Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Q2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts (Print Artefacts)?

In our coursework we have made 3 finalised products over the last few months. These consist of a 5-minute extract of a Documentary, in which we focused on the HS2, and 2 print artefacts. One is a Double page spread based off of the famous magazine, RadioTimes and the other print artefact is a newspaper ad which we have based off a channel 4 advertisement. Now in this evaluation I will be analysing how effective our main product and the print artefacts complement each other.

For all of our products we had the same target audience, which is a young audience in which the age range is around 16 to around a young adult (25). We know this is a very small age cap but we want to help other young people like ourselves get more in tune with what is happening in our country and documentary is a great way to provide this information. 

We made sure in both our main product and our print artefacts we used bright colours to attract are audience’s attention especially in the newspaper ad where we have used a bright red colour. As this is mainly aimed at younger people.

Double Page Spread

Now to start, we believe that all are products in one way or another connect and create a synergy between the coursework as a whole, as in our Double page spread it uses the same person throughout the designing, this means that that picture represents a link between the Double page spread and the film. The picture in question is a picture of Dan who stars in the documentary, as himself. So, with Dan being on the double page spread, means that audiences and relate Dan from the double page spread to the HS2 documentary. Also, the titling on the Double Page spread means you cannot mislead it for a completely different documentary as it is original. 

Also, in the double page has used many of its conventions that a normal RadioTimes magazine would use for example the at the very top of the page of the RadioTimes magazine, there had to be certain types of information, that was visible to the audience, this consisted of , the title of the product, (HS2:A White Elephant), the time the show was being aired and what date and also what channel. This can then tell the audience to go and watch the documentary as you have given them all the information they need.

Another factor that links this product is the programs used. We used Adobe InDesign for both the newspaper advertisement and the double page spread. Although I only used the Adobe InDesign to touch up the newspaper advertisement, it still means they have something in common (They were both edited in InDesign). 

However, as target audience goes, we have not effectively chosen the right magazine to do this with as I believe that RadioTimes is more suited to an older generation. For example, the colour scheme, compared to channel and are advert and film it doesn’t really have many bright colours. Also, not many of our target audience would spend money on a magazine each week, as they have better things to spend their money on. However, there is an increase to the online market for RadioTimes which means if a digital model of this Double page spread was made, it could get more views from are target audience as they are more likely to use the internet more than the older generation.

Newspaper Advertisement

First off the newspaper advertisement has many of the normal codes and conventions used for a normal channel 4 poster, as I found out when researching and making the poster myself. Such as colours which I discussed earlier and also the font. The font can mean lots to a young person. I for example won’t read an ugly font. It’s got to readable and also nice looking and the example of channel 4 fonts I used and downloaded are just right for are target audience. On the left are just a few of the fonts that we trialled and some that we did use for the final piece.

However the Newspaper Ad shows a picture of the countryside, which is something that is different to the other Ads. I do like this poster as this is the one we have chosen to present to the examiner. The poster itself is to show what is going to happen if the HS2 runs through the countryside. But that is also the problem, without any showing of the HS2 being on the poster, people who have no idea what the HS2 is will not know the meaning of the poster  which does not fit with are target audience whom we are trying to inform about this very big political topic.

The Film

The film itself is an entirely different product when being compared to the other two print artefacts, it is a moving product.  The film I feel links closer to the channel 4 print product, in some cases. For example, the animations we have are to please a younger audience, like the effect of the cost of the HS2, £56,000,000,000, the effect we feel gets the attention of the audience, and that of a younger audience too. But we also feel that the documentary, despite being of channel 4 descent, links to our Double Page Spread as well. The double page spread we feel is more for the older generation and we have also imported elements of this into our film as well.

By using relatively easy to read font and colours that can be seen by most people we think this will result in a much more, wider, audience reception. This is similar to what we have explained about both of the print products too. This also show a great synergy then, between the products. An example of the relatively easy font come from both the main titles and the caption titles used to show who people are that appear in the film, for example, MP Christopher Pincher, is easy to see, even from a slight distance. Also, the title sequence font is easy to make out form the background as it has a black outline around it. 

