Evaluation

To begin, here is a screen grab of an email sent to sony music to tell them that we have used copyright music as part of our A2 Media courswork.

Questions

1. In what ways does your media product use forms and conventions of real media products?

FRAMING

Our interview framing.

Professional interview framing

Here is a professional set up for an interview and positioned to the left of the screen is the name of the actor and the relation to the interview, being her stage name in a film.

VOXPOPS

Here is our voxpop shot.

[Q: "What is your favourite sweet and why?"

A: "My favourite sweet is marshmellows, because they're soft and squidgy and go really well with smoors"]

And here is a professional shot of a vox pop taken from a documentary.

MUSIC


























'Lollipop - Mika'



ARCHIVE MATERIAL











































VOICEOVER











































CUTAWAYS

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

We have kept all three products easily understandable and simple so that it will appeal to a family audience of all ages.

> We decided on the title 'Allsorts' for this production as it fits in nicely with the context of sweets. Allsorts meaning two different things, one being the name of a sweet that exists and the other meaning 'many things'. This is a technique that can grab the audience into watching the programme because they are intrigued to see what it will be about.

> Another aspect of the production that has been shown across the texts is the slogan, 'Are you sweet enough?'. Again this use of wording is familiar with many people as it is an expression well known. It also gets the audience asking themselves questions and therefore wanting them to be answered in the documentary.

> Channel and scheduling has been decided based on the audience who the documentary would appeal to. We concluded that BBC one would be the most appropriate channel as it already broadcasts alot of family shows such as, eastenders, the weakest link and my family. The day and time also seemed appropriate, Sunday being a the day families get together to have a sunday lunch and relax infront of the television because everybody is off work and school. And to be broadcasted at 7pm means most of the family should still be awake to watch the programme.

Here is an example of some of the newspapers our print advert would appear in.

*The Sunday Times, The Mirror, The Daily Telegraph and The ECHO*

Here are the radio stations in which out radio advert will appear:

These stations have been choosen because they are each targeted at different age groups and so this will achieve us to attract members of the family of all ages. for example, Juice FM mainly appeals to a teenage audience and younger adults, whereas radio merseyside appeals to an older audience.

Q3. What have you learned from you audience feedback?

>> For this part of the coursework we were asked to create another questionnaire, including approximatley 6 questions to ask the audience watching the production, this would allow us to get positive and negative feedback.
>> After the documentary, radio advert and newspaper print was completed we arranged to set up a session were we showed all three finished products to an audience, the size of approximately 15 people. They all watched the documentary and previewed the adverts which took about 5 minutes.
>> Then the 6 questions we had created were read aloud to the audience and they discussed the products in order to gain research on what the finished product were like.
An example of one of these questions was:

Q. What were the strengths of the first 5 minutes of the documentary?

A. "I thought that the title (opening) sequence was good and very effective because its quite a typical look on how the family deal with 'sweets' in my home we usualy end up going to grab the same one, so having this as a start to the programme helped me relate myself to it and i knew from then i would enjoy watching it."

We also created two questions that would help get feebback for the radio and advert and newspaper print.

Q: What didn't you like about the print advert?

A: "I didnt really like the way the hands (coming in from the side angles) were of a smaller size to the sweet in the middle, i think it may have worked better if the hands were bigger than the sweet."

Q: What was effective in the radio advert?

A: The extracts taken from the documentary were really appropriate for the radio advert as it grabbed my attention and made me ask myself ' what could this be about' which i think is a good technique when promoting any TV show.

Here is some more feedback we gathered, including strengths and weaknesses.

> 90% thoroughly enjoyed the full 5 minutes of our documentary (taken from a audience of 10 people).

> 30% believed the print advert comes across a bit too bright and colourful.

> "I really enjoyed the programme, it appealed to me alot as i love sweets so it is probably something i would watch on a sunday night after dinner.

> " A weakness of the radio advert was that, at the very end where it says 'are you sweet enough' it is a little bit delayed if i didn't know to watch on i wouldn't have and probably would have missed that last part.

> Overall 100% of the people i have shown the production to, said they would have considered watching this as a professional programme on BBC.

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

During the production of our product we used many different technologies in order to complete tasks given. These included:

A computer

A digital camera
Stills Camera

A Microphone

Windows Movie Maker

Adobe Premiere

And, Adobe Photoshop

Different media technologies have been vital whilst creating my documentary and each them required basic knowledge about them, however they also helped to apply better understanding as we continued to use them.
Initally, using a computer and the internet to research documentaries, and research information to go into the production itself. 'YOUTUBE’ helped to play a big part in researching for my product, as it allowed me to watch real and professional documentaries that had been created, i was also able to take screen grabs to compare my framing shots with the professional ones.

