Evaluation

Question 1. In what ways does your media product use/develop/challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I have followed the codes and conventions of real and professional media products throughout the stages of construction of the documentary. I have not tried to change or develop the conventions in any way.

These still images were taken from a channel 4 documentary "The Twins Who Share a Brain" and they show how professionals use cutaways. The top image is a cutaway showing the babies during an operation then it goes onto the mother talking about them and then goes to a still image of the children when they are older whilst the mother is still talking.

We have used this technique in our documentary as in the designer's interview he talks about dressing the celebrities and designing his own clothes this is why we have used the cutaways of his own creations.

Narrative Structure; The voice over helps the narrative to flow as the documentary has a linear narrative meaning that it will be shown in chronological order. The order was sorted out during the planning stage as we created a running order. This follows the codes and conventions of expository documentaries.

This is another still image taken from the documentary mentioned earlier. This shows a woman talking about the children's condition as she is a doctor. We can tell that she is a doctor because of the mise en scene. We can see her office and brain scans on the computer gives the audience clues.

Compared to this still taken from our documentary. The audience would also get clues to who she is by her mise en scene as we adopted a similar approach. The denim jeans hanging up and the New Look badges tell the audience about her and the documentary.

This is the opening titles from the professional documentary. The title "Body Shock" is the main title as this is a series but this episode is called "The Twins Who Share a Brain". The audience can tell which is which because of the different fonts and colour.

Our documentary follows the conventions of the professional channel 4 documentary as ours is supposed to be a series as well. Therefore, we have chose to have two different types of writing to signify the difference in the title. The colour of the title is blue as it suited the topic of the documentary and also because it is a neutral colour which would attract both male and female.

The captions used in the professional documentary are the same font and colour as the title on the opening sequence to make it consistent throughout.

We used the same technique throughout ours to keep is consistent as well. However, we used a colour block behind it so the writing was clear and easy to see.

The graphics that were the facts were displayed against a black background. As it was telling the audience more detailed information we chose the colour of white for the writing as it seems more believable and follows the codes and conventions. It is also in the same font as the rest of the writing throughout the documentary therefore, it again follows the codes and conventions.

For both of the ancillary texts we studied and researched professional channel 4 radio trailers and newspaper adverts as this is the channel as we would be scheduling our documentary.

For the other ancillary text of the newspaper advert I have followed the codes and conventions by having one main image to attract the audience’s attention which is the denim in the outline. Also I have kept to the codes and conventions by using the channel 4 logo in the middle on the right, putting the title, date and time in the bottom left hand corner and making the slogan bigger on the left but higher.

Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

To link both the radio trailer and newspaper article together the slogan “It’s to die for” is used as it is telling the audience a message about the programme and also relating to the print image. This was chosen as the slogan as it's catchy and the audience would be intrigued by it. It relates to the programme stating that many people would "die" for their obsessions. This is visually shown through the main image on the print advert as we can see denim acting as a dead body with white outlines. Therefore, this connotes that the documentary will be like an investigation about denim telling the audience everything they need to know.

The effectiveness of the ancillary texts is also due to the Channel 4 logo in both texts, which is the right channel for the target audience. We found this out from our research questionnaires that this is the most watched channel by our target audience.

To link the radio trailer to the documentary the same voice is used. We used an 18 year old girl to connect with our target audience on both the documentary and the radio. Also we used clips from the documentary to link it in and to catch the target audience’s attention to watch the programme.

The radio trailer would be scheduled to go on specific stations that appealed to our target audience, teens to young adults. We also had to make sure that the radio trailer suited the station it was put on therefore, we needed to find a station that was upbeat. E.g. there would be no point putting it on a classical radio station when that station is not aimed at our target audience and also when the radio trailer does not fit in with their style.

Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This is our ideal viewer.

Name: Chelsey Taylor

Age: 18

Occupation: Student

Favourite Music: Pop

Favourite Colour: Blue

Enjoys: Spending time with friends and family and shopping.

In the real world professional media companies always get a focus group of their target audience to watch their production to gain feedback and to make sure that no changes are needed before the production goes public. Focus groups are used to keep costs down, productions cost a lot of money and professional companies try not to waste on unnecessary errors. We used this technique and got a focus group of our peers we showed them our documentary and asked them to give feedback whether it was good or bad. Here is what i have learnt from this.

