Codes and Conventions of Newspaper Adverts and Radio Trailers

Newspaper Adverts

-The advert always has a dominating image. This anchors or links to the key theme of the programme.
-On all adverts the is a clear, visiable logo of the channel that the programme is scheduled to be shown on. It is common for the logo to be possition in a place that the audience are likely to see first.
-There is always a slogan in th advert, again one which anchors or links to key themes. However the slogan is usually purposly short and words kept to a minimun, perhaps in order to keep the slogan memorable in the audience's mind.
-The scheduling information for the programme must be incluse, this incluse the day the programme will be scheduled on, the time and also the channel.

Below are images for the the advertising of channel four programmes, on which we can see the codes and conventions being aplied.

BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN CHILDREN ADVERT -

DERREN BROWN THE EVENTS ADVERT -




















Radio Trailers

-It is comman for radio trailers to include short snippets and extracts from the programme. This may include extracts from interviews and actuality footage.
-Although it is not compulsory the average radio advert is usually around thirty to forty seconds long.
-A voice over is used, one which is appropriate to the prograame and its narrative. The voices over may give short explinations or pose questions that will be looked at in the actual programme.
-Underneath the voice over and extracts from the programme a music bed is used, again linking to the programme. A comical documentary for example may use jolly, upbeat music whereas a more serious topic of documentary will often use more sinister or classical music.
-Information given in the radio trailer such as the title of the programme and scheduling information(inculding channel name). This inforation is usually given at the end of the trailer in order to keep it fresh in the audience's mind.

Editing

For the editing process the main programme we used was Adobe Premiere, however we also used Adobe Audition and Adobe Photo shop for smaller tasks such as editing sound clips and editing images. Before we began filming our group created a running order however in the editing section you may see that this has not been followed at all times. This is because of different complications, for example footage or individual clips being longer or shorter than expected.


We begun editing by capturing our footage we had filmed the weeks before, using our log in sheets to keep track of every but of footage we captured. This was extremely handy later whilst editing our programme as we found it a lot easier to fill short spaces y simply looking back through the list of shots we had kept. The process of capturing out footage went well however our group did have a few problems in the beginning; an interview we has filmed with a local police man went missing for a while, which made it difficult to arrange our footage into a rough order. We also had problems with tapes and had to use a number of different ones in the end in order to keep up to date with deadlines.





















After we captured all of our footage we began to arrange our programme into chronological order. We realised at this point that we had to change a big section of our programme, in which had initially intended to use footage of a graffiti room we had heard of in Liverpool. We did not however use this footage as the establishment was not at all what we expected, and the footage we gained whilst in there proved to be either unusable or of fairly poor quality. Again we had to go through our running order and logging sheets, planning a way to fill the space. On the plus side whilst attempting to get footage at the graffiti room we met a few graffiti artists who offered to take us a location they knew in which they could spray freely; the footage we gained from this turned out be some of the best we have collected through out our whole production.

One of the more difficult stages throughout the process was the editing off our chroma key interview with the young graffiti artist. Because we were aware how important it was to anchor the subjects meaning and relevant to the programme with mise-en-scene we struggled a little agreeing on a background for our graffiti artist. We had a number of contrasting ideas, for example it was suggested that we use a art room, which would reflect graffiti as an art rather than a crime. However we deliberated and thought that this may seem slightly biased, and we had already agreed we would keep out personal opinion separate from the making of our programme. Therefore we eventual agreed that a chroma key background was the best option. Although we found it simple to cut out the questions we had asked, and cut sections we needed for use, using the green screen key was a lot more hard. We had to apply clips for the background effect and line up every section perfectly in order to keep our interview looking professional which was time consuming, however watching the end process made it worth while, and as i group i think we were all very happy with the effect we had created.

Our group did struggle particularly with the amount of footage we had. Because we had spent whole days at a time filming in different locations we found it easy to create cut aways shots. We used a number of effects on cut away shots, for example the black and white key we added to the graffiti artists spraying an outdoor wall. Although this part of our documentary had gained varying opinions, we really wanted to created a dramatic atmosphere at this point, as to show the more serious side of graffiti. The slightly sinister Beethoven music we added helped us to create this.




















