Elise Grundy- A2 media studies: January 2011

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

We used an iphone to take photos to evidence some of the production- photographs.

We used the radio studio to record the voice overs for both the documentary and the radio trailer.

I used adobe photoshop for the production of the newspaper advertisement. There was a variety of drop shadows and glows added to emphasise the jeans in the middle of the advert as this is the main focus of the documentary, therefore the print ad needs to convey this. Coloured boxes were also added around the font- as this is conventional of channel 4 print advertisements.

I used adobe premiere pro to edit both the documentary and the radio trailer. I used it to cut the documentary and add music beds, I also used it to add transition effects to the ends of interviews. The titles were also added on to the opening titles using this programme and name logos were added onto interviews.

I used microsoft word to produce my running order and the scripts for both my radio trailer and the voice over for the documentary itself, I also used excel to present my questionnaire results.

I used the Internet to conduct my secondary research into audiences and also to research professional documentaries to gain information on codes and conventions.

I used a DV camera and a tripod to film all of the material for the documentary: interviews, vox pops, cutaways, opening titles. The tripod was used in all interviews to create a solid frame, and with the vox pops as this is conventional. However, with the cutaways I used the tripod to create panning and tracking shots, as it is conventional for the cutaways to be more creative to engage the audience. I also used microphones attached to the camera to give a better sound quality. I made sure the microphone was showing in the vox pops as this is a convention of a vox pop.

I used a stills camera to evidence the production of the documentary and also to create the newspaper advert.

I used microsoft paint to print screen and save images as jpegs. For example, the print screens of editing in process, so that I could save them and add them to my blog.

I used a Dictaphone to record my audience feedback for my evaluation, and then put this into windows movie maker.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

To conclude, I feel that all of the products are linked together through their conventions and theme. Clearly, they are all addressing the fact that the programme is based on denim and both of the ancillary products have the same purpose; to promote the documentary. Therefore, the colour scheme, slogan, titles etc all have to link to create an identity for the documentary itself.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?

All of the media products which we have created follow the codes and conventions of a professional documentary, as we researched these and stuck to them. They do not deviate from them or challenge them, as this was not necessary.
For example, here is a list of the codes and conventions and here is how I have followed them:
*Voice-over/presenter- The same voice over (voice of god presenter) has been used in both the documentary and the radio trailer.
*Cutaways/images illustrating the documentary- all of the cutaways or images (e.g levi image) are illustrating what is being talked about in the interviews/voice over. They are also used to engage the audience.
*Interviewee looking at camera with looking space next to them- All of the interviews are framed with space to their right, and they are looking at the camera not at the interviewer.
*Graphics/visuals- We used name tags to inform the audience of who they are watching/ who is being interviewed and we also labelled the archive footage to accompany the voice over.
*Documentary suits target audience and channel- We did research into this so that we were certain where our documentary belonged and we also made sure that we established our target audience and based our choices around this.
*Vox pops- We made sure we included these, sticking to the conventions of vox pops themselves.
*Narrative structure- We did our best to ensure that this flowed.
*Appropriate mise en scene- In all of our interviews we tried to make sure that the mise en scene reflected the documentary itself (including denim in the shot as with the charity shop interview and the New Look interview) or that the mise en scene reflected the interviewee themselves (creative background with the designer interview).
*Hand held camera work- We did use this at certain points for our cutaways to be more creative, however as this is usually used to add drama we did not use this much.
*Informative/ factual- We used the voice over and visuals to give the audience facts and statistics, also the interview questions that we asked were chosen as we thought it would provoke an interesting and informative response.