Unit 6 - Self-Assessment

Unit 6 – Self-Assessment

Throughout this unit, I have gained a clearer view on my abilities in regards to working with marketing. At the start, it took me time to come up with a concept to start a marketing campaign. By the time I came up with an idea, there was only so much time I had to work with. Since I was doing my own campaign for a book idea of mine, I may have made it more difficult for myself to develop a marketing campaign. I had few promotional content, until I came up with some cover ideas, though I probably spent more time then I needed on them. I was very limited in my thinking of how to proceed and manage the time I was given, as well as making some improvements to existing work. I was making sure I met whatever deadline was given, so I created what I could in that time. A couple areas I lack in includes the ability to plan my campaign before, as well as an inconsistent pace and direction for coming up with ideas. I have a lot to improve in regards to working in the marketing area; mainly to plan the direction to take a campaign in, and well thought out content to help promote the campaign. I have gained a better understanding on my ability to work in the media industry, and learning the units has given me a clearer view on how to proceed with future work.

By Aidan Stephenson

Unit 4 - Pre-Production Portfolio Report

Unit 4 – Pre-Production Portfolio Report

There are a number of stages during pre-production. When planning a short film; it is key to have scriptwriters and storyboards. This way you can have a grasp on how to proceed in the initial production stage. This is how a commissioning process works in the pre-production stage, and every given role is assigned their task: to the producers, directors, editors, researchers, script writers and agents. All who contribute to the making of a film or television series.

You may need people involved in the production to sign a release forms should any incidents happen during production; to ensure health and safety. If you desire to film in a certain location, you will require permission to use locations wherever you are shooting. The importance of health and safety assessments is vital to filmmaking, to warn people beforehand of any possible risks in filming schedules; this ranges to all employers. 

Time and deadlines are factors that influence the course of a film or TV production. In order to meet a deadline; certain things might change the way a project proceeds. Rewriting the script will alter the progression, to adapt to the timescale given to work. You have to be sure you can meet a deadline; that you can finish your production in the time you have. The cast and crew are major components for a production. If you have the right people to work with and they’re able to be available when needed, then the production is well coordinated with the people involved. 

A shot list is important to how you manage your camera crew and that they’re given documents and material to work with. A shot list determines the principal photography of a movie and how well it is established. This way it is clear as to how you want your scenes to be visualized.

The financing is one of the specific resources you need when producing something. A film production is given a budget for the director and producers to invest into their production to fund several aspects for implementation to a film. The money can be used for digital effects studios, costumes and prop designs; paying for transport and equipment. In post-production you will have to pay for a soundtrack composition for whoever composes the music you wish to use. The cast and crew require payment for their contribution to the entire film project.

In pre-production, many factors are vital to how you manage every aspect for creating a film, however short or long it can be. All either financed independently or crowd funding and loans. An example of a crowdfunded film being, ‘Kung Fury’; a short film produced in Sweden, which gained a budget of $630,019. That is my summary of the stages involved in pre-production. In regulations for advertisement, it is a strict code of conduct to not falsely advertise anything to consumers that mislead or deceive them of your intentions.

By Aidan Stephenson

Unit 14 - Magazine Codes and Conventions Evaluation

Unit 14 – Magazine Codes and Conventions Evaluation

In this evaluation, I will mention all of the essential information of the codes and conventions of physical and digital magazines; what their purposes are and who the target audience is aimed towards. There are many magazines with different purposes directed towards differing audiences. One genre of magazine I will analyze is the film category. Films and television magazines are intended to inform its reading audience of new, trending films and TV shows. Specifically, you may read articles of upcoming movies, what’s currently showing in the cinemas, reviews of films and interviews with cast and crew. If it’s centered around television, they tend to list weekly showings of TV shows on certain channels at specific times of the day; so people can take note of that and possibly watch the programming when it starts. The way these types of magazines are designed is very colorful, with plenty of images spread in various pages above and under long written articles. 



