A2 Whitney Griffiths

Friday, 8 January 2010

Documentary

This is our documentary from our finial product.
Comfy, funky and essential.

Comfy, Funky and Essential.

Monday, 4 January 2010

Evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your product use, develop or change and form the codes and conventions of real media products.

My documentary uses the codes and conventions of a professional documentary, by doing this it allows our documentary to look professional.

The video below will show you how we followed the codes and conventions of existing professional documentary.

Sound is used with a professional documentary as a …
• Voice over
• Music
• Non digenetic and digenetic

My documentary is Expository as it involves the ‘voice-of-god’ which is a voice over which is used to anchor the meaning of the video/images being shown. Documentaries are normally centred on a problem that needs to be solved.

These links are some examples of Expository documentaries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw3WvLRUTjM

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=tYwPimYdCK8&feature=PlayList&p=4AAD43661A6740B3&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=31

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klmhNSu2ZbY

A voice over is also known as 'voice-of-god'. ‘voice-of-god’ always remains anonymous; they tell the story to the audience. An example of the ‘voice-of-god’ would be the voice throughout “Big Brother”, as you have never seen the person who talks to the audience watching the programme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tElw1UQ9Ww&feature=related

Music on a documentary is mostly digenetic as it is always on the opening titles and credits. Documentaries may sometimes use music which is placed over cutaways and information that is used within the documentary. We decided to use new shoes by paolo nutini, footloose soundtrack and elvis blue suede shoes. As we wanted to uses these soundtracks we had to make sure that we were aloud to have copy right, therefore we had to e.mail the record label.

The majority of documentaries follow a linear structure as it starts at a a beginning then follows through to the end. Our documentary follows a linear structure. This is also a concept of a documentary.

Q2 How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary tasks?

As a whole media package, the documentary, print advert and radio advert all interlink together. The video below will show how each of the products are linked. The video will also show how we plan to advertise our documentary. The Video below will show what print and radio advert we used for inspiration, as we needed to follow the codes and conventions of a real print and radio advert. Advertising the documentary will be hugely important as Channel 4 needs to guarantee it will gain viewers furthermore being able to sell advertising space during advert breaks as allowed them to generate revenue to fund for new programmes.

The video will also show what print papers and radio commercial channels which we plan to advertise our documentary on.

Airtime is a term used for radio trailer which is on commercial radios, the trailer tends to be mintage between the programmes available to be bought for advertising messages. These tend to be 30 seconds long but this can be anything from 5 to 120 seconds. Channel 4’s audience profile has a wide appeal, and airtime can be bought regionally. The benefits of using airtime is high awareness levels over short periods of time, or building awareness slowly, to specific audience or regional targeting and accountability, there's the simple fact of bringing your brand to life on a visually and aurally rich medium. What makes Channel 4's radio trailers different is their objective is to deliver the most effective advertising, and we are committed to maximum transparency in our trading approach to build strong and lasting partnerships based on mutual benefit.

As our radio trailer is scheduled on Channel 4, we had to advertise our radio documentary on commercial radio channels such as Heart radio, Smooth and Real as the majority of there listeners are aged between 18 and 40, which is the intended target audience for my documentary therefore by advertising on these station we hope their audience will be interested in our comfy, funky and essential, shoe documentary. The radio trailer is combined to the documentary as we decided to use the same voice over, this is so that the voice over can be easily reconcilable to the audience.

The code and conventions of a professional print advert is that print advert should be landscape. The reason for this is when buying advertising space in a newspaper or magazine the smaller the advert the cheaper it will be. Therefore the newspaper or magazine can have more adverts as the landscape size is easier to divide into smaller sections such as half page and quarter. This could also allow the print advert be advertised on other media sources such as billboards and posters.

The public service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular is suppose to demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programs. It has to appeal to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society. Channel 4 makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programs of an educational nature and other programs of educative value. It is important for channel 4 that advertising increases viewings as it is unlike the BBC and doesn't get paid for by TV licenses therefore all money made is from advertising.

http://www.channel4sales.com/

Q3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Pen portiat

These are examples of a female and male who are in our target audience who wanted to watch our documentary.

Name: Deanne Folwer

Age: 20

Occupation: Hair dresser

Interests: Hair, make up and fashion.

" I would love to watch the rest of the documentary. I loved the opening titles when all the different shoes come on"

Name: Richard Clark

Age: 27

Occupation: Sales manager

Interest: Fashion and Soicalising

"I thought it was interesting becuase I didn't know about MBT shoes. I would like to watch the rest of the documentary becuase its not just for about womens shoes"

These are are the type pf people in which are our typical target audience as our documentary is targeted at females and males aged 18 - 40.

