1. EVALUATION
Sareena Khaira

2. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?

3. Main adverts
Advertising is a form of communication used to encourage or persuade an audience
(viewers, readers or listeners. Sometimes a specific group of people.) to continue
or take some new action.
My media product uses forms and conventions of real media products. I conducted
research into the forms and conventions of child abuse adverts and campaigns.
This included showing:
 A victim
 And abuser/situation
 Presenting a problem
 Presenting a solution
This is presented throughout the narrative of the adverts. The fact that this form of
narrative is present in nearly all of the adverts that I researched, I thought it was
necessary for me to include this form of narrative in my media product.

4. The victim – presented from Abuser/situation presented Presenting problem and Problem leading to
the start of the advert. through the use of the solution in one. solution – door opening
sound of footsteps coming as abuser is entering
up the stairs. leading to the logo of
campaign which is the
solution.
The narrative that I used in my advert followed a linear structure which is a sequential narrative with
a beginning, middle and end in that order. My media product uses a conventional narrative structure
of child abuse adverts as it starts showing the victim, then presenting the abuser or the situation
being dealt with, then presenting the problem and finishing with a solution. I found this through my
research of the construction of child abuse adverts, by breaking them down into their forms and
conventions and finding what is similar between each advert and how they use synergy to interlink
between one another. It also came apparent from my research that many child abuse adverts use
similar shot angles. Therefore I decided to use and develop these conventions. They usually show
a range of shot angles from long shots, medium shots and close ups. I didn't find any adverts which
used extreme long shots or extreme close ups and due to my narrative I decided not to challenge
this convention. Instead I used a range of shots, however I think I could have used an even bigger
range of shots as they mainly consist of mid shots. I did however use high angle shots to present
the victim as inferior and weak which is a common convention used in child abuse adverts.

5. The setting that I used in my advert follows the
forms and conventions of child abuse adverts.
It is common for them to be situated in a home
or around a home as this is one of the most
common places where the abuse takes place.
The main part of the advert is based in a
bedroom, also a highly common place where
abuse takes place, which is also a common
place where child abuse adverts are set in. The
mise en scene and props used in my advert is
also conventional of child abuse adverts. The
use of a phone has connotations of a form of
escape, the posters on the wall in the bedroom
have connotations of innocence and childhood
and the clothing of the girl being her school
uniform denotes her age being young and
vulnerable.

6. A common convention of child abuse adverts is to use a voice over. I developed this
convention by using a voice over to present the slogan for the campaign which is
“Save A Child Today” rather than have a voice over throughout the advert
presenting the problems and solutions. This is used in many of NSPCC Child’s
Voice Appeal adverts which use a voice over in nearly all of their adverts. The
reason being that by using a voice over, it engages with the audience more
creating a connection between the advert and the audience.
Another way in which I followed the conventions of child abuse adverts was that
through my research I found that they feature slow tempo, sad songs. I used this
convention in my adverts as the tone of the music went with my chosen narrative.
The music in my first advert is slow paced and is of a violin. By choosing a song
with a violin challenges the conventions of child abuse adverts as they mainly use
pianos. However, my second advert features a piano which follows the conventions
of child abuse adverts. It is also slow paced however, as he time progresses, the
tone changes making it higher having connotations of hope and optimism. This is
due to the fact that it fits in with the narrative of the advert.

7. I decided to challenge the forms and conventions of
child abuse adverts in my second advert. My
research allowed me to find that most child abuse
adverts present a child at risk showing the situation
they are in and how it can be resolved, i.e. –
through the campaign. The way in which I
challenged the forms and conventions is by the
way in which I chose to present the victims point of
view after being helped by the campaign. I chose
to show the victim talking directly to the camera
which breaks the fourth wall – a common feature
which is used in adverts however, not as common
in child abuse adverts. The range of shots I used is
limited at throughout the advert I have used a
medium shot, I wanted to use some variation by
adding cuts to different angles however when I
tried doing this in my editing it didn't seem to look
right so I decided to not do that. The mise en
scene however, uses the forms and conventions as
I included props such as teddy bears which
symbolise childhood and innocence as well as
posters of pop stars which are indexical of
childhood.

