Evaluation Part 2

3 What have you learnt from audience feedback?
What i have learnt from the feedback given was that during the performance there were some parts where we could have stood closer to the microphone, as at some times our voices were hard to hear. The second piece of feedback was that we could have projected our voices a lot clearer and also a lot slower. I agreed with this, as when listening to the play, i heard that there were a few occassions that i spoke my lines too fast and couldn't understand what i said. Apart from that, the feedback was positive and they enjoyed the overall performance, despite the criticism given.


4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages?
The biggest technology that came into use for us during the project was the use of audacity, software used for post-process different types of audio. After a few hitches the first time using it, we eventually got the idea of audacity, and why it is used. This also came in as a huge help for when we had to edit the play and add adjustments to it that needed to be done. For the research, we mainly used the Internet to attain information on radio plays, the background behind them and the work that goes into producing them. For the construction of our lay, which included the recording of it, we used a microphone and a recorder supplied by the teacher, as well as using Microsoft PowerPoint for our newspaper and double page spread respectively. The reason we used this was that we thought it was better to use than publisher and a lot easier, therefore saving time for us to work on editing the play. For the evaluation of this, I have enjoyed working on this project and it has been a brilliant experience, and I think the play , despite the criticism was good and was an enjoyable experience

Evaluation Part 1

. In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?
I think our product challenges the conventions of the way real products within the media industry are produced. In our radio play, the partners are both of the same sex, hence it being a civil partnership, rather than the usual disfunctional married couple of man and woman. The reason why we did this was to show that there isn't just one type of couple portrayed within the various types of media, whether it being film, television or radio, and also adding something might not be portrayed through radio, as it is commonly used through television and film.
As well as this we also have the conventions within the cast of the play. Although the main character Pugh was voiced by a male (me), the rest of the characters voiced are by females, therefore reinforcing the strength of female characters within not only radio plays, but female characters withing criminal drama's, such as Amanda Redman in New Tricks, and Sue Johnson in Waking The Dead. As the majorityof the cast were women this may challenge the conventions of the ratio of men to women in radio plays as well as television and film. in most criminal series the majority of lead characters are men, with few female leads, however it usually the female lead that contaisn the strong characteristic in contrast the to male's personality. in this play, the grumpy, miserable, yet strong attitude of Pugh is a contrast to the gentle, yet stern peronality of his female companion Quirk, portraying a different relationship between men and women within the same workforce.

2. How Effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?
I think the combination of both our ancillary task and the main product is quite effective. The reason for this was that both the newspaper advert and the double page spread tied in, not only with each other, but also within the play itself. The pictures we took for the advert, of the body outline made by the wool used also in one of the double page spread picture, was taken so it tied in with what the murder weapon was in the play. We decided to create the image of the body from the wool as we thought it would add creativity to the task, as well as the fact that we thought it would be appealing to our respective audience, as well as attention grabbing as well. for the double page spread, the picture we took of me dressed as Pugh had to be appealing to the audience so they at least know the characteristics of Pugh from the photograph taken, which was aimed to give off the impression that Pugh is a strong character, yet adding an air of myserty around the character. We used Bernard MT Condensed font in order for the tagline of the show in the newspaper advert to appeal and attract attention,as well as the fact that this particular font stood out when we tested different fonts to use for the advert.

Our main product which is the Radio play it's self is effective in the way that it's just like the typical average criminal drama's as seen on television. The only difference is ours can only be heard and not seen, so we made sure that when it came to voicing the roles of our respective characters, we threw ourselves into it, and made sure that is was the character speaking and not us. This was in order for it sound very realistic, and not like we were just reading the lines as if it were a menu. We also had one of our friends younger sibling doing the voice of the officer, so the audience will know that there is an age difference between the characters, this also goes for the characters of Pugh and Quirk, as Quirk's voice is a lot more gentler like the character of Jessica Rayne and her partner Sarah Parker, the audience can interpret that the those three are around the same age as each other, whulsts the authorative and sharp tone of Pugh could suggest that he is a few years older than Quirk. With the play being on radio, it leaves the audience to use their own imaginatio to visualise what's going on, this also adds alot of more creativity and enjoyment for the audience, just like it did for us during the performance of it.
I think that by having an unusual weapon for the murder provides and effect to the play itself. Although the plot may be similiar to other plots seen in other shows, it adds a twist and leaves and the audience wondering 'who did it?', and again fits in with other criminal drama's.

