Changing Batteries Film Review

I found this film quite well done, the characters have been well thought through, the elderly woman, forgotten by her son receives a robot who's purpose is to take care of her. The sound track of the short film, I found suited the film quite well, at the beginning the track was lightly playing a piano with high pitches, and to me this gave the scenes sense of reflection. But, as the elderly woman falls ill and dies, the sound tack then gets deeper and so creates a dark and sad aroma, indicating to the audience that something is not right. Furthermore, the animation was simple and basic, this made it a little easier for myself to watch it and take in more from the story that was being told. In the short film we start to realise that both the characters just want to be loved and have the company of one and other, which they bother eventually received at the end. What I also wanted to see in the short film was the elderly woman's son find out the news of his mothers death, to see his reaction and realisation of how he treated her would have, for me, created a stronger message as I feel that a lot of us nowadays take our parents especially, for granted.

Transfer Storyboard to Keyframes in Animate

Below are my keyframes from my animation which I have tried to transfer from my storyboard. Unfortunately, I had to slightly change it from my storyboard version as I feel like my drawings from my storyboard were too much in detail and was not achievable for me, in the time I had given myself.

CPR Animated Gif

Below is my finished version of my animated CPR gif.

CPR Animation

Peer Review/Feedback on Finished Animation and Solutions to the Improvements:

Below is my finished CPR animated gif. 

After seeing my finished animation, I first noticed that when I exported the animation as an animated gif, some of my animated drawings were not moving, such as my lungs in the respiration part of CPR and the last bit where I have drawn myself to wave goodbye.

To rectify this, I exported my animation as a video, I then imported it onto Premiere Pro, I decided to add a short audio clip of 'Stayin' Alive' to the correct place of my animation, this just adds a little extra touch to my animation, making it slightly more memorable. Below is the updated version of my animation which I have uploaded onto YouTube. 

I believe that this is a good first attempt of creating an animation on Animate. The software to me, was quite hard to grasp, and so when I was doing my anmation, I tried to keep everything as simple as possible, making parts of it, partially different to my storyboard. I feel like if I had also managed my time properly, the animation would look a little more polished and overall be easier to watch. I almost feel as if the animation is still missing something such as a diagram of how CPR benefits the victim, or give other examples of when to give CPR, or to even mention that before beginning to give CPR to ring the ambulance, so that they are aware of the situation and can come as soon as they can. This would have given more clarity to the message my animation was trying to project. Next, I feel like I should of showed why CPR is so important to know. And so, if I were to do this again, I would make sure that I shed light onto all those points, making my animation much better.

I then asked my peers of what they liked about it and what they thought that I could improve on. The most popular aspect they liked about my animation was the use of colours, as this made things clearer and stand out more. Another popular comment about my animation was that they liked how clear my pictures were, as even without the text, they still understood what the animation was trying to say to them.

Although, amongst the positive feedback I got back, there were also many improvements needed to be made. After making the change to my animation, I then showed my peers the updated version of my CPR animation. A comment for improvement was that at some points of the animation, the text was over the pictures, and did not stand out that clearly. If I were to redo this project, I will make sure that the layout of the animation will allow all parts of it, stand out as clearly as it can, even if that means separating the text to fit a blank space, change the colour of the text, or even shorten my description. Another improvement I had was that at some points of the animation, the description wasn't on for long enough for them to read, with this feedback I will take into consideration to make my frames longer, giving the audience more time to read and take in what the message of the animation is. My final comment from a peer was that there was too much happening on screen, my solution for this would be to condense the information I am giving to my target audience, making sure that they get key information.

In conclusion, I feel that what I have produced is good, but I wouldn't say excellent. The reason to this is because I feel like that as I missed a lesson, I unfortunately didn't catch up as rapidly as I wanted to, I feel that I spent too much time perfecting the beginning instead of making sure that the foundation of the animation was down. I feel if I organised my time more effectively, I would have taken more consideration for the frame durations, the quality of the pictures, and the animation would have followed my storyboard a little more. Overall, I still managed to create an animation, showing how to do animation.

Evaluation of Lookbook/Magazine

In this evaluation, I will be analysing the step by step process and the overall outcome of my lookbook/magazine.

In the first week of starting the project, I felt quite productive, as my group gathered many magazine, giving us many ideas on what to aim for and what to avoid. We then went through the pros and cons of a selection of other magazines we were giving, after going through a few, we started to notice what made each of them unique from the other, regardless of some of them being different topics. They all used a set of colour schemes, this made each of them look professional and separated each of them from the other. The layout also made a significant difference between each of them, some were presented like scrapbooks, some were neaty placed amungst each other by having text and pictures all alined, some had both pictures and text overlaying eachother, and others such as the Empire magazine, made some pages of that they were promoting, as if the article is happening within a scene of the film.

