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

For my ancillary tasks I had to create a poster for my documentary and a magazine advert. I created both print artifacts on my own initiative as I wanted to challenge the codes and conventions of creating print artifacts for a boxing documentary.

My poster has one striking image which is edited with a slight tint of red, this sums up the content of my documentary as the connotation for the color red are downfall, bloodshed and depressing. The title of the poster is white with a bold font with a red outer glow this again is to draw the audiences attention towards the color red. The font on the bottom of the poster is in white bold with a white outer glow giving the audience information on scheduling of the programme and I have included a slogan ‘Ricky Hatton shocks the boxing world’ which again sums up the content of my documentary. I felt including this within my documentary was necessary as it will draw more audience to the programme.

I feel my poster works will with my main production, once the audience watches the documentary they will be aware of the two colors which are used in the poster and within the documentary.

My magazine advert was created on pages, this time I chose my own template and created a magazine advert. The advert has a main heading on the top which is ‘sports TV review’ the reason I chose this heading was to make my article more authentic and genuine as I had to create I article for a magazine. The article has a two images one in the centre which shows Ricky Hatton throwing a fierce punch at his opponent. The other image I used from news of the world of Ricky Hatton snorting cocaine. Within the article there is the title of the documentary the star rating of the programme and the scheduling of it. The article has one Colum and is created as simply as possible, I feel the article works well with my main production as the images that I have used within my documentary they are incorporated in the article. Also some of the text within the article is in red such as slogan ‘Ricky’s coke shame live on five’ I also edited the images that I have used in my documentary the image of Hatton snorting cocaine is zoomed in to and has a tint of red this again works well with my main production as some of the images within my documentary have a slight fade of red.

Overall I feel my ancillary texts work will with my main production however I feel I could have made my combination of the texts more effective. I could I have took an image from my main production and implement it within my print artifacts. On the other hand I wanted to challenge the codes and conventions of creating print artifacts for my boxing documentary so I created both texts on my initiative and I felt the combination of the images and colors within my texts worked well with my main production.

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

To construct my coursework I had to create a blog page on www.blogger.com which I had to keep updating each time we carried out any research and planning. I also had to choose a template for the design of my blog. Blogger.com also allowed me to link my AS blog to my A2 blog this was all done through the section customize blog. In class we analysed three different types of media texts, documentary, music video and short film. Furthermore as a class we were also told to analyse our own media texts in our own time and upload them on to our blog. For each media text that I analysed I embedded a video from either youTube or dailymotion. To embed the videos on to my blog I had to copy the embed code from the site and paste it in to the edit HTML section. Finally I used jpeg images on my blog so the audience could relate and understand my posts better. To carry out the process of changing a image in to a jpeg was straight forward, I had to print screen the image and then copy it in to paint. Then I had to crop the image and saved it as a jpeg and finally uploaded it on to my blog.

Main production

For the construction of my main production I used a mini dv camera and a mini dv tape were I filmed all my footage on. I also learnt how to position a camera on to a tripod while filming my interviews. The mini dv camera allowed me to rewind and forward the tape if I didn’t like my shots I could always change them. During the filming I also learnt how to frame an interview making sure the interviewee is not directly looking in to the camera. Once I filmed all my footage I had to create a new production on Final cut pro and upload my footage. To upload the footage we inserted the mini dv tape in to the deck and then I used the log and capture button to capture all my footage. Once this process was complete I then gave each particular shot a name so when it comes to the final production I could easily locate the shots at the appropriate place on the timeline. When constructing my main product I used transitions in between the scenes which allowed fluency in my production. I used a fast paced music for my production I downloaded the song as mp3 from beemusic.com and copied it in to a memory stick and finally upload it on Final cut pro.


Print Artifacts

The poster which I created for my production was made on Photoshop. I used an image of Ricky Hatton from Google images. I had to save the image as a jpeg and then place it in Photoshop. I used a white bold font with a glow on the outside to make the image more appealing to the audience. Furthermore I also used the magic wand tool to edit the main image on the front of the poster and also to edit the five logo. Furthermore the magazine article I constructed on pages. I used a template from pages and created an article about Ricky Hatton’s career. I used images from news of the world and Google and placed in to the magazine article. I also learn how to add a fade of color in to my images as clearly shown on the poster.

Evaluation

During the writing of my evaluation I developed online skills as I started drafting my evaluation on pages and then I had to convert the file as a word doc. Finally I had to upload my evaluation on to my blog.

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

Throughout the construction of my media product, i followed the codes and conventions of a documentary genre and have challenged certain codes and conventions. The only convention my documentary never included was the famous voice over which is used in several documentaries, one example is the ‘Tyson’ documentary. I felt that my documentary did not need a voice over, reason being was the documentary was more opinionated than factual. I used an amateur boxer and a cardiac physiologist for my interviews within the documentary. Furthermore I used young males for my interviews who are involved in boxing and going gym because I felt it was relevant for the topic of my documentary. The interviewees use Standard English a give a calm and clear delivery.


The most common edit I used in my documentary was the cut so it did not distract the audiences from what was going on, on the screen. The cut would also help the audience to be more aware and concentrated on the screen.


I used creative camera work throughout my documentary; i used conventional framing on the interviews such as standing on the left or the right of the screen and eye line third way down.

Some of the filming the camera was static on a tripod and certain interviews the camera was hand held. I also used ‘eye of the tiger’ song from the famous movie ‘Rocky’. I think this was relevant music for my documentary as it doesn’t interfere with the interviews or abstract from what’s going on, on the screen. Also the music works with the archive footage of Ricky Hatton’s due to its fast tempo.


Poster

In some ways I have challenge the codes and conventions of a documentary poster. Commonly sports poster documentaries have bold writing and flashy images. However the poster I have created for my documentary has one striking image within the middle with a shade of ‘red’ visible on it. The image sums up the content of the programme and makes one reflect the down fall of Ricky Hatton’s career. Also within the poster there is a line which says ‘Ricky Hatton shocks the boxing world’ I included this within the poster because I felt it was relevant to the topic of the documentary. I have also included a logo of Ricky Hatton which familiarizes the audience with British boxing. Finally
I have also included the title of the programme, scheduling of it and the TV company logo on the bottom right.

Magazine review article

For the magazine article I followed real codes and conventions as I used on striking image of Ricky Hatton throwing a punch which makes the review look effective. The article includes the star rating, time and date the documentary will be broadcasted and the title of the magazine. I have implemented an image from news of the world of Ricky Hatton snorting cocaine as I felt it was relevant to the topic of my documentary.