Final Products

Documentary:

Radio Trailer:

Print Advert:

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

Our documentary and ancillary texts use the codes and conventions, at the start of the project we ensured that we were well aware of what these were for each media product. As we wanted our products to be professional we did not challenge the conventions.

I created a prezi to display the codes and convention used on the print advert and the radio trailer:

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?

This video describes how effective the combination of my main products and ancillary products are together. It looks at how my group and I ensured there was coherence throughout the production.

Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

At the time of our focus group, I filmed the participants watching and filling in questionnaires:

I chose somebody from my target audience to ask a few questions about the project:

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

Throughout the production of our three products, we used many different technologies to construct and research, to plan and to evaluate.
The research was mainly done using the internet, search engines such as Google were of great help in finding a variety of content ideas. Software such as Microsoft Word and Excel were also helpful in our research as we created questionnaires.
The construction of our products were mainly done on Photoshop and Premiere Pro.
I used a variety of technologies to evaluate my project, I used the Microsoft package as well as online presentation sites. I also created my own movies with Windows Movie Maker.

The audio below explains how I used technologies to evaluate the project:

Photographs and Screengrabs of Print Advert

We took a selection of images to choose from for the main image of our print advert:

Whilst editing and producing our print advert, we took screen grabs to show what we had done:
After we had sectioned her face into four, we changed the gamma and the exposure to give her face different shades.

We then hid the main image so we could make the background. We changed the layer style to make it look like the UV rays off a sun bed.

To add a glow around the girl in the main , we simply added a glow effect around her. This links with the topic of our documentary and also our slogan.

Using the text tool, we added the slogan, title, date and time of the showing. WE changed the slogan so that the font was larger than the rest as this is conventional.

A new layer was made and the image of the Channel 4 logo was placed to the side.

Print Advert Planning

Slogan: How far would you glow?
Scheduling: Monday 5th December at 8:30 pm
Logo: Channel 4, positioned to the right

Main image ideas:
1. Four different people with different skin colours, going down in gradient.
2. Mixing two faces, one being pale and the other being tanned.
3. Mixing one person face, having some strips tanned and the rest pale.
4. Using one face, splitting it in four and having them increase in tan gradually.

To help decide we created a few mock-ups to see which loked most professional at the same time as giving an overview of the documentary:

 

We decided to go with our fourth idea which when designed on Photoshop should be set out as in the draft:

Codes and Conventions of Print Adverts

In our lesson today, we discussed in groups the possible codes and conventions of print adverts. We then developed a set:
- Main image is strong and anchors the narrative.
- The central image sums up the narrative.
- The Channel 4 logo is always on the right hand side and is also 3D.
- The colours use are the same on the text and the image.
- There are 3 main colours used: black, red and white.
- The title always has a block around it.
- The schedule is also placed with the title, and sometimes have a positioning statement.
- Such adverts are published more in lower class newspapers.
- Adverts can be both landscape or portrait.
- Text is kept to a minimum to avoid boredom.
- They have catchy slogans that link to thew documentary.
- The advert as a whole shows an insight of what the documentary is about.

Editing Radio Trailer

To edit our trailer, we used Premier Pro. We combined a music bed, parts of documentary and also recorded a script for ou trailer. The main focus whilst editing our radio trailer was to ensure that the volume of each section suited the tone.

Radio Advert Script

Music Bed: What Makes You Beautiful (instrumental)
Voiceover: Mr Bottom
Key:

(.) – Short pause

(1.0) – Longer Pause
_____ - Emphasis

“How far would you go for that bronzed body?

Mrs Battle: Your value is in your looks, and celebrities look good

“With an average of 35 Million holidays means people are browner for longer”

Vicki: Famous people have all got brown golden skin and they see that as a fashion

“But with holiday prices on the rise again, people are turning to other methods to achieve the perfect celeb tan (.)

Vox Pops: “I prefer the pale one, it looks more natural...the brown one where she’s got some colour in her face”

“Between salons and self tan (.) even your average person can glow like a celeb”

Lana: You never really see them pale; they all have good glamorous tans.

“A journey into the world of tanning (1.0) and how important it’s become (.)”

“How far would you glow?”

“Tantalising (1.0) Monday 5^th December (.) 8:30 (.) Channel 4”

Codes and Conventions of Radio Adverts

Today we listened to four different radio adverts adverts and discussed their features in our groups. We then came together as a class to discuss the features and developed a set of codes and conventions which are:
- The music bed relates to the topic.
- Backing music should not take the attention away from the voice over.
- Extracts of the documentary being advertised can be used in the adverts.
- Sound effects link to narrative.
- Narrator and voice over are used.
- Voice over used is the same as the one used in the documentary.
- Voice overs inter-cut throughout the advert and give a hint of what the documentary is about.
- The advert lasts between 30 to 40 seconds.
- The beginning must be clear and exciting to grab audience's attention.
- Ending of advert is always the scheduling and is in a different voice.
- Advert is to intrigue audience, to make them want to see more.
- Radio adverts and print adverts link to each other as well as the documentary to create campaign.