For our audience feed back we decided to hold a focus group in which the target audience could give their views on our product.

These are the questions asked...

Did you think the camera work was like a real documentary?

Was the quality of the sound even throughout?

Did you think the editing was affective for the audience?

Did you think all content was relevant towards the subject of shoes?

Would you like to watch the whole documentary?

What are the strengths of our production?

What are the weaknesses of our production?

Is channel 4 appropriate for the intended target audience?

How do you think it compares to professional products?

The video links below will show what they thought about our documentary, print and radio advert. The first clip shows there reactions as the documentary starts.

These videos are voice recordings in which we have conducted feedback from people who are in our target audience.

From all of the audience feedback which was constructed I learnt that we could have made the time earlier as people thought it would be better for 8pm or half 8 but as a group we thought 8pm would be too early for watershed but from our feedback it suggests that the content was suitable for the waterhed schelduling period. Furthermore Channel 4 only tend to schedule documentaries from the hour.

We also learnt that asking the public on their views (vox pops) made our documentary look more professional as it didn't look like we was just randomly filmed people, it showed that we had researched and planned what we wanted in our documentary. From the people that we asked they said that they liked the opening titles as it gave a fun and energetic feels to the documentary which went well with the choice of music (New Shoes by Paolo Nutini). The colours which we chose for the documentary worked well as it wasn't to girly so males wouldn't think it was just aimed at a females. We chose the colours blue, turquoise and purple as the colours are unisex and would be suitable for both genders.

The audience feedback from the radio trailer was positive as the majority of the target audience said that they wanted to watch the documentary from just hearing the trailer. The only thing i which the audience said could be changed within the trailer was the voice over at the end which says 'Comfy, Funky and Essential. Thursday. Channel 4. 9pm.' A it was abit quiet and that may be because we used the schools ice radio recording system and we used a different technology to record the rest so therefore the sound will be of a different quality but we did try and get it to match the rest of the trailer so it is continuous. The audience also thought that the radio trailer went well with the documentary as it used bits of the documentary which answered rhetorical questions with the theme tune of the documentary at the end so it will sticks in the audiences head.

The audience feedback came back that 100% of the people liked the print advert, especially that the main image of the shoe because it is made out of shoes. The target audience thought that the print advert looked like a professional channel 4 advert. We decided as a group to keep the images of the shoes black and white because it looked more professional.

Media Organisations conduct focus groups to see whether the product they have produced is going to be successful as a TV programme. Media Organisation so this to decided on what changes needed to be made for it to be more successful and if it is suitable for the target audience at the schelduled time. Focus groups are picked at random and sometimes money is offered to them for participating.

Q4. How do you use technology construction, research, planning and evaluation?

The technology within the media product played a major part as we needed technology to conduct, research and plan for the documentary.

The Internet was used to find out about different types of shoes and where each type of shoes was sold. We also used the internet to find research the history of the shoes shops in which we intended to interview. To keep a log of the whole process of the production we recorded a blog on blogger.com, this shows what we went through to conduct our documentary, radio and print advert.

We also could not have filmed our documentary without a video camera and tripod so this was the most vital bit of technology that we needed to ensure that we was able to produce a documentary which good steady shot. This was vital as it had to be used to take photographic evidence of us during the process of the whole production from asking people at Liverpool one asking the public to take part in our vox pops to conducting our audience feedback. This is a new technology in which we used to help produce participate towards the process of a documentary, as we used a mobile phone to take picture of shoes which were used as cutaways.

We also used a mobile phone to take pictures of some of our audience feedback. Sasha also used a mobile phone to record a convention between herself and a store manager of a shoe shop about arranging a interview. I used a Dictaphone to record the questions and answers to some of the audience feedback as it was easier than filming them as a video camera is a lot more complicated.. We also used the Dictaphone to record our voice over which was being used for the documentary and radio trailer, this allowed it to be easily transferred has you didn't need to capture it first. We also used the collages own radio studio as gave us a different quality of sound.

Adobe photoshop was used to create the print advert. This software was chosen because it allowed you to do more to a image, but also it has a better quality. Adobe audition was used to produce the radio trailer as it allowed you to edit the bits you wanted then mixed in it together to it sounded continuously. Adobe premier pro was used to edit and piece together the documentary, as it had it allowed us to be more creative when piecing and blending the documentary together. Windows movie maker is a software which allows you to make movies/short films quickly because it is quite simple to uses. I used this package for my evaluation as I need to show expression through a different source of media.

