A2 EvaluationThe Apple Takeover

By Iram Idrees

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

As part of our A2 media coursework project, we were told to work in groups in order to produce a five minute opening of a documentary, a double-page spread for a magazine article and a radio trailer. This enabled each member of the team to combine their skills and allowed us to use our knowledge to follow the codes and conventions of a real documentary. In order to carry out this task, we were given a Canon HD video camera, a tripod, a set of headphones and a microphone.

This equipment is also used to produce real documentaries. We used it sensibly in order to mirror the codes and conventions of a real media product and to make our documentary as professional as possible.

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

Our task was to produce the opening five minutes of a documentary. After deciding on the topic of Apple, we split up amongst ourselves within the group, organising interviews, doing our research and updating the blog. As part of our research, we watched existing documentaries in order to pick up appropriate conventions we could use in our documentary. Here is an example of the mise-en-scene we used during an interview which follows the codes and conventions of a real media product:

Medium close up

Head room

Appropriate/formal mise-en-scene

The frame is occupied with relevant props

Costume shows profession

The mise-en-scene used in both our interview and this real interview elevates the position of the person being interviewed and shows significant personal connotations. However, compared to this real interview, our interview challenges the codes and conventions as we have included only the expert in the frame where as this documentary also has an on screen narrator. On the other hand, a similarity between the two media products are that we have both used the rule of thirds in order to create a professional element to the interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHKCb0_2oD0

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

Throughout the documentary, we used a range of camera shots that would also be used in a real media product. These included:

Pan

Medium close up

Rule of thirds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6m0KwBzOpU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHKCb0_2oD0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHKCb0_2oD0

Mise-en-scene of vox pops

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

During the editing process of the documentary, we used the following transitions:

We used the fade tool to indicate the ending of a particular section (ipods) in our documentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQj2u4ap5bo

In Supersize Me, similar to our documentary, the dissolve transition was used in order to indicate a different setting and to move on to another section of the documentary.

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

After filming the footage for our documentary we went through the process of log and transfer. While doing this, we cut all the irrelevant footage and kept the clips we thought would be appropriate to use in our documentary. We renamed the clips so that they would be easier to find when making the documentary in order to make it coherent.

Titles are written in white, sans serif font and are placed on the lower left of the frame to show the formality of the people being interviewed.

This is how we placed the title for the interviews for our documentary by clicking on ‘Lower 3rd’ and then typing in our text.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQj2u4ap5bo

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

During the editing process of The Apple Takeover, we used this toolbar in order to cut any part of the clip that was not needed to be included in the documentary.

Move/click tool

Erase tool

We used the erase tool to indicate where we decided we didn’t need anymore footage

Then using the arrow, we clicked and deleted when section that was unnecessary

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

In The Apple Takeover, we used diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound. An example of where we used diegetic sound is during an interview and an example of non-diegetic sound is the voice over and background music as the people speaking in the documentary are unaware of it.

Diegetic

Non-diegetic

This is how we modified our sound levels and sound mix in order to increase/decrease the tempo and pace of the background music.

We also modified the sound levels on selected vox pops to raise the volume in their speech and make our documentary sound more realistic. The same applied to the voice over and radio trailer.

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

Magazine Article-Similarities

Our product Real media product

Bold heading

Similar target audience

Date, time and channel logo are clear

One main image

Not too dominated with words

Standfirst

Sans serif font

Black and white colour scheme

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

Magazine Article-Differences

Our product Real media product 3 column layout rather than using paragraphs as the columns look more relevant for our audience

The fact file informs the readers of products Apple have designed which should interest them in watching the documentary

A brief biography on Steve Jobs who made the Apple the brand it is today

The banner is used to promote the documentary to readers as it suggests The Apple Takeover is pick of the day

The heading is across both pages of this double page spread. However, we felt this would be inappropriate for our chosen topic as it would make the article look less formal and contrast with the message we want to give our readers

We used a question and answer format where as this double-page spread has written an article

Paragraph crossheads were used to separate the questions from the answers in our double-page spread

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

Radio Trailer

Similarities

Our radio trailer was produced for BBC Radio 1. It followed the codes and conventions of a real media product as we mixed the sound levels appropriately. The tempo of the background music was upbeat as the topic of our documentary was aimed at students and young people from the broad age range of 16-40 (ABC1). The purpose of using upbeat music was reference to technology as being new and improving. We also used a clear, informative voice-over and included clips from the documentary as this is what a real media product which promotes a TV show would do in order to attract the listeners attention.

Differences

In contrast, our radio trailer challenged the codes and conventions as the BBC would not normally include clips of dialogue from the actual documentary.

