Digital Sketch Book: Image Two

Original Image

Manipulated Image

Stage 1: Posterize Effect

Stage 2: Paint Unwanted White

Stage 3: Text

I used a simple manipulation technique of 'Posterize' to get this effect on the original image. Then on another layer I painted unwanted white parts black to make the bottom of the image more clear and defined. Then I added the text. As you can see in the photo, on the first page you can see the full panipulated image, and on the second page you can see parts of the manipulated image around the original. I really like this as it links the two pages together.

Digital Sketch Book: Image One

Original Image

Manipulated Image

Stage 1: Filter Effect 'Chalk & Charcole'

Stage 2: Vertical Strips

Stage 3: Horizontal Strips

Stage 4: Text

For this image I started off by adding the filter effect 'Chalk & Charcole'. Then I duplicated the layer and cut horizontal strips on one and vertical strips on the other. This made transparent squares which show the original image behind. The manipulated image was printed on acetate.

Digital Sketch Book

To start off with I have chosen 10 images that I will use as the focal point for my image essay. All the images used are photographs of nature that I have taken myself. My theme and idea for the actual essay to show a manipulated image and the natural image. This also has an underlying message of what is reality and what isn't. I will also use particular lines from the text to support the image. I want to inocorporate and relate the manipulated image and the original image physically by making 'windows' in the manipulated images. My planning sheets below illustrate my ideas further.












As you can see through the above images I intend to have 20 pages in the image essay. I will be using different materials such as card, acetate, tracing paper and hand made paper. I will bind the pages into a book at the end.

D&AD Final Poster Designs

These are the three final poster designs for the D&AD brief.

Poster 1

The background image was taken by myself. Initially I wanted to cover the edges with a black mask, however this did not work as it created different shades of black in certain areas. Therefore I did not manipulate this image at all, and just added the text on top. I really like this poster as it is simple, concise and effective.

Poster 2

I took the image of the knife and used it as a code, or signifier of the horror genre. On the left I used the filter effect 'Liquify' to achieve the mesh. I feel that this poster represents the slasher sub-genre of horror rather than the horror genre as a whole. However it is still effective in advertising the festival through the text.

Poster 3

This poster is heavily text based and would most likely be put up at the theatre, schools and colleges. This is where audiences would be interested in the festival and would want to know more details.

Overall I feel that I have met the brief. All three posters are quite generic and therefore appeal to a wide range of audiences. All three are type-based and advertise a local film festival as a whole. The colours and the font complement eachother and although the images are simple and minimalist they signify the horror genre well. I feel I could have improved this project by developing further features of the film festival to advertise in the posters. For example a competition, or film discussion sessions.

Poster Content - Part 4

This the information that will be included on the third poster, which is advertising the films that will be screened at the festival, the day and showing time.

Films to be screened:

1910’s – Friday 6^th

The Cabinet of Dr Caligary (1919) - 7pm

1920’s – Saturday 7^th

Nosferatu (1922) – 6pm

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) – 9pm

1930’s – Sunday 8^th

Dracula (1931) – 3pm

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1931) – 6pm

King Kong (1933) – 9pm

1940’s – Monday 9^th

The Body Snatcher (1945) – 3pm

Cat People (1942) – 6pm

Dead of Night (1945) – 6pm

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) – 9pm

1950’s – Tuesday 10^th

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) – 3pm

Dracula (1958) – 6pm

The House of Wax (1953) – 9pm

1960’s – Wednesday 11^th

Rosemary’s Baby (1968) – 3pm

The Kiss of the Vampire (1964) – 6pm

Dawn of the Dead [original] (1968) – 6pm

Psycho [Hitchcock] (1960) – 9pm

1970’s – Thursday 12^th

Halloween (1978) – 3pm

The Exorcist (1973) – 6pm

The Last House on the Left (1972) – 6pm

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) – 9pm

1980’s – Friday 13^th

An American Wolf in London (1981) – 3pm

The Shinning (1980) – 6pm

Friday the 13^th (1980) – 9pm

1990’s – Saturday 14^th

Silence of the Lambs (1991) – 3pm

Seven (1993) – 6pm

Frankenstein (1993) – 9pm

2000’s – Sunday 15^th

The Blair Witch Project (2000) – 3pm

Dawn of the Dead [re-make] (2004) – 6pm

Shaun of the Dead (2004) – 9pm

Poster Content - Part 3

This is the information that I will include on the posters.

Essential Information:

Title: Horror Horror: A Century!

