Double Page Spread Film Review Production

Log By Tesfah Watkins-Scott

Introduction

Whilst creating my ancillary double page spread film review, I will also be making a production log for this so that I can record the steps that I have taken to actually create the final outcome of this ancillary product.

The software’s that I will be using for this ancillary product will be Adobe Photoshop CS6 and CS5.1 just like my poster ancillary product. However, I will also be using InDesign to create this film review as this software is great for creating magazines due to its functions for making columns and all other sorts of double page spread techniques.

Incorporating Grids & Guidelines into InDesign

Before I began creating my double page spread I decided to implement some grids and guidelines onto both pages so that it would make the organisation of my work much more simple. This will allow me to line up all my images and text in an appealing way to attract my target audience.

The first step that I had to take to incorporate grids and guidelines onto both pages of my double page spread was that I had to right click the mouse which would appear with this menu as shown in the screen print I have used. Then I had to select the Grids & Guidelines function which then appeared with another menu as shown.

When this menu appeared I then had to select “Show Baseline Grid” & “Show Document Grid” so that the guidelines would appear on both pages.

Stage 1: 1st Page-part 1The first step that I have taken into creating my double page spread film review was to create the background for the first page of the review. Due to the fact that this page will contain a lot of text and images I have decided to make this page white so that it is easier for the audience to read. Furthermore I have chosen specifically to make the first page white and the second page black so that it will link into the conventions of an actual silent movie being black & white. Doing so will also, go well with the other ancillary I have created which is a poster for the film “Patty Take” which is also black & white.

I have decided to incorporate a black border around the white background that I will be using for my double page spread film review. I feel this border will work well as it will coincide with the colour scheme I have chosen which is black & white. Also, using this border breaks conventions due to the fact that conventionally the borders used in silent movies were white when used for captions but I have decided to do the opposite.

I am going to edit this border slightly as I feel once I place this background onto InDesign my review and images may collide with the border. Because of this, I will erase some of the border to create space for the organisation & structure of my double page spread.

Stage 1: 1st Page-part 2

To edit the border I had to use the eraser tool to take away some of the unnecessary border markings, as I feel it will get in the way of some of the text for my review which is a prime factor of this ancillary product. As you can see I have rubbed away most of the main areas where the border overlaps the white background and also rounded off the border so that it looks much more neat and organised.

Stage 2: 1st PageThe next step that I had to take was to incorporate several stars so that it would show the ratings for films. From “excellent” which is four stars to “poor” which is one star.

To incorporate the ratings stars I had to create a boarder to go across the page. I decided to fill this boarder in with the colour black because it will link in with the original conventions of a silent movie as I have stuck with the black & white conventions.

Once the boarder was made I then had to open one star on Adobe Photoshop and then drag it to the sheet where the background for my film review double page spread was being made. Once I had done this, I just had to transform the star to the right size and position that I wanted it to be on the boarder and then I duplicated the layer a number of times so I could retrieve more stars for the rest of the boarder that would be the same size as the first star. This will allow this area to look much more professional.

Stage 3: 1st PageThe next stage was to incorporate a image into the first page of my double page spread. The first step I took was retrieving a border from www.google.co.uk that matched the same colour scheme as my poster and film review which are both black & white. Once I had done this and positioned it in a suitable area I then print screened and image from the actual silent comedy ‘Patty Take’ that Marcus & I have created from Final Cut Pro. After this I then turned the image black and white the same way I did for the ancillary poster and transformed the image so that it would fit into the black & white border. Furthermore, I feel that the border works well as it blends in well with the border used for the background of my double page spread.

Stage 5: 1st PageFor this stage I decided to incorporate the title of the actual silent comedy into the film review due to the fact that the film is the whole topic of my double page spread. Because of this I decided to make the title of the film quite large as it will help market Marcus and I’s silent comedy. However I didn’t make this section larger than the masthead that I had made previously, otherwise they would end up clashing with each other due to the fact that both aspects use the same font which is “Adobe Garamond Pro.” I felt that I should stick with the same font because if not it would make my double page spread look to complicated which would distract my target audience form the actual review.However, some issues did occur when

creating the title on the double page spread. With the organisation of columns that I had assembled when using InDesign I noticed that the end of the title “Patty Take” it was on the verge of colliding with the column next to it which is where the text would be placed so I had to find away to improve that area.

Get the print screen of how I changed the size of the title.

Stage 4: 1st PageNext, I then saved the background that I had created for the first page on Photoshop and then had to place it in InDesign so that the images would not look too pixelated. Once this was done I then decided to write the headings for each section on the page. So to start with I decided to make the masthead of that page “Film News” as I have seen it before during my research into double page spreads however, I did not know what font to use for this masthead. That’s when I looked back at the actual film that Marcus and I had created and decided to use the same font for the masthead as we did for the captions used in the film which was Adobe Garamond Pro.

I feel that this font works well as it is very easy to read for the audience but it also links in well with the actual film that the review is about which allows my double page spread to look much more professional towards the audience. Furthermore I decided to also put the masthead in italics so that it looked much more sophisticated like most silent movies during the 1920s. The size that I had used for this font was 72 so that it would stand out as much as the rest of the techniques that I will be using.

Also, due to the fact that the software InDesign works best with text and columns, this is where I decided to add text to the border that I had previously made on Photoshop. The font that I had used for this was also Adobe Garamond Pro just like the masthead except I kept the size at 14 so that each rating could fit on the border without coming near the edge of the page which would make the film review look quite rushed. Furthermore, I kept the font colour the same as the stars used so that it would stick with the colour scheme.

