My own written story, Looking quotes in new stories and their contents, What i've learnt and will use from quote research

Task one-

Southend Council on the verge of sealing the deal for a £20M investment to Southend Pier 

The longest pleasure pier in the world is up for a £20M investment from an unnamed investor and it appears that the council of Southend-on-Sea is close to closing the deal. Though this is big news for the town of Southend, it’s not the first time planning permission and investors have tried to get their hands on doing the famous landmark some justice.

Leader of the council, Ron Woodley says that “…whilst we have been looking for an investor to revive the 1.3-mile-long pier, this is the closest we have gotten to actually sealing the deal.” Currently the council and unnamed investor are going over several things that they would not accept as any part of the deal. Despite this, the council has come forward to say that the pier would still be owned by the council under any deal offered and suggested and if any deal of the sort would fall short and fail, the council itself would step in and invest in the pier itself.

But not everyone is happy with this investment and the idea of Southend Council investing their own money into it even if the deal falls short. Last year it cost £1.4 million to maintain and uphold the pier whilst only bringing in a mere £617,000 return even despite it bringing in its best visitor numbers ever since 2005. It’s unclear whether or not this investment will make or break the pier but council officials are confident in this investment and look forward to what they can bring to the table in the coming years.

Here is a view on what Trevor Bell, a Pier Campaigner thinks about the pier and future potential investment.

Trevor Bell said – “I’m excited to see what happens with the pier, I am worried though if it will stay in the publics hands”.

“I’d also like to see an audio-visual display, something which could explain Southend’s heritage and educates children about the pier and its uses in the war.”

“I’d also like a café and restaurant on the end of it to enjoy spending time on and look out towards the sea.”

The public have also had their say in what they think about the big investment, local bricklayer and pier attendee, Scott Harvey had this to say, “Although the pier is getting an investment which I think is for the better, it has been a long time and should of came way sooner. Whether it’s too late now or not, remains to be seen...”

“…We can only be optimistic and hope for the best, supporting the town we live in and paying respect to the landmark which puts us on the map.”

Following on from that, Harry a young adult wanted to give his say in this and the whole situation. “Every summer I enjoy attending the pier and walking a long it, whilst for someone like myself this is enough, I can’t help but wonder what it’d be like if we received such an investment…”

“Personally I would add more for children, it’s very adult centric and it’d be nice to teach the children of Southend about the history of the pier and how far we’ve come. It’d make for a lot of practical lessons where the children could go on regular visits to the pier and learn with their teachers.”

All in all, the drive behind and anticipation between the public of Southend is excited to hopefully see new additions to the pier no matter if the deal or not is carried through. Though worries of whether or not it will live up to expectations and be able to create a profit later on will remain to be seen. The future is surely bright though with the addition of the Royal Pavilion hoisted onto the pier in 2013. The Pavilion features a café, a function room for things such as events and weddings as well as £500,000 in sprinklers as an attempt to prevent another pier fire.

Task two-

For task two I have been asked to find a news story online and look to see what different quotes used in the story and if they’re relevant and how important they are. My chosen story for this task will be based on the Daily Mails story on how little charities are actually spending on good causes compared to how much they get from public donations.

The full story can be found here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3357458/One-five-UK-s-biggest-charities-spending-half-public-donations-good-causes-spend-little-ONE-CENT-charitable-work.html

Here is the first quote taken from the article, it explains the thoughts of Gina Miller, the founder of the True and Fair Foundation and what she thinks on the matter. But the question still remains is it relevant and fit for purpose?


Answer; yes. The quote fits perfectly into the story because a few different reasons. The first reason being who is saying it, the True and Fair Foundation is a foundation in which people can give their money to. Knowing 100% of it goes directly to the charities they support. Having known this, you can see now that the response given is just and it’s no wonder Gina Miller would feel this way when other charities are giving a lot less. Another reason for this quote being completely relevant is the subject matter, the full story and main subject is the fact that charities are not using the money they get from public donations as best as they could or well, the quote exemplifies this and money given from people out of the kindness of their heart is just used “to feed large charity machine” “…characterized by obscene overheads, salaries…”

The story as a whole:

What was the story about?
The story “One in five of the UK's biggest charities are 'spending less than half of public donations on good causes' (and some spend as little as ONE PER CENT on charitable work)” is about the current issue and statistics on the result of how much charities publics donations are being spent on actual good causes and charity activities to help those that they stand for. Its contents involves the thoughts of such people like Gina Miller, the founder of the True and Fair Foundation and other images of statistics which show how some charities only give as much as 1% of their money received from donations to good causes. The story also underlines and points out that big UK charities such as the British Heart Foundation for instance are under fire because of the low percentage of money which actually goes towards good causes and how much doesn’t. It’s also been made clear that although this is the case and that only 46% of donations made goes towards these causes which the British Heart Foundation support a lot of the money, 80% in fact, was spent on research as well as benefiting people lives.

