Local Entrepreneur

Steve Cochrane

Steve is a local entrepreneur in Middlesbrough, where in 1982 he first opened his clothing store called Sliced Tomatoes. Then in 1993 Steve then opened his first Psyche store on Linthorpe Road. Just one of the boutique enclaves of the Middlesbrough store, just announced as being in Vogue’s top 100 Best British Shops. “We beat Harvey Nics in Leeds and Selfridges in Birmingham,” says Steve, the man described as “eccentric” by his staff.

Wearing a three-piece tweed suit himself it’s clear speaking to the Gazette is only one of a million things on his mind today. “This is full of my notes,” he adds, opening his black leather organiser, “I’m already thinking about Autumn 2013 so I have to write everything down.”

The flow is almost immediately interrupted.“Can you smell food? I’ll need to pull them up on that. You don’t want to buy clothes when you can smell food,” Steve says, referring to the workmen turning a section of level two into a Jamie Oliver-style restaurant for local college students. it wasn’t backed up by a 30-year success story it would seem too good to be true.

But this year alone almost £350,000 will have been spent remodelling the three-floor store - almost all of which has been invested by designers desperate to get their brands on the shelves of Psyche. And it’s no wonder it’s a hot spot for big names such as Armani and Paul Smith. Last year Psyche’s sales increased by 20% on the year before and the average spend is around £160 a visit. With 64 staff working for him - and two more in the pipeline, it’s quite an empire for a little lad from St Alphonsus Primary School. Fitness fanatic Steve adds: “To be a success these days you have to go over and above. The staff have to be the best there is, the shop has to look its best; every detail needs to be thought about. We work hard on that.

“I’m still really involved with all the creative side of it. Actually, too involved. But I’m as passionate about it now as ever. “The missus has to tell me to come home. I live, eat and breathe this place.” The Psyche story began in 1982 when Steve opened Sliced Tomatoes on Station Road in Redcar. Named after Steve’s own “punk meets new romantic” band which failed to hit the big time, the former ICI engineer and oil rigger decided to make and sell the type of clothes he loved to wear. “There was nothing like it in the North-east. People came from miles to buy our jeans and frilly shirts. “The men’s dressing rooms in Psyche are bigger than the whole shop was. But that was the start". He’s come a long way from tie-dying his own T-shirts and spraying bleach on jeans in his front room. This year Steve and his buyers, among which is his own partner of nine years, fiance Alex Thomas, attended all the major trade fairs and catwalk shows in Milan, Florence, Paris and London. They have secured a two-year deal to provide all the suits for the Middlesbrough FC squad and have royal approval from Savile Row for its tailoring services. Dad-of-two boys, Steve first moved the business to Middlesbrough in 1984 when a now-hairdressers on Linthorpe Road became his first more fashion-aware store.

Communication Skills Assignment 2 - Research / Pitches

Task One

I taken a Review of Brotherhood from EmpireOnline.com I chose this movie because Brotherhood is very similar to my TV Show idea "Borohood" because it is the same genre, and will be the same type of Movie but just set in a different location. In this review they have rated a 3/5 Stars, which shows they thought the movie was average, not bad and not amazing but they enjoyed it. They have said it shows the life of London, showing the environment and the behavior that goes on in the streets of London.

Film and Video Editing Techniques - Assignment 2

In 1895 the Lumiere Brothers invented Cinematographe. The Cinematographe was a camera, printer and projector. Movies using this were only one minute long and they held many private showings before the official reveal in December 1895. Then in 1901 Edwin S. Porter came along and showed people that Film didn't have to be all just one still image for one minute. In 1908 D.W Griffiths made a movie titled "For Love of Gold" which featured the first ever continuity cut when a scene cut. Griffiths then showed that the use of different camera angles can improve the quality of the Movie showing more emotions on peoples faces. It was also the first American Movie with a close up camera angle. Then in 1915 D.W Griffiths released "The Birth of a Nation" based on the novel "The Clansman" The movie included Camera techniques such as long shots, iris effects, and panning shots all techniques used in today's Movies. Also the use of sound for the first time showed the Movie would be more interesting and enjoyable for the audience. In 1920 Lev Kuleshov created the Kuleshov Effect which was a montage effect which Lev thought the audience would respond more as it would create more idea's from the average movie. 

 

In the early 1950's some people were using New Video Tape Recorders, which they would then use a knife to cut the tape reel from the recorder and then stick it together to edit the Movie they just shot. In the 1970's/80's a huge improvement was made in the Film industry. As more equipment was available to purchase and with the invention of the Flying erase-head it allowed New video and audio material to be recorded. People were then also introduced to the Linear Editing. This is where a scene closer to the beginning of the video tape needed to be changed in length, all later scenes would need to be recorded onto the video tape again in sequence. Then not far after that clips could be played simultaneously through a vision mixer. A popular system in the 1970's/80's was the U-Matic equipment. A system that used two tape players and one tape recorder, and edits were done by automatically having the machines back it up. Then in 1980's/90's the smaller beta equipment came about and it then with more complex controllers making creating a Movie easier as the years go on. 

