Unit 31: p3 - taking images - tips and advice

• I do not know about your equipment, so if you have any questions, just do an online search for your model number
• If possible, take your images in RAW mode. If you have a camera, go through the settings until you find 'quality' or similar and change the quality to either RAW or RAW and JPG
• If you have a phone, RAW is usually activated by setting the camera to 'professional' or 'pro' mode
• If your phone or camera doesn't have RAW, it's not a problem!
• If you have a really old digital camera, that's not a problem! In fact it's even better!
• If in doubt, shoot in auto mode. A lot of photographers look down on auto, but they tend to be the most boring photographers. Auto allows you to concentrate on shooting, rather than concentrating on your camera. 
• Take LOADS of pictures. Hundred and hundreds. Why not?
• Get in close. Or as close as you are able to get in a global pandemic. 
• Either hold down the button on your camera or tap the screen of your phone to focus the image (when in auto mode)
• ISO is a measurement of how sensitive the cameras light sensor is. In auto mode it will do whatever it wants and you can sort of forget about it. But as a good rule of thumb, you should set the ISO as low as possible while getting a clear and dynamic image. Never put your ISO higher than 800. That's crazy
• Shoot every single day, wherever you go
• Try not to look at the LCD screen on the back of your phone or camera at all. It leads to bias when constructing your image. Maybe a quick glance now and then, then snap away
• Try taking images from a variety of angles.Lie on the floor, climb on a table
• Don't delete anything until later. Sometimes 'mistakes' are the most interesting images of all!
• The only way you can get good at something is by doing it over and over and over again. So do it, over and over and over again!
• I'm looking forward to seeing your images!

Here are a few images of my village taken during lockdown. Remember, photographers around the world are currently working under extreme restrictions! Try to use this as an opportunity to create amazing work!

Unit 31: Examples of photography 'zines

Joe Skilton: Kids Of The Black Hole

Kids Of The Black Hole
Polyester 
Record
3dot
Louie Palu (makes a documentary/news 'zine)
Void Tokyo
Where there is Light
Five examples of photography 'zines (contains nudity)
Lots of awesome 'zines 

Unit 31: P1 - Understanding professional photographers and their work

Before you jump in planning your own photo-shoots, you will need to conduct extensive research on a variety of professional photographers. Make sure to follow the guidelines and instructions of the slides of the unit 31 workbook

Image analysis

In order to do this, you will find professional photographers, and you will analyse their photography

Image analysis is straightforward, and it's the kind of thing you've been doing since unit one. Here are some things to think about:

Is the image typical of the photographers work?

• For this you’ll need to be familiar with their portfolio, and the ideas their trying to communicate in their work

Framing, positioning + composition (shot distance)

• What is the subject(s) (or ‘focal point’) of the photo?
• Where is the subject(s) positioned in the frame?
• If there is more than 1 subject in the photo, how do the subjects relate to the each other (positionally)?
• Do we see the entire subject, or just a portion? Why might this be?

Lighting

• Does the photo feature natural or artificial lighting (or both)? → What effect does this have on what the photo is trying to communicate?
• Is there an ‘expressive’ use of lighting? (e.g. strong/noticeable use of bright light? Heavy use of shadows?)

Content

• What do other visual elements signify? (e.g. props, costumes, hair, make-up, location, colours)
• Do any of the visual elements complement or clash with each other?

Focus

• Is everything is sharp focus, or is anything in ‘soft focus’ (blurred)? → Why might certain objects be blurred?

Angles

• Has a high or low angle been used? → Why might this be?

Mode-of-address

• Does the subject (model) make eye contact with the audience? → What does this signify?
• If there are multiple models, are they looking at each other? → What does this signify?
• Mode of address is how the image 'speaks' to the audience. So how does this image make you feel? Is it comforting or threatening? How is this achieved?

An example of excellent analysis

Lightroom Classic basics

You can find a video tutorial on how to use basic function on Adobe Lightroom Classic by clicking here

Unit 31: research

Brief

For unit 31, you will create a photography 'zine, in a digital or a physical format. 

A 'zine is a low budget, self published magazine. They typically thrived before the internet exploded and blogs and social media overtook them in terms of popularity and ease of production.

'Zines are awesome, because there is absolutely no barrier to entry. No matter what topic you wish to create a zine on, you can do it! And since typically only a few copies will be published or made, there are no real financial implications.

'Zines were traditionally hand constructed and duplicated using photocopiers. A zine can simply be made out of a single sheet of paper, or can be much more complicated.

For this project, you will be making a photography 'zine. You will have complete freedom as to what kind of photography you make.

Possibly my favourite photographer of all time is the Japanese Street Photographer Daido Moriyama. In the early 70's, he self-published a series of photography 'zines called Record. He did this because it was easier than getting his work in galleries.