After gaining experience last year using the digital and stills camera I had a good idea of how to use it effectively, and did not have much trouble in getting used to them.

I had to re-familiarise myself with all the skills used when editing footage on the Adobe packages as it has been a while since i was last on them. After obtaining a little help i got the hang of them and was able to make the work a good standard.

Finally, the internet came into use for a second time when i was required to upload this blog onto blogger.com. This has made my blog look more neat and tidy as everything is in order and has a title.

> By using all of these technologies we were able to make the whole production realistic and professional. I have enjoyed the whole experience and i am happy with the finished product.

Codes and Conventions

Codes and conventions for documentaries:
> Varied shot types and movement to keep audience interested
> Handheld camerawork used for actuality footage where necessary
> Interviews: CU or MCU is conventional BCU or ECU can be used stationary camera ( tripod)
> Eye line roughly 1/3 way down screen
> Framed to left or right of shot
> Establishing shots are used
> Pan and zoom are used when filming still images
> Point of view shot sometimes used to position audience in the action
> Mise-en-scene behind interviews is either related to the subject e.g. chromakey or anchors there job related to the subject
> Achieve material from a verity
> Graphics used to translate where necessary
> Title unique/creative
> Name and relevance to subject or role of interviewees, usually two line 'Matt Smith' Plays the thing - This anchors who they are and their relevance to the subject, usually opposite side of the screen in bigger letter.
> Credits, usually scrolling, archive material credited
>Narrative structure can vary open/closed / circular Single strand is not complicated and non linear so audience can understand
> Sound- Voice over used to link everything together, hold the structure together, standard English, age and gender usually relate to either audience or subject. Not partial, tend to be emotionless.
> Interviews - all questions are edited out; music is used relevant to the topic.
> Interviews no background noise or kept to a minimum.

Codes and Conventions for radio adverts:
> Extracts from the program are used.
> Channel name - is the last thing you hear
> Scheduling - time and day
> Music bed sometimes used
> Voice over
> Has a narrative structure
Codes and conventions for newspaper print adverts:
> Contains one strong image
> Slogan
> Schedule information and channel
> Logo should be the only other things on the advert.

>Words are kept to a minimum

> Portrait images are used for full page print adverts.

> Landscape images are used for adverts that only take up a section of the page.

Editing

The editing process took the longest, this was because in order for our documentary to look professional and sucessful we had to keep changing things and improving on other things. It was also the most challanging because we were required to use software that we was not extremely familiar with and so it took some getting used to, being Adobe Premiere.

Here are various screen grabs on the editing process, showing different editing techniques, that we were required to practise and include in our production.

This screen grab shows an editing technique most documentaries will use. By pressing F5 on the keyboard this screen will appear on Adobe premiere. Here you can add text (name of interviewee) change font style, size and colour of the text.

This screen grab is just a basic view of what it looks like to edit a production on Adobe premiere, as you can see there is a time line, a toolbar, a window for what will appear in the documentary (to the left hand side) and two windows to show what part of the documentary is being edited.

This screen grab shows one part of editing a docmentary by using the tool highlighted (the razor tool). This allows you to cut out (neatly) any part of the documentary you dont want from the timeline. For example, if on an interview the breathing pause seems too long then you can cut it out by using this tool to make it shorter.

This screen grab from our documentary shows how to edit music beds that will be included in the production. The highlighted section is the waves from the music. It has been selected from the left hand box and dragged into that (highlighted) window. By pressing (i) you can select where you want the music to start and by pressing (o) you can choose where you want the music to end. Therefore decideing how much of the music you want in the production. It is then dragged onto the main timeline, underneathe the chosen images.

This fifth screen grab shows were the music is positioned on the timeline after it has been editied in the above window. It is put underneathe the other sound clips (voiceovers etc) and video clips.

This final screen grab shows the different effects you can add to the video clips (shown in the left hand corner) some of these effects include, cross fade, dissolve, 3D motion etc. These effects make the video more effective and can help to fade one scene into another neatly.

Once all of the editing was (what we thought) complete, we gave it to our teacher to have a look at and discuss room for improvement.

Filming

In our documentary we had to film in many different places and we used different people to achieve making our documentary realistic. We did many of the filming together, however there were many times that i could not attend the filming sessions due to other commitments.
One part of the filming was to create a vox pop in the middle of our town centre (Liscard). There we stopped numerous, random people and asked them questions related to sweets, for example, 'what is your favoutire sweet?'. By doing this we got many interesting answers from them which we could include in the documentary to create realism and pace within the documentary.

