Monday, 30 November 2015

Camera and Photography Research

Image result for rule of thirds photography

As part of our research, we decided to look into different camera and photography techniques, to understand its concept and effectiveness for our documentary and newspaper advertisements. The first technique that we looked into was rule of thirds, this is were you have 9 imaginary squares (often the camera can display them in the settings) to have a better understanding of the composition on the shot, and create a more visually pleasing image or shot. For instance, the horizon is typically on the bottom of top line so that is allows the image to flow nicely and look professional. 

Long exposure image of traffic lights

We also looked into exposure and how it effects the image. Exposure is the amount light that is allowed into the shot or unit area. The longer the exposure the lighter the image will appear. High exposure does not work well with fast moving objects as it often leaves a blurry mark of where the object used to be. Shutter speed links to exposure as this is what controls how much light comes into the camera. Shutter speed is how quickly the lens of the camera shuts per shot, so consequently, the longer the shutter speed delay, the more exposure there is. We were thinking of using some form of exposure shot for our newspaper advertisement to show the idea of time moving quickly as we thought that this would be effective and intriguing for our target audience. 
Through going to our town center at different times in the day we found that the most busy times of the day are roughly 15:30 and 16:00, this is because it is after school and there are more people going home, therefore we will be doing our shoot at this time within the next few days to ensure that we have enough members of the public in the background of the image. 

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Progress Report

During my research so far, I have been looking closely at the typical conventions of documentaries, newspaper advertisements and radio adverts. I have come the conclusion that I am confident in the conventions, editing techniques etc that are used in documentaries however need to focus more on the typical conventions of the two ancillary products. I need to do this because the two ancillary products will be extremely important in gaining an audience for the main product which is a documentary.
The style of documentary and advertisement (newspaper advertisement and radio advert) that I will be focusing on is a Channel 4 style as they have a simple style which works well with making a product stand out from others. My group and I are looking on creating a reflexive documentary so therefore we would need to carry a little more research on this specific type of documentary.

So far we have completed:
  • ·         Textual analysis for main product
  • ·         Textual analysis for each ancillary product
  • ·         Moodboard
  • ·         Questionnaire for main product



We have produced a questionnaire to allow us to find out what our target audience thinks of our topic and what they would normally expect from a documentary of a similar subject. Later on, we will be analysing the results so that we can take on board some opinions from our target audience. 

Moodboard


We have created a mood board to show where our inspiration to create a documentary has come from. The images include documentaries from both BBC and Channel 4 however, Channel 4 documentaries are our main inspiration as they are more controversial than BBC documentaries. Above show some images from the documentary's newspaper advertisement.

Textual Analysis of Radio Advert: The Game Changers