ED2 Photo mini Assignment One

35mm Camera

35mm film
The advantages of a 35mm camera is the fact that it’s light and easy to move around, 35 mm cameras  are also quite cheap. You can also get 36 shots per roll of film which saves a lot of switching time for the photographer and is also more affordable. The main disadvantage is the fact that the photos are of quite poor quality compared to medium or large format photography.
Example of photo;

Medium format cameras
Mamiya RB67

120mm film
Can produce different size images
6x4.5cm, 6x6cm, 6x7cm, 6x9cm, 6x12cm, 6x24cm
This obviously decides how many photos can be fitted into a roll of film, anywhere from 16 to 3 images, depending on the size of the image.
The advantages of medium format cameras is that you have the balance of having quality images and a reasonably portable and adaptable camera. It is a lot more bulky than a 35mm camera but it produced significantly better images. The disadvantages of this camera is the expense of it, and to really make the camera quick and adaptable for studio photography the photographer would potentially need duplicate backs for the RB67 and these are expensive.
Example of photo;

Large format cameras

The formats are 5”x4” or 10”x8”
Film comes in separate sheets rather than on a roll, and one photo per sheet.
The main advantage of large format photography is the amazing quality of photos it produces.  It is very large and not particularly adaptable, certainly not very portable. It poses complication or at least delay for photographers in a studio with limited time because the film comes in sheets and can only hold one photo per sheet, so it takes time to load the camera each photo. Everything is manual and so there is room for a lot of error, and everything is very expensive.
Example of photo;

Enlarger

An enlarger is a tool used in a photography dark room in the process of printing photographs.
A photograph negative is placed into the top of the enlarger and a light is turned on which projects the image onto a piece of photographic paper. Using a timer, the photographic paper is exposed to the light for however many seconds is needed and then the light is turned off, then the photographic paper is taken to be developed.







Self Portrait Photographers


Mariell-Amelie

Mariell-Amelie is a Norweigan photographer who is based in London. She has been doing self portraits of herself since 2006, see images above.
She also shoots other models but self portraiture is her main concern.
There is only very brief information about her on her website, stating that she grew up on a small island in North Norway with her parents and a cat, which suggests that she wants people to know that she is a small-town girl who worked hard to get where she is today.


Her self portraits are all very different, she obviously puts a lot of effort into the shots and each one tells a story. The shots may include her in them, however she often has other things in them to make them look interesting and to make the frame look less empty and more balanced.
Mariell Amelie's website


Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is a self portrait photographer born in 1954 who lives and works in New York. She is most famous for her Untitled Film Stills work which consists of 69 photos of herself in different costumes and situations, and she poses as if in each one she is a different character from a different film. These were taken during the period of time between 1977 and 1980, and are all in black and white.


These, however, are not her only work. She has done many different series' of photos and gained worldwide recognition for her work. It is thought that her photography is concentrated on how women are viewed in society.


Sherman's father had a hobby of collecting cameras and taking family photos. She often used to play dress up, and so her upbringing reflects on her work. She was raised in Long Island and went to State University College at Buffalo, New York, where she studied painting. After a while she got tired with the limitations painting held and decided that photography was better, because then she could spend more time on the idea, rather than actually capturing it.

Evaluation

This is my finished piece of work. There are obviously problems with it, but problems I am able to explain.

To begin with, I took many more photos than this, however, due to no fault of my own, these photos did not come out. This is why I was truly limited with what images I had to work with. I thought that these images would come out, and therefore did not put myself forward to be photographed by the medium and large format cameras. I also believed that we were working with the photos we had taken, rather than the photos that had been taken of us by someone else, since taking credit for someone else's work did not seem right, it is not a 'self portrait' if someone else took it.

Basically the only photo I had left to work with is the photo of Ryan I had taken with the medium format RB67 camera. I positioned him at the edge of the frame on purpose, because I find that photos where the subject is at the centre of the frame look very dull and uninteresting, unless there is a specific reason for them being there. I also shot with the page layout in mind, and only wanted my image to be on one of the pages.

