moodboard...

1. In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


in other words, what we expect to see, and what the key features are of a children's programme. A children's programme is an open ended form, as it is on going, usually in a series, unlike a one off such as a film. Children's programmes are famous for a bubbly and enthusiastic presenter, one who encourages the audience and ties the whole thing together.

pitch..

a childrens program that focuses on the world of make believe and how there are worlds and creatures that we are not aware of. Using creatures and puppets that are friendly and funny, and that the children who watch will like. It will be shown in a main popular childrens tv slot. The titles will be bright and colourful and will have a catchy theme tune. My product will be different from the norm as it will be funny, educational and will interest and entertain the children all at the same time.

evaluation...

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation?

An article taken from Media Mania Magazine, article by Hannah Ashworth

New television show tigerlily has taken the television world by storm for its new way of teaching young children a moral message. Despite this, it fits in nicely within the childrens market because of its traditional approaches. Today we are interviewing Grace Robertson, director and writer of the show who is talking about the different types of technologies she used to tie in with our our technology feature week. So Grace, tell us, how did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Grace: well creating tigerlily would have been quite literally impossible without different forms of technology. To create the initial idea, for the planning element, I used the internet alot to have a look at the current market. Youtube was the ideal place as they had literally thousands of videos of the actual shows, as well as the theme tunes and titles of the shows, so i had so much variety in which i could base tigerlily on. It is great how easily accessible all of the past shows are. This was the same for the research, once again, it was the internet that allowed me to find so many different examples of successful shows. The use of cameras as well allowed me to do my research, by interviewing young children who I would have liked to focus my show on. However, their answers in my research were basic and they were shy, so I used teenagers for my audience research. being a student myself, it was easy for me to create a professional finish, and use a range of shots. The actual construction was via the camera and also on iMovie, a video programme on apple computers This high tech programme allowed me to do things such as extracting sound, putting in my logo, and merging the clips together properly and putting my song over the top to make it look like an actual programme. Also, for the ancillary tasks, from examples online, i could see the different things that a magazine has to include such as a strapline and a masthead. Also, the use of photoshop helped me tremendously with the masthead, which also appeared at the start of the programme and the DVD, it was all the same logo.With the evaluation, the fact that the show was on a quicktime file, it meant that i could put it onto my iTunes and put it onto my iPhone and then I could show my friends and other media students the product and find out what they thought of it. Also, i showed it to my classmates on my blog, which has helped me tremendously throughout the project, as it has allowed me to document my work all of the time. All in all, I am very lucky that I had so many good media products around me that I could use!

Grace's show, Tigerlily is on the Cbeebies channel, at 3pm daily.

evaluation...

How effective is the combination of the main product and the ancillary tasks?

RADIO INTERVIEW

My radio broadcast in essence explains that the combination of all products is very effective, especially when creating tigerlily the brand, by using the same logos and the characters throughout to make it all fluent and match in with each other, especially when using the same colour schemes.

evaluation..

In What ways does your media project use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Director Interview Script

(Medium shot - interviewer looking straight at the camera)

Mark: Hello and welcome to todays edition of 'what is good for your children?' today we are focusing on television, and what we should and shouldn't be letting our children watch. New show Tigerlily hit the Cbeebies lineup last week and has been getting nothing but excellent reviews, so today I have with me

(Medium shot - Director)

Grace Robertson- the director and writer of Tigerlily, who is going to tell us all about the show and how it will help our children, as well as conforming to the usual childrens genre.

(Medium shot - Interviewer)

Mark: so Grace, I have a four year old son, and he has been watching your show and he adores it already, he even begged me to get the magazine. Of course, your show is extremely educational, as it shows a different moral message each episode, but what gave you the idea?

(Medium shot - Director)

Director: in order to fully understand what we expect from childrens programmes, i had to do a lot of research, and this involved me watching programmes and drawing comparisons between them. One of my main focus programmes was Bodger and Badger, a show i used to watch when I was young, and i used to really enjoy because of it's silly nature and good characters. It was that infact that gave me the idea of using puppets, it allowed me to use anthropomorphism, animals which had human traits. I also watched button moon, a show that was based at children around the same age that i was targeting.

