1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I started by analysing a wide variety of different adverts to help develop a better understanding of the codes and conventions in advertising. When I decided that I wanted to create a perfume adverts I then began analysing lots of different perfume adverts to help learn the key codes and conventions in advertising perfume in order to help me create a more realistic and successful media product. One of the conventions that I thought was important to meet up to was using many close ups of the characters on screen, this is very important as a good use of close-ups of the characters helps the audience to engage with what's going on screen. I believe that I have met up to this very well as I have included many varieties of close-ups the characters alone and together and also shown close-ups of many of the characters expressions and emotions.
2. However there are a few things about my adverts that could be challenging these forms and conventions of real media products. For example a lot of the perfume adverts that I looked at were set in the 21st century present, where as in my adverts it is set during the 1600 century. The reason to why I set my adverts during this time was because I wanted to create this traditional fairy tale look. Another way in which I have challenged perfume adverts codes and conventions is by having a male character as a second character. Where as typically in a normal perfume advert they only seem to include the female character in the sequence alone, However in my adverts I have included a male character also who shares quite a big part in two out of four of the adverts with the female protagonist.
3. How effective is your combination of your main and ancillary texts?
4. Creating synergy Ihave created synergy by using the same font styles and The same image of the perfume bottle through out all of my advertisements including my web pop up. The Reason why I did this is so all of my adverts can be recognized by the audience. Similar font and colour Shown at the end of all four adverts Web pop up advert
5. In order of creating a successful web pop up I looked at a variety of real web pop ups to help give me a better direction to what my media product. These are two of the web adverts from the same company ‘Groupon’ that I looked into. Similar to the codes and conventions that I stuck to with using the same fonts through out my adverts this company ‘Groupon’ has also used the same font through two adverts. They have also included the company logo for the audience to be able to recognize it.
6. Overall I believe both my ancillary texts and my main advertisements work well together and the combination between the two is very effective. This is because I have kept the synergy between my ancillary texts and main adverts the same in a lot of areas – I found that this was important to do this because it would make my adverts easily recognizable for the audience. I also kept the synergy between the look of my adverts the same – e.g. same costumes, settings and characters this again helps the adverts to be recognizable. I also kept the music through all four adverts the same this is because I wanted to try and create this catchy song that the audience would remember, also I wanted to include a song that people would enjoy listening to in order for the audience to engage with my advertisements.
7. Main advert: I believe that my adverts would be broadcasted on television and possibly in the cinema when adverts are shown before the film starts, It would be shown before the watershed as there is no violence and no sexual nature. I believe my advert would be shown on channels such as Channel 4 and ITV and Sky channels. Sponsorship adverts: These two short adverts will be included at the beginning and end of a TV programme. I believe that my adverts would be put with a TV programme either that is targeted for the female audience or related to beauty products. This is because I would want my adverts to be viewed by the female audience as it is the women that my product is targeting to be sold to. Web pop up: I would want my web advert to seen on websites related to beauty products again to target the type of people interested in beauty products. I would like my web advert to be seen on the video broadcasting website You Tube, this is because it is one of the most successful and popular websites on the internet which would create a better chance of a large amount of people seeing my advert.
8. What have you learned from your audience feedback? This use of feedback is very useful as not only do both people explain what they like and dislike about the advert and also ways to improve my work.
10. How did you use new media technologies in the construction research, planning and evaluation stages? Research: The research towards my media product included the use of many new media technologies. A large amount of research that I had done was through the video broadcasting website YouTube. This is where I watched and analysed real advertisements to help me get a better understanding of how to create successful perfume adverts. Reflecting back to AS I believe my analysing skills have improved a lot since then as I did a lot more analysing this time round which helped my analysing skills to improve. I used Blogger as a way of presenting my coursework, which has been very effective it has shown the progress and development of my coursework over time. I also used blogger to present my coursework last year in AS, This year I feel that my blogging has improved a lot since AS. This is because I have been posting a lot more onto my blog to help show more development towards my coursework.
11. Planning Most of my planning towards my media product did not include using new media technologies – instead I stuck to simply drawing and writing down ideas in brainstorms on paper then scanning them in and uploading them to my blog. Drawing and designing the story boards had to be one of my favourite parts of creating this media product as I enjoy drawing, I put a lot of effort into my drawn designs and storyboards which was very effective as it shows clearly what I wanted my future ideas to look like. I believe my skills in planning have improved a lot since AS, I did not do nearly as many designs and storyboards as I have done this year. The planning really helped me to show a clearer understanding of what I wanted my final piece to look like.
12. Construction The two main new media technologies that I used for the construction of my media products were both ‘Adobe Photoshop CS3’ and ‘Windows Movie Maker’. Firstly I used ‘Windows Movie Maker’ to edit all of my footage into four adverts. I did not use this software to edit my footage in AS instead I used Adobe Premier Pro, I had a lot of problems using this software as I had trouble understanding how to use it properly which had a negative impact on my coursework last year. To avoid the same occurrence this time round I decided to switch to a more easy to use editing software (Windows Movie Maker). Not only did I use this software to edit my footage but I also used it to play around with the sound for my adverts - I used a combination of diagetic ambience sound and non diagetic music for my adverts. The second media software that I used in the construction of creating my adverts was Adobe Photoshop CS3. I used this software to edit the images of the perfume at the end of all four advert which included the name and an image of the perfume. I believe my skills in using Photoshop have improved dramatically since AS – I did use this software for my course work in AS regularly however now that my skills have developed more since then I have been using Photoshop for my coursework even more than I did in my AS coursework.
13. Evaluation During the evaluation of my media product I used the social networking site Face book to get the audience feedback of what the audience thought of my advertisement. The reason why I used Face book for people to watch and give me feedback on what they liked/ disliked about the sequences and also how to improve my media products. Millions of people join face book which is a good way of getting my advert viewed by a lot of people online.
