Multipage Doc Questionnaire Results

Using Survey Monkey I created a questionnaire to find out what young peoples opinions on multipage documents are in order for me to take on information about how I can design my political multipage document to interest young people.

21.3% of the 14 people I gave the survey to are old enough to vote. The other 78.7% are not yet eligible to vote but are all eligible to vote. Therefore I still find their opinions on what they want to see in a multipage document helpful as in a short amount of time they will have the chance to vote, and young people should be encouraged to vote and understand voting from as young as possible so they know what to do when the time comes.

57.1% of the people I collected results from were male and the other 42.9% were female. This is a fairly even balance, enough for the results to be unbiased when discovering the most popular magazine in the sample of young people.

No one in the sample of young people read magazines daily, which is a likely result as most magazines are released weekly or monthly. Only 7.1% of the sample reads a magazine weekly and 28.6% read a magazine monthly. The fact that over quarter of the sample I asked read a magazine monthly shows that it's likely they would still be interested in engaging in a multipage document even though there is large amounts of information about anything you want to know online and on the television. Although over half of the people in the sample rarely read magazines, by looking at the results of what interests them about a multipage document, it is possible to create a document that they will be drawn to and engage in the information that the document includes.

I asked the sample what their magazine of choice is in order to choose a magazine to look at as part of a focus group. I was expecting for more than one person to like any specific magazine but my results show that everyone in the sample has a different magazine of choice. However there are similarities with the genres of the magazines. 42.6% of the sample would choose a women's gossip/fashion magazine and two people from the sample prefer music magazines. From these results, for my focus group focusing on the appeal of magazines, I will choose a popular women's magazine and a popular music magazine.

Half of the sample prefer magazines with more images than text and just under half of the sample prefer and equal balance of text and images and only 1 person prefers mostly text. To me this information tells me that my document should have lots of images but enough text to make the point of the images clear and relevant.

Just two more people in the sample prefer vibrant colour over subtle complimentary colour, so in terms of colour on my multipage document I will experiment with different designs, some with brighter colours and some where the colours are more subtle. Choosing the colour scheme may come naturally when choosing the images for the document, I think the colours used should compliment the colours in any photographs or images so nothing clashes.

Just under three quarters of the sample haven't ever seen or read a political document however over a quarter of them have. The people who haven't read one may find them uninteresting or unappealing. If a political multipage document was aimed specifically at young people they may show more interest and engagement.





As a conclusion of my questionnaire results I have decided that I would like to make a magazine aimed at females as my political document. From my results, the most popular magazines are women's magazines therefore I think women would be more likely to pick up and read a magazine. I decided against making a leaflet as people often see them as rubbish and throw them away as soon as they receive them and I decided against an online publication as most teenagers go to the internet go to the internet to escape and have fun so they would rather be on social media or watching video clips whilst online rather than reading information about politics.

Young Persons Voting Reports

In the last general election, only 44% of eligible young voters actually took their opportunity to vote, so no wonder young people are being highly encouraged to take the opportunity to vote if they have it. 

All young people should be required to vote in the first election they're eligible to vote in (IPPR cited by BBC. 2013)  The IPPR think tank may want to make it a policy that eligible voters should vote at their first legal election so that they're aware of what the process is so that they don't shy away from it or decide against voting at an older age. At least if they vote at their first legal election and feel that it wasn't right for them, they have a valid reason not to vote again rather than just being uneducated about the process. 

The Daily Mail Online (2014)say that 59% percent of teenagers won't vote in the 2015 election because they think politicians only care about celebrities, pensioners and successful business people. They also asked young people who would do the best job at running the country and the result of this question was Ed Milliband, the leader of the Labour party. If when asked unofficially who young people think should run the country an answer is given, then all of these young people with an opinion should vote in the election so that they're voice can be heard. If young people leave the voting to the rich and famous then they aren't taking their chance to make a change.

In the video above you can watch Tv's Rick Edwards Ted talk about how to encourage young people to vote. Previous to the talk he did research to discover what teenagers currently thought about politics and voting and from this research he discovered that most teenagers are just lacking in facts and information about parties and their policies. When Rick himself realised that he was little help to the young people when it came to informing them about where they could find out political information, he decided that he should make a change in order to increase the amount of young voters in the 2015 election.




To make a change, Rick has taken it upon himself, with some help, to create a VAA app for 2015's young voters to help them learn about parties and their policies as well as taking a survey to find out which party they should consider voting for based on which policies they agree with and support the most. (Rick Edwards 2014)

As a popular television personality with young people, this app could be a very successful break through to increase the amount of young voters as they will be able to easily access the information they may have previously spent ages scouring the web for, and the survey to give the young voters an idea about which party they should consider voting for is a very helpful extra boost.

