My hobby

This photograph was taken in a hip-hop workshop in school. I chose this image because dance is my favorite hobby and I have thought about working in the performing arts doing dance as a career. I think this image is effective because I look really into the movement and as if I'm working hard. I also like the picture because it is slightly off focus on everyone else so makes the image of me stand out. This image also uses the hot spot theory. The teacher (the man in the purple cap) and I are in the main hot spot. He is an important person in the image as he is leading the class and I aspire to be doing this in the near future. We are both the largest images in the photograph. The people appear smaller because of the perspective of the photo. This is a mid shot, although it could be argued it is slightly low angle because everyone in the photo is leaning down so this is to see the people's bodies in the image.
The only criticism I would give this photo is that it is taken in the mirror, so there is a clearly visable line running down the centre of the photo. This is not only distracting but slightly disjoints in the image. However this could not be removed because it was the best place to take the photograph.

Portraiture

This is a portrait image of me. It is a mid shot that shows my shoulders upwards. I like this picture because it is very laid back and I am smiling which creates a happy easy going feel.
To create this image, my partner took a picture of me. I primarily used curves in order to create the look of a Polaroid picture.
I used the selection tool to cut out a boarder of an existing Polaroid image. I cut and pasted the whole image into the Polaroid boarder and moved the boarder in front of the image of me. I used the curves tool and set the red panel to a smooth S curve. I moved the blue panel and moved the peak of the curve down. I moved the green channel into another S curve and adjusted all of them to get the desired result.
I really like how this image turned out because the Polaroid boarder gave it a vintage feel. I got to use the editing techniques I enjoy using such as curves also called cross-processing.
I wanted to show a vintage style of photograph because I like vintage fashion and small vintage shops in London. I like films with a vintage genre particularly 'The Notebook'.

Me as a pop icon

This is a portrait picture of me super imposed onto a picture of Lady Gaga. I rendered a picture of my face from a stock image. I feathered the image, so that the edges slowly faded away so it blends in well with the picture. I then took the picture of my face, scaled in down to the size of Lady Gaga's and aligned my facial features with hers. I cut out and feathered some skin on my face, leaving my most prominent features like my eyes and my mouth. I then used the spot healing tool to blend in my skin with Lady Gaga's. I added a warming photo filter. This helped to blend my skin and make the picture seem more realistic.
I think this photograph is very effective because it is blended well and it could be an actual person. The techniques I used to help me gain an understanding of how to blend an imagine into an other and to also use filters, levels and curves. I think the photgraph I chose of Lady Gaga was a good choice because the lighting was bright like the photograph taken of me. It was straight on and very eye catching. The text also made the picture look like a CD cover which I think was effective because it highlighted the pop genre of the photograph.

Me and friends!

This is a photograph taken before my leaver's prom in June 2009. This is a wide shot taken in my friends garden. I really like this photo because its very naturalistic and not posed. We are having great fun and this is shown through the image.
This photograph uses natural light because it was taken on a hot summers day outdoors. I also like this photo because the image is encompassed with people. There is barley any head space and the background of the greenery makes the people in the image stand out.

Horror Poster

We then had to design and create another horror poster. However, this had to be our own ideas of a film. We had to take our own pictures and edit them to fit in with the horror genre.
My inspiration came from a path in my village church. The church seems never ending, so I cam up with he film 'No Way Home'.

To make this poster, I used a variety of techniques to make the poster look dark and forbidding which connotes horror.
The poster, the syntagm was put together with the paradigms. I chose one paradigm, the path church to be the background of my poster. I chose this rather than any other location because it looked dark, never ending and frightening. I took a picture of a wide shot of the path, this was to create the forever expanse of the path. I lowered the saturation so that it would become a background image.

Then I made the borders on the top and bottom of the poster. I used the grunge brush, that looked like blood and used a deep red colour to paint with. Once these areas were complete I found a text that I thought was suitable and connoted a horror theme. I then put a gradient overlay on it and positioned as necessary.

I then placed a texture over the top of the whole image and set its mode to hard light, this is why you can see different shades of red on the borders and a grainy feel to the piece as a whole.
I photographed a boy in a black hooded top to create the appearance of a black cloak. I chose this garment because I felt that it looked dead like and ‘spooky’ which is what I wanted to portray in my poster. I rendered the face in the photograph and reduced the saturation to create the dead effect. I then did minor adjustments. I used the spot healing tool and took away any blemishes so the face looked even more corpse like and professional. I then placed a different texture over the face, creating a layer mask for the hair, nose and eyes.

I then used a variety of layer modes, grunge brushes, the burn tool and opacity levels to create, an ill looking horror genre style face. I then surrounded the picture with black smoke which gave me the idea for the smoke at the top of the poster.

To create the feeling that you are being watching in the poster; I cut out eyes of a photograph I took of my sister. I took a photo of these eyes because they signify evil, no way to turn and being surrounded. This is what I wanted my horror film to be about. I feathered the eyes to make them blend in so they were not sharp making it look like they were park of the background. I used the colour balance took to make them red and set the opacity down so they could just be seen.

I then took a picture of a group of flowers. I did want a picture of a dead flower but I found this difficult so I used the burn tool to make the image darker. I chose this paradigm because it was juxtaposition between the dead and the living; the ‘ghost like’ image of the boy and the once beautiful flowers contrast. I increased the saturation compared with the background so they would stand out and layered them with smoke to give the poster an evil, mysterious quality.
I then added the names of the producer director and cast and added a logo to make the poster seen more professional.

I think my poster was effective for because it connotes horror and fear. I think the smoke created mystery and the eyes draw the reader into the poster. However, I think I could gave improved on the photograph of the flowers to make them seem more dead which would have created a more obvious juxtaposition.

Blade Poster

We were first given a task to design and create a poster to advertise the film 'Blade' We had to include pictures, the film title and a slogan we had made up. We learned about the four hot spots and I incorporated them into my design. The title of the film, the vampire picture and the picture of Blade were all in the hot spots, which draw the reader into the poster.

Using the photoshop layers, I established the first layer which was the red background. I then used a variety of black grunge brushes to create the blood inspired horror background. I then cut out using the 'lasso' tool a picture of Blade. This was very hard to do because the picture is detailed. I think I could have edited it better if I spent more time on it. I then cut out a picture of a vampires mouth from a picture found on the Internet. I feathered the picture and used the burn tool to give a smoke feel and give a 'gorey' smoke feel. I then wrote the text that I imported from www.dafont.com . I used white text so that it would stand out from the black background. I used the gradient tool to back the 'Blade' look like it was a blade. I then imported the small print from another poster.

Introduction

My name is Alexandra Hall and I am currently studying media for AS level at Hurtwood House. I really enjoy media because it has already taught me a lot about the media around me and it is also fun to do! I particularly like the artistic side of media, I like photography and improving them on photoshop. Media has made me look at film and television in different ways because I do not just watch the film, I think about how it is made. My favorite films are Precious, The Notebook and Trainspotting. I prefer low budget indie English films to American Blockbusters. I prefer films with an deep storyline rather than special effects.My favorite music genre is indie rock. My favorite bands are Biffy Clyro, The Libertines and Jamie T. I am also studying theatre studies, business studies and dance. I dance and act as a hobby and as well as watch films I love to go to the theatre. I prefer practical subjects because they are fun but you are learning every day.I hope you have fun reading my blog and hopefully find it interesting,
Alex