4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used many types of media technologies constantly in my coursework, throughout the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages. Some of these include:

Video upload site- YouTube

Search engine- Google

My personal Facebook account

My personal Twitter account

File uploading site- SlideShare 

Panasonic HDC-SD900 video camera

Video editing software iMovie

Macbook Pro

Microsoft Publisher 2010

Question 4 Media Technologies

I used blogging site 'Blogger' to upload and present all of my work onto my blog rachelashby14.blogspot.com

Strengths:

Blogger has the ability to embed videos, slideshows and documents through the use of HTML codes. This helped me to upload the documents I produced in their original form which meant they were presented in the most logical way, with creative presentation being kept in mind.

Using blogger meant that collecting target market feedback was a relatively easy thing to do. I was able to distribute my blog address, through social networks, after embedding my surveys and images onto blog posts. It was a very efficient way to instantly gain target market feedback.

If I were to create a paper hard copy of my blog and my work there would be no way I could include the audio and visual elements that I have used within Blogger. Creating a blog meant that I could embed many visual elements which would aid the analysis and the ideas I was trying to put across.

Using blogger was very effective as we were working in a group. All three team members could easily access each other’s blogs and this meant there was little time constraints we needed to adhere to. We didn’t have to be with each other to produce group work.

The blog is accessible at sixth from, at home and on my phone therefore I was able to do work from everywhere and when it was suitable for me.

The tabs I were able to add to the top of my blog meant that all the posts could be posted and grouped. This meant that the posts were in a logical order and that it was easy to navigate around my blog.

Using a blog meant that my work was always secure and safely stored. Paper copies of my work could easily be lost or damaged.

Weaknesses:

At the beginning of the course I had never used this site or maintained a blog like this. I had to learn everything along the way as I produced my work.

The formatting of the blog page (widths of videos and page size) had to be altered a lot to ensure everything fitted correctly and fully, this took some time to make the blog the best presented it could be.

Using an online blog meant that I had to rely on the Internet to upload my work. If the Internet connection became lost during the upload I was at risk of losing some of the work. I had to ensure that I product any text on a word document and saved it elsewhere before copying and pasting it on to the blog post online. This took up unnecessary time.

The blog was not very effective in displaying images in particular. It was very temperamental in how images could be put next to large blocks of texts and in line with others. This was an essential element if I wanted to add images alongside analysis. I was eventually happy with the placement of images etc. and felt all blog posts were clear and ordered for anyone who visited my blog. However this did take some time.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I used three methods in order to gain audience feedback. A survey, a focus group and comments via social network sites.
The feedback I received was really important to me as it helped me to gain comments from the actual viewers of my trailer and who would see the products I produced. If my soap 'Hatton Park' was going to be produced then there would be special screenings of it before it would be put to air. Feedback would be given throughout to what works well and what could be improved. The soap (and the products I made) would not be successful if the target audience were not attracted to them or didn't feel like they work.
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Throughout the construction and the complete final three products I used social network sites to gain feedback from my target audience. The feedback helped me to judge whether the products were successful in appealing to the target audience. Using social network sites enabled me to get instant feedback on my products as it was quick and easy to attach links to the products in Facebook status' and tweets on Twitter.

Click here to view all of my social network posts

Trailer:

The trailer responses showed that the audience liked the trailer and would like to watch Hatton Park. They picked up on some minor continuity errors which would be changed if we had time to record it again, these occurred mainly in editing as we tried to keep the time of the trailer down, to fit in with conventions. They said that they trailer was gripping and mysterious, which was the intended affect we wanted it to have on the audience.


Poster:

This response to my poster showed that they liked how composition of the characters showed the relationships. This was the intended affect because I wanted the viewer to start to guess at possible storyline and therefore make them want to watch the soap.

Magazine cover:






This tweet response showed me that the audience were attracted to the stereotypical convention of having bright colours on the cover. They also picked up on the dramatic direct cover lines. This response was very positive and showed that the magazine would be successful.

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I also used a focus group of 11-19 year olds to gain their views on my three products. I was able to ask them questions and this led into a wide range of long answers which showed how well the products appealed to them.

I recorded the focus group as follows:

Trailer feedback by Rachel Ashby 1

This response showed me that the trailer was successful in advertising all the possible storylines we wanted to hint at. The interviewee said that they liked how we had a range of all different characters. They felt that this would appeal to everyone as they could find the character they were most like. They also felt that the music fitted in well with the storylines hinted at, this is something we chose to deliberately happen.
They said to improve we could alter the sound. This was something we also picked up on as the sound quality was not very good on the final cut. We found that using a microphone rather than the one on the video camera may have recorded the sound cleaner.

