1. Advanced Portfolio Evaluation
‘Manetain’
Hannah Vincent

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
In my opinion it could be argued that each of my ad’s use, develop and challenge forms and
conventions of real media products. I feel like I used my research into codes and conventions to
guide my media product.
After doing much research into the codes and conventions of particular genres of adverts I made my decision on what
route I wanted to go down when creating my own product. After I had made these decisions I did some further
research into testimonial and demonstrational adverts. I used many techniques from each of these to create my
works. This is a factor to my work that I feel used codes and conventions of real media products.
I looked at the ‘V05’ adverts in particular. After looking at these I began to discover youtube videos that the ‘V05’
adverts got inspiration from. It became very clear that successful adverts had no more than 1 actors. I decided to
adopt this in my own work for my first advert.
When doing research into sponsorship sequences, I saw that some did a close up of the advertised product. In my
opinion this worked very well as it made the products the centre of attention. I used this convention in the second part
of my sponsorship sequence.
Also, something that seemed successful when advertising was having a ‘face of’ the product. Someone that people
associated with the brand. I again adopted this technique in my own work.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
In my opinion it could be argued that each of my ad’s use, develop and challenge forms and
conventions of real media products. I feel like I used my research into codes and conventions to
guide my media product.
I then began to consider how I can set my product apart from other adverts that I had previously done research into.
For my testimonial advert I wanted to use more than 1 actors to get my audience to understand what other customers
thought. Using customers opinions is a great way to get the audience to trust in the product.
Another way that I feel like i developed or challenged codes and conventions was by not making the product the
centre focal point in the first part of my sponsorship sequence. I wanted my audience to see how using ‘Manetain’
would make them feel after they use it, again, guiding them to trust the product.
Using the same voice actress was something I felt could be quite risky. This is because I felt that it could be quite
repetitive, However, I wanted the audience to have some similarity in the adverts and make it recognisable.

4. 3) What have I learnt from my audience feedback?

5. 2) How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?
Throughout the whole process of
making my final texts I kept in
mind the importance of having
synergy between all five of my
media texts.
There are many aspects of my five texts that I have made
sure run throughout. The most obvious being my actress.
During my research I found that audiences like familiarity,
this being said I wanted to have an aspect of this in my texts.
Many real media products use actresses to be ‘the face of’
their product and this is something that I have adopted in my
own work.
Leading on from this, I also used the same voice actress for
the voice overs in the majority of my adverts. However, I did
use a different voice actress for my radio advert. I feel like
this does set this particular advert apart from the rest and if I
could do this over I would have used the same voice for
every one of my adverts as I feel it helps the audience
recognise the product and again includes this sense of
familiarity for them.

6. Question 2 continued...
Obviously, something that I used to
keep synergy between all five of my
media texts was the logo. It is
visible in all of the adverts and it
was the same in each. I feel like the
logo itself helps create a brand for
the product and in itself advertises
due to the fact that the audience
will recognise the logo and link it to
the adverts thus linking it to the
product.
Yet another thing I used to combine my main and ancillary texts
was the soundtrack. Having created it myself for my radio advert
I thought it would help establish the brand to use it throughout
all my texts so that is becomes symbolic of the brand. Not only
again creating familiarity for my audience but allowing
‘Manetain’ to form its own brand that people recognise.

7. Question 2 continued..
Colouring is something I considered when I thought about how I would combine my texts together. My text is
targeted at females but I didn’t want to make it such a prominent factor of my factor. Therefor instead of using
the stereotypical colour of pink, I chose to tone it down and use purple. This is not only the colour of my products
and logo but it also in some of my ads. The background wall is purple in one of my sponsorship sequences and
also my first advert. I thought this would help connect my adverts together without being such a prominent factor
of my product.
My adverts were also filmed within the same two locations. The bathroom or the same bedroom. Thus meaning
that the mise en scene helps create synergy in my adverts. Props is also an aspect of mise en scene that I kept
the same to combine my adverts, using the same product and this being the only prop.