Voiceover Script

The script of our voiceover had to be carefully done to ensure that all the correct information was required and would link the different areas. however, the timing of each different clip was also essential in making sure everything would fit. The voice-over in many ways adds to the tone of the documentary and so it was important in making sure that Mr Bottom used a relaxed but not informal tone.

"In recent difficult financial times, 63% of people have had to give up their holiday abroad and seek other means, such as fake tanning and sun beds, to get that summer glow.

From sun beds to spray on, people have started to tan at work, home, and now even in the gym. So, why is this the case?

With a public split of what looks good, the debate between perfectly pale or brown and bronzed still stands.

But what is the influence tanned celebrities have on the public, and why do people need to look like their idols? "

Editing of Documentary

As we our creating oru dcoumentary on Premier Pro, this is where all our editing takes place. We can split shots, alter their tempo, add sound effects etc, this will help add a professional touch to our documentary.

Edit Decision List

This is our edit decision list, we wrote down exactly what changes we made to each of the shots that we took.

Tap Log Sheet

Our tape log sheet shows a list of all the shots we took, their lengths and whether we thought they were sucessful or not. If they were not, they were re-filmed.

Filming Cutaways of Glo Sun Rooms

After watching through our documentary parts, we realised that our interview with Vicki did not have enough mise-en-scene. So today I went to Glo Sun Rooms to film walking in, however to an accident the previous night the shop was closed. So I improvised by filming the sign. I panned across so that the viewer would be able to understand what 'Glo' is.

Interview with Lana Quilty

This morning we filmed our interview with Lana Quilty, who tans when she is going on a night out. We filmed this in the common room of our college where she sits with her friends. Due to lack of time, it was essential that this take went perfectly.
We asked her the questions:

Filming Voxpops - Retake

Today during our lunch and frees, we travelled to our local supermarket Asda. After discussing our work with the manager of Asda, he agreed to let us film voxpops for an hour just outside the entrance of their store on the understanding that we would not be of bother to the customers.

This was a lot more successful than our last two attempts, and we got all the footage we required asking these questions:
1) Do you tan and if so why?
2) Which do you prefer? (Showing them two images of Nicola Roberts. One pale and the other tanned)

Interview with Sarah Fenlon - Retake

Today we went to Jan's Barbers, where Sarah Fenlon works. We changed the positioning and palcement of Sarah, so that it is more obvious what her occupation is.It was also slightly brighter.
The problems with the first interview were the lighting and the wording of the answers. So upon arrival, I spoke to Sarah and asked if she could reword the question within her answer. Whilst filming, whenever the question was not answered correctly we made sure that we stopped and politely asked if we could re-do the question and alter the beginning of the answer.

The questions we asked Sarah were:
1. Do you tan yourself? If, so how?
2. Would you ever use sun beds? Why/Why not?
3. Do you know the risks of UV tanning?
4. Has your awareness and opinions of sun beds changed since your dad’s illness was diagnosed?
5. What advice would you give to sun bed users?

Filming our Title Sequence - Retake 3

In today's lesson we simply did the same as we did yesterday. We used liquid latex to stencil the letters and then peeled it off after it had dried. After watching this back on the computer, it looked much better and the word 'Tantalising'. We decided that this one suited and that it was the one we would use as part of our title sequence.

Filming our Title Sequence - Retake 2

We used liquid latex on a human arm to stencil the letters. After this had dried, we sprayed the arm with spray tan and waited for it to dry. We then did stop motion of peeling off the letters, one by one. We then zoomed in on the word so that is more clear. However, it did not fit the screen properly. Seeing as the liquid latex had worked so well, we decided we would simply re do it tomorrow but start further down the arm so that it could fit on the screen, whilst still looking like an arm.

Filming Voxpops - Retake

We went into Liverpool and set up our camera and tripod. However, there were very few people with the time to spare or whom were willing to be filmed. As a result of this, we only managed to get one voxpop which could not be used as all voxpops should be filmed in the same area. We are going to have another try at filming voxpops in a different area where there is likely to be more people at a more suitable time.

