Contributor questions-Flat fire

How did you first find out about the fire?

At 4:50am on the 4.4.13 my friend Anna texted me and I woke up to it thinking that the flat would be okay-just a bit smokey. My mum was desperate to find out more but I was still half asleep so was like ‘Nooo its fine mum it’ll be alright!’ Then later on I was doing some uni work as exams were coming up and got a call from my flatmate Claire saying that her diary had been found smoking in the remains of the flat so the fire brigade had rung her who then rung me pretty much saying our house was gone-I thought she was exaggerating. Then I did nothing but burst into tears.

How was the fire actually started?

I’m not entirely sure because I probably shouldve rang the police to check-but it just never got done because I was trying to sort everything else out. But basically as far as I know squatters had got into a derelict building next door and they were being evicted. So then they had some kind of rave and set the place on fire

What did finding out that youd just lost everything really feel like?

My stomach just dropped-it didn’t feel like it was really happening. I had to wait 2 days before I could go down to Bristol to see the flat and even then we were only allowed in certain parts because it was so unsafe to go in. In my head I still thought it wasn’t that bad and that I’d still be able to salvage some of my stuff. I don’t know-I just couldn’t deal with it and thought it’d still be fine!

What are you most upset about losing?

Sentimental stuff-It had just been my 21^st birthday and id taken all my presents to the flat. I had 2 shelves on my wall-nicknamed ‘The Shrine’ which is where I kept photos of like my childhood, birthday cards and pretty much all my favourite things that I now cant replace. Those shelves were one of the main areas the fire hit so I lost it all. Clothes you can replace but photos you cant-even though theres still 1 jumper I really want back!

What was it like for it all to happen in your final year of uni-just before exams?

Luckily id just handed in my dissertation before easter which is why I had gone home and wasn’t there to stop the fire. I was only going home for a week so hadn’t taken much stuff home with me-the annoying thing is I packed a huge suitcase then unpacked it again because it seemed stupid to be taking so much for just a week. For uni I has two 3000 word essays to do plus exam revision for 4 of my final exams. Trouble was I didn’t bring any of my exam notes home with me because I was only working on the essays so I lost all those too. I basically had to start from scratch-id been to every single lecture and written some really good notes so I was gutted. Even if they hadn’t got burnt they would’ve been ruined because the fire brigade just went in and soaked everything because the fire was that bad.

Did you find anything in your flat half burnt that made you really upset?

Yeah. My room didn’t fully disintegrate-everything ended up as a mush. Like when I looked in my wardrobe all of my coathangers had melted into my clothes and theyd all turned black. The smell was probably the worst-it was unbrearable I cant even describe it. With the lack of exam notes situation everyone was really nice though, they tried to help me as much as possible and lend me theirs but of course they were trying to revise at the same time, it wasn’t easy.

Project Monitoring Week Beginning 10th February

This week I have been focusing on completing things such as page layouts. I also completed my final photoshoot for my Young Farming article and the images from this worked really well. The lighting on the day I did the shoot initially was very bad as it was snowing in the morning. However the sun then came out so made the colours in the images really rich and the shoot couldnt have gone better. I managed to capture one shot which features a lot of empty space in the sky which really appeals to me. For this reason I think I will use this one image and text wrap my article around my subject-the horse and model. This article is at the start of my magazine and I think it will create the feeling that imagery is a very strong aspect of my magazine right from the start by using one large image.
This week I also created the illustration of the York skyline for my city guide page using photoshop. To do this I got an image from the internet and used the magic wand tool to select certain areas and filled them with shades of purple. I used different shades on different layers to build up the image and I think it works really well. I made the finishing touches to my city guide page so that I could move on to my next page which was my young farming piece.
After selecting my image for this page it was a case of inputting my article onto a page with the image on. I then created a shape around my model and used text wrap to shape my text around the subject of my image. This is something professional magazines often do and I think this is what really makes my page work. I then made my final decisions on my fonts and colours and inputted elements such as subheadings, my kicker and quote insert. This page didnt take too much work and this is how I planned it to be so that I could spent more time on my bigger articles such as my house fire piece. The only thing I am not sure about with this page is that I a blank space in the top right hand corner. I am not yet sure of what I will put into this space but this could be something I create in Photoshop.

Image used for Young Farming Page

Dare to Blog Call Sheet

Production Schedule: Call Sheet

 Title: Dare to Blog Photoshoot

Client: Mirror-The Northern Echo

Staff: Photographer-Emma Nesham

             Lighting Assistant: Mark Dixon

            Model: Sophie Mason

 

Location/Venue: QE Photography Studio

CALL DATE: 4th February 2014

CALL TIME: 9:00

Transport: N/A

INSTRUCTIONS:

Aims of Shoot: 

Images to be taken for my Dare to blog article. 3 images in total to show how an obsession with make up can be transformed into money. Colour scheme is turquoise with a very light feel.