Encouraging Young Voters

What I knew before?

I knew that to vote in the general election you have to be 18 years old or above and that you cannot turn up and vote if you haven't registered. I was also aware that there's a very small percentage of young people who actually vote because they don't care, don't know what each parties policies are or they feel as though, as a young person, their vote wouldn't be able to change the country. 

What was the task?
The college are starting a campaign to encourage young people to vote and know more about what it means to vote in an election. They will be using some of the posters that we designed as part of the campaign as using the NUS campaign to get young people to cote that have the slogans 'Your vote matters, make sure you're in' to teach young people the importance of registering to vote and 'These people want you to vote for them, this is what they're saying. 

I took a survey to find out which parties policies I appealed to the most, here are my results: 

The campaign is aiming to simplify the voting process and break it down so that young people aren't automatically put off and bored and so that they understand what their options are when it comes to making a vote. I found out some of labours policies that may interest young people, policies that they can relate to and understand easily:

• Guaranteed GP appointments within 48 hours, or the same day for the people who need it. 
• Making mental health treatment an NHS policy and to make sure that all NHS staff have mental health training. 
• Improvements to poor quality apprenticeships so that the final qualifications are more valuable.

The  http://www.labour.org.uk website is very helpful at informing about the Labour policies. They are written as simple points so they're quick to read and not over complicated. When looking at policies linked to a specific topic e.g. schools, the website gives you the option to look at policies on related topics e.g. young people. This is a really helpful feature for young people as they can get quick access to what they're interested in.

What I know now? 
I know know that you are able to register to vote from the age of 16, although you must still be 18 to got, the fact that you've registered shows the amount of young people who are interested in voting so that the parties know who their target audience are when it comes to creating future policies.
In the last general election only 44% of young people who were eligible to vote actually voted.

Creating A Christmas Jumper Pattern

What I knew before?

Beforehand, I knew how to draw basic shape in illustrator and also draw freehand using the brush and pencil tools, I had used the fill tool to fill in areas of my drawing as well as the pipette to copy exact colours from an original image to transfer into my own drawing. The basic commands I was aware of were holding alt to my continuous copies of the shape and cmd+D to duplicate a shape further.

What was the task?

Using a tutorial, I followed each step to create a pattern fit for a Christmas jumper using a repeating pattern.
Firstly I had to create my stitch shape my merging two ovals and locking this shape onto the grid. I then chose my dark background colours for the stitch pattern to go on top of. I locked the background so that it wouldn't move throughout the process. Here is the first line of stitches on my background:

Using the Cmd+D shortcut, I duplicated the stitch over the whole background. For the dark red background, the stitches are bright red, and for the dark green background I made the stitches a brighter shade of green.

After using the pain fill tool to create my design, I has one complete tile. Next, I made it into a pattern so that it would follow continuously. My pattern then become it's own swatch that I used to dil a rectangle to show my final design, that you can see at the top of this post.

What I know now?

• How to merge two shapes so they act as one.
• When and when not to use a grid to make sure the pattern is correctly aligned.
• Grouping and ungrouping sections of the design to isolate different sections of colour and pattern.
• Use the paint fill to select individual shapes to fill and create a pattern.
• How to convert my design into a pattern that can be used as a swatch to fill new objects.

Citing And Referencing

What did I know before?
Before learning the rules and layout of Harvard style citing and references I was unaware of it's importance. I have always known that plagiarism and using other peoples work as your own is a crime, but I assumed that as long as their work was reworded slightly then it doesn't count as their work. So in the past I have only references when copying and pasting an amount of someone else's work to show that none of the words were my own.   

What was the task?
To learn how to cite and reference properly, I looked at three sources and two different ways of citing and referencing them. Using an online book, a physical book and a website, I took sections of each one to reference. The first form of citing was to paraphrase which is where you briefly reword someone else's work, however the views are still their own so you must give them credit. Here is my example of citing a paraphrased sentence: 

Harris (2013) thinks that mutual distrust can characterize relationships between campaign professional and academics.

The second part of the task was to go to the college library and find a book of our choice that would be useful for our task on elections and making a successful campaign. To do this we used the online library catalogue to search a keyword that would help us find a book, eBook or magazine that would contain useful information. I searched 'campaign' and found a useful book called 'Sales Promotion' that the librarian helped me locate. I read a few sections of the book and referenced a few sections, I used the quoting method and here's an example of that:

“Sales promotion, and indeed advertising and PR, communicate with one person at a time, usually the reader of a leaflet, poster, mailshot or press or TV advertisement. But they are not atomized individuals: they are people who build their understanding by means of their interactions with friends, colleagues, families and communities.” (Cummins and Mullin 2002, p.58)

After citing and referencing different sections from different sources I created a bibliography to reference and credit each separate source that I used. The bibliography is to put at the end of the work and it has it's own section.

