The document provides an evaluation of Joy Buck's production process research and planning for their final media production project. Some key strengths identified include existing products providing common features to incorporate, being organized in planning, and including music and sound effects. Weaknesses discussed are the questionnaire and limited audience for research feedback, and a lack of additional pre-production work to support planning. The evaluation reflects on how strengths informed the final product and how identified weaknesses could have been improved.

1. Evaluation
Joy Buck

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research
In my research, there were some strengths and weaknesses. Some more
obvious than others. The main strength of my research was the existing
products. This included common features brought up within the existing
products. There were also some weaknesses, these included, the
questionnaire and interviews completed within the research and the people I
sent them to (my audience).
As I had said, the main strength of my research was the existing products. The
existing products were products that had a similar concept to what I was
going to create for my final product. I had done six of these. Two were
television talk shows and the remaining four were podcasts online.
I had three strengths to my existing products. These were the common
features between them. They were atmosphere, music and sound effects. I
also, wanted to include these in my final product as they stood out in these
existing ones.

4. Research
One strength of my research was picking up the atmosphere of the existing
products. All my existing products had an atmosphere that had been created
by the things and people in them. Atmosphere was one common aspect of
my research.
I wanted to make the atmosphere relaxed, so that the audience can feel like
they can sit and be entertained by listening to the show. This was because all
the existing products that I had chosen had laughter within, which created a
relaxed atmosphere. For example, one existing product, that was chosen by
me, was ‘The Ellen Show’. This was a talk show about anything, with its host,
Ellen DeGeneres making people laugh. She made people laugh, on her show,
by making jokes and playing games. The aim of the show was to make people
smile and laugh. Another example was the podcast, ‘All Things Internet
Podcast’, by Rachel and Gwen Ballenger. They wanted to make people smile
because their podcast was for entertainment.

5. Research
They, also, played games, were laughing at one another and making jokes.
This made the audience smile and feel entertained and relaxed. This was not
serious at all, which is what I wanted to create when making my FMP.
These, existing products influenced and helped my final product, as I had
tried to make the audience laugh by adding jokes made by the second host.
These weren’t as funny as the ones in popular podcasts and tv. But It created
a relaxed atmosphere, which is what I was going for.

6. Research
Another common feature, in my existing products, that was a strength in my
research, was music. Music was a commonly placed in introductions of podcasts
and television shows that I had researched. It was also placed throughout some
products. What I had noticed in the music, that I had researched, was that most of
the music played came across as excitable to audiences. This got them wanting to
listen to the show and may have them dancing. For example, the podcast ‘This
Game Changed My life’ was about games changing people aspirations for what
they wanted to be when they were older. This podcast used music, for the
introduction. They used instruments, such as the electric guitar and electric
keyboard. This made the music sound like pixels and the upbeat tone to the music
got listeners hyped to listen to the podcast.
This existing product, I researched, helped to produce and influenced me to make
music in my piece that got the audience excited. I did this in my final piece by
including fast tempos and upbeat chords that make the audience excited to hear
my show.

7. Research
Finally, the last strength of my research, commonly in my existing products was sound
effects. Existing products used sound effects to bring their products to life, through
sound. These are often convincing and realistic and may not have been easy to create.
For example, the podcast, ‘Short Cuts’ is about adventures and stories in life. These
stories are told by the guests on the show. When the guests are telling their stories,
the editors add in convincing and realistic sound effects to bring their stories to life.
The guest talks about a phone call, the dialling and ringing sound effects can be heard
after the voice stops etc. This really sets the scene for the story being told as you
cannot watch it, you can only listen. Also, It helps you to create the story imagery in
your head of what the story looks like.
I was inspired by this, existing product. This helped me by inspiring me to add sound
effects to my final product. I did this when making adverts. I added realistic sound
effects to the ads, such as the ‘Slicer Pro’ ad. I recorded my parent's car leaving and
entering the garage. Another sound effect that I created was the beeping noise that I
shopping market check out would make. I created this by making a slightly muffled
beeping noise into the mic of my phone. I sounded good but not as good as the pros!
This was for the ad, ‘Super 60’.