Model Instructions:

• Model needs to wear a blue/turquoise top to fit with colour scheme
• Girly make up to show how you are obsessed with beauty as this is the subject of the article. Light coloured lips to make image look girly.
• Controlled curly hair to show how you take time over how you look and are able to make money from your hobby.

Lighting Instructions: 

First shot is with my model laid on the floor so lighting will have to light up my models face. I will be only shooting her head and shoulders but want the shot to look very fresh on a clean white background.
Second and third shots will be of my model stood up and I will use butterfly lighting to create a bright, positive feel. Both will use a white backdrop.

Flat Fire Call Sheet

Production Schedule: Call Sheet

 Title: Front Cover & Flat Fire Photoshoot

Client: Mirror-The Northern Echo

Staff: Photographer-Emma Nesham

             Lighting Assistant: Mark Dixon

            Model: Kinga Nowak

 

Location/Venue: QE Photography Studio

CALL DATE: 3^rd February 2014

CALL TIME: 13:10

Transport: N/A

INSTRUCTIONS:

Aims of Shoot: 
Flat Fire: 

• Several images to show how a girl bounced back from losing everything in a flat fire. Positive shoot rather than focusing on how devastating the fire was.
• Model will look happy and as if the fire didnt affect her at all.

Front Cover:

• Model to look happy and carefree. 
• Convey feeling of independence and not caring about how she looks.
• Member of my target audience will be my model so will inspire readers to become happy and more independent.

Model Instructions:

• I will provide clothing as they need to be bright coloured and fit to a colour scheme.
• Please wear strong make up-winged eyeliner but little foundation so skin looks natural and as if you dont care about any imperfections.
• Natural hair, curly as possible so that it looks wild and uncontrollable.

Lighting Instructions: 

Flat Fire: 

• Butterfly lighting to give shoot a very positive feel. 
• May need adjusting as I want to take some shots with my model sat on the floor.

Front Cover:

• Very strong lighting to give image an almost over-exposed feel.
• Background will need to be lit aswell as strong lighting on my model. 

Project Monitoring Week Beginning 3rd Feb

This week has gone really well and I managed to get all of my photoshoots done apart from my Yong Farming images as the weather was bad and the shoot will be happening outside. However, this is re-scheduled for Tuesday next week.

My first photoshoot was with my model for my house fire article. I am also using her as my front cover model as I feel this is the most important story in my magazine so I want to use her and also because she looks a bit like the girl in my chosen cover idea. The shoot went really well and I think the images will work effectively in my DPS. I also managed to capture some really good images for the cover, I especially like one I managed to shoot while she was laughing as she looks naturally happy as the shot wasnt posed. Below are some examples of the images I took.

 

My second shoot was then for my Dare to Blog article. I used the same model as I did for my mock ups meaning she knew what I needed to achieve from the shoot. I decided to re-shoot these images as when I took the first set the backdrop was dirty and I really wanted a clean background to the image. However because of how I placed her hair she was impossible to cut out well so I thought it would be best to re-take the images and this proved to be true. I am really pleased with this set of images and they will work a lot better on my DPS than the original. I also took images for the 3rd page of the article. After carrying out my focus group my participants said that they would like the 3rd page to include images of my model and not include logos of websites as I had originally done. For this image I got my model to hold onto a selection of make up in the first image and then a fan of money in the second. The idea is that the images show how a womans passion for make up can be transformed into money through beauty blogging. Below are the images I took at this shoot. 

Project Monitoring week beginning 20th Jan

This week on the whole has gone to plan however I have had to complete several other tasks as I have made several changes to different aspects of my magazine.

In my first lesson I planned to concentrate on refreshing my knowledge of lighting techniques. When doing this I decided on the lighting technique I would use for my front cover image. I needed help with this as the lighting of the image I am basing my shot around is quite alternative and I wasnt sure how to achieve this. This week I spent time thinking about all of my imagery ideas and decided that I would change the imagery concept for my front cover. This was mainly doe to the fact that I thought that my original idea would not work out. Below is the image I am now basing my front cover around. I have chosen this image as I think it will create a really strong brand for my magazine. I will get my model to pose in a similar way so that she looks care free happy. The whole aim of my magazine is to encourage young women to be independent and not care too much about how they look-it attempts to break the conventions of womens lifestyle magazines.
For the rest of the week I focused on finishing my articles. I completed my City Guide and Young Farming article and made adjustments to my dare to blog article. By the end of the week I had placed my City Guide article into the layout mentioned in my previous blog post and I think it works better than the one I originally planned to use. All that is left to do on this is some artwork for the background at the top of the page. To do this I will use photoshop to create a cartoon-style skyline of York which will include the minister.