Monday, 30 September 2013

Please make sure you use the Blog to post your Research & Planning

Post details about what your work on your Pre-Lim task

This could include:

  • Decisions made on Photoshop (Ask Mr Liddell how to screen shot on Apple. You can upload the JPEG from your Desktop to illustrate your posts)
  • Screen Shot to show progression in your work
  • Make sure you add bullet point reasons why you have made these creative decisions. (see example below)
Pic 1

Pic 2


Pic 3
Pic 1 illustrates taking the background out of my chosen picture.
I did this to enhance the image removing 'busy' items that would distract the audience & allowing me to use a chosen colour scheme.
This would also enhance the clarity of the added text.

Pic 2 shows editing decisions to Layer from background

Pic 3 Illustrates my decision to use the Magic Wand tool as the main tool to remove the background

and finally.........

  • Click onto my Post regarding Photo permissions. Drag the 'Permissions letter' to your desktop and Upload the JPEG to a post call'Photo Permissions letter. (This letter enables you to use students as Actors for your Media Coursework)

Sunday, 29 September 2013

Work this Week for 12C & 12D - 30th September

Thanks for selecting your medium close up shot for your Pre-Lim Task.
We are now entering the next stage of the creative cycle and creative decisions made by you.

Let's re-cap on the Pre-lim brief:


Coursework Brief
Preliminary exercise: using Desk Top Publishing and an image manipulation program (PhotoShop), produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program. 

Make sure that your Pre-lim work contains all the features that I have made bold and underlined. (this is called working accurately to the brief)

Tasks for this week.


  1. Set up your Chosen image on a Photoshop canvas (Height 59.8cm & Width 42cm) This 2 x A4 portrait style.
  2. Open your Pic in Photoshop and place the Pic on the canvas.
  3. If your picture is not a good fit we will use the Crop tool to ensure a Medium Close Up shot and The Rule of Thirds for good shot composition.
  4. Decide if you manipulate the Image in any other way (Remove Background & Re Colour using a suitable Colour Palette.
  5. Refer to Style Models (I have provided some examples in previous posts but chose your own and upload as a new post on your Blog) to make sure the picture is meets the conventions of a School Magazine Front page.
  6. Choose an appropriate Title for your  School Magazine (Possibly incorporating the School name)
  7. Choose A Suitable Font (Add a Post to Show why you choose the Font - What does it say to the Audience)
  8. Explain your Choice of Colours (Look at Colour Palettes)
  9. Add the Appropriate text
  10. Save as JPEG on Desktop & Upload to your Blog.


Thursday, 19 September 2013

Monday, 16 September 2013

Some useful research for your Music Magazine



This link gives an excellent commentary of the conventions of a music magazine to guide your pre-production planning (Click on Image)

Thursday, 12 September 2013

Improving our Draft Photographs

After viewing the Rule of thirds video (See previous post)
Make sure you log and post our class analysis of the photos
This is the beginning of our Audience Feedback and you must record decisions that you have made,
You may want to comment upon some of the following:

  1. Props & Costumes used
  2. Camera Angle (Postion of the Actors)
  3. Any Codes and Symbols that will influence the reader 
  4. Mode of Address the image
  5. Location Hunting
You can upload some of your draft shots to illustrate your points