top of page
MEDIA STUDIES A2 LEVEL
by fabyan damsyiq azhar
Media Studies A2 level
by fabyan damsyiq azhar
COMPONENT 3
editing[minor task]
We were also tasked to make a double-page spread article of the same topic as our documentary. My article would not be really detailed. The purpose my article serves is to get audiences to go watch the documentary. Maybe some cut content from the interview would make it in the article as it might fit better in that kind of presentation. As I was designing the spread in Photoshop, my tutor told me that that wasn't required but I'm already in too deep. Might as well finish it. Maybe my lack of writing could be compensated for the looks of the spread because there is not really a lot to write about due to almost everything being presented visually. It thrives off of things that should be remain unspoken.
1.
I started by bringing up a screenshot I took from the tape footage. This trick I taught myself on how to hide the terrible quality is to distract the eyes with more grain. Sounds crazy? The grain in the camera raw filter has the more natural film grain look which is more pleasing to the eyes than digital grain. I turned up the texture as well to give it a more stylized look further distracting the fact the raw image is very pixelated and blurred. I chose that particular photo because it looked cinematic. The light shining on his hair and shoulder makes it very noir. Plus, I'm thinking of making this picture the main image that takes up most of the space. The image would be stylized as an art piece that reflects of what I have experienced during shooting.
2.
I added some placeholder text for planning. Added another image to make it a little more obvious that the article is about garbagemen since the main image would be almost abstract.
3.
I added another image this time purely for texture to be layered with the main image. The odd look of the graffiti summarizes my journey so far. The image of the unusual graffiti. I cropped it using the marquee tool blended it to difference as it looked the best at that time. It can be noticed that nowadays I like to explore blue than other colours. Back then, it was red and green but I overused that colour-scheme.
4.
I experimented with the placement of that image for a while until I ended up with this. I wanted to challenge the convention by stretching the image as I have a strange fixation on stretched images from memes on the internet. However, some digital artists utilize that meme stretch in an interesting way. They try to make their art as tacky as possible but their audiences know that it is in a post-ironic kind of way to be funny but along the way, I tend to find myself thinking this is not funny anymore, I actually like how it looks, I find the value in this. These artists layer themselves with so many layers of satire that it's almost sincere and that this satirical delivery of things is used to mask their true feelings. I find that beauty in stretching the image. I also layered the image with the documentary title card I made. I blended it to divide.
5.
After that, I will cut the centre of the image to simulate the space you get from the spine of the magazine. I drew 2 rectangles to find the centre of the canvas.
6.
Then, I turned the main image layer back on and drew the rough shape following the rectangle marker with the marquee tool then pressed backspace to delete that section of the image. Before that, I had to merge all the layers of what makes that image then rasterized it.
7.
I find that the main image was over the top. Too much going on. Secondary image couldn't fit. So, I tried out thresholding the image. It added more black values to it and it looked simpler and easier on the eyes. The secondary image had it's own gradient map on it to simplify its palette by creating a clipping mask.
8.
I typed out the article here first before I can add columns in Indesign. I also added the page number here also. I was unsatisfied of how the secondary image didn't fit so I made its side of the page blank by just drawing a black box and putting it in the lower layers but over the main image layer. It looks somewhat better.
9.
I noticed that the main image on the right was going to the spine part which should be left empty. Instead of using the marquee tool to delete that portion, I used the eraser tool to manually erase the portion off. That selected part was a leftover and it looks like one of those sliced comic book panels. So I decided to keep it. Duplicated it as another layer. Deleted it on the previous one and moved it closer to the right. The strokes are added as framing.
10.
I turned off the text layers in Photoshop and exported the graphics only to InDesign as guidelines to help me position texts. From there, I wanted to split the text into columns which is a feature that isn't available in Photoshop. I also typed more things there and completed the article. In also switched the font to a thinner one Acumin Variable Concept.
11.
I also filled the empty space next to the main image with the date and artist credits [me] to fill in the empty space and give more information. The red colour is the magazine name which I reused from component 1. I turned off the graphics layer to isolate the text and exported it as a PNG which I will put back in Photoshop.