Moriyama's photography is grainy, gritty, and super high contrast. Shooting what was available to him, with the cheapest camera he could get his hands on, he didn't care about technique or traditional ways of constructing an image. The result is filthy, challenging, dreamlike and utterly wonderful.

Moriyama worked with limitations, and this is what makes his work so amazing. His shots are frequently out of focus, 'badly' exposed, and with the contrast pushed much higher than is typically considered acceptable. His subject matter, of shop window displays, confused looking people, and grimy corners, is also highly atypical. He takes pictures because he has to, and, almost 90 years old, he can still be seen walking around Tokyo, now using an out-of-date digital camera to take images of what he loves.

For this unit, you will be working under extreme limitations, especially if you are completing it during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020. You may have a camera, but it is more likely that you will be using a camera phone. You will also legally not be able to go far from your house. You are stuck where you are. You will need to work with these limitations to produce something amazing. I don't care how 'bad' your equipment is: for this project you will embrace these limitations. 

Research 

You should be consistently be exposing yourself to new and challenging media. Art, be it a painting or a film or a videogame has the potential to alter the way in which we see the world and to challenge our preconceptions of life, love and society. 

You will research photographers, starting with the examples below. Your goal is to find photographers that inspire you. Please spend this week researching photographers to find out what makes you tick. Your zine can be in any style and on any subject, so start off with the greats, and work from there.

Save all of your research! It will be going in to a new PowerPoint very soon. 

Though the images here are all 'worksafe', please remember that when researching the artists featured, you may come across more challenging images that feature depictions of nudity. 

Unlike art, there are fewer specific 'movements' in the history of photography. This is for two major reasons: photography has often been seen as a poor cousin to fine art, and has seen less classifications as a result. Additionally, photography is a relatively new medium, and has only really been viable for around 130 years.

Photography has exploded in terms of popularity, and it punctuates every aspect of our lives, from adverts, to fashion, to art, to recreation, to social media. Below you will find some examples of photographers of a range of different styles to inspire you.

Daido Moriyama

Martin Parr

Joel Meyerowitz

David Baily

Guy Bourdin

Richard Billingham

Man Ray

Wim Wenders

Steven Shore

Cindy Sherman

Barbara Kruger

Michael Collins :)

I take photos too! You can check them out on my blog

Audacity tutorial

I have uploaded a full on tutorial on how to use Audacity to record your podcast, which you can find by clicking here.

Unit 20: P5 - post-production and evaluation

P5 is all about the post-production, i.e everything that you do after you have finished putting all your sound files together in a rough and ready way. We're talking transitions such as fades, changing volume, and adding vox pops and musical stings. Really, there's not a whole lot of post-production to be done when making a podcast!

One thing that is really important about P5 are the two evaluations you have to write. These are distinction criteria, and they allow you to demonstrate the things you have learned and the techniques you have used to get there.

aM3D2) Rough cut evaluation

This is where you evaluate the rough cut that you made for P4. You should be really harsh about your rough cut, because you're going to be solving all of these issues! Here are some issues that you may run into:

• The sound quality is poor, and you need to re-record certain bits
• There's not enough background music
• It's too long and a little boring
• It isn't completely clear what the podcast is about
• You need to add an interview or something similar to make it longer

bM3) Feedback from another person

Play your podcast to somebody else. What feedback do they give you? Jot down some bullet point ideas here. 

cM3D2) Effects and transitions

Here you point out all the awesome and cool things that you did making your podcast better. Did you change the volume? Did you add a fade out? Write about it here, and, most importantly, include screenshots!

dM3D2) Evaluation of final production 

Here, you should evaluate your final, absolutely done podcast. Unlike the first evaluation, you should be overwhelmingly positive about your podcast. So why is it so good? Why are people going to want to listen to it? What did you learn? And (keep this bit brief), what would you do differently if you had better resources?

Once more, remember to look at the exemplar powerpoints in the submissions folder. These will give you a really good idea about how to construct your podcast, and how to evaluate it!

Unit 20: P4 - production

P4 is where you place evidence of you producing, i.e making your podcast. It's here where you place a link to your raw audio files, and place screenshots of you working in Audacity or Audition.

My advice is is that if you are dithering over starting your podcast, just give it a go. Your first recording will be terrible anyway and you will almost certainly end up re-recording it, so get the rough draft done and dusted!

