jbcinteractive

Tuesday, 2 June 2015

Unit 3 2.1 Software Development

Software wise I feel I've made a lot of progress on Photoshop as I now know how to make the lines on my drawings more defined and I know how to make a colour layer.I've learnt about the RGB and CMYK colour settings which have helped with the colour on my book. In Design was a new experience but I feel I've made a lot of progress on it as I know now how to create a story book layout with a front, back and spread page. I've also learnt about the new 'bleed' settings when printing the book; this gave me trouble at first but I soon learnt about it and fixed the print settings accordingly.

This is my first time using InDesign; I've learnt how to set up a new book document with pages as you can see here:

I simply just typed the number of pages I wanted(In this case four because I needed a front, back and double spread page). I also picked the A3 type paper due to my research leading me to see that children's books are normally bigger then adult books with their pages containing much more images and content.

As you can see I've already scaled the picture to properly fit the print setup. But if I hadn't it would've bled to the outside of the borders which in turn would make the book look slanted or distorted.

Here are both my books; one is printed with the pages 'bleeding' out of the border(Left) and the other is properly formatted(Right).

I chose the font 'Hobo Std':

As you can see I chose it due to it's fu and formal look; the curved font connotes to the audience that this book is for children but the boldness of the font connotes a smart, formal look.

I was going to choose the 'Brush Script Std' font but I decided against it due to the possibility that some of the audience may not be able to read font in this style.

I also considered the 'Bookman Old Style' but I chose not to have it; simply because I did not feel it stood out as much as the 'Hobo Std' font choice.

As you can see in the image below there are white margins where the image would be cut off and thus there would be more empty space/stylistic choices such as roses or petals coiling around the empty space. You can also see an example of this below.

I did not choose to have any empty space for my book as I felt the more content I could fit on the page would mean that a child would pay attention to the book for longer.

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

Unit 4-Evaluation

Evaluation

Strengths and weaknesses throughout the project.

Strengths:

I thought I had strong relevant questions.

I’ve asked as many people as I could

I feel I’ve compiled all my results into clear graphs and tables

The presentation of my results were clear and most people understood it

Weaknesses:

I didn't give the questionnaires to any of my family members

I only managed to get back fifteenth questionnaires instead of the full twenty

I only asked people from the media area and not at the crib or somewhere else

Anything you may change next time?

I would’ve asked more people from a variety of areas(crib etc.)

I also would’ve asked my family members

I would try and get all the questionnaires completed

Why is it important is it to do contextual research?

It is important because the context is vital to having a frame to work in; it gives you a clear objective path as you can narrow your research and findings down so you only get relevant information.

Discuss why you have used the research methods you have used for this project.

I mainly used primary research for my questionnaire as I knew the demographic I would be giving the questionnaires to; secondary research may not be reliable as I may not know the demographic of all the people that answered their questionnaires. I used secondary research for my presentation and drink and advert analyses

Have any specific research methods altered your ideas throughout the project?

Yes, whilst I was researching the bottle designs for my questionnaire it gave me ideas for my own bottle designs. For example when I was compiling images of bottles for my questionaire I decided I wanted my bottle to have the same top as the "Fruit Shoot" bottle and the length of the "Ribena" bottle(pictured below).

Eventually I found a bottle design that would work well with my theme and it fit the criteria I wanted(Pictured below).

How has being aware of historical influences affected your decisions?

I was just going to begin with the 18th century on my presentation but as I learnt about the history of advertising in more detail I decided to date the presentation back to Ancient Egypt and before. Also during my presentation I decided to not only use posters as examples of advertising and so I used more timely example, for example tv adverts.

What skills have you developed?

I feel I’ve developed my research skills; in the past I would’ve only skimmed through some research and not read it in detail but now I delve deeper into the research to help expand any context/points. I can now properly create questionnaires with proper formatting.

Now what? How might you develop your research techniques for next time?

I will branch out more so I can give my questionnaires to a range of people from different sections of the college and from outside of the college(friends, family etc.). I will also spend much more time looking in depth into certain aspects of the subject.