8. Research
However, with all these strengths, there were bound to be weaknesses. These were
the questionnaire, interviews and the people I sent them to.
One weakness of my research was the questions in my questionnaire and interview.
For me, thinking of ideas for what to ask my audience about the product I want to
create, was hard. This was because I already knew what I wanted to create there and
then. I had to learn to allow some influence of the audience to show through my final
piece. I just didn’t know where to begin as I had already had things planned. I had to
change plans. I started with asking the audience things that I did not know yet. For
example, How long do you think the adverts should last for? Or Should the host
introduce the guests or vice versa? etc. These questions were multiple choice
questions and would only influence my final product a tiny bit.
I could have improved the questions by asking the audience general questions about
audio talk shows. I shouldn’t have just focused in one area and not just multiple
choice. Even then, I do not think that would have effected my product much, I think I
would have had a similar product to what I have now.

9. Research
Another weakness of my research was the people who I had sent to the
questionnaires to. I had finished some questionnaires what my product could
involve. When I sent this, we were not allowed in college because of COVID-
19. I involved me staying at home not knowing the contacts of people in my
tutor group. So, I sent the survey to my friends and family. I had five
responses. These responses all said similar things and where obvious which
choice they went for. These people were aged between 17 and 58. Which I
could have had more people in the age bracket of 20-40. There was only one
person in that bracket. I could have sent it out to more people, more of my
family and friends etc. I could have even asked my tutor if he could send the
survey out to the tutor group.
This may have improved my work by having more difference in responses and
opinions. Leading to more people having a say in what my work should be
like. This may have had a medium effect on what my work could have been
like, Such as How long the music was? Or Whether, I should have had a
summery before the intro ? etc.

10. Planning
There were some strengths and weaknesses to planning my final product. The
strengths to planning my FMP were being organized, creative and knowing
what to do if something went wrong. However, the weakness to this was that
I could have contributed some other pre-production work to my planning.
This could have been improved.
One strength to my planning was that I was organized. Being organized in my
work was key to making a good pre-production plan. It involved me making
sure I knew what was specifically going to happen in my work. For example, I
made some schedules for when I was going to play music in my piece. Also,
for what sound effect and risk factors could be included in my piece. This was
a strength, in my planning, because I wanted and did refer to my plan when
ever I was stuck or forgot what I was doing. This helped my product to
become better and improve as in production I was constantly referring to the
pre-production, planning PowerPoint.

11. Planning
Another strength, when creating my plan, was being creative. Being creative
is a key strength when making a script for a radio talk show. I created a script
for my final piece, this took a whole day. I was creative as I produced this
script off a general idea. My creative mind made it more specific to the extent
of what the characters were saying. My ideas bloomed into a big script. With
the help of my other planning, music schedule etc., I was able to make a
thirteen-page script, knowing the specific details, such as character speech
and voice directions etc. This helped my product to improve as I had
developed it from an idea to a product plan.
Being organized and creative allowed me to combine these strengths and
make risk factor and health and safety graphs. These were a strength for me
as they told me what to do if I find myself in a certain situation. For example, I
lost my memory stick when walking to college, the solution would be to
either back up my work before I loose it or to save it in multiple places or find
it! This was just another resource for help, even though I did not need it. This
helped my product as I knew what I was going to do even if I was stuck for
ideas. This was because I had a plan.

12. Planning
However, there was a weakness to my planning. This weakness was, I did not
do any other pre-production work to go towards my planning. For this, we
were told to complete some pre-production work to add towards the
planning. I had no idea of what more to create to put towards my planning
work. So, I inserted the interviews and questionnaires from my research as I
had thought that I could class as pre-production work too. I doubt that this
does, because it was part of my research and research is different to planning.
This could have been improved with more additional work put towards my
planning. I could have searched for inspiration for this and got inspired to
make another mini project that goes beside my planning.
In my opinion, I think that this would have a small effect towards my final
product. If I had planned a mini side project, such as a poster promoting my
product etc., I could have had more marks added to my final mark in this
course.

13. Time Management
I managed my time well as I did complete my final product on time. So, yes.
This was because I was organized in my planning and created a schedule for
production. I followed this loosely as I was behind on the schedule in the
middle two weeks of production. I caught up in the last week of production as
I finished production on the last Wednesday, when we were meant to finish.
Along side production, I had to make a production log, and this took half of
production time up as I write so much in detail.
I do wish I had more time to spend on the project. This is because I want to
improve some things about my final product. These two things were the
adverts and entertainment music for the product.
I would have improved these two things for my product if I had more time for
this project. Here’s what I would have done...

