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

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

The construction of my documentary and final Media product we used the software Sony Vegas. I have put a tutorial on my blog which I found very helpful when first using the program. The reason for us using Sony Vegas was the fact we felt it was easy to use compared to alternatives like iMovie. However at first I found it a challenging to use, but after watching videos on the program and having a look around different options I soon got used to it. The ability of using software that I know more about is the fact it is easier to edit/change footage and manipulate it in the way that you wanted it/planned for.

Within the group I was in we indicted each other with different areas of research to. Personally I looked at how the structure was built in The Amex.  I used the internet to find the information and referred it with a number of sources. I was also very lucky because I have a friend who`s mum helped design the stadium; this really helped as I could mention things that wasn’t on the internet searches. The other information we looked for was statistics, facts, images that maybe we could use within the documentary and also clips that we could include to fill up and back up points made within the documentary. By researching these things before creating the documentary it allowed me see what information/footage I had available to edit and construct with.

The Blogger website I am currently using to upload my content on at the moment has allowed me to keep all the research and content together used the blog to show concerns, changes,  planning and to show myself evaluating documents. It showed the progress made from planning to the final product.

Below is some websites where I got some of my information from:

1.   http://www.amexstadium.co.uk/facts
2.   http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?201339-The-Amex-Facts-and-Figures

These sources were also referred back to websites such as Wikipedia and the official Brighton and Hove Albion website to check if the information I found was correct.

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

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

Personally I think my documentary Stadium watch: The Amex uses actual conventions to ensure this while I was doing preparation with  group we watched different types of documentaries so we could see the different ways that they used camera angles, edits, and the way they do an interview. By following these documentaries we have more chance of the documentary being more successful. Our team watched documentaries linking to the topic of football; we did this because it gave me and my team a better understanding on what areas we should cover within Stadium Watch documentary.

The documentary we made has all the common features that you are likely to see in a documentary. Here is a list of the common features we used:

1.  Interviews
2.  Short clips
3.  Voice overs
4.  Opinions
5.  Facts
6.  Statistics
7.  Camera angles
8.  Edits

It was important that we followed the above to make sure we didn’t go off the common documentaries that we have watched within our research. Within the documentary we have 2 interviews from staff and players or Brighton and Hove Albion. We have loads of shorts clips which fit but are short and snappy. This was done so that we could fit as much information/clips as possible in the time we had; which was roughly 5 minutes long. 

Mostly on the shorter clips we used voiceovers this was because it was easier to do mini recording then stand in front of a camera for a few seconds which can look boring at times. Throughout the documentary we ask staff/players their views on the stadium this was helpful as it gave different opinions on the built stadium. When doing research for the documentary we decided to that it would be important to include facts/statistics about The Amex. 

After looking at a lot of documentaries the group noticed that a lot of camera shots/angles were used; this is something I believe we have achieved throughout the 5 minute long video. Shots include: Long shot, zoom, establishing shot, fade, fade to cut, fade to black, focus and many more. We also believed that editing a lot of the documentary could our documentary look fake; so we decided to do small edits such as text over video. This made our documentary look like the typical documentary that you see on TV. We also used Facebook to communicate with our group member, this is one of the most popular social network sites in the world.

What have you learned from you audience feedback?

What have you learned from you audience feedback?

The documentary we made had no target audience, we done this because we believed that football is for everyone. I personally know this because I am a Brighton season ticket holder and all ages go to games, this was the main reason we had no target audience.

There is also the gender factor of football I currently know that there is a men’s and woman’s football team; this shows that football is watched by anyone. It is really good that we can attract a wide mass audience, and I believe we have done that throughout. However the main target audience gender wise is men as they have widely interested in the footballing world.

The footage we took is suitable for all age groups as well; there is no swearing or disobedient images. This would be a problem for the younger target audiences if this was in our documentary because they wouldn’t be able to watch it and that’s way we wouldn’t hit our mass target audience expectation.

Before making the documentary I made a questionnaire which is on my blog. We sent them out to find out what the public wanted/like to see in a documentary. We got good feedback and used it when planning the documentary. The questionnaire was very helpful because when we first thought of the idea of doing a stadium watch documentary we wasn’t 100% sure if it would work so be giving out them we found out that the public thought it was a really good idea; this confirmed we would do a documentary of The Amex stadium.

We created a version one of the documentary and decided to post it on YouTube so people from all over the world could see what they thought; it also allowed them to see the documentary for free. However we made the YouTube link private, this means the only people that have the link can see the documentary. This was done so if there was any mistakes we could quickly change them before embarrassing our self’s be making a big mistake, that way the documentary will not get bad views.