(Medium shot - Interviewer)

Mark: so how does tigerlily use forms and conventions of a childrens television show?

(Medium shot - Director)

Director: It is obvious that a childrens show has to keep a childs attention, otherwise they are going to get bored and not want to watch it, so it was clear that I had to use things such as bright colours and bubbly and fun presenter that the children watching will like and will be interested in. The theme tune was also an important part of the show, as from my research i discovered that if a show has a successful theme tune, children will remember it and want to watch it again. Games and animals and friendships are also important things in a five year old's life, so tigerlily contains all 3 things, animals in the form of tiger and lily, games in the form of hide and seek, a popular game and the importance of friendships through tiger and lily.

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Tom: does tigerlily develop the convention of the childrens genre at all?

(Medium shot - director)

Director: I believe that it does, a lot of shows focus on educational aspects that children will learn in school, such as numeracy and colours and words, but i wanted to go to a deeper educational message, which is morals. I wanted to teach children that things such as lying, being nasty to others and cheating are wrong things, things that often are not taught until much later in school.

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Tom: In any ways does tigerlily challenge the forms and conventions of childrens shows?

(Medium shot - Director)

Grace: In many ways, it doesn't because of the fact that my target audience is so young, and i wanted to keep things simple so that the message i was trying to portray would come through clearly. The only way I have challenged the convention is through extending the educational aspect, which to me was really important.

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Tom: Wow, well thanks very much for joining us Grace, I'm so glad there is a show that I know i can put on for my son and that he will have fun with it as well as be learning an important life lesson.

Now, for the debate: 'is watching the news good for our children?'

evaluation..

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

VIDEO FROM BBC INTERVIEW

I wanted to express how the audience participation helped me at two separate stages, at the beginning and at the end. At the beginning, as explained in the video helped me to see what children would want from a show, and what they have grown to expect. I could also incorporate the different things that children wanted; games, animals and a creativity, combined with what parents would want, the educational side that taught the children a moral message, as well as being educational. What i was really aiming at was what the children wanted, and how i could really apply that and connect with my target audience.

After making tigerlily, the audience feedback really helped me to gain a different perspective of tigerlily, and see things that i hadnt noticed before. The main thing that was pointed out to me was how successful my theme tune was, which was especially important as i did really thorough research on it. My negative feedback also allowed me to see the things that i would have done differently if i had the chance to do it again.

directors commentary..

This is my directors commentary..

extended question

To what extent was the intended audience a major factor in the creation of your A2 Advanced Production Portfolio?

To determine my programme as a product, i had to decide a target audience in which i could focus on. For tigerlily, i wanted to focus on children around the age of 5, as i know children who live near me that i could question about what they liked to watch. For my very first part of audience research, i interviewed my two neighbours, who were around the age of 5, and asked them what their favourite shows are, and why they liked them. Because of their young ages, i found the answers basic and not overly helpful, yet i could take some of what they said and apply it.

To get a more mature and thorough research, i wanted to go for an older age group. I went for people my age, so teens around the 17/18 year old mark. Despite the fact the people i interviewed were alot older than the target audience, it wasnt that long ago that they were watching childrens television, so their vivid memories of what they used to like to watch really helped out. I did this type of research on favourite programmes as well as on theme tunes, where i got people to sing or hum theme tunes from different kids programmes which was a fun and informative way to deliver the research.

I had to keep in mind the whole time throughout filming that the target age was for young children and that there would be some things that wouldnt be appropriate. For example, each episode of tigerlily contains a moral message, which is perfect for children around the age of 5, when they are extremely impressionable and influenced by what they see. I also in the episode kept the language simple so that they could understand what was being said.

The mise en scene in the feature also in my opinion reflected the age group. The colours used are simple and bold, and the props and things featured in the background are everyday items.

