Major Assessment Project - Entry 1

In our lecture we were given the brief for our Main Assessment Project, and told that we were to prepare a pitch to visually re-brand a product. 
Int his presentation we were given the basic information to re-brand a product with our learning group for a product that has shown a retail decline over recent years.


We were told to chose one of the following products:
-  Blue Nun Wine
-  Mateus Wine
-  Spam
-  Skol Lager
-  BRUT Aftershave
-  Hai Karate Aftershave
-  Babycham
-  Milk Tray


We had to re-brand our chosen product through the following:
-  Print Marketing
-  TV Advertising
-  Radio Advertising
-  Promotional Website
-  Promotional App


Through our first group discussion, i was allocated the Print Marketing section which i was very happy with as this was the section i put forward for me to cover.
I presented this research and brief in my learning journal:

After a discussion with my learning group, we decided to chose BRUT Aftershave as we felt that this was the product that could be expanded and have a new style introduced.

From this meeting, i went away and created my own small research into the BRUT range, as displayed in my Learning Journal:

I also thought that one of the best first steps in the project to make was to conduct research into Male Fragrances and what are the most popular brands and why this is.

This research is displayed below:

I hope that this positive development with the project continues, as i believe as a team with have the potential to pull together all our ideas and creativity to create a stimulating and strong presentation to the rest of our class and lecturer.

Until Next Time

Rachel

Task No.3 - Communication Skills for Digital Media

Last Wednesday we were given the task to create a piece of Digital Media and prepare a pitch for our chosen piece that we would present to our learning group in the following weeks lecture.

Before starting the creation of the pitch i decided to research into the Pre Production, Production and Post Production processes just so i had a clear idea of what was expected from a good well rounded pitch.

I found the task of creating an idea to pitch enjoyable as for a few years now I have been wanting to develop an idea i have for a collection of children stories based around a group of friends who live in a sleepy Cornish town by the sea. I originally thought of this idea based on my love of Cornwall and how i could use my skills and my passion to express this in a story.

The aim of this book is to connect to children's real life experiences but with abstract situations and ideas and I also aim to explore topics which will interest and teach children morals etc but in a fun and exciting environment. I thought the Cornish setting would be perfect as the most of the stories have some kind of link to the sea.

When exploring deeper into the technicalities of my book i decided that the target audience would be children aged 7-9 as it creates situations that  children around this age may encounter and help encourage positive behaviour.

Once this initial research had been completed, i went about finalising my initial ideas onto paper  so i could have a clear image of what i was going to create and what my book would entail. 

Furthermore, i conducted research into where my influences and inspiration for the book were coming from. So during my pitch I could give a detailed description, i believed that by trying to encourage the audience to visualise the final product  I could gain their attention in a more enthusiastic manner.

I carried out research into age groups and target audiences of children's books and how different age ranges books differed. From this i can begin to see how the images should appear and how the text should be written in a manner that is suitable for the age range.

I also gathered information from pieces that will influence my work. For Example. 'Scooby Doo' as i believe the style of illustration would suit my books particularly the rounded features and vibrant colours of the characters. From this i also researched Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five Series' as I loved the idea of a completely new story for each book and with that a new adventure that would really capture the imagination of my target audience.

After this research had been completed i created a diagram to represent the relationship between the main characters and sub characters of the story.

When all the research and preparation had been completed I arrived at the task i was most looking forward to, of creating a prototype and developing that into the final product. I decided to demonstrate my book idea by creating the front cover for my prospective first book.

I chose to use a prototype first as i wanted to check that the composition, text and scale were all correct before beginning the final thing. 

For my final book cover i used watercolour to express a youthful and soft quality and for the composition i also wanted the same impression. I think I was successful in meeting my aims as the final book cover shows a fun and playful theme which hopefully will match the content of the book.

Overall i think this task went extremely well, i was at first apprehensive as it is an ambition of mine to create this book. But i gathered some really useful tips that will benefit me when i take it further and also allot of positive feedback which has proven that if i work hard and develop my idea i could complete it.

From this i believe that when it came to pitching this task, this enthusiasm helped and as a results i was chosen to present my pitch to the whole class, which in hall honesty gave me a great confidence boost. The whole class pitch went just as well as the first as I hadn't lost the energy and motivation to make them feel the same enthusiasm for 'To The Rescue' as i do.

Until Next Time

Rachel

Task No.2 - Lecture Research Project

In our lecture today we were given the task of choosing a subject to research in the Library and present to the rest of the class. We had an hour of research time which also included preparing the presentation.
Once we had chosen who we were to work with, Sara and I decided almost automatically that we would like to research the Origin and Development of Photography and how this affects today's Digital Media and the future.
I think we both came to the decision of Photography so quickly as it is one of the most vital means of communication and expression. And we both strongly believed that Photography is a key element in visual communication as once a photo is published it can be viewed around the world and immediately understood in any language, giving photography unlimited reach and value in Digital Media.
As a team I believe we worked really well together, as we were both were determined to find both relevant and interesting information. 
I think we achieved this and because we were more than happy with the level of work we put in and the results found. And as a result when expressing our presentation we gave a more stimulating performance, which encouraged the audience to be interested and keep their attention.
Overall I was really pleased with our efforts and how from the lecture we came out with a wider knowledge of how to use the University resources I.e. the Library as all our research was first checked on the Harvard Referencing System and then found at the St Johns Library.
And from this when conducting research for future projects i will have the knowledge of how to go about it.


Until Next Time
Rachel

Task No.1 - Digital Video Editing Team Presentation

In our lecture we were briefed on a team presentation and placed into groups in which we would choose and work on a selected area of choice.

When our group had joined we all decided that our chosen subject was Digital Video Editing, i was pleased to find that everyone within the group all had ideas to put forward and were all enthusiastic to produce a good presentation. 

In this session we created a presentation structure including all the areas we thought had to be covered, once we had created the structure we believed the best way to research was to allocate sections to each group member. From this; each individual could go away and research there section and then combine it at our next group meeting. We also decided on a time and place of our next group meeting where we would cultivate all our research and apply it to a power point presentation, as we thought this would display our information best. At this point I was really confident that each group member would find some strong reliable information to include in their section.

When the research was completed we met again and had a group discussion about how successful and affective our research had been before actually setting to creating the power point itself. Everyone was enthusiastic with what they had found. This was particularly helpful as everyone in our group was comfortable with presenting and speaking to an audience. I was also very confident in that our team was working very well with one another which made the whole dynamics of the team stronger.

We then set about the task of creating the power-point, which surprisingly didn't take allot of time at all, I think this was because we were very clear about what all of us wanted from the beginning; making the creation an easier task. We all also created a hard copy version of what we were going to say, giving us something to refer to which I think was a good suggestion.

When it came to presenting our subject I was very happy with how our presentation was received as everyone of us spoke strongly of our section. We were also the only group to complete a presentation on Digital Video Editing, and i believe this contributed to how we kept the audiences attention.  The only thing i would say i was disappointed with was that i had forgotten to speak about a particularly big figure in the origin of film editing, but i will be sure to run over my information more thoroughly next time.

Overall i thought this task was thoroughly enjoyable, it gave me the chance to meet other students in the module, have an insight into how they would approach this task and for me particularly i had the opportunity to generate further experience in presenting to an audience; which i haven't done much of before but hope to improve on in the future.