Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Most media products that are created in the present-day are done so in established and repeated ways. Types of media tend to stick to certain rules. For example, sitcoms are often half-hour shows. Magazines, newspapers and websites come with recognisable, repeated formats and layouts. Films regularly have an introductory and closing credit sequence. These are forms and conventions. People keep using them because they work, they are successful. Also, if you don't follow the forms and conventions, you need to know what you're not doing and be aware of the implications of that decision.
When planning to make 'Witness', a website for a fictional TV channel, lots of research was needed into the forms and conventions of existing TV channel websites. I looked at successful websites such as the ones for BBC, Dave, Channel 4, Five, Discovery channel and Comedy central. I began to see a pattern in the way that they were designed, a convention that they followed. After analysing Dave and the Discovery Channel in more detail, I was able to divide the design of TV channel websites into sections. The overall layout of these websites was very much similar to nearly all the websites on the internet. They use the same layout order to make it easier for the user to use and navigate.
I used these forms and conventions a lot while creating my own website. Using my research to carefully plan my website design following the basic pattern of layout. I made a logo and displayed it in the top left of each page, where it usually is found in most websites. I have a navigation bar under the logo, where it usually is in websites. And then an interactive image gallery under that, which is quite common for a TV channel website. But by using these forms and conventions I wasn't simply copying others, I was using the main conventions because they’re successful.
After making the frame of the website following rules I began to customize bits of the website to make 'Witness' unique and more appropriate for the targeted audience. Existing TV channel websites use the same background for every page and have a colour scheme that tends to only use around three colours. As the target audience for 'Witness' is unisex and between 16 and 26 I decided to challenge convention and use bright contrasting colours throughout the website. The main 3 colours used were black, white and bright blue. But then the background changes between several bright colours for different pages throughout the site. This make my website unique, lively, youthful and more suited to the fictional channel that its for. The channel shows mockumentaries which are usually quite amusing, funny and tend to brighten peoples days. The website uses bright colours which quite literally brighten peoples days.
In conclusion, although my media product does follow many popular forms and conventions to help make it more successful, it also challenges conventions in order to make it unique and more appropriate for the target audience.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For the ancillary tasks I chose to make a newspaper advertisement for the channel and a double page spread for a listings magazine, focused on the channel’s launch. Before making these I looked at the websites for Dave and the Discovery Channel in more detail and found that the aesthetic part of the designs were linked to their ident sequences on TV and their advertising campaigns in newspapers and magazines. This was especially noticeable for Dave. They used the same colour scheme, font and imagery everywhere. This is a good idea because it enables viewers to be able to instantly recognize the brand.
When new channels are first launched no one knows anything about them so consistency in colours, fonts and images used when advertising helps people remember the brand. There needs to be a unifying theme to ties all of the ads and the brand together. Repeatable themes make the target customer feel like they have the inside track. They know how to play along and thus feel connected to your brand. If the theme used in every advertisement for 'Witness' changed every time, then it would take longer for the name to find its way into public consciousness. So, when I designed the ancillary texts, I tried stick to a theme that also ran throughout the website.
The final newspaper advertisement featured the same font as the 'Witness' logo on the website. The newspaper advertisement also has information on where to view the channel and how to find out more via the website. These features made the link between the website, channel and advert stronger.
But, after comparing themes of my ancillary tasks and the website, I possibly could have shared more between them to the combination more effective. For example, I chose to cut the middle out of the 'Witness' logo on the advertisement because at the time I thought it looked better. Even though I used the same font it doesn't really look like the logo on the website because I altered it. In hindsight, the combination would have been more effective if I had have left the logo exactly how it is seen on the website.
Something I didn't end putting in the advert was the various bright colours that are used as backgrounds on the website. Although the colour scheme on the website works effectively, if I was to use all of the bright colours on the same advertisement it would end up looking too textured and perhaps childish. So, I decided to stick to the 3 main colours used on the website; blue, white and black.