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Audio Project

Evaluation of The Finished Audio Play

Theft Audio Drama

Pros and Cons of the Project

Pros

I feel I co-ordinated the sounds well according to the script; I especially enjoy the cabinet door flinging open with the Thief being caught. The actors also played their parts with the correct level of audio for each line(the Thief spent most of his time whispering whilst the homeowner shouted/spoke most of his lines). The editing aspect of the project went well with only some minor slip ups here and there(explained in the cons section). I managed to time the edited in sound effects well and each part has the correct level of audio. My team had to improvise many of the sounds as we didn't have the proper equipment(the foley aspect); for example instead of a lamp we used a clicking pen as a substitute.

Cons

Some of the equipment I had didn't work as well as I wanted; for example the recorder itself was only recording in one channel so I had fix that in post-production. The editing aspect had a slip up as I didn't know how to edit the channels in Logic Pro. Eventually I had to get help and then I was redirected to the program Adobe Premiere Pro to get both channels functioning. During the recording session I had forgotten to hold the mic still so I was waving it around to catch the sounds. I realised that this was a mistake when I listened to the recording; I could hear a whooshing sound. I deleted this recording and started a new one; this time holding the mic still.

Skills Development

One valueable lesson I had learn't was how to fix audio recording channels; though this was only on Adobe Premiere Pro. I've learn't how to edit audio into a recording whilst properly timing it.

Contrast with Filming

Audio and Film development are very different with different levels of difficulty. Planning a film involves obviously differs when you have to draw storyboards for the film sequence; whilst when I was on the planning stages of the audio play I came up with a number of different plots for it, picked one and designed a script around it. I did not have to do a recce sheet for the audio play as I was only in M011.

Improvements

If I could make improvements to my audio play I would try to find more equipment to do foley with; I would've got myself a lamp for the lamp effect and a creaky stool for when the Thief was traversing the house. I also would've looked for a proper recording device that has both channels working.

What Did and Didn't Work Well?

I think the recording of the actual play went well as I only had to do three takes(one for the practise run, one that was inturupted when one of the objects fell at the wrong time and the last take managed to run smoothly). The recording whilst initially flawed due to only one of the headphone buds working; did manage to actually get recorded with no other disruptions. The editing process was challenging at first due to the fact that only the left channel was playing audio whilst the right channel

was staying quiet. To fix this I had to enlist the help of Toby; he equalised the audio so that both channels were playing audio. I did not use different microphones as there were none but if I had I would not have to have gone through the hassle of fixing the audio; I could've also listened to the recording(as I was recording it) with both ears.

Wednesday, 15 April 2015

Radio Play Script

Radio Play Script

Ideas For The Radio Play

Ideas

Settings

Warehouse
Farm
Factory

Sound Equipment

Cutlery, dishes and cups to represent a meal scene.
Computer boot up sounds to represent someone on the computer.
Rub two tin foil sheets to represent static on a radio or television set.
A phone could be used for many actions that involve mobiles(such as text tapping and message received sounds).
A lamp clicking noise to represent someone sitting at their desk at night.
Grit in a tray to represent someone walking up a driveway.
Alarm clock beeps to represent someone waking up in the morning.
Wooden boards to represent a bridge or flooring.
A simple analog wall clock’s ticking could indicate that a scene is set inside a room.
A fizzy drinks can cracking open can represent someone drinking.

Plot Ideas

A thief breaks into a house only to be caught by the homeowner. (Sounds needed, carpet/wood, alarm clocks, a bag full of items to drop, a lamp for clicking noises, cutlery and other metals to represent valuables,)
The thief could be unseen by the homeowner or the homeowner could be openly looking for the thief.

The thief could either be really professional and leave a tired homeowner guessing or the thief could be clumsy and the homeowner could catch on quickly.

Radio Play Sound Effects

These are sound effects I've found on Logic Pro. They include a Gun shot, lock picking and a non diabetic clock ticking sound. I've chosen to get these on Logic Pro due to not being able to replicate them perfectly in real life
I will use these for my audio play
The "clock wind up" effect will be a non-diegetic effect as it will constantly be in the background and set the mood

Radio Play After Rehearsals

After the practise rehersals I've realised that I didn't consider the fact that I could not preform some of the voice effects properly for example the muffled talking. The creaking sound effect may be hard to do as there really isn't any equipment to use for a creek.