Towards the end off our editing section, once our time line was fully completed we added final touches to make our programme look more professional. The main touch we added was the graffics we put in at the interview sections. To keep in line with conventions we used a fair plain but bold font, keeping it simple and clear to read. We also made the name bigger than the interviewee's occupation, or relevance to the programme; again following the conventions we looked talked of at the beginning of the course.



















Another section we had left to the end of the editing was our opening titles. This does not follow chronological order however we found it difficult at time to agree as a group as we all had quite individually strong ideas. We agreed finally on an idea, which i think turned out well. John used a friend to film a few shots of him walking to a brick wall. After we had played around with the order and speed of these shots we displayed a still image that John had took. I then designed a graffiti title on paper and we scanned it in the next day, using Adobe Photo shop to cut around the edges and make the background transparent.

The final stag of putting our documentary together was adding our voice over and sound to our programme. John picked the perfect song for our opening titles; 'The Writing On The Wall', which not only provided us with a clever word play but also set our programme a fast, upbeat theme.

EMAIL TO MUSIC COMPANY
Because we used a quite popular, famous song for our openingtitles (Writing On The Wall - The Prodigy) we had to write an a letter or email to the record company asking for the rights to use this piece of music. Below is a copy of the email i sent The Prodigy's company; Cooking Vinyl UK. The link for Cooking Vinyl's website is also written below.

http://www.cookingvinyl.com/














Although at times our group has had many creative differences, i believe we have pulled together and created a product to the best of our ability. If it were not for all of us having such strong opinions i think our documentary would not have been what it is today, and in my opinion together we have created a great opening five minutes. Although extremely time consuming, the editing process has been enjoyable and i have learnt a vast range of skills throughout. I now feel a lot more confident using all Adobe programmes, and feel that i could now go on to individually create the same. However without my group and teamwork i am sure the final product would not be half as good i this had been an individual task.

Filming

This section of my blog will include a detailed analysis of the filming that i took part in over the production of graffiti documentary.

POLICE MAN INTERVIEW
Throughout the filming process i was involved in my most of the filming that was done, the first of which being an interview at Park High. Together our group traveled to Park High after school in order to interview a police man on his view and personal opinions on graffiti. Although the interviewee was in full police uniform to anchor his position and authority we felt that the mise-en-scene should also reinforce both the man position and link to the subject. We therefore got permission to use an empty teachers office, which we agreed could pass for an office at the Police Station. We shot the police officer in medium close up and positioned him to the left of the shot. It was important for us to get the positioning correct as we had planned to later contrast this interview with the Headteacher interview. We felt that this contrast in screen positioning we help to reinforce the two juxtaposing opinions. During the interview the whole group helped to get the positioning correct, and after everything was set up John asked questions whilst i took notes for cut aways. Nye was meanwhile keeping an eye on the camera to ensure a decent quality of filming. We decided that after the interview we would all stay on a little longer in order to get a few establishing shots from around the school building.(These shots would also come in handy later as we had planned to interview a headteacher) However we had a major problem with this footage and the computer systems in school as they all went down, causing all saved work to be deleted. As we had already captured and saved our interview our group mistakenly filmed over this footage, believing all was safe. I feel though this footage was not a complete waste of time as we now have a much better outlook in opposing opinions in relation to graffiti and have all learnt never to film over any footage.

HEAD TEACHER INTERVIEW
A few days later me, John and Nye all did a full day of filming. John picked me up in the morning and dove us to Nye's house when we we would be conducting another interview with her dad, who is the the assistant head teacher of a secondary school. Two days before my group had informed me of trouble they had had with a broken mic, so this time we spend a little longer testing the equipment worked in order to avoid having to repeated this process again. We created the mise-en scene of the interview this time as we had no office to interview Mr Foreman in, so we put up his school web sight on a computer desk positioned behind him, resting on top of an office desk. John again asked the questions during the interview whilst me and Nye between us monitored the filming of the interview and took notes on possible cut aways. This time we experienced no problems during filming which was essential as we had to catch an early train to Liverpool very soon after to spend the day filming.

