Evaluation
1.) In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Due to our project being a documentary about the fire service, the conventions of continuity because of them having a uni-form this made it easier for us to keep a track of what they were wearing as this never changed. We kept to the 180 degree rule
as this is a requirement within our portfolio, we could have made improvements to the shot size as when were editing some of framing wasn’t as good as what it could have been. As we have done a documentary, it seemed unnecessary to challenge any of the conventions as this would have been inappropriate to the aim, which we were addressing. I think that within the documentary it outlines typical stereotypes, due to this mainly featuring the male this distinguishes what type of occupation the job is mainly aimed at. Due to entailing a lot of heavy equipment and patience being a skill as well as endurance, the documentary labels the job in which gender it is aimed at.
The use of graphic convention, which we have used within to try and create pleasure for the audience, is providing them with education. This is presented the detail within the documentary about how they use equipment on the engine, how this has been improved to make their job easier and more beneficial to get casualties out of danger. We have also done this by include information about their job and what it entails, how shifts pattern affect their daily routines. We have also provided audience pleasure through the using a personal identity so people within the same occupation or who are looking to go into it can relate to the issue presented. I also think that this become beneficial to any view in the concept of there being bad press about t
he fire service when we filmed this so therefore we tried to look at a different aspect of
this so that there wasn’t as much negativity about the fire service. I feel that I have looked at this in the poster that I created (image of poster) as this addresses and important issue about the what the service gets abused for. We have also used socialization within the documentary due to this being aimed at an older audience people would find this easy to interact with due to the having something in common with the characters, especially those with the same occupation. The main reason in which we have provided audience pleasure is to entertain views; this has been achieved by using action shots of the daily training which happens within the service I feel that we have achieved to provide our audience pleasure because it uses an informal approach to address issues, which it easier for the audience to relate to. When I analysed a documentary it was difficult to find something of a similar genre so, i looked at the conventions of Jamie's dream school, this was useful to use because of the shot types it used and the issues it deals with, another reason why I decided to used this documentary was because it appeared on channel four which the channel which we wanted to put are documentary onto. (link below) http://youtu.be/vi70A_AHesY
2.) How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
In our main production, we want to create a detailed understanding towards our target audience which is to show them how dangerous working in the fire service is. As there was a lot of bad press about the fire service before we started filming our production there was a lot of negativity towards the service due to serious incidents that happened while they were striking. However, if this were to be shown on channel four as a programme this would therefore it would have raised awareness as to why the fire service had a strike. As the role consists of high risk duties which can be dangerous, the job needs a lot of consistent training to make sure the troops are prepared for any incident. I feel that this was reflected in the poster because of the image I have used, due to language being used on the back of the engine this gives of this achieves what we were trying to portray. The use of the lexis, ‘stop arson around’ is used as a pun for the fact of them receiving prank calls which affects their training, due to them having to put up with disruptions to their training such as this issue it creates that realisation of what they actually do for the community.
I think that the poster is an effective selling point because of the use of the pun being able to create the awareness of potential viewers, also by highlighting this puts emphasise on it so that the audience it automatically draw to that before they read or look at the rest of the poster. The radio trailer is also a creative and effect selling point because by combining different sound together with use of the voices of the troops this helps to selling the production by making engaging listening to become excited and
begin to empathise with the fire-fighters. We have done this deliberate by using, specific fire fighters such as Nigel as he talks about his first experience of death, by using this it helps to the listeners to automatic empathise because of them being in shock (image of Nigel while he is talking about the incident).
In comparison to real advertising products the doctor who trailer for series 5, they have also used a collaboration of sounds. This works effectively because it automatically engages the listeners by using extracts which will be included in the episode. This helps keep them entertained because they have used a suspension of your thoughts to get you into the story to make you want to watch this. This shows evidence to Richard Dyers theory of entertainment. The use of different sounds also works because of it intensity, making the listeners think they are in the situation of the story that makes them empathise with the characters. We have used to similar convention to create the same impact, this is because of our production being a documentary it is hard to keep the audience interested throughout without using the typical aspects of what a documentary should entail. However what we haven’t used in our trailer is music, the doctor who trailer uses music to further emphasise the topic of the programme this is so that the listeners have more intensity due to the pitch of the music being low which creates a daunting effect. This would have been inappropriate for our production because of people not being able to listen to voices and the sounds of the equipment. This wouldn’t have been necessary as it would have taken the impact away from what we are trying to achieve through our production this is also because of ours being a documentary which includes factual information. http://http//youtu.be/KjcRilsjWcc
The poster that I have looked at for real films have all been similar. By using similar text, it makes it accessible to that people will read. The majority of them all have their own slogan and a logo, which is what we have used to make it ‘catchy’ to attract potential distribution. This poster has also used pun to emphasise what the film it about use of the adjectives ‘uproarious’ and ‘explosively’ are humour towards child birth. Our poster however, uses humour to create a more serious tone.
