HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?EVALUATION, QUESTION 2

A2 MEDIA STUDIES

MARCUS STANLEY

INTRODUCTION

The main product of my work is an opening 5 minutes of a documentary titled "The Pros and Cons of Technology in Sport". We delved into the hot topic of the uses (or lack) of technology integrated into the UK's main sports; including football, cricket and rugby.

Along side this, we created two pieces of ancillary text to promote our documentary. One of which was a magazine double page spread in which includes an article which described what the documentary entails and why people should watch it. The other ancillary text is a radio trailer we produced that again aims to persuade people to view our documentary.

I believe that the combination of my documentary , my radio trailer and magazine double page spread is very effective. I have combined all three media productions through the use of various features that appear in each of the ancillary texts and the main product to create a sufficient brand image .

EFFECTIVE COMBINATION THROUGH ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE

Archival (or stock) footage is film or video footage that can be used in other films. This is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material and arguably demonstrates narration more efficiently .

There are various visual links that combine my documentary and magazine. I have used screen shots from various scenes in our documentary and placed them on our magazine piece to almost tease any potential viewers to see what content our film includes.

One example of this is the infamous 'non-goal' at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa in which England's Frank Lampard's amazing long-range effort crossed the line and was not awarded a goal by the match officials, leading to the argument that goal-line technology should be introduced into football.

An audio version of this clip is featured in the radio trailer too. This features the commentary of the video clip in the documentary, to which the commentator enthusiastically asks: "Did it go in?" and "Over the line or not?...." as he waits for a replay of the shot to show if the goal should have or should not have been awarded .

This combination continues again in the magazine double page spread. The intriguing question from the football commentator: "Over the line or not?" was also integrated into our magazine article as the title; as we felt that it was a suitable and sufficient name that would persuade potential viewers to watch our film. This is because anyone who is aware of the incident at the 2010 FIFA World Cup would have recognised that this headline (and therefore article and documentary) is relevant to technology in sport.

EFFECTIVE COMBINATION THROUGH VOXPOP

Vox pop footage is basically footage of popular opinion as represented by informal comments from members of the public, especially when broadcast or published.

Audio files of the vox pop footage we filmed and included in the documentary also feature in the radio trailer we produced. We linked this convention of real media products to suggest a familiar feel for the audience and to create obvious association between the radio trailer and the documentary.

Again, our effective combination between our media products continue into the magazine double page spread. The article we produced includes how we involved the public's opinion on the subject of technology in sport. We continued this link through our ancillary texts to promote our documentary sufficiently as we specifically stated what the documentary includes in terms of features.

EFFECTIVE COMBINATION THROUGH VOICE OVER

Voice over is a piece of narration in a film or broadcast, not accompanied by an image of the speaker.

Our narrator also featured on screen in the intro and during an expert interview.

The voice over we used featured the narration of a member of our group. This voiceover continued throughout the documentary, and we also used the same narrator in our radio trailer to create sufficient combinations and links between our media products. This also creates familiarity for our audience who would feel more comfortable watching our documentary knowing that the narrator participated in both media products.

EFFECTIVE COMBINATION THROUGH BACKGROUND MUSIC

The track we used in the documentary to play behind all of our content is called 'Huma Huma' by Crimson Fly. We discovered this track on YouTube and is free of copyright infringements.

We also used the same track in our radio trailer to feature behind our various soundbites from the documentary itself. This again creates familiarity for the audience.

EFFECTIVE COMBINATION THROUGH TV CHANNEL

We decided to air our documentary on BBC One. This is clearly stated in the radio trailer: "...Tonight at 8pm...on BBC One".

We also decided to place the BBC Sport logo into our magazine to link with our radio trailer. This combination also includes a website link to BBC Sport, as well as the relavent twitter account and hashtag.

EFFECTIVE COMBINATION THROUGH VISUALS

The background image of our magazine article is of a football pitch with a goal-line. This again evokes links with our documentary as it is of a sporting topic as well has directly combining our footage of Lampard's "non-goal" in our documentary.

We purposely included this combination to create brand identity as our media products match visually, making it obvious for our audience as we felt it would create authenticity and familiarity.

EFFECTIVE COMBINATION THROUGH QUOTATION

A quote from our documentary has been used in our magazine, creating another efficient combination between my media products.

In one of our expert interviews, Media teacher; Nick Waring, asks the question that "is it fair that Premier League clubs get this technology and the lower divisions won't?" We have used this quote in our magazine article as well to engage the reader, making them to want to watch our documentary after reading about it in the magazine article.

We also included this soundbite into our radio trailer for the same reasons and hoping for the same effect on the listener.

CONCLUSION

Throughout this process we intentionally included various links to intertwine through our various media productions. Documentary conventions such as vox pops and archival footage has been inserted into our magazine double page spread as image files to demonstrate to our audience the features and facts that our film offers. Quotes from experts that were included in our documentary as interviews also feature in our ancillary texts too to create a familiarity for our audience, allowing for comfortable viewing of our documentary as our features are recognisable. Other conventions include background music that features both in our radio trailer and documentary, as well as our voice-over being consistent in our radio trailer and documentary as the same narrator was used for both. To conclude, our media productions all have sufficient links between one-another to create efficient and effective combinations, allowing for a realistic and authentic brand image .