pRELIMINARY
EXERCISE
Magazine Cover
Pre-Production
Genre Choice
I have decided to go for the art genre, and the sub-genre to be digital (Digital Art) for my magazine cover. The main reason to why I chose this category is because I have always been interested in the artistic world, and every person has their own style and what medium they use to create such imaginative expressions of art.
The first idea I had in mind was to use actual paint in my front cover because I thought it would be effective to show this "crazy fun" side of painting! I felt like changing it for a bit since painting can come in different forms. Since I like to digital draw, I think it is good to create paint digitally instead to save more money from buying paint. Now I feel like I can just put painting related lines on the front cover to make life easier for me--
Cover Inspiration
When I was looking up for inspiration, there is this cover that caught my eye and made me feel that this is simple enough for me to base on for my own cover!
Main Cover Line
Cover Lines
Main Selling Line
Masthead
Main Image
Cover Line
Cover Lines
Selling Line
Masthead
ImagineFX produces magazines related to digital art such as animation, gaming, fantasy, anime and so on. A majority of them are. Looking through their front covers also, I have a thought that this is read for young adults from about 15-30 possibly!-- Since "imagine" means to let your brain wander to ideas out of reality (fiction) and "FX" means "effects", it does not quite appeal to a very young audience or people very old.
The colours for the masthead are white and orange, Imagine being white and FX being orange. It is quite easy to read the title with more lines and pictures going on, on the front cover. Even though that can be the case, I like how the FX is orange believing that it is because it compliments the background colour of the front cover.
For my masthead, I am connecting the two words "Photo" and "Magic" to create a name like "PhotoGIC"- It is because I like the way ImagineFX has two words put together as a fusion and Photo Magic can mean something like photo editing!
Selling and Cover Lines
Main Selling Line = "No.1 for Digital Artists" is a phrase you can describe the magazine to be the most interesting read for a specific audience is the people who take digital art as a hobby or a passion.
Selling Line = "Free!!..." is a phrase to describe that there is an opportunity for them to get something from the magazine itself. For this magazine, it is 2 hours of video workshops and 32 brushes to give a piece of art a unique look!
Main Cover Line = "New Skills in Character Design..." is a phrase that is used to show that it will teach you something that you might not know of! (With Mel Milton as a featured artist mentioned on the line)
Cover lines = All of them explain the content of the magazine related to guides for drawing characters and another workshop (With Patrick J Jones as a featured artist mentioned on the line)
They are all persuasive! I wish to provide the same energy if I do my own front cover.
Main Image
So the Main Image is a digital drawing of a female character who has a very chill/cool expression! She looks fashionable with the earrings as well.
For my front cover though I am going to use myself as a model. The only difference is relating to the main image is I will not be redrawing myself but only to edit myself with filters and changing contrast.
Production : Draft
At this time I didn't know which brush to pick as a prop
A kind of messy sketch but I hope it's understandable
Post Production
So the name of the application I used to edit my finished
magazine cover is IbisPaintX on my phone. It might have
been the only drawing/editing app that I know
how to use ;-;!! (NOTE : Along the process I've made adjustments!)
SECTION ONE : PICTURE PLACEMENT & EDITING MAIN IMAGES
So I've used two separated pictures (I've taken these two on the same day, just in different parts of my room). I might have changed the positions from the original draft to make it simpler to edit!
Selfie taken from the window at 10am at the curtains shining out sunlight. Knowing how dark my room can be, it kind of gave that dramatic lighting!
This is a part of the wall in my room. It may be the same time as my selfie but it is after I took it!
Cropped the two images together and deleted the parts of the background of the selfie that leaves myself. (Also flipped the image of myself to fit with the format I intended to for the main image)
The first thing I edited with the Flat Brush tool + Colour Picker is fixing me up and turning myself into a "painting-like" figure of the Magazine cover.
Second is to delete the background (the wall) for the other image of the brush I'm holding in the image!
Third is I've put the layer of the brush in front of myself. In addition, re-coloured my upper body to make it less detailed so my face would be the focus.
Lastly, putting some grey coloured "paint" on the brush with adding a stroke for the hair of mine to onnect the two images together. Also with some very dark blue shadowing under the brush on my image for some dimension :P.
Tools Used :
*Flat Brush (Point)
*Flat Brush (Fan) (For Hair)
*Colour Picker
Colours Used :
*Colours from main image of myself
*Colour #979AA0
SECTION TWO : THE OVERALL TEXTS
Masthead :
Decided to use the font Avenir Next Condensed Heavy as the MastHead.