Cover feedback by Rachel Ashby 1

This response showed that although soap magazines do not tend to appeal to this audience, the large Hatton Park feature appealed. Having the main image and coverline to do with Hatton Park meant that the interviewee said they would be tempted to pick it up solely because of this. They liked how I stuck to the stereotypical conventions of listings magazine covers, by having a busy and colourful front cover.
They said to improve I could have added further coverlines and images to fill up the coloured space. I can see that there is further room for improvement with this as I could have added extra images to fill up space. This would also help to appeal to other readers as well as they may be interested in these soaps.

Poster feedback by Rachel Ashby 1

This showed me that the poster was also successful at drawing in the audience to get them guessing at the possible story lines that would be shown. Having the characters looking at each other in different directions meant that the interviewee started to understand some of the relationships.
He said to improve I could have added either less colour or a background setting to the poster as he didn't feel like it put it in to context. I can understand this as in most of the existing posters I found that conventionally posters do have a background image or single colour, however I decided to break this convention to keep my poster fresh and welcoming to a new audience, and the colours were also used to reflect the characters personalities. I maybe could have added more colour to get peoples attention better.

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By using a survey on Survey Monkey I was able to gain anonymous views on all three of my products. I felt using a survey like this would be effective because the views aren't said directly to me, therefore the people filling it may feel like they could be more honest about my products.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Responses included:














This showed that all the people that took my survey gave it a respectable 4/5. As always there is room for improvement in everything. 100% of my target audience said that the trailer would appeal to them. One said "It seemed to hint to some interesting storylines. It did make me want to watch an episode of Hatton Park'. This shows me that the planning I did worked and that the trailer did appeal to the target audience in the correct intended ways. They also commented on good use of camera work when panning over to Elizabeth looking at the group. They felt it added to the mystery as it showed her on her own staring at them from the distance.











These selected responses show me that the magazine cover is successfully following the identified conventions I found in my research stage. They particularly liked the colours of the cover and felt that the cover was eye catching and would consider buying it.

This showed me that there were many strengths and weaknesses of all my three products. The main ones were consistently picked up through out all the survey, focus group and social network comments. The felt the main strength of the audiovisual work was the camera work and mise-en-scene bringing across the characters personalities and relationships how we intended them too. They said that the main weakness in the trailer was the sound. In the audio visual media they liked the colours and the logo being used in these as well as the trailer. They felt that this linked all the pieces together and helped to build up the Hatton Park brand.
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From my audience feedback I have learnt that my products do have some weaknesses. There are areas that can be improved slightly to add more appeal to the audience or make things clearer. However the feedback has also shown me, and I also feel, that I have made three successful products that do appeal to my intended and identified target audience.

Audiovisual:

Soap listings magazine cover:

Hatton Park poster:

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

I purposely made my soap trailer, soap listings magazine and soap poster all fit together in order to create a brand identity for ‘Hatton Park’. This is seen through the continuity of using images, colours, fonts and costumes. By using three different types of media products, one audio visual trailer and two print based products I was able to reach both my specific target market and a wider range of audience.

Combination of products

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Combination with Institutions:

During the research stages of my coursework I found out about the institutions that produce the type of products I made. Click here to view Institutions research. By combining the use of the three products with the existing products Hatton Park would be able to gain an audience as the target audience see the products on television, in the street or online.

We decided that our soap (and therefore the trailer) would be best suited to be shown on BBC Three. From the research we found that they do not produce soaps like ours and that there would be a 'gap' in the market for it to be successful.

The trailer we produced would be shown before it is aired but during the breaks in between programmes on BBC Three. As it is a television network from the BBC is is funded by the annual television licence fee charged to all British households, therefore they do not have commercial advert breaks between television shows. However, they do have in-house advertisements for their own programmes. The Hatton Park trailer would be shown in between shows that are of an interest to our target audience such as re-runs of EastEnders and Russell Howard's Good News. Therefore the trailer would capture the interests of the existing viewers and our target market who are watching BBC Three.

The poster would also be combined with these programmes and be placed on the websites of these programmes. It would then be noticed by the target audience online and they would be directed to watch the trailer. It could also be placed on the sites with a hyperlink that takes the viewer directly to the YouTube trailer of the Hatton Park soap.