Slogan: A film festival of a genre as old as cinema itself…

Location: Pheonix Theatre – Leicester

Dates: Fri 6^th April – Sun 15^th April 2007

Ticket Prices: Adults - £6.00 Children - £4.00 Concessions - £5.00

Festival Pass £35.00

Website: www.horrorhorrorfestival.co.uk

Box Office: 0845 4077 0747

Poster Content - Part 2

Audiences relate to genres through codes, conventions and signifiers. These are typical aspects that are always associated with the particular subject. For example when you think of the Sci-fi genre aliens, invasions, extra-terrestrial activity and spaceships come to mind. Similarly I have decided to incorporate such elements into the design of my posters. This includes the colours which, is known as semiotics. Semiotics is the language of media and it is also a study of how various languages, codes such as gesture, colour, photography and fashion are used to produce meaning socially. For example in the horror genre the colours red and black are very common. Although they are used a lot as a combination they are still very effective. These are the colours I intend to use on my poster.

The theme of the festival is showing critically and commercially successful films over the last century, dividing the festival into a decade per day.

Poster 1 & 2: Generally advertising the festival, with all the essential information plus small explanation of what the festival is about.

Poster 3: More detailed advertisement of what will be screened at the festival, with dates, times and ticket prices.

Digital Sketch Book: D&AD Poster Content

Looking at other posters and researching them has helped me to develop my ideas for my poster designs. As the brief requires three type-based posters, I intend to include the following information on the poster designs:

- Logo
- Slogan
- Festival Name / Title
- Films that will be screened – (up to six)
- Location
- Dates
- Ticket Prices
- Website
- Small explanation paragraph explaining what this festival is about

We have been asked to either create three posters on three different films that may be screened at the festival, or three different posters advertising the festival as a whole. I have decided to advertise the festival as a whole. The information (i.e. title, dates etc) will be the same but the layout and general design will be different. Additionally the brief has given us the freedom to take on any angle to the delivery of the information for example comic, serious, scary, informative etc. As the brief indicates the posters needs to appeal to the general public, it would be effective to use different approaches as this audience category has a big range in age, sex, race and interests. The media language used in the poster can effect what audience is attracted to the film festival.

Digital Sketchbook: Film Festivals – Poster Research

There are many local, national and international film festivals every year, which are promoted through various different poster designs. After looking at a variety of film festival posters, I noticed that there are two main approaches to the design.

The Simple Approach

'Vienna International Film Festival' Poster, October 2006

'San Francisco Silent Film Festival' Poster, July 2004

The two pictures above show posters advertising previous film festivals. As you can see the focal point of the design is the festival name or ‘title’ and there are no images on the poster. This is effective as it is easy to read and to the point.

'Cannes International Film Festival' Poster, May 2007 (Paris)

The Cannes Internatinal Film Festival poster is effective as it establishes a brand image. Although the text is in French it is easily understood because the Cannes film festival is one of the biggest and most heard of. Therefore just the word Cannes is enough to fulfil the purpose of the poster.

'Bargain Basement Film Festival' Poster, August 2003 (Columbia)

'Festival International Du Documentaire De Marseille' Poster, July 2006 (France)

There are also posters that use images only [above]. They can also be very effective, however I feel that the image should have a strong connection with what it advertising and you should be able to easily associate it with the subject.

The Type-Based Approach

'Medfilm Festival' Poster, November 2005 (Roma - Italy)

'Mercy Hot Springs Film Festival' Poster, date not specified (Firebaugh)

'Festival Gay & Lesibian' Poster, date not specified (France)

'Slamdance Film Festival [Park City]' Poster, January 2007 (Los Angeles)

'2004 Bike Film Festival' Poster, May 2004 (Leicester)

On the other hand there are posters that use images and text combined to advertise the festival. Some posters have text but limit it to just the film titles and location details. However some posters can have a lot of detailed information. For example the Bike Film Festival has information about the films being shown, the film plot, ticket prices etc. I found that local and less popular national festivals had more information to create further awareness. Whereas the international festivals are more known of and don’t really need details like ticket prices or location. In addition to this the less popular festivals have an emphasis on logo design and sponsors.

http://filmfestivals.com/servlet/JSCRun?CfgPath=ffs&Cfg=festlist.cfg&obj=FestPosterListPro 2006

Week 26: Review of Portfolio Exercise 7

Overall I feel that all the videos met the brief of showing a passage of time in the story. Most of them were an illusion of real-time and ellipsed time. Also all fellow students made an effort to incorporate images and sound as a combination to convey the story. A lot of the sound was recorded by themselves, for example a popular one was the alarm clock. It is an efficient way of showing passage of time and is also an easy diegetic sound to record and compliment the image.