We were in Liverpool to ask the same questions as last time:
1) Do you tan and if so why?
2) Which do you prefer? (Showing them two images of Nicola Roberts. One pale and the other tanned)

Filming Voxpops

During today's lesson, our group went to Liscard in order to film our voxpops. However after several attempts at asking for people to answer the questions, it began to rain. As a result of this, we figured people would not want to stop to asnwer questions in the rain. We asked the manager of the Cherry Tree Centre if we could film in there, but he said we were unable to without permission off of the tead teacher. We are going to make another attempt at filming voxpops over in Liverpool.

We are using two voxpops:
1) Do you tan and if so why?
2) Which do you prefer? (Showing them two images of Nicola Roberts. One pale and the other tanned)

Filming our Title Sequence - Retake

After deciding to change our title sequence, we went and made a stencil. We also had to purhcase a tan that was a spray and also tanning removal wipes. In todays lesson, we used the stencil on a human arm and slowly sprayed the tan on the arm. We waited for it to dry and then slowly removed the stencil. However, the spray had soaked into the stencil and blurred the word making the un-readable.

Filming our Title Sequence

Today we made our first attempt at filming our title sequence. For this we took three different bottles of tan and did a stop motion of them moving and creating the word tantalising as they moved.
However after we played it back on the computer, we realised that it did not look right and so we decided to change our ideas. We decided that we would spray the word tantalising on an arm. To make this look more realistic, we are going to use a human arm.

Interview with Joe Deer

Today we went to the Total Fitness Gym to interview Joe Deer who is the 'Young Manager'. We set it in the sun bed room as he uses sun beds as part of his image for work. Due to lighting issues, half of his face is darker than the other. He was also sat on the sun bed with the lid up causing him to have to bend slightly. As a result of these issues, we will be refilming his interview.

We asked Joe:
1. Why do you tan?
2. How often do you use fake tan or sun beds?
3. How often do you see clients in your workplace tanning?
4. Do you think that it make you feel more confident?
5. Does your work have any regulations considering the use of the sun beds?

Interview with Vicki - Retake

This morning we refilmed the interview with the tanning salon owner. To avoid issues with background noise, we went early before the shop had opened. Moreover to avoid problems with the lighting, we filmed the interview in a different room which was a lot brighter. However, this caused problems with the mise-en-scene. To solve this, we will film walking into the shop as a point of view shot and go into the room where the interview was done the second time. We asked Vicki the same questions as in the first interview.

Interview with Nicky

Today we went to the local walk-in-centre to film an interview with Nicky Williams, a nurse. We were in a proper consultation room, with good lighting and no background. The nurse was also well educated in the risks and in the scientific area of tanning. As a result of these factors, our interview was successful and will not need re-filming.

The questions we asked Nicky are:
1. What are the risks of UV tanning?
2. Are these risks worse on sun beds than they are in comparison to natural tanning?
3. Have you ever come across anybody with burns from using sun beds whilst you have been working?
4. What advice would you give to those who use sun beds?
5. What are your views on what Nicola Roberts has done concerning the legal age of using sun beds?

Interview with Mrs Battle

Mrs Battle answered these questions:
1. What do you believe are the social reasons for tanning?
2. Do you feel celebrities influenced people’s lives and their feelings towards their own appearance?
3. Why do you think people feel the need to look like celebrities?
4. In your opinion how important are people’s perceptions of themselves?
5. Why do you think tanning has become such a key part of stereotypes and cultures?

Interview with Vicki

Today we filmed our first interview with Vicki, who owns Glo Sun Rooms which is a local tanning salon.

We asked her these questions:
1. Why did you set up a tanning salon?
2. Why do you think your customers tan?
3. Do you tan personally?
4. What advice do you offer your customers?
5. What restrictions do you have in place?
6. What are your views on the effect Nicola Roberts has had on the tanning industry?
7. Has this affected your business in any way?

However, after watching and reviewing this intervie, we decided that we are going to re-do the interview due to low lighting and the cutaways looking as though they were filmed with no tri-pod.

Planning

We drew a story board of the different steps that we would take in filming our opening sequence:

We also drew out a single shot of the interviews we are going to do. We made sure we set the correct mise-en-scene for each interview:

This is for the interview with Vicki who own Glo Sun Rooms, the mise en scene shows posters and leaflets advertising special offers, the interview will take place in the actual salon.

This is for the interview with Sarah Fenlon. She used to use sun beds until her relative was diagnosed with skin cancer. This will be set in her work place, a hairdressers. The mise-en-scene will show towels, shampoos, conditioners, sink, etc.

This interview is of Lana Quilty,a student who tans to go on nights out. She will be in the common room at her college, behind her there will be pictures of her and her friends on nights out.

The interview with Joe Deer was to be in his office and so the mise-en-scene would consist of office ware such as computers, pens, etc. 

As Mrs Battle is a teacher she was also going to be in her office and so the mise-en-scene will be similar to that of Joe Deer. There will be a computer, books, files, etc.