Stage 6: 1st Page

The next stage that I decided to do was to create a caption for the image that I have used for the first page of my double page spread. I felt that without including a caption for the image would confuse the reader as they wouldn’t of actually seen Marcus & I’s silent comedy yet so therefore the image would not have any affect on my target audience.

The area highlighted presents the caption that I decided to input underneath the image that I have used. The caption used simply describes the image used to give the audience a little insight into what the film is actually about. I feel that doing this will appeal to my audience more and leave them in suspense which would be an advantage because this means that they would want to actually see the film due to the fact that they have been hooked by the caption.

Furthermore, I decided to incorporate some slang such as “teefing” to appeal to my target audience as the silent comedy is aimed at Afro-Caribbean’s so doing so would appeal to them even more. This will show my target audience that the short film will actually cater to their needs which will make them want to watch the silent comedy even more.

Stage 7: 1st PageThe next stage that took place was to actually incorporate the review that I had created previously on Microsoft Word. However, due to the limited space I was insure whether the whole review would fit in these two columns. However, with the assistance from my teacher Mr Pillai I realised that I could let the review continue on the second page of my double page spread.I decide to use a drop cap to start off the review for my double page spread. However, where I have used this technique is only for the plot of the review so I have thought about using another drop cap to start the actual review of Marcus & I’s film “Patty Take.” I feel like doing so will organise this page of the double page spread and make it look less cluttered and busy towards the audience.I came across an issue with the organisation of the text for my film review. The issue was that the beginning of each line on the second column seemed too close to the first column therefore I had to decrease the font size of the second column as I wanted the plot to be slightly larger. Decreasing the font size of the actual review would allow me to transform the text box so that there would be a slight gap between each column which would allow the page to look much more structured and organised. The font type that I used for the review and plot of the film was also “Adobe Garamond Pro” due to the fact that I wanted to keep things simple for the audience so they would not become confused.

Stage 7: 1st Page-Part 2Furthermore, for the second column that I have created I decided to make the background of this column black so that the text incorporated into the column would not clash with the black and white border that is around the whole first page. Also doing this will make my double page spread film review look much more exciting and adventurous to my target audience.

To create the black background for this column I had to use the rectangle tool and create the same rectangular shape as the column showed and then I had to fill this area in black using the swatches function on InDesign. Doing this allowed my text to look much neater which would be an advantage for the audience as it would allow them to read the actual review much easier.

Final Outcome of the 1st Page

Stage 1: 2nd PageFor the second page of my double page spread film review I decided to also keep this page white as I felt that I would make the main image the whole page as I have seen it done with many double page spreads. However, due to the fact that I needed some more space for my review I decided that the image could not take up the whole space so instead I decided to make it half text and the other half the main image.

Stage 2: 2nd PageThe next step I took was to incorporate the rest of the review into the next two columns on the second page of my double page spread. Like the first page I decided to use the same black & white affect for both columns so that the two pages do not look as if they are separate from each other. Furthermore, to fit in all of the text that I had created I had decrease the text also from size 14 to 12 so that every single part of the text could fit on the page without looking to messy.

I came across the same issue as before here. It seemed as if the text was about to overlap the borders I had made on InDesign on both pages therefore I had to rearrange the text slightly and narrow down both columns so they both didn’t collide with each other.

Stage 3: 2nd PageThe next stage that I had to implement was that I had to incorporate my main image onto the second page of my double page spread film review. For this stage I had various ideas of what my main image could have been however, I decided that I would use “The Wolf” as my main image due to the fact that I wanted to use both of the main characters as images for my film review so that it would give the audience an idea of what the silent comedy will be like.

The main image that I have decided to use for my main image I feel goes very well with the actual genre of Marcus & I’s silent comedy. This is because the image that I have used I have chosen specifically due to the fact that the original fairy tale also had a main character who was a wolf however, in the original he was considered as threatening. Whereas with the wolf in our movie he is quite clumsy and dumb so I decided to use this image from our film due to the fact that the wolf doesn’t look that scary at all. I also incorporated a full moon to symbolise that the character is actually a wolf which I thought would appeal to my target audience.

Stage 3: 2nd Page Part 2This is the image that I screen printed from our silent comedy on Final Cut Pro so that I could edit it and use it for my main image. Once I retrieved the screen print I saved the image and opened it onto Adobe Photoshop ready for editing.

The next step I had to take was to actually erase the background of the image using the eraser tool. To do this to the best of my ability I had to actually zoom in into the main image so that I could erase the background out accurately so that the main image could look professional

The next step I had to make to complete my main image was to actually incorporate a full moon into the cropped image of the wolf to give the audience a little insight into who the character is and what his role will be in the silent comedy. Furthermore, for the full moon which I have used I used the blur tool to actually blend the two images together so that the main image would look like just one image.

Stage 4: 2nd Page

This screen print is of the the pull quote that I have created for my film review. The reason why I have used this for my pull quote is because it will present to my target audience how great Marcus & I’s silent comedy is which will draw our audience in even more.

This screen print presents the page numbers that I have decided to incorporate into my film review so that it looks professional to the audience as the majority of magazines incorporate page numbers so that it looks much more organised.

Final Outcome of the 2nd Page

Final Outcome of my Film Review