Brief 1: Moving Image

E-Magazine

1-3mins

12-18yrs old

Youth Culture

Video, Interviews, Reports, Investigations, Dramatisations

Fictional/Factual Genre

Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production

Your Times, Your Life

Two examples of similar real-world media products, the same as my

chosen production.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ysIetz3XAU&safe=activeThis is a promotional video for Teen

Vogue’s weekly vlog that explores different hair and make-up styles in only 3 steps. This video opens with youthful, pop-rock, music that appeals to their Teen audience and creates an enjoyable and light-hearted ambiance. The host, Elaine Welteroth, is a young, female role model in the world of hair and makeup and acts as the anchor of the channel, someone who teenage girls can relate to. She targets her young, female audience by introducing other young hairdressers and makeup artists who explore new and exciting styles in the beauty world. This intrigues the teenage audience as the video acts as a link to well known stylists which adds a sense of escapism from everyday beauty trends. Therefore, this provides a successful way of appealing to the target audience.The short, 3 step video is a crafty way to appeal to young audiences as it entices them to stay engaged with the video as it’s fast and snappy which is perfect for teenagers who are time poor. The 3 steps also portray the beauty trends as cheap, realistic and easy to achieve, which differs from many Vlogs that focus on unattainable beauty trends that don’t relate to young girls with small budgets. Although the hair and beauty trends apply to girls of any ethnicity, they are very centralised around western trends. In my video for my e-magazine I am going to concentrate on worldwide trends to appeal to teenage girls across many different cultures.

Two examples of similar real-world media products, the same as my chosen production.

• http://beautyhairfashion.tumblr.com/Although my media product will be video content for the e-magazine ‘Your times, Your life’, it will also include a segment promoting the magazines online ‘Vloging’ feature. My video will describe and explain this ‘Vloging’ feature, which is a mix of the social networking sites Tumblr (as seen left) and Vine. My magazines Vlog feature will allow teenage readers to upload videos of their favourite beauty trends to celebrate youth culture worldwide.

Tumblr (as shown above) is one of the social networking sites my e-magazine’s ‘Vlogging’ feature will be based on. Tumblr targets it’s audience of young to middle age photography enthusiasts, by allowing each user to create their personal web page to express their interests, for example music, art, beauty, health, fashion, film and much more. It celebrates and accepts individuality through pictures and small sections of text, and allows users to interact with one another, sharing ideas and interests online. It connects young people worldwide and I feel this is a great unique selling point to base my e-magazine’s video on.

Vine (as shown to the right) is the other social networking site my e-magazine’s ‘Vlogging’ feature will be based on. It enables it’s users to create and post short looping video clips that have a limited length of seven seconds. For my ‘Vlogging’ feature I will loosely base it on Vine as I feel moving image is a great way to target young people of 12-18 years as it provides a new and exciting aspect to online magazine features.

Mind map of ideas for my media production.

Some questions and answers from my research into chosen target audience: Online Survey for 12-18

year old girls. When asked what characteristics of magazines they found most enjoyable, interviews, articles and pictures proved to be the most popular. These answers act as a basis to the creation of my video, as to target my audience successfully, I need to include the popular characteristics highlighted by my recipients. I feel that my moving image media product will be well received by my target audience as 60% of the 12-18 year old girls I asked feel images are a vital part of magazines. I have already planned to include interviews in my video as a source of active participation from the youth of today, and this addresses the 75% of people who also felt they were important in magazine production.

Advertisements were seen to be a less popular characteristic, possibly due to the amount of space they take up in printed magazines. As I am doing a video, I will not include advertising in my moving image product, however due to my e-magazine being free to all readers, it has to get it’s funding through advertising on the actual website.

Over 60% of recipients thought video blogging was something that would appeal to them. This shows that promoting the ‘Vlogging’ feature as part of my magazine should add to my unique selling point of cross cultural hair and beauty trends as well connecting young girls worldwide. Although 30% of recipients didn’t feel the idea of video blogging was a good idea, my sample size was small and doesn’t represent all 12-18 year old girls that my magazine is targeting.

Some questions and answers from my research into chosen target audience: Online Survey for 12-18 year old girls.

It is clear to see from the image above that youth culture overall is a popular theme for my magazine, however a significant number of girls didn’t agree that this. Youth culture is a broad theme and looking back, I should have operationalised the idea of ‘youth culture’ to make it more understandable for my recipients. This misunderstanding may have lead to the number of recipients that didn’t think youth culture was an interesting theme as they may not have understood what it referred to. Again, my sample size was small so this percentage isn’t representative of a large population, therefore the way in which I present youth culture in my media product must be exciting and enticing.

As expected, Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social networking sites used by my target audience. Social networking is the newest and most effective way of advertising and targeting specific audiences. Therefore, taking the results of my survey into consideration, at the end of my video I shall put the names of my magazine’s Twitter and Facebook pages to encourage the interactivity of my viewers and to promote my magazine. My ‘Vlogging’ feature that I am using as part of my unique selling point is based on Tumblr and Vine, which are not as popular but are still widely used. This signals that the idea of sharing photos and videos worldwide is already a success and well received by young internet users.

Storyboard design template for my media production.

Analysis of technical programmes and equipment that will be used in my skill-set

Video Camera: This is the most important part of my video making package. The camera I choose will result in how my footage will look due to the type of shooting I’m doing. The microphones on professional video cameras allows the footage to have excellent sound quality, however due to my budget and lack of film making experience I am restricted to the built in microphones on my iPhone and flip camera.

