Ancillary Tasks - FINAL DESIGNS

MAGAZINE FRONT COVER

DVD FRONT COVER

Final Production Update

As I have previously stated I was going to use motion picture to portray each of the characters personality however I have now decided not to do this. My final opening title sequence is approximately 40 seconds long and if I decided to still use motion picture it would make the final product far too long as generally opening title sequences for children’s TV are approximately just under a minute. However, I have used motion picture when showing an establishing shot of the new school Jimmy will be joining.

Another final task I had to do was to create a final image that could go at the end of the title sequence stating the name of the show. For this I decided to use the half face effect, the same colour palette and the same rhetorical question as I have used on my DVD front cover as this would be recognisable for the children and parents. I have also included the ‘BBC’ and ‘CBBC’ logos as I believe these are unique selling points and are very important.

When editing my opening title sequence I thought that a voice over would sound good therefore I decided to record Oliver (Jimmy) saying “I miss you” for the image where he is knelt beside his father’s grave and “I have to go, I’m sorry” for when he is walking away from his mother and Blake. I thought this would be effective as it would allow the audience to get a sense of the narrative and the feelings of the main character.

I recorded this voice over on a normal video recorder and then separate the audio and motion picture so that I just have the audio.

Throughout my opening title sequence I have used a number of different transitions in order to make it more continuous. Below are the following transitions I have used:

• Cross dissolve between the images where Jimmy is visiting his biological father’s grave
• Lens flare between the image where Jimmy is walking across the field and the image of the Manchester Wheel as I believe this transition represents a new beginning
• Circular motion
• Clock 

A final editing technique I have used is ‘echo’ which shows the name of the character and the name of the actor/ actress. This effect will be used on images where each character is shown and not throughout the opening title sequence. For each different name I have changed the colour so that it brightens it up and looks more enjoyable which will appeal to children more than having a plain and boring colour. Finally, as my final image has the same font as I have used throughout I have had to change the font of the ‘echo’ effect titles so that it looks continuous and relates more otherwise the final image with the title on would not fit well with the rest of the opening title sequence. The font I have used is ‘market felt’.

Production Update

Over the past week I have been solely concentrating on editing and completing my main task, this being the opening title sequence.

This process began by choosing pictures from the final few shots I most recently gathered. After making this decision it was then decided that I wanted each picture to be of different timings. This was because I wanted the timing to portray the mood of the scene/ setting and therefore I made the high action shots a lot smaller and the slow/ sad shots longer. For example the picture where Jimmy is visiting his biological father’s scene is 3:00 seconds and the shot where Jimmy is leaving and walking across the field, all the 5 shots are 00:23 seconds long.

When considering music I was initially going to use a number of songs throughout the opening title sequence but due to the complexity of getting the songs to sound continuous without any noticeable jumps was extreme therefore I have decided to use one song. When I first decided on using one song I chose ‘Gray Knight’ as this was very high action and portrayed determination however it did not fit well with the first few scenes where Jimmy is still living with his mother and Blake. I then tried a song called ‘Discover Tranquillity’ but again this did not fit well as it was very depressing and saddening throughout. This then led me to other songs I had found on the www.freeplaymusic.com website. After listening to a few I decided on ‘Serious Elevation’ as the beginning of the song is very slow moving and as the song goes on it increasingly gets louder and more upbeat. After downloading the song and putting on Final Cut Pro X I had to match the picture of the Manchester Wheel with the part of the song where the music changes.

I have also made the music longer than the actual opening title sequence as when the actual programme begins I want the music to still play for a few second. Furthermore, I have made the music slowly fade out instead of completely stopping.

Ancillary Task: Change to the Magazine Front Cover

In recent posts I have blogged about questionnaires and results based on what my target audience wants my magazine to be called, the font of the title and the colour of the title. However, after much discussion over what is expected from the ancillary task as a class we have come to the conclusion that the magazine should be titled the same as the series and therefore the title of my magazine will be ‘Jimmy’s Journey’ and the title will be the same font/ style as what has been used throughout this process.

I have informed my target audience on this decision and they have agreed that they like the font choice and colour. They have also decided that they still want the following featured on the front cover:

• Interviews with the cast
• Top secrets on the cast
• A competition
• A free gift (to lure the audience in)
• A game (character profiling quiz)

Ancillary Task: Production Update

At the beginning of this week I completed my first ancillary task, the DVD front cover. After continuously looking at my final design there were many changes I need to make before I was 100% happy with it.

One of the changes I made was with the title. Initially, I had five sets of footprints going up/ away from the ‘I’ in Jimmy’s. these footprints were going to be placed on Oliver’s (Jimmy) face to symbolise tears but when I printed the design off the footprints looked very harsh and bold whereas the other aspects of the DVD cover very soft and bright, for example I used the ‘fade’ effect on the majority of my pictures. After some helpful advice I decided to remove two sets of footprints and also make each set of footprints darker and they got they reached the ‘I’. Additionally, I decided to rotate the footprints so they look like they are rolling down Oliver’s face as this will make the audiences realise they are tears more than what they would if they were going upwards.