14. Time Management
I would have improved the adverts by shifting the other parts of the project
over more time to produce more ‘marked’ out time for the adverts. This
would have given each ad 15 bars which is 30 seconds in normal time. Instead
of 8 bars that they have now. Doing this, I could have added more detail
within them, Such as said a telephone number or website link. This would
have made more sense to the audience too. For example, the ‘Slicer Pro’ car
ad plays and there is no phone number in it, the character Kim says, “Call the
number to receive your free test drive!”. It does not make sense.
Lastly, I would have improved the entertainment music, if I had more time by
researching and gaining inspiration to create a better Pop music track. This
would have had more of a variation in what was in the song, lyrics, different
sounds, voices etc.
I would have done these things if I had spent more time on the project.

15. Technical Qualities
For my technical qualities, I will be comparing my work to two products. My first
product is the, American television show, ‘The Ellen Show’. My second product is,
the BBC Sounds podcast, ‘This Game Changed My Life.’
The Ellen DeGeneres Show is an American television show that is a talk show. In
my opinion, this show is similar to my product is some ways, such as the relaxed
atmosphere they both share etc., but obviously different in other ways, such as it
being a television show rather than a radio show.
One similarity, between my product and ‘The Ellen Show’ is the relaxed
atmosphere they both have in common. The atmosphere of these two products
are the same because they include funny comedy and jokes that make us feel
relaxed and entertained.
For example, my product contains comedy, in which the second quest is too over
the top. She constantly thinks that the second host, Lara, doesn't like her as it’s
correct. When both these characters interact, they sound entertaining to the
audience as they don’t get along, causing the guest to storm out creating a funny
relaxed drama, sort of feel.

16. Technical Qualities
Similarly, ‘The Ellen show’ has guests on the show, who are sometimes like
this. For example, guest, Jessica Simpson was on the show. The interview
started when Ellen could not keep a straight face as Simpson was rambling on
about random stuff, it was funny to Ellen and her audience. Ellen broke the
fourth wall to the audience several times. This created a relaxed, funny
atmosphere for the audience, similar to my product.
However, my product is different to ‘The Ellen Show’ because, most obviously,
my product is a radio talk show and ‘The Ellen Show’ is a television talk show.
Apart from the added sight aspect to ‘The Ellen Show’, this show has other
differences to my product too.
One of these being that there is only one host on this show, Ellen DeGeneres.
In my product, ‘Conversations’, there is two hosts, Kim and Lara. My two hosts
bounce of each other, when speaking to one another, Ellen talks to the guest
and the conversation bounces back and forth between them. In my product,
when the guest comes on to the show, there is more conversation as there is
one other person in the show. Ellen does not have this.

17. Technical Qualities
Another similarity between my product and ‘The Ellen Show’ is that we both
have music included in the shows. This is all types of music, introduction, sub
sectional music, entertaining music (pop) etc. This is similar because Ellen
gets the audience excited to watch the show because of the bouncy sounding
instruments add to the relaxed atmosphere. I do this in my product too, I get
the audience excited to listen to the show because of the same reason. We,
share, an upbeat tone to the introduction music which adds to the audience’s
excitement.
Another difference between my product and ‘The Ellen Show’ is that she has
a live audience in her studio. I do not as I am on the radio. It is possible to
have a live audience on the radio, but not to the scale of Ellen’s.

18. Technical Qualities
‘This Game Changed My Life’ is, a BBC Sounds podcast, about how video games
change people’s lives. There are two hosts, who host the show, Aoife Wilson and
Julia Hardy. This is the first thing I noticed about their product in comparison to
mine, it is similar.
This is a similarity to my product as it has two leading, female, hosts too. Looking
from the perspective of if you were ‘traditional’, you would not lead a show, this
would be a man’s job. This brings us into the modern world and attracts more of
an audience to the two products. This is because more people are into this style
of show more than traditional as we are living in a modern society now. This
shows the equal rights that women have gained though out history.
Similarly, ‘This Game Changed My Life’ has two guests come on the show, like my
product does. However, this is different as on my show the guest's stories are not
connected with each other in any way. For example, the two guests on my show,
Maybel and Mrs C, are not ‘on air’ at the same time as they come on one after
another. Whilst, the BBC’s guests are. The guests on this show are always
connected in some way. For example, an episode titled ‘Laurie and Josh : Love and
Warcraft’ is about two people who fall in love over a video game.