The perception of the sound quality for the documentary was purely down to opinion for our target audience. Some thought that the voices and music could have been quieter however, some audience members liked it because it was loud and that it got the message across and appealed to the target audience. Also peers thought that it ran very clearly and smooth however, other people thought the sound on some interviews was slightly distaughted. I can understand this point for the New Look assistant interview as the background music in the shop drowned her voice out a bit. We did try to get around this by asking if the music could be switched off in the shop but there was no luck.



We asked the peer group to rate how informative they found it. Most of the viewer's found it informative but there is still room to improve so if i could do it again i would probably change the running order to put something more intriguing and factual into the first five minutes.


I thought that we had chosen the right channel and the audience feedback backed me up. Channel 4 is the right channel for our documentary as it has a specific target audience which is the same as our documentary. This was the only terrestrail channel we could put the documentary on because of the target audience and also because of the tone and style. Our product is informal whereas, ITV and the BBC are known for putting on formal and educational documentaries.



We also asked to target audience to rate how entertaining it was, the majority of them thought it was entertaining and a few thought it was very entertaining. Even though the documentary could be better as there is always ways of improving it this feedback is very pleasing as none of them thought it was boring. This shows that if it were a professional documentary and we had pitched it to our target audience with just a few tweaks the production would be ready to go out.










To get more feedback i posted the documentary on the internet using sites such as Youtube and Facebook. Here are the comments that were left:




For extra feedback i showed the production of the documentary, print and radio to two other people and asked them questions after.








Audience feedback is really important in the media industry and thanks to it I have learnt a lot about the production that I as a creater wouldn't have seen. As I have seen it and I know what message it was trying to convey it is sometimes hard to see the simple things that are wrong with it. Overall, I am happy with the feedback and the constructive critism has helped me gain further knowledge so if I ever create a documentary again I will refer back to it.

Question 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This is a basic overview of the technology used .

Question 4 on Prezi

If this Prezi doesn't work please click the link below.

http://http//prezi.com/izacxrtgwx-g/question-4/

With the ever-growing world of new media and technologies it is getting much easier to copy the professionals. Each stage of this production needed different technologies to make it work so here are some of the technologies I have used.

Research

Planning

During the planning stages we had to use the technology of a still camera to show our ideas for the title sequence of our documentary and also to show the ideas for the mise en scene for each interview we were going to film. Originally we had planned on using a scanner to scan them onto the computer but the sheets were too big as they were A3. We did use a scanner in the planning of the print advert as we decided what idea to use.

After the planning came the construction which was the stage that required the most technology.

Construction

Evaluation

To start our evaluation of we used Microsoft word to created another questionnaire to see how our audience felt about our final pieces. To collect these results we again used Mircosoft Excel so they were easy to understand. I also used websites such as Youtube and Facebook to get further feedback.

During the evaluation i used Windows Movie Maker, Paint and Prezi.com as other technologies to present it in different creative ways.

One piece of technology used throughout each stage was Blogger . This was another main component in putting together all the work. I have used this as it documents every piece of work i have done this year in media.

Without the new advances in technology, works such as documentaries would be nearly impossible for amateurs. However, as the years go by the changes made have a huge impact, making it quicker and easier to get a higher quality final product.

Audience Feedback

This is the audience feedback but also a conclusion below the results to show what i have found.
1) Do you feel that the opening sequence grabbed your attention?
yes-10
no- 0
...Catchy song, good title, it was different, full of exciting, insiteful facts,clever,want to find out what it is, very interesting
Everyone in our focus group liked the opening titles therefore, I can generalise that if it were to be shown to more of our target audience it would be successful.

2) Do you feel that the order of the documentary makes sense?
yes-10
no-0
...Runs nicely, it flows and understandable, runs smoothly, voice over links it together
We got 10 out of 10 for the order making sense, this was due to the running order.

3) Is the documentary smooth enough? In other words is the continuity good?
yes-10
no-0
...Runs nicely, it doesnt skip randomly, flowed well, music, cutaways, interviews all good.
The editing helped us with the good continuity as it flowed well because each element complimented eachother.

4) Do you think that the font and layout of the documentary matches the target audience and the theme of the film?
yes-10
no-0
...Bubbly, bright, blue, maybe a little to small, informal, shows youth, the colour links to denim, good
According to this the target audience would be attracted by the font and the layout as it is informal and shows youth.

5) Do you think that the sound quality is good enough for the documentary?
yes-10
no-0
...Music could have been quieter, Voices are quite loud, could what everyone said clearly, some interviews slightly distaught, run very clearly, loud and smooth
From the rating the sound quality seems good enough however, some peers thought it was too loud so if i could do it again i would make it quieter.