Next, the following week, we created a logo on Illistrator. Before doing it, we looked through some examples, many of the one that I personally looked at were made up with shapes to then for example creating the company name or something else which had a relation to the company. To create my name, I used many triangles and rectangles to create fluentisity to the letters. I found that it was difficult to get a hang of at the beginning, but once I got it in my head of what to do, I created three logos and then I picked the one I thought best suited the style of my magazine.

Week 3, I started to sketch layout ideas for the lookbook/magazine. I found this quite difficult as at this point, I hadn't taken many photos and so it was difficult to picture what I wanted. Regardless of this, I was still able to create the front cover and contents page as after looking at example magazines, I was able to draw some inspiration from that.

After that, I started to organise photoshoots with friends. Before, I got my models to confirm what they were wearing, this was so that I knew whether it would fit in with the image I had. The first location was Bath, I got a few good photos here, but I wasn't able to get as many as I wanted. The week following, I organised a photoshoot with friends in my home town, Devizes. Planning wise, I did the same, advising my models what kind of clothing I would ike them to wear, etc. Then I made a list of locations in Devizes would look best, a lot of my photos were in narrow ally ways and staircases, this gave my magazine an urban atmosphere which is what I wanted to achieve.

After my photoshoots, I started to select the best pictures and organised them onto my lookbook/magazine. This process was both easy and hard as selecting the pictures took a while, and then I also had to decide how to present them. I tried to follow my planned ideas as much as I could but, I made a few changes due to the kind of picture it was.

After creating my first draft I had to ask many of my friends what their opinions were of my lookbook/magazine, as my target audience are my generation. after recieving reflective feedback, I then started to tweak it, making it look a little more proffesional looking.

To conclude this evaluation, I would say that my lookbook/magazine has been a total success. If I were to do this again, I would manage my time a little better as I feel I may have spent more time in the planning stage as I was constanly changing my mind, instead of getting on with I had produced already and trialing that out. 

Finished Lookbook/Magazine

Below is my finished Lookbook/Magazine.

After evaluating my first draft, I went back and created a few changes. 

First, I changed, pages 3 and 4, I did this by taking out the image that had been dispesed into slices. By doing that, I created more space and the spreads didn't look so crowed as before.

Secondly, I added another picture onto pages 5 and 6, this was a close up of the jacket the model was wearing (Tom Kerry), making it relevent and filled up the empty space on the spread.

After that, I added a purple hue to the background pictures on the back cover, I did this by creating a box, and filled the colour to a lavender like colour, I then put the opacity to 50%, making the hue still noticable and allowing the pictures to remain clear.

After evaluating my magazine, I then had my peers review my finished magazine. Here I received many points for improvements and comments on what they also liked about the magazine. One of my improvements were to have "more coloured backgrounds", with this review, I could add different colours behind the text or pictures, this will make the pages pop out more instead of keeping the pages white, making it look bare. Another comment I had on my magazine was that "some fonts could be in better resolution e.g. page 2 title", I agree with this statement, and if I were to do this again with more time, I will ensure that everything is finalised, titles and fonts will look clear with full resolution, making it look more professional. My third comment was to "switch up some of the colour of the text", I can do this by choosing colours which went with my colour scheme such as greens and blues. Another comment was that I had to be "careful with page coming close to text" I will make sure that when laying out my pictures and text, I would enough that it is more even and balanced. My final comment on my magazine is to use "less chromatic aberration", this is mainly on the front cover, although this may be appealing to some people, some might find that the effect from the chromatic aberration can cause optical problems which could lead to headaches and possibly other slightly sever cases. When my peers reviewed my magazine, I had popular feedback for page 1 and 2, as they liked the pictures taken and the layout of the page. Regardless of the negative comment on the chromatic aberration on the front cover, some of my peers still enjoyed the visual appearance of it. Another positive comment I had was from my logo, they thought it was quirky and fit with the theme.

What makes this lookbook so successful to me is that it is clear that it is predominately promoting winter styles, and so it is clear that it is a fashion magazine/lookbook, and by having the social evolution article in it it doesn't look out of place as much as other topics might, such as a furniture, even though it fits in with a lot of fashion magazines/lookbooks, as you find that a lot more fashion companies, also bring out some furniture, giving the their buyers the chance to not only dress themselves up, but also their homes. But as my target audience are mainly younger people, I've focused the content to fashion and the social media world as it is what most of my generation is more interested in.

Overall, I believe that my magazine looks quite professional as it all follows a colour scheme and a theme, making the transfer from each page more fluent, instead of having it look out of place.

First Draft (Magazine/Lookbook)

I really like my front cover as the colours work well with each other, creating an urban hipster atmosphere with the purple hue to the picture. The magazine is promoting winter clothing to keep you warm during the freezing temperatures, as the coat on the model is yellow, having the pull quote also yellow, helps to point out that viewers are able to create quirky and fun outfits in the winter.

I do like the contents page I have created as space is filled and the colour scheme has remained similar. What also makes the page stand out from other contents pages is that the letters are down the centre, instead of having it at the top of the page, I feel that by doing it this way sets a bold quirky style and the fact it's different, makes it memorable to readers. Although when planning it, in my head it didn't look so random. When I put everything together, it almost in a way looks untidy. 

