2. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts
Throughout the project there were a series of stages;
research and planning, producing/ construction and
the evaluation stage and in all of these stages we
used a variety of new media technologies to help to
construct. Some of these technologies include the
DV or JCB cameras and Apple Macs.
Although some of the technologies we
used throughout the process were
those that we were familiar with, there
were several which were new to us and
we had to develop over the duration of
the task.
4. Research & Planning
During the research process we used a variety of laptops and
net books to watch advertisements of a similar genre and
gather information about other chocolate companies and
other similar media texts. Both home and in school we used
the internet (sites such as YouTube) to gather the research we
needed to continue with our project.
Before we could begin to plan our work we had to find out
what our targeted customers would like, we did this by
carrying out textual research, we constructed a set of
questions to find out what they would be looking for so we
were prepared we then used Facebook to send them to
people fitting the description of our target audience.
5. Research & Planning
For the planning process
we used similar
technologies however
this stage required more.
After doing several
brainstorms we came up
with our concept and
constructed a storyboard
for each ad. After we had
constructed them we
photographed each
image using DV cameras
and uploaded them onto
the Mac computers to
create a photo
storyboard.
6. Research & Planning
Looking back I think the images would have
been better had we have used a digital
camera rather than the camcorders to take
the pictures. This would have allowed us to
capture the image in better quality. Once
we had created the photo storyboard we
had to upload them onto our online blogs
on the website Blogger. We did this using a
programme called slideshare.
7. Research & Planning
After we uploaded these photo storyboards and had a better
idea of the direction we wanted to go in, we then decided to
create a more accurate storyboard. We used the JVC cameras
to take still images corresponding with the scripts we had
written and created another storyboard.
8. Research & Planning
We also created a pitch for our planning process, this
was were we put down any ideas about our brand
and each individual advertisement. This gave us the
opportunity to get feedback form our peers and
decide whether we were going in the right direction
with our ideas. For this we used net books and created
Microsoft PowerPoint document. This was a good
programme to use as it allowed us to convey our ideas
using text, imagery and music so everyone could get
an idea of what we wanted to achieve.
We then uploaded this onto our
blogs as further content.
<<< Hyperlink to PowerPoint
10. Production
The production stage was the stage in which we
used the most of the technologies. To film each of
our TV ads (including the sponsorship) we combined
the use of both the DV cameras and the JVC‘s.
The cameras were both light and
portable which meant that they
were convenient for us to use in
our various locations. The fact that
they were easy to operate meant
that they allowed us full function of
them to shoot from multiple heights
and angles. The downside to them
however, was that the quality was
not as good as desired which is
why we ended up with dim lighting
or glaring in some clips and some
of the sound was distorted.
11. Production
After shooting the footage we used the hard drives to
upload it onto the Mac desktops. We used the I Movie
programme to edit the clips. This is the stage where
most the issues were reached. Before this stage we
had not had much experience of the Macs or the
iMovie programme. Using the Macs we came across
problems with some of the functions, for example
some of the effects we wanted to add would not
work, this created problems as it stopped us from
creating the piece we desired. The other problem was
that the programme would sometimes crash meaning
we would have to start our editing again from scratch.
As well as this we had the shortage of the Macs due to
our peers needing to use them also, this meant we had
a very limited window in which to work on our adverts.
13. Evaluation
For the final stage, evaluation, we did not use as many
different forms and sources of media technology. We did
however, produce questionnaires about our company, the
product and each of our individual ads. To do this we used the
net books and Microsoft Word and to share theses
questionnaires in order to get them filled in we uploaded
them onto a site called Slideshare which allowed people to fill
it in and send us the feedback. This was a useful tool as we
were able to get an understanding of how well our projects
worked and what was not so successful.
