Photoshop Terms/Tools

Remember in 1a, you have to talk about how you have 'improved' between AS and A2. Here are two lists. Firstly, a list of  less advanced things which you MAY have used in AS. Then a list of MORE ADVANCED things which you MAY have used in A2.

Less adavanced:

Free-hand selection - Selects objects by following the movement of mouse cursor. (scruffy, not professional looking)

Magic wand selection - Selects chunks of an image based on tone/colour (not very advanced)

Lack of feathering - Cuts out edges very sharply. Does not blend well

Adjust Brightness - Can be used to lighten dark areas of a picture...but can then make other areas too light or grainy

Adjust colour balance - Yes you can change someone's hair colour to blue, but it doesn't look very professional to change the whole picture balance.

Fill in background with 'block colour fill' - Makes it look like you have used MS paint.


More advanced:

Magnetic Lasso Selection - Follows your mouse cursor and clings to nearest definite edge. Much more control over selection.

Adjust tollerance and feather - Tollerance lets you decide how sensitive the tool is. Feather makes the selected edges softer so they blend better with new background.

Dodge tool - Brightens small areas of picture so you don't have to brighten entire image.

Burn tool - darkens small areas. Both of these tools are adjustable for size and definition.

Select colour range - Select a single group of colur so you can change one colour, but allow the rest of the image to remain constant.

Fill background with 'gradient fill' - looks far more professional.

The Last Session!

Just taught a depleted class of Nicole, Charlotte, George, Rebecca (and very briefly Vicky and Joanna) for the very last time! It has been a pleasure teaching you all. It's a shame we never really got a proper 'last lesson', but make sure you pop in and say hi if you're ever around.

Thanks to Rebecca in particular who apparently has messaged you all and told you to get on to the blog. I will say this one more time in block capitals, so you know I mean business:

IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU KEEP CHECKING THIS BLOG RIGHT UP UNTIL AROUND 8PM TONIGHT. I WILL BE PUTTING STUFF ON HERE WHICH WILL HELP YOU. IF YOU DON'T CHECK BACK, YOU ARE NOT GIVING YOURSELF THE BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS!

I know that some of you appear to have decided already which topic you will answer on in the exam. This is not a great idea really. You should be keeping your options open! I will certainly try my best to prepare you for representation as much as I can.

The next thing I am going to add to the blog is a list of LESS ADVANCED and MORE ADAVANCED photoshop techniques which you could include in order to answer 1A.

Stay tuned!

NW

How to write the INTRO to your REPRESENTATION essay, continued...

If you were to write something like this, it would b a good way in to the more 'modern' film and TV textss which we have studied...

"Whenever a media product or institution decides to depict a particular group or demographic, then that group is being ‘represented’. By its very nature, the media only allows institutions to depict a particular facet or aspect of a particular social group. This process, if not handled carefully, can be damaging. If people from a particular social group are shown in a negative light, or sometimes even if they are shown in a positive light, the media institution can create an image of an entire demographic which is inaccurate or misleading. This can lead to ‘real-life’ stereotyping of individual due to media portrayal. When it comes to the representation of black youths in the media in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, this issue becomes particularly difficult to manage.

This particular social group has been at the centre of many controversies with regards to their treatment and portrayal over recent decades and centuries. When we take into account that Hollywood began producing movies within only 80 years of the abolition of slavery, it is no surprise that there have been many issues regarding the portrayal of black youths, as peoples’ attitudes have changed so dramatically. Perhaps even more important is the fact that Hollywood was in its prime long before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, having already had its ‘golden age’. The fact that so many movies were made long before this adjustment in social attitudes means that it is almost certain that black youths in cinema would be portrayed in a negative and detrimental way.