8. A common misconception of child abuse
adverts is that the abuser is
stereotypically portrayed as being a
male. Due to this I decided to This is where the non-
challenge the convention of showing diegetic sound of the
the abuser in my advert. Instead I used footsteps start leading to the
non-diegetic sound to make the victim closing her door.
audience aware of the presence of the
abuser, I used a sound effect of
footsteps coming up the stairs and at
the end of the advert there is a close
up of the door opening and the advert
stops before you can see who enters
the room.
This is where the door
beings to open and the
scene ends.

9. Sponsorships
My sponsorships follow the conventions of child
abuse adverts as they follow a narrative. I wanted
them to show the main aspects of my main
adverts. They are both 10 seconds long which is
typical for the length of time of sponsorship
sequences. They are designed to be short and to
the point which is what I wanted develop in my
sponsorship sequences.
I used the same music in my first sponsorship
sequence as my main advert as I couldn’t really
find another piece of music that fit with the
narrative as well as the violin music did.

10. The voice over I used is conventional of
sponsorships as they consist of what
the advert is sponsoring. I decided not
to sponsor a specific programme as
child abuse adverts are shown on
pretty much every channel due to its’
wide audience. Therefore, by saying
“This programme is sponsored by
SaveAChild” it makes it open as this is
typical of child abuse adverts.
One thing that is unconventional of
sponsorships is that I didn't have any
text saying “sponsored by..” etc. My
sponsorships just end with the logo.

11. HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE
COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN
AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

12. For the combination of my main and MAID ADVERT
ancillary tasks to be effective, there
needed to be synergy between the
products making them be
distinctively viewed as being part of
a campaign which is the intended
message I am trying to portray with
my products.
The way in which I created synergy
was by using the same setting and
similar shot angles to create
continuity which I think I did quite
well. SPONSORSHIP SEQUENCE
The shot angles and distance is the
same in both my main advert and
my sponsorship advert. The setting
is the same as well as the clothing
creating synergy between the texts
as well as continuity making it
recognisable as being part of the
same campaign.

13. The music in my first main advert is the same as the music in
the sponsorship sequence. This was mainly due to the fact
that I couldn’t find another song which I thought fit well
enough with the narrative. However this creates synergy
between the adverts. It is slow paced and has low tones
connoting sadness and despair.
The music in my second avert is a slow paced, slow tempo
piano based song which gradually gains a higher tone and
tempo connoting brighter days and that there is a silver lining
to every cloud. It starts of quite sad which is contrapuntal to
the emotions being presented onscreen. The music in my
second sponsorship sequence is also a piano based song
however, it is of a faster tempo and a more upbeat song due
to the fact that the tone in the sponsorship sequence is happy
and uplifting. Therefore I felt I had to find a more upbeat song
but by still finding a piano based song it created synergy
between the two texts.

14. For my radio advert I used the same music as the music in
my second main advert. The reason being that tone of
the music works well with the speech in the radio advert.
They both start off sad but then progress to being more
optimistic and uplifting. I was trying to find a piece of
music that included both a violin and a piano to create
synergy and continuity between my texts however, I
couldn’t find a fitting song to the message I intended to
portray.
I also wanted to create synergy by using the same actor to
do the voice over in the TV advertisements and in the
radio advert. I also included the slogan in in both my
radio advert as well as in my main adverts creating
further synergy and continuity throughout.

15. Further synergy is evident through
the placement of my logo in each
of my texts. It is placed at the end
of each of my adverts with a
voice over of the slogan on top of
it. However, I think that I could
have changed the placement of
the logo by challenging the
conventions of child abuse
adverts by placing it at different
points of my adverts. I could have
also played around with the voice
over and have it at different
points in the adverts rather than
being at the end of each of them.

16. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED
FORM YOUR AUDIENCE
FEEDBACK?

17. To start off with, I posted links of my productions on
social networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter. However, I soon came to find that this
wasn't very effective as I gained feedback that
wasn't constructive criticism that I could use to
adapt my production to suit my audience’s
needs.
This therefore lead me to find a different more
constructive way to gain feedback. I decided to
get a group of people to sit and watch my
adverts and at the end ask them their thought
and opinions of what I did well and if they didn't
quite understand anything – the message I was
trying to portray. The group 10 people, 5 boys
and 5 girls making it even. The age ranges
consisted from 11-50 making it a wide variety of
ages and opinions. The reason being that the
intended audience for my adverts don't have a
specific age range/gender.

18. The feedback I gained was mixed.
What went well:
- “the editing was done smoothly, all the scenes
merged into each other at the right time”
- “the music choice suited the emotions that
were being shown on screen”
- “you can tell that they are a part of the same
campaign”
- “engaging to watch”

19. Things that could have been better:
- “logo could have been more bright, maybe
include pictures”
- “could have added more angles in the second
main advert, its all just one view”
- “could have included sound effects in the radio
advert”
- “maybe say more in the voice over to engage
more with the audience”
- “the camera shakes a bit in some parts”

20. The feedback that I received was constructive as it
was collected from a range of people showing a
wide vary of thoughts and opinions. I agreed with
the things that they thought I could have improved
on and can see how they came to that assumption.
Having the camera steady was one of my main
issues and was something the audience picked up
on. I struggled trying to make my transitions steady.

21. HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH,
PLANNING AND EVALUATION
STAGES?

22. Research and Planning
The internet was the main research tool that I used for example,
I used Google as a search engine to help me gain insight into
the way in which TV adverts are constructed and what their
forms and conventions are. I used websites such as Wikipedia
which gave me the essential information that I needed.
Another website that I used was YouTube. This is what bought
depth into my research as it allowed me to view examples of
child abuse adverts as well as adverts about abuse as a
whole. It helped me understand the common themes in
adverts including the similarities and differences of each.

23. I also used Blogger which is a website in which you can make
blogs. I used this to record my progress and my work over
the course of my production. I felt very comfortable using
this site as I had previously used it in AS, therefore, I was
familiar with how it works and how I was meant to use it.
This allowed me to be able to record my progress confidently
and use it to aid my understanding of how to plan and
develop my media texts.

24. Construction
During the course of my construction stages, I used a
variety of different new media technologies. To shoot
my footage, I used a HD camera to insure that my
footage was of the highest quality. I also used Adobe
Premier Pro to edit my footage. I found using this
programme fairly easy as I had already previously
used it in AS which made editing my footage a lot
easier. The editing of my footage was the most crucial
part in order to make my texts the way I wanted to
them to be seen. I had to make sure that scenes were
cut at the right time to make them flow.

25. To prepare me in using new software that I hadn't
already used, I did some research to gain some
background knowledge into how to use programmes.
This included Photoshop as I was not confident in
how to use it. I watched a few tutorials on YouTube
which helped me significantly making me confident
enough to use the programme to create my logo. I
think I used the programme quite well as my logo
turned out how intended it to.

26. Another new media technology that I used was
Garage Band. In order to create continuity I recorded
my voice to be used in all of my adverts and was able
to edit the sound of it in order for me to be happy with
the outcome of how it sounded.

27. Evaluation
I used new media technologies during my evaluation
stages in order for me to reach my target audience to
ensure that I was gaining the right feedback and
responses. One of the media technologies I used was
Facebook. I used this to gain feedback on my adverts,
however, I didn’t get the intended feedback that I though
would be constructive and help me gain insight into what
my audience thought I my adverts. This was the same for
Twitter as I didn’t gain many responses.
Another media technology I used in my evaluation stages
was YouTube. I thought that this was a great media
technology to use as I was able to see how many views
my adverts had and also it is used all across the world
thus expanding my audience.