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

In the  construction of my pieces, I used new media technology that I hadn't previously used as I chose to do an ident video, when at AS I only used technology for a print piece. This included using iMovie for my ident video and also an app the I used to design my website named 'Nice n' Easy Web Builder 2'. The iMovie software was hard for me to use and I needed help from Steve, the film visitor who helped offer improvisations for our productions. I found that editing and cutting film was difficult to get used to buy after some demonstration from Steve I managed to edit my ident video successfully.

For my website design, I found the app very useful software and easy to use. However, there was a glitch in the website design software which meant some parts of it had to be manually coded. This had a negative impact on my timing when it came to deadlines as it was very unexpected and took time away from completing other tasks.

For my double-page spread, I was familiar with using Pages so I decided to use different software, in the form on Photoshop. This was more effective than Pages as there were more fonts and more effects to use. Also, because the software is based on photos, it allowed me to make the text and the smaller photo on my piece stand out from the main background picture. This would of been a lot harder to do on Pages and would have resulted in a lower quality standard final piece.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After the first drafts were completed, there were people from the industry that visited to give advice and helpful suggestions which would improve our pieces. These included Tony Baxter from Voodoo, Steve Richards and Pete Carvell, Marlwood's IT technician. Every suggestion that was given to me was noted and then any improvements I felt would improve my piece I made. The feedback I received was very useful and I was able to make the necessary improvements.

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

In my double-page spread, I have managed to include my main task (the website domain) at the bottom of the page. This results in the use of symbiosis in my combined pieces, which makes sense as the double-page spread relates to the website and the ident video. However, one weakness of the double-page spread would be that it doesn't include any reference to the new channel launch or the name or number of the channel.

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

Main Task - Website:
From the information I learned from my content analysis, I managed to follow most conventions that I found in my reserach. I decided not to include a catch up player, as no competitor websites chose to include one. A convention I made sure to include was a news link as this would make the website serve more than one purpose instead of just promoting the new launch of the TV channel. Obvious conventions such as use of a banner, a horizontal navigation bar and the inclusion of pictures were all key in allowing my website to look realistic, seeing as these features were picked up from real media examples and real competitors to my channel.

Ancillary Task 1 - Double-Page Spread:
The biggest convention I found from my research was that the text takes a back seat the the pictures, meaning the pictures fill most of the page and are very eye catching which draws attention. I decided to follow this convention as it looked more appealing in my opinion. This means that because the pictures are so bold, the text has to be plain and easily readable so that the two don't clash, if this was the case it would not look entertaining to read.

Ancillary Task 2 - Ident Video:
The powerpoint presentation on the real media conventions of idents that I made was very useful to me as I was able to cross check my piece with the conventions easily. The first convention I followed was related to sound. I found in my research that sound does not play a big part in idents, so I made sure to keep the sound to a minimum. I chose to keep a subtle logo which followed the simple, generic themes that held my piece together. The reason I decided to follow these themes was down to another convention I followed, which was for the ident to be subtle and not loud or eyecatching. The slow motion effect was another convention I stuck to. I felt that this was very effective and that it captured an audience's attention, seeing as real life sport is obviously a lot faster paced.