Mighty boosh promotional poster for series 4

When I was making my poster I made sure that I was constantly looking back at my brief so that I was meeting all the criteria’s that I needed to. First of all I needed to think of where series four was going to be set, I needed to do this because the last previous three series have all been set in different places for example one was in a zoo and another was in a shop and the other one was in their own house that all the characters shared.  I decided that I was going to set this series at a theatre. I thought that this would be a good idea because I think there is lots of opportunity for jokes and songs which they include in all three episodes, so it need to be something that can live up to all the other series.  I needed to choose what the series was going to be about before I started so I knew what kind of things the poster will need to include things such like the theatre curtains and stage light.

I used theatre curtains because I thought it would be the easiest way to show that it’s based in a theatre as the background is all black so you wouldn’t be able to tell. I also included the spotlight so it gives the impression that the spotlight is shining down on all the characters.  This gives the impression that they are on stage performing.  And so your eyes are drawn to the characters.

I went on Google images to get the picture of the mighty boosh characters; I had to edit the picture a lot on Photoshop before I could use it for my poster. The background of the original image was white and I needed to take all the white out with the polygon tool so that it sits nicely on the black background. I chose an image of them playing in a band because that could be something they will be doing a lot of on stage in this series. I wasn’t happy with my final result of the poster as I found it hard to use the polygon tool as I don’t have very steady hands so found it really hard to get a professional finish.

I used the title that is used on most of their covers, posters and merchandise. I wanted to keep brand consistency, using the same title. I done this because then it is easily recognised by people especially mighty boosh fans. Under the title I added more text I done that in white as it stands out really bold on the black background. I also put the bbc three logo so that people know what channel it’s on, as it says in my brief, it’s all well and good them seeing the poster, but for it to be successful, people need to tune in and watch the programme so need to know when it starts.

I tried to keep my poster as simple and basic as possible as I didn’t want it being over crowed with images and text, I only wanted to include the information it needed to so people who are only having a quick glance can see everything they need to see in one look.  On my brief it mentioned adding quotes onto the poster from the programme but I decided I wouldn’t do this as I think the poster had enough on it already.

I think overall my poster is ok but I could have done a lot better and maybe if I get a chance I might want to have another go to improve my grade.

If I was given a chance to do this assignment again there are a few things that I would maybe change. I might have thought of maybe doing a different setting than a theatre, mainly because it was hard to find things to include in the poster for theatre.

Nintendo Brand Work- Individual Evaluation

For this assignment we got into groups and had to make a two day event celebration for fans of one of our interests.  We could choose from a video game franchise, sports team, television series or a music act or genre.  The event needed to be held in a real life location, it needed to local as we needed to be able to research the venue, to find out how many people could attend and how much space we would have ect.

In my group there was Zoe Hunt and Sophie Anstey. It took us a while to work out what we wanted to choose for our event as we all have different interests, watch different shows and listen to different music. So after lots of discussion and thinking we decided to choose Nintendo. We chose this because we have all played some sort of Nintendo console or game and all know about the famous characters, so we all had some level of understanding. Another reason why we thought that Nintendo would be a good idea is because it is such a big brand and extremely popular, we thought it would attract lots of people. This is because not only do you have the modern consoles and games you have the collectors who collect old consoles and games. Then you have all the different popular game genres, such as Mario, Zelda and Pokémon along with many others. So after doing some research on Nintendo and finding this information out we were almost certain that we would have a good turnout of people. So after doing this we had to start thinking about the location, logos and web banners.

When we started to work on the logo, we decided we would all make our own logo then ask the class to choose their favourite so we had a clear idea of what people want. When I made my logo I thought it would be a good idea to include as many of the different Nintendo characters this is because then no matter what Nintendo game or characters people like it will be on the logo and grab their attention and want to know what it’s about. I thought it would attract a greater audience. I decided to use bright colours and bold writing not only to grab people’s attention but because Nintendo are known for using bright bold colours. Once I made my logo I emailed it to Sophie as did Zoe and we asked a few members of our class which one they think looks the best and would work the best as a logo for our event. From our findings we found out that the majority of people preferred Sophie’s logo, this was because it looked the most professional and was simple but had all the information it needed. After having feedback from people on my logo I now know that a logo needs to be simple and clear and I made my have too much going on. Instead of using loads and loads of characters on one logo it would have looked much better with just a few or even just one like Sophie’s. From doing this I have learnt that less is more. I had too much going on. So we took our advice and used Sophie’s logo.

Once we had the logo sorted we moved onto sorting out the location. We chose London Excel. We thought this would be a good idea to hold the event hear because its large enough to hold a lot of people and it’s in London which means it’s in the city so lots of people will be able to get there and access the event. Another good reason for choosing this place was that it’s made up of lots of different halls which means there can be different stands, stools and conventions in different rooms. For example one of the halls will be used for stalls and demos and advertisement of new games and consoles coming up and another hall will be used for ‘through the ages of Nintendo’ which would attract people who are interested in collecting and the history of Nintendo.