To summarize and compile what this article is about, in short it’s a story on a statistics released by the True and Fair Foundation showing 17 different major charity organisations and how much they actually give to good causes from public donations and how much is earned as a whole, as well as its figures in percentage form. The story then goes on telling the responses of some of the charities shown and what they have to say in their defence as well as quotes from founders of said charities.

Did the story strengthen or weaken from the quotes used?

I think the story strengthened from the use of quotes and the thoughts of people behind the charities being expressed. It gives the reader a further look into what would just be a set of stats that a lot of people may have already had a rough idea was undergoing. The story is based on those quotes and embedding them into the story to tie it all together and benefit the readers reading experience. The quotes also project the mind-set and what happens behind closed doors in the charity, though not all is given directly to the cause the charity represents, research is being done on things like cancer all the time, and they require funding too.

Task 3-

How will I apply what I know about quotes and how I will use them?

I will use quotes to entice and draw the reader’s attention with public opinion and thought on the matter at hand in my news stories. This will also be done to offer a wide range of views other than just one, as well as an unbiased answer whilst still keeping to the requirements of a news story being informative and explanatory throughout what I write. Another good thing to take from the article I have shown and written about is to embed my quotes into my paragraphs instead of it just becoming a list of quotes, and to also make sure I explain who said what correctly.

The last thing I wish to take from researching about quote usage and using is that all the quotes I will use in my own stories should be relevant and fit for purpose on the topic I’m writing about. There’s no use in having a quote which makes little to no sense to the actual article or comes off in a bad way that it deters from subject matter so I will avoid these sorts of quotes best I can.

Course Overview - UAL Print Media & Journalism Level 3 Extended Diploma

A little about myself:

My name is Alfie Mills and I am studying Print Based Media and Journalism as a Level 3 Extended Diploma. I study this course at SouthEssex College on a 3 day per week basis ranging from Tuesdays to Thursdays. In this course I hope to develop and learn new skills in order to create and publish things such as books, magazines, and articles. I also wish to learn different techniques in which i can interview someone, take notes about what people say and learn the correct usage for a dictaphone and other equipment used in todays modern media.

What the course is and contains:

Print Based Media and Journalism is designed to take you into the hands of what a real professional publisher and reporter/article writer has to deal with in their day to day life. This includes learning software which is used on computers (Adobe software mostly) and also writing techniques to create our own articles and news paper stories like we would in the real world. 

This is not the only thing the course covers in 2 years though, here is a list of everything taught and produced in the course itself:

• newspaper and magazine production

• article writing

• interview and presentation techniques

• website design

• photography

• digital image manipulation

• traditional print methods

• visual analysis

Why I chose this course:

My initial choice for this course was because of the idea of being able to get creative with the idea of making my own products which could be published. I enjoy using my computer and programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator on a daily basis and also would like to potential work as someone who creates and publishes their own magazines or works in a company producing work to be published and seen by hundreds. This idea excites me and as a writer, artist and in general, creative person, this course ticked all the boxes for me.

Unit 54 - Digital Graphics For Print

Unit Aim:

The aim of this unit is to give learners the knowledge and skills needed to produce, process, control and manipulate digital graphics used for a range of print, interactive and moving media.

 Purpose:

As the first step on your journey to becoming an expert in your field of the media industry you must acquire, develop and test the new skills that will allow you to create outstanding media products. This is also an opportunity to learn new skills and enhance existing skills in a portfolio of disverse work which demonstrates your ability to grasp new concepts and apply them.

Scenario:

Unit 54 develops leaner appreciation of the techniques employed by other practitioners in the field before moving on to give them first-hand experience of preparing for and conducting design work for media products.

Your client requires you to research, develop and produce an 12 page A5 Booklet about a subject you are passionate about. The subject of your book can be about anything that you choose, but must be engaging and informative. You are tasked with making your subject appeal to its readers.

What to consider:

• Your audience know nothing about your chosen subject
• Your booklet must be factual and well researched
• You must make your information interesting and aesthetically pleasing
• You must stick to the size and page numbers required in brief

 Citing - Skills Development Portfolio and Unit 54 explanation hand out

Brainstorming Idea's for A5 Booklet

Initial idea's:

My first initial idea is to base my booklet around gaming. I'm a big gamer having played games and being consumed by the technological world ever since i was four with a GameBoy Color, eventually moving onto things such as the Playstation, a Playstation 2 and eventually PC Gaming. From here i had a few options.