8. 4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research
and planning and evaluation stages.
Obviously, research and planning are crucial when creating any media product. I used many new media
technologies during this stage of my media coursework.
Documenting the research that I have done is obviously
imperative when planning. I have previously used the website
‘blogger’ however I feels that my skills when writing the blog
posts have developed. Being able to document any ideas that I
have has helped me hugely because it allowed me to go back
and look through all of the research I had previously done.
I also used search engines such as google. This was in the first
stages of research to collect information on the codes and
conventions of adverts. It gave me a wide range of websites
to broaden my research. Besides from this I used sites such as
Youtube and Vimeo to look at real media products to build my
own ideas. I felt like Youtube was the best website for this as it
gave a wide range of previous adverts to look at - previous and
current.

9. 4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research
and planning and evaluation stages.
In the construction process I used new media technologies throughout. Having used the same equipment last year I
feel like my skills have most definitely matured and developed. Obviously, I have never created an advert before
therefore I had to gain knowledge on what shots would be suitable. This meaning camera angles, distances and so on.
Aside from this, I also used an edirol to record my voice over. I have again used this technology before however I
matured my skills by recording in an environment that does not create an echo allowing me to get the best quality
sound as possible. Making my soundtrack was the one thing that I had not yet had experience in. Using the program
‘garageband’ to compose my soundtrack, I was expecting it to be quite difficult due to the fact I had never used it
before. However, I picked it up fairly quickly and I feel as if my soundtrack is of a high quality.
To edit both my main and ancillary tasks I used the software ‘Premiere Pro’, a program that I feel very confident in.
Having used it in my Year 12 thriller project I gained the basic skills needed to edit. However, I used it in a group
project therefore I never got to use it on my own to gain a perfect set of skills. In this project I developed my skills
greatly. I came across a few problems with my voice over recording. I used my initiative to fix these problems and I feel
like I am now 100% confident in using this software.

10. 4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research
and planning and evaluation stages.
Another new media technology that I used in the
construction stage of my A2 coursework was the
Apple Macbook Pro. I have had experience using this
before as I used it in my previous A Level project and
I am used to this new media technology.
Photoshop is a software that I used to complete my
logo. I feel very confident in using this. As my logo is
fairly simple I don’t feel as if Photoshop is a software
that I struggled when using. However, never having
made a logo before, experimenting with fonts and
colours was something that I feel developed my skill
sets.

11. 4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research
and planning and evaluation stages.
In the evaluation stages I used new media technologies throughout. Firstly, ‘Google Docs’ was
something I used mainly. This was to create my survey to gain audience feedback. The reasoning for
me using this tool in particular is because it is simple for people to fill out my survey but also it will
allow me to keep all my feedback in one space, allowing me to collate my data and easily getting
percentages to evaluate my work. I figured it was also helpful as it instantly puts all of my data into
charts and graphs making it more simple for me to look through my results.
I used social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to distribute my audience
survey. The reason I used all three to get audience feedback was due to the fact that I felt I will get a
more diverse result being that a variety of different age groups use each of the networking sites.

12. … Did I use new media technologies effectively?
In my opinion, I used new media technologies in my research, planning, construction and evaluation stages to the
best of my ability to make the best quality main and ancillary tasks. I feel as if the skills that I had already have
matured and developed my in solo project. Having a group to refer back to and ask for guidance made it a lot easier
when constructing my AS media project. Constructing my product on my own gave me a lot more room to grow when
using these new media technologies. Throughout the simpler stages that I felt confident in, such as Photoshop and
using the Apple Mac I feel that the use of new media technologies aided my product to great extents.
However, when using programs that I had not used before on my own such as Premier Pro, I found that I needed
some help. Online tutorials helped me massively and I feel like my work progressed when using these. I also had a
problem half way through my work where my laptop broke, leaving my project on hold for just under a week. During
this week I used my time effectively and refilmed some shots that I was aware needed filming. I also used this time to
blog more about my progress.
All in all in my opinion I used new media technologies effectively to aid my work and improve it.