Most of the audiovisuals were fast paced as they were trying to show time passing by. It would take too long and would become boring if they were in literal real time. The stories were mainly clear and straightforward so they could be conveyed simply. Music was a popular source of sound and was a form of portraying the emotions and atmosphere related to the story. Like the storyline the composition had to be clear enough to understand and interpret what was happening in the shot. Therefore simple things like a yawn or someone trying to open the door were exaggerated slightly.

Director Portfolio Exercise 7

For this exercise we were required to produce an audiovisual project that shows a passage of time. It was to include 10-12 images and also three sources of sound (one which recorded by ourselves.)

Need a Job

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My audiovisual project is about finding a job. The story is simple, the character is looking for a job, applies at various places, waits for a reply (passage of time), recieves a letter and an interview date and finally gets the job. There are 15 images and two sources of sound. At the beginning there is a 'click' sound representing the job search online, and I created the song (background music) on Cubass using MIDI. I initially recorded the sound of paper printing for the CV image, and also some dialogue indicating the interview date. However the sound quality was really was really bad and did not flow with the rest of the project.

Digital Sketch Book

After researching the Sanskrit words, I realised that I couldn't interpret them or develop them into images for my Image Essay. I read the poem again and Part 1 - Burial of the Dead came across to me as a subject or topic that I could develop into interesting images.

This part of the poem is mainly about death, however it uses many words that describe and remind me of 'Nature'. For Example:

• Dead Land
• Roots
• Rain
• Earth
• Snow
• Sun
• Mountains
• Dead Tree
• Dry Stone
• Sound of Water
• Evening
• Garden
• Water
• Dawn

I intend to base my Image Essay around the idea of Nature; using the above words in images as connotations and denotations.

Connotation - A literal meaning of the word

Denotation - an association (emotional or otherwise) which the word evokes

/http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/conndeno.html 17/01/07

Digital Sketch Book

For my image essay I have decided to use the Wasteland by T.S. Eliot (Poem) as my main text. Within the poem, I found 'Part 5 - What the Thunder Said' really interesting. Especially the last two lines:

Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih shantih shantih

These words come from the language Sanskrit, which originates from Hinduism. I come from an Indian background and therefore this part of the poem was particularly appealing to me.

The following explains what the words mean:

Datta: Give

Dayadhvam: Sympathise

Damyata: Control

Shantih: Peace

http://members.chello.nl/~a.vanarum8/EliotProject/Waste_notes/datta_N.htm 2006

Week 17: Seminar - Mixing Session

We used this seminar session to mix the band recording from last week. Below is a step-to-step breakdown of how we approached the mix including the final bounce down:

1. Solo Kick Drum [solo mode – switch off latch – >Preferences
2. Insert Shelving EQ on kick drum – apply high shelf EQ to get rid of cymbals and snare
3. Send to Noise Gate
4. {On Desk} Press ‘Switch Active’ – cycle through to find ‘Gate’ – Press ‘Switch Active’ again.
5. Set Threshold, Attack, Release and Ratio
6. Apply 4-Band EQ to boost kick drum and achieve a ‘thud’ sound. If clipping after gain is lowered, input can also be decreased.
7. Drag Snare track next to Kick track
8. Apply EQ on snare to get rid of ringing sound [ low Q = narrow bell, high Q = selective]
9. Apply compression to snare
10. Pan Hi-hat slightly to right (left handed drummer)
11. Drag two overheads next to Hi-Hat
12. Pan over-heads hard right and hard left.
13. Toms: use Beat Detector to define toms and remove unwanted noise
14. Create stereo aux track – label ‘drum mix’ – Send to BUS 1 & 2 Stereo. Set the input of the aux track to BUS 1 & 2.
15. Select all drum tracks > Track > Group (label) > OK
16. Apply Compression to bass guitar (so that overall gain can be increased.
17. Apply EQ to bass guitar to increase lower frequencies
18. Apply EQ to Electric guitar
19. Apply compression and lower shelf EQ to vocals
20. Create stereo master fader {A1 & A2}
21. Insert > Plug-in > Max It [to increase overall volume level of song – must be the final stage of mixing process]
22. Mix Down: Highlight song area in timeline > File > Bounce to Disc [Source = A1 + A2, File type = Wave, Format = Stereo, 16 bit, 44.1 Hz > Bounce > Choose Location.