I did not do much editing on Photoshop except for adding a gradient so the page gradually faded to black on the right without any solid colour lines showing through. I also used the spot corrector to sort of a couple of white marks which were on my original print. Of course the text was added on Photoshop also. If I were to do it again or had a longer amount of time I would have chosen a different font and maybe positioned the text somewhere else, I get the feeling that the page is a little unbalanced with the majority of the text and the image on one page. If I had the opportunity I would have added some blocks of text on the other page, if it were for a real magazine the text would relate to the portrait.

Developing the photo was relatively easy since I've done it a few times before now. Of course I did a test strip before doing the whole thing, testing it 5 seconds at a time, the test strip came out like this.

The 15 seconds exposure looked good to me, however it could possibly look better a little lighter, so I did 14 seconds and it turned out the way I wanted it. I did not mind the dark shadows because I intended for a dark and moody sort of look.

Overall I am happy with my work, despite the complications. The only thing I am not particularly happy with is the text, but I spend a lot of time trying to work out where to put it and was still indecisive. Other than that I am pleased with the actual photo and the process in general, using the Mamiya RB67 was fun and an interesting experience.

(please note, I am not sure why some things are highlighted in white, (such as this, why?!) it seems to have spurred from me copying and pasting certain names such as 'Mamiya' and 'State University College, Buffalo in New York. These are the only things I copied.)

TV Advert Production - Task 4

Developing the product idea.

I decided to take the information from my questionnaire and develop the first idea for my fizzy drink before I did the second lot of market research, so I could get some feedback on what I was getting right and what was not so good. My first idea was this.

I arrived at this initial idea because I decided to go down the route of energy drinks. 'Oomph' is a word used in an expression 'Give it some oomph' which means 'give it some energy, effort, etc'.
The fist symbolises power and and determination, it is also a rather masculine sort of symbol and would appeal to my target audience.




When I carried out my second batch of market research and asked people's opinion on this logo, I realised I needed to change it considerably. For a start, it is very plain and not very brightly coloured, so it does not jump out and attract people's attention. Another big point is the fact that the fist looks very political, which could be a large problem. Taking this into consideration yet still wanting to keep the basic idea, I began sketching out more ideas.

 (I used this image of a fist holding a candle to base my drawing on.)

And this is my finished design & logo. I decided to have the can as a logo because it shows to the audience what the can looks like without them having to translate the logo onto the can.

I improved it by making it more colourful, it also looks less violent and political.

The typeface is called 'Another Typewriter', I chose it because it is very clear but also looks quite cartoony which goes with my design.

Typical Target Audience Member Profile

Ideas for advert.

I started out by doing a mind map to help me sort out my ideas for the advert.

Proposal/Treatment

The advert that I have to do is for a fizzy drink product aimed either at boys aged 14-18 or girls aged 14-18. I have chosen to aim my advert and product at boys. 

I intend for my advert to by simple yet effective. I believe that having too much going on in an advert dilutes the main message which is trying to be put across and therefore is not as effective for advertising purposes.

For my advert, I plan to illustrate to the audience how my product (Oomph) can be enjoyed wherever and whenever the consumer wants. 

To do this, I intend to get many different shots in which the product (in this case a can) is in the foreground, importantly with the logo on full display to the camera and the main focus point in the shot, so the audience recognise it and it is firmly placed into their heads. In the background of each separate shot I would have something going on which a boy aged 14-18 may typically be doing, whether this be playing football, skateboarding, playing videogames etc. As I would need a lot of these particular shots, I may also use shots which do not have as much action going on, but may just be located in a place where boys of the target age group would go or hang out, such as college, the park, a street, etc.

