Suitable Sound Recording Levels

In order to achieve good quality audio, sound level monitoring/altering should be carried out. Sound levels too close to the noise floor (the lowest level of recording) will result in a poor quality recording with hissing and humming being quite prominent in most cases. When recording, recording as close to the Permitted Maximum Level (PML) as possible, without reaching or exceeding that limit will result in optimal recording levels. Reaching or exceeding this limit will result in distortion of the signal. This is when the levels 'peak' and results in audio 'clipping'. Modern digital audio can record very close to the peak levels without distorting, however monitoring when recording is required to avoid distortion.

When recording audio, a comfortable range for your peaks should be found (usually between -12 dB and -6 dB) before any recordings are made. A recording with peaks set lower than this (around -16 dB and below) will leave a greater amount of noise when the audio has to be boosted after to reach optimal levels. To set these levels, manual level control on the microphone of choice should be used. Automatic level setting can be used on modern microphones, however this usually leaves for the change in levels during the recording, and noise becomes more prominent during silence.

Character Sound Identification

This scene from Kill Bill shows a woman trapped inside a coffin after being 'buried alive'. The soundtrack behind the scene builds tension as she attempts to escape. Starting slow and dramatic when she realises she is trapped then building up as she begins to untie herself and start to escape. New elements get added and layered up in the soundtrack such as the addition of a trumpet melody, a marching solider style drum beat and a Mexican influenced guitar melody. The volume slowly gains as the scene progresses before coming to a loud 'climax' as she finally punches her way through the wooded container and claws her way out of the ground.

This scene works extremely well without any use of dialogue. Sound effects are used but are not as clear as the main soundtrack. This shows the power and significance of sound and music in films. 

Walking Man gif

This simple gif is made up of 4 repeated frames. I used a tutorial online and traced over the frames (just the outlines, excluding details) then imported into flash. I then used a graphics tablet to add detail (the hat, face and hair).

Magazine Article & Name Ideas

Mind-mapping consists of writing the first word that comes into your head related to the one youre branching off of. The hard thing to do is to ignore the main question and just use the word your branching off from. This creates a wide range of words that later on can be joined up to make it easier to come up with names/ideas. Mind-mapping defeats the 'creativity barrier' and lets your brain work more easily. 

After a little mind-mapping a few ideas started to pop up. With the main link behind Politics and Young People being “Parties”. I decided to play with the word slightly to create a witty yet professional title for my magazine. Young people in the news are currently being portrayed as having a ‘short attention span’ and likewise. With fast food being linked to young people, I decided “Fast Politics” could also be designed and an article created (with a weekly instalment feel to it). 

Fast food, Fast Politics

“You wouldn’t go to a boring party, so why vote for one? Get informed.”

• Daily Party
• Debating Party
• Boring Parties
• Parties Today
• Party Monthly
• Seated Party
• The Party Times
• Times to Party
• Suited Party

Magazine Features

Magazines share a group of features to match them to a standard magazine layout/format. These features can range slightly between different magazines and publishing companies, however most use them for a familiar reading experience for the consumers.

On the front page, the following features are most common:

• One main image that takes up all of front page
• This attracts the readers attention
• Usually ties in with the main feature article to attract readers 
• Studio photographs usually in medium close-up or mid shot. A studio is used for the environment to be more easily controlled (lighting, background etc.)
• Usually uses direct address (looking directly at you) to draw readers into buying magazine.
• Title (Masthead)
• Trademark, unique font to make it recognisable to readers
• Usually one or two words for memorability. 
• Fills the width of the cover, or is in the top left corner to stand out on cover
• Positioning statement (strap line)
• Puff - offer something else to the magazine such as free giveaways
• Buzz words - Usually with the main feature article. Used to attract attention e.g “Exclusive, free, plus”
• Barcode - This will be positioned at the bottom right, or up the right side.
• Cover line and main cover - Advertising contents etc.
• Strip - across the top or bottom containing lists of items which feature in the magazine so readers can find out whats inside at a quick glance. 
• Colour - small amount used with a simple colour scheme that can vary per issue - often to tie in with the cover shot. This keeps the cover interesting and visually appealing.

• Read - Leads the viewer to tell them where to start reading. Usually shown in large, bold font. 
• Drop capital is very popular with magazines and is used to tell the reader where to start reading from
• Pull quotes, sometimes large to stand out on page
• The name of the article writer
• Usually another photo shown among the text
• Sometimes there could be an icon of some sort to make it noticeable that it is regular content.
• Facts and upcoming important information 
• The headline is the biggest text on the page to attract attention of reader and describe the subject of the article
• Sometimes the double page spread will have an insert
• Quotations within the article

Focus Group

Today we were given a plate of biscuits and were asked to record ourselves whilst we tried them. As we ate them we had to talk about the following:

• First Impressions
• Smell
• Texture
• Taste
• Visual Impression
• Quality and Cost

The recording however was lost and therefore I cannot embed it onto this post. 

