Evaluation Activity 3 - Audience Feedback

For this evaluation task I am outlining the audience feedback which was received form our 16-24 year old target audience. Below Listed the feedback which we received on the improvements we were suggested to make; I have also taken screen shots from our draft and final piece, in order to show some of the main changes which were made, whilst editing Bargroves.

The first feedback which was received was from a questionnaire the group created, the results below which were collected, were based upon our first draft.

The first question asked, 'would you watch this soap?' out of the 16 people asked only one had said yes.

This brought to our attention that there were many improvements which had to be made to the trailer. Most of the responses said they would not watch due to the fact they was not attracted to the trailer.

In order to attract our target audience to the trailer, we knew that we would have to include more editing techniques, and also speed the trailer up in order to make the scenes less tedious.

The second question asked, 'would the stories affect you?' out of the 16 people asked 13 had said yes.

This was a good response, as it meant the selected storylines, which I had created in order to attract the target audience, were effective and would increase the possibility of attract the targeted audience aged 16-24 to watch the soap, after seeing the trailer.

The third and final question which was asked was 'do the titles help split the scenes?' this was asked in order to see if we should keep the titles screens in the trailer in order to create anchor narratives. Out of the 16 people asked 15 had said that they helped and were good to use.

This was a good response as not only did it create an anchor narrative, it also help to to challenge media conventions, as it prevented continuity within the trailer.


The other feedback which we had received has been listed below:

• Can't use fire starter! - it is copyrighted music
• No-one said at first it was a soap but did recognise is as drama - like skins - not obvious it's a soap
• Too long on couple in kitchen - breakup somehow
• Time - Channel - New soap needs adding to end screen - change font - BBC logo - voice over needs re-doing
• Editing needs filtering eg drug use - more psychedelic colours/black white
• 2 songs don't necessarily work

Below are screenshots which show the changes which were made, for our final draft after reviewing the feedback.

We noticed that we had to change the font, therefore within the title screens which we had created in order to introduce each issue/storyline, I chose to make the font thinner, in order to create a more sleek and temporary feel, which would attract out target audience. As you can also see we inserted the BBC logo which was something our targeted audience also suggested we implemented to the trailer.

This screen shot is the build up toward the drug deal; as you can see in the after image the screen is much more dull. The reason for this was because we removed the fire starter track, which was suggested as it our audience felt it didn't work, and it was also copyrighted. To create the dull effect, I used vignette which made the screen much more dull, as well as connote the negativity of the drug issue.

The screen shot above is the drug exchange which takes place; as you can see the colour keying between each draft has changed. The reason for this change was because our target audience suggested we used psychedelic colours, in order to achieve this we I used an effect called cold steel, which changed the colour keying. We all felt this was a good change which had been made as it help to connote the effects, and negativity of drugs.

The final key change which was made was the final title screen, the reason for this change was because we felt that it did not match, or seem related the the original BBC one title screens which are used. For this reason we chosen to change the entire colour scheme and watched numerous BBC trailers on YouTube, in order to create a similar design. This was a great improvement as it created an institutional link.

Overall I think think the changes made, helped create a stronger soap, the feedback inspired changes which created a more professional finish as it influenced better use of editing. Examples of editing which were inspired by the feedback was the use of vignette, cold steel, and the flash and spin effect. All of these effect not only helped to create a better scene, and connote the negativity and effect of the drugs; but also helped to challenge media conventions in order to compete with our rival soap Hollyoaks.

We disagreed with the comment about the fire starter song, as we all felt that it worked well and connoted the negativity of the drugs, as we felt it seemed 'rebellious', however I had to remove the song in order to prevent copyright infringement. Once the song was removed the theme song 'Eastenders Long' felt far too joyous for the scene, which is why I implemented non-diegetic sound of a passing police siren which portrayed the negativity of the scene.  

By implementing the changes which were influenced by our target audience, I feel that we will be more likely to attract more people to our soap, than previously in our first draft of the soap trailer.

Evaluation Activity 2 - Main Project and Ancillary Texts

Below is the script which I created for my voice over:

Media Voice over Script Task 2

What characters are used within your three texts?

Within the auxiliary texts the characters I used form Bargroves were; Philip and Alexander.

I used them as they’re from the main storyline, drug issues; this also expressed the issue on the magazine cover which may attract the target audience.

For the billboard poster all of the characters from the soap trailer were used, apart from Penny and Martin. The reason for this is because they were not in our target age group of 16 – 24.

The reason for only using the younger cast members within the auxiliary texts was to attract our target audience towards the soap.

What Narratives are included and why have they been used?

The storylines are based around issues encountered by the 16-24 year old target audience.

The storylines are based around social issues which include; family issues, financial issues, and drug issues, all of which are related to the target audience.

The main focus of the trailer was the drug issues; we chose non-stereotype characters to emphasize the wide range of drug use which is a public concern.

The drug issues was also emphasized through editing, in order to connote negativity and challenge media conventions, vignette and non-diegetic sound of a passing police siren were used in order to connote the negativity of the issue.

All narratives used were open narratives as they would lead to other stories within the soap, the trailer also featured anchor narratives as title screens were used to summarize the scene.

What are the common features?

The common features within the campaign are the use of characters, as they are from the 16-24 year old age group, and have been used on all of the campaign materials in order to attract the target audience.

Philip and Alexander were made the main focus as they feature on the magazine cover to gain attention on the soap, and drug issue.

