FMP - Mindmap & Initial Ideas

This week we were given the brief for our FMP's. I decided to do a mix of both publishing and moving image, by making a magazine and promotional video to go with it. This is a mindmap I made while thinking out ideas for what this magazine could be based on:

From the middle bubble I branched out into four different magazine themes - Fashion, Youth, Skateboarding & a magazine/lookbook for a brand.

For the theme of fashion I started to think out locations, brands and models. I chose to focus on streetwear brands like supreme, palace, bronze56k, converse etc. because these are the brands which I'm most interested in and know the most about. I also asked myself where I want to shoot my photos and went for urban locations such as Bristol and Bath, as well as countryside heavy rural area's where I could capture nice light and blue skies. I think these two locations contrast against each other and will look good together. Lastly I had the task of picking models. I decided that I wanted people who look different and/or interesting, in order to stand out. I will research further into this.
The theme of skateboarding was very appealing to me as well as it's something I'm very passionate about. From this theme I wanted it to have variety, because there's lots of skateboard magazines out already so mine would have to be different in order to stand out. I also wanted it to feature interviews with skateboarders from the local area and focus on skate culture. To do this I plan to research via platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to find individuals. The magazine would be fairly photo heavy so I jotted down some ideas of cameras I could use (digital/35mm film) and different editing techniques.
I chose not to create a clothing brand and do a magazine around that however, because I had already done a very similar project to this in previous publishing lessons and wanted to do something different. Also with this idea I'd be fairly limited in what I could write about and present in a magazine, and it would take a lot of time.

I found that it would be quite hard to make a full magazine just focused on a specific theme. Due to this I started leaning towards the theme of 'youth' because through this I would be able to incorporate all of the themes into one magazine. After making this decision, I made another mind map which focused on the youth theme and what I need to do in my magazine.

I decided that it should focus on youth culture, and contain pieces focusing on music, skating, fashion and youth. I came up with these four things because I asked myself what interests me. In this mindmap I also listed the technicalities of the magazine which I need to decide. In the end I chose to make a 210mm x 210mm magazine, in full colour which is 30 pages long (including the cover). The pages will be 170gsm and the cover 300gsm.
In pre production I will have to create a moodboard, plan of pages, contact people and create a storyboard and shot list for the advert. I will also do lots of research in this pre production period.

Me in 60 Seconds

Research

Here is an example of a video filmed in widescreen:

A dramatic effect is presented by this wide format, as it has the ability to show a lot in frame, and this makes scenes appear to be dramatic. Although it looks impressive, this is a very common format of film and most videos today are filmed like this. For my project I'd like to make something different which stands out and can be viewed on both mobile and computers, so I looked at other formats and found some portrait video on Instagram:

Pure VFM on wood from @palaceskateboards. @blondeymccoy Lucien Clarke and #RoryMilanes creating options with an old board 📹 @halfwaybrooks Via @darkclarke87 #SlamShopTeam

A video posted by Slam City Skates (@slamcityskates) on Sep 12, 2016 at 2:20am PDT

After researching, I’ve chosen to make my film in 1:1 ratio (square) for both mobile and online viewing. This ratio will help frame faces and objects with no other distractions, forming some intimacy/connection with the viewer. One example of this format is Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy”. This square format looks unique so the video will stand out.

My video is going to be around 60 seconds long, and will be a photomation (sequence of photographs) with titles and colours/editing added. As I won't be narrating it with my voice, I'll use text to narrate the video.

It will consist of some skateboarding, certain music/films I like, my friends and family, pets, travel and photos I've taken. As I want it to represent me, I will be shooting the video in and around my house.

For the sound, I will record some of my own effects but also use royalty free sounds which I'll source online from websites like freesound.org and freesfx.co.uk. In order to not face copyright issues, I'll use this song from soundcloud, which is royalty free.