Whilst we were working on our logos and other bits and bobs, Sophie was working on the production file. Which includes all of the work and costs of everything we have researched and everything we are doing.

Then the final thing we had to do was make our web banners. We did these on flash. This was properly what I struggled with the most as I am not that confident on flash and find it really hard to work with. But after some help from my Zoe and Julian I soon picked up what I needed to do. We thought we would go about the banners the same way we did with the logos, so we all made our own banners then asked people what they thought looked the best. When I made my banner I made sure that I kept it simple as I didn’t want to over complicate things and make to hard for myself. I started by making a mock up of the banner of Photoshop then copied it into flash to add the animation. I kept the background white and made the writing red, I did this because the bright bold red really stands out on the white background grabbing people’s attention, especially when its scrolling across the whole banner. I also had two pictures of Mario either side of the banner. They fade in and out and attract Nintendo fans because he is one of the most popular gaming characters around.  Once we asked everyone which one they proffered we came to the same conclusion, Sophie’s one again, we thought also it would be a good idea to use Sophie’s banner as it is very similar to the logo we were going to use, so people would link them together.

I think now we have done all this work we have come up with a really good event plan and I am happy we chose Nintendo as there was so much choice of what the event do have with such a wide brand choice. 

Brief for my promotinal Might Boosh Poster

You are to create the poster for The Mighty Boosh’s next series. The point of the poster is to advertise the new series so people want to watch it.  

It needs to be bold and eye catching so it grabs people’s attention and makes people look at it.

The audience that you are trying to advertise this new series to is teenagers, young adults who enjoy comedy and also existing Mighty Boosh fans.

The poster needs to include the characters (doesn’t have to be all the characters), maybe quotes from the previous series and similar colours and font used on previous posters, merchandise and DVD’s. This is so that people can recognise them and existing fans know exactly what the poster is about. 

Also it will need to include when the new series starts and what channel it will be on. This will need to be clear and bold so that people see it and know. It’s all well and good them seeing the poster, but for it to be successful people need to tune in and watch the programme.

The poster has to include these criteria’s to be able to achieve a good grade:

·         At least 1 vector graphic

·         At least 1 bitmap image

·         An example of applying a ‘look and feel’ across several applications e.g. brand consistency.

·         You also need to include 1000 words of reflective written work.

The poster will need to be at least A4 size, so it’s not too small and people are able to see what is on the poster and more important what is written on the poster.

Web Protocols

There are a number of different web protocols. They help us in our day to day lives and we use them without even thinking sometimes. Over three years they have got better and better. They are very helpful in many different way from browsing the web on the move on you mobile to using a sat nav to find your way to places in a car. In this assignment I will be talking about the different types of web protocol that are about.

GPRS
(General packet radio service)
 This allows information to be sent and received across a mobile telephone network. Maximum speeds of up to 171.2 kilobits per second (kbps) are achievable with GPRS using all eight time slots at the same time. This is about three times as fast as the data transmission speeds possible over today's fixed telecommunications networks and ten times as fast as current Circuit Switched Data services on GSM networks. By allowing information to be transmitted more quickly, immediately and efficiently across the mobile network, GPRS may well be a relatively less costly mobile data service compared to SMS and Circuit Switched Data.
GPRS will fully enable the Internet applications you are used to on your desktop from web browsing to chat over the mobile network. Other new applications for GPRS also file transfer and home automation - the ability to remotely access and control in-house appliances and machines.

 3G
( The third generation of wireless technologies).  It comes with enhancements over previous wireless technologies, like high-speed transmission, advanced multimedia access and global roaming. 3G is mostly used with mobile phones and handsets as a means to connect the phone to the Internet or other IP networks in order to make voice and video calls, to download and upload data and to surf the net.
The advantages of using 3G are that you can browse the Internet on your mobile or portable device at a high speed and download music at high speed. Most 3G phones have a two cameras, this is so you can make video calls with other people.
3G is not that cheap but it's good for people that are on the move such as business people.

Sms
( Short Message Service). This is otherwise known as a text message. You can send a text message to someone on your phone to anyone anywhere around the world. You can even send one text to multiple contacts. They can also be sent from a home phone.

Sms is a simple way to send a short message to someone quickly. Every mobile phone has the capability to send an SMS message.

SMS doesn't just have to be used for a message to one person to another, you can have text alerts, whether this is to remind you of something you need to do or if its from a news company telling you what the latest news is or even the latest football scores! Text messaging can also be used to enter competitions that appear on TV.

