Media Evaluation

1. Kelly Laine

2.  We were given a list of task to choose from,
and after much consideration we chose to
create a 5 minute documentary, with a
magazine spread and a newspaper advert.
 Originally we were going to create a short film
but through many discussions we decided a
documentary would be good, as we wanted to
find out other peoples views on racial identity.

3.  To begin, we first had to look closely at real media products within our
genre, which meant we looked a lot at different types of documentaries.
Our documentary uses forms and conventions of real media products, as
we have taken ideas from ones we analysed. When researching
documentaries we found they all had a specific style, making them
identifiable as a documentary. Our target audience of 18 and above will be
able to identify this as a documentary, as they are people who generally
watch other ones.
 Whilst doing our research we found that for the type of documentary we
wanted to create, we needed to do some interviews with the public. From
watching many clips, we saw that they only showed snippets of a
interviews, as they wanted to show more people. In our main product we
followed the conventions of the real media products by using the same
techniques as we showed a number of people answering the question but
cut it to hear each answer one after another in a quick but controlled
manner. When we had completed it, we uploaded it to YouTube and our
blogs.

4.  Our newspaper advertisement has some similarities to other
documentary advertisement but it also develops them. We found
that many of the newspapers advertisements were quite simple
and straight to the point, however we wanted to make ours
slightly different by using Adobe Photoshop to combine the faces
of the interviewers. We saved it as a JEPEG Image to present it.
 When creating the magazine we looked at other examples and
took ideas. We try to create it in a similar way to others but with
our own style too.

5. This advertisement
is very clean cut
and is straight to
the point.
We wanted ours to
shows what our
documentary is
about, while looking
interesting enough
to catch peoples
attention. As it is a
sensitive and
debatable topic we
wanted the
advertisement to
show that it looks at
grouping people
through stereotypes.

6. Although all of the
magazine articles we
looked at had plain,
bold, black titles, we
wanted to do something
different that
represented our product.
Both articles have photos that are apart
of what they are advertising, which we
found was a good so we added quite a
few photographs from our documentary
to show bits of it, to show the
newspaper advertisement and to show
the makers (us).

7. A lot of the
magazine titles
were plain, with
simple fonts. We
challenged this by
creating a title that
stood out as we
wanted it to have
flag to represent
our subject matter.
We found that many of the magazine pages had a
short interview to get a better sense of the
documentary so we decided to do something
similar.
We put our
advertisement in
the magazine
with out the
added part,
which is for the
newspaper.
However this
allows people to
know what one it
is if they have
seen it or will see
the
advertisement.
Brief explanation of our
process and how we
came about the idea.

8.  The combination between the three products is clear and is easily linked to one
another. I think that they worked very well together and can easily be recognised
as being related to the same thing. As we chose to create a documentary, the
ancillary text for this project was to create a double page listing spread for a
magazine and a newspaper ad. To link the two texts together, we used the poster
we had created for the newspaper advertisement in the magazine to create a clear
link between the two, making it obvious, as we felt it would connect them. For the
advertisement my group and I decided to merge their faces as they were the one
asking the questions in the documentary. Also through planning we thought it was
an interesting idea that made sense with the subject matter of identity and that all
stereotypes put people into groups. We kept the back ground in both the
newspaper ad and magazine a plain white to keep a sharp focus on what was most
important within both texts.
 Although merging the photos of my two team members was a challenge due to the
face shapes, I feel that we did really well making it different but relating it to our
main product. We chose to have it as the middle image in our magazine to clearly
link all of our products together. I think both ancillary texts were extremely
effective in publicising our documentary and showing what it was.

9.  Each product showed took the target audience into account.
As we have a broad target audience from 18+, as we
thought the younger generation is more open to
understanding different cultures due to the time period
they are growing up where a lot has changed. Targeting a
older audience, we went we a slight more complex ideas as
our audience are likely to understand it.
 We chose Channel 4 as the place we would release our
product, as it targets our audience, and releases many
documentaries we found through our research.

10. Using the poster for the advertisement on
both the ancillary tasks combine them
effectively.
We wanted to use the same colours
throughout both. We chose red as a bold
colour for both task as its fitting with our
main product as it is a direct and bold
colour.

11.  Before creating our documentary we chose to arrange a focus group to learn
what an audience thought of our idea. This really helped decide who we
should target it towards. Also it showed us what was necessary to show.
 As a group we decided to both record our feedback using a camera, and get
some written feedback too. We had a wide target audience ranging from 18 up
as we thought the subject could be insightful to a many people at different
ages.
 From our feedback we learned that the way in which we arrange the interview
clips worked very well for a documentary, as it showed the people’s views
without showing to much of a clip, allowing us to achieve what a
documentary looks like.
 We found that many people we got feedback from mentioned our
cinematography and said they liked the shots we did especially at the
beginning. However, some of the negative feedback said that the sound
would have been better if it was consistent throughout, without changing at
bits.

12.  A high majority of our target audience approved the documentary and
found it interesting.
Stuart Hall audience theory.

13.  To create our main product we used a laptop, which had the Adobe
Premier software we needed particularly to edit the documentary. As we
had used this software a few times before, when creating some short films
for our school along with using it for our AS Media coursework, we were
very familiar with it. This allowed the process to go smother, rather than
having to learn how to use new software, which would have taken a lot of
time, also this extended our knowledge further of the software. One of the
major positives about editing on a laptop, meant we could take it different
places if we needed to. Through the half terms we were able to take it
home and alternate between each of us.
 To film our main product we used the cameras from our school for most of
the footage but used a canon camera for some parts. The negative side to
doing this meant that the screens were different sizes when we put it on
the adobe premier software, it was a challenge trying to adjust it to make it
the same size, however by zooming in some screen we got it to match the
other parts of the video. If we were to do this again we would only use one
camera to make sure it was consistent, however I feel that we handled it
well and had a positive outcome. We used different cameras to take the
photographs for our newspaper ad and magazine, as the schools one is not
a high quality and its main purpose is for filming.

14.  The Apple IMac's had all the software we needed to create the ancillary texts,
although the Adobe Photoshop was an older version which was not as good
to use, however being a minor problem we carried on using the IMacs as it
had everything in one place. We used Adobe Photoshop to create both the
newspaper advertisement and the double page magazine spread, as it was
able to do everything we needed to complete it to a high quality. Adobe
Photoshop allowed us to merge the faces together and add text on top. We
were able to create the specific title we wanted for the magazine through this
software. As it could do everything we required , it made sense to use it. The
only negative was , due to the computers being quite old they ran a bit slow
at times, which messed up our timing, however this just meant we needed to
put more of our time into it.
 I used blogger to record my progress throughout and for the examiner to see
the whole process brought together. I had used this for my AS Coursework so
I decided to use it for A2 Coursework too.
 We used YouTube a lot throughout the planning process to research other
documentary as it was accessible at school, making it useful.