This is reflected in the fact that, according to film historian Donald Bogle in 1973, black characters in ‘classic’ films could largely be separated into five basic stereotypes, ‘Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks’. The fact that a social group can be categorised into such a small amount of groups is shocking alone. When we look at the definitions of the roles, however, it becomes even more so. A Tom – A kindly, subservient black man who does the will of the white man. A Coon – An often lazy black person who sings and dances, attempting to ‘act the fool’ in order to entertain the white man. A Buck – Someone who is portrayed a sexually dangerous. There are many examples of characters in these roles. Perhaps one of the most famous actors of the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood was Lincoln Theodore Monroe – otherwise knwn by the stage name ‘Stepin Fetchit’. Fetchit played roles in numerous films, but most were based around his character ‘The laziest man in the World’, reinforcing the ‘coon’ stereotype as outlined by Bogle. The fact that a character such as this was so popular and so prolific across a period of around half a century demonstrates the attitudes that many felt towards black people at the time. In essence, good for ‘comic relief’, but not for serious roles. One can only imagine the detrimental effect this would have had on attitudes towards young black people in society.

We also have to take into account that when actors such as Stepin Fetchit began working in the movie industry, it would actually have been seen as ‘forward thinking’ by some to even allow a black man to play a black role. In the early phases of Hollywood, it was far more traditional for white actors to ‘black up’, and pretend to be of that race. This, we imagine, simply added to the ridicule with which black characters in film were viewed. That said, it appears that it was still far earlier that black actors became ‘the norm’ in American cinema, with ‘Dark Manhattan’ being the first film to feature an all-black cast in 1937. In the UK, attitudes towards race were largely very different and it was very uncommon to see black characters or actors in British films of this era.

One of the periods of controversy which faced British media in this respect was the portrayal of young black people in comedy television shows during the 1970s…."

An article about early racist roles in Hollwood. Read it!

Midnight Ramble: The Negro in early Hollywood Introduction

The motion picture industry most likely began in Los Angles in 1902 when Thomas L. Tully opened the first theater exclusively for moving pictures. From its earliest days, when movies were thought of as peep shows, the Negro was presented in an unfavorable light.
The year 1915 is a significant date in motion picture history. This is the year of the release of D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, the film version of Thomas Dixon’s pro South, Ku Klux Klan, novel, The Clansman. In terms of advancement of the medium, it must be regarded as one of the most significant films ever made. Subsequent to its release, movies were crude at best, with uneven lighting and quick jerky movements, the acting, melodramatic and exaggerated. From an artistic and technical outlook, it was a masterpiece of conception and structure. Though much has been written about it’s overt racism, it gave rise to the modern narrative film.

The Reconstruction scenes in The Birth of a Nation are especially harsh. The black members of Congress are portrayed as arrogant, lustful, and are shown drinking heavily right on the House floor. They are depicted going about the business of the country coarsely reclining in their congressional chairs, with bare feet plopped upon their desks. When the film was released small riots broke out in Boston, and other cities. A fledging NAACP (formed in 1910) sought in vain to have the film banned. The Nation magazine declared it “improper, immoral, and injurious. . . a deliberate attempt to humiliate ten million American citizens”. The Birth of a Nation was popular for a decade and doubtlessly did much damage to race relations.
Existing as early as 1918 were small studios such as the Norman Studio and Lincoln Pictures. They made dignified pictures in an attempt to shatter the abrogating stereotype of Black Americans. The films they produced came to be known as —Race Movies. Lincoln Pictures, especially was noted for the quality material upon which its films were based. In 1918 Lincoln Pictures released a film entitled The Homesteader, written by a Midwesterner named Oscar Micheaux. Micheaux, sometimes referred to as the Cecil B. De Mill of race movies, went on to produce over 40 films, and was active until his death in 1951. In 1987 he received a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.

1920s

Except for a hand full of players, the star system had not yet been developed. Black parts, let alone black stars were not favored in the current order. That was all about to change however, as the decade of the 1920s, and the Jazz age approached.
Between The Birth of a Nation, and The Jazz Singer (1927), there were about two dozen films with important black characters or scenes. None were as openly anti-Negro as The Birth of a Nation, but except for one or two, most adhered to the established stereotypes. The decade of the 1920s did however, see a decline in the number of Blackface white actors that dominated the pre-talkies. It should be said here that for reasons unknown the Blackface roles of Al Jolson, (arguably the most famous entertainers of the first half of the twentieth century), were acceptable to black performers¹. Moreover, Jolson demonstrated a genuine respect to black artists.