19. Technical Qualities
Another similarity, between the two products, is that the guests come and tell
the story from their perspective. It doesn’t matter about the genre; the
guests tell their biography at the start of the interview. In each product, I had
noticed this. For example, in my product, Meybel tells the audience of how
she grew up, “In a two bedroomed council flat.” In ‘This Game Changed My
Life’, a guest, Laurie, tells us how she grew up, “Mum and I, actually got in
fights about who could use the computer for how long.” This is a common
way to start a relaxed interview, “how did you grow up?”.
Another difference, between the two products, is there are different genres
for what the talk shows are about. This is obvious to everyone, that there is a
difference in genres. My product is has the genre of lifestyle and ‘This Game
Changed My Life’ is the genre of video games. For example, my product has
information about celebs and how normal people help their local community,
the BBC’s product has information in every episode about video games
changing people's lives.

20. Aural Qualities
In my opinion, my work sounds good. This was because it was creative. It was
creative because of the strong features that make it creative. These included
voice acting and music. These two strong features are aurally pleasing to the
audience as they sound good.
One strong, aurally pleasing part of my product was the voice acting. Firstly, I
liked how clear the character’s voices sounded. This was because I creatively,
transferred the sound files between two apps, on my iPad. These apps were
Voice Memos and Garage Band. I recorded each character’s lines spoken from
each ‘actor’ into Voice Memos. Then, I creatively, transferred the sound file,
from Voice Memos into Garage Band. This is where I could edit the files to
sound clearer. This is aurally pleasing to the audience because they don’t hear
any background noise or mumbling, just clear sound.

21. Aural Qualities
Secondly, one strong, creative voice act, I liked was the character of Mrs
Chesterfield. My sister played as her. She sound overly posh and over the top
in her voice. My sister spoke as her, perfectly. I was so happy when it sounded
this good. She got into the character, to a ‘t’. This is aurally pleasing to the
audience as it doesn’t just sound good, it entertains the audience too,
because of the overly posh accent. She sounds funny even when she’s not
trying to be. I, also, had to be creative when delivering the lines to my sister,
as she is visually impaired. I had to think outside the box, of ‘normal’. I spoke
them to her, one at a time and then she delivered the characters lines
perfectly. This was great as she did not sound like someone who was reading
the lines, because she was not!

22. Aural Qualities
Another strong, creative part of my product is the introduction music. I liked
this music as it sounded good to the human ear, at least mine. It sounded
good to me as it has a bouncy bass to it. This makes the you, the audience,
get up and dance. It is aurally pleasing to the audience as it makes them
excited to be listening to the show. I, creatively, add instruments to the bass
drum, including the bass guitar, clapping and electric keyboard. The bass
drum and guitar are the upbeat, load instrument making the music sound
exciting to the audience. Then, I add in the clapping sound to make this music
sound like it’s for a community as hands work together, like a community.
Finally, I ease off the song with the electric keyboard. This brings the song to a
halt. This is what the audience could be pleased by what they hear.
However, I used this ‘introduction music’ as ending music too. This is weak
and not creative as I could have created a new ending song. This is where
improvements could be made to make the audience aurally pleased.

23. Aural Qualities
I could improve this, weak, non-creative point, by getting inspired to make a
new ending song. I could research into ending songs for television and radio
shows. This could give me some inspiration to be creative and make a whole
new, exciting ending track. This would make the audience, aurally pleased.
Another weak, non-creative part of my project is another music piece. This is
the entertainment music, as I had talked about improving it in time
management. I want to improve this because, right now, It does not seem
that grasping for the audience. It does not grab their attention. In my opinion,
it seems boring as in parts of the song it is the same part over and over. I will
improve this by deleting this track and researching different pop songs. These
could include lyrics and more variation in tune. This will allow me to gain
inspiration and write a new song, that hooks the audience in.

24. Aural Qualities
Another weak, non-creative part of my product is how the adverts sound. I
say this because they don’t really make sense. For example, in the ‘Slicer Pro’
car ad, it does not say any type of phone number to call and get your free test
drive. After the ad, Kim, says “Call the number now to get your free test
drive.” This does not make sense. To improve this I could first make the
adverts longer by shifting the rest of the tracks over to create more space.
Then, I could add in information, such as saying telephone numbers and
website addresses. This will make sense and sound pleasing to the audience.

25. Audience Appeal
I have appealed to my target audience in three ways. These included the
music, voices and entertainment. These specific categories are based on what
my audience wanted, for my talk show, in my questionnaire.
One piece of my product that appealed to my target audience was the music.
This was, specifically, the introduction music and subsection music. I had
asked my target audience, in my questionnaire, “Would you rather a radio talk
show start with a summery or the introduction music?”. Overall, my audience
wanted the introduction music to be the first thing that you hear in my
product. This piece of music appealed to them because it had an upbeat tone
to it. This was because of the bass instrument that set the tone for the whole
piece. This got them excited and intrigued to hear the rest of the product.

