8.2 Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Q2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts (Print Artefacts)?

In our coursework we have made 3 finalised products over the last few months. These consist of a 5-minute extract of a Documentary, in which we focused on the HS2, and 2 print artefacts. One is a Double page spread based off of the famous magazine, RadioTimes and the other print artefact is a newspaper ad which we have based off a channel 4 advertisement. Now in this evaluation I will be analysing how effective our main product and the print artefacts complement each other.

For all of our products we had the same target audience, which is a young audience in which the age range is around 16 to around a young adult (25). We know this is a very small age cap but we want to help other young people like ourselves get more in tune with what is happening in our country and documentary is a great way to provide this information. 

We made sure in both our main product and our print artefacts we used bright colours to attract are audience’s attention especially in the newspaper ad where we have used a bright red colour. As this is mainly aimed at younger people.

Double Page Spread

Now to start, we believe that all are products in one way or another connect and create a synergy between the coursework as a whole, as in our Double page spread it uses the same person throughout the designing, this means that that picture represents a link between the Double page spread and the film. The picture in question is a picture of Dan who stars in the documentary, as himself. So, with Dan being on the double page spread, means that audiences and relate Dan from the double page spread to the HS2 documentary. Also, the titling on the Double Page spread means you cannot mislead it for a completely different documentary as it is original. 

Also, in the double page has used many of its conventions that a normal RadioTimes magazine would use for example the at the very top of the page of the RadioTimes magazine, there had to be certain types of information, that was visible to the audience, this consisted of , the title of the product, (HS2:A White Elephant), the time the show was being aired and what date and also what channel. This can then tell the audience to go and watch the documentary as you have given them all the information they need.

Another factor that links this product is the programs used. We used Adobe InDesign for both the Newspaper Ad and Double page spread. Although I only used the Adobe InDesign to touch up the newspaper ad, it still means they have something in common (They were both edited in InDesign). 

However, as target audience goes, we have not effectively chosen the right magazine to do this with as I believe that RadioTimes is more suited to an older generation. For example, the colour scheme, compared to channel and are advert and film it doesn’t really have many bright colours. Also, not many of our target audience would spend money on a magazine each week, as they have better things to spend their money on. However, there is an increase to the online market for RadioTimes which means if a digital model of this Double page spread was made, it could get more views from are target audience as they are more likely to use the internet more than the older generation.

Newspaper Advertisement

First off the Newspaper Ad has many of the normal codes and conventions used for a normal channel 4 poster, as I found out when researching and making the poster myself. Such as colours which I discussed earlier and also the font. The font can mean lots to a young person. I for example won’t read an ugly font. It’s got to readable and also nice looking and the example of channel 4 fonts I used and downloaded are just right for are target audience. On the left are just a few of the fonts that we trialled and some that we did use for the final piece.

However the Newspaper Ad shows a picture of the countryside, which is something that is different to the other Ads. I do like this poster as this is the one we have chosen to present to the examiner. The poster itself is to show what is going to happen if the HS2 runs through the countryside. But that is also the problem, without any showing of the HS2 being on the poster, people who have no idea what the HS2 is will not know the meaning of the poster  which does not fit with are target audience whom we are trying to inform about this very big political topic.

The Film

The film itself is an entirely different product when being compared to the other two print artefacts, it is a moving product.  The film I feel links closer to the channel 4 print product, in some cases. For example, the animations we have are to please a younger audience, like the effect of the cost of the HS2, £56,000,000,000, the effect we feel gets the attention of the audience, and that of a younger audience too. But we also feel that the documentary, despite being of channel 4 descent, links to our Double Page Spread as well.

The double page spread we feel is more for the older generation and we have also imported elements of this into our film as well.

By using relatively easy to read font and colours that can be seen by most people we think this will result in a much more, wider, audience reception. This is similar to what we have explained about both of the print products too. This also show a great synergy then, between the products. An example of the relatively easy font come from both the main titles and the caption titles used to show who people are that appear in the film, for example, MP Christopher Pincher, is easy to see, even from a slight distance. Also, the title sequence font is easy to make out form the background as it has a black outline around it.

Overall

I feel like as a whole both our Print products and our Film have enough synergy to be effective in a number of ways towards our target audience, towards the promotion of the product and with both of the products together we actually convey to a wider audience in lots of ways by using fonts, different mediums, and colour schemes. So this means that it is effective in a few ways and this effectively suits the promotion of the documentary as a whole. Although there can be/ are a few criticisms that we can identify for having quite different print products we still believe that they are the best products that we can possibly make and also convey to our audience who are going to see these products or watch the documentary itself.