These were some of the pros & cons of using this method of Primary Research.



For the discussion of my political poster, I decided on the following discussion points.

• First impressions
• Colour scheme
• Layout
• Style
• Appeal
• Is it convincing?
• Success?

I also made a short questionnaire in order to gather information about the demographic im interviewing.

My Poster

Tabbi's Poster

Dan's Poster

Abbie's Poster

This is the audio for the focus group we recorded.

Election Connection

Research is the gathering of information needed for a product/type of media. There are many different types of research, all used for gathering different types of information.

• Secondary Research
• Research already compiled and organised for you.
• Primary Research
• New research carried out to answer a certain question.
• Audience Research
• Information about the audiences lifestyle & economy
• Market Research
• Research to gather information about target markets
• Production Research
• Research to determine what you will need to release the product at end of production

Examples of these are:

• Secondary Research
• Books, Internet, Magazines, Previous polls/questionnaires
• These methods make it easier and faster to gather information, however sometimes cannot be reliable.
• Primary Research
• Questionnaires carried out yourself
• Slower gathering of information, more reliable than secondary research, however questionnaires can sometimes be unreliable (due to people not answering honestly)
• Audience Research
• Questionnaires asking people about their lifestyle and economy
• Useful information about target audiences lifestyle, however shares the same cons as primary research.
• Market Research
• Looking at competing products in the market
• Useful if product is not unique, if product is too similar to others could lead to copyright issues.
• Production Research
• Certification, copyrighting,recce’s, risk assessment
• Needed to legalise product/type of media, can take time but is compulsory.

All of these different types of research have different uses, these are some of the main ones:

• Secondary Research
• Find out information to reach target market/audience
• Primary Research
• Find out information to reach target market/audience
• Audience Research
• To find out about target audience to base product on their needs
• Market Research
• To find out information about competing products to compete against them and meet audiences wants/needs
• Production Research
• To release product legally and safely. To create a satisfactory product for the market

Media/product producers need to carry out this research in order to reach a target market more easily, to compete against competition and to make money.

Poster Styles

Futurism

Late 20th century

First from italy

Geometrical shapes, curves, jagged edges

Contrasting colours

David Bomberg - 1890 - 1957

Gino Severini - 1883 - 1956

Primo Conti - 1900 - 1988

Died off mostly due to squabbles or fascist conversion

Soviet Realism

Contains mostly red and yellow colours

Shows power and workers

Hammer and sickle commonly found

Come from Russian revolution

Art Nouveau

Began in 1880’s

Evolved from arts and crafts movement

Became popular at the start of the 20th century

Spread throughout Europe

Recognisable from ‘organic’ swirls

Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha - main players

Influenced structure and design

Found on perfume bottles and herbal tea etc. (usually girly items)

Swiss Style

Switzerland 40/50s

Based on grid system, sometimes tilted 45degrees

Josef Muller-Brockmann

Armin Hofmann

Otl Aicher

Still relevant

Simple modern lines

Block colour

Ikea commonly uses Swiss Style graphics for their communication with their customers (catalogues, advertisements etc)

Bauhaus Style

Beginning of modernism 

WW1&2 era

German school of art closed by nazi authorities

Messy style, often described as contemporary

Fonts follow linear pattern

Usually found using white space and abstract designs

Colour

My associations with colour:

• Red - Anger
• Yellow - Warning
• Blue - Calming
• Green - Natural
• White -  Minimalistic
• Black - Dark/hidden
• Orange - Fruity
• Pink - Girly

After researching into how different cultures see colours, I came across THIS website.

I find this very interesting as different cultures see colours in a very different way in comparison to people in this country. 

Genre Research

Presentation Link

VICE

Presentation Link

Pink Analysis

Identify four of the characters that are represented throughout.

How are the representations constructed?

What are these connotations being used?

What statement is the video making?

1. Little girl
2. Rapper girl
3. Gym girl
4. Driving girl

1. Stereotypical girl with ponytails. Watching tv and being influenced by what she sees. Realisation at end of clip and returns to stereotypical girl with her toys after watching tv. Same camera shot throughout in a sitting room. Angel and devil on shoulder situation.

