2. For this course, the brief was
to create 3 media products
that was on multi platforms
and was to a professional
standard. We created a 5
Minute Extract of a
Documentary, Radio and Print
Advert. To ensure that the 3
media products were linked,
we had to take into account
several factors in which I will
be discussing in this question.
3. Name - 'Split Ends' - Documentary, Radio Advert and
Print Advert
At the beginning of the course during the planning and research stages of the course,
we created the name of our documentary 'Split Ends'. This name has been used
throughout all 3 of our media products and we feel is a suitable and memorable name
for a hair related documentary. We included 'Split Ends' in the graphics at the beginning
of the documentary during the opening sequence, we also included split ends on the
print advert in the bottom left of the screen layered in front of a black box, this is so the
white ‘split ends’ text and documentary schedule can be seen clearly and again adds
emphasis on the name. At the end of our radio advert, there is a similar kind of theme
like the print advert, we followed codes and conventions and radio adverts say the
documentary name, day/date, time then channel like on our print advert. By
emphasising the name of the documentary, audiences are far more likely to remember
the name and be more inclined to recognise the documentaries genre and view it.
4. Music - ‘5 Colours In Her Hair’ - Documentary and
Radio Advert
In the production of our media products we used music, the music had to fit certain criteria and
had to be relevant to our genre. Not only this, but we needed the music to fit the tone and vibe of
the documentary, we had to have an upbeat song that was fun and appealing to our target
audience of both men and women and aged 16+.
In the planning stages of our documentary we came to the conclusion to use 5 colours in her hair
by McFly. This song is fun, recognisable and iconic when people think about hair and Music.
When we were producing the documentary we included this song in the opening sequence of the
documentary, as t is upbeat, fun and creates and eyectaching, professional feel to the
documentary immediately when watching it. With the jump cuts from person to person, we had to
time the beat of the song to the timings of cuts, when we accomplished this, we were very happy
with the end result. After producing the documentary, we had to create the radio advert and
decided to link the media products together in unison, we used the same song in the radio advert.
This link immediately fit the radio adverts style as we cut the main chorus and used this in the
advert. By linking the song in with these 2 media products, audiences can associate the
documentary with the radio advert when watching our documentary.
5. In the documentary and radio advert, we had to record a voice over. To do this we recorded
the voiceover with professional microphones in a radio studio and used a software called
audacity to do so. When we had recorded the voiceover, this was then exported as an MP3 file
and imported onto our documentary, cut into topic sections and rearranged accordingly to fit
the documentary. In the recording process, we also had the voice over woman say the channel
name, schedule date, time and tagline which was ‘hair today, gone tomorrow’ which links with
the print advert. We made sure that there was sections of the documentary voice over that
could be cut and used within our radio advert. It was imperative that the radio advert voice over
had all the key parts of information and was informal so that the audience could relate, find it
fun and entertaining as well as informative. Therefore i believe that the voice over suits all 3
media products, however the voiceover was only used for the documentary and radio advert. I
believe it was a successful outcome and that the documentary and radio advert are interlinked
very well and audiences could definitely relate and see that these products are linked.
6. In the production of our documentary we needed to include VOX pops. VOX pops
allow the documentary to be broken up, allow fluidity of the documentary and
allow audiences to connect with the general publics opinions, views of answers to a
question. In our documentary we included 2 sets of VOX pops and included VOX pop
fragments in our radio advert. We made sure that we included VOX pops in both of
these media products so that the audience would be able to relate and see their
opinions and answers to questions in the documentary. In the radio advert we
wanted fragments of the VOX pops to allow a connection from one media product to
another, so audiences would be able to recognise when viewing our documentary
the VOX pops that were used in the radio advert and on hearing the advert, they
get a sense of the documentaries genre, topics and vibe.
7. Tagline - ‘Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow’ - Radio and
Print Advert
The tag line 'hair today, gone tomorrow' was created during the planning
stages of our course. We wanted this tagline to be used in all 3 of our media
products. However, once we recorded the voice over, we decided not to use
it in our documentary as it had no relevance and would not fit into any
context. So we then decided to use it towards the end of the radio advert to
conclude it, make audiences be able to remember it and use it on the print
advert, so then people would find it eye catching and relate it to the genre
and get them thinking of the content that would be involved in our
documentary, creating curiosity and an increase in audience views.
8. Continuing to follow codes and conventions of real media products we
followed this code and convention in order to make our products the most
professional it could be. This code and convention for our radio advert was
so state the documentary name, day, time then channel name to allow
audiences to remember the most vital information the most, as audiences
retain the most information towards the end of a radio advert. We wanted to
ensure the channel number was emphasised to make sure audiences knew
what channel our documentary was broadcast on.
For the print advert, the code and convention was to centrally position the
channel 4 logo on the right hand side of the print advert. And the colour of
the logo had to contrast from the back ground. By following codes and
conventions of real media products, audiences can relate and see how
professional our media products are and see they are eye catching.
9. When scheduling our radio advert in our initial plans, we wanted To make
sure that the documentary was shown when our target audience watched
TV, we used the data from the first questionnaire we produced.
We wanted to follow codes and conventions of real media products, at the
end of existing radio adverts for documentaries, the schedule information is
at the end of the advert so audiences can retain the information and not be
overwhelmed by information that is staggered through the advert. On
channel 4 print adverts the schedule information is in the bottom left of the
screen so it's eye catching and all the information needed is in one area, not
spaced across the page so it is simplistic yet effective.