My first page is one of my favourites as I feel as, even though there is a lot happening on the page, it doesn't overwhelm the page too much to make it look untidy and out of place. The dispersed picture has a puzzle effect to it, which I like. The image is also not too dispersed, as if I were to disperse the sliced image anymore, it may just look a little unclear to readers.

I don't like this page as much as my first as it looks almost quite bare, but also gives the impression that too much is happening in it. It could have worked of I got rid of the image that has been sliced up, and just had the storyboard pictures alined in the middle. That way, I can then add more text to fill up the empty spaces, without over crowing the page.

I like this page, but I feel that compared to the previous pages before, it looks too plain. To avoid this, I could add a couple of images below the main one, just to fill in the space a little more. I like how the model's hair intwines with the tree branches, giving it a relaxed tone to the page.

I find these pages are quite eye-catching and definitely gets the message across about the growing anti-social behaviours. The yellow really stands out on the page, making a statement on the issue on our new generation may be having.

I like the back cover as it advertises the company well and uses as much space as possible. The only thing I would say is that it could have done with a slightly purple hue to it like the front cover so that it follows some sort of pattern.

Overall, I believe that my first draft was a success, as it only really needs a few tiny touches to make it look more appealing.

Mock Page Layout

Below is my planned layout for my magazine.

Case Study of 3 Different Examples of Lookbooks or Magazines

For this project, I have decided that I will create a lookbook/magazine where it has both fashion and social evolution sections within it. I feel like this will link well together as the fashion industry solely relies on the media industry to promote new seasonal clothing and accessories, and with social development, I can show whether social media has had an effect on social behaviour to the new generation.

In my eyes, as I can link the two different kinds of articles together, I am then able to give it a similar layout to one and other.

Fashion Magazine

This Voir magazine is vibrant with a variety of warm and cold colours such as yellows, blues, purples and pinks. Next what I found quite quirky, was how the model placed her hands on her face, they give a weaving effect, like vines wrapping around a tree. The title of the magazine also pops out, and as there are many colours on the cover already, the title doesn't get lost in it.

Living World Magazine (Evolution)

With this Discover magazine, I like how it shows the human 'body' evolution. showing how now, technology has influenced us so much that we have developed a way of flying instead of walking like our previous ancestors. The writing is very neat and clear, each bit of text has its own section of the magazine to fill. Each pull quote is highlighted in red, making it more eye-catching and easy to spot when walking past it. 

Film Magazine

 Empire magazines in general, are quite bold and eye catching as they arre used for marketing purposes, to showcase the newest films available to watch at their cinemas. This is quite different from the Discover magazine as that is full of facts on gadgets and scientific discovies, whereas the Empire magazing is a way to broadcast upcoming films and give a little iformation on the film such as the storyline. Inside the magazine the pictures of characters are not always kept in their frames, they almost present it as if they were trying to get out of the magazine, whicg I like. Like the images inside the magazine, the cover usually has a colourful and bold image, having a significant aspect of the character or film, overlap the title, showing the significance of it. For example the Captain America: Civil War cover has Captain America's sheild in the middle and both cap and Iron Man pushing on it, this shows fans/viewers to gather that the two heros are fighting and the sheild holds a significant reason to it, leading the question to, what it stands for. Another example is the Black Panther cover, this is all of a simular colour scheme, sticking to the purples and blues, having the hand over the title, almost makes you feel like the prey, the colours on the cover also makes you feel that it's supernatural and out of this world. 

2-3 Locations to Carry out a Photoshoot

Devizes

In Devizes, there are many locations which can create the kind of atmosphere I would like in my magazine, it has old streets which go back to the 18th century, or lit-up ally ways, both of these kinds of locations in Devizes, can create an urban/street look to my pictures.

When taking photos in the old 18th-century streets, I feel like it highlights the new culture and compares it to the old, by having the historic structural appearance of the buildings and also from what the model is wearing, the two styles are then put to comparison, it is almost out of place.

Below are some examples of locations in Devizes where I took pictures of my models. What I like about these locations are that they have very narrow streets. I liked this as it shows how the town's history is still amongst us, and as traditions and trends change, those buildings remain their historic atmosphere.

Below are the pictures which I have taken in those locations.

Bath

Bath, like Devizes has a contrast of modern day buildings and historic locations, and so this allows me to continue the theme in the magazine throughout.

For my Bath location, I chose to shoot here, at the time, the tree by the wall was lit up with lightbulb fairy lights due to the Christmas festivities. I also liked how the graffiti on the wall brightens the dull area, and then standing there you are also able to overlook a part of Bath, which I also liked about the location. 

Below are pictures which I have taken in this location.

Salisbury

Another Location I used was a pub in Salisbury, as I decided to do a social evolution section of the magazine, I took photos of my younger siblings on their devices constantly during a family and friends reunion meal, showing that social media can cause anti-social behavior.