What do I know now?
I know the correct way of referencing and citing someone else's work in terms of layout  e.g. including the surnames, date, page and any other sources that may have been cited within the text. I also now know that you must credit peoples work if you paraphrase it as it is still their work even if you alter a couple of words to make it less exact, to do this sort of citing you can either include their name and the date within your sentence or put the information in brackets at the end depending on what fits best. 

I also know the correct way of creating the bibliography, that you don't just simply write the name of the book but you have to mention specific points such as the authors name, book title, date published, edition number and the publishers name. Also, after using the library catalogue I now feel confident that I could use the library as a place of research as well as just the internet which would further my research. After these tasks I am going to be aware of which parts of my research are other peoples work and the best way to cite and reference the original source.

Recce Scouting Report

So far I have checked out three possible locations for my film, all around the college sight. I took my script with me to see what shots would be happening in each location and I have photographed each location and also made a checklist and made notes about each location to help me compare them with others, here is a link to the blogpost showing my physical findings.

I am happy with the staff kitchen in the media department. It will be used for the first scene of Sister 1 (Emily) alone in her kitchen therefore I don't need lots of space or an attractive backdrop, just the basic aspects of a kitchen, and luckily this location fits that brief.

The college car park is also an ideal location for the scene where Sister 2 (Jess) and her parents get out of their car and head towards to election hall. It's good because all of the crew will be able to access it and we won't have to worry about interfering with members of the public as the only people that should be around the area will be people linked to the college.

I don't think that Hive C is going to be the ideal location for my election hall. But I would like to use and area in the college for this as it is the best location for the whole cast and crew to arrive at. I will look at the studio in the media department as it is designed for filming purposes. I don't currently see any problems with it.

To continue my recce's I would like to look at an undercover car park, another kitchen and possibly to more locations that can be used as an election hall. I will be able to plan the second kitchen recce when I have discussed with my group who is happy for me to film in their kitchen and also who's kitchen is the easiest for the whole crew to access.

Using Music, Copyright And Release

Copyright- When someone creates a product, they're automatically given the right to decide who can use it and what it is allowed to be used for. The types of copyright are the  RIGHT to copy e.g. royalty free and creative commons (CC) and NO right to copy e.g. copyright protected.

Royalty free- This means that you can use a product however much you want and wherever you want without the obligation to pay a licence or royalty fee per usage. Although sometimes you may have to pay an uproot fee to the source to have unlimited usage of their original product.

Fair use- Fair used is another copyright rule meaning the product has limited usage conditions. The product may be able to be used for some things without permission but you don't have the use to do whatever you wish. The Social Times have written an article explaining the Fair Use terms on Youtube so amateur online creators know what they can use certain music and audio for and where certain media shouldn't be used to avoid breaking any copyright laws.

Creative commons- It's a copyright licence which means your work can be used and shared without any legal obligations. You should credit the source but the product can be used however you wish. Here is a sight that lists all the Creative Commons music communities. E.g. SoundCloud, ccMixter, Bandcamp and many more.

There are certain places where you can access royalty free music to use for projects meaning that you won't have to worry about paying anyone or getting in trouble with copyright laws.

Youtube has an audio library which has a collection of sounds and music for any creator to use on their project. Here is Youtube's page that tells you information about the tracks in their free audio library and the conditions of using audio on Youtube.

SoundCloud also has a group dedicated to professional, royalty free music where anyone can upload a royalty free track that is then shared with any member of the group, giving them the ability to download the track to use anywhere.

The Social Times have created a list of 10 websites that every online video creator should know about when it comes to finding free music to use for projects.

Here is a really helpful video informing about the use of royalty free audio on Youtube.

Focus Group- Biscuits And Posters

What did I know about Focus Groups?

I knew that a focus group meant getting a small group of people together, presenting them with a product and asking them their opinions on it, whether you give them a fixed set of questions or ask them the just speak their mind.

What was the task?

In small groups, we were given sample of two different types of cookie. Using Quicktime audio recorder, we sat around and discussed the cookies we tried referring to:

•  First impressions
•  Smell
•  Texture 
•  Taste
•  Visual impression
•  Quality and cost

After discussing the cookies for a few minutes, we discussed the pros and cons of this style of focus group compared to a written survey. 

What do I know now?