If I did not have access to all of these programmes I would have not be able to produce my product or be able to have an evaluation that has video clips and sound files. This shows how vital the technology has been in order to produce my documentary. This makes the documentary stand out as it catches audience. Interactive documentaries are not as common today as producers tend not to have a whole crew. Without the development in new technologies as the equiement has gone into smaller and lighter equipment making following someone less obvious that you are filming.

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

Premission letters

As a group we had to choice music to put on our documentary. In which we had to ask for copy right premission therefor we needed to send an email to Sony records.
We sent the following email to them:

To: humanresources@sonymusic.com
From: Sasha Jones

Dear Sony Music Records,
We would like to use the following songs in a documentary we are producing for our A Level coursework:

Paolo Nutini- New Shoes
Footloose soundtrack
Elvis Presley blue suede shoes

We will not allow any other resources to use your music tracks in any way, we will not edit them in any way and will only use them in our documentary.

We would really appreciate it if you would give us permission to use your songs

Yours Sincerely

Sasha Jones, Natalie Allcock, Whitney Griffiths

As some of our particpants were under sixteen we asked their parents/guardians if they would give permission. This is a blank copy of the letter we produced for both theirs and our records:

Dear Parent/ Guardian,

As part of my A-Level Media coursework I am producing 5 minutes of a documentary. For all under 16’s I need permission on behalf of them from their parent or guardian.

I would really appreciate it if you could fill in the slip below to allow me to feature them in the documentary.

The documentary will not be broadcasted and will be kept confidential.

Yours Sincerely

Sasha Jones, Natalie Allcock and Whitney Griffiths

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I give permission for…………………………………….. to feature in the documentary ‘Comfy Funky and Essential’

Signed…………………………………(parent/guardian) Date…………………………............

Edit decision list

Before we started editing, we produced a decision list which helped us while we was editing as we knew where to find the footage on the type but also new which order we wanted the documentary in.

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Voice Overs

Voice Over for Documentary

We look at shoes for men, women boys and girls, delving into the history and the new technologies. This is your views on shoes. The best high street shoe shop tells us the benefits of their shoes. Shoes are becoming a new drug, the buzz of choosing, buying and wearing them is getting people addicted, Sadie tells all-Shops are starting to create styles of shoes to help maximise comfort. Goverment cracking down on obesity has developed the new exercise shoes, making exercise part of everyday life. We speak to AM asia barefoot technollogy wearer and the health benefits it has given him.

Voice Over for Radio Advert:
Shoes, are they the new drug of choice?
Is wearing the hottest new pair of designer heels addictive? (an addiction?)
What is it exactly that hooks us in the shoe depertament?
Is it comfort, fashion or just basic necessity?

Take a walk in our shoes.

Where did they originate?

Where are they going?

Men, women, boys and girls, we all wear them?
Comfy Funky and Essential.
Thursday.
9 0'clock.
Channel 4.

These pictures are of me and Lee, who was willing to be our voice over for a radio advert. We recorded the radio voice over in the schools ice radio studio.

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Radio and Print Advert

As a class we listened and read a number of adverts while having to analysis them. This helped us create the codes and conventions, as this is what we will need to do, to help produce a radio advert and print.

Radio
* Extracts from the programme
* Voice-over which outlines the narrative of the programme
*Enigma Codes may somethimes be used
*Sound Effects
*Two different voice overs, which is one that is used from the documentary but also another one which is used for the schelduling, channel and title
* No longer than 50 sec, usually round up to the nearest 10.

Print Adverts includes
*Eye-catching Image which summerises the documentary
* Specific Mise en Scene,
* Simplicity (Enigma Code)
* Logo of the Channel, Logo/Title of the programme, Scheduling.

Teaser Advert are sometimes produced before an actual Print Advert/Radio Advert as it gives information for the reader/listener to be interested. Then nearer the time the final advert is produced with all relevant information on it.

As a group we decided;

Print Ideas: for the print advert we planned to keep it as simple following a typical Channel 4 Advert. The idea is to have a big shoe made up of smaller shoes with the Channel and the Title. The idea of it is to be a Teaser Advert. We are going to use a Darren Brown advert for our inspiration. Sasha got the idea for the shoes from http://www.ployvore.com, which she made the shoes from shoes which the photographs had already been done.

With this I helped Sasha ask people whether it was ok to take pictures of their shoes. As a group we also gave feedback on each production on how we though it could be improved.

Radio Ideas: for the radio advert we are thinking of using mainly footage from the documentary itself, having it quick and fast paced with an underlying music bed. This is so our audience can get an idea of what will be included in the documentary and the style it is filmed in. We are going to use a Animal Documentary advert for our inspiration.

While doing this task I learned new skills such as to import sound and how to change the pitch. I also learnt how cut tracks down. Through the process I learnt how to mix different tracks together to make them one. I thought I would have ended up missing the deadline and letting my group down but I had the structure of radio done with all sound imported and the only thing that was left to do was whether they wanted the music at the begining played throughout.

I got the structure of our radio advert from a channel 4 radio advert. This was ideal as our documentary was produced for channel 4. I tryed to use the same structure as it is the codes and conventions for a channel 4 documentary. The length of the radio advert will not excceed 48 secs as that is the maxium length of any radio advert, from looking at the channel 4 lenght of radio adverts, I decided that the length would no shorter than 40 sec as that was the min length of there advert.

However, the advert was produced using sounds from the actual documentary. I decided to use the vox pops that said more than one word and bits from interviews we did. I used the begining of the track footloose as it is also in our documentary. I also used new shoes at the end of the advert as it is in the opening titles of our documentary.

This is the process in which the radio advert was produced.

This is when the radio advert was nearly finished.

This is when I had to find abit of the documentary to put into the advert becuase it had been moved. Then I need to move everything down so they would flow after eachother

This is at the start of the process when I had only placed the music in, so I knew what time frame I was looking at.

This is where I had to cut the music down and fade the end and start in so it didn't just start randomly.

This is where I had only done the beginning music and a vox pop from the documentary.

This is our radio edit decision list

Sunday, 15 November 2009

Editing process

Whilst editing, I had to be shown what to as I didn't know how to use the soft ware. When I knew what I was doing, I focused on the 2nd video type. I edited the Sadie Harding interview, in which I filmed as well. Within this process I learned new skills as before this I didn't know how to edit. I learned how to use Premeire software. As Sadie didn't speak very load on her interview, I had to be shown by Sasha how to change the sound levels, in which I did for the rest of the interview. I also cut the questions beginning asked out and imported cutaway shots. Whilst doing this I took screen grabs, which are shown below.
A lot of time and effort was put in to this process as it was time consuming. However is was a good experince overall which benefitted our documentary and gave me new skills which can be used in the future.When the whole documentary was put together we did a final check in which we all gave notes on what we thought could be done to improve the quality. After we gave feedback we decided on what changes need to be done. This helped us hear and give imput on eachother views.
These are cutaways shots of the process in which I edited.

This is part of the interview with Mr Swindell, I had to edit the questions being asked out so you can only hear him answering.

After I had cut away all of the qestion I had to make sure that the footage didn't jump so I had to add cutaways which makes the doucmentary flow. I Had to make sure that the cutaways I used was appropriate to the answer in which he gave.

This is the editing process of Sadie Harding's interview.

Within in this process I had to make sure that all her interview made sense. I had to add cutaways to bits in which the framining jumped.

I also had to make sure that the sound volumes were turned up as Sadie didn't project her voice, I was unsure how to do this so therefore Sasha had to show me how to do this.

Whilst editing I had to make sure that Sadie's interview was in sync as it would have destracted the audience as they would be looking at her mouth.

Natalie editing the documentary

Me editing the radio advert

and again

and again.

Me writing the shoe questions for Sadie's interview as we lost one interview and had to improvise and schelule another one.

Filming process

Whilst filming our documentary we again a lot of experience and was put in different situations. As a group we had to plan our time effectively to be certain that we would be able to film as a group. The days in which we planned to film on, we ensured that we had planned the days' events as we wanted to be sure are time was sure productively and not wasted. As a group we decided that mornings would be more suitable to have interviews with shops but before we did this we ensured that we had permission off the store manager and arrived early to make sure that we didn't interrupt the rush hours. After recording our interviews and cutaway shots in the morning, we would then start our vox pops as it was more busier and we would get a better response. Within the filming process I felt more comfortable asking the public to do vox pops therefore I asked the majority
of the people who we targeted.
As a group we all took it in turns to do there share of work. I asked for the vox pop's while Natalie filmed them and Sasha told them what to say. I also arranged and interviewed Sadie on my own; in which I had to impervised with mise-en-scene with shoes displayed on a bed frame. Furthermore I asked a few shops wether it was ok, to film in their shop.
While filming we didn't have the equiement in which professionals would uses so therefore we had to impervise. With this we had to create a tracking establishing shot, in which we used the escalators and we also had to drive a car. This allowed use to think logical in quick amounts of time. Overall I think that the filming process was fun as we experinced it as a group in which we have become close.
These are pictures of us filming.