Initial title idea

As I have finally completed the DVD front cover I can now focus on editing and completing my opening title sequence and my magazine front cover.

Production Update

Today I managed to complete the remaining scenes meaning I have now finished taking pictures ready for my opening title sequence.

At first I thought that I wasn’t going to be able to get the pictures of Jimmy leaving, whereby he has to walk across a field, as the weather was awful. It was hail stoning and the rain was very heavy. Luckily, this passed over and we were fortunate to be able to complete this scene. Initially, I stated that this will be done on Wythenshawe Park however there were a number of football matches going on so we decided to use the field at Timperley Cricket Club. I took a range of shots including:

• A close up of Jimmy’s feet walking
• A long shot of Jimmy walking away (his back to the camera)
• A long shot of Jimmy turning to face Maggie and Blake
• A Long shot of Maggie and Blake together as they watch Jimmy walk away

I started to take pictures of Maggie and Blake from the right hand side of them but there was a stall selling Christmas trees in the background therefore I had to take these pictures from the left hand side but this change did not have any effect.  

Right hand side:

Left hand side:

By the time I and the characters were ready to do the scene where Jimmy sees his mother and Blake arguing in the window the weather had brightened up so I worried whether the sun would reflect on the window meaning I couldn’t see Maggie and Blake in the window. Luckily, this did not happen so I was able to see them arguing in the window clearly.

The final scene was where Maggie (Jimmy’s mother) is comforting Jimmy after he has been to visit his biological father’s grave. This was done in my living room. The first two pictures I took were with the flash on however this made the images very bright and harsh therefore I decided to turn the flash off and use the natural lighting.

With the flash on:

With the flash off:

Finally, I decided to take a picture (a long shot) of some holiday homes at Agden Brow as I thought this shot would look good on my DVD front cover as it would show the background of Jimmy’s life and give the audience some incline that he is a Gypsy as they usually gravitate to these kind of areas and living spaces.

Shooting Schedule

Sunday 7^th December

Maggie meets Blake and is introduced Jimmy

On Sunday 7^th December I am going to be completing the scene which is highlighted as I have recently done the scene where we see Blake and Jimmy together. 

This will be the ending of taking still images for my opening title sequence.

Shooting Schedule

Sunday 7^th December

Jimmy and mother together

Shooting Schedule

Sunday 7^th December

Jimmy Leaving

Due to the location of this scene I was restricted to certain days because during most days of the week there is football matches and training sessions taking place. As my dad is highly involved in Saturday and Sunday league football I asked him which teams play on Whythenshaw Park. After this list was made I rang the different teams to find out when they either trained or played matches. From this I decided the filming date and time and luckily my actors/ actresses were able to attend this date. 

Ancillary Task: Magazine Title - final design

Editing Update

In today’s lesson I chose the pictures I wanted to use from the three scenes I have recently done. These scenes being when Blake is introduced to Jimmy, Jimmy meets Burdine and Jerome and finally Jimmy meets Sadie.

After I completed this I decided to begin editing my music. As I was certain that I wanted to use the ‘Gray Knight’ soundtrack that I had originally found on www.freeplaymusic.com I decided to edit this first. To begin with I had to revisit this website and download the soundtrack; I then had to import the media to Final Cut Pro X. once I had done this I listened to the track all the way through and picked out the bits I liked the best. As this music is being used during Jimmy’s movement to Manchester I wanted it to sound very bold and determining to symbolise how Jimmy is feeling. When I was listening to it I found that it wasn’t as exciting as I first thought so I decided to pick out two parts and try to overlap them. When I found the parts of the soundtrack I liked I had to drag one side of a box at the beginning of the part and the corresponding side to the end of the box, this box was then dragged and placed on top of the pictures of Manchester City Centre and will be on top of the pictures where Jimmy is walking across a field when they have been taken. I then had to use the blade editing tool to make sure that the overlapping of the song fitted well and sounded good.

This is a screenshot of the editing I have done to the soundtrack:

I am still considering the other soundtracks I am going to use as I believe that using different soundtracks may be too complex for me to edit together to make it sound good and continuous.

Ancillary Task: Magazine Font Questionnaire - the results

I have decided to use the fonts that I originally found for the cover lines as they stood out to me from all the different fonts. This is good because a convention of a magazine front cover is to have a bold and eye-catching title which draws the audience in.

When I revisited the website I used to find the cover line fonts (www.fontspace.com) I found another two fonts which I liked and throught were highly appropriate.  These are ‘Omniblack’ and ‘Mouse Memoirs font’ (shown below).

Omniblack

Mouse Memoirs font

To come to a final decision on what font to use I printed off the different fonts and asked 20 students (aged 12 to 16 to fit my target audience) which font they liked best. Below are my findings:

Font	Number of participants who chose this font for the title of my magazine
Playball	1
Cutie Patootie (see through)	0
Cutie Patootie (bold/ filled)	1
Really Awesome	3
KG A Little Swag	0
Hug Me Tight	5
Lobster Two	3
DJB and My Shadow	1
Typo Garden Demo	0
Love you through it	3
Omniblack	0
Mouse Memoirs font	3

From this I can clearly identify that ‘Hug Me Tight’ was the most popular font therefore I will use this font. Conclusively, this means that my final magazine title design will be the ‘Hug Me Tight’ font in the colour light blue. 

