My Board Game, Cards and Logo

Since researching the style of board game that I was interested in, I created my own board based on the template I made last week. I included icons that I have hand drawn myself and made them all flat colours with no gradient or texture, to make the overall appearance quite modern. This was also to stay within the theme. However on the card spaces in the centre, I did put a black outline on the icons to make them stand out in front of the blue boxes, otherwise this could have blended into the background and could make the board look unclear and therefore unprofessional.

Here is my updated board game:

I still chose the black and white theme for my board game, however I added small pops of colour to add interest and to make the specific icons stand out. I think this works well because it is still classic looking but with a modern twist, which is considered quite exciting and appropriate for the target audience. The main target audience is teenagers and young adults aged 13-21, who are interested in media.

I also created the cards to go with the game:

For the cards, I used bright colours because when these are placed on the board, they will stand out amongst an otherwise dull colour scheme. These will also go with the target audience because if the game was purely black and white, it could be seen as being a more adult game, whereas adding bright colour here and there will make the board game more teenager friendly. I used the same font throughout the board game production process, to stay within the theme and the make it look put together and professional.

I will also put an updated card design screenshot, which actually has the main body of the text on, so the style will become more clear. I will insert this image here: 

Finally, I created a logo to make the audience aware of my brand image:

I decided to hand draw my logo, as usually it is quite unconventional for a brand to use this. This would make my logo stand out amongst others because it looks quite unique yet simple. I drew this on a piece of paper then I scanned it through on the printer so it will send to my email. I then used Adobe Photoshop to increase the intensity of the lines and to add star icons for the dots of the 'I's' to make it a little bit more interesting.

Guidelines for my Boardgame

The primary font that I have used on my board game and cards is:

Helvetica Bold-

 Example:

I have chosen this font because it stands out as a sub title against the other fonts and makes the card very clear, so that the audience know straight away if they have picked up a skill or a bad habit.

The secondary font I have used is:

Microsoft Sans Serif-

Example:

I chose this font because it is very simple and easy to read, it also works well with the Helvetica Bold font, which stands out slightly more.

This is my brand logo:

This font can only be changed so that the words are together on the same line, however the style and the star colour cannot be changed. Also with the actual font colour, this has to remain black (c-0, m-0, y-0, k-100).

For example the logo can look like this:

The colour scheme I have chosen includes:

#2 Reflective Media Theory

A few of the topics that we have covered so far are; YouGov profiles, gender signifiers, Leveson inquiry, representation of men in TV, representation of women in film and debating whether anyone can be a journalist or not.

Firstly we looked at the YouGov profiles. This is a website where you can type in anything you want and it generates a majority audience to that specific text. For example there are a few magazines and newspapers that I searched and these are the profiles that it generated.

Next we discussed gender signifiers and how different products/objects are represented in a certain way, either for men or women. For example a lot of beer/alcohol products are targeted towards the male audiences because on their advertisements there tends to be an attractive women in revealing clothes to attract the male consumer. Whereas beauty products are aimed towards women and oddly yoghurt also seems to be aimed towards women.

I also looked into the phone hacking scandal and the Leveson inquiry. I found out that employees of the News of the World and other British newspapers were accused of phone hacking and the most notable arrest was former News of the World managing editor Andy Coulson.

In our debate, my team had to argue that not everyone can be journalists. Some of the point we came up with were;

• You have to be professional.
• Has to be trained/taught how to be a journalist.
• Members of the publish trust what is being written so has to be truthful and factual.
• Needs to be able to use suitable grammar for the situation and have the necessary writing skills which you would also need to be trained for.
• Why is it that journalism is a paid job and would need to have certain qualifications to succeed career wise.
• Companies would not just hire 'anyone' would have to have experience and be trained.
• There are different type of journalism including citizen, community and civic.

The Bechdel test.

Sensationalism

A presentation of ideas that are used to get the public's attention, that might not necessarily be true. For example a sensationalist newspaper would be the Daily Mirror, as a lot of their stories are often quite exaggerated to seem more interesting for the readers of the specific paper.

This also links into hyperboles which are often extreme exaggerations, used to make a statement and to spike the publics attention.

An example of an hyperbolic statement: "I've told you the answer a thousand times!"

Here is a screenshot of an example I found in the news today on the Ok! gossip magazine website:

The fact that this story uses the word 'embraces' suggests that it is an exaggeration to make the readers think more of what the actual story is telling. Also this makes the story sound more engaging, although it is just an image of Kate Middleton's hair blowing back.

Media Wise is a trust and a voluntary organisation that provides advise for the public that have been affected by incorrect media coverage. They also deliver training on ethical issues for media professionals, as well as conducting research on media law, policy and practise.

3 Act Structure

I researched a 3 minute short film on YouTube and chose "Different Paths" to analyse the 3 act structure.

Here is the short film:

Act 1- in this act it shows the one actress that is featured in this film. It shows her as the first character and is represented as a well educated, intelligent girl, who is overall represented as being a typical, innocent girl.