Our interview with Nicky is going to be set in a consultation room, there is likely to be medical equipment and a computer.

We had to design a set of question for each of our interviewees:

Questions for Nicky (Nurse)

1. What are the risks of UV tanning?
2. Are these risks worse on sun beds than they are in comparison to natural tanning?

3. Have you ever come across anybody with burns from using sun beds whilst you have been working?

4. What advice would you give to those who use sun beds?

5. What are your views on what Nicola Roberts has done concerning the legal age of using sun beds?

Questions for Miss Battle

1. What do you believe are the social reasons for tanning?
2. Do you feel celebrities influenced people’s lives and their feelings towards their own appearance?

3. Why do you think people feel the need to look like celebrities?

4. In your opinion how important are people’s perceptions of themselves?

5. Why do you think tanning has become such a key part of stereotypes and cultures?

Questions for Lana
1. Why do you tan?

2. What products do you use?

3. How does being tanned make you feel?

Questions for Joe Deer
1. Why do you tan?

2. How often do you use fake tan or sun beds?

3. How often do you see clients in your workplace tanning?

4. Does it make you feel more confident?

Questions for Sarah Fenlon
1. Do you tan yourself? If, so how?

2. Would you ever use sun beds? Why/Why not?

3. Do you know the risks of UV tanning?

4. Has your awareness and opinions of sun beds changed since your dad’s illness was diagnosed?

5. What advice would you give to sun bed users?

Questions for Vicki
1. Why did you set up a tanning salon?

2. Why do you think your customers tan?

3. Do you tan personally?

4. What advice do you offer your customers?

5. What restrictions do you have in place?

6. What are your views on the effect Nicola Roberts has had on the tanning industry?

7. Has this affected your business in any way?

Preliminary Task

Opening Sequence:

Cutaways:

Interview:

Final Product:

Evaluation:

The feedback we were given was very helpful in telling us what we needed to work better on next time.
During the interview, the incorrect positioning of the microphone meant that the interviewee was extremely quiet and it was very hard to hear her. This could have been easily fixed if we had simply re-filmed the interview with the microphone much closer to the interviewee and also if we had done it in an empty room as there was quite a lot of background noise. I know now that when filming for our own documentary, I should always test the sound levels before filming the whole interview. We also did not use any cutaways and so there were lots of jump cuts, this is not in any way professional and does not follow the codes and conventions of a documentary. For the real product, I will ensure there are lots of interesting cutaways that avoid any jump cuts as this will entertain the audience more.
         However our feedback also said that our use of mise-en-scene ere very good as they linked to the topic and what was being said in the interview and our audience also said they enjoyed our opening titles which clearly stated the title of the documentary whilst using the topic. Another aspect that was greatly praised was the choice of music bed, as this is a popular song our audience all knew it and enjoyed it. However, it faded in and out and random times and was louder than the interviewee. Next time we will ensure that the music bed is quieter than the interviewee as to not over power them and also that the song does not come in at random times. I think that revising and looking into the codes and conventions would be very efficient in producing a good product that is interesting and entertaining.

Running Order

We have been working on the order of which our documentary will go in. We had to decide which sections we would have in our first five minutes and then decided what we would have as the rest. This is our final version:

Primary and Secondary Research

Emails:

Tweets:

Formal Proposal

Topic: Tanning
Title: Tan-talising

Type of Documentary: Mixed

Style of Documentary: Informal

Channel & Scheduling: Channel 4, Mondays at 8:30. This will pre-echo audience for Embarrassing Bodies.

Target Audience: Males and females, around the ages of 16 to 25.

Primary Research Needed:
1. Interview with psychology teacher (Mr De), sociology teacher (Mrs Battle), tanning salon owner (Vicki), doctor/nurse, parent and teenager.
2. Interview with Nicola Roberts, Katie Price, Louie Spence, Peter Andre, members of the Geordie Shore and The Only Way is Essex.
3. Voxpops.
4. Voice over- Mr Bottom

Secondary Research Needed:
1. One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful.
2. Christina Aguilera - Beautiful
3. Foo Fighters - Cold Day In The Sun
4. Daniel Powter - Bad Day
4. Location  i.e Liverpool

Narrative Structure: Non Linear

Outline of Content:
1.Opening Sequence
2. Voxpops in Liverpool - Do you tan? If so, how?
3. Interviews with anyone suggested in primary research.
4. Cutaways - Tanning salon 

Resource Requirement:
- Camera, Tripod, Video Camera, Voice Recorder

Ideas for Documentary Content

As a group, we sat down and wrote all of the content we wish to include in our documentary. This included a range of things, from ideas for interviews to camera work: