fmp pre production

1. Pre-Production
Kieran Johnson

2. Style sheet – colour schemes
Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI)
The colour schemes of the PWI magazine covers
tend to keep itself consistent, notably the two end
of year awards editions shown here sparkling with
shades of gold to promote the awards. I do intend to
use shades of warmer colours for my cover, though it
is more dedicated towards the character rather than
the awards. Also note that all the colour schemes
gear towards using solid colours. The Wrestlemania
edition I’d like to think is inspired by the traditional
colour scheme of the old Wrestlemania logo.
WWE Magazine
Historically, WWE Magazine’s monthly issues stuck
to a particular theme for particular wrestlers, linking
towards their characters. For example, we see Triple
H holding hammers (far left), due to his love for
using a sledgehammer to win his matches. As for the
colour schemes, they often gear towards the
character traits of each wrestler, such as Triple H
having red to signify his aggressive, Randy Orton
(centre) having shades of blues to symbolise his cold
and cunningness, and The Miz (right) with warmer
colours.
Notice the similarities between the
Wrestlemania logo and the first PWI
magazine’s colour scheme

3. Style sheet – colour schemes

4. Style sheet – colour schemes
For the cover of the magazine, I wanted the colour scheme to be focused
towards the character I intend on creating for this magazine. In my mind, the
character – known as Sebastian Blaze – would be more geared towards a
warmer colour scheme due to the obvious hint of his surname, and because his
story which his interview in the magazine will mention is based off of him
“bursting” onto the wrestling scene. Notice how the colour schemes I have
come up with mostly consist solid colours as I feel that makes sense to use on
magazine covers.
These colour schemes towards the bottom I feel would be more suited towards
the interview article pages. Not only are they based towards the interview
pages I looked at in the previous slide, but I was also taking inspiration from the
colour scheme I had decided upon for the magazine’s front cover. The white
will be intended for the text boxes so that the copy will be visible in black. I
think that the connection between both pages needs to be made in order to
keep the themes, concepts and ideas consistent throughout my sections within
the magazine.

5. Style sheet - fonts
Font 1 – Serif style fonts
Font 2 – Sans Serif style fonts

6. Style sheet - fonts
Font 3 – Distorted style fonts
Font 4 – Retro style fonts

7. Style sheet - fonts
Thoughts on Serif fonts:
• I was thinking of looking at serif fonts that had the potential of working for the
masthead of my magazine (currently has a working title of “Off The Script”). My
approach was to look for ones that looked bold and impactful enough to grasp the
eyes of the audience – by contrast I felt ones that had a thinner shape would have
been too delicate and feminine for the masthead of a wrestling-oriented magazine.
I also felt that a serif font would be suitable for the copy of the insert pages, such
as for the answers in the interview page. I came to a conclusion that Revans and
Chunk Five Ex may have shouts as contenders for my masthead, whilst Vendura is a
possibility for my interview text and for captions.
Thoughts on Sans Serif fonts:
• My idea for a Sans Serif font was for it to be used for the leading headline that
would appear on the front cover, similarly to the Serif fonts I had decided on, my
decision process here was to look for fonts that would make the headline appear
bold and striking to the audience at first glance. The fonts, Lemon Milk and
Primetime appeared to be of intrigue for me regarding this spec. Additionally, I was
thinking about potential fonts for the headline of my interview page, which would
ideally look less exaggerated, but still bold enough to catch the eye of the
audience. As well as Lemon Milk fitting that bill, Bebas Neue would also be suitable
for that specification I think.

8. Style sheet - fonts
Thoughts on Distorted and Retro fonts:
• My ideas to use these Distorted and Retro fonts revolve around alternate headline
fonts and title fonts for other pages. I firstly researched these font styles as I felt
that these variants suit the genre of wrestling magazines pretty well as a first idea.
Delving deeper, I thought that these style of fonts would maybe work well for
smaller headlines that would maybe suit for particular characters, for alternate
pages (such as history pages and the merchandise page) or simply just for
something else that may arise during my planning phase. Looking at it more
specifically, I think that the Distorted font styles would be more suited towards
some text in regards towards some character pages, whilst the retro fonts would be
more geared with history pages and the merchandise page.
• The Distorted font styles I decided to choose from include Dolphin With A Massive
Shotgun, Blacklisted, and Times New Arial, because I feel that they do well to reveal
plenty of character for a wrestler who is presented with a conflicted mindset, whilst
the Retro fonts I chose for this project were Evil Empire, American Captain, and
especially York Whiteletter – which are likely to be used for some kind of history
pages and the merchandise pages because I think they have the right kind of
aesthetic for a history-style page.

9. Style sheet – image styles
Mid shots – The main type of shot type for my magazine will be mid shots. My inspiration for mid shots come from WWE’s
photo renders for their wrestlers that they regularly put out. I feel that these types of renders not only have incredible
photo quality, but they also do very well to express their characters through non-verbal communication – such as their
facial expressions and poses.