Interestingly it was The Our Gang comedy series about the adventurers of a group of children produced by Hal Wallis beginning in 1918 that begin to crack the pre-World War I anti-Negro stereotype. Comparatively speaking their record of fair play was well above the average. The original cast included Allen Clayton Hoskins (Farina), who became one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood. He and Sammy Morrison (Sunshine) stood equal and were as much a part of the gang as were the white children.
With the coming of sound, the talking and singing voice of the Negro, would most distinguish him or her from white society. The period from 1927 to 1939 (when the next great anti-Negro film was released) the number of black parts greatly increased.

Lincoln Theodore Monroe Perry—Stepin Fetchit

Hearts in Dixie (1929), was film of major importance for two reasons. First, it was the first Hollywood film to feature an all black cast. Second and more importantly, the film introduced to wider audiences, one of the film industry’s most polemical figures ever —Stepin Fetchit. Born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Perry in Key West Florida in 1902, he took the name Stepin Fetchit from a race horse on which he had won money. Fetchit had been seen earlier in bits, but this was his first starring vehicle. His great talent was used, by the majority to reinforce the stereotype of the lazy good-for-nothing Negro. He was active in films until 1976, and died in 1985. Stepin Fetchit was and continues to be one of the most mystifying characters in motion picture history.

Also released in 1929 was Hallelujah about a black cotton worker who accidentally kills a man and then decides to become a preacher. It too featured an all black cast. Released by MGM, it was director King Vidor’s first talking picture. Hallelujah was the second all-Negro feature produced by a major Hollywood studio. It was vital in the it gave black performers significant roles. Hallelujah had a freshness and truth that was not attained again for thirty years.
An exceptional though controversial film of the early 1930s was The Emperor Jones (1933). The screen version of Eugene O’Neill’s play tsarring Paul Robeson, it’s about a train-porter who becomes emperor of a Caribbean nation. Mainstream critics praised it as one of the best films of the year, while black critics were divided. Some thought it well that a black monarch be chronicled, and for the first time, a white character be presented as his lackey. Others, however emphasized the dubious Pullman-porter, chain-gang, and voodoo scenes as particularly trite. They pointed to the finale which has Robeson, the emperor, groveling on his belly in the spirit-infested jungle.

1930s

Another exceptional film of the early 1930s was Imitation of Life (1934), based on the book by Fannie Hurst. The story contains a sub-plot about a beautiful light skinned black women (Fredi Washington) who tries to pass for white. She is the daughter of a black “mammy” type servant played by Louise Beavers. The two principals were caught in the middle of a journalistic controversy between Fannies Hurst, and Sterling Brown. Brown was professor of the history of the theater at Howard University and film critic for the magazine Opportunity. He charged that the characters of the two women were outrageously slanted. Hurst, on the other hand claimed that she portrayed them with “integrity and accuracy”.
The same period saw films favorable to blacks, Arrowsmith (1931), in which Clarence Brooks portrays a dignified doctor in the West Indies. A reviewer of the Associated Negro Press termed it ”the best legitimate part ever allotted to a colored actor in the history of the movies”². Another was The Singing Kid (1936), where Cab Calloway and Al Jolson pal around as equals. Flying Down to Rio (1933), has Etta Moten singing and dancing the Carioca. The Spirit of Youth (1938), a thinly masked autobiography of Joe Louis did much to propel his popularity among white audiences. With the acceptation of Arrowsmith though, these films must be considered lightweight. Though they at least did nothing to further the prevailing stereotype.

The 1930s also witnessed the further impetus of Oscar Micheaux and the Black independents. A notable film of this group was Dark Manhattan (1937), a gangster film produced by George Randol and Ralph cooper. Beautifully photographed by Roland Price, it was the first all-black cast motion picture with modern story, settings, and costumes. There immediately sprang up a number of companies attempting to make all-Negro pictures in the fashion of Dark Manhattan. However, owing to their lack of experience with the craft and subject matter, these independent efforts blanched in comparison.

Hattie McDanial

So much has been written about Gone With the Wind (1939), suffice is to say that while The Birth of a Nation was openly anti-Negro, GWTW, was at best clandestinely anti-Negro. Some black critics maintained the where The Birth of a Nation ended, Gone With the Wind began. The latter finished the job of removing from the public mind the Northern view of slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction, and replacing it with the traditional Southern view. Evidence of final victory was the awarding of the Oscar to Hattie McDanial for her role as Mammy in the Margaret Mitchell epic. When asked about her character, McDanial replied, “I’d rather get $7000 a week for playing a maid, than $7 a week for being one!”

