Thursday, 6 January 2011
Question 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research,planning and evaluation stages?
During the research and planning, construction and evaluation stages we used a large number of new technologies, listed below, are the technologies and what we used them for:
Research and Planning
Microsoft word- We used Microsoft word to produce our initial questionnaire in which we found out our target audience's likes and dislikes. We also used Microsoft word to write up our running order in the initial planning stages. Our scripts for our radio and documentary were also typed up on here so they were easy and clear to understand.
I used Mircosoft excel to produce pie charts when concluding my questionnaires as I believe that it graphically illustrates my results well.
We used the Internet to help us analyse the codes and conventions of professional documentaries by going on to websites such as Channel Four. We also used it to research our topic in which helped when it came to brainstorm our ideas for content.Later on we used it to help us think of ideas to include in our voiceover for example information on Paris Hilton and Michael Carroll. Furthermore the internet was used to get archive footage, for examples stills of drugs and news footage. We later used it to analyse radio trailers and print adverts and therefore we able to create codes and conventions that we could follow.
Construction
We used Photoshop to make all our our Print Advert, after taking our images, we imported it in to the programme, cut out our images when doing so we had to blur the edges so that they did not seem harsh and added effects to make it brighter so it stood out, gave it a background with added effects to catch the readers eye,added the Channel 4 logo and added the name,slogan, time and date.
We used a digital video camera, microphone and tripod to film the material for our documentary. The things this included were; our interviews, stock footage, a number of varied cutaways, vox pops and opening titles. We found that we had to re-film one interview due to excessive mise-en-scene, our vox-pops were filmed a number of times due to framing and background noise, and our opening titles were filmed a lot because we really wanted it to look professional, in the end we even changed our idea to achieve this.
We used a digital stills camera to take pictures as a record of our filming, for example, you will see from our images( in filming) the amount of times we had to re-film our opening titles for the number of problems that occurs. We also used a camera to take our image for our print advert.
We use the schools Radio Studio to professionally record the voiceover for both our documentary and radio trailer, this was easy to use and sounded very clear.
Adobe Premier Pro was the main piece of software we used as we used this to create both our whole documentary and radio advert. We used this to edit our interviews by editing out the questions and selecting the appropriate answers, we did this by using the 'razor tool' . We also used the effects on this piece of software by adding large number of transitions so that our work has a sense of continuity, this transition we used the most was called 'cross fade'. We used this to add in a large number of archive footage and cutaways to make our work seem more interesting, for some of these, the speed and/or size was changed in this software.Music could be easily added alongside our voiceover, Premier made it easy to change the sound levels and therefore the sound flows throughout, the music even it fades and and out so it is no abrupt.We added graphics to our documentary also, this meant we followed the codes and conventions and made our work look professional (the video below illustrates this). By the end of the construction, I would say I was confident in using Adobe Premier Pro as it is easy to use once you have grasped the basics.
Evaluation
During the evaluation I have used the following :
Prezzi - a presentation website to create a eye-catching answer which also involves and detailed and clear answer.
Voice recorder - I used a voice recorder so that I could express my answer spontaneously, also I used to it get feedback from my target audience.
Windows Movie Maker- I used this to help my upload voice clips and any footages I had for my answers ( examples below).
DV camera and tripod - I used these to record myself to illustrate how I used new media technologies.
Monday, 3 January 2011
Audience feedback
Here is the questionnaire that we wrote so that people could give us feedback on our documentary,radio trailer and newspaper advertisement.
1.Do you think our programme suits our target audience of adults 18+?
2. Would this five minute extract encourage you to watch the full programme and why?
3. On a scale of one to five how appropriate is the documentary for Channel Four and why?
(please circle)
1 2 3 4 5
4. In your opinion do the camera shots and the music suit the style and genre of the programme?
5.On a scale of one to five how would you rate our documentary in terms on the following?
(Please circle)
1 2 3 4 5
6.Do you think the camera work and editing used made our extract look professional?