First Tipping Point- when the girl pulls out the photo of her father.

Act 2-  here, it shows the character missing her father, this is shown in the photo that she is holding. It shows the fact that she does not blame him and still loves him because of the messages on the back of the picture. It also introduces the same actress and character, but with a different mind-set, hence the title 'Different Paths'.

Second Tipping Point- the appearance of the second character who has a more edgy, rebellious look.

Act 3- finally, it shows the character with the more negative mind-set, where the character is more anger and hurt by her fathers disappearance rather than just sadness. This is also represented by on the back of the picture and when she starts to get angry/annoyed.

Six Word Story

She was told, never grow old.

The Forest

I thought that this animation was quite confusing and therefore not as powerful as the makers probably hoped. I think that the main purpose of this animation was to show how the world has changed from then and now. However, there are different views on this topic as some would think that the world is worse now, which is the opposite message of this short film. The hidden meaning behind the animation was quite unclear and could have been made more simply, which I think would come across more meaningful and overall more understandable.

Here is my shape animation that I created on Adobe Flash:

I used a circle as my starting shape and slowly transformed it into something more abstract. I did this by inserting key frames into various points of my animation, making the shape automatically transform into the next frame. I then experimented with stretching the shape and varied the use of colour, to make the effect more interesting and unique.

Here is my second flash animation actually using my six word story:

Flash Animation

Here is my first attempt at making a short animation using Adobe Flash. I used the starting point idea of a bouncy ball, then adapted the idea into something more unique and abstract. Firstly I set a stage colour and started with the ball at the top, I then took each frame after every slight movement that was made. This ensured that the animation ran smoothly, although I did have to decrease the amount of frames per second to 12 instead of 24 because this would have taken too long.

Stop Motion

In pairs, we created a stop motion film using modelling clay. We did this by taking photos in-between every slight movement of the clay, so when they are played back it would look like the characters are moving. There are on average 25-30 shots taken for each second of a stop motion clip, however this can vary depending of the type, as some only use 5-10. We used around 10-15 to make the production process a little bit quicker.

Here are the stop motion clips that we created: 

This is the first one we made and the concept was very simple, so we decided to challenge ourselves by creating a second clip, which was a little bit more complex.

We also made sure that the background of each clip stayed the same because otherwise the movement would not flow smoothly and would look less effective.

Board Game Designs

My board game design is going to be simple and classic, I have been inspired by black and white boardgames, or ones very limited colour. This is an example of a simple but modern design.

 I think this game design is good for our target audience because if there was too much colour, it could come across quite childish and too cluttered.

Here is a screenshot of a template that I created on Adobe Illustrator, that has a similar style/design that I like.

I also tried the same design but with a different colour scheme, just to see how it looked more bright and colourful.

Filming Locations SWOT Analysis

Green Park

Strengths- lots of space, variety of areas within (e.g. grass area, actual playground/park), nice greenery/scenery.

Weaknesses- lots of traffic, loud cars, members of the public around, busy area.

Opportunities- could have park scenes with the swings, chance to have people in the background to make the shot more realistic.

Threats- can be quite weather dependant because it can be wet and there are lots of leaves and water everywhere.

Norfolk Cresent

Strengths- quiet area, large amount of space, different areas including; main green, by the houses and walking path with benches.

Weaknesses- there lots of car around that could get in the way of filming,

Opportunities- able to shoot really wide shots, can shoot with pleasant background.

Threats-  health and safety, as can be very slippery.

Royal Cresent

Strengths- very large area, nice scenery.

Weaknesses- area is very windy, can be quite busy because of path.

Opportunities- can achieve both wide and long shots.

Threats- wind may disrupt audio when filming, can be dependant of weather as it is an outdoor location.

Filming Locations

In this blog post I describe the positives and negatives of each possible filming location and if there are any issues that we might face if we film there. We took 5 photos at each place to show clearly what each area looks like.

These are the notes we took while at each of these locations, this is called a crib sheet:

First location: Green Park
Here are the images we took:

The pro's of this location is the fact that there is lots of space to work with, however the con's are that there are lots of cars and traffic which is very loud. Also it's a very public place and a lot of people will be there. Here, the main issue is that because there is lots of vehicles near by, the sound of traffic is very loud.

Second location: Norfolk Cresent
These are the images we took as this location:

The pro's of this specific area is that it is quite quiet and has a very pleasant scenery, although the con's are that people do live in this area and they might not want us filming outside their houses. Here the issue is that it is a residential area as people do live around this area.

Third location: Royal Cresent
These are the last images we took, at this final location:

The pro's are the same as the Norfolk Cresent because it is pretty quiet again and there is a lot of space. However because there is lots of open space, the area is very windy. This could be an issue when filming because this can pick up on camera and can disrupt any other audio recorded. Also on all three of these locations, natural day light would be the main lighting arrangement.