For the theme tune, i did extensive research on others from other popular programmes, and what i found, i applied to mine. Things like a constant beat, a catchy tune and easily memorable lyrics all came up, because i learnt that part of being a successful theme tune is the fact that kids can sing along if they want to, and if they hear it, they can immediately recognise it.

After finishing my project, i played the video to my class and got their feedback. This allowed me to see people who have a genuine interest in media to show their opinions as they were familiar with the techniques i used and what i was trying to achieve. The main thing that i got out of doing that was i was able to see that it was a good piece of work, because before i was genuinely negative about it, but after seeing other people's opinions and their positive and some negative feedback i was able to see that the show was appropriate for my age group.

From doing the programme i learnt that your target audience is not always the appropriate audience that you have to use for your feedback. Asking young children technical questions, which were the questions i wanted to ask was a struggle as they didnt fully understand, so going up a few age groups enabled me to have full coherent answers and let me work with the knowledge of what people wanted.

Evaluation- audience feedback

Based on the analysis of your audience feedback, is there a consensus on how effective your work is?

Overall, most people thought the visuals worked really well for what i was trying to create, and the fact that i made my own song and it was sung by me and a few others made it seem more professional, and that it was suitable for the children i was aiming for. Generally, people said that my editing and my ideas behind it were interesting and well thought out. There were a few negative comments which said about the sound quality of the song which i do agree with, but the fact that i got more positive than negative comments showed that it was an effective piece.

Do the replies pick out similar things to comment on?

Most answers from my audience feedback came back with similar answers; that there was a generally theme and mise-en-scene of bright and bold colours which captured the audiences attention and fit in well with what i was trying to achieve. Also nearly everyone agreed on the fact that the different pieces in the montage were well thought out and were appropriate for the audience. On the other hand, negative comments were that it should be longer and that the music should be of a better quality.

Do you accept the comments of your audience or would you want to challenge them?

With the negative comments from my audience feedback i do generally agree, simply because i am open to criticism and it is good to see how other people see it. On the other hand, i do challenge the fact that it should be longer, simply because if it was much longer it would be boring, because the main purpose of titles is to introduce the show, and thats what the clips in my montage do, introduce the show and characters, so i dont think it should be any longer.

If you were able to re-visit your work and develop it further which aspects would you focus on the improve the piece? Try and explain why you would make the changes.

My main change would be the sound quality of my song, because i do agree that it does sound a little bit shaky. also, i would have liked to improve my organisation so that my piece was finished earlier.

DVD cover

My Dvd resembles the magazine in many ways, in the sense that it has the same tigerlily logo, and that it has a picture of all 3 characters on the front.

Also, i wanted the colour scheme to work, as well as having a fun theme, so i used the blue sky and sun to change it into a fun looking cover.

At the top are details of the people behind it, so main character played by hannah ashworth and me, an 'award winning' director and writer.

For the writing which details what is inside the dvd, i have used a childish font and have colour co ordinated the 'PLUS' with the logo.

The actual image itself links in with children, as the main character is reading nursery rhymes, and it has the paw prints over the still showing a bit of fun.

magazine cover

the masthead, which is the logo for tigerlily appears on the magazine, as well as the DVD cover, and the start of the programme.

the selling line 'the magazine to accompany the award winning show' creates the link between the magazine and the programme.

Using a variety of different fonts for the different coverlines stops the front of the magazine looking boring, and also draws the readers eye down.

The different coverlines I have used represent what tigerlily is all about, so there are coverlines about the show, but there is also a creative element with 'make the tigerlily treats' and the educational side, with the frog facts.

Also, using the different characters on the front of the magazine also bridges the gap between the products. The use of Aunt Mabel, a fun and interesting character reflects the fact that the magazine is intended to be fun and interesting.

