This is our final main task complete which we uploaded to YouTube.
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Evaluation- How did you use new media technologies in the constructions and research, planning and evaluation stages?
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For the editing of our documentary we used Apple's iMovie. This was much better than Windows Movie Maker as it had better editing devices and was on the whole, generally more efficient. It was easy to import clips from the video camera straight into iMovie rather than to a file and then importing it from the file. The transitions were the most useful part of the software because it made it easier to edit between clips to make it flow more smoothly. We mostly use cross-blur, cross-fade and fade to black because they were the most effective for what we were trying to create. As well as this, we used some of the sound effects that were already installed with the software. For example we used the diagetic sound for the bell ringing as well as the sound of a busy room with people talking to add effect to the documentary. Overall, this was a very useful modern technology when creating our documentary, in comparison to other software available.
Adobe's Photoshop is what I used to create my ancillary task; Poster and Double Page Spread. This was useful because it allowed me to freely edit my picture with lots of useful effects. Again this was easier to use for this particular project than Microsoft's Paint or Publisher because I could edit the pictures as well as make it into format of a poster and magazine spread. This was another modern media technology that was useful in creating 'Teaching Teens' for advertising.
Monday, 30 April 2012
Evaluation- What have you learned from your audience feedback?
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
When we finished editing our documentary we put our documentary on YouTube and a link on Twitter to get feedback and these are the comments we got:
Twitter:
The feedback was mostly positive, with comments on the camera work and how effective the use of the hash tag was and even that they would like to see it as a series on T.V. which was very positive! On the other hand we also received critical feedback about the camera quality. We knew the camera quality was not as good as it could of been, however we had limited resources camera wise, so all the feedback was helpful. We managed to get 155 over two days and 12 people have liked it.
We also showed our documentary to a group of students from our 6th form and asked for some feedback afterwards:
"I liked the way it was edited, very appropriate for this type of documentary." -Sami Knight
"I loved the editing on when the school bell rang and how that was the turning point from the introduction to the documentary"- Sara Pryce
"I think the camera quality could be a bit sharper in order for it to be more effective, but on the whole an interesting documentary" - Curtis Foster
"The music went really well with the whole documentary"- Joe Streeter
"It had some good camera angles but if I was to be watching this on T.V. I would be expect better camera quality"- Elle Slade
This was all also good feedback with positive and again, critical feedback about the camera quality which with the a budget like a real T.V. documentary would have, this would not have been a problem, however we had to use cameras provided to us by the school. Next time we could be more prepared and try and borrow a better quality camera.
Overall, if we were going to improve the documentary we would do so by using a better camera. Using social network was useful because it gave various open views and was a simple but effective way of sharing the clip with lots of people. Showing a group of people a clip and asking for feedback was also useful because it was directly from viewers that we know.
When we finished editing our documentary we put our documentary on YouTube and a link on Twitter to get feedback and these are the comments we got:
Twitter:
YouTube:
The feedback was mostly positive, with comments on the camera work and how effective the use of the hash tag was and even that they would like to see it as a series on T.V. which was very positive! On the other hand we also received critical feedback about the camera quality. We knew the camera quality was not as good as it could of been, however we had limited resources camera wise, so all the feedback was helpful. We managed to get 155 over two days and 12 people have liked it.
We also showed our documentary to a group of students from our 6th form and asked for some feedback afterwards:
"I liked the way it was edited, very appropriate for this type of documentary." -Sami Knight
"I loved the editing on when the school bell rang and how that was the turning point from the introduction to the documentary"- Sara Pryce
"I think the camera quality could be a bit sharper in order for it to be more effective, but on the whole an interesting documentary" - Curtis Foster
"The music went really well with the whole documentary"- Joe Streeter
"It had some good camera angles but if I was to be watching this on T.V. I would be expect better camera quality"- Elle Slade
This was all also good feedback with positive and again, critical feedback about the camera quality which with the a budget like a real T.V. documentary would have, this would not have been a problem, however we had to use cameras provided to us by the school. Next time we could be more prepared and try and borrow a better quality camera.
Overall, if we were going to improve the documentary we would do so by using a better camera. Using social network was useful because it gave various open views and was a simple but effective way of sharing the clip with lots of people. Showing a group of people a clip and asking for feedback was also useful because it was directly from viewers that we know.
Evalutation- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
When making my poster for Teaching Teens I focused on one character just leaving against a brick wall. I chose to use the main character for this episode so it would not give to much away which would encourage people to watch it at the displayed time of 8.30. I focused the colour on Bradley and made the rest dull shades of white and gray as well as incorrporating a photoshop effect of a lined piece of paper to add to the school theme to the right and at the bottom of the poster to inform the viewers it is an educaiton based documentary. I also included the Channel 4 symbol so the viewers know which channel is it shown on as well as a chance to advertise the channel in general which we also do at the start of our documentary using a short Channel 4 advert with a voice over to introduce the show. On my T.V. listings magazine double page spread, I again made Bradley my main focus, this time he is sitting on a stage with a football looking like a typical, troubled teenage student. The image takes up most of the whole left side page to further the viewers curiousity with out giving to much away. On the right page is the writen part of the artical giving a small glimps of what the documentary is about and what you can expect, including quotes from the head teacher who is pictured the the left of the writen part of the artical. Under the writen artical, a smaller picture of Bradley, similar to the one on the poster is used to create a common image in the viewers head of the documentary. Both poster and double page spread help promote and inform the viewers of the main product 'Teaching Teens' in order for it to get more viewers. Overal the combination of the main product and ancillary texts is very effective in getting more viewers.