It looks bold yet round enough to use which is why I think the font is suitable! This may be a closeup but this is enough to explain which colours I used for the two connected words...seperately.
*Colour #656CF2
Old Background colour (changes done on Section 3)
*Colour #B72000
*Colour #D9BC3D
Coverlines :
Decided to use the font Avenir Next Demi Bold for the coverlines, but I had the idea to divide them into different parts to not make my magazine cover too simple.
Coverline 1 :
So I created this part with a very pastel yellow scribble to make both coverlines dissimilar from each other
*Colour #FEF5E1
*Colour #FE0060
*Colour #FF8787
Coverline 2 :
This one has a border with the highlight setting (both are red).
This is more to having a summary of some parts of the magazine ( important content I guess)
*Colour #420712
*Colour #8F3333
*Colour #FFCF7A
Adding layer named "ADD"
*Colour #FFF1BC
*Colour #FFFFFF
Selling lines :
I've chosen to do some similar things as the coverlines: *Use the font Avenir Next Demi Bold
*Separate them into different parts.
*Used the same colours but excluding background/highlight of text (Colours #FFCF7A and #8F3333)
But the only difference is I've added more details to both of these lines. Mainly, the "shine"!
*Colour #B6FFFF
*Colour #0050B7
Selling Line 1 : It is circular to give that sticker look, and I just felt like giving some connection with the brush from earlier!
*Colour #B3F8FB
Selling Line 2 : This mostly relates to having the opportunity for any artist to get a mannequin for free and for the content of the magazine!
Quote :
For the quote itself, it used the font PingFang SC Thin with a big stroke of the colour dark blue. For where I have gotten the quote from, PingFang SC Medium was used for it but there was no stroke used.
I used the exact same colours to create the cartoonish globe but by shading with a dark blue shade, outline and adding some salmon coloured lighting! (The reason why I chose a globe is because I was trying to make it seem like a relatable quote for the world to understand.)
Added outlines!
Stroke of quote
(Colour #215A9C)
Colour of quote
and the one quoting
(Colour #54E756)
SECTION THREE : FINISHING TOUCHES
So what I have adjusted was changing the background into a crimson red. I've actually wanted to use the dull yellow (I didn't want to use a yellow too bright for the eyes). I didn't notice how it would effect the message though, even though it is just a background.
So after adding up the red, the darker shades of blue mixed with a pink overlay layer, it turns into shades of purple (mainly dark), it has shown a new meaning...the painting is on stage with dramatic lighting!
DONE !!
Reflection :
"Are you satisfied with the overall design?"
To be honest, I am actually satisfied throughout some parts of the magazine. It is such a simple idea to just take a self image and I feel like the positioning of the text and images are just arranged correctly.
It feels like I did an okay job on highlighting the text for the cover and selling lines. Also, I do not look as tired editing my own face. To me, it makes me happy that it looks cleaner than what I have expected. I also think that editing in the main image with a separated picture was a success. It looks convincing that it's just a random paint brush painting the main image itself. It took time to edit but it looked like it was worth it!
"Is there any design element that you would want to change in your design?"
*Actually, I would have changed a few elements. Since I edit on a mobile app, I don't think I could have more complex designed fonts (like those fancy bubbly fonts, fancy italics...etc.) so in the end, I think I've ended up having a cover kind of looking like a poster (?). If I had the skill to make a font, then it would've looked more expressive.
*Another part I'd change is the selling line of "FREE SAMPLE BRUSHES IN PHOTOSHOP!" and the way the circle is. I feel that the line is a little too long, and maybe "2 NEW + FREE DIGITAL BRUSHES" might be slightly shorter, and simpler to understand. About the circle, I feel like I should've added this "star shaped effect" with spikes around the circle like that familiar shape to express shock or something like that.
Film opening
Pre - Production
Now moving on to the opening film:
Since we're experiencing a lockdown at this time, then the only equipment I have is my phone (I'll probably ask my family for help). I've decided to do a slideshow for my opening (Pictures drawn on IbisPaintX to show an Animatic). I will edit the opening film with CapCut!
Well, the genres that I like are family, romance, drama and comedy. I find the family genre friendly, and enjoyable when I watch a movie related to that with my own family. Romance is cute! It feels like telling a story about two characters falling in love and going along with the journey. Drama is probably interesting to me. While looking for my inspiration, I felt like I've watched the movies that include drama in it. The seriousness of this genre, talking about each character and having some conflict going on is nice. Comedy just makes my day better as well, of course with the right kind of funny.