Week 17: Lecture - Intro to MIDI

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. The key concept of MIDI is that it transmits data and not actual audio signals. It is a serial communication system and transmits information sequentially. For example a keyboard can be connected to a sound module. The various keys on the keyboard trigger a particular sound on the sound module. MIDI has 16 channels (independent lines of communication); therefore 16 different sounds can be played simultaneously. Below is the procedure for creating a MIDI track in the studio using a Roland Sound Module:

1. Create MIDI track (takes in MIDI data instead of audio signal)
2. Record enable the track
3. Create a new stereo aux track
4. Load insert sends on audio tracks
5. Set fader to ‘0’
6. Insert > Multi-channel Plug-in > Instrument > Sample Tank [16 different sounds = choose one]
7. {MIDI track} Output > Sample Tank > Channel One
8. Create mono audio track (for click)
9. {Mono Track} Send > Plug-in > Instrument > Click > Cowbell
10. Event > MIDI > Quantize à Groove (=humanised)
11. Record > Play [play keyboard to trigger selected sound]

Note: The first 6 step can also be done in following way:

1. New Track > Instrument Track (audio and MIDI track in one channel strip)
2. Send > Plug-in > Instruments > Drum Kit
3. Record > Play

Week 16: Seminar - Band Recording Session

In this seminar we had a real band come into the studio. I was playing the role of the Producer. This involved liaising with the artists and making sure everything runs smoothly. We recorded the acoustic drums, electric guitar, bass and vocals. Once again we used the same set ups as before; the bass guitar was miced up just like the electric guitar. The bass guitar amplifier did not have a line output therefore we could not connect it directly with the D.I. box. We started the session by setting up the microphones, and then we did a sound check.

Neumann TLM 103

http://www.coutant.org/11.html 2006

After having recorded the instruments we recorded the vocals using a Neumann TLM 103 condenser microphone. The TLM 103 is ideal for recording vocals as it is a pressure gradient microphone and has a large diaphragm, where both sides are exposed to the sound. Therefore the microphone responds to the difference in pressure on both sides of the membrane. Being a condenser microphone, it also picked up the room acoustics too.

Week 16: Lecture - Effects Processors

A device that “effects” the audio signal passing through it is called and effects processor. They are also known as plug-ins in software based processors. Unlike with the dynamic processor only a part of the signal is sent to the effects processor instead of the entire signal. A clean single is more commonly known as the ‘dry’ signal and the effected signal is the ‘wet’ signal. An ‘auxiliary send’ is used to send some of the incoming signal to an external output, which then sends it to an effects processor. The ‘auxiliary sendlevel determines how much of the incoming level is sent. The effected signal is sent through the effect processor output back into the mixing console either to another channel or to an input called the ‘auxiliary return’. The signal sent to the effects processor is always mono, and the returning signal is always stereo.

Within the software environment it is more efficient to load up a plug-in on an auxiliary track with the effect (e.g. reverb) rather than loading up a plug-in for each track. You can then set up a send for each track that needs reverb and individually control the level of the send.

Equalisation (EQ) involves cutting or boosting particular frequencies within the signal.

HF & LF Shelving Filters

High Frequency (HF) and Low Frequency (LF) shelving filters have a fixed frequency that work on and are exactly the same as Bass and Treble on a standard Hi-Fi.




Parametric EQ

Parametric EQ is a more selective process of equalisation as you can cut or boost a certain frequency region rather than cutting or boosting all the bass/treble frequencies. The three main controls in parametric EQs are Centre Frequency, “Q” and Cut & Boost. “Q” determines how selective the EQ is and can be calculate by the following formula: Q = Centre Frequency / Bandwidth.

The -3dB Point

The cut-off point of a filter is measured by the frequency at which its level has decreased by 3dB. The -3dB point is known as the half-power point.

Week 15: Seminar - Drum Editing Exercise

In this seminar I worked through Bob Kulick’s book Multi-Platinum Pro Tools. The aim was to try the drum pocketing exercises. This mainly involved editing the drum kit so that it is on time and getting rid of clicks or noise that is not needed.

I did not get very far as it was my first session on Pro Tools on my own. However it was a useful seminar as I became more confident in using the software.

[ADAM. N, BARNETT. B, Multi-platinum Pro Tools: Advanced Editing, Pocketing and Auto tuning Techniques. Focal Press; Book&Dvdrm edition. Aug 2006.]

Week 15: Lecture - The Noise Gate

The Gate is similar to the Limiter and the Compressor, it is an extreme version of the Expander. Therefore it cuts out all parts of the signal that are below the threshold level.

Week 15: Lecture - The Limiter

The Limiter is an extreme version of the Compressor as it has ratios of 20:1 or higher. It acts like a ‘brick wall’ and keeps the output at approximately the same level no matter how much the incoming signal exceeds the threshold.