8. Franklin Start Evaluation

What have you learnt in each of the four areas?

I have learnt many new things analysing documentaries, music videos, video game adverts and regional magazines. The one I found most interesting and entertaining is video game adverts as I have a passion for playing video games. I have learnt a variety of new skills for example with video game adverts I have learnt about typical codes and conventions used. They are used to portray a specific image or message to the audience. An example for a video game advert would be a narrative or voice over some game play footage; this is done to make the game look more interesting by giving extra detail on what's happening. Call of Duty are well known for using this particular technique as they like to create a new story each year with their new games so players can connect with the characters. I have also learnt about how video game adverts have changed over the years. In the 80’s and early 90’s video games were seen for just children so the adverts used to be very energetic with a person playing the game having the best time ever. However, people nowadays aren’t as easy to persuade as there’s so many games available now to play. Modern adverts use mainly game play and cinematic to persuade people to buy the game as we have the technology and software to do it compared to the 80’s.

For music videos, codes and conventions are used throughout to set the mood of the video, for example if the genre is sad they would use a slow beat rather than a fast beat as that's typically used for upbeat and happy songs. The editing would be much different as well because with sad songs they would use slow and long transitions with slow motion camera shots of the person or band singing, an upbeat song would have short clips and constant scene changes to make it seem fast pace.

I have learnt the basic elements for creating a successful documentary, the most important element is to keep the audience interesting, and this can be done by making them interact with the topic or by giving interesting information and statistics. Professional documentaries usually have a very well-spoken presenter to keep the audience engaged, so the sound quality of the microphones and cameras needs to be clear. Each documentary is different as they have different purposes, some are educational, and others are entertaining.

Lastly, regional magazines was the least interesting area I covered as I don’t read magazines, this is mainly because they cost money to read and there’s plenty of alternatives to get information like YouTube and social media sites. I learnt about the codes and conventions used on front pages and double paged spreads, for a tourist attraction magazine there would be a lot of secondary images showing the area and text organised in columns with promotional details.

What could you improve on in each of the four areas?

I could have definitely improved in all areas of my work as I made many mistakes and if I were made to do it again I would make a lot of changes. For video games advert I could have spent more time looking at examples which were similar to what I was planning. Looking at a wide range would have helped to be more creative, but looking at similar game adverts would have improved how professional mine would have looked because I would use similar features and techniques. The documentary we created received peer feedback which included some positive points like, it was very informative and well edited however it received a lot of negative comments like, the voice over was boring and monotone, very little use of own recorded footage, used too many archive clips. I was familiar using the Adobe Premier software so I knew the basics already which gave me an edge over my peers. I listened to all the feedback and if I were to do it again I would definitely make those changes suggested. Creating the regional magazine was very fun as we did it in Adobe InDesign, to improve the magazine I would look at tutorials on how to use the software as I had never used it before. I would also spend more time planning what I wanted to put on the magazine before doing it so I could be more creative and professional. Similar to video game adverts, I struggled with music videos as you have to be unique and creative when there's so much competition already. I would research and analyse similar examples to mine and then plan what to include.

Based on your experience, what task would you like to take forward into coursework and why?

Based on my experience learning the four areas, the task I will be taking forward into coursework is creating a video game advert. The main reason why is because playing video games is a hobby of mine so I will enjoy analysing different adverts and creating my own. I have also already created a video game of my own in another subject so I could create an advert for that game. Doing this will make it stand out from all my peers, I created the game in Game Maker and it’s an old arcade game. My other option would have been creating a regional magazine for video games however I thought creating an advert would be more entertaining as I don’t like or read magazines anyway. For an ancillary task I will be creating a magazine cover for the game anyway. I enjoy the video games adverts topic the most as it’s something I would like to do in the future. I will learn new skills editing and recording footage as well, I also have the freedom to experiment on what I’m doing.