These are a few images I took for our magazine front cover (I will not be uploading all of them- just a taste of some of the images I took and what we ended up using for our final magazine front cover). I and one of my fellow team member (Chloe) wanted our protagonist to be in white contrasting the image I took for our poster. This is because we wanted to show the two different sides to her which our narrative explores, from the feedback from our teacher, she stated that we should make her likable and less of a villain. I personally thought this was a good feedback, due to our target audience (rated 15) as a way of engaging them to our production if we were to portray her as a complete villain, we may distance our audience from our production (they may feel, they do not have nothing in common with the character- Flora hence why they may not want to see our production).
This is the first shot I took, following the real media example I decided to take a mid close up of her. This was because by taking such shot enables the audience to see her facial expression, as well as her body language (which alone could help to reinforce our narrative). I directed her to show no emotion, this was because I felt it gave it a sense of enigma (Roland Barthes theory), leading the audience to try and figure out her character e.g. the meaning behind her eyes (through angle of gaze). When I took this particular shot, I loved the lightening due to the darkness surrounding her which made it atmospheric in reflecting the horror genre. Additionally the lightening was good, in a sense that reinforced our narrative e.g. the idea of her being likable upon first glance, however upon closer inspection has the capability to cause damage, which is similar to Norman Bates from 'Psycho' 1960. Although we all liked this shot, we needed up not using this for the final front cover due to some element of the mise-en scene not being quite clear e.g. her bow which is symbolic of her character (we used this-bow throughout our production, from the front cover to our trailer).Similarly we did not use this shot due to the fact that I did not frame her quite right, this is because she looks slightly heavier on one side- shoulders leaning more towards the left side. This would have made it more difficult during post production- when adding in texts and plug.
For future reference:
- I will ensure to carefully plan out the shots before capturing it. Although I had done a rough flat plan, I had not put in as such detail as I could have e.g. her bow being more visible which is an important element.
- To be careful of the mise-en scene (in this particular shot, you can see the the plugs in the wall- upon close inspection).
This is similar to the above shot, again me and my group loved the lightening in this shot, however she was still too heavy on one side and thus didn't look right nor was it conventional framing for magazine front cover. This meant that we decided not to use this shot, although it was quite powerful, allowing the audience to clearly see her facial expression. However I personally think it was a good idea that we didn't use this shot, due to the fact that it would have been a lot harder to fit in the text during post production stage. 
As you can clearly see, this was not a good shot for magazine front cover and thus we did not even consider using this image as it did nothing to add or reinforce the horror genre. Additionally our model looked too far away and thus making it difficult to see her facial express, as well as it not being conventional to have a further away shot (conventional to use mid shot). 
For me in terms of this shot, our protagonist looked lope sided, however the lighting was good, as well due to the framing there would be enough space, when adding text. 
Although this was a better shot, we did ended up not using this shot due to the framing (I cut off her arms). However the lightning here was good, meaning nothing needed to be done to enhance the atmosphere in terms of post production. 
In terms of this shot, we ended up not using it due to there being too much shadows in the background. Adding on to this, the framing was off, due to the fact that I had cut of some element of her hand. 
This is the image we ended up choosing as a group. We liked the lightning due to the darkness on one side and lighter on the other side. This reflected the characteristics of Flora e.g. likable and sinister. In the same way, the mise-en scene was much better (although I had taken the images on a plain white wall this was hard to see due to the quality of the photograph) e.g. her red ribbon which is symbolic of Flora. Additionally not much editing was done to this image (one of our fellow team mate just slightly darken the background as I thought by having a slightly darker background would make her facial expression a lot clearer due to contrasting colours). Initially me and my fellow team mate (Chloe) was planning to add red lip stick on her as a way of reinforcing our narrative-the idea of her being quite mature for her age. Additionally me and Chloe aimed to make the audience question why a girl of that age was portrayed so seductively (the meaning behind the mise- en scene) , and thus more likely to watch our production in order to find answers (as a way of engaging with audience). One could argue by having her dressed maturely e.g. red lipstick would have enabled us to gain more audience, as it has almost become the norm for children of Flora's age (13) to wear make-up and thus can relate to her character hence why it would encourage them to come and watch our production. 
Following my flatplan we decided to add fake blood on one side of her face. My aim here, was suppose to be symbolic of her dark secrete she keping e.g. the idea of her sinister side (her killing her father). It was also suppose to be symbolic of the evidence left behind after killing her father. Through post production we were going to add a tear to symbolize the pain she's going through since her father's death. This is because she was close to her father and only killed him due to her wanting to protect her mother from domestic violence which our narrative explores. However after I took the shot I didn't think it worked as well as it could have, due to the fact that one side of her face was far too dark, making it harder to see her eyes. Lastly she didn't look as if she was crying blood, which was my aim when I took the image and thus did noting to add nor reinforce our narrative.
For future reference:
- To ensure carefully plan out the mise-en scene, in this particular shot the audience are able to see the wardrobe malfunction we were having.
- To play around with the lighting to ensure that all element of her face can be seen.
- To look at real media example where blood to see how it's done effectively.
Overall I believe my photography skills has improved from over the course of two ways (from As to A2). This is because I now take risk in terms of shooting from different angles and trying different things (mise-en scene). This has led to the final image I took to look much more professional.
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