A2 Media Studies | Ancillary Task: Concepts

Whilst me and Tom are making the documentary, we are also developing on our ancillary tasks and as followed, these are the tasks that each of us are covering:

• Newspaper advert - Steven
• Magazine double page spread - Tom

So here's the first concept of the ancillary task that I'm making, it's meant to be similar to a Channel 4 advert which I have shown in previous posts and with this I'm aiming to reach the same professional level as Channel 4 with the advert. Alongside this, I will also be helping Tom with the ancillary task that he has to do to ensure that it looks professional.

First concept of the ancillary task that I'm making

There's another concept of the ancillary task that I'm making which is shown below, it's meant to act as a small sell line for people which would become the USP (Unique Selling Point) for people watching the documentary meaning that it would be one of the main areas that would sell to them, persuading them to watch the documentary.

Second concept of the ancillary task that I'm making

I created this using Adobe Photoshop CS5 and I'm currently progressing with my skills on the software, I took this using a camera which is good at taking pictures though however not decent, which I will soon book out and use to take a better quality picture. My intentions after the ancillary task is finished will be to finish filming and editing the documentary so it's ready to be viewed by our tribe wired audience.

Summary

Summarising this development of the ancillary task, I've learnt the basics with Adobe Photoshop and I've learned how to replicate a professional newspaper advert which will act as a promotion to the documentary that me and Tom are making.

(26/02/2016) - Updated Ancillary Task Concepts

Showing more development of the ancillary task that I'm doing, below is how the ancillary task looks at the moment and some reasoning to the change of logo can be found on my fictional channel logo post where I've updated the post to include two logo concepts that I've used on the ancillary task and the documentary.

3rd/4th concept of the magazine advert for the documentary titled 'Inside Britain's Schools'

Alongside this, there was also a draft of this ancillary task which didn't make it because the logo was very different in terms of its colour and below is technically the 3rd concept of the ancillary task before the one above though however I didn't go forward with it because of the use of colours that didn't make it look professional and quite odd.

3rd concept of the ancillary task which never went ahead due to the use of the logo which wasn't professional to an extent

A2 Media Studies | Documentary Planning: Representation

Some further planning of the documentary that me and Tom are going to make consists of how the people proposed to be in the documentary are represented. In the documentary, starting with the teacher, the teacher is represented as a middle classed man working in a constantly active working environment who has a passion for GCSE and A-Level English as illustrated below:

English teacher Mr Preston: The main character of the documentary

He's represented as the main character of the documentary because our plans for the documentary include interviewing the teacher throughout the documentary whilst viewers get to see the school and how the teacher goes about with teaching students during his lessons. As for the students, they're represented quite equally as illustrated below. There's some clear gender equality in the pictures and they're represented positively as they're smartly presented with the uniform that they're given and they pose no real threat to the documentary putting the school in a positive light.

A2 Media Studies | Documentary Planning: Filming Schedule

After completing a lot of the planning needed for the media text (documentary) that me and Tom are going to make, we have finally arranged and agreed to start filming the documentary on the 14th of January 2016. To begin with, me and Tom will start filming the other shots that we need as well as extra shots if we have time to though however the shots that we'll be filming on this day will mainly be outside because there's permission requirements for filming in the main school's corridors and as displayed below, here's the times that me and Tom have planned for filming currently:

Thursday 14th January 2016: First filming shoot (1:05PM to 2:55PM)

Summary and next steps

From this me and Tom know that we'll be filming on the 14th of January capturing the outside areas of the main school and we'll be using the storyboards that we made to film the shots. We will also shortly upload pictures of the equipment that we'll be using for the filming which will showcase what me and Tom have on us for the filming phase of the documentary.

In terms of next steps me and Tom will consider what other dates that we can both film on and what shots we'll be using and along with this we'll also make an attempt to get permission to film inside the main school must the teachers be okay with it.

A2 Media Studies | Documentary: Fictional Channel Logo

Around the time before the prelim video was a concept of thought, me and Tom had made and introduced a fictional channel logo which was titled '8V' (as pictured below) which was meant to match the conventions of Channel 4's logo with its use of black and white colours and a number to illustrate the name of the channel.

Fictional channel '8V' - Logo

During the planning of the documentary, me and Tom thought it would be a good idea to make a survey using SurveyMonkey to get some feedback regarding the logo.

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3HSRVJ3

Summary

In this post, the point was that me and Tom wanted to get some feedback regarding the channel logo which we made and the feedback provided from the survey when it's given will benefit me and Tom so we can make some amendments to the logo to ensure a similar professional level as Channel 4's logo.

(26/02/2016) - Fictional Logo Feedback + Logo Changes

As an update to the fictional channel logo that me and Tom created for the documentary, we received feedback from two people who both thought that the channel logo looked good enough to be featured in a documentary and matches the conventions of a normal TV channel logo and also looked like it's based on the Channel 4 logo. However, I have made an update to the '8V' logo which originally was for my ancillary task, me and Tom decided to use it for the actual documentary which will be shown at the corner of the screen like Channel 4 does with their logo on the documentaries that they make and illustrated below are two concepts of the logo. One is for use in the ancillary task and throughout the documentary whilst the other illustration is used for the ending of the documentary as it's now nearing the final phase of editing.

8V logo (5th version - Outtakes included a different font on the '8V' with a blue background)

8V logo (6th version - Used on the end of the documentary, previous logo used on the ancillary task as mentioned)

I added a black background to each of the logos to ensure that it's easier to see any spacing in the logo and the fonts specifically and the background is normally made transparent and added to the documentary and the ancillary task. The outtake logo which I mentioned before is illustrated below but did not make it onto the ancillary task or the documentary because viewers said that the logo was unattractive, gaining an almost oppositional/aberrant (Umberto Eco's theory in 1972 which was the 4th audience reading of Stuart Hall's audience positioning theory, meaning a confused response) reading in terms of the presentation of the logo.

8V logo (4th version) which wasn't used on the documentary or the ancillary task due to an oppositional/aberrant reading, another version of this included the font being enlarged which was made smaller due to not fitting into the video when editing the documentary.

Summary (26/02/2016)

I think from this I learned what didn't make a professional or fitting logo to the documentary and what did make a professional and fitting logo to the documentary which viewers would approve of and I also learned that as well as the first concept of the logo being good in a way according to feedback from the tribe-wired audience, the other editions of the '8V' logo look more professional and presenting towards the viewer and doesn't end up confusing them or annoying them which the outtake logo unfortunately did cause to a viewer who saw the editing process of the documentary.

A2 Media Studies | Ancillary Task: Proposal

After a long time of planning, me and Tom are at the stage where we're ready to begin our ancillary tasks. We've both agreed that Tom will be making a double page spread and I will be making a magazine advert for the documentary which we'll also be making soon into the new year.

In order to begin the ancillary tasks, me and Tom have decided to book a camera which has better quality pictures than the camera which we both used to take pictures of locations during the location recce and we'll be booking it on Tuesday 12th of January during the time period of 2:05 to 2:55. As illustrated below, these are the pictures that me and Tom intend on re-visiting with a better camera in use for the ancillary tasks:

Entrance of Bitterne Park Secondary School - To be used on the magazine advert

Teacher's office - To be used on the double page spread

For the double page spread, me and Tom were also considering on using three more images though however they're still yet to be confirmed and put in use for the double page spread. The pictures aren't too great with quality which is why both of us have decided on booking the camera for a better quality photo.