Overall

I feel like as a whole both our print products and our extract of a documentary have enough synergy to be effective in a number of ways towards our target audience, towards the promotion of the product and with both of the products together we actually convey to a wider audience in lots of ways by using fonts, different mediums, and colour schemes. So this means that it is effective in a few ways and this effectively suits the promotion of the documentary as a whole. Although there can be/are a few criticisms that we can identify for having quite different print products we still believe that they are the best products that we can possibly make and also convey to our audience who are going to see these products or watch the documentary itself.

Evaluation Question 1

Final Product - Extract of a Documentary

Double Page Spread Development, Analysis & Final Product

Double Page Spread Development

First idea

We started by experimenting with different designs on different pieces of software such as Microsoft Publisher and Adobe InDesign. Eventually we decided to go with Adobe InDesign as it allowed us to be more creative and flexible. Our original idea was to create something eye-catching so if it was to go in a TV listing magazine, people would read this. We decided to replicate the British Rail logo as the background for the double page spread. We thought this would be a good idea to show how the train industry is evolving from the once British rail to the now National Rail since 1999. Furthermore, this logo is still heavily used and associated with British Rail so by using this logo as our background in our double page spread, people would instantly know what the documentary is about.

Double page spread Designing

Opening paragraph
What it’s about?

This documentary focuses on the unfolding story of the country’s well known up and coming project in public transport. Daniel James shows us what to make of the HS2 how areas such as housing, establishments, and the environment is being affected by this oncoming storm.

In the first part of the 3-part documentary series, James shows us how his local town of Tamworth is going to be affected. By speaking to Local MP Christopher Pincher and the local people he finds out what most people think of the HS2. James also gives a very quick history lesson about the HS2 by explaining the chosen route and Illustrates to the audience the staggering figures of the project.

Q&A – Director Tayte Fordham

Do you think you have gotten your own points across in the documentary?

Tayte: No, not at all, but we think that’s a good thing. Being biased is a great for the audience as you don’t just focus on one side of the argument and give them all the wrong information which they may or may not like, plus it’s just boring, it’s like I’m moaning at them.

Dan: I totally agree with Tayte, we don’t want to give them one side, because then it’s not a documentary, we want the audience to have their own thoughts about the documentary if it’s for or against the HS2.

Why did you add the element of your hometown of Tamworth, It must mean a lot?

Dan: Well actually I’m not originally from Tamworth, or I don’t even live in Tamworth, but this is still a huge development for the town, and although it’s not directing in directly it is indirectly affecting it, so we thought it would be a good idea to get the people’s views or even just educate them in the process.

Tayte: Well I actually live in Tamworth so it’s sort of a big deal for mew as some big changes are coming for Tamworth in the next few years, and maybe it’s good for Tamworth, who knows. But yeah it can mean a lot and like Dan said it’s always good to educate a community and find out what they think, For example we even got CP (Christopher Pintcher) involved which was great because its always good to have someone else who knows what they’re talking about.

Also you mention MP Christopher Pincher, how did you manage to get him involved? And would you like any other Political guests giving g there opinion on whatever the next Documentary is?

Dan: Well that’s quite funny. When we were planning the first Documentary, we thought of having the PM Theresa May in the documentary, but you can imagine how that went. But we went through many people dropping them emails, until Tamworth’s MP Christopher Pincher got back to us and things just went from there. But definitely want a bigger political Presents in the next one.

Tayte: Defiantly Boris Johnson, I’d love to hear his thoughts.

We thought these 4 pictures would be good to use our double page spread as they all have relevance in our documentary. The British Rail logo that currently has got scaffolding around it shows how the current infrastructure is old, lacks new technology and needs improvement. This evident by the lack of the red colour of the old British Rail logo or the blue of the present National Rail logo.

The picture of us interviewing with MP Christopher Pincher about HS2 would be one of selling points of the documentary. Therefore including a picture of us interviewing him in our double page spread is crucial to show that we have got interviews with experts and important people that know a lot about HS2. Also including him would create synergy with the documentary, getting more people to watch the documentary as he is an important figure in the HS2 project.  

We have included the picture of a statue of Sir Robert Peel (former MP for Tamworth and one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party) that resides in Tamworth in the double page spread. This is because in our extract of a documentary, the Midlands/Tamworth region is spoke about a lot as the HS2 is going to affect this area a lot.

Our last picture we decided include in our double page spread was a picture of a current train running in the Midlands region. Originally we were going to use this picture to show the current infrastructure on the present lines. However for the purpose of our double page spread, we said this was train running on the HS1 showing what the ‘current HS1’ looks like.