LIVERPOOL DAY OF FILMING
Once in Liverpool we took the first attempt at our vox-pop, during which we intended to gain sort one word answers to the question we had prepared; 'Do you view graffiti as art or vandalism.' We set up our camera out side the Met Quarter and tried to draw the public over to the camera by asking them if they had a spare two minutes. Personally i was quite disappointed with the amount of members of the public who agreed to help us out, however because we probably seemed rather nervous when actually asking the people over this may have played a part in the fact that we only completed a few personal vox-pops. Again though this footage proved unable to be used when we watch it back in school as the mic has unfortunately ran out of battery. However from this experience i at least gained a little more confidence in not only the actual filming process but also in approaching random public members and asking for help.

The next part of our day was a little more hectic as we were repeatedly setting up and putting away our camera at different points around the city to get zooms and pans of separate graffiti. We also got permission form the shop 'Lost Art' which was interesting decorated all over with graffiti in oppose to a one colour paint or wall paper. After our venture around the city, spotting and filming graffiti we met up with a graffiti artist that Nye has previously contacted who took us inside a small graffiti studio which we planned to get a lot of footage from. However once inside the studio we soon realised that the place was far form what we expect. We had expected grant, thought provoking works of art which would liven up our documentary but instead the studio was simply painted walls with young children spaying random images over previous work. We were not disappointed for long though as in relation to our let down three local graffiti artists offered to take us to a low key legal graffiti wall where they offered us the opportunity to film them. John took charge of the camera and tripod at this point whilst i got hand held footage of the process. After tracking to the legal wall, setting up our camera and filming our footage together we walked back to Liverpool central where we together got establishing shots of famous icons around the city, such as The Liver Building and China Town. On our way back to the train station that evening we located the famous 'Banksey' work of art on an old, worn out building and gained footage of that before we left. This day was probably the most productive day of filming throughout as we got the majority of our cut aways and bulk of our filming.

GRAFFITI ARTIST INTERVIEW (LEARNING LIGHTHOUSE)


Me and Nye setting up the chromakey lighting.











The very last section of filming that took place with our whole group took place at the Learning Lighthouse. We used a technical man in our school in order to gain permission to use the equipment at the centre as we knew that this was the closest place in our area where we would be able to create a chromakey effect. Our plan was to use the green screen to create a background of various different shots of graffiti appearing behind our graffiti artist during his interview. This part of filming was the most enjoyable in my opinion as i had never experience an environment of such technicality before. I loved learning about how instead of there being an actually green screen in the back ground there was a curtain consist of tiny glass beats which reflected the green lights coming from the camera. John asked the questions to our graffiti artist in this interview while me an Nye watch what was happening in screen.

CUT AWAY SHOTS AND ACHIEVE MATERIAL
We have also done individual filming in our group, for example John used his friend to film the shots for our opening title whilst me and Nye were unable to as we had lessons. Also I took a camera home one weekend in order to collect achieve material for possible use in our documentary. Before we started to properly plan our documentary i wanted to gain a more in depth knowledge of the opinion and facts of graffiti, and so in doing this i came across a very shot film on the various opinions that where put across. I therefore thought it relevant to
film this as possible footage to be used in our opening five minutes.

LOGGING SHEETS

Documentary Planning

Storyboards

This is an image of the picture we created, to act as a guide line as to what we intend our interview faming would be like. This will help ensure that the footage we go out to film is usable when we later edit our footage.



















Above is an image of the the story board we created for our opening titles. The story board only shows one shot becuase we have decided to atempt to have our title spray painted on to a wall to anchor the theme of our documentary.