2. Girl with rapper dressed in short skirt etc. Stereotypical for rap music video. Urban background with low angle shot.

3. Running machine girl in sports outfit. Watching other woman in gym and feeling self-conscious. Comparing herself to woman. Set in gym background. Range of shots and angles. Depth of field used to highlight the expression on pinks face.

4. Girl driving whilst on phone. Bags of shopping next to her. Stereotypical rich american teen. No care for others around her. A close up of her face and a mid shot showing some of the car are used. Designer outfit with coffee in hand and phone in other.

I feel that these connotations are being used to portray “stupid girls”. Slight element of comedy as all characters are obviously a mick take. I feel that the video is trying to make a statement about how stupid some people are. Pink wants to be a role model and doesnt want people to think that she is one of the “stupid girls”.

Political Poster Analysis

Purpose -  links equal rights movement (which was happening at the time) to the political party in order to promote themselves and reach the female demographic

Aims - to get women to vote for the specific party in order to gain equal rights.

Techniques -

Image - Pop art style, popular at the time. Portrays women as being strong. Links well to trends at the time.

Colour Scheme - Bold colours to catch the audiences eyes , Simple solid colours excluding image.

Copy - Simple catch phrase at the top of page. First thing to be read. Small print at bottom with logo of ‘committee’

Fonts - Simple san serif fonts used for clear, easy to read text. Professional looking.

Tone - Strong tone, “We can do it!”.

Purpose - To “mudsling” labour. Portrays that labour are leaving people unemployed. “Labour” could also be used in a different context and the poster still makes sense.

Aims - To convince people to vote for the conservatives and not labour.

Techniques - Simple catch phrase to catch the eye and make the poster memorable. “Britain’s better off with the conservatives” shows that this is a deliberate mudslinging.

Image - People queuing in a line for the unemployment office .

Colour scheme - Dark, dull colours to get information across in a professional manor.

Fonts - San serif font all in caps. (common in political posters) to portray information clearly and quickly and make it more memorable.

Tone - Strong tone, “Labour isn’t working.”

Purpose - To mudsling the labour party.

Aims - To stop people voting for labour and to encourage them to vote for other parties.

Techniques - Simple catch phrase to make memorable.

Image - Simple image of labour representative, obviously altered to portray that he is “evil”

Colour Scheme - Black and white image and background with bold red writing to stand out and make it more memorable.

Font - San serif font all in caps again. Both lines starting with new. This creates a memorable phrase

Tone - Strong tone, “new labour, new danger”

Questionnaire Evaluation

We asked a demographic of 52 people aged 15-25 some questions about politics. One of the questions we asked was whether they preferred Digital or Print posters. 42.3% of people said Digital and Print, whilst 13.4% of people said both and 1 person (2%) said none. We also asked the same people how much they know about politics (between 1-5). The average answer was 2.06. 44 of the 52 people we asked said they did not support a political party (84.6%). 3 of them said labour (6%), 1 said conservative (2%), 1 said green (2%) and 2 said they supported a party (4%), but did not state a specific one. We also asked them how often they access political information. 9 people said weekly (17.3%), 14 people said daily (26.9%), 6 said rarely (11.5%), 21 said never (40.4%).

When it comes to political posters, according to our questionnaire, people are evenly divided between Digital and Print posters. This shows a huge rise in digital advertising since being introduced. Unsurprisingly, considering the demographic chosen, the average political knowledge score was 2.06 out of 5. This result is extremely low, however due to the lack of compulsory political education this is not surprising. It is also unsurprising that the majority of people we asked don’t support a political party for the same reasoning. This result could also be linked to the age of the people asked (majority not old enough to vote). The majority of people also said they never access political information, again almost certainly related to the demographic.

Spreadsheet


In todays lesson I learnt how not to assume things when writing a factual evaluation of results. I also learnt how to professionally make assumptions using the results. I also re-learnt how to calculate percentages, averages and how to analyse/use filters in Google spreadsheet documents. I have previously used spreadsheets, however before coming to college I have never used Google's online 'Sheets". I found that my previous knowledge of spreadsheets transferred easily over to the new UI and I easily gathered the results and organised them effectively.

DUPLO

Duplo

Duplo is a product range of Lego. Similar to lego, duplo is made up of different sized and different coloured bricks that link together. Duplo is larger in size than lego (each brick is twice the height and width of similar traditional Lego bricks) and therefore is safer for younger children (aimed at ages 1.5 to 5 year olds) to use, as it isnt a choking hazard. Duplo has the same advantages as lego. Its easy to link together and create colourful objects with, however Duplo cannot be linked upside down (same as Lego). This can be achieved with different construction toys.  Duplo is one of the most popular construction toys with children, however lego is the preferred choice with older children/adults.