see shall we?

(Suited man opens the folder)

suited man

FBI, CIA, M.I’s 5 and 6, the Australian Secret Service, you’ve got quite the resume.

(Camera back on the other man but he still doesn’t answer. Suited Man leans forward)

suited man

You’ve been off our radar for two years, so why come back now?

(Camera goes onto other man)

Other man

Because London is in danger...

Fade Out:

The End

Magazine Contact sheet

final magazine cover process and analysis

Above is how I plan to lay out my magazine cover. This is a rough plan, and is subject to change. I decided that the main headline would go right in the middle so that it is one of the first things you see when you look at the magazine. The secondary headlines would go nearer to the sides so that the main image would not be obscured. I also opted to put a white box next to the masthead to act as i skyline of sorts, where i will put a secondary headline. I plan to use a serif font for the majority of the text on the magazine cover, as this is part of the house style of Q magazine. Serif fonts also provide a sense of tradition, which is good for a magazine like Q as it is a fairly prestigious magazine that has been around for quite a long time. 

For my final magazine cover, I took anew set of photos, this time bringing in my guitar as a prop. I took a number of photos, however I chose this one as I felt it was the best in terms of lighting and the position of myself. However, there is a section of a soft light caught in the top right of the photo, which I will get around by either cropping or by cutting the figure of myself out and placing it over another background.
The first thing I wanted to do was to change image of myself into black and white, but not the background.

To do this, first, i need to select myself using the quick selection tool and drawing around the area I need, as seen in process in the screenshot above. i decided to do it in two selections so that i could keep the guitar in colour. The selection you make will turn black and white when you convert, however, everything else will remain in colour. Once i have gone over the top and bottom halves of me and converted them to black and white, I got an image that looked like this.

The next step is to cut the image of me and the guitar out so that i can place it on a new background.

By going around the image of myself again with the quick selection tool and pressing delete to get rid of he background, i managed to get the image of myself on its own. The next step was to add a background.

I selected a black wood background, as i felt black would add good contrast to the blue of the guitar and would go well with the dark tones of the black and white image of me. My image was now ready to make into a magazine cover.

 I then began to shape the image into a "Q" cover, as that is the magazine i used for my analysis. I use the rectangle tool to create the Red square which the magazine title would be placed on and the white banner at the top to write info about an article inside the magazine on. I made sure that the Q, which is the masthead, was in a large font so that it is clear what magazine it is when looking from a distance. 

I wrote the main cover line in very Large font for the same reason and also used the same colour scheme so that my magazine was kept to the house style of Q magazine. The fonts for all the other cover lines are in either white or red, as these are the colours used on the Q logo, meaning I have kept to the house style. I have used black font when writing on a white background such as on the skyline and in the circle advertising the free poster inside, as the black font complimented the white background. Above the Q masthead is my selling line, which uses the buzzword "greatest" to make people want to buy the magazine. The two other images on the magazine other than the main image have a white border, which i did by adding a stroke to the layer in the blending options, so that you notice them straight away, and white also it part of the Q house style. I also added a stroke to the main headline so that it can be seen with ease. I kept the headline to the house style of red and white so that is a clearly part of a "Q" cover. Finally, the quote underneath the main headline uses the buzzwords "bigger" and "better" so that the reader wants to read the interview that the quote is referring to.