Evaluation - Question 4

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


Every process in making my media product was absolutely vital to trying to achieve a high standard. The research enabled me to have clear knowledge in what readers want to see, read and gain knowledge on. I found the best way to find this out was by going out and seeing what they want first hand, this included going into the local post officers, knocking on people's doors and talking to people that walked past on the street. This was not only the only sort of research i did, i also needed to find out what existing products there are already on the market. I did this by looking on the Internet and using search engines like google and yahoo which are world widely known, that was extremely useful. I emailed a editor at a local newspaper to find out their thoughts about what their readers want to read, they kindly replied and shared their knowledge with me on the current situation.


The next step was planning, i went through lots of designs, rough drawings and then getting people's opinions on what they think. I used photo shop for my main production work construction and designs. I also used photoshop which enabled me to manipulate the pictures so they looked better in my production and fitted well. This is a recognised programme that at first i found hard to use but i easily managed to pick enough skills that made it a lot easier. For my tasks ancillary tasks i used dreamweaver to create a website that would run along side the newspaper and feature much if not more of the same news. This was the hardest stage within my media production as although i had more knowledge with this piece of software, but i found it harder to know what to put inside it, for example the stories and news.


For my evaluation i have posted posts which is one of the ways that is acceptable. This method works for me and i think it is extremely convenient and has meant that i could go back and forth making correction and carry on with it as and when i want. I could have used other methods like an interview or like a videoed film review. but these did not appeal to me and i do not find these as easier to accomplish high standards in.

Overall i am pleased with the way my A2 coursework has gone i would not say it was perfect but it has given me greater knowledge and understanding of local newspapers and potential audiences.

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your ancillary feedback?

I think feedback of any sort is absolutely crucial to a product being more successful overall. Good feedback allows you to be clear that what you are creating is appealing to the audience and that you should carry on in the same way as you have started. Bad feedback should be looked as constructive criticism which you should not take negatively but should learn from it and look at which ways you can improve your product. This may mean completely starting again which is what i decided to do for one of my ancillary tasks. Which in the long run meant i had a lot more work to do, it has worked out to be the right decision.

After completing my ancillary tasks i approached people for feedback on it. From what i originally planed for my advertising poster came back with very negative feedback and people felt it did not perform what it was meant to. It was meant to be exciting , attract peoples attention and fundamentally make them read it. If they do not live within the catchment areas then people have the chance to be able to buy it, so the posters are trying to spread as far as possible. The website did not go as well as i had hoped and i found it hard to find a design which i thought was fun, striking and appealed to a lot of people. The feedback that i receive after completing my website task was that it contained all the information it needed to. But how it was done some sad it could be done in a more exciting way. I am very stuck on how i could do a lot for existing newspapers and magazine websites. If i was to redo this i would try to go for a more magazine style website which is a lot more fun and would personally appeal to me more. To get a wide range of ideas i think you would have to be more research on the ideas and views of people from all ages and social classes which would give me a good idea of which idea would make my product sell more.

I think being able to have feedback from my audience means that i can learn from the mistakes that i have made. This puts me in a lot better position if in the future if i had to do something like this again.

Evaluation - Question 2

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

The main product of my A2 production is a local newspaper which is aimed at one town and three small villagers. Normally the two ancillary tasks are produced to advertise the main product so that it sells. The three options i had were producing a website, a radio add or a poster to advertise the local magazine. Two out of the three options follow the line of advertising whereas the website does not. For my ancillary tasks I choose to produce the poster and the website.

The whole idea of my local newspaper was to bring the villagers together to form one community, my tag line was 'putting the heart back into the community'. The purpose of the poster is to advertise the newspaper and make people read it, as it is brand new it will heavily rely on word of mouth so that households don't completely dismiss it as soon as it comes through their letter box. The idea f the poster is for it to be striking and noticeable to a wide range of age groups. The idea is that posters could be put up in areas that i will know people will see it like the primary schools, post officers and village halls. All of these places are going to have parents running in and out, so they do not have a lot of time to read it. So i tried to create a design that included minimal information but the colours, size of text and use of picture to draw in potential readers quickly. Amongst trying to do this i also wanted to keep a sense of community which i think i managed to for fill. The background colour for my poster is a bright sky blue colour, i used this because i used a dark blue on my newspaper for the title. I didn't want to use the same colour because i thought it was too dark and would make it look unwelcoming, but the colour is still carried through and i thought i could use it on the website. I used a bright pink colour for the title as this would hopefully be one of the first things that people looked at, i also put the word 'new' in capitals. With a combination of both of these factors the idea was to make it as eye catching as possible. I tried to make the poster attractive to a younger generation as well so i put the poster on an angle which meant three of the corners are hidden. This also creates a small amount of hidden anticipation so that the reader can not quite see everything. I also had to make sure that although i was trying to aim it at a younger group of people that it did not completely rule out the expected reader which is middle aged to retired and old aged pensioners.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

For the United Kingdom there is over a thousand local newspapers which are all competing for local people to read theirs. There are few local newspapers that are nationally known like the Eastern daily press (EDP) is listed but is known over the whole of East Anglia and surrounding areas. The EDP contains stories that not only happen within their region but also national stories, this is how i think they manage to attract a wide range of readers. The newspaper is available throughout the week and on a Saturday when the TV guide is featured in it too. Also the website is extremely well developed and i think they manage to attract a wide range of people through their website to read the stories on line. This is why i would not have imagined this newspaper to be listed as a local newspaper.

