Production: Listings article

I have written below the article which I will paste into my listings for the double page spread. I wrote it out first to ensure there isn't any grammatical errors and so I can include it in my questionnaire to be able to send to my focus group and gain relevant feedback.

Double page spread listings article

In this one off documentary, Cassandra Brown researches into the phenomena of why 80% of people have left London in the last five years and where they are moving. House prices are reaching a record high and Londoners are unable to afford a life in the city, Cassandra discovers the effect of rising prices on those who have had to move out. ‘Researching and speaking to people I wouldn’t otherwise have spoken to, really opened my eyes to some of the troubles regular people are facing as a result of struggles in the economy,’ Cassandra says, ‘some people have experienced the positive and enjoyable aspects a new town has to offer, whilst others miss their old life and the people they were once closely surrounded with’.

The documentary follows Cassandra as she travels to both London to Leigh experiencing the differences in the culture and atmosphere and speaks to the locals, with first-hand knowledge, along the way. As well as speaking to families in London in their midst of finding somewhere else to live, Cassandra interviews a coffee shop owner who recently moved from London to Leigh on sea and currently prefers living in Leigh on sea. Sam outlines, ‘[I miss] the places to eat, places to drink and social life, the three things.’

London to Leigh has an emphasis on the current life in both places and provides a window into Leigh as a new area, especially as it was voted the happiest place to live according to Rightmove. The average sale price in London in £579,836 while the average price for those buying outside the capital is £333,181 which is a difference of almost £250,000, That being said the largest portion of people leaving London tend to head to places less than 25 miles away where house prices average out at £481,436.

Don’t miss ‘London to Leigh’ on Channel 4 at 8pm this Tuesday. Find out more at www.channel4.com/londontoleigh or use the hashtag #londontoleigh

Planning: Listings checklist

From analysing existing double page spread listings from magazines I have made a checklist for important points found in these to apply to my own double page spread listings to adhere to generic codes and conventions.

Listings checklist from KatiePearl1

Generic Research: Listings analysis

Production: Feedback Questionnaire Responses

Analyzed Questionnaire Responses

I have analysed the responses of the feedback from my questionnaire below which has helped me to improve the production of my documentary and ancillary product.

This summary of the responses from the a question on whether my documentary was informative shows that out of 22 responses, 95.5% said that is was very informative with 4.5% (one person) stating they believe it was quite informative. This was helpful by portraying to me that there is enough facts, figures and statistics in this documentary as nobody replied clicking the box for 'not informative'.

This question asked whether the individual would watch the rest of the documentary and the results received were very promising. 90.5% out of 21 people replied saying they would definitely continue to watch the rest of the documentary. One response stated they would 'probably' watch the rest and the other person stated 'if I was interested in housing I would'. I can understand that the content of my documentary would not be appealing to everybody in my target audience due to their interests and cultural competencies and therefore I am pleased with the responses.

This response was to a question about the target audience, whether the documentary appropriately targets 21-30 year olds in the B-C demographic. The responses were short answers with 100% of people saying yes with other responses such as 'Yes you have done this well', 'yes I think so' and 'yes, and older people'. From these responses I can understand I have effectively kept the audience in mind when researching, planning and producing my documentary. 

This question was particularly helpful for me to improve my documentary. I asked what improvements needed to be made to my documentary and the responses I received were short answers which I can make the amendments.  One of the responses said to 'change the font and sound in the Leigh section'. I can understand how the music I chose may not be the most appropriate and will change it. Some of the responses outlined some issues with the editing in the interview scene such as 'theres one part of the interview with the coffee shop owner where the audio and visual is out of time', 'the editing in sams interview overlapped a little so it jolted slightly', 'the interview could be cut down a bit' and 'maybe put in some more cutaways over the top of the interview'. The interview scene was the last piece of footage I collected and I was aware it needed some changes so these responses have helped me to clearly state what I need to do to make it better. I will check the editing of the shots with how I put them together to ensure they are smooth and professional. I will also cut some of the footage out of the interview and add more cutaways over the top of the existing footage to make it more engaging for the audience.