We were also required to film the individual interviews.

This is Bryony filming the elderly woman interview.

Whilst creating this shot for the docmentary, we had to make sure mise-en-scene was appropriate, lighting was correct and the positioning of the camera was accurate, (eye line match being a third of the way down the screen and the interviewee positioned either to the left or right of the screen.

And here is Armarni shooting the young girl interview. It was set up in school as it was easy access to retrieve the pupil to take part in the interview, however images of sweets were created and put up as mise-en-scene behind the pupil so that it was unnoiticable that the interview took place in a classroom.

With all interviews, this had to be shot a few times so that all answers became clear without the question in front of it and so it sounded effective and professional.

A final part of the creation of this documentary was that we were required to film all cutaways that would be used throughout the production.

Armarni filming the dairy milk chocolate bar cutaway.

Bryony filming the ginger bread men cutaway.

Filming the melted chocolate cutaway.

After all filming was complete, it was all uploaded onto adobe premiere and the editing process began.

Planning

Ideas for Documentary

• Title- Allsorts
- Sweet enough

• Title made out of sweets
• Interviews – Children
- Mr Dynment (Headteacher)
- Old man
- Dentist
- 50 cent
- Cadburys
- Girls who work in sweet shop
- Emma Bunton

• Archive footage of websites, newspapers, past documentaries
• How sweets have become associated with occasions
• Archive footage of music videos and adverts
• A lot of panning camerawork across sweets
• Lollipop Lady footage
• Vegetarian sweet info
• Sweets from different religions
• Filming in sweet making factories
• Montage shots of sweet shops
• Charlie and the chocolate factory footage/relation and interview with creator and director.
• Music – “candy shop”
- “Sweet like chocolate”
- “I want candy”
- “Lollipop” – The Chordetts
- “Lollipop” – Mika

• Footage in supermarket
• Scheduling – BBC1, 7pm on Sunday
• Family audience


Formal Proposal


• Title of documentary – Allsorts

• Topic – Sweets

• Type of documentary – Mixed

• Style of documentary – Informal, contemporary, witty and informative

• Channel and Scheduling – BBC1, 19.00 on Sunday.

• Target audience- Families, all ages.

• Primary Research needed – Interview with elderly man talking about sweets of his childhood, Interview with young workers in “The rock shop”, Interview with dentist in surgery, about effects of sweets on the teeth.
• Locations to film include, “Cadburys” factory, sweet shop, Elderly home, dentist, supermarket etc.

• Secondary Research needed – Sweet websites, books about sweets, newspaper articles.

• Narrative structure– Closed, Non linear and single strand.

• Outline of content – Archive material including adverts, films, and music videos. Interviews, websites, filming of how sweets are made in Cadbury factory, local sweet shops.

• Resource requirements – Digital stills camera, Adobe Premiere, tripod, video camera, microphone, computer and internet, sweets, music, people to interview.


Questionnaire Results

Here are three people who took part in answering the questionnaires.
Emma, 17, student
Matty, 17, student
Laura, 18, student
















Male - 13
Female - 18

We asked a range of people to answer our questionnaire’s to get a reliable result. However because 18 females and 13 males answered the questionnaire’s it will be slightly unreliable as there are more females than males that answered the questionnaires.


What is your age?

10 and under – 2
11-20 – 12
21-30 – 4
31-40 – 6
41-50 – 6
50+ - 2

We also asked a variety of people from different ages to answer our questionnaire although there are more people from the ages 11-20 years.


What is your occupation?

Retired – 2
Student – 14
Shop assistant – 1
Library – 1
RAF officer – 1
Bus Driver – 1
NHS – 1
Manager – 2
Teacher – 2
Television Sales – 1
Cleaner – 1
Engineer – 2
Waitress – 1
Civil servant – 1

We mainly have students that have filled in our questionnaires but once again we still have a variety of people with different occupations ranging from shop assistants to engineers.

What is your favourite sweet as a child?

Liquorice – 3
Lollipop – 2
Milkyway – 2
Bonbons – 4
Cadburys twin – 1
Cola bottles – 1
Fizzy Bottles – 1
Flying saucers – 1
Jelly tots – 1
Rolos – 1
Whethers original – 1
Mars bar – 1
Aniseed balls – 1
Sweet tobacco – 1
White mice – 2
Chocolate limes – 1
Vice versa – 1
Haribo – 1
Pear drops – 1
Blue bottles – 1
Caramel bells – 1
Spiral – 1
Penny sweets – 1

Even though most sweets are still out now which people classed as their favourite sweet in the past, there are a few sweets that are unable to be purchased now such as vice versas, showing us that sweets can go out of fashion easily.