Finished News paper Advert

Here is our finished Newspaer advert. The font we used for the text was Bernard MT Condensed. It features a catchy tag line for the show on the left side, with the date and time for the show in the bottom right corner.

Double page spread

The article consists of an in-depth interview, as well as featuring the pictures we decided that would feature in the interview in the previous blog.

final Pictures

Here is the picture we decided on using for the Newspaper advert.




Here are the two pictures we decided on using for the double page spread.

Pictures for the Newspapern Advert

Here are some of the pictures we took for the ball of wool, with the knitting needle, used for our advert. The idea of placing the knitting needle inside the brown wool, with the red wool flowing out from the middle to represent the image of it being actualy blood, came about after we decided on what the murder weapon would be.

Pictures for double page spread part 1

Here are some of the pictures we took for the ball of wool and the knitting needle, for the double paged spread. The idea of placing the knitting needle inside the brown wool, with the red wool flowing out from the middle to represent the image of it being actualy blood, came about after we decided on what the murder weapon would be.

Pictures for the double page spread

Here are some of the pictures we took for the double page spread article. The pictures taken are of me dressed as Pugh at my house, to visually present where the interview is taking place, which is at 'Adrian Salmon's Camden house'
Here are the pictures!

Update

Well as doomsday lurks in, we have nearly finished. The only things we have left is to finish our double page spread and our advert, then its evaluation time!

Pictures and double page spread

Unfortunately due to the camera not being charged we cannot upload the photos we were intending too. However, we are meeting tomorrow, whch by that time the camera will have been charged up and we resume with what we were going to do today.

Update and editing

Well finally we have finished our play, part from a few thingsd that need to be edited.The play was complimented by our teacher. However, he did notice some transitions could be improved, manly the scene changes, which we will get on to doing straight away.

Slight change to plot

Just a slight change, now we have replaced 'Simon' with 'Sarah' as the partner of 'Jessica', the plot has changed slightly, with all of Simons lines now being Sarah's.
We also used a younger voice for the role of the office, to reflect older people's views on how young looking the police are looking these days

Media Advert 1 for Newspaper

Here is one of the adverts we are considering to be the final piece, however we are thinking of re-taking the pictures as some of them haven't come out the way we expected

Slight change

As we haven't been able to find another male voice, we have decided to change Simon to Sarah, therefore this challenges conventions by bringing in a civil partnership.

2nd mock up of advert

Here is our second advert mock up, as you can see we have gone for the original body outline look, however when we come to finishing ours, it will be different, in the fact that we will have drawn the outline ourselves, with the wool.

Double page update

Having just completed a mock up of the double page spread featuring the interview,however excluding the photo's we will use, we are now getting to work on the final version of it.

Update on other part of project

We have just done a mock interview for the double page spread, however will wait until Katie has seen it before we make a decision on whether or not to upload it, or whether it needs any adjustment!

Mock up of advert for magazine

Here is a mock up of the advert we are designing for a magazine.
The picture we got is from craftycrafty.tv,but we will be using our own picture when it comes to finalising ours.

Ta DA!!!! Finally the picture is here, this is the guideline for our double page spread for the radio play

Update

Unfortunately due to technical stupidity on behalf of the computer, though it's probably soomething to do with us, our double page spread guideline won't load up.
On the the other hand we still need to find another male to voice the role of Simon, but we are still in the middle of creating our advert!

Breakthrough... well an idea

Well for our advertisement, it will feature a knitting needle and bowl of wool or yarn (whatever you want to call it, though Katie may criticise me for saying yarn as its American) Covered in blood, which won't actually be blood, unless Katie and Vicky are sadistic beings, which i hope not.
Anyways rolling on, my friends mum has a knitting needle and bowl of wool, as she likes to nit and she has kindly given us permission to use one of her knitting needles and a bowl of wool, so hurray!
We are still planning our double page spread,putting across our own ideas as well.
So there you go an update... Bye!

