draft evaluation

Advanced Portfolio Evaluation‘Manetain’

Hannah Vincent

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

In my opinion it could be argued that each of my ad’s use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products. I feel like I used my research into codes and conventions to

guide my media product.

After doing much research into the codes and conventions of particular genres of adverts I made my decision on what route I wanted to go down when creating my own product. After I had made these decisions I did some further research into testimonial and demonstrational adverts. I used many techniques from each of these to create my works. This is a factor to my work that I feel used codes and conventions of real media products.

I looked at the ‘V05’ adverts in particular. After looking at these I began to discover youtube videos that the ‘V05’ adverts got inspiration from. It became very clear that successful adverts had no more than 1 actors. I decided to adopt this in my own work for my first advert. When doing research into sponsorship sequences, I saw that some did a close up of the advertised product. In my opinion this worked very well as it made the products the centre of attention. I used this convention in the second part of my sponsorship sequence. Also, something that seemed successful when advertising was having a ‘face of’ the product. Someone that people associated with the brand. I again adopted this technique in my own work.

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

In my opinion it could be argued that each of my ad’s use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products. I feel like I used my research into codes and conventions to

guide my media product.

I then began to consider how I can set my product apart from other adverts that I had previously done research into. For my testimonial advert I wanted to use more than 1 actors to get my audience to understand what other customers thought. Using customers opinions is a great way to get the audience to trust in the product.

Another way that I feel like i developed or challenged codes and conventions was by not making the product the centre focal point in the first part of my sponsorship sequence. I wanted my audience to see how using ‘Manetain’ would make them feel after they use it, again, guiding them to trust the product.

Using the same voice actress was something I felt could be quite risky. This is because I felt that it could be quite repetitive, However, I wanted the audience to have some similarity in the adverts and make it recognisable.

3) What have I learnt from my audience feedback?

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

Throughout the whole process of making my final texts I kept in mind the importance of having synergy between all five of my media texts.

There are many aspects of my five texts that I have made sure run throughout. The most obvious being my actress. During my research I found that audiences like familiarity, this being said I wanted to have an aspect of this in my texts. Many real media products use actresses to be ‘the face of’ their product and this is something that I have adopted in my own work.

Leading on from this, I also used the same voice actress for the voice overs in the majority of my adverts. However, I did use a different voice actress for my radio advert. I feel like this does set this particular advert apart from the rest and if I could do this over I would have used the same voice for every one of my adverts as I feel it helps the audience recognise the product and again includes this sense of familiarity for them.

Question 2 continued...

Obviously, something that I used to keep synergy between all five of my media texts was the logo. It is visible in all of the adverts and it was the same in each. I feel like the logo itself helps create a brand for the product and in itself advertises due to the fact that the audience will recognise the logo and link it to the adverts thus linking it to the product.

Yet another thing I used to combine my main and ancillary texts was the soundtrack. Having created it myself for my radio advert I thought it would help establish the brand to use it throughout all my texts so that is becomes symbolic of the brand. Not only again creating familiarity for my audience but allowing ‘Manetain’ to form its own brand that people recognise.

Question 2 continued..

Colouring is something I considered when I thought about how I would combine my texts together. My text is targeted at females but I didn’t want to make it such a prominent factor of my factor. Therefor instead of using the stereotypical colour of pink, I chose to tone it down and use purple. This is not only the colour of my products and logo but it also in some of my ads. The background wall is purple in one of my sponsorship sequences and also my first advert. I thought this would help connect my adverts together without being such a prominent factor of my product.

My adverts were also filmed within the same two locations. The bathroom or the same bedroom. Thus meaning that the mise en scene helps create synergy in my adverts. Props is also an aspect of mise en scene that I kept the same to combine my adverts, using the same product and this being the only prop.

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

Obviously, research and planning are crucial when creating any media product. I used many new media technologies during this stage of my media coursework.

Documenting the research that I have done is obviously imperative when planning. I have previously used the website ‘blogger’ however I feels that my skills when writing the blog posts have developed. Being able to document any ideas that I have has helped me hugely because it allowed me to go back and look through all of the research I had previously done.

I also used search engines such as google. This was in the first stages of research to collect information on the codes and conventions of adverts. It gave me a wide range of websites to broaden my research. Besides from this I used sites such as Youtube and Vimeo to look at real media products to build my own ideas. I felt like Youtube was the best website for this as it gave a wide range of previous adverts to look at - previous and current.


In the construction process I used new media technologies throughout. Having used the same equipment last year I feel like my skills have most definitely matured and developed. Obviously, I have never created an advert before therefore I had to gain knowledge on what shots would be suitable. This meaning camera angles, distances and so on.Aside from this, I also used an edirol to record my voice over. I have again used this technology before however I matured my skills by recording in an environment that does not create an echo allowing me to get the best quality sound as possible. Making my soundtrack was the one thing that I had not yet had experience in. Using the program ‘garageband’ to compose my soundtrack, I was expecting it to be quite difficult due to the fact I had never used it before. However, I picked it up fairly quickly and I feel as if my soundtrack is of a high quality.

To edit both my main and ancillary tasks I used the software ‘Premiere Pro’, a program that I feel very confident in. Having used it in my Year 12 thriller project I gained the basic skills needed to edit. However, I used it in a group project therefore I never got to use it on my own to gain a perfect set of skills. In this project I developed my skills greatly. I came across a few problems with my voice over recording. I used my initiative to fix these problems and I feel like I am now 100% confident in using this software.


Another new media technology that I used in the construction stage of my A2 coursework was the Apple Macbook Pro. I have had experience using this before as I used it in my previous A Level project and I am used to this new media technology.

Photoshop is a software that I used to complete my logo. I feel very confident in using this. As my logo is fairly simple I don’t feel as if Photoshop is a software that I struggled when using. However, never having made a logo before, experimenting with fonts and colours was something that I feel developed my skill sets.


In the evaluation stages I used new media technologies throughout. Firstly, ‘Google Docs’ was something I used mainly. This was to create my survey to gain audience feedback. The reasoning for me using this tool in particular is because it is simple for people to fill out my survey but also it will allow me to keep all my feedback in one space, allowing me to collate my data and easily getting percentages to evaluate my work. I figured it was also helpful as it instantly puts all of my data into charts and graphs making it more simple for me to look through my results.

I used social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to distribute my audience survey. The reason I used all three to get audience feedback was due to the fact that I felt I will get a more diverse result being that a variety of different age groups use each of the networking sites.

… Did I use new media technologies effectively?

In my opinion, I used new media technologies in my research, planning, construction and evaluation stages to the best of my ability to make the best quality main and ancillary tasks. I feel as if the skills that I had already have matured and developed my in solo project. Having a group to refer back to and ask for guidance made it a lot easier when constructing my AS media project. Constructing my product on my own gave me a lot more room to grow when using these new media technologies. Throughout the simpler stages that I felt confident in, such as Photoshop and using the Apple Mac I feel that the use of new media technologies aided my product to great extents.

However, when using programs that I had not used before on my own such as Premier Pro, I found that I needed some help. Online tutorials helped me massively and I feel like my work progressed when using these. I also had a problem half way through my work where my laptop broke, leaving my project on hold for just under a week. During this week I used my time effectively and refilmed some shots that I was aware needed filming. I also used this time to blog more about my progress.

All in all in my opinion I used new media technologies effectively to aid my work and improve it.

draft evaluation

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