7.How do you feel the documentary compares to other professionally made documentaries?
8.What are the strengths and weaknesses of our documentary?
9.What are the strengths and weaknesses of the radio trailer and print advert?
10.Do you think the sound bites and voice over in our trailer advertised our documentary to its full potential?
11. Do you think the newspaper advert effectively advertises our programmes and why?
Draft of Newspaper Advertisement
Here is a draft of our newspaper advert:
This draft shows the logo, the title, the slogan, the date and the time.
The image is one of a well dressed man biting in to a large burger bun full of a large amount of money. This image connotes the idea of greed that we are trying to get across.
Newspaper Advertisements Codes and Conventions
After looking at a number of newspaper adverts we conducted a list of codes and conventions that advertisements follow. Due to the fact our documentary is scheduled to be broadcasted on Channel 4, we used a number of their adverts to analyse.
-One strong, main image
-Words are kept to a minimum
-The slogan is also included on the print advert
-The title is always included
-The scheduling information always included
-Channel logo is prominent and on the right hand side
-The print advert is usually A4, landscape size so that it is versatile and can be used at various sizes in newspapers, magazines or on billboards.
We used the link below when doing this:
http://www.4creative.co.uk/flash/#/print/press_and_poster/-One strong, main image
-Words are kept to a minimum
-The slogan is also included on the print advert
-The title is always included
-The scheduling information always included
-Channel logo is prominent and on the right hand side
-The print advert is usually A4, landscape size so that it is versatile and can be used at various sizes in newspapers, magazines or on billboards.
Here are some examples :
Radio Trailer Codes And Conventions
The codes and conventions I found of radio trailers are as follows:
-Short audio clips from the programme included.
-Occasionally a music bed with music that is relevant to the programme in some way.
-Voice over is the same voice over that was used in the documentary. The voice over has to narrate and briefly outlines what the programme is going to be about.
-Average length of a radio trailer clip is 40 seconds.
-Mentions what channel it will be broadcasted on.
Voice over Script
Here are the scripts that we wrote for our documentary voiceover and the voiceover for the radio advert.
We use an older male to do our voice over as it would fit in well with the tone of our documentary and also appeal to our target audience well. We were also aware of the fact that we should work on a ratio of three words per second.
Documentary Script
Introduction (21 seconds)
Are we becoming an increasingly greedy society? Is the desire for a large pay packet, an ideal education and the latest gadgets simply a feature of human nature? Or is our society greedier than previous generations? Have we lost sight of the line between greed and obsession? We asked people what comes to mind when they think of greed.
Voxpops to Banker (5 seconds)
Our survey showed that two thirds of people claim that money makes them happy, but is there a link between greed and money?
Banker to Dad (7 seconds)
Many people agree that greed is one of the main causes of the recession, but with bills mounting up, how is the average family coping?
Dad to Gran (6 seconds)
So are the youth of today a greedier generation or have our gluttonous habits been passed down from our ancestors?
Paris Hilton (12 seconds)
Paris Hilton, the girl who has everything from clothes to cars, perfume to pooch, plays a major role in the lives of many teenage girls. And she is not alone. Programmes such as MTV Cribs portrays thousands of celebrities glamourising greed. But is this a lifestyle we should be promoting?
Michael Carroll (20 seconds)
Many people dream of having lots of money so that they can have a better life, but does the reality match the dream? According to the 9 million pound lottery winner Michael Carroll, the answer is yes. Spending his winnings on cars, a house, drink, drugs and women, he says he is happy despite now being penniless again. We asked people what they’d buy if they won the lottery.
Radio Script
Is society today fuelled by greed? Money, drugs, food, sex, alcohol, a good education? Are we really the greediest generation?
Documentary Script
Introduction (21 seconds)
Are we becoming an increasingly greedy society? Is the desire for a large pay packet, an ideal education and the latest gadgets simply a feature of human nature? Or is our society greedier than previous generations? Have we lost sight of the line between greed and obsession? We asked people what comes to mind when they think of greed.