Update Double Page Spread and Newspaper Advertisement

We have already begun to plan out our double page spread, as it was part of our coursework last year in AS me and Vicky have done a mock of the setting of the double page spread.
We (when i say we i really mean I as I'm the on who found it) found a picture of a double page spread from a radio magazine called 'radio user magazine'
We have also decided on what image to use in the both the spread and the advertisement. For the doubler page spread the image will consist of me dressed as Pugh, with te full detective look, holding a knitting needle, whilst the newspaper advertisement will consists of a ball of wool and knitting needle with blood covering the needle.
We have also decided to draw different sketches of what the advertisement will look like, before scanning them and posting on our respective blogs, then deciding on which one is more dramatic etc
That is all.

Besides Recording

Althought most of our blog has been devoted to the recording of the radio play, there are also two other items the coursework requires: A double page spread of the play in a magazine, and a tv advertisement in a newspaper.
For the Double page spread we have already thought of the key elements to feature within it. These are....
. Synopsis- What the Play is about, without giving away too much of the plot. Where the play is set, and who the main characters are.
. Interview- With one of the actors about their role in the play.
. Pictures- We have several ideas for this, but we have yet to confirm.

TV Advertisement- Catchy and Dramatic tagline i.e Jaws 2 'Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water'. However, ours will most likely be shorter, and as we thought of these off the top of our head, we came up these:
. 'Get Pugh Or Get Dead'
. 'Radio Just Got Edgy'
. 'We're Bringing Edgy Back'
. 'It Will Make Your Ears Chill'

later on we will start to design both the double page spread and tv advertisement.

Update

Well seeing as it has been ages since i last blogged i thought i would just blog to update where we are up to now, as updating our blogs is very vital. From my last post, me and the other two have progressed with our coursework. We have done several recordings of the play, and have now to come to the decision that in order to avoid confusion, we will get another person to voice the role of Simon, as i have been voicing both Simon and Pugh.

We are now in the process of learning the ropes of the editing world. We have downloaded the programme audacity, which is free to download :), so we are using this brilliant programme to practice editing our recordings, hopefully we won't make a mess of it!

As well as this we will also be recording the sounds we need very soon.

Sounds to record and other things to achieve by next time!

By next week, we will have hopefully recorded the background sounds we need to record, these include;
.Mobile Phone Ringing
.Footsteps
.Traffic
.Door Opening and Slamming
.Sound of knife slashing
.Thud
.Dial Tone
.Clock Ticking
.Police Sirens
.Camera's Flashing
.Mumbling

As well as this we also need to record the script with the two people we have asked to take part in the play, by doing this we will also be able to have a basic idea of where we are upto with the play and what we might need to edit. we will also be timing it as well, so we know how long it is, and whether or not we need to cut down on some of the lines.

Hopefully this will be all done very soon!

Upto Speed!

Carrying on from the last time I blogged, so far me, Katie & Vicky have recorded 3 different versions of the script, wth the use of my phone's microphone to record it.
Despite the horror of the revelation of how our voices actually sound, we were impressed with the recordings,though the next one will be properly acted out, as the three versions we did were just experimental and so we could get use to the idea of recording our voices,as well as the sound of our own voices.

The next step will be to record the background sounds we need for the play, which we will discuss as soon as i see both Vicky and Katie, as Vicky isn't in class today, whilst Katie is in an exam (Good Luck!)

As a group we have also decided that two of the characters will be voiced by different people, who we have asked, and they have generously accepted. This will add versatality to the play and will also prevent the audience from confusion as in to who is portraying who.

In the three practice recordings, we also used different accents, in order to see which one we would eventually go with. Despite the fun and failed attempts we had, we have decided to stick to our own wonderful and natural voices. We decided this as we felt we would be taken a lot more seriously, rather try an accent and be thought of as a joke.