The pros of the focus groups were: the speed of response is quicker- you speak your mind straight away rather than thinking about what to write onto paper, the opinion you give is more detailed as it's less effort to speak your thoughts than to write down a long explanation, this means that your response is more honest as you don't have the time to think about altering it.

However there were some cons with this focus group. If you're sat with a group of people and someone shares their opinion then you may be influenced and agree with with people you're with rather than speaking your own mind. If the researcher has to listen to a 5 minute long piece of audio of qualitative information and pick out individual opinions rather than typing in simple qualitative research, it would be very time consuming and confusing to pick out exact opinions.

After doing the cookie focus group. I decided it would be a good idea to do a focus group to find out what people around the college think of my political poster design. I won't be asking them fixed questions but I will present them with points to refer to so that I can find out the information that will be helpful to me. These points will be as follows:

• Target audience
• Eye catching design?
• Legible text?
• Clear message?
• Encourage you to vote?
• Do you like it?
• Best place to display?

Before I do the focus group I will hand out a quick survey just so I can get the demographic of the group of people.

Ryan, Maisie and I went into the crib to do a focus group with people from around the college to find out what they thought of our political poster designs. We presented them with the talking points and the demographic questionnaire. Above, is the audio from the focus group where they discussed their opinions and below are the results of the demographic questionnaire.

There were three people in our focus group, they were all male and they were all on the Sport BTEC L3 course. The varied in age from 17-19 however they're all eligible to vote next year in the general election. The 17 year old who will be 18 in March and the 18 year old will be voting next year but the 19 year old won't be. I wouldn't have expected males on the Sport course to be very interested or educated about politics so I am not surprised that one of the boys won't be voting and I would guess that the other two that will be voting haven't really thought about what the parties have to offer, they just said that they will vote purely because it's the first time their eligible. 

Here are the posters that the focus group looked at.

Shape Tweening

This week I looked at the 'Shape Tweening' feature on Flash. Firstly, you create a keyframe, then you insert a keyframe at the end with the shape in the place that you want it to end up. If you right click on the blank frame in-between the two frames you have filled at the beginning and the end you will get the option to 'Insert Shape Tween' and when you click this it will create the effect of your object moving from one location on the screen to another.

As you can see on my timeline, I created one layer for the Christmas tree as I wanted it to remain exactly the same in all of the frames. So I put the Christmas tree in it's own layer at the beginning and the end, therefore it remained the same. Layer 2 is my star, which is the layer I wanted the shape tween to happen on. You can see my star moving from the bottom of the tree to the top. 

How Do Soundtracks Effect Scenes

I have chosen to look at the opening scenes of three different films as I feel as though short, three minute dramas are rather similar to the beginning of films, any short drama has potential to develop into a longer feature length film. I would like to look at whether the soundtrack at the beginning of a film is full of lots of music and sound effects and whether it seems like it would be more dramatic than the sound track for the rest of the film.. I will take influence of the soundtracks for opening scenes for my short three minute film to create as much of an interested for the audience as I can.

Jaws opening scene



Who created the soundtrack?
John Williams

What genre of music is used?
I get a classical vibe from the soundtrack of Jaws in the intense shark scenes. Parts of it sound quite mysterious and intense when all of the instruments gradually come in. If pop music was used then you wouldn't feel as though something scary was about to happen.

Does the soundtrack change depending on the action or character?
Yes and I think this is a key part of the film. Whenever there is a shark scene, we don't actually see the shark but we know it's coming because of the traditional, tense Jaws music. It becomes a reoccurring theme throughout the film but it still makes the audience feel scared about what's coming up. 

How does the soundtrack compliment what we see?
The soundtrack somewhat compliments what we don't see as, like I said above, even though we don't see Jaws, the music tells the audience that we must be scared. If the music was upbeat and happy and we saw a swimmer swimming in the sea, we would take the scene in a completely different way, we'd just see someone having fun in the sea.

What techniques/ideas can I take into my production?
From this scene I have learnt that I can make same scene be portrayed in completely different ways by changing the soundtrack from something upbeat to something tense. After I have filmed the scene I would like to experiment by putting two contrasting soundtracks and seeing which one works best with the film. 

Divergent opening scene


Who created the soundtrack?
Junkie XL and Hans Zimmer

What genre of music is used?
There is quite a lot of heavy music used throughout the film especially when there are fighting and battle scenes, but the majority of the soundtrack is slightly alternative pop. Ellie Goulding recorded a track especially for the film and she is in the 'alternative pop' genre. Most of the other music used compliments this style.