On this cover, there are many editing factors to consider regarding the front cover of this magazine. Particularly, the color scheme relates to the main subject of the cover. The subject of the magazine being War for The Planet of The Apes; the bluish color possibly is meant to represent the tone that this film holds, as the main tagline is 'This Means War!' It can also relate to the Game of Thrones headline at the top. The entire cover gives a wintry impression, as snow is visible. The use of other colors has been done to highlight other subjects part of the magazine issue, to promote them on the magazine. One example being the red paragraphs that speak of Dunkirk and Baby Driver, as the two of them will have had major releases.

Readers consume magazines differently today, some still purchase physical magazines, while others may find it easier to buy digital magazines online. There multiple technical factors to consider when thinking of buying or distributing a magazine. As a buyer, you may prefer to purchase physical magazines, as it may be simpler than paying for an online magazine, as you may not receive the digital download for your purchase. Although, you might think getting magazines digitally will be more ideal than physical copies, as you could still read them at any time on your phone or any other device you are reading on; and physical magazines have a limited supply in some shops. If you are thinking of publishing and distributing your own magazine, perhaps it is easier to publish them online in a digital format, as that might be the best format for yourself to use and reduce printing costs of physical magazines. Magazines are read by many different groups of people with their own personal preferences; whether they prefer the classic physical format over the digital, or are leaning to digital magazines as it may be perfect for them to read when they're out and about. They follow magazines of their favorite subject and hobby, be it: sport, cooking, vehicles, film and TV, games and technology. Any subject can be the basis for a magazine, depending on what publishers intend to revolve their magazines around.

That is my entire research on the codes and conventions of physical and digital magazines. I understand the purposes they hold for audiences, and the type of genres they look for. Thus, I conclude my evaluation.

By Aidan Stephenson

Unit 6 - Rationale and Flat Plan

https://www.slideshare.net/AidanStephenson3/unit-6-my-media-campaign-100634798

https://www.slideshare.net/AidanStephenson3/unit-6-crossplatform-campaign

Unit 6 - Final Products

When it came to designing this book cover, I was trying to think on what I would picture. The first thing I did was to draw the circle design with the dot in the middle. The inspiration I got for that was a picture of the way water was spread out on my kitchen bench. I thought I would use that as a key symbol for my book series. I tried drawing the best the best way that I could. The reason behind the sword was that I wanted to connect it with the symbol; as a way of adding a mystery to decipher both their origins. The title and my name I drew trying to do my own style of font. I colored the cover wanting to make it vague, using little bright colors. The ring is a teal blue while the title along with my name were colored in a golden-yellow type of color. There were various ways I was picturing an ideal cover, and this was my way of practicing, to see if I can make a better version if I ever publish my own book.





Using photoshop, I used the magic wand tool that would allow me to select an area of my sketches and put them into a layer. Once I had a new layer, I used the paint bucket tool and chose a color to fill in that layer. I repeated the process several times until I was finished with the main sketches. After that, I used the paint brush to color in the background rather than leave it blank.


By the time it came to make this banner for my social media page, I tried using the same concept though creating it differently. I went and drew the same ring though I sketched it different from the cover. There was a little more on the top left corner of the ring as there was more of a shape in the photo I took of the water.


I plan to use these by uploading them to Facebook since the book will be digital and will most likely reach my desired audience, as well as advertising them in book shops, since I may have a better chance in connecting with a reading audience.


https://www.slideshare.net/AidanStephenson3/unit-6-annotation-of-final-media-products-10062757

Photoshop was one of the main softwares that I used for editing my drawings, and I was familiar with key tools that I used to edit past drawings. These are the following tools that I used.

Magic Wand Tool - This tool allowed me to select a certain area of my sketches. Once selected, there is the option to place the selected area in a new layer where you can do further editing. I labeled each of the layers so I knew where and what I wanted to work on; I often went back to some so I could get them to match a color or make any small changes.






















Paint Bucket Tool - A tool that I commonly used to color in parts of my drawings. As soon as I had a suitable color, I hovered over my selected layers and colored those parts in. In several of my layers, I changed the opacity of the colors I had selected in order to change the shade of the color to a make it more clean.