Dooley Wilson’s (Sam) in Warner Brother’s Casablanca was probably the beginning of the end of the preponderant Negro stereotype that had dominated Hollywood since its inception. After Rick’s meeting with Ilsa, Sam senses trouble, and his sage advice to the heartbroken Rick, “lets take the car and drive all night, get drunk, go fishing and stay away until she’s gone”, suggests an equality in status. Moreover, it confirms Rick’s deference to Sam, and to Sam’s convictions.

Michael Mills

¹Thomas Cripps, “A Slow Fade To Black: The Negro in American Films 1900-1942”

² Lindsay Patterson, “Black Films, and Film-makers”

Help your friends out!

If you are one of the faithfuls who is attending an viewing this blog, link your classmates. It will boost their mark. Trust me!

More to follow either later today, or tomorrow - check back

NW

Introductions to REPRESENTATION essay

Whole essay to follow, but this is the kind of thing you should be writing for your essay intro, as it is essential to set the scene:

Whenever a media product or institution decides to depict a particular group or demographic, then that group is being ‘represented’. By its very nature, the media only allows institutions to depict a particular facet or aspect of a particular social group. This process, if not handled carefully, can be damaging. If people from a particular social group are shown in a negative light, or sometimes even if they are shown in a positive light, the media institution can create an image of an entire demographic which is inaccurate or misleading. This can lead to ‘real-life’ stereotyping of individual due to media portrayal. When it comes to the representation of black youths in the media in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, this issue becomes particularly difficult to manage.

REVISION STUFF - THE BEGINNING!

Right everyone....Stuff is going to be going on the blog right up until about this sort of time tomorrow night. Hoping to get a few things on so you HAVE to stay tuned.

If you missed today's lesson - like most of you did, READ THIS!

Absolutely essential:

The good thing about this exercise is that you can be very well prepared for it simply by having a sample essay ready for each of the five sections.

These five section are:

Digital Technology

Creativity

Research and planning

Post-production

Using conventions from real media texts

But you already knew that! The important factor when it comes to preparation is that you should have a VERY GOOD IDEA of what you are going to write for each of these sections, depending on what should come up. If you have a rough example essay in your head for each of them, then you can’t go wrong.

Some important points:

*Whilst this should be based on your real work for the purposes of honesty and realism, remember that the examiner will not have your work in front of them. Therefore, if you are looking at your A2 portfolio thinking, ‘I wish I had done this…’ for the purposes of this exam, you DID do it! I am certainly not asking, or even allowing you, to make up things which are unlikely and difficult to believe. However, you are demonstrating your knowledge of good practice in media production, and you should be making every effort to show that.

*It is essential that you go into a LOT of detail in your pargraphs. Give ACTUAL EXAMPLES. Don’t judt mention ‘a picture’, tell the examiner what the picture was of, what it needed doing to it, how you did it, and what the overall effect was afterwards. You MUST give finite examples, or your mark will be very low.

*There is no problem if you have some cross-over in your essay plans. For example, Digital Technology and Post-Production will share many of the same features.

*There is no problem comparing a STILL project (AS) to a MOVING project (A2).

Planning and Research:

1.       Introduction. – Outline the tasks that you have had to complete. Go into lots of detail about what exactly you had to produce and who you had to produce it for.

2.       Research into similar products? Talk firstly about how you researched the school magazine. I imagine it was very limited. Only limited access to limited productions. Talk about how this improved with the AS, and then A2 projects. Use of Google etc. Even talk about the trip to see harry potter/ tour of Imax etc. Say that this helped inform you about trailers, how they are cut for different audiences etc.

3.       Talk about planning of texts – How did you mock up the school project? How did that improve over time? Talk about how much more complex your shot lists and storyboards were compared to the simplistic and basic ‘box mock ups’ of your AS project. Which technologies did you use? Did the technology become more appropriate over time? Paint/Photoshop/Publisher

4.       Talk about organisation of actors – Did you organise the shoot for college magazine at all? If so how? What about for AS? What sort of shots lists did you use? How did this improve over time?

