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.