MMS
(Multimedia Messaging Service) just like sms it’s a way of sending messages form one phone to the other. But mms can do more, it doesn't just have to be text it can include sound, video and pictures. You can also send an mms message to an email address! 
I think that mms is good because you can sent pictures or videos to other peoples phones without them having to wait until they check their emails to receive it. But on the down side it costs a lot more than a usual text to send an mms, so I think I would prefer to do it by email

WAP

(wireless application protocol)

Is a type of Internet connection. It makes the web more accessible. For example wireless Internet, for laptops and mobile phones. It is based on Internet standards. (HTML, XML and TCP/IP).  A few examples of WAP that are useful -

• Checking train table information
• Ticket purchase
• Flight check in
• Viewing traffic information
• Checking weather conditions
• Looking up stock values
• Looking up phone numbers
• Looking up addresses
• Looking up sport results
• checking emails

GSM

(Global System for Mobile communications)

This is a protocol which is very popular in many different parts of the world. GSM digitizes and compresses data, then sends it down a channel with two other streams of user data, each in its own time slot. It operates at either the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz frequency band.

Unit 1.1 Website Preproduction Guides

What preproduction is needed for Website Design and are the elements important?

When making a website if it’s just for you or someone else there are steps you need to follow. This is called Pre-Production.  When you plan ahead it makes the whole process much easier and less complex to do.  The good thing about having a Pre-Production plan is that you can clearly see what you need to do and what you have done and so it’s easy to be able to track your progress.  Pre-Production gives you a chance to be able to split your time wisely so you can get things done on time and in the end have the whole website done on a certain deadline.

The first thing you will need to do is decide what your website is going to be about because without that you would have no idea on what you were doing.  Once you know what you’re doing you need to decide what you want on your website,  like what features you want to have on your website, sounds, pictures and information ect.. Another very important part of web design is research. You will need to research what you’re doing the website about so you get all your information correct and up to date and also similar websites so you know what your competition is because your want people to go to your website not other peoples. Once you have all this done you will need to make some sort of list of all the sections of your website, the best thing to do is put them in order of importance so if for some reason you do fall behind on your web design you will at least have the main bits done. It’s a good idea to write out content and double check it and finalize it before starting to build the website so you have it all done and all you have to do is build it into the website. Another important thing you need to do is work out the style of your website for example the font and colours you want to use, you need to make sure that they fit in and suit what your website is going to be about. All this will be done in a Pre-Production plan which is vital to web design. The Pre-Production plan should all be kept together so nothing gets lost like in a folder. If it’s for college or a client it needs to be of a professional standard and be as detailed as you can make it so it’s clear not just for the person who wants the website so they know exactly what the progress is of the website but also so the person making the website knows exactly what they need to do.  Once you have made the Pre-Production plan and the website you will have to evaluate it and make any appropriate changes to make sure it’s at the highest quality possible.  Once all of that is done you can go live and put it on the web!  And if you’re making a website as a student for a piece of work after you have done all of this you will need to evaluate all what you have done in an evaluation to conclude your work to say what went well what didn’t and if you were to do it again what you would change.

When you get to making the website it is far more technical than making the Pre-Production plan.  But if you stick to your plan and make simple easy steps to follow so what may seem really daunting and complex can be split up and easy to do bits.

A website can be made in a number of different programmes I think the easiest software to use to make a good website would be Adobe flash. Once you get the hang of using the software it’s pretty easy to make whatever you want and there is lots on help and tips on how to use flash online which can help you through making your website.  One of the first things you will need to do is design the user interface this will provide the elements your site visitors will use to interact with your site. This may be drop down menus different motions or sound. This is part of the whole web design where you can really add some creativity and add your own touch.  Also you will need to add the information and pictures this can be done is flash but you can edit your pictures in Photoshop before importing them into Flash.

Adobe Flash uses layers to make their website so you need to learn how to use the layers before making a website because if you don’t understand how to use the layers it can become very complex.

There is so much you can do and import into making your website it’s not just images and text you can also add videos and animation onto your site.  You can also add hyperlinks and links to other pages or even other websites, this is fairly simple. You can also draw things on flash to make buttons and movie clips ect to make animations if you wish to include them.

Video Editing

Once we have filmed all of the interviews and footage we wanted I started on the video editing. To do this I used Adobe Premier Pro. I didn’t find it too hard to use and we have used it previously in class, but I did learn that you need to have a lot of patience as you have to be to the best of our ability and make sure you try your best to get a professional finish.

What I found the hardest was when you had to cut out bits you didn’t want people saying on the clip and make sure it fades back in without any glitches.  For example the first person we interviewed said ‘College is good bit boring at times but yeh I think it’s a good college’. Obviously these video clips are being used to make a promotional website saying ‘it’s a bit boring’ is not a good way to promote the college.

I enjoyed doing the video editing as it’s something I wanted to learn more about. I feel doing this job on this assignment I have got a lot more confidence in using Adobe Premier Pro.

1.      First I had to choose what set up we were going to use

2.      Then it will come up with the editing programme and you need to go to go on file and import to import the video you wish to edit

3.  Once the video had been imported it came up on the timeline and into the two screens on the top to be able to watch back your edit

4.  After that I concentrated on cutting out the bits I don’t need to start off with. So the first thing I done was to take out everything apart from the interviews. Then after I had just the interviews without other footage I could then concentrate on working on each interview individually. I find it made it a lot easier to do them step by step then doing it all in one chunk