In conclusion, I believe that overall the combination of both my main product and my ancillary tasks is effective. But, I could have possibly done more to make the theme run stronger throughout all of the pieces, creating an easier path for the brand into peoples consciousness.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
This year we were given the opportunity to go to the city of Norwich to carry out Vox Populi interviews to get some audience feedback. I was trying to ask members of the public questions about the BBC's website and general features in web-design. The answers would hopefully be used to determine what I needed to feature on my website to make it useful, successful and appeal to my target audience. It turned out to be a rather difficult task to get people to stop and talk about web-design. I did manage to get a few people to answer my questions, and one young man allowed me to film his answer.
After learning little from the Norwich trip, I carried out a second Vox Pop around school. This was so much more successful because the majority of people I asked use the internet daily and were in my target audience range of 16-26. I then recorded all of the results and made a table.
The results suggested that my target audience wanted good looking graphics, a simple design, easy to navigate design, interactivity and an easy to use layout. Most of this was what I had expected to come up, but I hadn't really thought about interactivity before this. I then went away and researched existing TV channels and found that the majority of them contained some sort of interactive content on the homepage. The Vox Pop was really useful for getting audience feedback on existing TV channel websites and helped me during the planning stages when designing 'Witness'.
I also got audience feedback, a several weeks before completing my website, via the social networking website facebook. A link was posted to 'Witness' and I encouraged people to comment on it. I received a lot of positive feedback for the web-design in general. But, I also got a few negative comments about specific parts of the site. One person said the background looked like it had been drawn in paint and that it was making the site look less professional. I wasn't too concerned with this comment as the background at the time was only temporary and it actually was made on paint. Someone else said that the blue logo looked scruffy and cartoonish. I did agree with this and a few days later a new, more professional logo was made.
In conclusion, the combination of using vox pops, for audience feedback on existing TV channel websites, and posting on a social networking website for audience feedback on a near finished version of 'Witness' helped me make my website more professional and suitable for my target audience.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Throughout this project, I have used many types of media technology from the digital and computerized branch of media technology. This area of media technology has made it easy for amateurs to manipulate and share their own creations.
Before making, planning or researching anything, I set up this blog (web log) so that I could regularly post commentary on the progress of my work. Using the internet I can upload, edit and delete information that I post about my work. It's a very quick and easy way to share my work and no paper is wasted due to mistakes.
During the research stage, I went to Norwich to carry out Vox Pop interviews. This involved using a digital video and audio recorder to capture the public's opinions on web-design. I actually used a mobile phone to do this, so it was quick and simple and no professional equipment was needed. When I got home I was able to transfer the digital video file to my computer and manipulate it using video editing software. This was really useful when it came to planning my own website, I could simply watch back the edited video which contained just the relevant bits of information.
Also while in the research stage, I needed to analyse existing TV channel websites so I could work out the forms and conventions of this type of media. To do this I needed to use the internet, not only so that I could view the existing TV channel websites but also to write about them on my blog. I also found that using search engine websites on the internet was a really powerful way to research. I was able to find entire tutorials on creating websites and whole websites dedicated to photoshop effects.
During the planning stage, I used modern media technology to computerize sketches that I had made of the possible 'Witness' layouts. I used Photoshop CS4 as a digital image manipulation programme because after very little practice it is a very powerful tool.
When actually creating 'Witness' I had to use lots of different types of media technology. I used Dreamweaver CS4 to code the website in. After each change in the code you can see the visual change to the website in a split code/design view. For all of the images on the site, I used a digital camera to capture the image then a computer and Photoshop CS4 to manipulate the images. The video's were recorded using a camcorder and then transferred to a computer to be edited using imovie. The videos and images were then added to 'Witness' using Dreamweaver again.
In the evaluation stage, I mainly used my blog because all of my commentary throughout the entire project was digitally stored on it. I was then able to read back over everything and evaluate my work.
In conclusion, I used many different types of digital and computerized media throughout this project. I think that digital media has made it easier for virtually anyone to create, save, edit and share their own media texts.
