I have been creating a series of media products based around the launch of a new TV show. These have included: a website, a poster as well as a double page spread for a listings guide. These are all new media products that I have not created professionally before, therefore have had to learn the methods and techniques professionally used to create them.
My initial idea was based around creating a comedy TV channel that shows a very large variety of shows within the comedy genre, these will be through time as far back as the 60’s and from around the world, therefore making sure that there is something for everyone to enjoy. That is the overall aim for this channel to be able to have the biggest demographic possible by showing shows that everyone already likes and hopefully introducing shows to people that would not have seen them before, for example getting teenagers to watch the old classic sitcoms.
I started with research into current channels and the different aspects of the channels, such as there websites, advertisements, in newspapers and online as well as the actual identity and feel of the channels. I looked at general channels as well as specific channels and decided to mix the two and have a comedy specific channel but one with enough general programming that they specially picked from around the world and through time, that it would becoming accessible to all.
I have been using several software packages in order to create these items. For the website I have used the software package “Macromedia Dreamweaver”, for the double page listings guide and the poster I have managed to create these mainly using “Adobe Photoshop” with the aid of “Adobe InDesign”. The majority of these packages, with exception to “InDesign” I had used before but only on a very basic level, and had no real time spent using them before and was a basic novice at the start of this process. Therefore before I could start production of anything I had to learn how to use these software programs and evaluate what they were capable of.
The software programs are quite complicated to learn how to use, but after a few weeks and sessions with my tutor I felt confident enough to start pulling my designs and ideas together and start on, firstly the production of the Poster using “Adobe Photoshop”, this freely allowed me to create an A4 page in which to create the poster using a series of layers. I did have trouble getting to grips with the program and did have problems with remembering to deselect what i was working on before moving onto something else. This was not a major problem but it was time consuming and did make m job seem more tedious and demanding. However with a few online tutorials i started to get to grips with the functions of the program and was able to begin to make a professional looking poster. .
I started off by creating an identity for my channel in the form a logo that I made using "Adobe Photoshop". I decided to keep with simplicity whilst still trying to get the idea of the channel across and felt that incorporating a globe into the word comedy would be simple yet effective for my channel. This was the end product:
“Dreamweaver” was the program in which I had the most experience in prior to beginning this task due to the experience in using it to complete a task in my ICT A level last year. This allowed me to work independently on this without much requirement for help from my tutor; I started by creating a basic layout for a page with a header, footer and main section which was split into a left and right column. I then created my house style that would be consistent on each page; this consisted of the logo, tag line, links in the footer, the channel numbers and finally the buttons for navigating the site. Each of the buttons were rollover images so that when the user moves the mouse over the buttons they change. I did this using “Adobe Photoshop” by first creating the buttons and then inverting the colours and saving them as separate images this then allowed me to insert them into “Dreamweaver” as a rollover image where it changes from the first image to the second when the mouse rolls over them.The double page spread I created using “In Design” which is a program I have had no prior knowledge with and therefore was learning during the process of creating this, but now feel fairly confident in the use of this program in future projects.
My poster I feel got completed to a very good quality, I made sure that it was not cluttered with information, and therefore quick and easy to read and take in therefore fitting its design and purpose as a poster. This allows passers by to just quickly look at it and know everything I needed them to, like, that it is an advert for a TV channel, what we show, the launch date as well as what channel to find us on. I also made sure that the colours were bright and the fonts were big making it eye-catching to anyone walking past. I also made sure that the logo and tag line were bold to allow people to start to recognise it and associate it with the channel. One further technique I used was to incorporate a very popular show as the main focus of the poster to help catch the eye of people with the picture and draw them in. However I felt that just one show on a poster may discourage fans of different shows, and as my channel is “Comedy 4 everyone” I made sure that I incorporated a few other shows from different countries and different times to allow a broader variety of people to notice the poster by seeing the picture from a show they like. An area I felt that I could have improved is by changing the background that I used it is quite a strong gradient and therefore is good for being eye-catching but, I feel this does take away from it looking more professional.
