Evaluation

Question 1

In what ways does your product use forms and conventions of real media products?


Our product uses the codes and conventions of real media products, it does not develop or challenge them because our aim was to produce a product that could rival a professional product.
Our documentary follows the conventions by :
Our documentary is easy to follow as the narrative structure is single strand and it is non linear.




Framing


- Framed in medium close up
- Vox Pop was framed so they were medium close up
- Pans (up, down and sideways) were used in cutaways
- Tracking shot through Liverpool is hand held and gives the impression of a point of view shot to position the audience in the action.





Framing our interviews so they look professional. We did this by framing the interviewee so their eyes were roughly 1/3 of the way down the screen and with them framed either to the left or right of the screen as shown below.






Proffessional

Our documentary Graphics

We used graphics on two lines on the interviews to anchor who the interviewee is and their relevance to the subject matter.



Proffessional





Our Documentary

Editing

- Fast motion during tracking shot through Liverpool
- Cuts to make the doc flow
- Montage of Neil’s (the designer) shop
- Questions that were asked to the interviewee’s were edited out
- Fade to/ from black sometimes used to show end of a chapter.

We used cutaways to keep the audience entertained and to avoid jump cuts where the questions have been cut out and when the interviewee looks at the camera.

Sound



- Music, connotations of fashion (The Scissor Sister- Filthy Gorgeous, Madonna- Vogue and Christina Aguilera- Beautiful)
- Voiceover used frequently to link everything together, standard English and the age and gender relate to the target audience.



Mise en Scene

- Mise en scene related to the interviewee (Lisa’s- posters of her fashion influences and Neil’s- filmed in his clothes shop with the clothes that he designed and made hanging up in the background)
- Vox Pop was filmed in Liverpool City centre with shops behind the interviewees.

The title of our product is very unique and original and is associated with the questions in the programme

Handheld camera work is used for actuality footage when there is a tracking shot throught liverpool town centre

Cut is the most common edit in our documentary, however we did use fade to black and dissolves to show the ending of the previous part and the beginning of the next.

My product compares to real media products so that it could potenitally compete with other professional products. Therefore we followed the codes and conventions very well.

Question 2

How effective is the combination of the main tasks and the ancillary tasks?

Question 3

What have you learnt form your audience feedback?

We held a focus group of 20 people in which we presented our documentary, radio trailer and print advert. We then asked a few questions about each product to see where we could make any improvements to our work. I also shown individual people in my own time and interviewed them about it.



We took photographs of members of our focus group who had responeded to our questions.


Here are the questions we asked:


Does the opening of our documentary grab your attention?


In our focus group, 100% of them said yes it does grab their attention.

Becky, 18- "It really grabbed my attention straight away, i loved the opening credits with the use of stop motion animation, if i had to say one weakness it would be that the tracking shot through liverpool was a bit too long and made me dizzy."

Joel, 19- "I loved it! It was all really creative."



What are the strengths and weaknesses of the documentary?
Someone we interviewed commented that the Vox pop was a strength because it was humorous.
They also said that they liked how the music linked with the visuals.


A lot of people commented that the fast motion at the start was a weakness because it was too fast, one person said ‘it hurt my eyes’. They also mentioned how they thought the transition in the music from the opening credits to the tracking shot was too loud when it should have been subtle.

Does it compare to a proffesional documentary? Why do yu think this?

In our focus group, 90% of them said it looked very proffesional

Rach, 18- "It looks exactly like a documentary that would be on tele"

Faye, 23- "The use of camera angles and the interviews looked really good"

John, 24- "It looked proffesional in some parts but the vox pop didn't seem like it was very good".

Some people thought that it did compare to professional documentaries because it linked well together, and the narrative followed a good order. They thought that it looked good as the camera shots were varied and they thought than the panning down and zooming in and out of the still images looked effective as it grabbed their attention.

Does the print advert make you want to watch the documentary?

In our focus group, 80% of them said yes it would

Heidi, 18- "Oh wow, thats amazing! I think its really creative and really makes me want to watch it".

Jenni, 22- "I would definately watch this, i love fashion and im studying it in uni so it would be interesting to watch this".

As soon as the print advert came up on the screen one person shouted ‘Oh my god that looks really good’. They then said that ‘It would make me want to watch the programme because it looks interesting and the title ‘Shabby Chic’ doesn’t reveal much about the programme, so I would want to find out more’. She also noticed that the bag gives hints to the content of the programme, but still doesn’t reveal much; therefore she wanted to find out more.

Does this Radio Trailer make you want to watch the programme? Why?

In our focus group, 70% of the people said yes.

Everyone agreed that the radio trailer was very original and that the extracts taken from the documentary were very funny.
One person said that it would make her want to watch the programme because the music was very uplifting and linked well with the subject matter. However in some parts she couldn’t make out what the voice over was saying. Therefore we made amendments to the radio trailer by adjusting the audio gain.

Would you want to watch the whole programme?

95% said that they would watch the rest of the programme
We also decided to collate more results on what people thought about our finished product.

Question 4

In my evaluation I have used Windows Movie maker to produce the video for question two. For this I recorded myself using my Dictaphone and edited it on Adobe Audition and then imported it onto windows movie maker to uploads relevant images onto it.

I have used Adobe Photoshop to gather images to show the shot types in both our production and professional productions. I have also used it to create a mood board to illustrate the equipment and programmes I have used.

Production

Documentary





Print Advert

Radio Trailer

Radio Trailer

We looked at proffessional trailers so that we could get an idea of what to include in our own trailers and so that we could learn the different techniques used to engage and attract the target audience.