I think some of the most memorable parts of a newspapers is either the title, logo or a catchy tag line. I tried to subtly do all 3 so that readers would automatically know what they were looking at it, if they saw it on a newsagents shelf over some other well known newspapers. I think the best being my tag line, because if someone says the name of my newspaper i want them to automatically think of the line that comes with it. I think when they also read it on the newspaper it should make them feel part of something. Which is why i featured it on every page, so that people would remember it visually quicker. The tag line that i chose to use is "putting the heart back into the community" it was also meant to restore peoples faith providing them with a common factor, which they can all have their say with.

I chose to do print because i am more interested in this rather than film, which i find harder to bring my ideas together. I found it easier to know what people would want to read and what the topical issues are for the areas that my local newspaper was written for. I was able to use ask local peoples knowledge on facts that i wasn't aware of and i was able to quote from them and feature it within the articles. The stories that i used were all currently topical and effected everyone within the villages. Every newspaper aim is to write articles which they know the readers will like and will sell to readers outside of the areas where people get them for free.

In Wymondham there is currently a newspaper called the Wymondham and Attleborough Mercury, that is automatically posted free of charge through every households door in these two areas. Everyone that i have spoken to in these areas seem to have a general opinion that they enjoy receiving the newspaper every week and they read it at least once during the week. The Mercury is full of stories about the local community, most of the stories are highlighting the talent there is amongst all age groups and what they have brought to their local community. In time i want the same feel for my newspaper, it is meant to capture peoples excitement and i want them to look forward to it arriving at the end of the week. With me including a large amount of advertising it means that not only is the newspaper paid for but also if residents need a local trustworthy plumber for example then they can look through and almost certainly at least one that they can contact. I think this is what readers want to read so it is one way that my newspaper is more saleable.

Japanese Cinema review

Before we were taught about Japanese cinema i had never paid any attention to any other countries film cinema, i was reasonably ignorant to it. The only ideas i had before i watched any, was that i thought it was not going to appeal to me at all and i would not choose to watch it. Whereas since we started watching it i have a completely different opinion of it. Japanese women are more out spoken than i thought they were, i thought that they were told what to do rather than being able to give their own opinion.
My neighbour detoro was an ideal example of this, because the mother was in hospital throughout the film but she was being treated like a human being. Whereas before then i thought that women were a lot more looked down upon than men and they were beaten up quite a lot to get them to do things.
I previously thought i would really dislike having to read through the subtitles whereas i didn't find it as bad as i thought. I was able to keep up with the film whilst watching it and following the story.
In the future if a Japanese film was on i think i wouldn't necessarily be as quick to change it over, i would give it a chance and probably end up enjoying it. I am going into Japanese magazine and television with a much more open mind, which i should have done with cinema as well.

Finished production

I have finished my final media production and handed it in. It has been extremely time consuming and after weeks of hard work i have finished my main task which was a local newspaper, then the two ancillary tasks were a website and a poster which advertised the newspaper.

Ancillary Task

For my ancillary tasks i chose to do the poster and website design. For the poster i started off going in one direction using with straight lines and it ended up looking quite box style. As you can see from the first image

below,

there is a title above and a sub line below. If i saw this hanging somewhere else, then i would not be attracted to reading it if it came to me or buying it if that was

an option.

Initially i liked the way that was going but after seeing it complete i decided it was not the look i was going for. Also i didn't think the title stood out enough and there is not much difference in the sizes of the text, so when you looked at the poster nothing stood out more than anything else.

For my second design i tried using different lines and approached it from the angle of thinking what all age groups would like to see. Because local newspapers stereotypically are aimed at the middle aged home owners and older.

Whereas i thought if i changed the layo

ut of my poster then it would hopefully attract a young As you can see on the left, i used a lighter shade of blue for the backgroun

d as i thought it was too bright. I rotated the copy of the poster so it was at an angle, and instead of using a black or red for my heading i changed it to pink. This automatically stood out and as soon as i looked at it, it stood out. I also included a subheading along with a quote, an audience always likes so see someones opinion.

I am a lot happier with this design and i am glad how much better it is from my first design.