TWO FINAL MAGAZINE LAYOUTS

MAGAZINE SPREAD - BASIC LAYOUT

Finally, we designed the actual magazine spread in InDesgin. Important Note: The actual Text is not done but the pictures and the layouts are.
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TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN PHOTOSHOP

 We started by pressing Ctrl + D to insert Christabels Portrait. Originally we were thinking to put both our portraits in but we thought the layout looked much more interesting with the emphasis on one of us. We then inserted an image of us during the interview on the second page, much smaller, but making clear that this is an interview.

 We then proceeded to add some text using the "Placeholder"-text tool. We arranged them and decided where the text would look the best. We also added a subtitle for the actual title "Why Did Ben Collins Die" making it look much more neat and less empty and spacy. As the background colour for the two pages are different we decided to highlight this in the colour of the heading aswell, something we first saw in the magazine "Little White Lies"

MAGAZINE SPREAD IMAGES - POST EDITING

After looking at magazines such as "Little White Lies", we knew that that sort of niche magazine would be right for  our movie. Pictures in niche magazines such as "Little White Lies" are usually edited mildly to look a little more edgy etc. We decided to change the saturation of the images and go for a sort of greyscale-esque style just like our initial magazine spread layout.
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TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN PHOTOSHOP

We started by using the "Levels" tool on photoshop to adjust the right amount of Brightness and Contrast. We then used the "Hue & Saturation" tool to minimize the colours on the image. This way it looks more classy, edgier and is more likely to be in a magazine such as "Little White Lies".

With the second sideprofile we did the same as with the first one. We used the "Levels" and "Hue & Saturation" tools to achieve the effect we were looking for.

For the interview still of both of us ,we edited in a similiar way to the portraits but instead of using the "Hue & Saturation" tool to cut down on the colours, we decided to go all the way and used the "Black & White"- Tool. Other tools we used were again the "Levels"- Tool to adjust brightness and contrast plus the Filter selection "Lens Distraction" to add a subtle vignette around the image.

MAGAZINE SPREAD IMAGES - SHOT SELECTION

Having done the Mock-up of our Magazine Review already, today we did the photoshoot for the actual magazine spread itself. 

Set & Props
We took the pictures in the photography studio of our school. We used the Studio Lighting and delibaretly chose to show the studio set on the pictures creating a sort of more casual atmosphere trough not actually shooting editorial-esque pictures. This gives the picture a sense of a proper reportage due to us being in a professional surrounding but being more or less inbetween takes. Using a Tripod and a Canon DSL, we took various shots of both Christabel and me talking, single portraits and side portraits in order for us to have a variety of pictures to choose from.

Editing Process

We uploaded the pictures to our computers, opened them in Bridge and made two selections in total. The first screencap shows all the pictures plus our favourites which are highlighted with the green label. The second screencap shows our broader selection and the screencap below shows our final selection of pictures we want to use in our magazine spread.

SHOT LIST - WHY DID BEN COLLINS HAVE TO DIE

Shot List

SCENE 1.2 (Vox Pop)

Medium Close Up – 5 different people.

6-7 seconds.

Question and answer.

SCENE 2 (Charlotte interview)

Medium Shot 45 seconds

SCENE 2.1 (OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL GATES)

Interviewer hiding spying on Charlotte and Tom who are talking about Ben.

Handheld- start further out and move in closer throughout conversation.

Subtitles

Voices get louder while you move in.

Duration:      30 Seconds

Shot Type:   Handheld

SCENE 3 (Personal tutor)

Duration:      45 Seconds

Shot Type:   Medium Shot

SCENE 4 – Mothers door shut on interviewer.

Duration:      10-12 seconds

Shot Type:   Handheld one interviewer holding camera while other interviewer knocks on the door

SCENE 5- Interview with Tom

Duration:      50 seconds

Shot Type:   Medium Shot

SCENE 6- Doctors office

Duration:      30 seconds

Shot Type:   Medium shot

SCENE 7- Mother’s monologue

Duration:      50 seconds

Shot Type:   Medium towards Medium Close Up

POSTER SHOOT - SHOOTING PLAN

A rough plan and collection of ideas for the shooting of our official movie poster. We brainstormed things such as Equipment, Costumes and generally needed Props.

Equipment

- Lights

- Studio 

- Camera (Nikon/Canon DSL)

- Tripod
- Gels

Costume (ideas)

- White shirt and cardigan

- Collared t-shirt

- Glasses

- Gelled hair

- Skinny jeans

- Tracksuit bottoms

- Rugby shirt

Props

- Rugby ball

- Football

- Pen

- A*

- Prefect badge

VISUAL EXAMPLES OF DOCUMENTARY CONVENTIONS

Before actually shooting our documentary/mockumentary, we went trough various documentaries to establish visual examples of common documentary conventions. Below, there is a few examples.

This is a visual example of a voice over - Adolescent Suicide by Mattew Oquendo

This is a visual example of a Interview documentary -

This is a visual example of archival footage in a documentary -

This is a visual example of a montage sequence -

A visual example of the exposition of a documentary -

MAGAZINE MOCK-UPS

Before creating our actual magazine spreads, we tried around InDesign and created two different Mock-Ups in order to establish what kind of layout we want to use for our own article. The first layout is quite a simple one with a small range on different colours, appealing to a more niche and arty kind of magazine such as "Little White Lies". The second spread is aimed at a more mainstream magazine, using more colours, different shapes and sizes and less text in order to appeal to that kind of magazine readers.