What did you learn from your audience feedback?
When we had finished the rough cut of our production, we asked typical viewers to watch are film and suggest some improvements. This was a very helpful process for our film because we were able to make changes so that it was right for our target audience. However during the process of receiving our audience feedback we had a problem with the tape which we were recording on, it resolve this we gave it a different approach by using social networking skills. I did this by sending out the five questions we used for the original audience feedback film via email to family and friends. We received some very detailed feedback by family members, which helped to improve our project.
If I were to do something like this again then I would have used a filming approach to receive
feedback from viewers because we received more accurate information, even though the tape got damaged we were still able to benefit from it as we had played it back on the camera after we had finished fil
ming. During filming and editing, we ensured the meaning of our production was apparent to the audience because of the content we involved. We were aiming our film at a working class audience so therefore we needed to include working class people. Throughout the documentary it consists of action sequences to show what the fire fighters job involves, this was an important feature, which had to be continued through of the production.
The responds to the film differed from different people, this was valuable to our production because we were able to make changes that were adequate to the comments we received. People wanted to access information given to them consistently, when we took view’s from the audience feedback in
the rough cut they said that, ‘I don't think it flowed very well when moving between sections (times: 4:30 - 4:34) the person doesn't stop talking before moves onto next section and Nigel starts talking again.’ (quote from audience feedback) This will affect the overall marks of our project because during editing we found this difficult to keep consistent.
During planning we intended the structure to flow from one section to another however, we had recorded at lot of action while we were filming which was not in our original plan. We did not realise that we would able to feature so much action in our film, due to what they would allow us to film while we were there.
Overall, I think that the film it cultural band, from the feedback which we received it showed that it was accessible to a Barnsley audience. Due to what they said about our film, ‘I really liked the action shots especially showing them how they would cut people out of the car, I think the showing the training they receive is really interesting and enlighten!’ (quote from audience feedback)
4.) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Before filming our documentary, we did research into the work and roles of fire fighters to help us get an overview of what our documentary would include. This was done using the fire service website to find out about their working roles which enabled us to develop our ideas further so that we would have an interesting documentary to keep viewers interested. We used internet resources to process our work so teaching staff for further support can access it. This was our only resource so I feel this could be prevention in case anything got lost.
http://www.southyourkshirefireservice.com/
The fire service website has been a useful resource for our group as it gave us details on how to get in touch with the fire service to film our documentary. The website is regularly updated so changes to the service could be accessed easily.
The internet has allowed us to develop further research into the creativity of our work, one of the tasks involved was to analyse a documentary, which was similar to our project by accessing YouTube and the Channel 4 website. We have been able to use this as a style model to get a basis of what type of shots we needed to include in our documentary. By using a blog, we have been able to include all of the contributions to what we have made for our documentary. Such as treatments, scripts etc which has been formatted with an appropriate layout to suit our documentary. Using a coloured background and including images onto our blog page has allowed us to be creative, as we have made it suitable to address the positive impact we wanted to create. Issues which were on the news about the fire service at the time were negative towards the fire service; one of our aims for creating the documentary about the fire service was to change the negative press.
Cameras helped with the creativity of our work and having access to the use of two cameras 
we were able to take location shots with the small Sony camera and file with the HDV tape camera. The small Sony camera we used on location as it was easy to use and carry, we decided to use a camera recording device as the photographs were clearer. We also used these cameras for filming our audience feed back, this was a useful exercise to use as it gave us feedback from a variety of people on how to improve the project, (images of location shots and shots from the documentary).
Through using the Sony HDV camera it has made out shots look more effective due to the camera being able to establish more of the setting. We experienced problems with the camera due to settings being difficult to understand, this was solved within a few minutes of looking at the setting list on the menu in the camera. Through using a Sony HDV camera it has made the shooting process easier as the camera shots were clear, also due to us being able to use the handle on the camera this made us able to pan with the camera and change camera angles.
The software we used for editing created useful effects for our film, we were able to link sequences together by using different shots and add different transitions such as, a cross fade to make our editing look more continuous. By using a zoom recorder, 
we were able to record our voice over to upload onto final cut pro, which made our documentary more accessible to its target audience. Zoom recorders have also been used to make our radio trailer as it records sound levels which we edited together on garage band. If I were ever to use this programme, again I would research further into the programme as I found it difficult to use at first. More knowledge would have made editing better and allowed me to be more creative.
Working in a group has probably restricted my creativity because we have shared the tasks and I feel I could have added more to some of the tasks making them more informative and accessible. However, working in a group has made the tasks easier and we have all been able to input into each other’s contributions to make improvements. This year I feel that I have achieved more within the group because we have been able to work together productively.