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

Overall, we are pleased with all three of our media products as the topic of Apple was original. The first few opening frames of the documentary were of various ways in which Apple products are used. We felt this would be an effective opening as it gave viewers an insight of the aspects of Apple we chose to discuss in our documentary.

In relation to real documentaries, we also dubbed the background music while mixing the sound levels when appropriate. This was to ensure the interviews and vox pops were loud and clear. The use of straight cuts and relevant background footage throughout the documentary was coherent as the jump from one clip to another kept the viewers interested.

However, if we could make any improvements to our documentary: The Apple Takeover, they would include...

• Some shots could have been better quality

• More background footage (as we only had 3 weeks to film the documentary during college hours, we had to make sure the location(s) we chose were close to college)

Documentary

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

We decided the publisher for our magazine article would be Radio Times as they are Britain's leading TV listings magazine with a similar target audience ours.

Our documentary follows many codes and conventions of a real media product. For example, our text is placed in columns. Correspondingly, although the Radio Times articles normally contain more text, we have made it simpler by using one main image and a page of text. The text is separated into different sections: the article; the fact file about Apple products; and a small biography about Steve Jobs. We manipulated the Apple logo by placing it in a canted angle on the edge of the heading. We also manipulated the two banners, by putting them in a certain angle. For the article, we presented it in a question and answer format. To make it clear for the reader, we decided to provide colour identification to each member that produced the documentary 'The Apple Takeover'.

Magazine Article

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

Radio Trailer

Like actual radio trailers you would hear on the radio, our radio trailer was consistent and informative. We chose BBC Radio 1 as our broadcaster in order to link the documentary and radio trailer as we came to the conclusion the topic of Apple would interest the BBC and BBC would appeal to our target audience which is young students and employees from the ages of 16-40. In media terms, this would be ABC1s because they are sociable, up to date with the latest trends and are most likely to be able to afford Apple products.

In our radio trailer, we included short clips from the documentary such as vox pops. We used the same voice-over from the documentary and made sure all the information mentioned in the radio trailer was persuasive and necessary.

In contrast to real radio trailers on BBC, our radio trailer challenged the codes and conventions as the BBC would not normally include clips of dialogue from the actual documentary. If we could improve our radio trailer, I suggest we should use more interesting sound effects and snappier vox pops.

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

The purpose of our A2 media coursework was to produce a documentary along with a double-page spread for a listings magazine and a radio trailer. The two ancillary texts were produced in order to promote our documentary: The Apple Takeover. We linked all three products in order to form a concise brand identity.

One of the main similarities between all three media products are the target audience. We agreed that our target audience would be ABC1s (usually ages 18-25) as they are expected to listen to BBC Radio 1 due to the variety of music it plays and watch BBC Three as the shows they view range from documentaries, dramas, stand-up comedy and news. All this would be aimed at our target audience as we chose an age group starting from young adults who take great interest in the latest trends.

We felt the combination of our main product and ancillary texts was highly effective as they had an obvious brand identity. Choosing Apple as our topic came to us at a great advantage as the Apple logo intrinsically instantly has its own brand identity. We proved this to a further extent as we included clips from the documentary in the radio trailer and an image from the documentary in the double-page spread.

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

Magazine Article

Article Documentary

We used this image from the documentary on the first page of our double-page spread as it is an effective image. It shows the Apple logo on top of the iMacs which links both these pieces by giving them brand identity. Also, the stacking of the iMacs symbolises the way in which Apple as a brand alone are taking over other products, hence our title: The Apple Takeover.

Another thing the double-page spread has in common with the documentary is the font. In order to keep the brand identity looking formal and professional, we kept the font as sans serif.

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

Radio Trailer We decided the BBC were the producers of both the documentary and radio trailer as our target audience appeals to the BBC. Because the majority of our audience is 16-25 (the broader range being 16-40), we concluded we would launch our documentary on BBC Three as most young people are likely to watch documentaries BBC Three as opposed to channel 5.

Both the radio trailer and documentary were produced in final cut express, the radio trailer being sequence 1 and documentary being sequence 2.

Another thing the radio trailer had in common with the documentary is that they both included the same clear, male voice-over and quotes from vox pops that we used in our documentary. This was a major link between our main product and ancillary texts as it created definite brand identity.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We agreed that demographics prove our target audience would be ABC1s (normally ages 18-25) as they would be most interested in the development in technology.

The reason we have such a broad target audience of 16-40 year olds is because Apple is aimed at a variety of people depending on their products. For example, an iPod is most likely to be aimed at an 18 year old as they would be more interested in music then a 38 year old. However, an iPhone is more likely to attract someone who is employed at the age of 30 and has a good profession. Their job could be a businessman/woman, teacher, PA, architect, ICT technician or even self employed.

