Coursework brief

I have chosen to do:

7. An extract from an original documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with: 

A double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary;
A newspaper advertisement for the documentary.

Final productions

Final documentary from Penny Brown on Vimeo.
Newspaper advertisement for the documentary

A double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary

Evaluation questions

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

Evaluation question 1 from Pernille Brown

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Evaluation question 2 from Penny Brown on Vimeo.

Blog posts in order are:
Research on a documentary series
Creating my font and colours
Research on my target audience

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback? 4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Generic research: TA of my own products

Textual analysis of my documentary extract

Textual analysis of my ancillary newspaper advert.

Textual analysis of my TV listings magazine double page spread.

Textual analysis of own ancillary double page spread from Pernille Brown

Progress shots 8.2.18

Today I added in another shot for my titles of people on their phones, inspired by Channel 4's 'The Secret Life of Students'. I also refilled and replaced the statistic shot, and used the same font as my other products but left it black, as it makes it stand out more and attract more attention. It is also slightly easier to read. I was worried about my titles not being easy to see, so I created a google form to send to my target audience to receive feedback on whether it can be read. The responses were mainly that they could but some said they couldn't, so I added a black banner behind the titles so it is readable, and also matches the titles in the rest of the documentary. I decreased the opacity of the black banner so it wasn't as prevalent and not the main feature of the shot.

Progress shots 7.2.18

I found the following links to try and find how Channel 4 present the interviewee names and occupation. I am going to try and emulate this style in my documentary. Here is a clip I found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkP5PEllQg0

I was also trying to find a documentary about technology created by Channel 4, and I found a series from 2014 called 'The Secret life of Students'. This follows a group of 18 year olds and their phones as they start university. This is the summary of the topic:
http://www.channel4.com/info/press/press-packs/the-secret-life-of-students

I found a previous episode of this series and found their titles, and I am going to make my title sequence similar to this, as audiences would expect continuity across Channel 4's products. This is the youtube version of series 1 episode 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXlP95X-2ds

Progress shots: 6.2.18

Today I added in a cutaway of the SIMS parent app that one of my interviewees talks about. I also needed an ident in the beginning of my documentary, so I used a site to download a video compilation of Channel 4 idents and used one of them in the beginning of my documentary. I also changed the colour of the name of the documentary to create a stronger sense of brand identity, as the titles in my double page spread are these colours, which correspond with the colours of the background on the iPhone X. I also changed the font on the titles in my documentary for the interviewees to continue this brand identity

Progress shots: 31.1.18

Today I added in page numbers and the logo of the magazine at the bottom of the page to adhere to conventions of magazines, as most have page numbers. I also changed the font of the titles in my documentary to match the font in my double page spread, and to create a sense of brand identity. I also changed the font on my advert to continue this sense of brand identity.

I did not continue the font onto the second line as this is an advert for the documentary, so the name can be recognised in the same font and the date is noted underneath.

Progress shots 30.1.18

Today I received verbal feedback on my current documentary draft. I found that to have a consistent brand identity I should change the font of the text in my documentary, and also in the titles of the documentary. I have tried to make the titles easy to see but due to the pixelated font sometimes the font is hard to see. I took the font and colours I created for my TV listings article and recreated this effect on the rest of the title, 'in education', using a colour dropper to change the colour of the text.

Progress shots: 29.1.18

I changed the white text boxes to black and the text black to white. This is because I made a google form to ask whether the white text boxes or black text boxes, and the response was to make the boxes black.

Progress shots 25.1.18

Today I drew and filmed my titles. I have imported the files and I edited them together to create a title sequence. I started the documentary music earlier at the beginning of the titles so that the music was covering the sequence.

Final documentary draft from Penny Brown on Vimeo.

This is my documentary so far.

Progress shots 24.1.18

Today I added in a clip to introduce an interview to help the documentary flow better. I also put a clip in where the introduction needs to be, and I am going to film another clip for it as the background does not relate to the title of the documentary. I also extended the music so that it started when the introduction starts.

I decided that I am going to try and make a stop-motion style title sequence like the one above from '20 Kids and Counting'. I am going to draw a timeline of when popular pieces of technology was released.

Progress shots 22.1.18

Today I moved the social media logos and handles to the side of the page instead  of along the bottom. I will get some more feedback from my focus group to see if there are any changes I need to make.

I also received feedback to move the text inwards and change the text from white on black to black on white. However, due to my main image having the black boxes already edited on my free trial so I could not move the boxes or change the colours, so I edited a grey box over the edges to make the boxes appear closer in, put white boxes over the black ones and changed the colour of the text. I then found the original main image on my blog and cut out the bottom of the picture in Photoshop and placed it over the bottom of the black box in InDesign. This made it look as though the boxes had moved inwards.

Progress shots: 19.1.18

Today I added another pull quote and then moved the text around so that it fitted. I moved the phone, boxes and social media into the frame. I swapped the pictures around so they fitted better.

Progress shots: 18.1.18

Today I edited my double page spread. I tried editing on a box to introduce the date and time being broadcasted, like in a common TV magazine, but it did not fit well into the spread. I also tried to put another column on the side and was going to put text in it but it did not look right. I also then added a red box behind the tagline, and made it green which fits in with my colour palette. I also added a caption on the picture of the presenter. I then looked at other double page spreads and found that a box introducing the website url was a common feature, so I copied and pasted my logo then found a picture of a digital mouse and put them together. I then typed 'Find out MORE at..." then a fake url. 

 

 I also then added in a previous picture I had taken of the presenter and put a black box around it and then added a drop shadow, then another caption.

Progress shots 5.1.17

I realised there was a gap between the black boxes and the edge of the advert so I filled the gap. I also realised that my social media links were no tin my house style font so I changed them. I am not happy with the look of the black boxes, so I am going to try and do something with them to fit the rest of the advert.

I replaced the coloured boxes around the iPhone with brighter colours and then moved the text around these by creating new text boxes and separating the paragraphs. I am going to create another pull quote and keep improving it.

Progress shots: 4.1.17

This is my final draft for my ancillary product. I edited on my housestyle text font and the social media links.

Progress shots 28.12.17

Today I downloaded a 7 day trial of InDesign on my computer to finish my ancillary products. I uploaded the photoshopped image I completed onto a document and edited the advert with all the conventions of a usual Channel 4 advert.

I found that this version of InDesign does not have my housestyle font, so I left the areas blank where the typing needs to be and I will edit this in on the InDesign version I was using previously.

Progress shots 21.12.17

Today I found out how to adjust the pixels on my first draft of my edited advert. 

I decided that the pixels needed to be more separated, and that the presenters head was a little too stretched. I found that I could cut squares like pixels out of the original picture and add them in, so I did this.

This is my finished product. I am going to edit in the Channel 4 logo and documentary name in InDesign.