1. In what ways does your media product use ,develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In our media product no doubt the main aim
was to make it as real as possible meaning
so that it would resemble a product that has
already been created in the real world. I had
a target audience for my media products,
which were a documentary, a double page
spread magazine article and a radio advert
based on a young Hip-hop artist’s journey,
which would mean the age range, would be
from ideally 16-25 and revolve around the
social realism genre as we are portraying
one’s life.
After having established these key
factors in order for me to start my
project I was obliged to do various
research by watching
documentaries of other already
established artist’s such as the
Eminem ‘Who Am I’ documentary,
Chiwetel Ejofor Magazine Article
and various radio adverts. This
definitely aided me in gathering a
whole bunch of ideas, which would
then make it easier for me to put
ideas together for my product.Within my research for my
documentary in particular I
found an effect that really stood
out to me which was ‘the ken
burns effect’. I found that this
was an effect commonly used
in older documentaries as I
recognized it from when I used
to watch older documentaries,
the effect consists of an image
being zoomed in while the
narrator makes comments In
relation to the image, for me
this really gives the
documentary a historic as we
talk about the Musician’s past.
As well as including this historic effect also found that the more modern
documentaries portrayed certain conventions such as introducing the title and
the Musician a few minutes into the documentary as this gives a sense of a
gradual build up, keeping the viewer eager. With this combination of historic
effects and modern effects this challenges the forms and conventions of a real
media product.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and
ancillary texts?
.
.
In terms of my ancillary texts, which were my
magazine article and my radio advert, these
completed the whole package of my media
product as they too resemble conventions of
real life media products. A magazine article
expressing my Hip-Hip musician’s past and his
journey to stardom, the text alongside an
image taken in a professional studio white
background giving a 3D illusion of him being
literally beside the text, this is a common
layout in almost every magazine out there
emphasizing the reality of the project
Furthermore my radio advert would act as a
source of promotion to my Documentary as it
would advertise the date of release and
explain to the viewers what the documentary
was based on. The radio advert consisted of
sound clips from the documentary and a song
from the documentary, lasting around 45
seconds. This would mean there was a source
of information in place for the audience to find
out about the documentary, real media
products would use this way of promotion as
well as maybe a TV advert as this is likely to
reach a larger mass.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The feedback for my 3 products was positive, my
teacher commented praised my effort in doing
necessary research which allowed me to produce
close to real products however my documentary
could have been improved by ensuring every
single shot was in focus and steady. Fellow
students expressed that my 3 products were like
stuff they would see in the media in everyday life
and everyone agreed that it was one of the best in
my group. Overall my feedback is good and I have
learned that in future I will avoid rushing certain
parts of my project in order to go from good to
excellent.

4. How did you use media technologies
in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
Finally the media technologies played a massive role in
allowing me to complete my project. First of all the Mac
IOS which was pivotal, the fast moving computer with
industry standard software such as Adobe Photoshop 6
which allowed me to complete my magazine article, Final
Cut Pro X which I used to create my documentary and my
radio article. The Digital SLR’s, the Tascam Sound
Recorder were equipment’s I was able to manually use
myself, giving me the freedom to produce something
exactly how I intended. All these different media platforms
sped up the process, which meant I was able to complete
my project in roughly 5 months.