20.07.10

Today's lesson was focused on special effects that can be applied.

The first task was to put eyes from footage we had taken onto a still frame of an animal. It proved to be tricky, especially trying to line up the pupils.

The second task was to create the power of electricity using footage filmed via web cam. This task was much simpler and lining up the eyes with the effects was easy due to the self-movable tools. Here is our work;

Skill Learnt: Special Effects

06.07.10

The focus of today's lesson was photoshop and how it relates to the media. We discussed how products are advertised through images that are seen as 'perfection' as it expresses that their products will help consumers achieve the 'perfection' look. We then looked at photoshop in terms of music and celebrities.

The first task was to put our heads onto somebody else's body. It was a challenge as we had to scale the image, rotate to fit and adjust colours to suit the skin tone. Here is our attempt:

Before and After:

The second task was to make an image of a woman in a bikini look slimmer and toned. We used the liquifier tools to do this. Here is 0ur work in comparison to the before image:

Before and After:

The third task was to erase blemishes from an album cover to make it pollicitally correct for an underground train station. Here is our attempt in contrast to the before image:

Before and After:

The final task was to recreate an album cover using our faces. All the skills we had learnt today were tested. Here is the outcome:

Orignial and Remake:

Our initial class task was to enhance images on the software PhotoShop. Following this task, we were so intrigued and fascinated with experimenting with the software that we used our off timetable period to create the below above. First of all Kayleigh took a picture of my face then blue-toothed the image to the Apple IMAC computer and used the selection tool to draw dots around the shape of my face. We were able to ‘srink the image’ to fit Beyonce’s face by clicking edit then transform. We used the patch tool to smooth out imperfections and the clone tool to even out skin tone. Evening the skin tone proved difficult because the photo of Beyonce had already been Photo-Shopped so to add my photo and ‘perfect’ the image again by matching the skin tone didn’t work as well as we had hoped for. However, both Kayleigh and I are happy with this picture which took us 30 minutes to produce.

Skill learnt: Photoshopping.

24.06.10

In today's lesson, we began researching official websites for artists and bands to grasp a basic understanding of how to present information in a professional manner. We selected the 'pop' genre as it has a wide range of artists that we were familiar with, which as a result led us to choosing Britney Spears. After locating her official website, we analysed in in terms of content, design, colour and technologies to conclude as to how the audience is targeted and addressed. Our findings on this can be viewed here:

Images and Logos - Bright colours; mainly pink, purple and baby blue which indicates female audience. Photos show her looking flawless, fashionable, skinny, ect. Logo isn't particularly a trademark. Images promoting merchandise and Britney products, particularly perfumes.

Genre - Happy, positive vibes in general. Clean and bright. She is expressed to be a role model as it doesn't highlight gossip from the press but focuses on her career.

New Technologies - There are many options displayed in the headers including links to social networking webpages such as twitter, myspace, youtube and facebook. This highlights how her website attempts to target fans from all across the Internet. It also portrays how her audience is young and up to date with technology. Additionally, an app for the i-phone is advertised suggesting Britney is attempting to reach out through devices.

Colour, Style, Layout and Font - The use of stereotypical female colours is frequent, indicating her fan base is primarily women. The style is simple and easy to follow with links that are clearly displayed at the top. The font used is basic and nothing that is associated to Britney. The font is also quite small which suggests a young audience again.

Advertisements - There are advertisements displayed all down the right hand side of the website, featuring perfume, clothing, music, apps and general merchandise. It is evident the aim is to push the products, and competitions such as "win a dress" by downloading the i-phone app works as evidence of this.

Other research that we conducted was accessing fan-created websites. It allowed us to establish the differences between a professional and amateur web page. The main points noticed from fan sites were;

• They concentrate on gossip and news from the press that are based on the private life of the artist than the career.



• They post photos and videos that are not 'official'.

• The posts are not always accurate and post rumours as reality.
  

• The layout is more complicated and often have 'sister sites' to other similar acts.

After learning the differences, we attempted to create our own professional web page for Britney Spears. We took all the factors into consideration and studied her official page closely. This is the outcome:

The skill learnt today was: how to create a professional-looking websites for artists.

22.06.10

In today's session, our task was to create a music video to "The Perfect Day, Elise" by PJ Harvey. We worked in different groups which allowed us to experience team work with different people. The main objective of the task, however, was to practise lip-syncing lyrics to the song. It was quite a challenge as even a micro-second would make the image on screen appear wrong. We used existing clips to construct the videos and spent roughly an hour and a half in total. We are pleased with the finished products and also found it interesting that we approached the task in different directions in terms of narratives and special effects.

Kayleigh & George:

Ashleigh & Josh:

The skill learnt today was: lip-syncing

17.06.10

Today we experimented with cut editing to the beat using the song 'Dance' by Justice. It had a rapid beat that constantly changed which presented us with the challenge of syncing the lyrics to the clips. We managed to create a range of lyric shots with video shots to make the video more interesting and to fill up the minor gaps that were instrumental. We had an hour to complete as much as possible. We decided that quality is more important than quantity and aimed to create a video to a high standard in terms of timing, the content on the screen and how it is presented to the audience. We used items that were already on the macs provided to create this clip and as it was our first time practising, we did not use video footage but still images of the lyrics instead. This was a challenge as it is more difficult than we presummed. We spent most of our time trying to sync the images to the lyrics. From this task, we have learnt from minor mistakes how to improve this techeque. Mainly to ensure the words fit on the screen by creating a still image.

The skill learnt today was: cut editing to a beat