Ancillary Task: Analysis

From my previous title sequence analysis I have highlighted several key areas for the construction of a successful Local TV News intro. Putting this research into practice I worked with my group to create our own title sequences. Here is the finished title sequence and analysis of the process and finished product.

1. News Station name: As a group we chose the following namee Morning Midlands.

After completing some earlier analysis of TV News we decided that this title would best fit with our research because we had to make a same for our TV News programme that would represent what time our broadcast will be in and we also included where the base for the TV News programme is being broadcasted from. We chose to use alliteration to make it easier to familiarise with the target audience and comes across in a more friendly way rather than being formal which will not make out target audience connect with the programme.

I asked my teacher about their opinion on the TV News Programme they liked the idea due to it being suitable for the time frame and it suited the target audience we was aiming for as a group.

2. As a group we then created a Logo based on our name to use within the title sequence and on our final news programme.

Refer to other information slide about the creation of my Logo.

Through the use of semiotics companies use their logos to remind their audience of their services, products and brand. TV news also uses this technique to remind the viewer who

they are.

• 3. Through our research into audience theory we studied ‘The Hartley Classification’ and knew that is was important to appeal to our audience demographic through these 7 socially grouped categories:

• 1 Self – I chose to take images that would appeal to individual target audience members using famous landmarks to remind them that my local news is for and about their area.

• 2 Gender- In our still and moving images we show a range of ages, races, genders and class groups to appeal to a wider target audience.

• 3 Age Group• 4 Class – different social classes e.g. working, upper etc.• 5 Ethnicity• 6 Family• 7 Nation- All of our images are only from the west midlands because we wanted to make it

clear that we are from the local news.

One of the ways we did this was through our use of still and moving images.

4. Using this work we constructed our TV title sequence in a programme called Video Studio Pro x8 which is a video editing programme.We edited together our Logos and footage from our filming day. Trimming

footage, adding transitions, effects and text based on our groups storyboard.

. The transitions we used was crossfadeThe reason we chose these transition was because it helps the images run

smoothly. The transition was not whizzy because the convention of an opening sequence needed to be simple and professional which is carried across the sequence for continuity.

. The effects and transitions we used on our logos and images we layered our logo over the top of a moving image shot of the city for the intro of our title sequence to remind the viewer of our brand and the city of which our local news is based. We also used circles moving graphic which mirrors the shape of our logo and the colour referring to the sun in the morning showing time scale of the programme again.

. The length of our title sequence is 15-30 seconds. This is because we needed to make a clip that was long enough to hold the target audiences attention. It is a short snippet of what the news might be portraying for the audience and is the first thing the individuals see so it needs to be eye-catching and not dragged out too long.

The order of Logo, still and moving image has been constructed this was because the logo at the end allows the audience to be reminded of what they were watching and to represent brand identity.

5. We then added Music to our title sequences.We originally chose a clip of music that was too

short, due to this we had to loop it and during our audience feedback we noticed that it was too repetitive therefore, during our amendments we changed our music to a longer piece with no loop.

The music we chose is simple and straight forward but professional to fit in with our groups desire to appeal to a wide target audience within the west midlands. We did not want the music to be too dramatic so we had to go for a more simple piece of music.

6. Once our title sequences were completed we asked an audience panel to review our intro and give feed back.

7. Based on this feedback we amended our title sequences.

8. I feel I have made a successful title sequence because I studied the codes and conventions of a title sequence I was able to understand what was needed in order to attract an audience. I used the Hartley classification in order to go through each section making sure that different audience groups are being met. Gultang and Ruge made up a set of values that news production teams need to go by in order to make a good story which is the basis that me and my group used. Proximity was used by making our news programme local within the west midlands, it makes the stories “closer to home” and more news worthy.

9. In preparation for the main task I will use both our groups logo, the music style and the colours which are yellow and blue on my top and bottom strips and in the actors clothing to carry through the continuity.