I then moved onto creating my double page spread, this I decided I would keep to a similar colour scheme as my poster so people would start to see the advertising campaign as one, I as can be shown from my designs I decided on a visual item on one page in the form of the shows I will be showing in a timeline over half a century. I also included as it was a listings guide listings for the channel over the launch weekend and on the other page with this wanted to take the opportunity of having a format in which people buy to read to take this chance to explain the channel and what we aim to achieve. I feel this also got created to a high quality but again feel that using the same colour scheme as the poster did make it loose a little if it’s professional feel, however this channel is supposed to be fun and vibrant so bold colours aren’t too much of a hindrance to it.
Moving onto the success of the website I feel that it is a good website, it is vibrant, easy to use and navigate and explains the channel and shows that are on it. I’ve included a video on the website, as specified in the brief, and this I have created using my knowledge from last year’s project of creating a two minute film opener. This is my main area of interest so felt that I would create an advert like video that introduced the site and could be used on TV to advertise the channel. I story-boarded the video and then shot it, and edited it using “Final Cut Pro”. The premise of the video was that anyone can watch the channel extending this to family pets. This ended up as gold fish watching from there bowl with a cat and sped up footage to create a comedy effect thrown in to keep to the purpose of the channel. I helped to create the comedy in this with the sped up footage of the fish supposedly trying to escape the cat and by overlaying a comedy music track. I gave the fish personalities my giving them voices in the form of a voice over. I am very happy with the final cut of the video, and feel that this shows the skills I have learnt last year I am still using and developing, continually improving. It can be found on the websites homepage.
Promotion is very important for a TV channel and in the new media industry the Internet is the corner stone of this. Therefore having a website as any company is important and as a new TV channel this is crucial, it allows for interactivity with the channel, and is an area in which information can be given to the viewers. The utilization of social networking sites such as "Facebook" "Myspace" and "Youtube" would be used to help advertise the channel and get knowledge of it out there.
Most TV channels have a specific demographics, such as "E4" are mainly based at the youth marker, with my channel I have decided to challenge this convention in the industry and try and bring in everyone to this channel, with a very varied and dynamic schedule of programs, through time and from around the world. This will help to ensure that there is something for everyone on this channel and ope in up to a wider audience.
However areas I feel could be improved is in the content of the website I feel that I could have gone further into this and created a more interesting and informative site. I also feel that I could have included some more technically challenging items such as more flash objects and audio player or some sort of gallery. I have on the other hand managed to manipulate the behaviours of items on the website using “Dreamweaver” to show and hide layers when buttons are clicked on the listings page, this therefore saves a new page having to be reloaded each time a button is clicked. This was a challenging task to complete and I had to research the Internet in order to work out how to do this, due to the fact I have not done this before.
There have been a few problems through this task, including the fact that half way through I had to change from creating an ident sequence to a listings guide double page spread, however even though I would have liked to have created an ident sequence I feel that the listing spread is of a higher quality than the ident sequence would have been able to be due to time and resource restraints.
I have carried out some audience feedback since completion and had the following comments made with re feral to my media products that I produced and the channel idea as a whole.
"The Poster is eye catching and uncluttered, I would definitely notice it and be intrigued by the channel, as everyone loves some comedy shows and I Instantly saw two show on the poster I already love"
(Sam Pepper, Age 17)
"I think it would be great to see this channel produced it shows all the sitcoms I used to watch when I was younger, I would love for my grandchildren to be introduced to them as well"
(Daphne Bailey Age 74)
In conclusion I feel that the finished products are very close to my original designs that I created and therefore showing I am able to create the visions I have, practically. The products fulfil their needs very well and although maybe not completely professional standard I feel that they could be used in the real world. I am most happy with my poster with it being bold and eye-catching, as well I feel I have been able to create the perfect balance of information and images allowing people to quickly look at it and get all the information that I need them to. My project has had a fairly positive response and therefore I feel has been successful. I have learnt many new skills and now feel confident with new software packages and in my ability to create these media products in future. My skills have developed and improved, from last year and through to this year I have built confidence in the professional creation of media products as well as learning the technologies and theories behind them.
