Magazine production (ancillary text)

As previously discussed for one of my ancillary texts I have decided to create a magazine advert for my chosen artist. After coming to this conclusion I conducted some product research and I am now in the stages of creating my final magazine ad. 

In order to create my advertisment for my chosen band I felt that I would be achieve the out come that I wanted through the use of a word document. Although simplistic, word is able to format images, add various shapes and borders. 

My desired outcome was one that was minimalist yet eye catching - I did not want to distract the viewer with too much information or imagery. In order to create the magazine add I created the shapes and text that i wanted to add a simply placed them over my image.

Below is a screen shot from Word which is able to show the beginnings of my add and how it is progressing.

The picture

During the photo shoot, in total, I took around 30 photos with Megan in various poses. After going through each photo I decided that these three were my favorites and the ones I felt would look good as a part of my ancillary texts.

Once choosing these three photos I edited the brightness, shadow and exposure in order to achieve this dusty and bright effect.

                 

Creating the picture

As a part of my ancillary texts my group an I decided that we wanted to create our own image that would be able to feature as a part of our chosen ancillary products. 

Rather that choosing an image that can be found on the internet, I like the idea of creating my own image that I would be able to use as a part of my website and my magazine advertisement. I wanted the image to be able to resemble album artwork as many of the bands that I researched use their album photo on their websites and as a part of their magazine advertisements. 

I felt that creating my own image would give me more freedom in relation to how I wanted the image to turn out. As a group we disused potential ideas for our final photo and came to an agreement that we wanted our photo to be bright with a colorful back ground as well as feature the main girl that appears in the music video. 

In order to create the photo there needed to be plain white back ground that colour would be able to be added to. In order to achieve the we decided to use a blank white canvas. The canvases that were available to buy were not big enough in size for the effect my group and I wished to achieve so, alternately we created our own canvas. Megan gathered the materials and made the canvas, with help of her step dad, by using a white cloth material and wooded sticks for the edges. 

Once the canvas was completed we were then able to cover the canvas in colour. This process was fairly straight forward and was achieved by mixing poster paint with water and splattering it over the canvas.

We decided to do this outside with the canvas laid on the grass due the process being quite messy. 

once the canvas was covered we left it to dry over night and came back to it the next morning which was when we took the photo. 



Taking the photo during the morning was beneficial as this provided natural light which was able to emphasis the colours. Before the photo could be taken we noted that we a person to be stood either side so that the canvas could be pulled taught to remove any creases. considering that there are only three people in my group and Megan and I were unable to hold the canvas we called upon the help of our friend Elliot to come hold the canvas in place whilst the photo was being taken.

 After the canvas was taught the photo was ready to be taken. Collectively we felt that it would look better if Megan was dressed in all white clothing as this would help the background colour to stand out.

Now that the photos have been taken I will now choose the ones that I am most happy with and edit them to make the look more appealing and professional. 

Props

From previous research into existing products and having past experience in relation to creating a media production I understand the relevance of props and how the connotations of certain objects can have an effect on the audience. 

The first prop the my group and I secured was the bracelet. Apart from the girl her self, I really felt the the two settings of my product needed an item that was able to connect the two and bring the parallels together. A piece of jewelry felt an appropriate item that would be able to intertwine both settings. The bracelet it's self is able to signify a bond between the pair as well as symbolize the idea that they are together even when apart and the memory of what once was.  

The other main prop that featured in my product was a part of costume, a pair of sunglasses. Initially the sunglasses were used as a part of my product as a way to portray to the audience the idea that the scenes that they were viewing were taking place in a different season. I felt that sunglasses were an effective way of achieving this as when paired with light clothing and green scenery, sunglasses are able to help emphasis a change in season and place emphasis on a more summer like tone to the imagery. 

Another way in which the sunglasses played significance in my product was in relation to the male characters identity. The focus of my music video is the girl as it follows her story and her emotions, I didn't want the onset on a male character to be distracting to the audience and neither did I want the audience to establish as much of a connection with Joe as they would Megan. I felt that the sunglasses were able to mask Joe's identity is subtle way without drawing to much attention away from the overall message of the video. 

Website production (ancillary texts)

As previously discussed for one of my ancillary texts I have decided to create a website. After coming to the conclusion I conducted some product research and I am now in the stages of creating my website. 

In order to create the website for my chosen band I decided it would be best accomplished with the use of a web page builder. These website that allow the user to create their own pages are beneficial to use as they provide the user with a good structure and format that can be used easily. 

The web page creator I decided to use was a website called Wix. I found the Wix website after searching for a web creator and after looking at several I decided that Wix would be the most appropriate for what I was trying to achieve. I was drawn to the Wix creator as it maintained a simple format but still enabled me to add a good amount of detail into my chosen design. I was also drawn to Wix as it was full with a variety of feature that I felt would be able to give my website the professional appearance that I desired. 

Below is a screen shot from Wix which is able to show a page of my website and how it is progressing. 

I felt very conformable using Wix as it provided me with creative freedom and a range of formats that could be chosen from. Next I will continue with my website creation as well as focus on my other ancillary.  

Additional Production

After our previous session of filming my group and I were unhappy with several shots and were were also unsure of the outfit worn by our male lead. Due to these areas in which we felt could be improved we decided to schedule and new date in order to secure some more shots.

Below is an example of one of the shots we attained during a second round of filming.

Although it would have been better if we were able to have secured that shots we needed in the way we wanted first time i feel that my group and I were able to demonstrate good time management in relation to how we efficiently rescheduled our production plans.

Overall after filming the scenes again we were must more happy with the shots and I feel that the improved quality will help my final product to come across as professional and well executed.