Target Audience

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to gain audience feedback, we produced 30 copies of a questionnaire. We asked or audience (students) what their views were on our documentary, double-page spread and radio trailer.

In our questionnaires, we included both open and closed questions. An example of an open question we used for our documentary questionnaire is ‘Name two facts you’ve taken from our documentary’. This enabled to tell us whether or not the audience were concentrating when watching the documentary and if they found it informative or not. Asking open questions was a good method of gaining audience feedback as it gave us an insight of what the viewers gained from watching The Apple Takeover.

On the other hand, we also asked closed questions in our questionnaires as giving the audience a series of options to circle/tick made it easier us to analyse and for our audience to fill in. An example of a closed question we used for our documentary questionnaire is ‘Do you think the sound quality was of a professional standard?’ We then gave the audience the following options: ‘Not very’, ‘Professional’ and ‘Very’.

Regarding our documentary, double-page spread and radio trailer, we were more interested in quantitative answers rather than qualitative answers as the figures counted were the ones that mattered because we used more closed questions in all three of our questionnaires rather than open questions. This was because of our wide range of audience all three media products were produced for.

We also considered gathering a focus group in order to explore the opinions of our target audience. However, we decided this approach would be time consuming and would not be much use to our media products due to the quantitative nature of audience feedback we were interested in receiving. But if we had another chance, we would try a focus group as it would help explore the audiences opinions of our media products in greater detail.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Documentary

Open question

Closed question

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1. How would you rate our documentary on a scale of 1-5? (5 being the best)

1 2 3 4 5

123

54

2. How effective and professional do you think our camera shots are?

Very poor Poor Okay Good Very good 1

432

5

3. For vox pops and professional interviews do you think the mise en scene is appropriate?

Not very Professional Very

1

23

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

4. Do you think the sound quality was of a professional standard?

Not very Professional Very

5. We selected an upbeat, electronic choice of background music. Do you think this was the right decision, and did it work well?

Yes No

6. Were the changes in sound levels appropriate throughout the documentary?

Not very Appropriate Very

123

1

2

1

2

3

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

7. How informative and helpful did you think our vox pops and interviews were on a scale on 1-5? (5 being the best)

1 2 3 4 5

8. Did you find our voice-over clear and easy to understand?

Not very Satisfactory Very

9. Do you think the editing and transitions of footage was appropriate?

Not very Appropriate Very

1

1

1

2

2

2

3

3

3

4

5

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

10. Name two facts you’ve taken from our documentary

............................................................................................................

............................................................................................................

These were the top ten most popular answers

“Apple is the best”

“Windows take ideas from Apple”

“Clear brand identity”

“Forefront of technology”

“iPod is the most successful product”

“Most think they would be lost without the product”

“Easy to use”

“Superior quality”

“Apple sales have boomed”

“Macs designed with visual programmes”

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Magazine Article

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1.What do you think of the colour scheme that we used on our double page spread?

Excellent Good Poor

2. Did the article persuade you to watch the documentary? Yes No

3. Was the layout eye-catching?

Yes No (If not, why?)

.....................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................

1

2

3

1

2

1

2

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

4. Do you like the idea of one main image or would you prefer a number of images?

1 Main Image Number of Images

5. Did you find the fact file on Apple products and short biography about Steve Jobs useful?

Yes No

6. Do you think the way we separated the questions from the answers was effective?

Yes No

1

1

1

2

2

2

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

7. On a scale of 1-5, how attractive would you say the double page spread looks? 1 2 3 4 5

1

2

3

4

5

8. To what extent would you say our double page spread follows the codes and conventions of a real media product?

Excellent Good Poor

9. Do you feel the article was appropriate for the target audience?

Yes No

1

2

2

3

1

2

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

10. What would you change in order to improve our double page spread?

.......................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................

“Bit Simplistic”

“Picture On The Left”

“More Font Variation”

“More Images”

“More Colour”

“New Colour For The Fact File”

These were the most re-occurring answers in our questionnaire

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Radio Trailer

The advantages we received from our radio trailer audience feedback was that our audience were impressed with how concise and informative the information on the radio trailer was. They were also impressed with the sound levels and the fact that the voice over was clear.

An improvement we were given, however, was that our backing track could be changed as it did not impress our listeners.

Overall, we are very pleased with the audience feedback we received regarding our radio trailer.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After we received our feedback on 'The Apple Takeover‘ from the questionnaires we handed out, the feedback was predominately positive as our audience rated the documentary either 4/5 or 5/5. A majority of our sound, editing and camera was seen as being professional and appropriate in comparison to real media conventions. We are very pleased with the information we have received from the questionnaires. However, the only major improvement we were given was to work on mixing the sound levels at the beginning as a minority of our audience thought the documentary started of quite loud. Overall, we are happy with the feedback given on our documentary.