To put these shots together, I would use clean cuts. This may seem boring at first, but I plan to keep the can in exactly the same place in the framing of the shot, so when I clean cut through all the shots, the can appears to be in the same place, with only the background changing. This I believe, is a simple and easy effect to do however it looks great and clever if done correctly. 

A lot of my shots would be outside and there would be enough natural light to film without having to bring any additional lighting onto the set. However any shots that may be filmed indoors would need artificial lighting. I would make sure that the can is lighted extremely well, the background does not need to be illuminated quite as much, as long as it does not look unintentionally dark and the viewer is able to see clearly what is going on.

To accompany the visuals, I would use a single song as audio. I believe that using too many different sounds in an advert makes it sound messy. Also the single song would help the shots run smoothly together.

I would pick a fast and upbeat song for my advert, so I could then cut my shots to the beat, as this looks pleasing to the eye and makes the advert move more naturally. For the song, I would try and avoid mainstream music as it is too current and would go out of date quickly. Using a song which only a small minority would know would have it’s advantages, firstly because people tend not to have too much of an opinion on a song they do not know, however if I used a mainstream song it would run the risk of having a lot of people possibly disliking the song and therefore dismissing the advert. Also, in terms of profits, an unknown song is likely to want less on royalties, and it could also help the artist’s career if the advert is well liked. Adverts have been known to become a talking point based on the music they use, and occasionally the music gets into the charts! This is also a huge advantage for the product because everyone is talking about it.

I believe that my advert idea would appeal directly to boys aged 14-18 because of the different areas it covers regarding the location and action in the shots. Boys of this age will be able to relate to at least one (but ideally more) of the situations. Also, teenagers often find themselves lacking in energy, and so ‘Give it some Oomph’ as in ‘get some energy’ would be a good selling point. 

TV Advert Production - Task 3

To begin my research, I carried out a questionnaire using the social networking site Facebook as a means of reaching many different people in order to get a wide variety of people's views. Here are the questions I asked and the options I allowed.

_______________________________

Fizzy Drinks Questionnaire

Please circle your options.

1. Are You;

Male   Female

2. How old are you?

Under 11     12-15    15-20     21-35     36-50     50+

3. How often do you drink fizzy drinks?

Every Day    Every Few Days  Once A Week   Once A Month   Month+ 

4. Do you ever purchase ‘low fat’ or ‘diet’ variations of drinks?

Yes  No 

5. Do competitions offered with drinks make you choose them rather than other drinks?

Yes    No 

6. What makes you choose a certain drink?

Like The Taste   Cheap   Like The Brand     Like The Appearance

7. Do you prefer fizzy drinks in bottles or cans?

Bottles     Cans 

8. Would you buy cans more often if there was a resealable option?

Yes     No

9. When do you usually have a fizzy drink?

With Exercise |   With a Meal    Whilst Out With Friends    In a Pub/Café 

10. Do you prefer fruit flavour drinks or artificial flavours?

Fruit   Artificial 

11. Which of these do you prefer?

Coke   Red Bull    Fanta    Lilt     Iron Bru     Dr Pepper

_____________________________

I got answers from 20 people, the majority of which were boys (I did this on purpose because I plan for my product to be for boys aged 14-18) at the ages from 13-21. The things I concluded from this questionnaire are as follows:

Most people drink fizzy drinks every few days.

Low Fat or Diet options are popular, but more among girls than boys.

People are not swayed to buy a certain drink if it has a competition offer.

Bottles are preferred, however more people would buy cans if they were resealable.

Most people drink fizzy drinks whilst out and about with friends.

Artificial type flavours such as Coke and Red Bull are preferred generally over fruit options such as Fanta or Lilt.

Taking all this into consideration, I went about designing my can. With no real research into the appearance of my design or what my target audience would want, I printed some copies off of my first design and gave them out to people and asked for feedback on what they thought. Here are some examples:

With this information I was able to begin planning and redesigning my product with the feedback of others to influence and improve my ideas.