Problem solving

1. FINAL MAJOR PROJECT:
Promotional campaign on
a musical artist
Problem Solving
Faith Fomekong

2. Overview
Technical Problems
Experiments
Theoretical Problems
Practical Problems

3. Practical Problems
 Booking a camera and lighting
 I am thinking of booking a camera and lighting from York
College during production week. However, if for some reason
I’m not able to get a hold of these items I will be using my
phone and will be ordering a small ring light from Amazon
 Camera battery running out
 During production week I am hoping to book a camera from
York College. This could come at a risk of the batteries running
out of charge which is why I will be making sure to also get
hold of a battery charger. Waiting for my camera to fully charge
will not be a problem because I will be working on the pictures
saved on the SD card.
Led light (available with
rechargeable batteries)
600D Camera
and battery
600D battery
(additional)
600D battery
charger
SD Card
Photography

4. Overview
Technical Problems
Experiments
Theoretical Problems
Practical Problems

5. Technical Problems
 No Internet
 Having no internet will not be a massive issue as I am mainly working on PowerPoints which does
not require internet. However due to the fact that I am working from home, without internet I will
not be able to carry out other school activities, mainly online classes and registration on Teams.
To resolve this issue, I will be downloading Teams on my phone using my mobile data.
 Saves corrupt
 To avoid any problem of lost of data, I will be saving an extra copy of all project-related activities
on a different file on my computer, as well as having back up files on Google drive and USB stick.

6. Technical Problems
 Working From home
 Due to the current Covid-19 government restriction, all students have been asked to work from
home for a few months. This can be quite challenging as I will be having limited access to
appropriate editing software, available at York College. However, I have identified some free editing
software such as Gimp and Pxlr, with Gimp been the most advanced.
 Ability
 Being able to use editing softwares and having a good level of editing skills will be a necessity
during this project. However, as I have only worked with photoshop/image editing software once,
when doing my print project, I do not yet have strong editing skills. To solve this issue, I have
decided to watch few tutorials prior and during experiments. The acquired skills will help me
improve my final product.

7. Overview
Technical Problems
Experiments
Theoretical Problems
Practical Problems

8. Theoretical Problems
 Artist being sick
 My musical artist falling sick will not be that big of a problem as the artist is my sister. Since I
will be around her everyday we can just get back started whenever she feels better. In addition, I
will continue with other aspects of my projects, specifically working on my production PowerPoint,
improving my editing skills using available images, reflecting on completed tasks, to name a few.
 Unwanted noise/distractions
 One of the main issues during this project will be unwanted noise, especially when having to work
from home due to this current pandemic. Although I am not able to fully solve or avoid this
problem, I do minimalize it by mainly working in my room.

9. Theoretical Problems
 Health and safety
 During production, I will be using LED lights. There could be possibilities of eye damage and/or
headache if my artist stares at the light for too long. As the risks and concerns are specific to
overexposure (Cable News Network, 2021), any safety issues will be prevented by shooting for not
more than 5 minutes and taking breaks every 30 minutes. It is worth mentioning that my artist will
not be continuously looking at the light for 5 minutes.
 Finance
 I don’t think that there will be any issues related to finances because all equipment are available in
York College. However, in case of high demand or Covid-19 related restrictions, I will make use of my
phone and will have enough money to buy any additional accessories. If it happens that I lose my
card or I am not able to get access to my bank account, I will borrow some money from my family.

10. Overview
Technical Problems
Experiments
Theoretical Problems
Practical Problems

11. Experiments
 Introduction
During the experiment process, I will be working on a free editing software called Gimp while
watching different tutorial video’s that will help me work my way around the software as well as
help me create a basic poster and a 80’s retro text effect for my billboard poster.
 I will be getting all the images from google image
 I would have liked to also do some experiments using a camera. However due to the current
circumstances related to Covid-19 pandemic, York College is closed and I cannot borrow a
camera.

12. Poster

13. Example 1
 Gimp quick mask
 For this first experiment I started off by
watching a “Gimp quick mask” tutorial.
This helped me figure out how to remove
the background of an image.
 I also applied this method to edit the
images shown below.

14. Example 2
 Poster
 Here I wanted to experiment with the
colours and effects on an image.
First I faded the image a bit (30%) to make
it blend in with the background making it
look a lot more natural. Then I made sure
to put the channel on “Red”, this will give
the image a warmer effect.
Finally I faded the image, making it blend
nicely with the background.

15. Example 3
 Poster
After getting used to the quick mask tool and
the effects and colours, I decided to put
everything together and create a poster with the
help of this 30 min tutorial video “Create a
movie Poster”. The video looked into the
overlaying of images, image sizes, fonts and
more.

16. Example 3
 Poster
Using the tutorial, I created
two posters, examples 3a
and 3b. I prefer Example 3a
because the images blend
nicely together. Although I
am still developing my
skills, these Example
posters provide a good
build for the characteristics
that I would like to achieve
in my final design.

17. Billboard- Text Effect

18. Example 4
 Billboard- Font
• For this second image I decided to look into
a text effect that could be used for my
billboard poster.
• With the help of this 80’s Retro Text Effect
tutorial I added two different gradients to
my “Retro” text. Then I added a gradient
stroke around the letters to make the text
stand out

19. Example 4
 Billboard- background image
Once I completed my text effect, I started editing the background image.
I didn’t really edit the image much as I only re-touched it by removing the pink effect on the edge
and adding “HSV Noise filter” making the image darker which will then make the text effect stand
out a lot more.

20. Example 4
 Billboard- lens flare effect
After finishing the background image, I
added a final lens flare effect as I thought
that it looked good in the tutorial video.

21. Example 4
 Billboard- final image
These are finalised images. The fist image is the same image as the one shown in the tutorial video
and the second image is the one I re-touched to give me an idea of what it would look like if it was
used in my project. In general, I really like this text effect as it came out better than I expected.
This is definitely a text effect I will be considering when planning my final design.