 My first option was to pay homage to my most beloved and favourite game franchise; Spyro The Dragon. I had plans of going through the era's of the game and having an in depth analysis of different bosses and enemies you encounter along the way. Another thing i wanted to touch upon was the collection system whether it be eggs like in Spyro 3, rescuing the dragons from the first game or orbs from the second.

 My second option is to base it around another game franchise of mine which i hole close to my heart; Animal Crossing. This game is one of my favourites because of its replay-ability and different stuff you can encounter. For the booklet i would use two pages each on the different types of bugs, fish and fossils you can find. I'd also commit a page to the villagers, the are npcs which make the game up, going over the more important ones to the just general folk which make up your town.

This brings to my third and final option i had, base my booklet around my most played game for the past 4 years, TeamFortress 2. I chose this idea because it's the game I have played the most of recent and i've spent a long time playing it. I am familiar with everything about it and its something I love. In my booklet, i will write about everything new and upcoming within the realm of TF2, this includes updates and different cosmetics in the game you wear as well as new maps and game modes.

Brainstorming idea's - Final Design

Here I have compiled my 3 idea's into a brainstorm which shows off my thought process and idea's I had along the way.

Full link to the image is found here - http://goo.gl/2kxXBc

Typography - Kerning - Serif and Sans-Serif

Definition of Typography:

Typography;

noun

The style and appearance of printed matter.
The art or procedure of arranging type or processing data and printing from it

Short History on Typography:
Typography first started as cave paintings and drawings on the walls of caves and other surfaces such as bark. These were called pictograms and told a story as you looked along them. From pictograms came Ideographs which substituted common symbols and abstractions for pictures of events. For example, a star in an ideograph resembled the heavens or a peace pipe which resembles peace. From here on a system developed from the egyptians, this was called Hieroglyphics, these were the first drawings used to represent not just objects or idea's but also sounds too.
Since then we have come a long way with how we communicate and our ways of doing so, since 1200 BC we have used an Alphabet first developed by the Phoenicians which was completely composed of letters instead of the less independant and simple hieroglyphics. The greeks then adopted the language created by Phoenicians adding the first 5 vowels which is also the beginning of the modern alphabet we use today. To keep the rest short, the Romans developed the alphabet further by using 23 letters and introducing serifs which are the small flourishes/finishing strokes at the end of letters. We get our mass printed and published materials from the 1400's where Guttenberg invented a system of movable type that revolutionized and changed the world forever, allowing this mass printing of materials.

Kerning -

Kerning is the space between two characters in a word or sentence. Whilst kerning generally implies a reduction of space between both the letters, it can also mean the addition of space between lettering too, and well-kerned fonts and lettering have a visually similar area of two-dimensional blank spaces between each pair of characters as well.

Good Kerning and Bad Kerning:

Why the kerning on the left is better than the right?

Using what we said above, the kerning featured on the left is better than the kerning on the right because of the spacing. You can see the difference visually and how more visually pleasing and correct it looks, there is not too much space between both letters which shows they both belong to each other but also, the spacing on the right looks a bit excessive and unneeded when you could just tie the lettering closer together and make your font look neater and tidier as a whole.


Serif and Sans-Serif

A Serif and Sans-serif is a different kind of typeface in typography, both are different because of the qualities they possess, for instance, a serif has small flourish on the end of its characters and was first invented by the Romans. A Sans-serif on the other hand doesn't have small flourishes or small strokes at the end of its characters and is used more informally when typing whereas fonts such as Time New Roman are used to formally type up letters and emails to people.

Serif and Sans-Serif fonts:

All these different fonts are Serif fonts and as you can see, they notably have flourishes at the end of each character. Below is an example of the different Sans-Serif fonts available.

Parts of a letter:

Type Anatomy - 

Characters - A symbol which represents a number or letter
Characters are what make up the the letters of our alphabet and the numbers we use in mathematics and create words in our language.

Special Characters - These are characters such as %, $ and &. Note, they are non-alphabetic nor are they non-numeric.

Ligatures - Ligatures are where two or more letters are joined together as one glyph, this means that they replace characters which share common components and are part of a general class of glyphs called "Contextual forms".

Character Components - 

Ascender - A part of a letter which extends above the level of the top of an 'x', letters like this include the letters such as a 'b' or an 'f'.


Bar - A horizontal stroke in characters, letters such as A, e and R have a bar.


Baseline - Non-existant straight line across the feet of most letters in a line of type


Bowl - The curved stroke that creates an enclosed space within a character, an example would be at the letter B


Bracket - A curved connection between the stem and serif on some fonts, this can be seen on letters like 'u' but is dependent on the font used.


