Radio Advert Specification

I have a condenser microphone which I will use to record voice in my bedroom because it is a confined setting and there would be little echo/background noise.

I will be using a script and using audio from within the documentary.

I will be using the same music I composed for the documentary in the background of the radio advert. A post on the music can be found here.

I will be using audacity to edit the radio advert.

Sam Tied Down Draft 2

Since the last draft I made I have added music, added a few more clips of overlay footage and changed the colour correction on the side angle clip. I'm not sure on whether I feel like the music is in appropriate places or whether I should limit how much of the music I use so it's less repetitive.

Using the Music

I added the music to the background of the documentary in places where I felt it was appropriate. I used Track 1 in the background of the majority of the documentary. I added track 2 where he talks about leaving his job to show sadness. I feel that the music has worked well in the background and made the documentary flow much better than it did previously because it covers sound cuts and makes the changes between camera angles much more fluent and natural.

Censoring

 I decided to censor the Woman's face in the charity shop because it fits the conventions of documentaries.

These are the settings I used for the censoring the woman's face. I had to change the position, the amount of blur and the radius of the censoring.

I had to split the scene because there wasn't an option to use the censor tool for a certain duration.

Rival Scene

To showcase Sam's rivalry for the other character I printed a picture of him and made Sam burn it with a lighter because I felt it showed his hatred of the other character. This was Sam's friend who I instructed to wear a tie around his head and pretend he was drinking because I thought it would show that he was having fun with tie reviewing in contrast with Sam who is very serious about reviewing ties.

I tried a mid-shot of Sam burning the photo but felt like it should have been closer because you couldn't see the photo very well so the meaning was slightly lost. 

This is a closer shot which I preferred because it kept everything I wanted to be in shot in shot but you could also see more details.

I also filmed some overlay footage of Sam outside of his shed because I didn't establish it as a location beforehand.

Music

I've composed 2 backing tracks in Garage Band with the help of my brother Sam. Track 1 is a more upbeat happy track which I felt would show his forced happiness in contrast to the sadness that track 2 showcases.
Track 1
Track 2

Track 1

I selected a hip hop drummer because I thought it would suit the theme of the music I was looking to make and would be quite upbeat. I felt that the drums did become too prominent so I used the beat but changed the instrument to a crate digger, which toned the 'shells' down.

I used these instruments because I felt like they worked well together and enforced the beat and are typically used in the upbeat backing tracks found in YouTubers' videos.

I selected these notes on the acoustic guitar, they are all major chords in the C Major key, this was the foundation of the music that I created everything else to as I knew it would create an upbeat style song.

I selected these notes on the bass guitar because I felt that they were quite happy, but I tried copying the bassline from the piano melody, which didn't fit so I found something more simple and it was effective. I also increased the speed on the guitar to enforce this.

I looped the music until the end of the track where I progressively removed the instruments because I felt like it made it more simplistic which is what I wanted.

Track 2

This shows the instrument layout of the second track, which is a lot more simplistic. This was done for two reasons;
1. the removal of some instruments means that the dialogue is accentuated, making the atmosphere seem sadder.
2. I tried experimenting with strings and percussion, from the smart drummer and creating my own loops and using various string sections, but it sounded too busy and forced, and I thought emphasis would be taken away from the dialogue.

These are the same chords as in track 1, but they are minor variants, which means that the transition is easy between the two.

Reflective Comment: Although I'm not a fan of the music I produced I feel like it may be better in the background than no music in most cases. I also think it may suit the theme of the documentary and compliment it nicely. It was also a different experience to learn how to use garage band which I hadn't used before creating this music.

Charity Shop

I contacted a local charity shop via phone and asked if they would be okay with me filming some footage for my A-Level media project and they said it would be. This is the same charity shop I said I may film at in this blogpost

This is one of the angles which we filmed in the charity shop of him looking through some ties.

This is a screenshot of the scene we got where he was paying for his ties. I'm going to blur out the woman's face to suit the conventions of documentaries

This is a screenshot of the scene where sam was outside showing off his new ties.

Radio Scrips Draft

Link to script

This is a rough draft of what I want to include in my radio advert because it fits the conventions of having someone talking and then having something which represents the product. I will also have some music playing in the background so that will also fit the conventions. I'm going to send this to Sam and see what he thinks needs changing.

Colour Correction

I used some colour correction on the side angle scene to make it more accurate and similar to the other clips

This is what the scene looked like before

This what what I have edited it to look like. This is less saturated and bright which suits the other clips. Below is all of the colour correction I have done to make it similar to the other clips.

Newspaper Adverts

 I have changed the font on my posters for all text except the Heading because it's more of a logo than text. I changed 'The Untied Story' to have more space which makes the text more clear.

In this version of the Advert I elevated the text and to have the text curve around his hand.

In the version the newspaper advert I had the text more similar to the earlier draft where the text is more resting on his hand. I prefer this version because it fills up more space and I feel like the other one feels more empty 

I used the different fonts on this version of the newspaper advert but I still feel that the other one is better. 

Newspaper Advert Feedback

These were the 2 favourites when I asked some people. Someone felt that the fonts looked a bit           unprofessional so I may change them at some point to improve the quality of the adverts.

I will most likely use this one because it was favoured by a majority and I feel like it's more 

simplistic as it takes up less room.

I will create another version of this advert with the other font in case it comes out better as it was liked by the others but I will most likely use the other one.

Documentary Specification

Newspaper Advert Specification

Radio Advert Planning

For my radio advert I'm going play this track playing in the background.
Sam is going to introduce it by welcoming the listeners and then I'm going to use clips from within the documentary to give the listener a feel of what it is. I'm going to write a script and record the audio clips I need soon.

Newspaper advert drafts

 I've made 5 newspaper advert drafts now and plan on showing them to some people to get feedback. I used an eraser tool around the edges of Sam in order to make the edges look less rough.

Newspaper Advert Draft 1

This is the first draft of my newspaper advert. I feel like the channel 4 logo and the words 'The Untied Story' seem out of place and I'm also not sure whether I should have included his name because all of the words start to clutter which could be used to symbolise that Sam isn't a very organised character but I feel like it ruins the simplicity of the advert. I also tried making the Channel 4 logo white and putting it over Sam but due to the brightness of the ties it was difficult to see.

Newspaper Advert Photoshoot

I took various photos in a few different positions which showcase a few different ties. We made sure to use some of the most colourful ties for the photoshoot so that they became very obvious in comparison with his dark shirt. I used this room because it was the best place I had access to where the background could be edited out with photoshop. I also used a soft box light during the photoshoot to increase the lighting and quality. I'm going to use these to create a few draft adverts and then I may get some feedback as to which one is the best in relation to what the documentary is about.