2nd draft.

After looking at our first draft we changed a few things;











We kept the font and what it said we just changed a few things on the book to make it look not so empty. We changed the colour of it as we thought the colour on the previous one was a bit simple. We made it not so bright so we tonned it down abit and we also added a texture to it so its not so plain and looks like there is abit more going on.

Below the title we also put in a line from a magazine as we noticed this was a common convention done on the front of books. We made it two words so it was catchy and to the pont.

1st Draft.

After putting all of this together we came up with a first draft of what our poster may look like;





As you can see we have made the word 'FREE' a lot bigger than the rest of the font on the page. We put the banner in at the bottem so that it adds a bit more colour to the page and so its not just a plain white background. The 'When you collect 4 tokens' is on its own so it isnt crowded by to much as it is quite important information. The title of the newspaper along with the logo is placed at the bottem. This was our first draft as we wernt completely happy with the poster and thought a bit was needed on the books front cover.

We chose the name 'back2back' as we thought it went well with the photo and perhaps indicated that they were close (back2back) but something happened going by the look on their faces.

Layout

We looked at the layout of newspaper posters and noticed a common convention was that they nearly always put the title of the newspaper at the bottem. This was proberally because you would read all the imformation and then find out which newspaper it came from.

When somthing is advertised whether its free or a cheap price they will always make that the first thing you see to bring you in and make u read more and thats when you find out that there may be a catch. Using this technique we figured we would have to do advertise that this book would be free but that there was a catch to it.

The catch that we were going to use to link it to our newspaper was that you have to collect a certain ammout of tokens that will be in our newspaper to be able to claim this book as a free book.

So altogether we put together a list of all the things that would need to be advertised on our poster;

• The free book you can claim
• The word 'FREE' in a large print to it grabs readers attention
• The fact that it was a author who lives in Portishead so the readers of the Portishead Beacon would take more of an interest and has a link to our local newspaper
• The catch to getting the book free, collecting tokens
• What local newspaper it is linked to.

photo on book...

Now that we had done research on front covers of books it was time to start designing the front covers of ours.

We decided to do a picture of a boy and girl on the front cover similar to one that we analysed.

The boy we used in the first photo didnt look right. He was quite a lot taller than the girl and it looked way out of proportion.

Learning from this mistake we then had to arrange to use another boy model for the photo.

We found a new model for our photo. This model looked a lot better than the previous one as both of their height was similar so it didnt look out of proportion. We didnt use this photo but it was close to what we wanted. With the models being back to back their body language shows signs that they dont get on, disagreement and perhaps that something has happened to leave them being like that towards eachother, making the reader suspicious that something has gone on. We didnt use this photo as their facial expressions wernt right and the boy was facing to much to the front and not enough to the side. The girl was smiling when really we wanted her to have a worried look on her face showing that something has happened between the two of them.

This was the photo that we decided to use for the front cover of our book. We thought the posisioning of the models were in the right place as they were back to back but not completely so you could still see their faces and their body language. With both their arms crossed you get the impression they are in an uncomfortable place with eachother and are keeping to themselves. The girl has a worried look on her face while the boy has a smug look indicating the fact that they have history and dont get on.

After taking the photo we edited it on photo shop. We cut them out away from the background as we didnt want this to be on the front cover of our book. The plan is to put them on our own background.

research on front covers

Now that we had decided to do a book, It was up to us to design the front cover.

To do this we did some research on what front covers of books looked like;

This was the first book cover analysed. There wasnt any major photo on the front it and the background was just a basic colour with a darker red at the bottem then faded out nearer the top of the book. The font used was a basic font where the letters were rounded and the colour was just white. This indicated a plain look towards the book. There was a bit of writing at the bottem of the book, but apart from that there was nothing much going on. We liked this as although it was so plain it gave a feel to it as if there was going to be a lot going on. Also the title 'The Almost Moon' had no relevence to the picture of a falling chair at all which made it a bit suspicious.

This was the second book we analysed. Already we could see it was very different to the one above in many ways. Firstly the background of the book was convered in one photo. The title of the book was placed at the top of the page and wasnt displayed that clearly. The authors of the book stood out more than what the title did which i dont think was right. With the photo you could see straight away that it was about a boy and a girl. The impression you get is that they are perhaps together as a couple but as they are leaning away from eachother, maybe they arnt that close.

Poster

For our second subsidary task we had the option of doing a webpage or a poster, we decieded to do a poster.



We started off by looking at posters that newspapers had produced on various differend events. We looked into what sort of things they advertised and made a poster about. We came accross posters that advertised the Brdigewater carnival, saving the cadbury factory, keeping a green environment and advertixing jobs.