Contrast - Contrast is the difference between a number of things, including scale, weight, classification, case and colour.


Counter - The partially or fully enclosed space within a character.


Descender - The part of a character such as g or j which descends below the baseline.


Loop - The lower end of a lowercase g.


Sans Serif -  A style of type which doesn't contain flourishes at the end of its lettering.


Shoulder -  A curved stroke in the letters h, m and n.


Stem -  Straight vertical stroke, or the main straight diagonal stroke in a letter which has no verticals at all.


Stress - The direction of thickening in a curved stroke.


Terminal - The end of a stroke not terminated with a serif.


X-height -  The height of lowercase letters, specifically the lowercase x, not including ascenders and descenders.

File Formats Research Part 1

Overview:

As a publisher or publishing company, people must deal with a range of different file formats and learn what is preferred to be used for different things such as graphics creation, final design exporting, photograph editing and also moving image file types. It is also important to learn different file types and what to use for publishing on the web and the size, colour as well as difference between pixel and vector images.

. PNG - PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics and is a raster graphics file format which supports the ability of lossless data compression. The .PNG file was created to be an improved replacement for the .GIF file format but non-patented. Since then, a .PNG has become the most used lossless image compression format to be used on the internet.

What uses does a .PNG have and why use a .PNG?

A .PNG is most commonly used on the web because of its lossless data compression, images are more clearer and have more colours than a .GIF file can hold which means you see more of what the image is actually like. One downside to a .PNG is that the file size can vary greatly depending on a number of different factors, these are those factors:

• Colour Depth - This can range from 1-60 bits per single pixel
• Ancillary Chunks - A PNG supports metadata which is useful for editing but not needed for viewing on websites.
• Interlacing - When each pass of the Adam7 algorithm is separately filters, the file size can increase considerably
• Filter - Filter is a pre-compression stage in creating and saving a .PNG, each line is filtered by a predictive filter which is different from line to line. You are unable to optimise this row by row however though, therefore the choice of filter for each row is then potentially very variable.

. TIFF - A .TIFF file stands for a Tag Image File Format and is similar to a .PNG in the sense that it is a raster graphics file format and is commonly used for exchanging these images between application programs such as Adobe Photoshop. .TIFF files are also used for when you scan an image into your computer which can also be later worked on in image editing or publication programs.

What uses does a .TIFF have and why use a .TIFF?

.TIFF files are used and can be used in several different publishing techniques, these include desktop publishing, faxing, 3D applications and also medical imaging applications. A .TIFF is used when all detail of the image must be preserved and the file size doesn't matter or isn't taken into consideration which is why most professional and commercial printing needs are done with this file format. They also support a number of different classes too, which includes the following:

• Grayscale - Greyscale is the range of different shades, from white to black which are used in a monochrome display or printout.
• Colour Palette - Logical colour numbers are stored into each pixel, normally represented as RGB ( Red, Blue and Green)

. JPG - Joint Photographic Experts Group

A .JPG is a file extension commonly used for lossy compression and is used mainly for digital photography. The file format allows you to change quality via the compression rate, decreasing or increasing it dependant on its resolution. To further explain what i mean by this, here is a photograph of a cat and as the compression rate increases and decreases.

As you can clearly see, the quality over the whole image improves a lot the less you compress and more you leave its quality high. This does come with a problem though, the higher quality your .JPG looks, the bigger the file size will be compared to whether you compress it down. Though you can compress the file as low as shown on the left of the image, this is rarely done because of its pixelation and how bad the quality becomes.

What uses does a .JPG have and why use a .JPG?

The .JPG is the most common file format for storing and transmitting photographs across the World Wide Web. Because of this, these images are used in websites to display and provoke more thought to a piece of text. A .JPG is used because of its lossy compression, meaning its compression and quality can utterly depend on your preference and can also maintain a small file size if needed.

. TGA - A TGA (TARGA) file stands for Truevision Advanced Raster Graphics Adapter. Like the previously mentioned .PNG and .TIFF, it is also a raster graphics file format. Resolutions of .TARGA image files usually match those of NTSC and PAL video formats and was created for video editing with PCs by Truevision Inc. 

What uses does a .TARGA have and why use a .TARGA?

A .TGA is most commonly used for video tape and video publication, specifically they are used in the rendering of still images and to render sequences of still image to video tape. You should use a targa file if you're creating anything to be used and added into video such as image stills and multiple images to create a sequence of moving image. Another reason they're used is because the format can store image data with different bits of precision per pixel. These are the following bits a TGA allows:

• 8 bits
• 15 bits
• 16 bits
• 24 bits
• 32 bits