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.

A2 Media Studies | Documentary Planning: Storyboard

In order to further progress the script for the documentary, me and Tom alongside have also considered ideas for the storyboard of the documentary. This is where the location recce comes into place because we have taken photos of possible locations for filming the documentary at. I have decided to use Adobe Fireworks to illustrate shots that me and Tom have discussed about and as illustrated below, here are the shots we've considered so far, with some updates to follow once more shots have been discussed.

The soundtrack me and Tom have used for the mock documentary (and potentially for the actual documentary) was made by Olexandr Ignatov which is called 'Inspirational Piano' and below each of the shots are the editing, camera techniques and the duration of each shot.

The first shot to be considered for the documentary

Editing: Straight cut

Camera technique: Zoom

Duration: 4 seconds

The second shot to be considered for the documentary and why it should be used

Editing: Straight cut

Camera technique: Panning movement

Duration: 10 seconds but sped up in iMovie

Third shot for the documentary, again a considered shot and why it would be useful

Editing: Straight cut

Camera technique: Pan

Duration: 20 seconds

Interview with a teacher will also be included.

Fourth shot for the documentary to be considered

Editing: Straight cut

Camera technique: Pan

Duration: 5 seconds

Fifth shot for the documentary

Editing: Straight cut

Camera technique: Tilt 

Duration: 15 seconds

Including an interview with a student.

Sixth shot for the documentary as well as why it would be useful

Editing: Straight cut

Camera technique: Pan

Duration: 5 seconds

A2 Media Studies | Documentary Planning: Script

Whilst going through the planning phase of the documentary task, me and Tom are currently considering what the narrator, teachers and students might have to say in the documentary to show a vibrant working environment. The only thing which is holding both of us back from doing a full script is the lack of a storyboard, which will have to be thoroughly planned out and drawn. Once the storyboard is finished we will start the full script and for now an in depth into any considerations regarding the documentary script will be added here and will be updated once the full script is made.

Script - 1st draft

Teachers

• "This school is a very vibrant place where we expect our students to excel in their studies."
• "We as a school have been rated as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted."
• "We also have high pass rates in the subjects we offer as in previous years, most of our students have passed their subjects. There's been a 69% pass rate with our year 11 students on their GCSEs and a 98% pass rate with our Year 13 A-Level students."
• "We believe that our students are very enthusiastic with coming to school and working through their subjects."
• "We try to make our lessons as interesting as possible to ensure that students are enthusiastic about their studies and are progressing with their GCSEs for their benefit in the future."

Students

• "The teachers at this school are doing their best to ensure that we get the best education in the subjects we do."
• "The school's environment is very welcoming to us students throughout the entire building. All teachers and all students are nice and the school is always kept clean on a regular basis."
• "This school is very unique from other schools because the school has a good bond with local businesses such as Southampton Airport so that we get state of the art equipment which other schools may not be able to afford which is an enhancement on our education."
• "The school hosts several rewarding events such as the 'big picnic' which is set in the sports field, assemblies which celebrate the success of students and trips to rewarding places for students such as theme parks and entertainment facilities."

Narrator

• "We'll be taking you around one of Britain's schools based in Southampton."
• "We want to show what school life is like for teachers, students and other staff which work in the building."
• "This is Bitterne Park School, a school which has maintained itself as a great representation of a secondary school in the United Kingdom."
• "The headteacher of the school is Susan Trigger who has been in control of the school for over 20 years and has kept improving the school."
• "In this school there are over 1,500 students who are currently working towards their GCSE grades, all within 5 different year groups ranging from years 7 to 11."

Alongside all of these script elements that me and Tom have considered regarding the documentary, we should also note that interviews with people won't be scripted as we want people to spontaneously say how they feel about the school and what it offers to them and that it's conventional for this to be portrayed in documentaries which highlight school, as a result of this the viewer will feel like they know the truth about people's experience at the school and are getting the actual truth from the real people in the documentary.