Monday, 22 March 2010

Audience Feedback

After I completed the main task and the ancillary texts, I targeted my audience for feedback. I simply asked the actors and actresses who featured in the media product and other people of the same age. This is the response they had on my media product:

- the part with the three girls in the park laughing is effective as it looks natural
- the music seems relevant to the piece and the tone
- looks professional
- looks like a TV programme
- the music sounds like a real tv show.
- I like the beginning and end shot where the characters come towards the screen as it gives it a unique style
- the font is good because it looks like it belongs to a children's TV drama genre
- I thought the timing overall was effective as you were able to read everything and the bold made it stand out against the images
- font style suits the pace of the music and characters
- some shots look more natural than others and the natural shots attract the attention the most
- the bold colouring accentuates the emotions within the character, emphasizing that it's a energetic and enthuastic programme
- the 'flashy' editing, shapes and colours make the piece stand out
- there were differences of opinion on the font choice - older ages of the target audience did not like it, in contrast to the younger ages of the target audience

The audience feedback that I gathered from the target audience was significant in underlining the improvements that could have been to, in particular, the main text. While the feedback was mostly positive, there was also a mixture of negative comments and suggestions on what could have been improved to make the final product more effective. The majority of people asked liked the ‘natural’ shots as they were said to increase the verisimilitude by making the audience believe that the gang were a genuine group of friends, and this helped the audience form a connection with the characters as individuals and as a gang. The shot that was said to have been most natural was the mid shot of the girls laughing and therefore, to improve my product, I could have used more natural shots to reinforce the relationship of the gang as a whole, and the relationships within the gang. Moreover, the younger ages of the target audience (8-12 year olds) stated that they liked the font choice as it connected with the genre, whereas the older ages of the target audience (13-16 years old) didn’t like the text as much, and this shows the differences between the ages of the audience and that more consideration should have been taken into meeting the needs of the viewer.

Final Main Task

Friday, 19 February 2010

Ancillary Tasks

Having made some sketches of ideas for a DVD cover and a magazine cover, I started to work on them in Adobe Photoshop. I began by finding a DVD template and then using photographs and using the same font that was used in the opening of the TV drama.



This is the very basic DVD cover that I have started to put together, it is not finished yet as there are still areas missing and I will add some effects to the images and text. However, this may give a feel of the type of DVD I am aiming for and the final look. Having started this, I have a positive idea towards the DVD cover and its final look, but I still think I need more practice with using the effects in Photoshop effectively. Moreover, when completing textual analysis and looking at other DVD cover's from the same genre, I noticed that the design of most was quite basic - very little effects were used, instead a particular font was chosen and a few photographs of the drama.