The first idea final design

Evaluation of the first idea final design

We discovered problems in this design. The whole design was a bit cluttered and text would of been squashed in between the spaces. The red background is over powering and the black text used in the article would be difficult to read. The colour white wasn't a choice for the text as it would of clashed with the British Rail logo. The text boxes used in this first design are all different widths which makes the whole design unorganised and we wouldn't see this in a RadioTimes magazine which we later found out after researching and analysing some. On the left-hand side there isn't enough writing and the pictures haven't been labelled to give some context. In addition to this, the pictures aren't aligned in any sort of manner and it looks like we just threw on to the page.

This design was very unconventional for a double page spread in a TV listings magazine for starters. As already said above, we were trying to replicate the British Rail logo. After producing this design, we looked back at the British Rail logo and although striking some resemblance, it was not apparent enough.

Finally, having reviewed this first design, the design did not follow a conventional TV listing magazine's double page spread like the RadioTimes magazine. We decided to look at a RadioTimes magazine and analyse the document so that we could produce a similar product following the conventions of a double page spread which looked more professional.

Example of RadioTimes double page spread

From these 4 images of a RadioTimes magazine, we began to identify codes and conventions for a double page spread in a TV listings magazine.

The layout of the article is a key convention and allows readers to be able to follow the text easily. We noticed that the on each page there is 3 columns of writing with equal width, equally spaced apart from each other and has a margin on the left & right hand side of the page. This format is used throughout the whole magazine for continuity purpose. This layout works well because the text is not cramped up on one page therefore it is appealing and is easy to read.

Furthermore, we picked up on that every double page spread in the top left hand corner is the name of the program, day, time and channel the program is on. This immediately tells the reader the most important pieces of information as that is where the reader looks first due to us reading from left to right. The name of the program is always in bold so that it stands out at the reader. The day and time are in italics as if it was in bold, it wouldn't stand out against the bold used for the program title. The channel showing the program is in bold to stand out from the italics used previously. The example in the article above is: The Last Leg Friday 10:00pm Channel 4

Underneath the example given above is always the headline. The headline usually uses some literary technique, for example; power of 3, alliteration, simile and is always in a large, bold font. This engages the reader and tries to persuade them to carry on reading the article to find out more about the show. The example in the article above is: Seriously Funny

Succeeding the headline is a subheading which gives a brief sentence about the article and the program itself usually using emphatic language to persuade to carry on reading article and more importantly watch the show. This is a useful technique because the reader will know from this subheading whether the program is for them or not. The example in the article above is: The Last Leg began as an irrelevant comedy show about disability - five years later, it's a political big hitter

Following the subheading is the opening paragraph. This opening paragraph briefly explains what the show is about and what it will explore. The rest of the article will usually contain more information about the show and may focus on a certain topic of the documentary.In some articles, the writers interview the producers about their thoughts on the documentary, giving their take on their documentary.

The final paragraph summarizes the whole article on the TV documentary in our case and finishes with the writers name who wrote the article. At the bottom right of the first page and bottom left of the second page is RadioTimes & the date the issue is for.

Final Design draft in the making

We were much more focused on the conventions of a double page spread and it looks more like double page spread you'd see in the RadioTimes magazine. We implemented the convention of the TV show name, date, time and channel being put in the top left hand corner. We made each page have three columns of writing of equal width. As well as this we added margins on the left-hand side of the page. This makes the article easier to read. Our off-white background colour (cream) for the article makes it easy for people to read. However in this draft, the heading and subheading are in an awkward position leaving a lot dead space. The main picture on the right is also not positioned like a normal RadioTimes magazine as it is starts in the middle of nowhere and isn't in line with anything therefore it doesn't professional. Furthermore in this draft all the text is all cramped up on the first page and would make the article difficult to read.

We made a few adjustments from the first draft shown above. We acknowledged that the heading and subheading were not in a good position and left a lot of dead space so we adjusted this mistake putting it up in the left-hand corner. Furthermore, we adjusted the size ratio of the main image so that the start of the image was aligned with third column on the first page. We decided to make this change because we re-analysed articles in the RadioTimes magazine and identified that the pictures were not in random positions but aligned with the text. Finally, we adjusted the sizes of the paragraphs so that they were same width and equally spaced apart; thus creating margins on both the left and right side of the page. We chose to do this as it makes the article easy to read and it is a convention of an article in a TV listings magazine.