What are your favourite sweets now?

Sports mix – 1
Bonbons – 1
Liquorice – 3
Toffee crisp – 1
Galaxy – 1
Chocolate raisins – 1
Haribo eggs – 1
Chocolate nibbles – 5
Hard gums – 1
Peanut butter cups – 1
Rolos – 1
Milk bottles – 1
Cherry drops – 1
Fizzy bottles – 1
Almond tart – 1
Flying saucers – 1
Strawberry pencils – 1
Cheesecake – 1
White mice – 1
Skittles – 1
Humbugs – 2
Crunchie – 1
Malteasers – 1
Twix – 1

We have discovered that people still have their favourite sweet now the same as when they were younger. Also it shows that some participants have changed what their favourite sweet is now, showing that there are many new sweets are being brought out. We can see from these results and the results from the question before that there is a large range of sweets that people claim are their favourites.


If you could bring back any sweet from the past what would it be?

Tuti Fruti – 1
Whisper mint – 1
Milky bar munchies – 1
Pear drops – 2
Fruit winders – 1
Brain lickers – 1
Snicker – 1
Ice cream chews – 2
Star dust – 1
Everton mints – 1
Nerds – 2
Sweet tobacco – 1
Bonbons – 1
Ticket – 1
White mice – 1
Vice versa – 5
Frosties – 1
Caramac bars – 1
Flying saucers – 1
Bullseyes – 1
Barley twists – 1
Caramel bells – 1
None – 2

Most sweets people have said they would want to bring back are still out but are very hard to find. However, some you can still find in the average sweet shop.


What is your least favourite sweet?

Chocolate peanuts – 1
Marsbar – 1
Liquorice – 11
Cola bottles – 1
Fizzy sweets – 1
Smarties – 1
Turkish delight – 1
Star bar – 1
Bonbons – 1
Nibbles – 1
Rhubarb pie – 1
Opal fruits – 1
Toffee – 1
Hubbabubba – 1
Sour balls – 2
Millions – 1
White mice – 1
Bourville – 1
Picnic – 1
Brainlickers – 1

Although people enjoy sweets they still have a least favourite sweet and this chart clearly shows that liquorice is the least favourite sweet.


How far away is your local sweet shop?

Under 5 minutes – 22
5 minutes – 6
10 minutes – 2
15 minutes - 1

Our survey clearly shows that people don’t have to go far to get to the nearest sweet shop. With no one out of the 31people said there sweet shop is a drive away and 22 people say there sweet shop is under 5mins away.

How much money do you spend on sweets a week?

£0 to1 - 9
£1 to 2 - 12
£2 to 3 - 7
£3 to 4 - 1
£4 to 5 - 1
£5+ - 1

We can see that people don’t spend too much money on sweets as the survey shows that 21 people spend £2 or less on sweets every week


Have you had any problems with your teeth as a result from eating too many sweets?

Yes – 10
No – 21

Although the survey shows us that most people don’t have problems with their teeth because of sweets, there is still 1/3 of people who do showing that sweets generally do have a big impact on sweets.


How many fillings have you had?

0 – 12
1 – 2
2 – 7
3 – 3
4 – 1
5+ - 6






The survey shows that most people have no fillings however 6 people say they have 5 or more fillings, which shows us that the people how spend the most on sweets have resulted in having the most fillings. We can see from the results that 2/3 of the participants have had 1 or more fillings and 20% of people have had 5 or more, which suggests that sweets have had a dramatic effect on their teeth.





























Running order

Documentary: Allsorts
Channel: BBC1
Scheduling: Sunday 7pm-7.30pm
Duration: (including advert break)

Montage of interview talking about subject but the audience don’t know what it is yet. 20secs

Opening Title- Allsorts written with sweets. Fast motion of different hands taking sweets. Background song ‘lollipop by chordettes’. 10secs

Slow panning of sweets along aisle whilst playing background music ‘I like candy –candy girls”. 15secs

Interview of workers in sweet shop explaining what life is like working in a sweet shop 1min

Interview with elderly man talking about sweets from the past. Filmed in home environment. Questions such as, “How much money a week did you used to spend on sweets?” 1min

Interview with teenage boy being asked same questions as elderly man and results are compared. 1min

Montage of newspaper cut outs on articles about sweets. Scroll down of computer screen with articles about sweets and violence in children. 15secs

Interview of children fantasying about a world that was made out of sweets. Archive material of Willy Wonker film. 1min