These responses of the aspects the readers like about my documentary were useful for me to know which aspects worked well and to maybe expand those parts to other sections of the documentary. It also allows me to know which points I have achieved in with adhering to the codes and conventions of documentaries. Many of the responses stated they liked the range of shots which I tried hard to achieve so I am glad this has come across in the documentary. I will continue to add a larger range through the cutaways I am adding in, in the interview. Other responses stated that the documentary had 'good sound and image quality', 'interesting interviews' 'good lighting and good setting', 'the pace of editing was good' 'aesthetically pleasing', 'the typography used is really good and appropriate', 'the presenter is also very professional' and 'everything'. These aspects are vital for a documentary so am happy with the responses that my documentary is reaching these key elements.

Out of 22 responses, 100% stated that they believed the article for the listings outlines the documentary accordingly so I will therefore be able to put this straight onto my double page spread magazine listings.

The last question I asked was about their opinion and idea of what image I should have for my double page spread.  I had a few ideas although I wanted to gain information on what my target audience would like. There was a range of ideas which were helpful, some of these included  'the presenter under a sold sign', 'a landscape of London', 'maybe use a plain background and use a variety of pictures on one half of the page'. These responses were good ideas and helpful but the most effective which I will choose (and which was the most popular) was having a shot of houses in Leigh. These responses included 'properties in Leigh', 'picture of either Leigh or London', 'maybe some houses', 'a picture of Leigh', 'general scenery', 'possibly a shot of Leigh to contrast the shot of London on the newspaper advert' and 'I think you should include an image of houses, as this is what your documentary is about!'.  

Production: Feedback Questionaire

Here is a questionnaire I wrote out and will be sending to my focus group and members within my target audience. I hope to receive a large amount of responses so I can gain many different opinions on my product depending on the audiences cultural competencies and from different points of view. In this questionnaire, I have included questions for both my documentary and my ancillary products with questions on what looks effective, what can be improved and whether they adhere to codes and conventions and target the audience effectively.

Production: Documentary Advert

Here I have uploaded my advert for my media documentary. I have finalised the different aspects needed and have sent this image to my focus group in the process. I have included this image and questions about the advert in my questionnaire so once I gain the last bit of feedback I may need to tweak certain aspects and then I will be able to upload it as the finished advert.

Editing: Documentary Advert

Here are the stages in which i edited my documentary advert on InDesign by adding the typography, logo, and making sure the advert has a strong brand identity and looks aesthetically pleasing.

Production: Second draft

Here is my second draft of my documentary, there are still changes I am planning on making but I also send this to my target audience and gained feedback below which I will make amendments on their responses before finishing the documentary.

Documentary 2 from Katie Pearl on Vimeo.

Re-film the shot with the presenter, Cassie, introducing the documentary as you can hear a car driving past.

Make the introduction look busier to reflect the words of the voiceover.

Change the font of the statistics so the documentary has continuity.

Re arrange the cutaways in the interview with the coffee shop owner in Leigh.

Add a Channel 4 introduction

Production: Advert Image Feedback

I asked members in my focus group which image they believe I should use for my documentary advert out of the possible images in my previous post and below are their responses. As a result of this and due to my own beliefs from research into Channel 4, documentaries, targeting my audience and adhering to codes and conventions, I am going to use image number 4.

Planning: Ancillary Product Font

As my documentary will appear on Channel 4 I wanted to ensure I used the font on my documentary advert which they use to keep in line with their brand identity and continuity. From researching online I learnt the font used for Channel 4 headlines was named 'Horseferry' and descriptions had 'Chadwick' for their font. I was then able to download this font onto the iMac and use it in InDesign for my own advert.

 

Production: Advert images

Below are the possible images I can use as my documentary advert out of all the images taken. These were taken on a Canon 10D camera and are specifically of iconic London sights to be recognisable and aesthetically pleasing. I will ask my focus group for feedback on which one is appropriate to use.

 

 

Generic Research: Channel 4

I have conducted some background research into Channel 4 to ensure my choice to broadcast it on this channel appropriate and in line with their values.

Channel 4 is a publicly owned station, operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. Channel 4 has sister channels which are E4, 4seven, More 4 and Film 4 and they also have sister music channels (4Music, The Box, Kiss, Magic and Kerrang!).
Channel 4 first began broadcasting reality shows and sporting events for mass appeal to increase revenues and ratings. However this changed to broadcast educationally natured programmes and appeal to the culturally diverse society in 2003.
The Communications Act 2003 states that:

"The public service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular:

• demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes;
• appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society;
• makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value; and
• exhibits a distinctive character.’