When making my poster for Teaching Teens I focused on one character just leaving against a brick wall. I chose to use the main character for this episode so it would not give to much away which would encourage people to watch it at the displayed time of 8.30. I focused the colour on Bradley and made the rest dull shades of white and gray as well as incorrporating a photoshop effect of a lined piece of paper to add to the school theme to the right and at the bottom of the poster to inform the viewers it is an educaiton based documentary. I also included the Channel 4 symbol so the viewers know which channel is it shown on as well as a chance to advertise the channel in general which we also do at the start of our documentary using a short Channel 4 advert with a voice over to introduce the show. On my T.V. listings magazine double page spread, I again made Bradley my main focus, this time he is sitting on a stage with a football looking like a typical, troubled teenage student. The image takes up most of the whole left side page to further the viewers curiousity with out giving to much away. On the right page is the writen part of the artical giving a small glimps of what the documentary is about and what you can expect, including quotes from the head teacher who is pictured the the left of the writen part of the artical. Under the writen artical, a smaller picture of Bradley, similar to the one on the poster is used to create a common image in the viewers head of the documentary. Both poster and double page spread help promote and inform the viewers of the main product 'Teaching Teens' in order for it to get more viewers. Overal the combination of the main product and ancillary texts is very effective in getting more viewers.
Evaluation- What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our inspiration for 'Teaching Teens' came from the current documentary Channel 4 set in an Essex secondary school 'Educating Essex'. This was our starting point of having it set in a secondary school to give the viewers an inside view of the modern day secondary school. When we watched the first 90 seconds of Educating Essex to get ideas on how to open up our documentary, they jumped straight into it which was not how we wanted to start our documentary, so we created a montage of footaged we shot around the school to music we had created ourselves using FL Studio to make it unique,which is also used to break up the programme between adverts. At the end of the montages when the bell sounds (diagetic) the hash tag #teachingteens because the social network site Twitter uses this to open up topic discussion for all users using the hash tag. We used interviews in the documentary to give the audience a chance to get to know the characters and become more familiar with them to make it easier to watch. To help this, their names appeared at the bottom of the screen along with their status i.e. Student or Teacher. They also did this in Educating Essex because for this type of documentary it is useful for the characters to talk directly to the camera, especially after a situation like when Bradley is sent out of his lesson. When watching Educating Essex, they edited their documentary using lots of jumps cuts to make it fast and realistic. We also used jump cuts, especially at the begining when we wanted a rapid introduction, however we also used other editing techniques like cross blur and fade to black depending on the atmosphere and which ever seemed appropriate. At the end of the clip we added a 'coming up' scene to give the viewers a glips of whats coming up so they stay watching and do not switch over to another channel. Many T.V. programmes including documentaries use this like Channel 4's 'Big Brother' and 'Educating Essex' as well as many others. Overal 'Teaching Teens' does use and develop conventions of other media products by using editing techniques and social networking to keep viewers interested as well to make it a talking point.
Our inspiration for 'Teaching Teens' came from the current documentary Channel 4 set in an Essex secondary school 'Educating Essex'. This was our starting point of having it set in a secondary school to give the viewers an inside view of the modern day secondary school. When we watched the first 90 seconds of Educating Essex to get ideas on how to open up our documentary, they jumped straight into it which was not how we wanted to start our documentary, so we created a montage of footaged we shot around the school to music we had created ourselves using FL Studio to make it unique,which is also used to break up the programme between adverts. At the end of the montages when the bell sounds (diagetic) the hash tag #teachingteens because the social network site Twitter uses this to open up topic discussion for all users using the hash tag. We used interviews in the documentary to give the audience a chance to get to know the characters and become more familiar with them to make it easier to watch. To help this, their names appeared at the bottom of the screen along with their status i.e. Student or Teacher. They also did this in Educating Essex because for this type of documentary it is useful for the characters to talk directly to the camera, especially after a situation like when Bradley is sent out of his lesson. When watching Educating Essex, they edited their documentary using lots of jumps cuts to make it fast and realistic. We also used jump cuts, especially at the begining when we wanted a rapid introduction, however we also used other editing techniques like cross blur and fade to black depending on the atmosphere and which ever seemed appropriate. At the end of the clip we added a 'coming up' scene to give the viewers a glips of whats coming up so they stay watching and do not switch over to another channel. Many T.V. programmes including documentaries use this like Channel 4's 'Big Brother' and 'Educating Essex' as well as many others. Overal 'Teaching Teens' does use and develop conventions of other media products by using editing techniques and social networking to keep viewers interested as well to make it a talking point.
Sunday, 29 April 2012
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Teaching Teens- Theme Tune
For our documentary theme tune we orginally used an instrumental of 'It's a Hard Knock Life' from Annie but it did not work very well and it proved difficult to find an already made track to use. So we decided to make our own theme tune using FL studio which appears at the start and end of the documentary clip. (click link below to listen)
Teaching Teens
Teaching Teens
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