We did consider doing a poster like the one we had seen on the Bridgewater carnival until I remembered ages ago an advertisment in the Bristol Evening post about a range of books you could order along with the evening post and you would recieve the first one free.


























We took a liking to this idea and thought it would be a good idea to do a similar advertisment in our poster.

As our newspaper was based in the town of Portishead we had to make what was advertised on our poster link to Portishead.

So as we were keen on the idea of advertising a free book, the next step was to link this 'book' to Portishead. Our first idea was to advertise a book about Portishead, but then we remembered theres already a large leaflet that goes out often advertising many things about Portishead. Our next idea was to have the book as a story and somehow the story would link to the town Portishead, but we didnt think this would have a mojor link to Portishead. Our final idea and the idea we decided to go with was to have this book written by a Portishead author, so it is fully linked to Portishead and would take a major interest to the readers of the Portishead Beacon.

Radio adverts

For one of our subsidiary tasks, we had to create a local radio advert to help promote 'The Portishead Beacon' newspaper. Before attempting to write and record our own advert, we analysed genuine radio adverts that either had been played in the past, or were being played regularly on local radio stations, in order to gain some inspiration. Here are a few examples:

http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/operations_and_initiatives/relentless/radio_ads.aspx

http://www.186media.com/media/miscellaneous/Write%20Kit%20sample%20radio%20script.pdf

Having read the adverts listed above and listened to local radio adverts, we discovered that few radio stations promoted a local newspaper. Additionally, we found out that several common conventions existed within most radio adverts. These were as follows:

• they were generally very 'cheesy' and cheap, thus making the advert recognisable
• a tagline was employed to distinguish the product/ company/ message from other competitors
• the company/ product/ message, its telephone number, its features and its e-mail address were repeated constantly
• various sound effects were used and reflected the mood and/or subject
• conversations were fast paced

Having analysed the radio adverts listed above, we set to work on creating our subsidiary task. We began by brainstorming plot ideas. Several ideas were thought of, for example a conversation between a mother and daughter, whom the little girl tries to persuade her mother to buy her 'The Portishead Beacon,' having failed to persuade her to buy her chocolate and a 'gossip' magazine, but ultimately, we decided to use a conversation between a captain and a lighthouse keeper as our radio advert plot. In the radio advert, the captain asks for a news update around the Portishead area, to which the lighthouse keeper replies that the latest edition of 'The Portishead Beacon' has been printed. He highly recommends that the captain should buy his copy as soon as possible and following on from this, the pair discuss the content of the newspaper e.g. local heroes. Towards the end of the radio advert, the captain is so excited about buying his edition of 'The Portishead Beacon,' that he sails off course right in the direction of large rocks.

Below is the transcript for our radio advert:

Captain: Ahoy there lighthouse keeper, what's the news in Portishead today?

Lighthouse keeper: Well captain, the new Portishead Beacon, it's just been published and I reckon you should get your ands on one immediately!

Captain: Aye, what's in this Portishead Beacon then?

Lighthouse keeper: Well, we got all the latest news; sports reports on all the local teams, upcoming events in the Portishead area ... oh, and you can find out about all the local heroes

Captain: local heroes, what's that all about then?

Lighthouse keeper: Its a regular feature on all those good folk that make Posset such a gurt lush place to live.

Captain: Shiver me timbers!; I'll buy one of these Beacons as soon as I moor up.

Lighthouse keeper- Hold on there matey, watch out for them rocks!!

Captain: Why you scurvey dogs, we be hold below thw waterline! Abandon ships, every man for himself!

Boat going aground, sound effects etc.

Tag line: The Portishead Beacon- shining a light on you.

We recorded the radio advert using an iMac computer application (Garageband). The software allowed us to record multiple tracks and interesting sounds. We began by recording the voices of the captain and lighthouse keeper. The voices were recorded from a distance to achieve a long distanced conversation sound, using the iMac's in built microphone. The voices were then manipulated to further achieve the sound of a long distance conversation i.e. 'large arena' master track. The sounds of a fierce storm and a washing/ swashing sea were recorded using the 'nature sounds' facility on garageband (no effects were added). The sound of the captain's ship going aground was recorded live from a sound effects website; exactly the same process was followed when we recorded the fog horn effect.

We attempted to emphasise the locality of 'The Portishead Beacon' in several ways. For example, the Somerset accent is sounded during the characters speech, which is a stereotypical convention amongst the population of Portishead. Also, the word 'Posset' is spoken in the radio advert, which is a local slang term for Portishead, again demonstrating that our newspaper is a local publication.