Running Order

Documentary: Write On?
Channel: C4
Scheduling: Wednesday 9-9.30PM
Duration: 24 minutes (including advert breaks)

Opening titles - 20 secs
Voice over introduces programme and poses question,

Whilst quick cuts (pans & zooms) of graffiti are on screen- 30 secs
Brief history of graffiti (voice over explains this) while still images
(early history) and actuality footage of graffiti (modern),

Ranging from Italy to modernised graffiti- 1 minute

Voice talks about public opinion on graffiti whilst vox pop is being
shown with establishing shots of Liverpool - 30 secs

Interview with cross cut interview between teacher and police man
with cutaways - 1 minute

Spinning shot around graffiti studio, cuts to Hoey interview,
cutaways are mainly him doing graffiti. (Possibly other interview - 1 minute

Voiceover talks about Banksy, while his work is on screen +
Actuality footage of ‘rat in Liverpool’ - 40 secs

Interview with Banksy, with cutaways - 2 minutes

Zooms and pans of graffiti in art museums, voiceover talks about acceptance
of Banksy in art community - 40 secs

Aerial shot from helicopter of London,
voiceover talks about the different places and art Banksy has done across
London - 30 secs

Interview with art critic about Banky’s work - 1 minute

Archive footage of the unveiling of the 1st solo graffiti art exhibition at
Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery by Temper.
Voiceover talks about Temper and his work - 1 minute

Slow zoom out a piece of graffiti while voiceover talks about the illegality - 30 secs

Interview with policeman about graffiti related arrests.
1 minute - 20 secs

ADVERTS BREAK
3 MINUTES

Interview with Leader of Liverpool city council, answering questions on how
graffiti could be brought into society legally - 30 secs

Voiceover talks about influence on graffiti on society, as camera pans along
Shelf in shop of rap music - 20 secs

Interview with graphic designer who has used graffiti on album covers,
with cutaways - 40 secs

Point of view shot of person pushing trolley through a shop;
voiceover discusses graffiti in fashion - 40 secs

Interview with head of fashion design at Echo Unlimited, with cutaways - 1 minute

Archive footage montage of various games, with people playing them,
screen shots of graffiti on games, voiceover talks about effects of graffiti on
game production - 40 secs

Interview with gamer, explaining how you graffiti on GTA San Andreas,
Mise en scene is chromakey of game footage behind him - 40 secs

Actuality footage of camera in a car, driving through a rough area with
graffiti on walls, voiceover talks about gang culture and effect on society - 30 secs

Interview with two members of a local gang cross cut with interview with an
old woman talking about graffiti - 1 minute

Quick cuts of archive material of graffiti magazines, books, studios, artists,
Etc. while voiceover talks about the growing fame of graffiti - 1 minute

Some examples of vox pop shown, cuts to zooms and pans of graffiti and
people looking at it as voiceover poses question again - 40 secs

Closing credits, as a montage of stills of graffiti fade in and out as titles roll - 20 secs

TOTAL RUNNING TIME
24 MINUTES



Formal Proposal

Title: Write On?
Topic: Is graffiti art or vandalism?
Type of Documentary: Mixed
Style of Documentary: Informing, informal, entertaining, opinions of interviewees comes through
Channel and Scheduling: Channel 4, Wednesday at 9PM.
Target Audience: Unisex ages 30+, mature audience to consider the topic

Primary Research Needed: Interview e.g.:
- Policeman
- Michael Hoey (graffiti artist)
- Local MP
- Art museum staff member
- Art teacher
- Psychologist

Locations e.g.:
- in front of graffiti wall
- Police station/office
- MP’s office or town hall
- Art museum (room without art work)
- Art classroom
- In psychologists office (with special chair in Mise-en-scene)
- Graffiti walls, Liverpool (vox pop), subway in Barcelona
- Mise-en-scene of interviews will be decided on location
- Liverpool museum (Egypt exhibition)

Secondary Research Needed: Archive Material:
- Graffiti magazine
- Graffiti websites
- Banksy artwork (printed)
- Youtube footage
- Audio discussions
- Surveys/facts and figures on graffiti
- Books on graffiti
- Music: choral soundtrack
- Egyptian hieroglyphics research
- Xbox games