Tripod: This is a necessary piece of equipment to keep my footage looking steady and professional, however due to my video camera restrictions I may be unable to use this piece of equipment. Tripod’s with a fluid head allow smoother looking pans which would greatly benefit the professional look of my video, therefore I will look into renting or borrowing a higher quality video camera to film my product.

Three-Point Lighting Kit: Creating a well-lit scene, especially if some of my footage is set inside, usually involves a 3-way lighting set-up. However, due to my budget and lack of accessibility I will have to use inside lighting and lamps when filming my photo-shoot montage and other footage.

iMovie: This program comes free with Mac computers which is perfect as I will be doing all my post-production editing on my Mac computer. I have used iMovie in previous media projects and although my experience isn’t vast, I have the basic knowledge needed to create my video, as well as learning new aspects of iMovie during post production. IMovie is a basic video editor that provides plenty of free sound and image effects that will assist my video production.

Production Costing as if it were a real world product• Production Expenses- This includes camera, sound, lighting and grip equipment, the

facilities and the services required to shoot the moving image. Surprisingly, equipment is being purchased because it is less expensive than renting. At the end of the production, the equipment can then be resold.

• Sony PMW-EX3 XDCAM EX Complete Shooting Kit Kit Includes: Tripod, Headphones, All necessary cables, Batteries, 2 x 8GB SxS cards. Rents for a day: £120 Rent for a week (more realistic): £450 • A 4 Light Kit: This kit is recommended for lighting interviews and documentaries

because it provides a beautiful soft light, excellent for lighting portraits. It is light weight and an ideal location fixture. Daily Price: £100 Weekly Price: £300

• If directors decide to include do re-enactments with actors or hire a narrator, they need take into consideration their fees. Depending on how well-known an actor is, rates can vary considerably.

• Many projects budget for licensing music rights and usually hire a music supervisor to manage all issues relating to music due to the fact that music rights can become complicated and expensive.

• The editorial team usually includes an editor and an assistant. Low-budget projects, the director or an intern may perform some assistant functions which can be a good cost-saving measure, but sometimes it may slow the editing process.

• A cost report shows where you stand in comparison to your budget at a given time. • Ledger pages list your expenses by category for a given time period. • Receipts prove that each expense actually occurred.

Planning timeline for production work

Task DatesPre-production research and planning work 10th Feb-4th Mar

Pitch to the client 7th March

Gather all equipment such as cameras and lighting, as well as securing times, locations, actors, models etc.

7th Mar-10th Mar

Filming process (including interviews, montages, reports etc.) 10th Mar-24th Mar

Post-production editing and finishing of the final product 24th-14th Apr

Critical evaluation of my final product 14th Apr-1st May

‘PITCH’ TO THE CLIENT

Audience:• 12-18• Female

• All classes £ • Beauty enthusiasts• Global village• Celebrating all cultures worldwide

Audience Pros:• Relatable• Influential • Avoids bias• Differs from Western ideas• Breaks current norms• USP• Connects young women worldwide• Celebrates tradition• Wider target audience = more readers

Audience Cons:• Wide age/class gap• Already a large market• Lacking a niche audience• Realistic?

Resolving issues:• Research in many forms• Heavily promote USP• Interactivity• Avoid stereotypes (age/class)• Promote individuality and special features• Engage with audience in all aspects, music,

image, colour, speed, people etc.• Advertising• Vlog feature

‘PITCH’ TO THE CLIENT

Similar real-world youth projects:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoW50d9qbGg&list=TLqFW3-Q6KayGsBw-iQFQdsx2zTPSZiHHv

• ‘Beautycrush’- Video blogger on Youtube, who has built up a large fan-base of beauty enthusiasts through online tutorials, look books, challenges and more.

• She was able to build up her popularity by targeting a niche audience, as her channel consists of solely hair, beauty and fashion.

• She started off video blogging as a student, and therefore can engage with her target audience.

• Her popularity on Youtube has lead to her making money through her videos, as hair and beauty companies send beauty products for her to promote on her channel.

• Perfect example of celebrating youth culture and my video blogging feature on my e-magazine’s website is highly influenced by her success.

• She has built a relationship with her audience by being bubbly, consistent and enthusiastic about her videos.

• She has even created a video about how to make successful videos and get noticed on Youtube and I will use this video when creating my own media product.

‘PITCH’ TO THE CLIENT

Project Overview:• E-magazine, video content• Celebration of youth culture• Worldwide hair and beauty trends• Youthful, natural, influential• Doesn’t only look at western ideas of beauty • Based on the ever expanding global village• Connecting young females worldwide• Educating the youth of today about

traditional styles across different cultures• Directed at students therefore the magazine is free,

makes money through advertising• Social networking, interactivity, video blog feature• Interviews, reports, competitions, internships, montages, young columnists

‘PITCH’ TO THE CLIENT

Stylistic and Design Considerations:

• Titles Ideas: “Your Times Your Life: Current Beauty Trends Across The Global Village”• Font Ideas: Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello

Hello• Colour and lay-out Ideas: Classic: White background, Bright, Navy font, Pastels, high

exposure, sharp, refreshing. Colourful: Range of colours, blues/greens/oranges/yellows, emphasizing youth, black font to contrast, colourful backgrounds and locations EG. Brick lane, range of people with different hair/makeup/fashion styles.

• Props: Microphone, makeup/hair products, on-screen lights, clothes/accessories, drinks/food to make interviews seem more realistic.

• Language use and tone: Happy, bubbly, upbeat, enthusiastic, snappy, youthful language (bordering on slang), sophisticated yet still addressing 12-18 age group.

Location ideas