This also creates synergy between the materials as they are recognizable characters throughout the campaign.

 How does Institutional in formation Link?

Institutional information was linked between the soap trailer and the billboard poster as they both include the channel which the soap will be aired on; BBC One and BBC One HD.

There is no institutional information link within the TV listings magazine cover, as Bargroves is the main feature; therefore this suggests the audience will already be aware of the soap.

Evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign:

Overall the campaign created for Bargroves, will be a success, as the storylines are focused around the target audience aged 16-24.

The issues which have also been used will gain attention from the target audience as they may be able to relate to the stories, or characters within the soap.

The use of institutional information, and synergy will also create awareness for the soap, as the public will have information, of where and when the soap can be viewed.

Evaluation Activity 4 - New Media Technologies

Image 1 - Camera: The camera which we used in order to film the footage for our soap was a

Image 2 - Tripod: This is a tripod which we used in order to film our soap trailer. The use of the tripod helped to record steady shots so the camera focused on the characters on the screen, without movement of the camera.
By using the tripod we was also able to shoot many smooth panning shots of characters walking past, in order to change the storyline; an example of this can be seen within the trailer as Edward walks past Alexander.
Overall by using the tripod we managed to shoot smooth shots which were used within our footage. It also made our shots look more professional and gave us a wider range of shot types we could use within our filming.

Image 3 - Voice Recorder: I used the Olympus voice recorder in order to record and audio clip which would be used as non-diegetic sound for the soap trailer; 'How would you solve your issues? Bargroves Coming soon to BBC one and BBC one HD'.
The voice recorder was also used in order to complete Evaluation task 2; as I had to create a commentary on the ancillary texts and soaps trailer.

Image 4 - YouTube: In order to upload our videos to the internet we used YouTube; this enabled our friends to view our work and give constructive criticism on what we had produced. The feedback was very useful as many of the people which had been shown the trailer were from our target audience.

By sing YouTube it also helped to share the video between member of the group in order for them to publish it on their own blog, this saved a lot of time as we did not each have to save our own copy as we could simply copy and paste the videos URL into the video setting provided by Blogger. Also people who wish to watch any other footage or videos which we have recorded was able to view our channel where they can see our entire collection of videos which have been uploaded, again this helped greatly with feedback, as viewers could see the changes we have made to our video between drafts.

Image 5 - Blogger: Blogger is essential for our media course work; this is because it is where all of the coursework is uploaded in order to be viewed. This was beneficial as it enabled me to access my work where I was at sixth form, home or out on my mobile; as they also have a blogger app.
Through using blogger you can also follow member of the service, this was useful as I was able to gain followers or share my link in order to show people my work to gain feedback.

The use of blogger is also beneficial with this media course as the new media technology provides many features which are very useful; one of the most important features, was the video upload; as this enabled us to publicize our trailer so a larger number of people could view it, and give feedback.

Image 6 - Mozilla Fire Fox: In order to access the web 2.0 features, I used the Mozilla Fire Fox; which is a browser; the reason why I used their browser throughout most of the course, was because when using Google Chrome I kept facing issues with the uploading of images and videos which were need for my blog post.

This was also useful as the Fire Fox browser was used in order to gain research through web 2.0, the research gained contributed towards the soap, as we was able to publicize our work for other to see, as well as search soap opera information (such as conventions) in order to help produce our soap.

Image 7 - Mac Book Pro: In order to edit our HD footage, we used an Apple Mac Book Pro, this was useful as it enable our group to successfully capture and edit all of our HD soap trailer footage. We also felt that this was beneficial to use as it provided more  recent, and up to date software which was used in order to produce our soap trailer, such as Final Cut Pro X.

Image 8 - Final Cut Pro X: This was the software which was provided on the Apple Mac Book Pro; it is a new media technology which enabled us to edit the HD footage which we had captured. The software also provided many editing  features and effects which were used within the soap trailer in order to challenge media conventions.

Some of the editing features which were used are, cold steel, flash and spin, zoom, slow motion, and vignette. The software also provided a wide range of sounds which were used in the trailer as non-diegetic sound; the audio which was taken and used from Final Cut Pro X were Eastenders long, and a passing police siren. Overall I think that Final Cut Pro X was very beneficial to use as it was easy and fairly simple to use for editing footage, and also enabled saving of multiple projects which allowed an overview of the changes we had made.

Image 9 - Photoshop 7.0: I used photoshop 7.0 which is an older version of the series, in order to create my soap bilboard, magazine cover, and evaluation task images. This was easy to use and enabled me to manipulate images thourgh the use of layers.

This also contained many effects which were used in order to create my soap bilboard, and magazine cover; such as the brush tool, and the glow affect which was used within the magazine cover to add effect to the main image. Photoshop 7.0 also enabled the editing of the file format, this was a very beneficial feature which was used as only certain formats will upload on Blogger.

Group Planning: Filming Schedule

Above is an image of our groups filming schedule which we had planned before we began the filming of our soap; Bargroves. The information within the filming schedule was not used as we had complications with our actors within the trailer, and members of the group who was unable to make the filming which was scheduled.

Due to the fact the we did not use the schedule above, we spent most of our free periods in sixth form, as well as our media lessons to go and record. We had to film our soap footage within lesson and break times because the natural lighting after school hours would have been too dark to record, we was also unable to record on weekends as many of the group members have work, which mean we could not make the filming.