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

Throughout this project, we have used a huge range of media technologies and equipment to carry out his task. These included:

• Apple Macs• Microphone• InDesign• Microsoft word• Final cut express• Tripod• Blogspot.com• Internet/ Safari• Canon HD video camera • Headphones • Log and Transfer

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

It took a lot of planning and research to produce our media products as we used a variety of software, equipment and media technologies both in which we were familiar with from our AS year and unfamiliar. For example, last year we used normal PCs in order to complete our preliminary task and main task. However, this year we used Apple Macs in order to produce the documentary, magazine article and radio trailer. The reason we used Apple Macs this year is because our project was bigger than last year, therefore, caused fewer problems when saving work than PCs. Also, Macs are creative. The main advantage of using an Apple Mac in A2 is that it is monopolising in the way in which we could export something from Final cut express and place it into InDesign.

AS A2

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

Documentary

When we started filming our documentary, we were given a Canon HD video camera as the quality of the camera was brilliant and the camera was easy to use. We used a range of camera shots when filming the documentary. These included zoom, pan and tilt.

We included these shots because during our research and planning, we watched and analysed existing documentaries on YouTube, BBC, Channel 4 and ITV. We also did the same for our magazine article and radio trailer.

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

Setting up the tripod was a new skill I learnt this year as it was vital we got the height of the tripod right in order to gain a good shot/camera angle. We also had to ensure the camera was well balanced on to the tripod as if the balance of the camera was askew, the camera was in danger of falling off the tripod and breaking.

Tripod

The handle of the tripod was significant because in order to achieve a variety of shots such as a tilt, crab or pan, we has to move the handle.

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

Microphone (sound)

It was very important we had the right balance when it came to sound levels and placing the right leads into the appropriate part of the camera.

Throughout the process, the microphone and headphones we used worked well. However, a problem we had with the microphone was that it was picking up background sound when filming vox pops.

Overall, we were pleased with the sound levels we achieved after our three weeks of filming.

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

Internet/Blog http://www.blogger.com/

From the start of this whole task, blogger was a significant part of our research and planning as we put every detail of our ideas, research and tasks we carried out during lessons. It was a great advantage as it kept our planning organised and we didn’t lose papers unlike AS media studies. It was also very easy to use and easy to access. However, when we tried to place images onto the blog, we had to change the image to JPEG which was time consuming. Also, print screens didn’t work on the blog which was a problem at times as we lack a few images to support what we did in some lessons.

Using the internet was a great advantage to us as it was easy to access and played a great part in our research and planning. We gained a huge advantage as we watched documentaries, looked at examples of magazine articles and radio trailers via the internet. We also decided the publishers for our media products using research we did through the internet.

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

Construction

We produced our documentary and radio trailer in Final Cut Express as it consisted of a range of features which enabled us to edit our footage sufficiently throughout the editing process.

When I first started using Final Cut Express, personally, I found it challenging. However, as the days went on, the more I used it, the easier it became. Also, once we understood the tools and features of Final Cut Express, it was simple to use.

An example of how using Final Cut Express was useful in producing a professional documentary is that we used a fade transition from Final Cut Express in order to end a certain section of our documentary (iPods). This enabled the documentary to be coherent in the way that it told our target audience we were going to move on.

Mixing, editing and modifying sound levels in Final Cut Express was a simple procedure as we could see the sequence was organised. Adding and deleting clips was also simple as once we understood the toolbar, everything became efficient and easy to use.

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

Magazine Article

Our magazine article was produced in InDesign. The two main features we used when making our double-page spread was InDesign and Microsoft word. We used Microsoft word in order to write our script for the documentary voice-over, radio trailer and magazine article (Q and A). This was because we could then upload the final pieces onto the blog.

We also used a number of different tools in InDesign in order to change the colour of the pages, font and text boxes. The function of InDesign participated in the overall quality of our final product as each tool had a different affect on the product.

For example, we decided to have a banner across the first page saying ‘pick of the day’ as this promoted our main product to a higher extent. To enable this, we used the rotation tool at 7 degrees to the high-right of the top of the page. This is a convention that would also be seen in a real magazine article.

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

Radio Trailer

Similarly to the documentary, we produced our radio trailer in Final Cut Express as we were already used to the tools and efficiency of Final Cut Express. Because it was more or less the same as what we did for our documentary, mixing, cutting and editing the sound was very straightforward.

Overall, we were very impressed with Final Cut Express as it is a highly professional production programme and gives anyone the potential to produce a documentary, radio trailer and possibly other media products once you get used to the tools.

In conclusion, compared to last year, our A2 task was much more enjoyable and helped us develop a variety of new skills regarding Apple Macs and Final Cut Express.