6) Does it compare to professional documentaries?
yes-10
no-0
...Codes and conventions, interviews were good, has a professional feel, good cutaways, i could watch it, Because the interviews are well framed and have good cutaways
All the focus group thought our documentary compared to professional documentaries as we followed the codes and conventions.

7) Do you think that the documentary was informative? Please rate on a scale of one to five. One being not informative at all, five being very informative, please circle.
1-0
2-0
3-3
4-5
5-2
Most people thought our documentary was informative which is good as we wanted them to learn something.

8) Do you think that documentary was entertaining? Please rate on a scale of one to five. One being not entertaining at all, five being very entertaining, please circle.

1-0
2-0
3-5
4-4
5-1
The majority of the audience thought that the documentary was entertaining which we wanted as we did not want the target audience to get bored.

9) Is the print advert eye-catching and relative?
yes-10
no-0
...Unusual, good image, very effective, very interesting, suits subject of denim, good idea
Everyone said that the print advert was eye-catching and related to the documentary which is what we were trying to achieve.

10) Does the radio advert grab your attention and is relative?
yes-10
no-0
...Adds the important and best parts, good music used, other peoples opinions of denim, first clip grabs attention
Everyone also said that the radio grabbed the audience's attention as it pulls the best parts of the documentary together and this is what links it.

11) Do you think the camera work is effective throughout the documentary? Please rate on a scale of one to five. One being noteffective at all, five being very effective, please circle.

1-0
2-0
3-0
4-8
5-2
The target audience felt that the camera work was effective so therefore, the type of shots must have kept them interested.

12) Do you think the interviews are well positioned? Please rate on a scale of one to five. One being not positioned well at all, five being very well positioned, please circle.

1-0
2-0
3-3
4-2
5-5
The interviews were positioned well as the audience have told us. However, there is room to improve the positioning as not everyone rated it 5.

13) Do the documentary, print advert and radio advert relate to each other?
yes-10
no-0
...Same songs, same voice over,understandable, all relate to denim and footage used throughout all, slogan, all relate to denim, same song used in radio and documentary, same voice over for radio and documentary, all involve denim.
Our documentary, print advert and radio advertisment al link in together as they have a few of the same elements in which is what we were trying to achieve.

14) Do you think that the documentary belongs to channel 4?
yes-10
no-0
The focus group agreed with us and thought it belonged to Channel 4 as that is the most watched channel by our target audience.

Overall, there is no major changes needed to our documentary only minor ones. The main point we were trying to find out was if the target audience liked it and they do.

These are audio feedback from our audience.

Newspaper Advertisement Production

At first i changed the logo from black to blue to fit the denim theme.

Then for the information such as the title and time to go on i used a tag off a pair of jeans and edited them. Once that was done, i realised that the logo didn't really look like denim so i used the image and edited it so the denim was seen.

This was how it looked after.

This is a close-up of the logo made out of denim.

Newspaper Advertisement Production

This was the original image, the background used was the floor. I arranged the denim in this way on the floor, took some chalk and drew around it.
Due to the weather i could not use the same floor as we did for the opening titles however, we wanted it to be similar. The floor used earlier was darker this is why i darkened the image on Adobe Photoshop but this meant that the denim looked dull.
I cut the image of the denim and outline out and pasted it onto a new layer.
Here i brightened it again to make it stand out so it would be eye-catching.
Even though i had cut the image out the gaps between the chalk line and the denim were still a lighter shade of grey. For this i had to select different sections paste them onto a new layer and then darken them.
This was the image when i had managed to select all of the lighter bits and get them to the right shade. This also shows the text that we had created we tried to choose a font closest to the channel 4 font. In the end I print screened the font from the Channel 4 website and copied every letter.

This is how i have transformed the print advert from the original picture.
I rotated the image to get it more central so it loked more professional, as it was another layer i had to get rid of the original denim image. I had to select patches of the floor to cover it up.
I got rid of the discoloured patches on the floor to make the picture more professional and to focus all the attention were it is needed.
We decided to use this Channel 4 logo instead of the denim cover one as it may distract the attention away from the main image.

Drafting Newspaper Advertisement

This was our first main idea for our print advert, we were going to have pictures of different aged people walking in denim kind of like the Evolution picture. The slogan was going to be "You're never too old" however, the process was dragging on as we could not get people of different ages.

We came up with a few ideas to replace it, one of them was to take a lot of pictures of denim clothing and we could put them together using Adobe Photoshop to create a big pair of jeans to connote the theme. We realised this advert would be time consuming and as we didn't have that much time left we had to come up with more ideas.

This was the final idea, we decided to get denim clothing and lay it on the floor like a dead body. We then decided to draw around it in chalk like it was a crime scene and to refer to obsessions we created the slogan "It's to die for".

Codes and Conventions of Newspaper Advertisements

• The channel 4 logo is always placed on the right in the middle
• The colour blocks behind the text which states the scheduling is always in the left corner
• Always one bold central image which creates a narrative
• The colours used for text is co-ordinated with the colours in the image
• Positioning statement or a slogan is used to link it with the documentary
• Minimum words are used to keep the taret audience intrigued

The newspaper advertisement could be published in Newspapers such as The Sun and the News of The World.

Recording and Editing Radio Trailer

This is how i edited the soundtrack for the opening titles through Adobe Audition however, the screenshot below was how we edited the radio as we found it much easier to operate through Adobe Premiere Pro.

Codes and Conventions of Radio Trailers

• Different voice at the end to tell us additional information such as the channel and time
• The slogan from the documentary is used in it to link them together
  
• The voice over creates the listener's expectations e.g. a man's voice on the radio means that there will be a male voiceover on the documentary
• The same voice is used in the radio from the documentary
• Sound effects are used to engage the listeners
• The music bed used connotes the theme or topic
  
• Extracts from the documentary should be used to link the radio with the documentary
• The beginning should be clear to grab the audience's attention
  

Since our documentary is to be put on Channel 4 and not on a BBC channel we could not broadcast our radio advertisement on BBC radio stations. However, stations it could be broadcast on are Juice FM and Radio City 96.7.

Scripting Radio Trailer

Charity shop clip- Oh everybody wants denim

Do you wear it?

Repooc shop clip - I wear denim most days

Do you like it?

Charity shop clip - Everyone likes denim

How does it make you feel?

Voxpop clip - it reminds me of my teenage years

So what is it all about?

Voxpop clip - It's durable, it's wearable and it never goes out of fashion

Is it your obsession?

Repooc shop clip - I did a prom dress once out of denim

Denim is popular amongst the nation.

Repooc shop clip - Denim will always be in fashion

What's the obsession with... Denim Sunday 8 o'clock Channel 4

Scripting Voiceover

(Voxpops)
-57% of the general public wouldn’t wear 2 of these items in one outfit
-64% would wear it in any colour
-79% think that this item is very comfy to wear
-67% wear this casually rather than for going out in
-60% of people have their own way of wearing this item
-53% think that men wear it more
(Opening titles)
Denim is worn by millions around the world, dressing up or dressing down, denim can be seen amongst the celebs as high fashion or amongst the ordinary people as high street but why is it so popular? Dating back to the 1930s denim has been transformed into a material that everyone can wear whether it is as simple as a pair of jeans or something more fashionable as a denim jacket and most recently Jeggings.
(New Look Interview)
Denim has changed in appearance dramatically from being men’s work wear to becoming more sexualised and a fashion statement. Levi was a leading component to start the trend off in 19... With its Laundrette advert showing a man take off his Levi jeans while ladies stop and stare. It still has this impression in Hollywood as it can be seen in films such as Dukes of Hazard with Jessica Simpson showing off her daisy dukes.
(Archive Footage)
The trends of fashion are always changing and repeating but Denim is never out of fashion. With different accessories denim can make any look seem up to date. Reusing denim is a smart way of saving money and feeling comfortable in the style you portray.
(Charity Shop Interview)
Denim is so popular that celebs such as Victoria Beckham and Jessica Simpson have been smart enough to get into the business and design their own ranges.
(Repooc Interview)

Editing the production

This is the editing process. At first i found Adobe Premier Pro hard to use however, as the time went along it got easier as i got more familar with the tools such as the cutting tools and the audio gain.

Filming the production

This is Elise and I, Elise recording and me using the microphone as we filmed the New Look Shop Assistant.

We filmed this to show the audience what shop it is.

This is Elise and I filming cutaways for the new look interview.

This is Keeley setting up for the charity shop interview.

This photograph was taken of me and Elise filming the shop name to use as a cutaway.

These 4 pictures are me filming cutaways for the designer's interview to make sure we had enough.

This was me and Keeley filming the designer's shop to show the audience where it is.

These 3 pictures are of Keeley filming more cutaways for the designer's interview.

These last pictures are of Elise in the shot acting as a presenter and me and Keeley filming the voxpops. However, we could not use these voxpops as it breaks the codes and conventions of Expository documentaries as they only use a voice of God and you never see any of the crew or presenters. So therefore, we had to film the voxpops again.