Does the soundtrack change depending on the action or character?
Focusing on the character of Tris, she begins the film as an innocent and somewhat weak, typical female. So the music used when she is on screen is mellow and sweet, you hear birds singing and near the beginning you can pick up a feeling of fear. As the film goes on, Tris develops into a brave character who is strong and she fights and has to tackle tough situations. As she changes into he 'new' character, the music is more fast pace, the beat of the drum is heavier and the climax of the songs are more powerful, showing her success.

How does the soundtrack compliment what we see?
In the scene above, we see the scene being set. There are vast fields and country land but also extremely tall threatening fences that shut the town away. The town looks empty and derelict, but peaceful. However, although the music is calm, gentle and peaceful, it has an eery and mysterious tone that is slightly off key, suggesting that the town isn't empty and peaceful and that it's actually empty because of a reason that may not be a good reason.

What techniques/ideas can I take into my production?
I like the eery tones in the score of this film, it adds a sense of mystery and leaves the audience questioning a deeper meaning behind what first meets the eye. I also like how a popular singer, Ellie Goulding, has recorded a track for the film. If I could get an instrumental from a popular song to use in my film I think it would interest the audience.

The Chronicles of Narnia opening scene


Who created the soundtrack?
Harry Gregson-Williams

What genre of music is used?
Classical. Most of the music is orchestral which is fitting with the time period that the film is set in, which is war time. If the music was pop or heavy then it wouldn't relate to the image we see. Classical music and the use of an orchestra is a good way of building up the soundtrack. 

Does the soundtrack change depending on the action or character?
Very much so, there are a lot of very different characters in this film so it's a perfect opportunity to experiment with the soundtrack. The children are innocent and vulnerable so the soundtrack has a sense of gentleness and mystery when they are present. The snow queen is manipulative so the soundtrack for her is sharp and quick. Mr Tumnus is a gentle and friendly so the soundtrack used for him is quick but friendly, in a welcoming and happy way. There is a lot of mystery in the soundtrack as the film is set in a magical world, but there are also some strong battle scenes where the music becomes louder and more powerful to build up to the climax of people winning and losing the battles.  

How does the soundtrack compliment what we see?
In the scene above, the sound of the sirens are heightened which emphasizes the fear that is scene portrays. For children, the sirens of an air raid probably do seem worse than they are, so I get the feeling that the creators of the film wanted us to experience it from the children's perspective so that we know that the film is based around the children rather than the adults.

What techniques/ideas can I take into my production?
I want to make sure that the soundtrack reflects and separates the different characters from each other to give them more depth. Also, for the more dramatic scenes I want to make sure I use music to build up to them as much as possible.

Prop List

Each scene in my film will require a certain amount of props that I should be able to access fairly easily.

Scene 1

• Mobile phone
• Cereal bowl- bring from home/find in kitchen
• Milk jug- bring from home/find in kitchen
• News paper- find in college/bring from home
• A fluffy thing to resemble a cat- cheap furry scarf (have seen in primark)
• Paper saying ‘election notes’- can print at home or college
  
  

Scene 2

• Mobile phone
• Toothbrush- bring from home
• Toast- cheap bread from shop nearby
• Orange juice- cheap juice from shop near by
• Glasses- find in kitchen
• Stack of paper- available from college or home
• Frame with family photo- frame from home, create picture with cast and print at home or college
  
  

Scene 3

• Mobile phone
• Desk- will find in college
• Paper with dotted line- can print at home or college
• Seats- will find in college
• Handbag- can bring from home
• Newspaper- will find in college or nearby shop

Scene 4

• Mobile phone
• Car- this may be a difficult one but I will ask media teachers if their car is parked in the car park and whether they'd be happy for me to use it, just to shut the door

Scene 5

• Mobile phone
• Desk and seats for leader and PA- can find in college
• Paper on desk- can find in college
• Podium area- can create with chairs/create a sign at home or college
• High heels- bring from home

Storyboarding My Film

To create my storyboards I read through my script and broke it into screens, After I'd broken it into scenes I looked at each line and decided how I wanted each part to look.. After doing this I drew all of the key shots and described them briefly.

These are the storyboard sheets that I created before altering my script. After adjusting my script to include the PI, I chose a different storyboard template and changed my drawing style from stick people to more realistic, scale drawings and I included some extra detail for each shot.

• Shot number
• Duration eg. how long it will last in secs.
• Shot size eg. ECU, CU, MS, LS, OTS.
• Angle eg. high, low, eye view, birds eye view.
• Transition eg. cut, fade.

Using this clear storyboard I will be able to make a detailed shot list from it to add in any extra notes and things that need to be included in the shot, as well as audio.

Political Film Recce's

Location 1- Hive D.

Location 2- Media Kitchen.

Location 3- College car park.