12.
After that, I make the title with multiple fonts to make it visually interesting. Typography that slightly goes over images makes things pop and less confined.
13.
I changed the colour to a dark blue because it's the colour of their trucks. Visibility of the font might be hindered but it's not the priority. Readers will know it says Noracon if they start to read.
14.
I was unsatisfied with how the graphic looked in terms of colours. The colours were just too much. I added a black and white gradient map to the base image below the threshold layer. I adjusted the threshold layers to decrease the white grain showing so that the difference of colours are more intense like not making it look like a newspaper because when I think I'm satisfied with the colours and grain, Photoshop doesn't display the actual amount of pixels there are until I zoom in or save because they are too small for my laptop screen to handle and so Photoshop simplifies it. So if I save it, the whole thing would different. This is my own theory, I might be wrong with my explanation. I tried the best I can. I also increased the size of the title to fill in more space.
15.
The 'buruh terselindung title I used for the main image was actually the JPEG not PNG so the background wasn't transparent. I realized this when I merged all the layers together to prepare for displacement [a routine that I always do with my graphics to simulate ink bleeding]. I replaced it with the PNG I blended it but it looks different because it's not part of the merged layer so it's above the threshold layer. Now, I blended it different. Final step was to displace everything and export.
*THIS CONCLUDES EDITING FOR DOUBLE-PAGE SPREAD
ammendments
An update from last time. We went again to get an interview with Sohel as we had a little more time. Nothing much happened on that day. He did as best as he could in speaking Malay but the mic died when recording the good parts that I wanted to use which is really a shame and I'm very angry. I checked that the light was green but I didn't check the footage on that day but even if I did, I wouldn't have anything to record the audio with and Sohel was supposed to go to bed at that time. So, I'm just going to improve what I have.
RIP Sohel footage
1.
There were some footage that the camera's mic was touched by something possibly my finger tapped it. I unlinked the audio for those footage and deleted the tracks. On the same day as Sohel's interview, I filmed some more landscape footage which I added and colour graded them. I thought the first version was lacking in them. Clips like welding, cigarette box and a slipper in the trunk, generator surrounded by water puddles. Little things like that. I preserved their natural white balances but decreased the highlights and contrast to some of the footage. I also increased the audio to balance it with the rest. For the music, I turned it down.
2.
Some of the footage had too much grain especially with the three businessmen. I had to go back to the original project file and copied the raw footage from the bin and put it in it's place in the new sequence.
3.
I also added grain on the title card text because it looked too digital and it didn't fit the fact that everything except that has grain. It wouldn't be cohesive visually.
4.
Due to the additional footage pushing the runtime well into 6 minutes, I deleted the tracking shot at the end because the purpose in the first place was to extend its runtime to 5 but it does have it's own meaning for me to put it there. Now, it just ends with the Bandar Perayaan low shutter clip. I extended the audio a little and added a fade out at the end so it doesn't feel so abrupt.
5.
The transition footage to the abstract collection footage had too much grain until the screen turns way too blurry no matter the resolution. So, I went back to the original project file and decreased their grain and copied those clips to the new sequence. I exported the film just to check this part. The blurriness decreased but it's still there. I can't find a way to fix that. I want to preserve that clip because the transition was quite smooth and it has intention.
*THIS CONCLUDES AMENDMENTS
social media[minor task]
We were also tasked to create an official social media page for the documentary. I chose Instagram as the platform as it's the easiest and most people use this on the daily.
I tried formatting the feed for the first time in my life. I just had to be sure what I posted was in order. The first three were short video clips from the film itself. The second row are the title cards with captions to reveal what were those three clips from because I tried to make them alluring and mysterious. The last three are posters which are based off of the main image in the double-page spread. The captions of those were to give short description of the film, links, and reminders. I made those different colours using gradient maps in Photoshop. Lastly, I added a highlight story for stills from the film to serve as teasers and to make the page fuller as well as to utilize everything in the name of promotion.
Here is the link to the account: https://instagram.com/loremipsumfilums?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
bottom of page