5.       Timelines?

6.       Safety/Risk assessment? Talk about the importance of risk assessment and how it can ensure that a shoot goes more smoothly. How did this improve over time?

7.       Mise-en-scene. – What did you do and how did this improve over time?

8.       Research into target audience? – Talk about the progression from basic ‘mood boards’ to online questionnaires. Which technology did you use and how did it benefit your research?

9.       Overall how did your product benefit from this improved research and planning?

Digital Technology:

1.            Introduction. – Outline the tasks that you have had to complete. Go into lots of detail about what exactly you had to produce and who you had to produce it for.

2.            Digital technology used. Go into a lot of detail about which aspects of digital technology you used. Remember that this can refer to hardware AND software. Outline what you used in your AS portfolio and what you used it for. Then go on to outline what you used in your A2 portfolio and what you used that for also.

3.            Go into more detail about what hardware you used in your AS. Talk about what you used, and what you used it for, but begin to talk about the shortcomings which you realised at this point. For example, it may be that in your earlier project you used your phone camera – and you now realise that it did not have the colour definition or focus to complete the project adequately. Make sure you cover everything!

4.            Go into more detail about the hardware used in your A2! Talk about what you used and how you used it. For example, it may be that you decided you had to use school cameras, which have a much higher Megapixel  resolution. Even if you are comparing still and video, this is still possible.

For example,

Whereas in my AS portfolio, I had used a much more basic camera facility, I have since learned that the ‘tools’ which I use to create media products are of paramount importance. Where I used an old/basic camera for my AS portfolio, I loaned one of the school’s video cameras in order to complete my A2. This was far superior as the cameras have a lot of features which you would not find on a more basic camera. The autofocus, for example, on a school camera works in a far superior manner to an amateur camera, meaning that shots remain constant even through zoom. This also helps to maintain professionalism and constancy throughout the shoot. Likewise, the school video cameras also feature motion stabilizer technology. This was absolutely essential, as many of my shots included movement, such as one shot where…..I have since learned that a more amateurish camera would not have been as effective in creating a cinematic effect for my product.

5.            Go into more detail about the software which you have been using in your AS. Talk about what you used it for, and possibly talk about any shortcomings which you may have realised since in your own method. For example, did you use publisher or photoshop for your double page spread? What is the problem with this?

6.            Go into more detail about the software which you used for your A2 portfolio. How was this usage superior to what you did in your A2. Go into specific details. For example:

Whereas in my AS portfolio, I used a more limited array of tools, I now realise that it is essential to spend more time and use the correct tool for any given purpose. For example, in my AS portfolio, I had a cover image where my model was sitting on a field. There were weeds around her in the grass which I wanted to remove for the effect of the shot. To do this, I used the ‘Spot Healing Tool’, which instantly removes blemishes and heals them automatically. However, whilst this is OK for a rush-job, it leaves the image with an unnatural effect. What I now realise is a better tool is the ‘Healing Brush’ which allows you to choose an area of the image which you would like to mimic, and uses that as a base to replace the blemish. In my A2 portfolio, I used this tool instead to remove spots from the face of my model. The overall effect was much more natural.

7.            Things you would do differently even now?

8.            Overall how did your product benefit from this improved useage of Digital Technology?

Creativity:

1.       Introduction. – Outline the tasks that you have had to complete. Go into lots of detail about what exactly you had to produce and who you had to produce it for.

2.       Talk about what you see as being ‘creative’ and outline a few areas where you believe you allowed this to show. For example, selection of Mis-En-Scene, selection of shot types, ways in which you have adapted to current trends, challenges to the usual conventions of text type, unusual or inventive layout etc.

3.       Talk in detail about your AS portfolio. Talk about some of its strengths, but also point out some of the ways in which you believe you could have been more creative in terms of selection of mis-en-scene (for example). Refer to specific examples.

4.       Talk in detail about your A2 portfolio. Talk about how and why it is more creative than your other portfolio in terms of the mis-en-scene. Give specific example and comment on why you did this/the effect it has. It is OK to say that the format of video gave you much more opportunity to be creative.

5/6.       Do the same as above but for shot types.

7/8.       Do the same as above but for current trends. And so on…