Voxpops to Banker (5 seconds)
Our survey showed that two thirds of people claim that money makes them happy, but is there a link between greed and money?
Banker to Dad (7 seconds)
Many people agree that greed is one of the main causes of the recession, but with bills mounting up, how is the average family coping?
Dad to Gran (6 seconds)
So are the youth of today a greedier generation or have our gluttonous habits been passed down from our ancestors?
Paris Hilton (12 seconds)
Paris Hilton, the girl who has everything from clothes to cars, perfume to pooch, plays a major role in the lives of many teenage girls. And she is not alone. Programmes such as MTV Cribs portrays thousands of celebrities glamourising greed. But is this a lifestyle we should be promoting?
Michael Carroll (20 seconds)
Many people dream of having lots of money so that they can have a better life, but does the reality match the dream? According to the 9 million pound lottery winner Michael Carroll, the answer is yes. Spending his winnings on cars, a house, drink, drugs and women, he says he is happy despite now being penniless again. We asked people what they’d buy if they won the lottery.
Radio Script
Is society today fuelled by greed? Money, drugs, food, sex, alcohol, a good education? Are we really the greediest generation?
Has society changed since the recession?
Is there really a need for greed? Has rampant individualism replaced our care for fellow human beings in this society?
What does greed mean to you? Find out what it means to others. "I Want It All", Channel 4, 19:30, Sunday 19th December.
Is there really a need for greed? Has rampant individualism replaced our care for fellow human beings in this society?
What does greed mean to you? Find out what it means to others. "I Want It All", Channel 4, 19:30, Sunday 19th December.
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Editing
After all the filming had been completed and we had filled in both the tape log sheet and edit decision list, we began editing the footage, the images below illustrate all the different things we did.
This is an image of us changing the sound levels by dragging the sound bar up and down on the selected so that they all hit a sound level of minus six, therefore the sound will flow evenly throughout. We also faded music in and out between and throughout interviews to make it more entertaining for the viewer.
During filming, footage was recorded a number of times so that we could choose the best section, therefore so that our documentary was only five minutes we had to use the clipping tool to shorten clips into the sections that we wanted, this tool being used is shown below.
This image shows us importing archive footage from our files in to our project on Adobe Premier Pro, we would then drag it in to our time line,re-size it and add transitions to either side of it, so it flowed well.
This image shows how we put all of our sound and video clips in to order so that we could see the gaps that we needed to fill, we either music, cutaways or voice over. Here you can also see how we have faded music in and out every time with an audio transition 'constant gain'.
Here we our rendering our project so that it did not jump and was continuous, at first we thought our archive footage wasn't good enough quality but by simply rendering it, it all worked fine.
This image clearly shows us putting transitions in so that footage did not jump from one thing to another. We went to effects and then to video transitions and generally used 'cross dissolve' as this seemed the most appropriate one. We did test out a large majority of the transitions but they did not fit in with the tone of our documentary.
Some of the images and footage we found we different sizes compared to our interviews, so we changed the size so that they all we're similar. We clicked on the appropriate part of the time line and clicked on 'effect control's and lowered the 'motion' percentage.
Some of the footage we had was either too long or simply looked better faster, so here we have right clicked on the clip and have clicked on 'clip speed' again here we changed the percentage by dragging it up or down.
Here we are cutting down audio clips for example our music bed, so that they would fit nicely in the right part and so that the lyrics would reiterate the image on screen.
This image shows how we edited our radio advert. We changed the audio levels so that they were all even, also,some clips were faded in and out. Furthermore we cut down a number of the clip so they were just included the right section that we wanted. We did this on a new sequence in Abode Premier Pro.