This is a screenshot of the finished product.

Newspaper Advertisement Development, Analysis & Final Product

The Newspaper Advertisement for the Print Products

Why Channel 4?

The reason that we would show this documentary on channel 4 is that they show many documentaries like Trump: The American Dream' and Coalition. Theses documentaries are very similar to ours and proves that politic and factual documentaries can be shown on the channel. Also, we believe that if it was shown on channel 4 it would get a greater audience view count than if it was shown on Sky One because lots of people have access to channel 4 as Sky One isn't part of the standard Freeview package whereas channel 4 is. But why wouldn’t we show it on the BBC? Although the BBC host big documentaries such as David Attenborough’s view breaker, “Blue Planet 2”; I don’t think that it would be a good host to political/factual documentaries as the audience is slightly to old overall and that doesn’t match our target audience which is formally 16-25 years old. We believe the younger generation need to be kept up to date with current affairs.

Channel 4 Fonts for documentary title and advertisements

I have downloaded these fonts of a website so it can look more like a real-life documentary. Unfortunately, the fonts do not show up unless the font has been downloaded.

Channel 4 Chadwick Medium -   Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Chadwick –Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Chadwick Bold – Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Chadwick Extra Light – Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Horseferry – Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Horseferry Bold – Hs2: A White Elephant

Channel 4 Horseferry Medium – Hs2: A White Elephant

Inspiration & Analysis

From this poster from channel 4, you can almost tell immediately what the documentary is going to be about as we can see that the title is “Disarming Britain” and the boys hand gesture is resembling a gun. From just those two pointers you know what the documentary is about. This is exactly what I would want from my documentary poster, for it to instantly tell the audience what it’s going to be about. But the only trouble this could have is that no one will know what the HS2 is, so we would have to use different titles or slogans to remind the viewer or tell the viewer what the HS2 is.  

This advertisement shows what the documentary is about in a very intelligent way. The title of the documentary is “Britain’s Forgotten Children” and the advertisement shows a child sinking into the floor as people walk by unnoticed which is representative of the title. This is a key feature in telling the audience what it’s about, but not directly and that’s what’s good about it. So for example I will need to explain what the documentary in the poster but make it subtle so that they don’t figure it all out straight away or they won’t watch the documentary. The brief synopsis under the title gives the picture more meaning as it mentions the care system so the readers know that the documentary is on the forgotten children in the care system. This gives the reader a little bit more information on the documentary but not enough to dissuade them from watching it.

This poster is very unique compared to the others as it only focuses on one picture in particular as the others has a series of scenarios going on in the pictures. So in this one you have to really try hard to know what the poster is trying to tell you. Also it uses a close up shot so you can clearly see the people’s faces in the poster. The poster focuses on two people and also that the documentary may follow their lives in the next week.

From all 4 of these newspaper advertisements we have analysed, we have noticed common denominators as such. In the bottom left-hand corner the name of the documentary, a short phrase briefly giving more information about the documentary and the date it dispatches is always present. These 3 pieces of information are important to the reader. The title always includes the topic of the documentary so that readers knows what it is about. The title normally uses a literacy technique to engage the reader and makes them remember the name of the documentary. Beneath the title, there usually a short phrase which briefly explains what the documentary is about if the title is unclear or ambiguous. Next to this phrase the date of when the documentary dispatches is present which tells the reader exactly when the documentary is on.

Conventionally on a channel 4 newspaper advertisement, the 3 pieces of information are present in the bottom left corner, however as long as they are present on the advertisement it generally doesn't matter where as long as it is appealing and easy to read. The 3 pieces of information is always highlighted by a colour with the colour of the font usually being black or white to stand out from the highlighted colour. The channel 4 logo is always present on the right-hand side of the advertisement so that left side isn't overcrowded with information. The colour of the channel 4 logo normally matches the highlighted colour or the colour of the font so that keeps the advertisement tidy. The channel 4 logo is normally always aligned in the right centre of the page. Finally the main picture in the advertisement is always related to the title of the documentary.