Radio Play Case Study

Radio Plays

Radio plays have to main rely on audio techniques. During the audio project I will be looking at way to enhance an audio play to make it more immersive. The BBC radio play "murder is easy" is based on an Agatha Christie crime book; in the play we can a varyed range of audio effects ranging from crashing, panting and rushed actions(for example hurried paper shuffling or running). Because the genre of the play is crime the actions have to be clearly explained or heard to get the audience fully immersed; if the actions were a little bit off or inaccurate then the audience may be confused about certain parts in the story.

Music is also an important aspect of this particular play as it delivers a lot of audio clues to the audience; for example when a plot twist is uncovered you can hear a striking small tune that brings about a feeling of shock and suspense. Other examples of musical clues are the relaxing tunes when a character is sharing a moment or being snetimental to another character.

To create the enviromental atmosphere of many of the sets the recording areas are changed between a big spaciouse room:

To a proper kitchen or living area to capture the acoustics of a scene:

They even use big sinks to create the effects of a swimming pool or a pond; they have to use this large sink due to the fact that they don't have a swimming pool or a proper bath so this sink will have to do:

There can also be sound absorbing rooms to make an outdoor scene; they use these rooms because if they had used a normal room or hall then there would be an echo effect which is not normally heard outside:

Here are a range of doorbells; each doorbell is very specific to an individual's house. We can see this because there are labels on each one; all the doorbells:

This is dog food; it is foley equitment used as pig feed and other animal feed.

Equipment Used

Foley equipment is used for substitutions of other noises in radio plays and films; for example a low budget radio play may not be able to have an actual gun firing so they would use a heavy phone book to drop on a hard surface and create a loud bang noise. Some examples of foley sounds are creaking sounds coming from old chairs. Often in old movies you would find foley equiptment being used; horror movies are an example as they may record a frozen lettuce being crunched as a substitute for a head being squashed. Some other examples of foley sounds are creaking sounds coming from old chairs which could substitute for a stair step creaking.

Sometimes in radio plays you will just get the actual piece of equipment used instead of a substitute foley; you can see this in the Archer's doorbell picture. They use a board of doorbells which is convenient as the doorbells would all be in one place and you would not have to move the mic between them. This practice is used so that the recording sounds authentic as the noises would be recorded in the same room as the actors and to be added in later.

You may also digitally add in sound from programs like Logic and other editing softwares; an editor may use this when a recreated foley sound does not sound like the noise they wanted. Gun shots are often hard to re-create due to the fact that there are many other components to a gun shot; you have the initial clicking as the trigger is pulled, the actual bang itself and finally you have the smoke fizzing from the gunshot. All of this would be hard to recreate using low budget objects so you may resort to finding sounds online.

Equipment I Used

For my radio play I have mainly used the foley technique with only a few actual sounds being produced. For example I used a pen clicking to substitute for a lamp and wooden planks that substitute form hard wood flooring. The only noises that were created organically were the sound of an object hitting the floor(this was easy as I did not specify what object I would use) and I also had the idea for one of my actors actually getting into the cabin ate in the recording studio and that produced the sound of the cabin ate opening and slamming open in the script.

I used digital noises for the gunshot and the loud creaking doors as there were no doors that would produce a loud and ominous creak in the college. I also used a digital gunshot for the reason of a gunshot being hard to organically make or reproduce using foley equipment.

I have used a recorder similar to this make in the picture above. I had mainly left it on the table so that I could focus on holding the microphone still. I found my first practise recording's audio was a bit wavy and all over the place; this was due to me pointing the microphone at the sounds and actors as they were happening. I used proper headphones such as these:

These headphones would've proved more useful then standard headphones as they seem like they can capture where the audio is coming exactly. Unfortunately the headphones only worked in one ear and there were no spares so I had to listen through only one headphone bud. I had also used Adobe Premier to equalise the sounds as audio was only recorded though one channel.