Filming
Here are some images of us creating the idea we used as our final title sequecne idea :this includes a black sheet,money,chocolate,alcahol and tablets to resemble drugs
Monday 11th October
This was our first day of filming. In the images below we are filming our first idea for our title sequence.We used silver coins to reiterate the idea of 'greed', also we used two large pieces of black card so that the coins we clear.
We used the 'stop motion' technique by recording one coin at a time to give the illusion that the coins were appearing alone writing our title 'I want it all'. Due to interruptions the camera was moved several times so it was not continuous therefore we had to re-film.
Tuesday 12th October
For our second attempt we filmed in a classroom to avoid the interruptions the occurred during the film try.
The image below shows me using shoe polish to make the coins clear and to make the queens face more prominent on camera as after watching it back the first time we established this was a problem.
We also used a singular larger piece of black paper as when the first attempt was captured on to Adobe the line between the two pieces of paper was very apparent.
This time we laid the coins out first, and took them away one by one to make the process faster.
Wednesday 13th October
I filmed our first interview with Leanne Hill, 17. The interview took place in her bedroom so that the mise-en-scene could include some of the thing that she has spent her money on. However we were advised to re-film because the lighting was not bright enough and the poster of the 'Jonas Brothers' in the background did not reinforce the idea of greed and spending money.
Friday 15th October
Me and Kate went over to Liverpool City Centre to film vox-pops as we thought there would be a large number of people there. We filmed a number of people answering our two questions 'what would you buy if you won the lottery?' and 'what word comes to mind when you think of greed?'. Unfortunately, the microphone was not working so we bought new batteries, this did not improve the quality. The wind was strong and due to no microphone many of the vox-pops filmed that day could not be used.
Tuesday 19th October
We went out again to filmed vox-pops however this time in Liscard shopping centre, this time we only filmed two people, it started to heavily rain and the camera's battery ran out so we had to back away. Thus meaning we would have to go and film vox-pops for a third time.
On this day I also went over to Liverpool Community College to film an interview with Mike Whitmore, ex-banker and teacher of banking. The college had booked a interview room for me to conduct the interview, which was very helpful however it also meant there the mise-en-scene was not very strong and did not really reiterate the idea of 'money' and 'banking'. We could not re-film as this was he only free time, however we thought the interview was good enough to include as the content of it was strong. This is shown below :
Furthermore the interview with the father was filmed today, it was filmed in the child's bedroom, to illustrate all the things a child has, for example the mise-en-scene includes toys and a bunk-bed. Cutaways of the child playing where also filmed on this day.
Tuesday 26th October
The filming of the grandmother took place, it was filmed in her living room, with good lighting, clear sound and a mise-en-scene of things she spend her money one, for example ornaments.
Wednesday 3rd November
We filmed a number of cutaways today, they include a number of hands grabbing a large pile of monopoly money off a white background, this reinforces the idea of greed and fast consumption of money. We could use this as a cutaway between interviews.
We also filmed a game of monopoly as it is all about money, greed and property however this cutaway did not make it in to the final product as we found we did not need it.
Friday 5th November
Today we filmed cutaways for the interview with father using a Argos magazine, we zoomed in to appropriate objects which would fit in with what is being spoken about. We also filmed the title sequence for a final time, this again did not work as it did not look professional so we changed our idea.
Thursday 11th November
Today will filmed our new title sequence idea, which involved drink,tablets ( to resemble drugs), money, and chocolate. We used all of these things because it means we have included all of the topics we address in our running order.
It involves hands coming in, taking the drink, taking some of the tablets ( implying consumption) putting the drink back, taking and eating some of the chocolate and then grabbing at all of the money revealing the title which is on a black background saying 'I want it all' . The filming was not smooth, so we filmed it again which really worked at looked professional therefore we don't have to film it again.
Monday 15th November
We re-filmed the interview with the teenager, this time, the poster and the laptop where taken away, however we did do a cutaway with the laptop later on.
We also filmed a cutaway of someone peeling an orange, to use during the interview with the Grandmother, when she said ' we appreciated our apple and orange' .
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