Let's go through it step by step:

a) Audio files

On this slide, you place a link to the audio files that you made your podcast out of. You should also include a screen capture of the raw files sitting in your folder, which should look a little bit like this:

This is actually a bunch of songs from a techno album
 but you get the general idea

b) Revised edit decision list

This is where you include a list of the decisions and changes you made after you started to record your podcast. It's completely fine to make changes from your original plan, but just include them of this slide. Below is an example of what this might look like:

 

cM2D1) Account of production techniques

On this slide, describe how you recorded your podcast. For example,

• Where did you put the mic? 
• What room did you record in? 
• Why? 
• How did you prevent any issues from happening? 
• What techniques did you use to get the best sound? 
• Was your sound terrible first time, and did you have to re-record it?

It would be good to have an image here of what your recording situation looked like. Make sure you put lots of detail in to this slide, as it contributes towards Distinction criteria. 

d) Equipment photo

On this slide, include an image of the equipment you used. This will probably involve an image of your phone, microphone, and/or computer.

It's not a very exciting slide.

e/M2D1) Raw files

On this slide, you include a link to your rough cut. Yes, I know it says 'raw files', but it's too late to change that. Maybe you should change this slide to say 'rough cut'

Unit 20: P2 and P3 - paperwork

P2 and P3 for Unit 20 are all about paperwork. You will have done this before at least once for your other units.

You can find all the forms documents you need by clicking here.

However, since you are working in a workbook, you may wish to create your own versions. The easiest way to do this is to click insert, then select table, then select the size of the table you want to create. See below for how to find this option.

Below is a student example (thanks AL!) for a risks and hazards slide. Since you will be working from your own home, there's not likely to be many hazards, so you may need to use your imagination!

Here's a rundown of all the elements of P2 and P3.

Recce

Recce is (sort of) short for 'reconnaissance', a military term involving scouting out a place before you actually go there. For this activity, you will be completing a recce of your home. Please do not leave your home! Podcasts, while important, definitely do not come under essential work...

Risks and hazards

What issues and dangers might there be when making your podcast? Mild risks and hazards include 

• Background noise
• People walking in when you are recording
• Tripping over wires
• Dropping your phone and breaking it
• Spilling coffee on your computer

Solutions to risks and hazards

Here you present solutions to the issues you presented in the last slide. For example, as you can see in the above image, in my office/cupboard under the stairs, I am undertaking the risky behaviour of drinking a coffee and leaving it on my computer. However, I have solved this risk by putting the coffee in a mug with a lid on it.

TOP TIP - you can the risks & hazards and the solutions on the same slide!

Legal and ethical

Legal and ethical is a bit more serious. Again, you've done this before, but as a reminder:

Legal issues break the law. 

They include copyright infringement (using songs without people's permission) and breaking and entering in to a location. Don't do these things!

Ethical issues may offend or upset people

These include subject matter, for example making a show about drugs (please do not do this), or libel, which is making an untrue claim about someone. 

In fact, if taken to court, libel can be a legal issue also!

It is unlikely you will be breaking the law when making this podcast. One thing to remember is that you are legally allowed to use short amounts of copyrighted music under what is known as the fair use policy. But it's even better to use non-copyrighted music

Talent release

If you have someone in your podcast who is not you, you should use a talent release form. You can download an example of one by clicking here. You do not need to print this, but can get the person to 'sign' their name by writing it in block capitals.

Unit 20: P1 - planning and preparation

P1 is all about planning and preparation. It's similar to other P1's you have already done in other units. It's here that you present your research, and other essential documents like recces and risks and hazards. 

Let's go through P1 step by step:

Research 

Create a new slide called 'research' if you do not have one already. It's here that you can put your podcast research that you completed in the last activity, which you can find here. 

If you need to spread this over more slides, just make more slides!

Ideas sheet

Here's a piece of 'scrap paper' where you can jot down all of the ideas you have for this unit. It's good to keep all of your ideas together, just in case you forget them later.

a) Info sheet

This is where you include information about your podcast! Use the following headings:

• Genre (the one you emailed to me)
• Style (formal, informal, interview, discussion etc....)
• Sound (what music are you going to include?)
• Content (what's going to be in your podcast? Who's going to be talking? Are you going to interview anyone? Are you going to have any phone-ins or competitions?) 

b/M1) sound script

This is where you include a script of what you are going to say in the podcast. This script is just a guideline, and you can go off script as much as you like. Think of it as a guideline rather  Check out the exemplars in the drive for how you can do this. 

c/M1) Asset plan

This is a list of all the assets you will include. These include:

Music
Sound effect
Vox pops (short 'sound bytes' of people talking)

For copyright reasons, you are only allowed to include short (less than ten seconds) bits of commercial music. 