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TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN INDESIGN

First, we created a new InDesign file and made a double site spread. We started of with choosing the background colour. As this spread is aimed at a more arty magazine, we didn't want anything to vivid and distracting but didnt want to leave it white either. We choose to go for a greyish creamy mix. In order to set this as the Background colour, we created a large "Content Frame", and used the "Swatches" option to create our colour. Then we arranged the "Content Frame" to be set in the back of the page in order for us to be able to put the article on top. We continued by looking for a picture online that we could use as a Director's portrait. Then, we created tree columns and using the various grid's InDesign has to offer, we sized them all the same and justified the text within them.

We proceeded by adding a heading and a subtitle. We decreased the tint of the subtitles as we wanted it to look subtle and didnt want it to distract from the heading or the picture. In order for the double spread page not to look too plain and boring, we went trough the various available fonts and changed from "Arial" to "Times New Roman" for the columns and "Trebuchet" for the Heading.  The last step in creating this double spread was to find another picture of our fictional director and to put it on the page at the right. We choose another black & white image to maintain the sort of contemporary and classy vibe of the previous page.
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  TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN INDESIGN

 For the second doublespread page, we decided to use an female director. Again, we started by setting the background colour. Again, we used a "Content Frame" and the "Swatches" option to choose a colour of our choice and set it over the two pages. We then arranged it to be in the back again. As opposed to our first layout, we decided to keep the director's picture in colour and also had a more colourful approach on the rest of the page. Using a "Text Frame" and the "Swatches" we created the Heading of the pages, maintaining blue as the dominant colour on the page, but colouring the Heading in Red and yellow in order for a more vivid and quirky vibe.

 We continued by creating a few columns with an place holder text. We again, justified the text and edited various parts of it to make it look more like an interview. We did so by bolding various parts and leaving the "answers" in regular writing. Then, to finish this double spread, we created a stroke and a different background for the text columns, using the colours red and white in order to stay insync with the colours previously used on the Page.
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MAGAZINE LAYOUT RESEARCH

For our movie "Why Did Ben Collins Die" we have to design a magazine page, featuring a review of the movie. To do so, I did some research on magazines that would potentially write about a movie like ours. The magazine "Little White Lies" is a rather niche movie magazine. Below there are a couple of scans of one of their issues.

The cover art of the magazine is not very revealing and a regular consumer, would not even realize that this is a movie magazine. “Little White Lies” is aimed at a niche audience that is looking for specific things which applies to our movie as well. The page on the right, shows an average page of the magazine. The Layout is very clean and neat, the text columns are justified and the main centre of the page is the above picture, a screen cap from the reviewed movie.

The two pages above show an interview the magazine has done. The page with the interview itself, again, is very clean cut and everything is positioned neatly. The Interviewer’s questions are written in bold, making it easier to read and flow in the reader’s eye. The page on the right, simply displays a picture of the interviewed person.

The two pages above, are again, examples of the style the magazine consciously chooses. The colour adjustments fit each other. The pink background on the left is in sync with the pink font on the right page and the black background on the right does the same thing vice versa. This sort of magazine is perfect for our movie as it has the same sort of niche vibe to it and applies in terms of style and composition.

MARKETING THE FILM

The movie “Why Did Ben Collins die”, is a low-budget production mockumentary dealing with a teenage boy’s death due to driving under the influence of ADHD medication which he is not supposed to take but does anyway in order to keep up with his stressful schedule.  The movie is a hybrid of a short movie and a mockumentary, therefore it is directed towards a more niche audience and the general marketing for it would be fairly limited. The marketing for “Why Did Ben Collins die” would mainly focus on printed advertisement. There would be posters, maybe flyers and a couple of articles in selected magazines. There will be a very short trailer which will air in art house cinemas mainly before other art house productions. The movie would have an independent production sponsored by a film festival like Sundance  film festival or a TV channel such as BBC. The movie itself would be accessible on online video communities such as YouTube and Vimeo as short movies, especially mockumentaries are not generally converted to DVD’s. Screening the movie at various film festivals such as Cannes, Sundance or the BFI, would get the movie the much needed exposure and attract various distributors.

There will be various magazine reviews of the movie maybe including screen caps of the movie and an interview with the creators. Due to the nature of a mockumentary, there wouldn’t be big stars within the movie as that would take away from the realistic atmosphere of the movie. Therefore, the main content of said magazine reviews would be about the movie and the plot within it. The poster and the trailer of the movie would emphasise on the mysterious and enigmatic circumstances of Ben Collin’s death, creating a big question mark on why someone so seemingly perfect felt the urge to fall back to something like ADHD medication. This element of mystery will be used in the promotion and raise interest in various audiences outside the general niche audience that is associated with Documentaries. While the movie deals with the mystery surround a teenager’s death, the movie is still supposed to explore the pressure that modern day teenagers carry on their shoulders and what it does to them and the people around them.

MOVIE POSTER MOCK-UPS (VERSION 1)

As part of our Preperation work for our movie, we decided that it would be time do try out different designs for our Movie poster. We tried two different styles. We used Photoshop and several files from the internet to create these. This is a summary and tutorial to the first Poster we created.
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TUTORIAL: WHAT WE DID IN PHOTOSHOP

First, we went to find an classical year book picture of someone on the internet. We created an A4 Page in Photoshop, inserted the picture, turned it Black & White and made it fit onto the A4 Page. 

Secondly, we settled on a Font that would look rather old, 90esque and put it at the top of the Poster, conciously ignoring the Rule Of Thirds in order to create more of an amateur-ish and old style.

Lastly, We added a fake movie credits template, making it look like an actual movie poster.

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