Reflective Thoughts, on the project thus far.

I have an increasing concern with the lack of enthusiasm amongst the group. With less than 2 months less before the project is handed in we haven't begun developing any of our ancillary texts, nor are we near completing our trailer. Half the group do not get involved, are unaware of what conventions were following and are unclear as to what we're aiming to communicate (this then leads to them producing little work which is inaccurate/irrelevant to the project).
It's surprising that this project is much better prepared for than the foundation, this could be due to the increased work load. During the post-production stages of this project it seems there has been no real progress. Up to now i have been the only one who has worked on the film using the software iMovie (Mac OS), whereas last year we had spent more time in post-production thinking about creative shot sequences and how to over come any arising problems. This year there has been plenty of research and planning, with clear intentions for each product. Although the execution for our products as been competent.
There has not been a shared work load, consequently progress is slow. Looking through the group blog it seems any deadlines that are set and agreed upon during group meetings are not kept. I understand i am partially responsible yet it's more noticeable how others are failing to contribute and maintain a positive ethos.
I hope my vast contribution is acknowledged whether our media texts are produced to a high standard or not. It seems the grading system is partially unfair as other members of the group acheive a grade that's well above what they deserve. It seems the work effort is unbalanced which leads to an unfair grade distribution. From what i've seen, it's a common occurance that the effort of others is rewarded to those that don't deserve the reward or have contributed to the projects success.
I hope this issue has been made apparent and can't be dealt with in an appropriate manner for future students.

Poster design 3

This design sketched is my favoured one. Having a close up shot of the bosses face it communicates a strong emotional feeling of worry and stress. The cigarettes is a strong iconic reference to that feeling of stress which highlights the drama within the soap. By featuring Aya's (boss) face it subtly represents our ideas of gender and religion. Following general conventions of camera shots, the extreme close up communicates a greater and more intense message.

The catchy slogan, "how are you surviving?" is a rhetoric questions that heightens audience suspicion. It creates enigma's due to it's implications. Some may guess it's to do with the current climate, it's there to remind people of the current situations and possible be interested in how others are dealing with it (inspiring the 'gossip' nature of soap viewers). It can be interpreted by many viewers due to it's vagueness.

A posters intention is to communicate a very simple visual message that can target a diverse range of people. I believe this poster is simple enough yet effective enough to target that broad audience. A few years ago a new law was set out to ban any advertisements of cigarettes due to the changing priorities or political leaders. I was unable to find any evidence that states showing some one smoking on an advertisement is in breach of legislation. This confirms that it's acceptable to feature the cigarette in the image. It's also an unconventional narrative image as today smoking is deemed as an atrocious habit and, is conveyed in such away that any one who is a smoker is exiled from society (due to laws such as; no smoking in public areas/indoors). So to highlight smoking as an acceptable habit due to high stress levels breaks from the new conventional perspective upon smoking.

Poster design 2

The idea of a close up shot adds to the enigmatic presence of the image, and i personally feel as though close up images can appear more bold/striking and professionally represented. Also the close up images creates the illusion as though the background is 'busier' (appearing as though there's more within the frame).
By featuring a photographic image and not complicating the poster with graphical art work would communicate to audiences that this soap's focus is to show reality/'realism'. By having very abstract/bold colours with more graphical work creates a greater stylised impression, in order to attract the correct target audience (i.e. that of an older age range with a less impressionable minds) we must put across a style opposite to that of Hollyoaks. :)
The poster design above is another rough sketch. The ash tray sitting upon a working file suggests to audiences a working environment that's very tense. There's no iconic reference to females as this poster can be addressed to much a broader audience.
The location of the soap appears very ambiguous, so to make this clearer perhaps working documents can feature underneath the ash tray such as; graphs, invoices, back statements and other working documents that can be easily recognised as belonging in an office.
Maybe some business jargon can feature on the poster, this also needs to be considered for the website.

Poster design 1

Whilst searching through the images i had taken of our location i felt inspired by the very simple one featured at the top of the post. I was drawn in by it's angles and its unusual symmetry within the frame. I felt this would be an effective backdrop for a poster idea as it's simplistic, features our location and is suprisingly eye catching.

As a group we discussed what we were to focus communicating through our poster. Due to the nature of posters they are very enigmatic, have very bold visual statements and can often misrepresent the product their advertising. In this case the product is the soap. The main points we hoped to highlight through our poster are; an impression of professionalism, how it's centralised around an office/business environment and an iconic refrence to females.

I roughly sketched the image above to begin progressing with the production of the poster. Taking the above points into consideration, and all other reasearch into account, i thought having very simple visual clues would be the most effective way to communicate our ideas. I thought a women is central to our narrative image and so i thought it's important to have the boss central in some way. As the majority of workers in the country are traditionally men, they will consequently be a part of primary target audience so it's worth considering portraying the boss as a sexual figure. This evidently works as 'sex' is biggest catalyst to draw in a male audience due the nature of mens attitudes. Revealing only the boss's legs and heels it creates a distorted narrative image of what our soap is really about (gritty realism of the recession from a business perspective, with elements of black comedy).

The cigarette being stubbed out of the floor can be open to interpretation by audience's. Men who are drawn in by the female figure can see this as an extra seductive feature. Smokers can see this an assume some one is having a very stressful time to have lit a cigarette in doors (as it breaches legislation). It's important to have simple iconography so it can appeal to that broad audience we're aiming for. It's also crucial to have simple enigmatic revealings of the narrative image in order to entice people to question and wonder what the story is behind the poster.

The font being positioned to the side, as though it's a part of a frame, is to not distract audiences to everything else going on in the poster. The font and positioning is obviously not final, the whole poster needs much refining. The thought to join the 'E' at the end of each word helps the poster stand out from others. If 'objects' are positioned in patterns it seems more appealing from the perspective of audiences and they're more likely to read it. Hence, the importance of choosing the right colours and font styles for the poster.