Finally, the use of a barcode and a price make the product look more genuine and professional.

my final piece

here is my final piece montage for the titles of my media. It contains the start sequence, the theme tune, the name of the episode, the name of who stars in and who who wrote it, typical things that you would find in a start sequence of a childrens programme.

change..

instead of doing a programme in it's entirety, i am now just making the titles, so i will be selecting short clips from the different filming that I have done to create a fun and quick moving title sequence that is filled with different clips. In order to make it look like different programmes, i have made sure some things look different. For example, I have made sure my main character is wearing different clothes in some shots as well as using different locations for it such as a park, and different parts of the house. Bodger and Badger, a famous television show starts with a montage of clips, and that is the effect I am going for. More famously, yet not a kids tv show, Friends uses the same thing, a sequence of clips, which are recognisable and will allow the audience to recognise them and make them feel more connected to the whole thing.

The clips I am using are as follows: a car scene, with a piano, cooking, hiding, playing on a park, a clips with Aunty Mabel, tiger hiding, makeup, sleeping, tiger and a dog, tiger and lily hugging, and all 3 characters waving at the end. I have made sure that all of the clips include things that are easily recognisable and that the audience, being young can relate to and apply to their own lives.

evaluation planning..

Because of the fact that the evaluation is such an important part of the project,i want to plan it thoroughly so that it is successful and covers all areas of the project, from planning and research to the filming and editing.

In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

in order to answer this question, i will have to look into the different things that we come to expect from a children's programme. The main things that are noticeable and are used often are: bubbly presenter, fun themes, animals, catchy theme tune and bright colours.

The usual convention of a children's show is used throughout in my programme, reasons for doing this is because its for young children around the age of 5, who will want a simple theme and thing to follow.

the idea of a 'real media product'- the conventional and original childrens show, could explain extensive research into different programmes from different eras, for example, button moon, bodger and badger, captain pugwash, horrid henry etc, and the similarities and differences between mine and those.

how it uses forms and conventions- discuss things such as the presenter, my choices for choosing her, the costume choices, the choices for the puppets, the theme tune (e.g lyrics, beats), location.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

the main point, i believe is the fluency among the products. things such as colour schemes, characters and fonts must stay constant to make the whole package look professional and to tie in with each other, making the different products easily recognisable. The main thing that I want to all tie in is the logo, i will use this at the beginning of the programme, and then as the headline on the magazine and the title on the DVD cover.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My audience feedback was such a vital part of my planning and research as it allowed me to incorporate factors that are popular, as well as changing and adapting the conventions. my audience research included asking young children, and then getting more sophisticated and in depth answers that i could fully interpret. I will discuss how successful my research was, and what i would do differently, e.g using a more diverse age category, or interviewing more children.

How did you used media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation?

in this section i will discuss all of the different programmes I have used and toyed with, so things such as imovie, adobe premiere pro, photo shop, after effects, i will be using indesign to do my magazine and dvd cover. Also i will talk about the camera i used, the fact that it was high def, and how that helped me to create a clear picture. Videocopliot.net also helped with loads of stuff, so i will mention that.

planning a successful evaluation..

the following questions must be answered:

1. in what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you used media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation.

the key to a successful evaluation which will pick up marks is the ways in which i show them. If i just write them out in four separate essays, it will be informative and have all of the information, yet will not show my creativity, which in media is a great trait to have. I have been thinking of different ways i can put convey my final evaluation, and conclude my project.

The different ideas I have come up with are as follows: a directors interview script, an actual interview which could be set in a local television studo such as BBC's look east, a radio broadcast and video commentary. I think these different ideas will stop the evaluations being laborious for me to do and the examiner/moderator to mark.

narrative..

Vladimir Propp-

looked at eight diferent characters that are used in lots of folk tales to begin with, and foccused on them rather than the individual person.

the hero, villain,donor, dispatcher, false hero, helper, princess and her father.

There are of course, many texts which do not conform to this, and films and stories where there is a protagonist who is the hero and the antagonist who is the villain.

Is Propp a useful way of looking at texts?



Claude Levi Strauss-

how our world was described in binary oppositions e.g night/day, good/bad, light/dark. These oppositions tended to structure texts such as stories, plays and films.

E.g Washing powder adverts rely on 'before and after' contrast to convince you to buy the product.