26. Audience Appeal
Another piece of my product that would appeal to my target audience is
voices. Specifically, the second guest’s voice. This was the character of Mrs
Chesterfield, an older, posh, rich actress, who came on the show, “To talk
about my past”. My sister played as her, as I had said before and was great for
this role. Her posh voice was over the top. I had said to my audience, in my
questionnaire, “How long would you have a guest come on the show for?”.
Overall, the audience wanted the guests to come on the show for five
minutes. This makes this actresses voice appeal to my target audience
because her voice might get on the audience nerves, So I had put each guest
part for five minutes long, just like they suggested. This should appeal to
them.

27. Audience Appeal
Linking back to the second guest’s voice, another part of the product that
would have appealed to my audience, greatly, is entertainment. In my
questionnaire, I had asked the audience, “why would you listen to a talk
show?”. In a summery, most people said that they would listen to a radio talk
show because they might have an interest in a topic on the show, want
information from it and for entertainment. The audience would have
appealed to my radio talk show because they wanted “entertainment” from
it. For example, an entertaining part of my show was when Mrs C, did not
have a good relationship with, second host, Lara. This caused entertaining
drama for the audience causing them to be appealed to my radio talk show,
Conversations.
In conclusion, I think that my target audience, would be appealed to my radio
talk show as the music, voice and entertainment parts of my product appeal
to them, greatly as explained.

28. Bibliography

29. Bibliography
This section is mainly for Technical Qualities.
The Ellen Show
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheEllenShow/videos
Jessica Simpson comparison (timecode 3:16 - 4:26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfDjNXRzH-8
Ellen’s theme song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOUz20eUYTs
This Game Changed My life
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08fzjpq

30. Peer
Feedback

31. Feedback 1
• What did you like about the product?
– Kept interest of the listener.
– Catchy music.
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– Adverts contradict each other. It says “20% off” is
the same as “buy one get one free”. They are not.

32. • What would you rate this? (Highlight the
appropriate term.)
‘Excellent’ ‘Good’ ‘Fair’
‘Improvement needed’
Feedback 1

33. Feedback 2
• What did you like about the product?
– Some bits were catchy, like the car advert.
– Music was good.
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– Get more exciting people on the show because
those people were boring. This could make the
show targeted to older people.
– Introduction music was too long. Make it shorter.

34. • What would you rate this? (Highlight the
appropriate term.)
‘Excellent’ ‘Good’ ‘Fair’
‘Improvement needed’
Feedback 2

35. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
– The whole product was catchy and upbeat.
– I liked listening to the range of people on the show.
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– In the interviews, the quest’s voices were a bit quiet.
This may have just been the device, the product was
shared on.
– For the party time song, you could add a voice singing
lyrics along with the song.

36. • What would you rate this? (Highlight the
appropriate term.)
‘Excellent’ ‘Good’ ‘Fair’
‘Improvement needed’
Feedback 3

37. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer
feedback?
– The adverts not making sense. I could improve
these by adding more time for details (phone no.
etc.)
– Lyrics being added to the ‘party time song’. I could
improve this by adding some lyrics in or making a
new song.

38. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you disagree with from your peer
feedback?
– The introduction music being too long as I think that 30
seconds is the right amount of music for this product.
– Getting more exciting people on the show as it was quite
hard for me to make those guests as it is.
– The guest's voices being too quite, I think that this was just
the device, you were listening to my product on as the
sound clearer on a laptop. If this was the case, I can’t
improve it as I (and everyone) were stuck at home when
making this and had to adapt with the equipment, I had at
home.

39. Peer Feedback Summary
To make my product more based upon my peer feedback, I will make
improvements to the adverts, introduction and the entertainment music
(party time song). This will ensure that my peers will be more appealed to my
piece and make their rating of my piece increase.
• To improve my adverts, I will make them longer to fit in more information.
This information could include a phone number, website address etc. I will,
also, re-record bits in the adverts that do not make sense or contradict
each other.
• To improve the introduction music, I will make it shorter. I will do this by
fitting the more exciting parts of the introduction into a smaller time
frame.
• To improve the entertainment music, I will add lyrics to it. I will make sure
these fit the style of music that is played. If these do not, I can re-write a
song that focuses on lyrics singing along with the music.