Ancillary Tasks

Having made some sketches of ideas for a DVD cover and a magazine cover, I started to work on them in Adobe Photoshop. I began by finding a DVD template and then using photographs and using the same font that was used in the opening of the TV drama.



This is the very basic DVD cover that I have started to put together, it is not finished yet as there are still areas missing and I will add some effects to the images and text. However, this may give a feel of the type of DVD I am aiming for and the final look. Having started this, I have a positive idea towards the DVD cover and its final look, but I still think I need more practice with using the effects in Photoshop effectively. Moreover, when completing textual analysis and looking at other DVD cover's from the same genre, I noticed that the design of most was quite basic - very little effects were used, instead a particular font was chosen and a few photographs of the drama.

Filming - 18 February

Today I completed new shots and re-shoots and this was successful.

Shots I completed:
- new shots of the girls and boys separated to create a more friendly feel in the group
- took an alternative of the jumping shot - a mid shot instead of a long shot
- new shot of Steph and Henry walking towards the camera whilst holding hands to reinforce their relationship through a different shot
- Emily's shot has been completed with better lighting and framing
- the walking shots were also changed, so the characters now walk past and towards the camera, allowing the audience to feel more connected-
- along with filming, I also took some photographs of the 'gang' to go towards the ancillary tasks

Overall, I feel today's filming was effective; the shots that I have completed will hopefully add more personality to the piece and allow the audience to connect with the characters much more, as before there was a lack of connection between the characters and the audience. Moreover, as many of the shots are now either a close up or a mid shot, this should be effective as it shows that the codes and conventions of children's TV drama have been taken into consideration closely. However, I could have taken more photographs of the 'gang' to help with the DVD cover and the magazine cover as the photos I have lack variety, but from mocking up ideas, I don't think this should be too much of an issue.

Photoshop Practice

As most of the class are unfamiliar with Photoshop, we starting to practice certain skills on the software.

To begin with we took a photo of a celebrity from Google using a specific search and opened this in Photoshop. This was followed by cutting out the celebrity from the image and placing it into a new A4 size image. I used the Magnetic Lasso tool; being beginner of Photoshop I felt that this would be the most effective way of cutting the image out without any noticeable errors. In addition to this, once the image was placed on the new A4 image, we used the text tool and inserted text over the image and then created a text box - adding a shadow effect to it and also adding effect to the celebrity by changing his opacity.

Practice 1...



In another lesson, we were given cameras and took photos of each other and imported one of the photos into Photoshop to do a similar task and to strengthen our skills on Photoshop. Similarly to the celebrity image, I used text over the image but added a shadow to the text and also added a shadow to the photograph, but the shadow was created by duplicating the image and changing the brightness/contrast levels.

Practice 2...