Rolande Barthes-

interested in concepts such as negotiated meaning between institution and audience. A reader produces new meanings when reading a text, making use of previous experiences as well as the actual text. The cultural context of consumption becomes as important as the text itself.

Most famous for his enigma code- it is the hook or mystery that makes people want to watch, so could be a trailer, or at the end of one episode, exciting clips from the next one which will want to make people come back and watch.



Tzetvan Todorov-

he worked out that there were five stages to a narrative.: equilibrium, a disruption of this equilibrium by an event, a relaisation that a disruption has happened, an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption and a restoration of equilibrium, which may be a new equilibrium. This structure can be applied to both fiction and non fiction and makes it easy to identify the structure of a text.



Lev Kuleshov-

experimented by showing shots of an actor in between shots of different objects, food, a dead woman and a baby. The audience interpreted the actors expressions, although it never changed, as being hungry, sad and affectionate. This is because our brains try to make continuitive sense of what we see. This is called montage.



Sergei Eisenstein-

believed that if consecutive shots werent linked, the audience were forced to think and interact more to make the mental jump from shot to shot., and that this si more effective. Often used in propaganda, and more light-heartedly in pop videos and advertising.

narrative and my programme...

In Western culture, in the movie industry it is the norm to have a protagonist who has to face obstacles to reach a happy ending. However, over more recent years, this tradition has been toyed with, experimenting different conventions, including ambiguous endings, which leave the audience to make up their own ending, or even room for a sequel. In Eastern culture, when watching their representation of film, or story telling, it is very different, and for most of us who are adapted to the western story telling, the linear, straight forward style, it is often difficult to get to grips with this alternative order of events.

It has been established that to make a successful story or film, that there needs to be an order at the start, some kind of equilibrium, a calm before the storm. This is often interrupted by an event, or a person who is different to interrupt the calm, and cause chaos. The disequilibrium. This leaves the ending open for the chaos to be fixed and put right. In my children’s programme, I used a state of calm at the beginning, with the introduction, before it had been established that there was anything wrong. It was the missing animal that caused the chaos before an important visiting relative comes to visit, causing nerves and rushing in an attempt to find him. Whether the problem shown is resolved or not, the end often contains a message subliminal or not, that teaches people something. In my case, the message is to be selfless, and treat people well, and as the target age is around five years old, it is a valid lesson that should be taught at a young age.

A montage is also an effective way of story telling, a mixture of clips from different events to set a scene, or even convey some kind of emotion. My montage is for my titles, and by watching that alone, the audience will understand the basic foundations of the show, three characters, a human and two puppets, one good and one bad. This montage will give the audience, in this case young children the chance to see what the programme contains, whether it makes them laugh, or whether it interests them. The montage contains every day activities such as driving a car, or cooking, activities that young children can relate to, and come to realise the consequences of their actions if they behave badly.

A linear form of story telling, in my opinion is the easiest to follow, and because of my young target age, this is the narrative I did adopt, simply because if there are flashbacks and cutting from one time to another, it would have to be done in such an obvious way to make the children fully understand it, and the changing lapses of time could become confusing, and this could cause the children to potentially lose interest, which is not what I would want to happen.

The conventional approach at story telling, is a potentially boring one, but I believe if it is backed up with an interesting story with a plot that is exciting and dynamic, then it will not lose any of its popularity as a story or film.

my progress..

over the christmas holidays, i did my filming, and the still photos from the filming are below. The filming went really well, the whole thing only took about six hours to do, which included the filming, and different attempts at it, as well as the theme tune being sung.

The montage was really fun to do, but also quite challenging as it was hard to place the puppets somewhere where the puppetteer couldnt be seen, this was especially challenging in the car as the space was limited, and two people had to be hidden, but the puppets had to be on show. It was also difficult when outside to film without showing the person as you could see them, so a way round this was just shooting the main characters head and shoulders, so you could see the puppet on the shoulder, and not the person controlling it.

The theme tune also i thought would be hard to do, because none of us are vocally trained, but it worked really well, and sounds really good.