10. Copy ideas
Headlines:
• Feel the Blaze
• Blaze Speaks
• Life With Wrestling: Sebastian Blaze tells his story
Interview questions:
• “How long have you been interested in wrestling?”
• “Obviously as a long-time dedicated fan, your passion for the business must rub off onto the fans then.”
• “How far do you think you’ll be able to make it in the industry?”
• “You mentioned about wrestling being huge in the UK. How proud would you feel to represent such passionate
British fans in the States?”
• “What do you intend to accomplish this year?”
• “You mentioned about your early influences when it comes to your interest in wrestling. How about more
recently? Who has managed to catch your eye?
• ”What do you try to do to make yourself stand out from others?”

11. Equipment and cost
Equipment Cost
Canon Powershot SX410 IS Already own
Tripod for the camera Already own
Green screen Needed, around £40 with a stand
Wrestling t-shirts Already own plenty (to name a few, Samoa Joe, Bobby
Roode, Triple H, Mr Kennedy) but can always buy some
more (I’m really interested in buying t-shirts of CM Punk,
Randy Orton and Steve Austin), usually around £25 on
WWE Euroshop, sometimes with an offer to buy two for
the price of one
Wrestling action figures (for the merchandise page) Already own more than enough(!)
Wrist tape Usually a major symbol of a wrestler/fighter, would be
very cheap

12. Flat plans
MASTHEAD
Headline
• Cover line 1
• Cover line 2
Footer notes
Central image
- Mid shot
Splash
Barcode
Front cover Interview pages
Main image – close up
Caption – pull quote
from the article
ARTICLE HEADLINE
Article text
– set up in
columns of
three
Image from
photo
shoot

13. Pre-production
• What are you making? A wrestling magazine
• Why? To get the audience interested in a new wrestler, who has a sit down interview
introducing their style, influences and their history with wrestling.
• Who is it for? A wrestling-oriented audience, between the ages of 18-45, male and
female.
• Where will it appear/on what? In selected newsagents (such as WHSmith) that offer
wrestling magazines, on a website that supports the magazine company.
Reflection:

14. Pre-production experiments: I attempted to create a double
page spread of a magazine front
cover as a pre-production task. The
idea itself came as a continuation
of a previous pre-production task
from earlier in the year. Along with
the updated front cover based on
more recent events, I have noticed
that some sports magazine back
covers tend to have a poster or
advertisement of some form, so I
decided to create a “no to racism”
style poster as the topic is quite
relevant in football. With the bulk
of the poster being in black and
white, I learnt that I could erase
some of the filter to reveal the
colour, in this case I decided to
leave the red from the shirt as it
was, and I think it turned out to be
pretty good.

15. Pre-production experiments:
In addition to the magazine experiment, I have been
experimenting with alternate photo editing software
called PicsArt, with the attempt to create interesting
photo edits over the last few months. Along with the
photos of myself (using a sunset mask, a paper tear of
two different effects and the album art challenge), I
also made another album art based on a photo taken
during a football match (credit goes to Nick Speakman)
I used a square fit feature on
PicsArt that essentially fixes the
aspect ratio of the background
to a phone wallpaper size.

16. Resources
Equipment/ Props/
Costume needed
Locations needed
Green screen Somewhere to put up my green screen
Camera + tripod All the photos I need to take will be done
on a green screen, therefore location won’t
be that much of an issue.
Denim clothes
Tank top
Gloves
Metallica cap
Wrestling T-shirts
Wrestling figures

17. Contingency Planning
Potential Issue Solution
Garage has no space to put up green
screen
Use another room that has space
Green screen doesn’t work well with
camera flash
1. Buy a white screen instead
2. Use photoshop to clear the green
reflections
Unable to make it to a ring-like location Use a downloaded photo of a wrestling ring
as a placeholder
Photos don’t look great Take 100 photos and choose the best
looking ones
The photoshop or PowerPoint files on my
USB are lost
BACK UP THE WORK

18. Risk assessment
Potential issue Solution
Participant catches Covid-19 Protect myself and other participants from
Covid-19 – wear a mask, sanitise hands and
equipment, use lateral flow tests, etc
Equipment falls over and smashes Ensure equipment is steady and keep clear of
any potential impact. Use spirit level is possible.
Trip hazards Ensure that the floor within the area of working
is as clear as possible
Water spillage near equipment Keep water away from the equipment as much
as possible

19. Production Schedule
Day/Lesson Tasks
Thursday 1st April Photo shoot day – Necessary close-ups,
mid and long shots of myself taken
Tuesday 13th April Begin work on magazine cover and back
cover (double page spread)
Monday 19th April Begin work on interview pages
Monday 26th April Finish off work on interview pages
Tuesday 4th May Finish tour poster and back cover
competition poster