Sweets in music. Interview with 50 cent, asking why he writes about candy in his songs and the sexual meanings related to the candy. 2mins

Fast cuts of different traditional sweets. 20secs

Mixture of interviews with people from different backgrounds and cultures and why they have different sweets on different occasions. 2mins

Filming of mother at checkout counter in a supermarket, and having a look at her trolley and how much sweets she has bought. 30secs

Interview with head teacher, about why vending machines have been removed from schools? 2mins

Fast panning around school canteen and zooming in on children eating sweets 30secs

Shot of sherbet on table and a hand writing “I love sweets” 5secs

How brands of chocolate has changed names over the years to make it more globally well known and accessible. Montage of different chocolate bars song “sweet like chocolate by shanks and big foot”. 3mins

Archive footage of the skittles advert. “Taste the rainbow” 5secs

Interview with owner of Cadburys factory, while footage of sweets being made is shown. 3mins
Worker making sweets in sweet factory and how sweets are made and what it is like making sweets every day. 2mins

World record sweets. E.g largest pear drop in the world. 20secs

Interview with Emma Bunton questions including “Why do you like lollipops so much?!” Song “My boy lollipop – spice girls” 1min 30secs

Footage of arcade and all the sweet machines available, and the giant lollipops that can be won. 20secs

Interview with dentist about the effect of sweets on teeth 1min

Montage of good and bad teeth 30secs

Archive of galaxy advert and interviews with woman why they like chocolate so much. 1min
Montage of children enjoying eating sweets. 20secs

Montage of variety of interviews talking about sweets and there different aspects.2mins

Fast cuts of different sweets.10secs

Break 2mins
Total 30mins


Interview questions for filming


Elderly woman interview

1) When you were younger, what were the most popular sweets?
2) What was your favourite sweet as a child?
3) How much money did you spend a week on sweets?
4) Where they seen as a treat or an every day thing?
5) Have you had any effects to your health as a result of eating too many sweets as a child?
6) Do you still enjoy sweets now?
7) What is your favourite sweet now?
8) Do you spend more on sweets now?


Girls who work in a sweet shop

1) When is this shop the busiest?
2) At what time of the year do you take in the most profits?
3) What are the most popular sweets bought from here?
4) On average, how much would you say people spend in here?
5) Do you find yourself buying the sweets you sell?
6) Roughly how much does this shop make each day?
7) Have you ever had any complaints about the sweets you sell here?

Children (3 young children)

1) If the world was made from sweets, what would it be like?

Teenage girl

1) What is the most popular sweet?
2) What is your favourite sweet?
3) How much money do you spend a week on sweets?
4) Are they seen as a treat or an every day thing?
5) Have you had any effects to your health as a result of eating too many sweets as a child?


Here are sketches of of our title sequence, this is how we would want it to appear.


Close up of sweets reading 'Allsorts'. 'Lollipop' (music) sang by the chordettes. Lasting approx 2 seconds.





Close up of sweets reading 'Allsorts'. Hands (different) entering shot from different angles, grabbing sweets. Lasting approx 4 secs.

One sweet left over. Zoom into sweet which then dissolves into next scene. Lasting approx 2 secs.

We also created sketches to show what our interview set up's would look like.

This first sketch was created for the interview with the elderly lady, we decided to have her seated because it portrays a sterotypical overview of some older adults and gives off a sence that she is relaxed and comfortable. The bird cage is also a sterotypical object in the background, however it was not used in the actual production.

We then decided on creating this mise-en-scene for the interview with the young boy. Although, this was not filmed as we decided to interview a teenage girl. This would contrast with the elderly woman and cannote how times have changed.

This shot from the documentary would show three young children, positioned on a couch talking about what the world would be like if it was made out of sweets.



Finally, this was one of the longest interviews that would be shot. it is of two teenage girls that work in a sweet shop, the mise-en-scene would be them standing behind the counter in their sweet shop.




The final part of the planning process meant creating a voiceover script to be put over the video clips in the documentary, here it is in writing:

"Bon,bons, cola bottles, sherbet, strawberry laces, lollipops, nibbles, millions, dolly mixtures, haribo, white mice, rainbow strips, gummy bears, floral gums, toffee, chewits, marshmallows, flumps"
(Child and old woman interview)
"Sherbet, liquorice and wethers originals, all sweets related to what kids call the oldies.
Sour balls, gob stoppers and millions all sweets that the kids just love. But how has the generation of sweets changed over the years."
(Children fantasy interview)
"Its scrumdidlyumtious its every child’s dream to live in a world made out of sweets, I wonder what the world would be like…"

And here it is with sound: