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http://www.hollysmithsophiewest.blogspot.com/

In what ways does you media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.?

TV Listings Guide.

From analysing other TV listings magazines we discovered key conventions. One of the main ones is the masthead and this is always at the top on the left hand side. We decided to keep to this and the masthead is clear and is across the top as this is the first thing that the consumer will read. It is also positioned slightly to the left. Moving it in this direction is creating room for the puff which holds the price. This is also another convention that many listings magazines have. We kept to the tagline convention, this is something that the frequent readers will relate to the magazine and know that it is there and something that will bring in new readers as it’s ‘the TV you want to watch’. We created a main cover line for what's inside: this is a convention and it shows the focus - in this case on what is new on TV. We have added another small image on the bottom left and then some text after this. It is a convention to have another piece of information but usually it would be on a different soap. We chose to have the main focus of the magazine as one soap - this was because it was new and would contain information that we feel the reader would want to know about the soap (from our questionnaire this is what they wanted). We decided that we would add puffs with the days of the week down the side as this would show the reader that it was a week long magazine and that another one would be coming out in a week. The unconventional elements that we have included are that the magazine goes from a Monday to Sunday: usually these types of magazines are from a Saturday to Friday. The main protagonist is giving eye contact to the reader thus creating a relationship (conventional) but then the antagonist is looking at the protagonist this creates a feeling of alienation for the protagonist as everyone is looking at her but also creates a relationship between her and the reader. Because both of the characters are not giving eye contact this is unconventional.

Poster.

We decided that the poster was going to be landscape; this is a convention in most billboard posters but if it were based on an item such as a film poster then it would be unconventional as these are usually portrait. For the poster we have used one main image - this is so that the reader creates relationship with that one main person and also creates a sense of mystery surrounding what she is doing. The tagline at the top was to give more insight into what is going on (possibly the use of alcohol/drugs to cause an injury) but not too much as we were hoping to create the feeling that the reader needs to watch it to understand fully what is happening. Based on film posters it is conventional for us to have the soap name and more details such as the time and days it is on at the bottom of the poster in the right hand side. This is so that it is the last piece of information that the reader will see and then hopefully they will remember it and tune in. We decided that the image that we were going to use would be corresponding to the final image on the trailer (minus the bottle to create mystery as to why she is on the floor) so therefore we did not use eye contact. This is unconventional as there is usually eye contact as this engages the reader, but we thought that with the image and the words it was already engaging enough. Another unconventional item on the poster is that contrast is dimmed to make the image look more edgy and also gloomy as this is a bad part of the character’s life and I wanted that to be emphasised through the colour.

In what ways does you media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The Trailer.

We included the channel 4 logo at the beginning and at the end of the trailer as this was the channel that the soap would be broadcast on. This is a convention of all soaps as it is also a way of advertising the channel. Another way of being conventional is that we had a list of Stock Characters and locations that the soap would use. This keeps the soap rolling on for a long time and shows a mixture of storylines from different characters. Although we had a list of stock characters we mainly focused on one storyline but in small 3 second intervals added some of the other characters and storylines. This would create an interest on that one story and hook viewers in to what will happen to the girl. We also mixed the storyline up a little by adding flash backs this was to not give too much away to the viewer but emphasise that there is more to the storyline than meets the eye. Focus on one main storyline is conventional for established soaps as it is usually a preview of the week’s episodes but for a new soap is unconventional as they mainly focus on introducing the place and the storylines. We decided that when we added flash backs they would be in black and white as this is a convention of many soaps doing flash backs that they are usually in black and white or they are slightly out of focus.  We added text throughout the soap trailer as this creates more powerful emotions than just moving images. This is a convention of many TV soap trailers. The background music that accompanies contains fast beats and is used to create a fast pace to the trailer. This is a convention of many teen dramas as they are more edgy and fast paced with quick camera techniques and editing as this is what a teen audience is looking for. Trailers on channel 4 mainly contain a lot of dialogue whereas those on the BBC contain less. We decided that even though our trailer was for viewing on channel 4, we would adhere to the BBC style of not having much dialogue - in fact we only have 2 sentences. We did this as we did not want to give too much away but just enough to create meaning to the images.

How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary texts?

From our audience research we have seen that the trailer has many good areas and also some things that we need to work on. We have found that our trailer was a good pace for the audience that we intended of 16 to 24. Our research also told us that the storylines we included were featured well and related well together. Some of the areas that we needed to work on for the trailer included: the flash back was not as relevant and the elements on facebook were hard to read so if we did it again I would change this.

Our research showed us that the poster worked well with the trailer as there was good interlinking as the image was the same on the poster as the final image on the trailer (apart from the bottle) to create mystery; however it was said by one that if the poster was seen first it was a bit confusing but clarified when the trailer was seen.

The TV listings image linked well with one of the main storylines as it included the same feeling of intimidation as was seen in the trailer. However the images from the poster and the TV listings are not linking well together as they show too many elements  for the one storyline on their own but when the trailer is added in they make sense.

As a promotional package feedback has told us that altogether they work well but if only one were seen then they are not as effective as we would have hoped.

What have you learnt from Audience feedback?

From the first question of our audience feedback we learnt that 90% of people would have watched our soap opera and the other 10% do not watch any soaps and would not change to just watch this one: this was good as most of the people that we asked would actually watch it so we have effectively put across a soap to the target audience. Everyone that we had asked about the purpose of the text answered that it was to inform the viewer of a new soap and to introduce some of the main characters and storylines. From this question we have learnt that our trailer was doing what we wanted it to do by informing the viewer. All of the people taking the questionnaire were able to describe some of the main themes that were identified and enjoyed these and thought these were relevant to the target audience thus showing us that the narratives were well conveyed. This was effective because on the 1^st questionnaire, we had asked about the rites of passage that they wanted to see in a soap for the 16 to 24 age group. Everyone could identify the target audience and this was a success for us as it proved to us that we had kept the target audience we intended to and were successful at identifying this. From our feedback we learnt that the pace of our soap opera was just right and suited the target audience and on one of the questionnaires the person said that the pace linked very well with the music.

From feedback on the two ancillary tasks we learnt that most people thought that the two images were very powerful. Some felt the poster image conveyed a mystery if seen without the trailer as they would have wanted to know how the character ended up like this and what had happened. Some also felt that the image on the TV Now magazine was powerful in creating a sense of alienation for the protagonist looking towards the camera but then this become less powerful when seen with the smaller insert image as it changes the character’s impact and vulnerability.  Over all from the feedback that we received the audience seemed very pleased with what we had produced. They helped convey the successful elements to us (the images on the print production, the pace, locations and characterisation of the trailer) and also the areas that they feel could be developed (on the trailer the first shots on Facebook were not as good at showing the storyline, the smaller image on the TV listings and the colour font on the poster.)

Through audience feedback we have had the opportunity to look back on all of the production work and see if we had conveyed what we wanted to convey from the first questionnaire and see that we have successfully completed it. It allowed an objective view towards our work as we did not give feedback - it was from other sources on what was good and what needed developing.

How did you use media technologies in construction and research and planning and evaluation stages.

During the planning for the poster I used Microsoft publisher to create the best possible poster. Before adding the image to the pre planned text to create the contrast which brought on an edgy feeling I changed the contrast using  windows photo gallery. This programme helps you to change things about an image such as the size, adjust exposure, adjust colour and fix red eye. I then saved that image and inserted it into the poster creating the finishing design.

During the creation of the trailer we used a DV camera this was a new and exciting challenge as it was something that I had never done before. It was a bit complicated and time consuming at first but once we had got used to the camera it was really good. We used a stills camera to take the poster and TV listings images at the same time as filming. After filming we used Apple Macs to create the trailer on Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro was a very confusing programme to use as there were a lot of complicated actions that needed to be created and adding in transitions and text  was often difficult and time consuming but towards the end of the task the individual bits that needed adding were getting quicker and easier to do. Another programme we used to add in background music was Soundtrack Pro this was easier to use - fairly simple and straight forward. This was one of my favourite pieces of technology to use during this production as it was interesting to add all of the sounds and cut the long tracks and add parts in-between and cut to create the final soundtrack that you want. To keep in communication with the rest of my group and to log our process we used a blog on blogger.com. This was something that I had done for AS but not really kept up but it was a vital way to keep in contact and know what we all were doing.

The last piece of technology used was Microsoft publisher to do this presentation on. This was a programme that I have been using for the last 10 years so it was not too much of a problem for me to do but to make it effective and convey information I used the box underneath to write the notes in and just a few words and images above which I think is a better way to give more information without over cluttering the images.