Of course, the radio advert had to be adjusted and changed throughout the production process. Initially, the gaps between speech were too long, but we decided that quick transitions between the captain's and the lighthouse keeper's speech would match the pace of a genuine radio advert.

Audience feedback- we asked three members of the Portishead public to comment on the radio advert. We asked them to discuss with one another some key points:

• whether the advert was informative- we asked this question to find out whether the radio advert achieved its main goal or not (informing people of the 'Portishead Beacon' and its conent).
• what they thought of the West country accents being portrayed- some people may be insulted by the steretypical West country/ Somerset accents; we would not want the advert to be offensive in any way- it is purely to promote the Portishead Beacon.
• whether they thought it was memorable- If people remember the advert, then the stronger the likelihood of them remembering the 'Portishead Beacon' and wanting to buy it.
  
  

Overall, the feedback was very positive. Firstly, no person in the group was concerned about the stereotypical West country/Somerset (In fact, some embraced it as comedic!!). This shows that in some cases, residents of the Portishead area accept that many people are stereotyped to talk in this way and would be happy for this generalisation to be broadcasted (pride?). The ultimate goal of our radio advert was to promote the newspaper. Our test confirms that this was aim achieved, as all three agreed it was informative and told the audience what the 'Portishead Beacon' strives for and encompasses. Finally, all three agreed the advert was memorable, which increases the chances of peopple wanting to buy the newspaper. Through this test, we discovered the importance of audience feedback.

Photoshop job

Unfortunately, the photo we took of two students performing a lift and the teacher observing, was set against a black background. The girl was unfortunately wearing black trousers and ultimately her overall shape was lost in the black curtain. At this point, me and Alice had two options: either re-shoot the photograph completely, or manipulate the image. After some consideration, we decided to manipulate the image. Using Photoshop software, we cut out the main image, which proved to be a major issue. Due to the blending of black trousers and the black curtain, the dancer's toe was completely lost and appeared detatched from the leg!! We addressed this issue by drawing a fake leg and attatching it to the 'floating' toe. Once this was completed, we took pictures of several potential backgrounds, for example blank walls, as the dance studio was unavailable. When we placed the dancing image over a background of a blank wall, the overall effect was suprisingly authentic. We outlined the models using the burn tool to produce a shadowy effect. Overall, we feel the effect is very effective.

Only a few changes had to be made to the group

photo (lighting and contrast levels) and again we feel the overall effect is authentic.

photos continued...

After taking the group photos we then moved on to taking photos of them dancing and performing some moves. This photo was slightly more difficult to take as we had to try and get the angle right for it to look good.

This was one of the first ones that we took. We didnt use this one due to many reasons. Firstly the angle of the photo wasnt correct as you could'nt see their faces properally and could only really see the side of them. The clothing that one of the girls is wearing also blends into the background so its quite hard to establish where she is and the shape of her body.

Also there are people in the background who arnt ment to be in the picture and objects that wernt ment to be there which makes the photo look messy and unprofesional. Also the lighting in this photo isnt brilliant. There is direct sunlight coming from the window at the top of the photo which draws attention when it shouldnt.

This was the second the the dance photos that we took. We prefered this one a lot more than the other one for many reasons. Firstly the angle and position of the camera when taking the photo was a lot better as it was infront of them so you could clearly see their faces and the moves that they were performing. Also they dont blend to much into the background like the other photo, as the girl in the red stands out quite brightly. Even though this is quite a good framed photo, the girls feet at the front are cut off which doesnt look very profesional and a bit odd.

Second photo shoot

As we wernt completely happy with the first lot of photos that we took we arranged another photo shoot to see if we could get better ones with more people in so it looks a lot more like a dance group


The photo shoot was with dance class in our school so it wasnt too much trouble to arrange.



Like the previous photos we wanted a group one and one of them dancing.












This was the first group photo we took of the group. The first thing u can see is the the colour of the picture is a bit dark and isnt that clear. Although the girls are in the right position we wanted them to be the girls along the front row are laughing and not looking towards the camera. For this reason we didnt decide to put this photo in our newspaper as we wanted it to be more serious and for them to be smiling.












This was the second group photo that we took. We felt this one was a lot better than the previous one for many reasons. One of the reason was that it looks a lot neater and tidyer than the one above. This may be because the girls either have their hands together or behind their back. They are also all looking at the camera and similing which genually makes the photo look a lot better. Although the lighting in the photo is still a bit dark this can be adjusted on photoshop by adjusting the brightness and contrast of it.