english_9_lm_draft

4. Begin small. The beginning is sometimes the easiest if you have a lot of
ideas, but you might want to start out with the simplest and easiest of
pages to get you into the mood. This page is the Back Cover, or the
Autographs Page.
o Open up your graphics design program (ex: GIMP, Photoshop,
Paintshop, etc.) and start a new page with the dimensions:
612(width) x 792(height). This is the standard size of printing paper
converted into pixels. Be sure that the background is white.
o You may want to use a simple, small, space-saving design to put
along the bottom of the page. Open up a new layer, and set it to
'transparent.’ This saves you the hassle if you need to update
anything between now and the performance.
o Choose your design. Any colour can be used, but if it's a very bold
design, you might want to set it to 70% opacity. This makes it less
of an eye-sore and more viewer-friendly.
o The text. You may want to use a fancier font than Arial, but you
may want it to remain subtle and readable. See tips for a free text
download website (completely safe). Your program should
automatically bring up a new layer for the text, but if it doesn't,
create a new layer before adding the text. The text should be a
large size, but be sure to keep it at the top of the page and spacesaving.
The autographs page is made so that audience members
can get the cast to sign it for them. That means you need a lot of
room. If need be, increase the space between letters until the word
"Autographs" fully covers the span of the top without you having to
increase the size. (By increasing the spacing between letters, you
can make the word grow width-wise without growing length-wise. A
very useful feature.)
o If you want, you can add in smaller words at the bottom "Designed
by: Your name,” but some designers choose not to for the humble
o
aspect.
Save the image in the format of your program. For example, GIMP
2.0's format is: .xcf. Be sure to save it in your program's format so
that you
DRAFT
can edit it later if needed.
o Save the image again, this time in your desired format (.jpg, .gif,
.png, etc.).
o You're done with the first page!
5. Cast Page. This is by far the most complicated page. It seems easy
enough at first but it is deceitful. You forget names, characters, misspell
names. Some people like their name spelled a certain way, and
sometimes people drop out. The extras are constantly changing and all
the while you're trying to make more room on the page! Tread carefully,
April 10, 2014
my friend, for you tread on a minefield.
o
Get the list of names. You can ask the director, co-director, or
anyone in charge for this. It'd be wisest to ask if they have a list of