The public that got private linked were college students at our school Hove Park; they gave us feedback that was helpful. We then decided to see what everyone thought and made the video public. Within the first week we had 170 views around 3 comments and 2 likes/No dislikes. This shows that we must have made a good documentary that was interesting for everyone. All feedback was mostly positive below is a screenshot of what the comments said:

This screenshot is of the documentary on YouTube.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The Amex documentary has a clear link throughout it’s the main product and the ancillary tasks. This is shown by the clothes the presenter is wearing as they are the same throughout the documentary and the ancillary images. This works well as you can recognise the presenter throughout and create a consistent flow between the presenter and the documentary. As well as this the images that have been used within my ancillary tasks are all taken from settings from the documentary again showing links between both the ancillary and the main product. It was important when directing and setting up the documentary that costumes and setting were linked throughout otherwise the documentary wouldn’t have flowed as well as it did.

When getting the images for the ancillary task as a group we felt it would be a good idea to take the pictures on the same day as filming the documentary. The reason for this was because we again wanted to make the documentary look professional and give an idea of who this presenter is. The importance of the presenter wearing the same clothes really helped with the consistently.

The link between ancillary tasks was used to give promotion of a new series called Stadium watch (the name of our documentary). The ancillary task was used to create awareness of the public that the show is back on TV screens again. I felt it was very important we gave that vibe with the ancillary tasks as it would make the public want to watch the documentary. When creating the main product and the ancillary tasks it was important I used similar features where I could get clear links between the two tasks. The first one we used was the fonts, within the documentary we have some parts where text is used, we made them Arial with either blue/white coloured fonts this was kept within the house style on the ancillary tasks as well; again give a link between the too.

The colours used on both documentaries where used because of the colours of Brighton and Hove Albion football club. The colours of the football team are blue and white so it was important that we used these colours as much as we could to follow the house style of the documentary. If we hadn’t I think the documentary would have looked out of place and I guess random in parts.

However before making the ancillary tasks and the documentary we discussed other documentaries and the features of them and how they are advertised before release. We came up with the ideas to make the documentary consistent, professional, follow the house style, same costumes, and to have a base setting with smaller settings around that. Personally I feel we have achieved this goal in the ancillary task and the final main product. 

The double page spread

This is my final double page spread, I talk about the documentary within it. I say what the documentary is about and what goes on inside it. This will posted into TV Magazines for advertisement purposes and to attract more of the audience to watch the documentary. This was created in Photoshop/InDesign as I felt it gives the best creation features.

Documentary advertising poster

This is my final poster for my ancillary task. This will be used to promote the documentary, I plan to put it up on billboards within Brighton. This will get more views on the viewing date of Sunday at 9pm, because of the advertisment.

Ancillary ideas

I have put together a few ideas on how I would like to create my ancillary tasks. This first images is how I want to set up my documentary poster.

When creating the poster I plan to create it landscape just like the one above. I plan to have a main image which will be used as a background and I plan to have overlapping text over the background image.

The second image was researched for my double paged spread. I want to set my double page spread in a similar way so I thought it would be good to refer back to if I need to.

Research for the ancillary task

 This is some of the research we did into our ancillary tasks these are common features of similar adverts . I looked at three different documentary adverts, one double page spread, one review and one posters.Some of the research has been highlighted and annotated on to give some ideas for my ancillary task.

Amex Stadium Documentary

This link here was the upload of our YouTube video of the Amex stadium documentary. It was our version one and we wanted to find out what the public thought about it, and what we could add to it.

The feedback - Amex documentary first draft.

Before publishing our final version we decided to get some feedback on the current one. We had an idea where we would post it on YouTube to see peoples thoughts of the documentary, here is a screenshot of us putting it on YouTube. 

To get the feedback we wanted we hoped people would comment, like and subscribe to the documentary. Below is a screenshot of the comments on the video.

This helped very much as we could see everyone's thought's on our documentary. It also allowed us to see what the public's feedback was so we could change our documentary to make it better and better. It also gave us ideas on what to improve on the final documentary video copy.

Sony Vegas Pro - Documentary program editor

After our first bit of filming of our documentary we decided to create a first draft of our documentary. We started using iMovie which is a Mac program, however after doing some research we decided to use Sony Vegas Pro due to the fact we found it easier and quicker to use. Below is a video we all used to get used to Sony Vegas Pro.

Shooting schedule - Amex Stadium

This is our shooting schedule for the stadium watch documentary. When creating this we had a discussion on the days best with everyone. As you can see we found out Tuesdays and Thursdays were the best days for the group to film and edit. 

Final Storyboards - Amex Documentary

This is the final storyboards of our documentary, it consists of 3 pages that have 4 detailed boxes on each. On the storyboards it shows shot type, shot duration, dialogue/sound and also a description on each scene.