Brush Tool - A coloring tool I used to color in my background; changing the size of the brush to cover the background quicker than to leave it a small size. I used it to outline the sword I drew in my cover sketch. It was a challenge working with mouse and trying to keep a steady hand when going over the lines.

Unit 6 - Campaign Evaluation

Throughout this unit, I went through different stages. The first being my planning stage; where I was coming up with a campaign of my own. My initial idea was a campaign to promote a book idea of mine that I have been conceptualizing for a while; the title being, 'Spiritual Mythos'. The other campaign idea would be a website titled MythicTeller Novels which would centre on publishing digital graphic novels. I went with promoting my book idea as I think that may be a good idea to plan out. After I finished the Cross-Media Campaign Idea document; I went to do my rationale explaining the reasoning for beginning a campaign to promote my book idea. I went into detail regarding my target audience and my inspirations for my book. At the time I started working on my powerpoint pitch where I added my input into what my campaign is promoting. Further ahead in the unit, I began working on a social media page to promote my book. Alongside this, I sketched a cover which would be the cover of my book which I used for my page profile picture; also, I did a banner sketch for the social page cover.



The type of campaign I am promoting is a teaser campaign; with little information for the moment apart from my post where I estimated I would publish the first book in the middle of 2019.







The feedback I received has been most helpful with how people viewed my social media page. From this first comment, I manage to attract some interest to my book idea based on the images I used. They liked how vague I was as well as using my drawings for the profile picture and cover banner.


I had to make three different products that were to be different formats. I did a book cover that I drew, along with a banner to promote my social media page. I made sure I had completed them in the time that I had. I needed to post something as a little teaser to when I would possibly publish my book. I have learnt a lot throughout this unit that has helped me to understand the steps and methods there are to promoting something by campaign; and ensure I can improve on my planning and management of a marketing campaign. I will look back on this to understand how marketing works, and how you should plan out a marketing campaign and have better materials.

By Aidan Stephenson

Unit 6 - My Media Campaign

Cross-Platform Media Idea 1

MythicTeller Novels

Concept: A website aimed at publishing digital graphic novels online; for anyone who wishes to self-publish their original ideas. 

Possible other titles: HollowCaster Novels, SpiritCast Novels.

Possible platform ideas: A banner with the MythicTeller Novels Logo, the official website that I will design.

Inspiration: Rooster Teeth: Having gotten interested in them at the age of 14, watching their long running series, Red vs Blue; since then I have enjoyed watching other series they have created. From their new original animated series called RWBY, as well as other animated series they have as an independent production company. Image Comics: Unlike DC or Marvel comics, Image has a wide range of comic titles to read from many different writers and artists, which is the reason I like their brand the most as an independent comic book publisher.

Target Audience: The general audience I have in mind stem from young teenagers to adults, within the age gap of 13 to people in their 20s. People who have an interest in graphic novels and animation.

Cross-Platform Media Idea 2

Spiritual Mythos

Concept: A digital fantasy novel series aimed at people who enjoy reading fantasy books of their choice. My plan is to write several books with ongoing plotlines; offer a compelling story for people to read. It includes a vast number of elements inspired from other fantasy series that are well known by people. It is a concept that I have been envisioning for a long while.

Possible Platform Ideas: A cover of my Spiritual Mythos series, a storyboard of a comic to promote the series, a free preview of a chapter. 

Release Date: The ideal day of publication is May 6 2019.

Campaign Start: I intend to start my campaign and writing on July 7 2018.

Platforms for Promotion: I plan to use digital platforms in order for me to promote my campaign, as my book will be released digitally, as that might be the best way to reach my desired audience.

Inspiration: Many things I have watched and read are what inspired me to write this series. An example being The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, the movie Big Trouble in Little China, an anime series titled Fate/Zero and the animated series RWBY from Rooster Teeth Productions.

Target Audience: I envision my series to be read by a young teenager and adult demographic. Perhaps anyone from the age of 11 past 17. It is aimed at anyone with an interest in the fantasy genre of books as well as a possible liking for movies and animations.