Inspiration
Now for my inspiration, I would like to say that this movie was not in English, but I would like to do my opening film in English.
This movie is a Romance/Comedy (there is also Drama in some scenes but those happen in the middle of the movie.). The movie is mainly about a character who was talking about her past school relationship. Her name was Lin Truly.
For the first few minutes (I'd say two or three) of the movie, Lin Truly was at her workplace after graduating from college. It was shown that she took the elevator and greeted other workers greeted her, including her boss. The people had a drink together too, looking cheery! In this part also, the boss said "Be like Lin Truly".
Her getting out from the elevator, showing a wide shot.
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Setting up a toast with her friends (Including her boss). This view showed Lin and her present friends being happy.
Afterwards, we get to see a shot of Lin at night. In the scene, she was yawning and also had her hair tied up into a bun while being on her computer. This gives us the idea that she worked very hard for the company she was in.
While that was happening, the friends we saw before wanted to go out instead since the time was getting late. Lin wanted to join them but the boss (Did I mention he wore a bow tie??) came and did not allow any one of them to leave. In another scene, they left anyways (Including Lin after). She heard everything about what her friends said about her. She hid herself from them so that they could not see her.
In the beginning of this scene, there was a rack focus from the things on Lin's table to her working with her computer. Shows messiness.
Her friends asking Lin if they can leave
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The reflection in her glasses with the computer screen shows that she was focused on the work.
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Her boss telling they should stay. Her friends look so devastated.
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Her friends talking about her at the store. "I hope I won't be like her when I get old." says that they are possibly younger than Lin.
Moving forward, Lin was at home, looking through her old things. She came across a journal she wrote back in high school/college. It was old but she still had it safe in a box.
While the radio was speaking out things related to growth, Lin started crying. That's why before the flashback of Lin's past of school, the camera focused on the radio playing.
A close up shot of her checking the journal she made and wrote.
The camera being focused on her crying.
The radio being focused on, same goes the table with so many images. Gives us the idea that she likes taking/saving photos (foreshadow)
Planning for my plot
The story : The name of the story would be "These Memories Within". It's because I want to describe those "memories" in detail by visuals and narration. For the start of the main plot, I can think of having to look around at some of my old drawings/gifts/photographs of friends. A story about being involved in friendships, school drama. Learning these things inlife (teen interactions.). Missing those old O lvl days and before lock-down started by the year of 2020-2021. I can imagine a montage of time playing along as well to exaggerate the fact that "I've been alone in the same room for days" kind of thing during the opening scene. The ending would be me smiling in tears at the same things I've looked at in the beginning.
Who will help me? : I'll attempt to do this myself, probably ask a sibling.
The location I can use : I think I should only use the bedroom of mine as the main location. I feel like focusing on the opening scene based on that to show "isolation".
Targeted audience : Mainly for teens. The reason being is my goal for the plot is to understand high-school friendships and stuff like that.
Why am I gonna do this kind of story? : Well, the idea clicked since I have tons of pictures on my wall (even from three years ago). And I like it when a story tells about characters having some conflict, and mixing friendships-- Even the play of emotions whether it's jokes or sad scenes.
My Screenplay
My first draft
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Why did I not accept this one?? :
I've actually gotten problems with this draft since I may not be able to film everything on time. I did not estimate what time and imagine properly, but I did it to further the context of my story. I am not using this draft for the final product since it feels too boring to listen to me complaining a lot (which is the best reason not to use), it is overwhelming for me to shoot everything, and I thought to myself that I can make it more comedic.
Final Draft
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My Storyboard
My first Draft
Why did I not accept this one?? :
Similar reasons to the first draft of my screenplay. The only difference is I kinda took too long on imagining the scenes and having to rush the end.
Final Draft
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Finished Production
Reflection :
Not gonna lie, I think it's tough for me. I don't know how to get a good and exciting film, I feel like my product is more to being mediocre but acceptable as an opening. It's like as if I am satisfied and unsatisfied at the same time. At times I feel like adding something- like a joke by drawing it, but other times I think I might've thought too many for one minute.
Overall, I'm hoping to improve the next time I feel like editing a video like this. Experiencing a project like this is nice, but again-- still tough for me! LIKE-- I'm having a love dislike relationship between Screenplay, but I enjoyed making the production!