Ancillary Task: Magazine front cover details

Now that I have come to a final decision on the title of my magazine I can concentrate on the font of the title. To do this I will research different font types on www.fontspace.com and ask my target audience which they like best.

Summary of my magazine: (conventions)

• I will include an official website link for the series
• I will have pictures of the cast members
• I will include the production company as this could be my unique selling point due to their well-known success
• I will feature interviews with the cast, tope secrets on the cast, a competition, a free gift (to lure the audience in) and a game (character profiling quiz)
• A main image of Oliver (Jimmy)
• Price and barcode
• A tag line
• A cover line
• An eye-catching title
• Slogan
• A masthead 

Ancillary Task: Questionnaire Results

Question 1

The different names the participants had to choose from	Number of participants who chose this name to be the title of the magazine
Jump!	9
HEY!	3
Babble	4
Hint	4

Question 2

The colours that the participants had to choose from	The number of participants who chose this colour for the title of my magazine
Purple	2
Green (light)	1
Green (dark)	2
Blue (light)	10
Blue (dark)	3
Orange	2

Question 3

Option	Number of participants who chose this option
Yes	2
No	18

Question 4

Font	Number of participants who chose this font for the cover lines of my magazine (out of 20 as they could choose more than one that they like)
Playball	10
Cutie Patootie (see through)	11
Cutie Patootie (bold/ filled)	11
Really Awesome	12
KG A Little Swag	8
Hug Me Tight	14
Lobster Two	17
DJB and My Shadow	7
Typo Garden Demo	5
Love you through it	15

Question 5

Option	Number of participants who chose this option
Yes	14
No	6

Question 6

What to include in my magazine options	Number of participants who chose this option on what to include in my magazine (out of 20 as they were allowed to choose more than one option)
Interviews with the cast	17
Top secrets on the cast	14
Games	11
Competition/ chance to win	12

Ancillary Task: Questionnaire (magazine front cover)

I have decided to create another questionnaire to consult my target audience. This questionnaire is based on my ancillary task which is a magazine front cover. Additionally, this will help me gain an insight into what my target audience (12 to 16 year olds) expect from a magazine front cover. I am using closed questions as they are quicker and easier to analyse.

To complete this task I asked 20 students with in my target audience age range to complete this questionnaire. After all data has been collected I will analyse the results and be able to start my second ancillary task

Below are images of my questionnaire

When thinking of a name for my magazine I wanted it to sound fun, exciting and suited for my target audience.

I came up with the following names:

• Jump!
• HEY!
• Babble
• Hint

After creating the names of ‘Jump!’ and ‘HEY!’ I began to struggle for other names. I then turned to a thesaurus and looked up the words gossip, talk and say because my magazine is based on the characters of Jimmy’s Journey and their secrets. This is how I found the words babble and hint. 

Production Update

See last post: 'Shooting Schedule' - Jimmy is introduced to Blake.

I was originally going to complete these scenes on Friday however due revision after school and commitments later on I was unable to do both therefore I decided to do the scene where Jimmy is introduced to Blake (highlighted). This was because the other scene involves outside and by the time we were ready to shoot it was very dark outside. The other scene will be completed next Sunday (7^th December) as this will be the next time I will see Michael as he lives in Accrington.

This scene was done in my sister’s bedroom as she has a corner and a flat wall connected which was what I needed to show Jimmy (Oliver) curled up in a ball and Blake’s (Michael) shadow.

There were many problems that I had to overcome when doing this scene. 

Problem	How I resolved this problem
The lighting – I began by using a torch light but no matter where I positioned it the light was big enough to fit the shadow in (see picture 2)	I repeatedly moved the torch around the room to see whether I could position it right but I was unsuccessful. I then decided to use an iPhone torch as this lighting was much brighter and reflected much more therefore I could Oliver’s small shadow and Michaels shadow was clearly shown.
The camera (1) – I began by using the camera I have used for every scene so far but due to the lighting the camera would not focus and therefore not take the picture. When I researched whether I could overcome this problem I found that the camera has to have an object to clearly focus on when the flash is not in use and due to faded shadows there was nothing that the camera could focus on.	To overcome this problem I attempted to use ‘manual focus’ but due to little experience I could not get the image to be clear and of a good quality therefore I used a different camera (see problem 3). (see picture 3)
The camera (2) – another problem I faced with the same camera I used for every other scene was that I could not fir the whole setting and shadows into the image.	I began by trying to change the auto to ‘landscape’ to see whether that would make a difference but that meant I had to have the flash on. When the flash was on it would show all the setting and not the shadows. (see picture 1) I then decided to change the camera to a digital one (Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS30). This camera enabled me to turn the flash off and also fit in the aspects of the scene I wanted to.

Picture 1:

Picture 2:

Picture 3:

Below are some of the images taken from the digital camera:

In these images you can see Michael’s forearm and the part of the door therefore I will have to cope the chosen image sot that this isn’t shown.