Narrative Structure: Non-linear, open, circular, single strand

Outline of Content:
Titles – Relate to topic
- Interviews
- with cutaways of graffiti
- Voiceover tells the narrative and links interviews together
- Main theme of questions will be is graffiti art or vandalism?
- Vox pop of people in Liverpool
- History of graffiti included

Resource Requirements
- Video camera, digital camera, tripod, computer with Adobe Premiere and audition, Internet access

Audience Research

Questionnaire

This is an example of our group questionnaire that we will be handing out to our target audience. We will then create graphs to portray these results.

We are making a documentary about graffiti for our A2 Media Coursework, we would be grateful if you could take some time to fill in this short questionnaire.

How old are you?
30-39 □ 40-49 □ 50-59 □ 60+□

Are you male or female?
Male □ Female □

Are You A Parent?
Yes □ No □

What is your favourite colour?

-------------------------------------------

What are your main music tastes?
Pop □ Rock □ Indie □ R n B □ Rap □ Dance □
Classical □ Other □

Please specify: ______________________

What terrestrial TV channels do you regularly watch?
BBC1 □ BBC2 □ ITV1 □ C4 □ Channel 5 □

At what time in general do you watch these channels?
Between 7am – 10am □ Between 10am and 12pm □ Between 12pm – 3pm □
Between 3pm – 6pm □ Between 6pm – 9pm □ After 9pm □

Do think ‘graffiti’ is art or vandalism?
Art □ Vandalism □

Have you or anyone you know ever done any ‘graffiti’?
Yes □ No □

In three words describe your thoughts on ‘graffiti’
-----------------------, -----------------------,

Thank you for your time!\


Audience Questionnaire Feedback

GENDER

FEMALE : 17
MALE : 13


The fact that the results are biast towards females is important to our research as we our aiming to create and audience that is not gender specific. Therefore we willconsider this when deciding on decisions such as background tracks and colour schemes for our documentary.













The graph proves that our results will be biased towards 30-39 years old, as the majority of the people we asked were aged between this range















We asked in our questionnaires if the person completing this was a parent in order to get a wider view in to the views parents have on the fact that graffiti is perhaps viewed as a younger persons craze. We will still however take the fact the the results are biased towards parents into consideration when making important decisions in relation to the making of our documentary.
















This graph is key to the making of our documentary in that it shows us the two most popular colours of the audience we questioned. We will therefore perhaps try to corporate the colours blue and red into our documentary as this will target our audience.















Whilst our music decisions throughout the programme will be influenced by the content this graph still proves useful in that we are know aware that our audience favour rock, pop and classical muwsic, in oppose to rap or dance. We will atempt to incorporate this into our documentary music choices.
















Although this graph proves that our target audience favour channel one we have decided to go against this and create our documentary for channel four because our creation would not have a main stream audience. As channel four cater for the minority audience we therefore found it more fitting to chose channel four to show our programme on.

















The two most commonly watched times of television, acording to this graph, are between six to nine pm and after nine pm. Therefore we have chosen to show our documentary at nine o clock because of the fact that graffiti should perhaps not be show to young children in such a possitive light in case they attempt to copy. Also due to the nature of our subject is it possible that there could be adult only content included which again would not be suitable to be show the the peak time for family entertainment.

The fact that this graph is so close in results proves that we have chosen a main theme in which there are two clear oppinions. This is good for our group because if the whole of our target audience was wholy convinced that graffiti was, for example, vandalism there would be no point of us continuing with our project. Out documentray aims to give insights into both sides of the argument whilst remaining un oppinionate ourselves in the matter. In other words we will nto attemp to sway our audience one way or the other, we will simple provide looks into both sides of the argument and explore this. This graph then is possible not only the most thought provokign but also the most important in relation to relating and connencting with our target audience.

Below is a video of some feedback we got from people who filled in our questionaire.