Planning: Advert Flatplan

Below is an image on a flatplan I drew for the advert of my documentary. This enables me to have a clear understanding when taking the images and how I want it to look. I took a while drawing this image as I needed to make sure it adheres to codes and conventions of both documentary adverts and a Channel 4 product for continuity and identity.

Planning: Advert checklist

I have made a checklist below of the codes and conventions used in Channel 4’s own adverts so I can apply this to mine and adhere to the brand identity for continuity.

Advert checklist from KatiePearl1

Production: Questionnaire Feedback

Here is the feedback from the questionnaire I previously sent out, the responses are in graph form to easily see the feedback.

100% of the responses on the first question replied saying yes to whether the pace of editing fit well with the documentary genre. This is one of the most important questions as the pace of editing is key to whether a documentary is engaging for audiences, I am happy that all of the responses believe that the pace of editing was good enough.

The next question was feedback on the appropriate target audience for my documentary. The feedback was an equal split between two age bounds. 50% stated they believed that my documentary was aimed at 21-30 year olds whilst 50% stated they believe the documentary is aimed at 31-40 year olds. I will take this into account and slightly change the age bounds to correctly target an appropriate audience.

When I asked whether my documentary adheres to the codes and conventions, 87.5% responsed with yes and 12.5% responsed with 'I don't know'. This equated to one person who later told me they wrote 'I don't know' as they did not have any knowledge on this aspect of media but thought it looked professional. This was completely understandable and helpful so I am pleased with these answers.

These last three questions were about my documentary. These were whether 'London to Leigh' is an effective name; if they believe my documentary has a strong brand identity and whether my documentary has a clear message. These three questions were important for me to make sure my documentary is effective and going in the right direction. 100% voted yes for all these three questions and these aspects are so vital to the documentary, I don't need to change any of them and am happy for the feedback.

Generic Research: Channel 4 advert analysis

I have analysed three Channel 4 adverts below, identifying the codes and conventions used and what makes them effective. This is helpful so I can apply the conventions identified to my own production of my advert.

Audience Research: Feedback Questionnaire

Below is a questionnaire I have made to gather information on my final documentary product. I will send this to my focus group and target audience and use the responses to improve my product if needed.

Generic Research: Media Theory Booklets

To help relate theory to our media productions, in class we studied the media industry which has also broadened our knowledge and been useful to apply to my documentary. In class we read through two booklets ‘Critical Perspectives: writing about production’ and ‘Media in the Online Age’.

I was able to relate theory to my documentary by understanding that a micro example in my documentary is the use of statistics which appear over cutaways such as ‘15% increase in asking prices’. This relates to the macro reflective theme by revealing the information of the investigation.

Furthermore, my documentary conforms to the codes and conventions of an expository documentary by having the us of a narrator, using voiceovers and is educational, with the purpose to show the audience what is going on on the screen. However my documentary also challenges these codes and conventions by using an average girl presenting the documentary rather than a professionally confident white male. This adheres to Steve Neale’s theory of repetition and difference. Neale declared ‘genres are instances of repetition and difference’ and states the ‘difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre’ as repetition on its own wouldn’t attract an audience. The uses and gratifications of genre (by Blumler and Katz) include; the pleasure of recognition of features of a particular genre and familiarity; may offer emotional pleasures such as empathy and escapism; audiences may also like genre from sharing our experiences with others which can lead to fandom. Furthermore, audiences may also enjoy the growth of genres expanding in new directions and the consequent shifting of our expectations.

Editing: Choosing a title

I created two possible ways of presenting the title of my documentary (shown below). I had personal preferences of which I believed was more effective, fitting the target audience and conventions of documentaries. However I asked my target audience to understand what they thought and hence decided on the second option.

Editing: Creating a title

An idea I had for the title was to have the words cut out of the image of Tower Bridge which is an iconic landmark in London and establishes the mise en scene. To do this I developed the ability by watching a Youtube video on how to cut words out of image and I edited this on Photoshop. This effect looks interesting and uses different skills which I previously didn't have.