1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have used many different radio dramas as research into producing my own radio drama. After listening to existing radio dramas such as War of the Worlds, I felt that radio was out dated and needed development. I felt that the drama was not as dramatic and gripping as it could possibly be. To help me get more ideas for my product I asked 2 people, both aged 18 to listen to radio dramas such as "War of the Worlds" and "Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy". Both listeners said that they found the dramas "boring" and hard to follow as they simply weren't enough excitement. Therefore, I decided to challenge existing conventions of radio drama when producing my own work. I also researched into Todrovs narrative theory, but also had to take into consideration the given time length of my radio drama which was only 5 minutes. I decided I would take elements of Propps narrative theory and begin the story with a settled equilibrium. I wanted to keep the audience interested so the distruption of the equilibrium happens very fast within the story. Although Propps theory of equilibrium states that it is restored towards the end of the story, I have decided to challenge this and went with a cliff hanger ending to enable the audience to come to their own conclusions of what has happened. Within the drama I have applied the representation theorist Laura Mulvey. Laura Mulveys theory on the male gaze stated that in media platforms such as films, females are simply there to be "enjoyed" by males. Meaning that women are simply there to be looked at. Although I don't entirely agree with this theory, I think it will help towards the success of the radio drama. This is because all 3 characters are females and all are attractive. According to this theory, it will attract a male audience. The theory also states that women are "helpless" and need to be helped by a male figure. This could definitely be applied to my radio drama as all three character experience problems in the story and are very helpless when they face their life or death situation. All three characters fit well into typical stereo types. Stephanie being, the rude, bitchy young women. Elizabeth being the stereotypical geek who is well spoken. Katie represents the sterotypical "bimbo", pretty face but not very intelligent.
Like War of the Worlds, our radio drama includes radio announcements to help tell the story. I liked this aspect so I decided to include it in my own work, and as War of the Worlds in a well known radio drama, I thought this would work well as it has done before. I think our radio drama challenges some conventions of radio drama as the genre of the radio drama is horror. I have not come across many, if not any radio dramas with the genre of horror. I wanted our audience to be shocked when the story unfolded. Not many radio dramas use cliff hangers to the extent which we did. I thought that this worked well as it will encourage listeners to tune in again to find out what has happened. Our radio drama has also challenged conventions of narrative structure as we have left it with an open ending and this goes against Todrovs theory of equilibrium in narrative.
Although our radio drama has challenged many conventions, it has also followed and utilised existing ones. Many dramas use music within the dramas to create atmosphere and effects. Me and my group questioned this as we felt music may make the drama become unrealistic to the audience. But after finding the right music to use in our drama we felt that it worked extremely well and created amazing effects when listening to the final product. After analysing the existing radio drama called "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" I noticed that certain characters spoke in certain ways to reveal aspects of their personality or levels of authority. For example if an audience hears a women speak quietly and unclear, it suggests that the character is shy and unconfident. Whereas, If the audience hears a woman speak loud and clearly, this could suggest the character could be bossy and confident. I have applied this convention to my own radio drama. For example, the character of Stephanie is very bitchy and likes to intimidate other people. I have shown this in the radio drama through the way in which she speaks. The character speaks very loudly and clear. She also uses sarcastic tones within her voice when speaking to the character of Elizabeth. This shows her personality and her feelings towards other characters. The character of Elizabeth speaks clear standard english, but doesn't speak as loud as Stephanie. It shows that she is confident and intelligent. Katies personality is not as strong and conflicting as the other two characters, and this is shown through the way she speaks, which is quite laid back and finds it difficult to take sides when it comes to Elizabeth and her sister Stephanie.
Radio is sometimes described as very outdated. As a group we wanted to produce something contemporary and exciting. This meant breaking and developing many conventions in order to create something new for the market.
Throughout most media products, such as films and radio drama gender is stereotypically represented. Girls are often represented as weak amd not seen as dominant characters. Me and my group challenged this as we used only 3 female characters and most were represented as having strong personalities.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts
I think that these three products work extremely well together. From the start I knew that I didn't want my poster or feature page to give away too much of the story itself, as both the poster and feature are being released before the radio drama. Visually, I think that the poster and double feature page compliment each other. I think this because from looking at both products, the colours match aswell as the images. I set out for each product to reveal a little of the content of the radio drama to the audience each time one was released. The poster is the first product to be released (July 14th). The image on the poster gives the audience some idea as to what the story is about, but not enough evidence to cause a viewer to come to a conclusion. The poster suggests many different routes for the storyand I intended for the audience to question what will happen. No characters are featured within this poster, I decided to do this as it will intrigue the audience and ensure that they will keep a look out for new products about the radio drama. The colours I have used within my poster are bright and eye catching which is sure to attract my target audience of young people.
In my double feature page I based my feature mainly on the actors and their personal lives, mentioning little when promoting the radio drama itself. I decided to this because I felt that it would give the readers a chance to relate the the actors themselves. This would then encourage them to listen to the radio drama when it is released.
To help me measure the effectiveness of the products I have created, I have conducted a meeting for my class members and tutors to give me their opinions and audience feedback. The entire class said that it was obvious the poster and feature page were linked, and this was due to the colour scheme and one image which was placed in both. All three products are released within a 3 week window gap. I have chosen to do this as I believe it has more chance of interesting the audience, which will result in maximum popularity.
I have used different techniques in order to attract my audience. Techniques such as bright colours, and young people within images. This will attract young people and my products will reach my target audience. I asked 30 people aged 17, 18 and 19 if they would tune in to listen to my radio drama on the release date. Each person said that they would listen to this drama as they were eager to find out what the content of the drama is. They said that the poster really caught their eye and made them question what it was about. They also said that the feature page enabled them to get to know the actors who played the characters. Also, as the characters were young, they could relate very well with them.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
When I had finnished all of the products, I conducted a meeting with my class members and personal tutors. I presented them with the order in which I would plan to release each product.
Firstly, I presented them with my poster (which I plan to release on the 14th of July 2011) Many people said they liked the colour scheme which was used and thought that the red looked like blood which symbolised death. They said the poster gave them an idea that it was horror due to the picture of the car but felt that it didnt give away too much.
Secondly, I presented them with the double page feature (which I plan to release on the 31st of July) Many people said that they liked my unusual approach in the feature as not many Radio Times feature pages would have included the insight into the characters personal lives. Many people my age said that they liked this as they felt it was laid back and made radio dramas more approachable than before.
Finally I presented them with the final recording of my radio drama. (which I plan to be aired on the 7th August)
The radio drama itself was very well recieved as most people said they felt they were constantly on edge throughout the drama
Audience feedback has helped me a lot over the past few weeks. Although many people liked my first designs, they felt that there was much room for improvement. Without my audience feedback I don't feel that my over all products would have been succesful as they could have been.
Overall the radio drama was very well recieved by the group of people I presented it to. Although there was some dislikes about the drama. Some people felt that too much happened at once, but considering that we were given a time limit of 5 minutes, I feel that the radio drama would have resulted in being very boring to listen to if we did not put so much into it.
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Throughout all the production stages of my radio drama, I have used a wide variety of media technologies.
Using the website http://www.blogger.com/ has helped me organize my research with a well organised structure. I wanted my blog to contain multimedia. I included images, texts, videos and links in order to display my work and progress and best as I can. Using this blog really helped me with my time keeping skills. I felt that this improved over time.
I have used the internet through out this process, especially in the research stages. I used platforms such as BBC I Player, which provided me with a variety of existing radio dramas and reviews. It also gave me insight in to Radio stations which helped me decide which station I would choose to air my radio drama.
Photography very much helped with the planning of my poster. I ended up with a number of different types of shots for my poster. I tried and tested many different images, then felt the one that I had choosen was not working as well as it possibly could so therefore, I changed the image.
Before starting this project, I had very limited knowledge with editing programmes such as Soundtrack Pro and Photoshop. I found that the more I tried and tested, playing around with images and sound I found myself gaining more skills in the programmes which I needed to. I learnt how to give images certain effects to give impressions of "mystery" or "violence". I also learnt how to add sound effects to create an impact on the audience.
I also used programmes such as Itunes to burn my first draft onto cd which I then used to recieve audience feedback.
Programmes such as Photoshop, InDesign, Soundtrack Pro and final cut have helped me develop my work. All these programmes are used by proffessionals which allows me to create my very own proffessional looking products.
Soundtrack pro has enabled me to bring the raw recording together, remove sections, and add sound effects. Without this programme I would have not been able to produce such high quality work.
Final cut has enabled me to create videos and demonstrate my work and findings, without this it would have been very difficult to show my development in my work.
InDesign has enabled me to produce proffessional looking print work to a very high standard. Due to this programme it has allowed me to create eye catching headlines and text using a number of different text effects. I have used collumns in my feature after looking at existing articles. I wanted my work to look as proffessional as possible so I followed existing conventions within features.
Technology has also helped in the evaluation of my work. I have used social networking sites such as Facebook to show people my age my work in order to get the best results for my evaluation.
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