In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Magazine Double page spread.

By Sam Clark

Nearly half the page is taken up by the dominating image, which relates strongly to our topic, this is done to create a huge visual impact. This also alsobacked up by surrounding image to add to the effect.

Again, the rest of the page is filled with the main article, included sections of the interview from the documentary. The article begins with the first letter of a different colour and larger font, this is to indent the first paragraph and allow the reader to know where it starts.

The main reason for the use of a lot of images is not only to create a visual impact, but also to provide an insight as to what the documentary will involve, this is used on real life TV listing magazine.

We have also included the programme information to add to the realistic effect.

The interview and article are created in a simple column format to allow the readers to navigate the page easily, rather than causing confusion, we believe this is an important element for a successful magazine.

We believe that we have created a double page spread that symbolises one from real TV listing magazines. We have done this by including real features as used in official magazine, for example, pull quotes, dominating images, straplines, programme information etc.

Main image dominates half of the double paged spread, as does our magazine. I feel this puts across a good first impression for the reader and this was the reason for our group implementing this technique into our double page spread.

As done in our magazine double page spread, the main article takes up the other half of the page, this allows the reader to have enough information to read, without giving away to much information about the programme.

Programme information located in the top corner of the page, not taking up to much room but providing vital information.

Smaller, surrounding images used, not only to provide a visual impact but to give the readers an insight into the programme itself. We used this technique in our magazine double page spread.

Another similar technique used in this magazine which we used, was using a larger font and text for the first letter of the article in order to alert the readers as to where the actual article begins.

After looking and analysing this real life double page spread, I feel that we used a lot of the techniques in order to enhance our magazine. This allowed us to really emulated a real life TV listings magazine.

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

Radio Trailer

Purpose of a radio trailer

• The main purpose of a radio trailer is to provide an insight to the listener of what a future programme will be about and give key information about this, in our case, a documentary. It gives the listener information such as, the channel the documentary/programme will be shown and what times. It also uses cuts form the actual documentary itself, for example important quotes which will attract the listener to watch the documentary, yet without giving away to much information. The average radio trailer will last around 40-45 seconds, this is a sufficient amount of time to include all the elements you wish, and enough time before the listener gets bored. Examples of radio stations where these trailers may get shown are ; Radio 1, Capital, Smooth radio etc.

Our Radio Trailer

• One of the key elements included in our radio trailer was the backing track. This is a key element as it sets the tone for the trailer, after trying out several sounds, we found the right one, this was created through garageband, and allowed us to have a soft, mellow backing track for the voice over to run along side. After reviewing other real life radio trailers, we found that the sound levels are very low, this is to enable the voice over to be heard clearly and not overpower it. It is vital that the right selection of music is made, as it would be un-realistic to have loud rockmusic as a backing track over a trailer that is based around fitness and health.

Our Radio Trailer

• Another key element of our radio trailer was to have a consistent voiceover which matched the one off the actual documentary. This is to give the professional and realistic approach. Also, having a consistent voice over allows the information to be passed along correctly without any mistakes. This is why we recorded each of the narration section at separate stages. This allowed us to limit the amount of mistakes made, and the narrator running out of breath. To record the narration we simply used a camera, microphone and an apple mac to transfer the file onto garage band.

Our Radio Trailer

• A third key element which was used in our radio trailer, was audio clips taken from the documentary. We did this to give the listeners an insight into the documentary itself and what might be involved. We also feel that the clips we used did not give away to much, yet gave the right information and still made it enjoyable for the listeners. We mainly used short clips from the vox pops and also some of the interviews with the personal trainers. This is a common technique used amongst nearly all radio trailers we have researched into. Once again, the software used to create this, was garageband, as it is a simple and easy to use tool to create an effective radio trailer.

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

Documentary

Our Documentary• Before starting our documentary, as a group we decided that we really

wanted to emulate the real life product and make it as realistic as possible. We sat down in a group and discussed this whilst be recorded by a camera (for evaluation purposes). During the discussion we spoke about things such as what the documentary shall be about, and how we can use real codes and conventions to make it as good as possible. Some of the codes and conventions we used was interviews for example, and shots of where the interviews where taken. This allowed the documentary to be as professional as possible. Whilst conducting research, I decided to watch real life existing fitness documentaries to give us an idea of what to include in our documentary, this helped us in gaining an idea of how to obtain a professional approach.

Our Documentary-Use of text

• After conducting research on real life documentary’s we gathered that it is a key convention to use text throughout. We used this mainly when we used the clips of the interviews, this adds to the realism of the documentary whilst keeping that professional approach. Below is an example of text used in a real life documentary. In our documentary we used this to introduce our two interviewees. This allows the viewer to know who the person is, and what there profession is, in our case, two gym instructors.

Our Documentary- Camera shots used

• Throughout the documentary, we used many different varieties of shots to keep the documentary professional and also interesting for the viewers, below are a list of the different shots used:Mid ShotPanning ShotZoomBlur ShotStill ShotsEstablishing Shots

We feel as though using shots such as the establishing shot for example, gives the viewer information as to where the documentary is being filmed and also gives them a break from all of the information and dialogue given.

Our Documentary-Images used

• After researching into the real life documentaries, as a group we though it would be essential to include a variety of different images, not only does it give the viewer a break from constant filming and dialogue but it gives them a different look upon the documentary topic. Also, as the saying goes, a picture says 1000 words, therefore using an image of an obese person eating a McDonalds for example, the message could be put across to the viewer faster and a lot clearer. Below are examples of images used within real life documentaries. To obtain images for the documentary, we simply used a still shot by using a camera and also a tripod.

Here is an example from the supersize me documentary, displaying a map and figures about obesity trends, this picture shall put across a clear message to the viewer.