You can also use copyright free music, which you can find at this site for example (there are loads of other sites)

d/M1) Production schedule

A production schedule is a timetable of when you are going to do what. Here's a simple example from one of the exemplar powerpoints:

Here are some examples that you can pop on to your production schedule

Email teacher with final idea for podcast
Produce sound script
Download Audacity and make sure it works
Do microphone check, and upload file on the drive
Download music to use on blog
Complete legal and ethical and risks and hazards documents
Record podcast
Record interview

e) Audition screengrabs and Audacity tutorial 

First of all, most of you will be using Audacity for this project! However, if your computer can run Audition, then it's now been made free in the UK due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Please see emails from IT and the college for how to get it at home.

For these slides, you will be teaching yourself how to use Audacity. If you need to use more than one slide, that's fine, don't try and cram it all on to one slide!

First of all, install Audacity using the link from the last session. It should look a little like this.

Next, hit the red 'record' button and say something stupid in to the mic. If you're lucky, it will work first time. If not, you may have to select your microphone from the drop down menu.

Hit the stop button when you're done.

Next you're going to add a new track. Click track/add new/stereo track. Now you can record a simultaneous track. It's like you can have a conversation with yourself!

In order to move audio around in Audacity, drag to highlight the bit you wish to move and hit Ctrl + X

Then select where you want to place it, and hit Ctrl+V

Next, we are going to add some music. Click file/import/audio, and select a song from your computer

The song will be imported in to a new channel!

 

You can cut (Ctrl+X) and paste (Ctrl+V) to stitch audio together

You can also add effects by clicking and dragging to select the part of the track you want to add an effect to, then clicking effects/fade in, for example

Audacity is simple and straightforward, but you must mess around with it before you record anything properly! Spend some time making stupid recordings and adding stupid effects, and make screenshots to put in your powerpoint!

Unit 20: Research and tech tests

First of all, please be patient with me and this unit. There are a few things that need to be hammered out, including exactly what software we are going to use to edit this. However, and I would like to make this very clear: please do not worry. We are all in exactly the same situation, and allowances will definitely be made for technical issues. We are going to create the very best podcasts we possibly can, on a subject that you love. While I expect you to work hard and to do your very best, this is a strange situation! If you have any questions about this, including questions that have nothing to do with media diploma, please email me and I will do my best to help you out. It's what I am here for. 

Your goal for this unit is to record a 3-5 minute long podcast. We have chosen this unit, as the only equipment you need for this unit is either a phone or a computer with a microphone. We understand that this may not be possible for everyone, but it is the very best we can offer in this situation. Please contact me quickly and I will inform you of contingency measures. I will send you information about free software to edit sound. Most computers come pre-installed with sound editing software anyway. 

0 - Check out the exemplar PowerPoints

You can find three exemplary unit 20 powerpoints in the unit 20 submission folder. Check them out. Look at what the students have done for each slide. You'll notice it's quite a straightforward unit. There will be some changes we will have to make. Not all of you will be using audition. In fact, most of you will be using a MUCH more straightforward program. So that's a relief! This will not affect your mark.

1 - Click the new submission link 

You can find it by checking your emails

As long as you are signed in to your google account, you will be able to access it. We need a new submission link as some people do not have access. 

2 - Email me the subject for your podcast.

In my last email I gave you a big list of possible themes and subjects for your podcast. Please email me telling me what you would like your podcast to be about!

3 - Submit your unit 20 powerpoint, with  six analyses of the podcasts you have listened to so far

Find six podcasts for subjects YOU are interested in, and make notes under the following headings:

• Genre
• Style
• Sound
• Content

There are podcasts about absolutely everything and anything. So you simply need to google anything you are interested in, followed by the word 'podcast' 

here's a few examples

• UK hiphop podcast
• Retro video game podcast
• Anime podcast
• Fashion podcast
• Classic cars podcast 

Please place your notes, including the names of the podcasts under the INFO SHEET slide on the powerpoint workbook, which can again be found in the unit 20 folder of the drive.

4 - Download audacity, and record yourself saying "hey guys, lets record some podcasts"

Audacity is a small and easy tool for recording podcasts. You can download it here. https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

Once it has been set up, hit record, say "hey guys, lets record some podcasts", then hit stop. Next, click file, export, mp3, then save it somewhere good. Then drag and drop the file in to your submissions folder on drive. - Note: for the final project, you can use Audition, but I will email you details on how to achieve this later

Important note: if you have any issues with these tasks, please do not worry! but you must let me know!

Here are a few examples of podcasts to check out if you need some inspiration. Remember: there's no limit on what you want to talk about, so they're very different from each other!

Videogames - Cane and Rinse

Weird facts - No Such Thing As A Fish

Politics - Rumble with Michael Moore

Film - Kermode and Mayo's Film Review

Fashion - Gucci Podcast by Gucci 

Men's Fashion - Menswear Style

Please remember, no matter how obscure your interests are, you can find a podcast on it by googling '{your interest} podcast'