Drawn Drafts of Ads

In this design I have used a train which will explain to the audience through the poster of what the documentary is about. The train will definitely be the big speaking point of the poster so when I actually design it I would like to try and blur the background out to make sure that people focus on the train so they don’t get the wrong idea of what the documentary is about. The downside to this ad, it is a conventional train that we took a picture of and the HS2 trains would not look like this. For the titles I would likely use “Channel 4 Chadwick Bold” (Which is unavailable on School computers) but it makes the font easier to read and helps all of our target audiences to understand the Ad. Also I would have the titles in a white box and the text to be a black colour.

In this Ad, I have planned to use the sign of the local town I live in and also because that the majority of the documentary is filmed in the Tamworth area. Although the only bad thing is that people won’t necessarily associate Tamworth with the HS2 as hardly anyone knows Tamworth exists. So maybe I could use something in Tamworth where people might link back to the HS2.

This ad I feel represents the Hs2 for the most reasons people are against it. As 100,000s of acres of countryside is being demolished. So, this is a good representation of what most people know the HS2 is going to do, even though it doesn’t have the train in it, I feel that the audience will look at this and still know the effects the HS2 will have.

Different Channel 4 logo’s

Advert 1

The first Draft of the Advertisement

Good points:

This represents what the channel 4 documentary adverts look like so it fits the profile of the advert.

Also, it’s also very basic and easy to understand and not too cluttered. Also, there is not much dead space as the train picture takes up most of it.

Advert 2

I like this design because it’s not as boring as the other design, not as formal. It’s because I think the blue definitely helps the poster stand out more to a wider much younger audience, which can make it easy to remember. Also, the graffiti also makes an appearance which can also represents other people’s opinions in the poster. I’ve also used a lighter font so that it could be easier to read and understand. But it is still part of the channel 4 font pack.

Advert 3

This design focuses more on the environmental issues that people and the HS2 have to deal with. When taking this shot when filming for the documentary we knew that a lot of environment was going to be destroyed to make way for the HS2. So, we wanted to capture quite a lot of footage like this to get that information across to the audience. We also started expanding the colour scheme of the channel 4 logo and the title box. We kept the font white as I feel that it stands out more within the red colour scheme. Furthermore, we decided to add a smart headline in this design 'Going, Going, Gone'. This headline refers to the environment that is going to be destroyed and uses alteration to create something catchy so it stays in the reader's mind.

We decided to use third advert as our final product. Although it has no immediate connection to the HS2 project as there is sign of a train station or a train, we believe that environment is going to massively affected by HS2 and many habitats will be destroyed. Therefore we thought this advertisement would best fit our main project and create synergy between the pieces.

Here are the final products.

Editing the Main Product

The first part of the editing process was looking at all the shots that we recorded. The shots that were good were kept in a folder on the hard drive and the bad shots were put in a different folder on the hard drive just incase we could salvage the shots with some editing. 

After this we created a new project in Adobe Premiere Pro and imported all the shots into the project and ordered them into the different shot locations by creating folders. We created 9 sequences for each scene. After this, we cropped each shot down. We then imported the voice-over and split up into the different scene using the razor tool on Adobe Premiere Pro. After putting the split up voice-over into the relevant sequences, we started to put the shots in the corresponding places to match up with the voice-over. 

In some of the shot compositions, we added cross dissolves to add a bit more creative flair to our sequence. Once we finished putting all the shots in place, we found we had gaps in the scenes. In order to combat these gaps, we created text graphics on Adobe After Effects. 

The text graphics were used for the parts in the script were figures are being used to emphasise the amount. This helped fill in the gaps and break down the information. Furthermore, text graphics allowed the audience to know who the expert talking about HS2 was. One of the graphics shows HS2 brand image covered by the amount of money, HS2 is planned to cost and then the number explodes with a cash register noise accompanying to signify that HS2 is going to cost the taxpayers a lot of money.

We then started editing with the sound levels so that the voice-over could be heard over the clips. We did this by introducing a hold on the volume and set it to a certain decibel level. After putting all sequences back together and playing it, we found that the shots were lacking colour due to the poor cameras. We combated this by using the colour correction effect where we could change the saturation levels to make the shots look brighter and more colourful. 

Finally we added a background track to the whole sequence and we used exponential fades to fade out the music instead of just straight cutting the sound. When the voice-over was playing, we put the maximum volume limit to the background track so it could be heard in the background quietly. We then exported the media and uploaded it to YouTube.