As you get to the 2000's Almost everyone owns a Home Computer that either has access to Windows Movie Maker or Apple's iMovie software's so anyone is able to create their own Movies at home. You also no have equipment such as Video Tape Recorders, then moving on to Digital Camera's. Later on in the 2000's you now have High Definition quality Camera's, and now with the New 4K Quality... The quality of movies are getting better each year with New Equipment and Editing techniques. People also now have their hands on very advanced Editing software, and are now able to add features like Titles, Credits, Special Effects, Audio Sound Effects and On Screen Graphics in a very simple way. There are also many ways of distributing a Movie, weather it is DVD, Blu-Ray or Online via Netflix, Google Play Store, App Store or Amazon Prime Instant Video.

There are many different purposes of why we edit films. One being to engage the viewer with storytelling. If the Movie didn't have any speech, storytelling or anything. The viewer would probably get very bored and would lose interest quickly. Storytelling can be done by adding music to go with the mood, for example if it is a happy mood you might have a pop song playing. However if it's a sad scene you might have somebody playing a violin. All of this adds to the storytelling in a movie and engages with the viewer more by playing with the emotions. Editing is also very important because if you didn't edit movies, they would all have to be done in one take, making the production very long. Also if the film wasn't edited with effects, music, titles, and cuts... The movie would be very dull and boring and people would lose interests very quickly. The use of changing the color of the footage has been used for many years now as doing this creates a different mood for the scene. Adding a color effect such as darkening the footage, will create a dark, sad and depressing mood. Where if the color has been changed so bright colors stand out it will show that the mood of the scene is an uplifting happy mood. For example, this scene from 22 Jump Street shows how colors can be effective when showing what kind of mood and is also a good example of a split screen shot.


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riCt1hEUp5o

The 180 Degree Rule is used in most movies, when it features two people with just dialog. It is a rule that Movies should stick too, but it has been broken many times especially in a classic movie from the 1980's "The Shining" directed by Stanley Kubrick. The 180 Degree Rules is a guideline that states two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship throughout the scene. Continuity editing gives the viewer the impression that the action unfolds with spatiotemporal consistency. In most films, logical coherence is achieved by cutting to continuity, which emphasizes smooth transition of time and space. 

A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly if at all. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time. Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character often off-screen, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.Cutting to soundtrack is the technique where each cut is influenced by the style of music heard in the background. So if the scene is a sad one, perhaps at a funeral, a slow song will be heard. If there is a car chase scene, the music will be fast and upbeat.

Entrepreneur

What is an Entrepreneur?

A person who sets up a business or businesses, and takes on financial risks in hope of making profit.

An example of a Entrepreneur is Richard Branson. He started off by starting his own youth-culture magazine called “Student” which sold 50,000 copies. Richard moved to London, and this is where I started his mail-order record company called Virgin in 1969. He then expanded his business by opening up a store and then a recording studio in 1972. It soon became one of the top six record companies in the world with bands such as Sex Pistols and The Rolling Stones. He then sold the company to THORN EMI for $1 Billion as it was struggling to stay financially afloat.

He then founded Virgin Radio in 1993 and then started his second record company in 1996 and the Virgin Group now holds more than 200 Companies in more than 30 countries including the UK, USA, and Australia. He then expanded the business to transport such as Trains and Hot-air balloons, which soon became a huge success, as most trains you see now or get to your destination are Virgin trains.

He also started a Space-Tourism company called Virgin Galactic. He released a project with the test launch of SpaceShipTwo. He then started telling tickets for Virgin Galactic’s Voyages so people could go to space for a big price. 

He also started his own Virgin Mobile Phone Company. Which also became very successful, also leading to creating Virgin TV. Now Virgin TV is a very big competitor against Sky TV, as it provides a similar system and constantly thinking of new idea’s to try take the lead in the battle between TV companies such as Virgin, Sky & BT. This all lead to Richard Branson being on the Forbes “World Billionaires” list with his $2.5 Billion self made fortune which includes his two private islands.

MAgazines

Magazines

Vogue

The front cover of this magazines features a Model, which would instantly appeal to a Female as she might want to know who she is, and about her style and look. It also features a Title saying "50 Classic Looks For Spring" Appealing to Females who are interested in fashion. The colors used are quite bland which it isn't all pink and bright vibrant colors so this would appeal to an older female.

Men's Health

The front cover of this magazine features David Beckham who is a well known name in many industries especially Fitness and Health so having Beckham on the front cover and he is a well known name and face people will be interested. The text on the front has a big title "Get back in shape!" in a large bold title which would appeal to people who are interested in heath and fitness. This magazine will probably appeal to Men over the age of 18.

Rolling Stone

The front cover of this magazine features Adele. Adele is a worldwide famous singer, so having somebody everyone will of seen or heard of will appeal to a lot of people interested in music.

Film and Video Editing Techniques - Assignment 1

Firstly i opened Adobe Prelude, and selected my clips i wanted to import.

Then my clip was imported into Adobe Prelude. I then clicked "Send to Adobe Premier Pro" to send my clip to the editing software.

My clip was then sent to Adobe Premier Pro, and i added it into my timeline.

I then selected the color tab to bring up the section where i can edit the color of my video.

As you can see in the screenshots above I changed many color settings, including the saturation, brightness, contrast and the color scheme. 

Then after i finished editing my movie with the new effects, i exported it into my documents ready to upload to the internet.

I then uploaded my movie to Vimeo, as you can see with the link below.

https://vimeo.com/201852718