- Extracts from the programme are used
- Voice over- outlining the narrative and posing questions outlined in the programme
- Channel name- last thing you hear
- Scheduling
- Music (aural cue)- gives a hint of the tone and the content

Firstly we planned what was going to be put into the advert. We decided that we needed to include a voice over by the same person used in our documentary to make it coherent, we also decided to use extracts from our production that we thought would be humorous or would appeal to the target audience.
Chloe arranged the extracts on a time line in Premier and imported music called 'Filthy Gorgeous' that is also included in our documentary. The music is significant because it alludes to the overall theme of the programme; looking good for less and the stigma against charity shop clothing.
Then wrote a voice over script for the advert that poses questions which will be answered in the programme and that gives an indication of what the programme is about:

-‘Do you spend thousands of pounds a year on clothes?Explore the reasons why even in tough times people still buy designer and high street makes to excess. There is a cheaper alternative. Love the label?‘Shabby Chic’ Wednesday 6th January 8:30 on 4’

We recorded the voice over using the radio studio at my school and Adobe Audition and then imported it into Premier and arranged all of the audio clips in a logical order.

Print Advert

Codes and Conventions of Print Adverts

- One strong key image
- Words kept to a minimum
- Slogan
- Channel logo (prominent)
- Scheduling

For the print advert Chelsea cut out Shabby Chic from a still photograph used in the opening credits and Chloe created the background. She produced the background using a photograph that she had taken which she then manipulated in Adobe Photoshop. She then added the channel 4 logo which she found on the internet and she used the magic wand tool to remove the white and she also used the paint bucket tool to change the colour of the outline from black to white. Finally she added the scheduling information over a white box, because it was the conventional style used on channel 4 print adverts.



This is the original photograph:

This is how it turned out due to manipulation:

I researched a website that makes advertising for channel four. http://www.4creative.co.uk/flash/#/print/press_and_poster/

Looking at these images, I can see that the Channel 4 logo is placed in the centre on the far right. There is one main image and the writing is in a box which also makes it original. These posters display a tagline for example "Seems nothing like quite what it is", the title of the programme, date when it is on and what time it starts.

This is our finished print advert

Editing

I have been involved in the whole of the editing of our final product process and recieved advice from chloe and letting her have a go at it to see what she thought.

To start off with as a group we took it in turns to capture the footage and cut up the clips we wanted using the razor tool, which we used also, to cut the questions out of the interviews.
We then arranged the footage along the time line and used cutaways to link to relevant subject matter or to cover up jump cuts and were the interviewees look at the camera rather than the interviewer.
We then took on individual roles so that we could finish the product and also produce a print advert and radio trailer. I took on the role of editor, while Chloe produced the radio trailer and Chelsea produced the print advert with Chloe’s help.
Chloe also imported the voiceover which she recorded and produced for the documentary and arranged it along the time line bringing it all together.


Here are some print screens of the editing process:

The thumbnail above is a cutaway of the word 'vintage' in our documentary.

This thumbnail is from the interview with Lisa Smedley who wears a lot of vintage charity clothes.

This is a thumbnail of Neil Cooper, a local fashion designer.

This thumbnail is of the backing track, ('Filthy Gorgeous' by The Scissor Sisters) to our opening credits.

Below, shows halfway thorugh editing the editing process. After cutting down on questions, interviews, cutaways and what we want and it is still 8 minutes long which is too long for what it has to be which is approx 5 minutes long all together. Things that we have chosen to edit down are; the voxpop, length of interview and the montage at the beginning.

Interviews

Here are the interview questions that we put together to get peoples different view points on how much you have to spend to be fashionable:

Interview questions for Lisa Smedley who wears mostly clothes from charity shops.

1. Why do you buy clothes from charity shops?

2. What do you look for when going to charity shops?

3. Do you own more charity shop clothes than high street?

4. How much do you spend on charity shop clothes a month?

5. Who are your fashion influences?

6. Does music also influence your fashion sense?

7. Do you think there is prejudice about charity shop clothes? Why do you think this is?

8. Can you talk us through your wardrobe please?

Interview questions for Neil Cooper, a designer at Repooc couture.

1. Where do you get inspiration for your designs?

2. Do any high street or designer stores influence your designs?

3. Have you ever bought clothes from a charity shop?

4. Do you think that there are pressures within society to own designer brands and to be on trend?

5. You said on your website that you believe the fashion world is being dominated by more and more high street giants- can you explain why you think this?

Vox Pop questions for Liverpool Town Centre

1. What do you associate with the phrase 'Shabby Chic'?

2. Where do you shop for clothes? Why?

3. Would you shop at a charity shop? Why?

4. What do you think of what I'm wearing?

5. What if I told you that it only cost £4 from a charity shop?

Storyboard/ Opening Credits

Then we made a story board of our opening title sequence so that we would now each frame for filming. For the opening titles we came up with the idea that we would produce a stop motion video using my partners Digital camera to take pictures of a sequence of clothes forming the words 'Shabby Chic'.

She produced this stop motion animation using an SLR digital camera placed on a tripod; taking individual shots of the items of clothing being moved and then repeating the process until she had an entire sequence. Then she imported the photos onto windows movie maker and adjusted the picture duration so that it would last for 0.125 seconds, therefore making a fast transition from photo to photo so that the clothing looks animated. She added 10 extra frames that she edited on Adobe Photoshop using the Cut out effect. Over the original layer she added the edited layer and adjusted the opacity so that it gradually increased and on the final frame in the sequence the opacity is at 100%.

Here is the first frame from the sequence

Here is a frame in the sequence towards the end, when the editted layer is 50% opacity over the original layer

Here is the final frame in the sequence.