During the research stages I found that ICP Media would be the most suitable publishing company to publish my soap magazine. They already produce magazines such as TV Easy and TV Times which shows that they are already successful in producing and distributing the type of magazine I have produced.

On the magazine I placed teasers that involved a wide variety of other soaps. I included 'Waterloo Road', 'EastEnders' and 'Hollyoaks'. This was a convention I found on all the existing soap magazine covers I analysed. It helps to draw in a wider audience, rather than just the target audience who are aged 12-19. EastEnders for example appeals to a wide audience, as well as the other soap, having these teasers makes the poster appealing everyone. They would then pick up the magazine and read about Hatton Park as it introduces the new soap.

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

Use of Conventions in my trailer

During the research stages of the coursework I analysed for existing soap trailers to identify the conventions they had and the effect that they had on the audience.
For soap trailer analysis click on the following links: Emmerdale, Eastenders1, Eastenders2 and Corrination Street.

We mainly wanted to follow conventions that we found in the previous analysis to ensure that our trailer was successful. We did this through following conventions of technical elements- such as camera work, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. However, because our soap was aimed at a different audience we also developed and challenged some of these conventions to ensure the trailer was appealing to them. We also challenged some of these conventions because our trailer was introducing a whole new soap, rather than just advertising a specific storyline to the audience.

To keep the trailer faced paced and moving the storyline along we used titles in between the action. This was a convention seen in a lot of the existing trailers we analysed as a group. Putting the titles such as 'NEW CONFLICTS' 'NEW LOVE' and 'NEW YEAR' broke up each piece of film and helped to hint at the storylines and introduce the new soap to the audience.

We broke conventions of existing soap trailers by using the names over the shots of the characters at the end of the trailer. We decided to do this because our trailer was introducing a new soap. Having the names of the characters meant that the audience would become more familiar with them and be able to understand the storylines shown more.

We stuck to conventions by using the logo, name of the soap, institution and time/date the soap was being broadcast at the end of the trailer. This was seen to be successful in other trailers as it is the last thing people see and the thing they tend to hang on and watch the full trailer to see when it is being shown. We stuck with the consistent use of the titles sliding in and out as the audience would become familiar with it.

We continued with one of the conventions we found in an existing Emmerdale trailer to use in ours to help to introduce the characters. It used close ups of each of the characters fading quickly in and out at the end of the trailer. This helped to show their reactions and facial expressions to what had been shown in the trailer. By doing this we felt that the audience would get to know the characters better and it would reinforce what had already been shown- especially because it is introducing new characters that the audience would have never seen before.



One of the conventions of soap trailers was the stereotypical setting they were set in, depending on the storylines and region of characters there was. For example Emmerdale is set on a small farm village, a lot of the storylines involve the everyday lives of the village people on living on the farm. This is something that is familiar with the audience and instantly recognisable to them if they see trailers, posters or advertisements. Because of this we decided to use the location of a school throughout the trailer. The scenes are quite obviously set here and helps the audience to understand what will be shown in the soap and connects the storylines with the characters and setting.

The most convention method of sound on the trailer was through titles and dialogue- we also found that sometimes a voice over was used. We chose to continue this conventional method of having titles throughout the trailer as well as dialogue. Combined with the action on the screen, this helped the viewer to piece together the storylines shown. For example when Elizabeth has the notebook with 'Zac' in love hearts the next title says 'New Love'. This helps the audience to understand the relationships that could be developed and the general plot of the soap portrayed by the trailer.

Use of conventions in my listing magazine cover:

During the research stages of the coursework I analysed three existing listings magazine covers to identify the conventions of them.
For analysis click on the following links: What's On TV, TV Easy, and Soaplife

Magazine analysis

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Use of conventions in my Hatton Park poster:

During the research stages of the coursework I analysed two existing soap posters to identify the conventions that they included.
For poster analysis click on the following links: Neighbours and Hollyoaks

Poster Analysis

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Audience feedback social networks

Social network sites: Twitter and Facebook

Poster- FINAL

- Blocks of colour added behind characters to connote their personalities and role within the soap

Magazine Cover- FINAL

- Rearranged coverlines to make best use of space
- Extra coverline added to continue with route of the eye and make the cover busier to appeal to the nature of the target audience

Hatton Park- FINAL

- More titles added to improve pace and storyline recigntion for audience