Monday, February 9, 2009

Plan 18/20
Prod 50 /60
Eval 19/20
Total 87%
Grade A

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I believe that my project is largely very agreeable with many chart shows as they have no specific genre and simply play what is popular. This follows a generic code and convention of a chart radio show where they feature certain guests on their radio show in order to make it more interesting for the public, in my case it being Girls Aloud's Nadine Coyle, of course the dialogue used was taken from other clips but i believe that this helped my radio show become more believable as a chart show. 
My show also challenged certain media texts of radio shows by this same example as not usually would a presenter have a guest presenter during a chart show. 

I created my jingle short following a typical code and convention of the media , which is done by other radio shows as a method as grab grab the audiences attention. The jingle does a variety of things, it introduces a new show to the audience, grabs and maintains attention and serves to the audience what type of music will be played over the course of the show. This jingle is supposed to appeal to the target audience and tell them that this is what they should be listening to. 

I have also given a consistent bed track throughout the snippet of the program being that the track used is simply my jingle's bass guitar along with a new synth track to create a feeling of continuity throughout the programme. Along with the actors i maintained current codes and conventions by having the presenters introduce themselves before some of the main dialogue is spoken. 

The use of "The Loving Kind" single also creates a set of continuity, being that the guest presenter is a member of girls aloud so the song just feels right. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
By my project being a chart show it has to represent an entire nation and appeal to them. This meant that i had to choose a jingle that would appeal to a variety of people and a large demographic. The jingle features synth tracks within it which of recent have become increasingly popular under the electric music genre so i felt it was necessary to include this.

My jingle would appeal to a mass audience by it playing a large range of music, the synth, upbeat music would be appealling to an audience as it would be something, arguably, what they would want to be doing. However because it is chart music largely the music being played is aimed at 16- 30 year olds so as to appeal to a modern society. 

The use of Nadine Coyle's voice adds another dimension to my target demographic as not only does the show now include the regular "Chart 40" listeners but now, arguably, the fans of Girl's Aloud. This would overall increase the audience attracting an audience interested in a different genre every week because of a guest presenter included in the show.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A broadcasting studio obviously would broadcast my radio show, albiet not as it is now as it would not be good enough to meet the standards of any major broadcaster. Perhaps a local broadcaster akin to channel 103 over here. If the radio show's standards were upped then the possibility for a major distributor such as the BBC is a possibility.

In order to meet the higher standards i would need better recording equipment and perhaps a live band, also i would need to re-record the archive sound clips i used at higher quality 
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience who would listen to my show would be a regular listener to the charts, this would be realistically speaking be the demographic described earlier the 16-30 year old region with a demographic of all social classes. So strategically speaking anyone and everyone.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The idea of attracting the target audience's attention is by using the jingle to the greatest effect, it attracts the target audience with an upbeat attractive jingle. We are then engaged immediately by the presenter introducing the guest star to the show, we are greeted by the prospect of having the show co-presented by Nadine Coyle of which many fans will listen to. 
We are further engaged by the the bed-track that mimics the jingle so it has also got an attractive feel to it 
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have got to work with garageband and familiarized myself with it, this level of understanding has been achieved through trial and error in the music loops etc. I have learnt to target my audience using the specific loops related to genre. I have also learnt how important the levels of sound are in a complete piece of music, as it can determine the feel of the entire radio show. I have also learnt how to finalize my project in the form of an Mp3 file via the share option on Garageband. 

Friday, February 6, 2009

Making the project

I began by creating my jingle on garageband for a mixture of loops to create it, I tried to make it catchy so to attract the target audience, and to satisy the examiners needs of course.

After i had succesfully created the jingle to my satisfaction, i began to add my audio clips, after adding these in the media hut i realised that it contained a lot of sound that i didn't want. So i reverted to recording my audio at home, still with no idea on who to interview.

I decided who to interview by a shuffle on iTunes, this was helpful as i could use an artist to interview, via using audio clips from a professional interview. This i felt was the easiest way to create the conversation. However to my displeasure my shuffle unluckily after enabling the all play option the artist was not who i was hoping for.

I then 'stole' my audio from video clips on iMovie this worked relatively well i think as it sounded relatively realistic as a radio program. 

After selecting the appropriate clips for my use so that i could construct a relatively believable conversation I believed that i had good enough material to create a chart show. 

With these new changes (artist being used) I modified the jingle slightly so to fit a chart show, even though now the music genres are mixed and blended in the extract of the radio show, it can be explained by the fact that it is in fact a chart show, and all kinds of genre make it into the charts so there is definitely variable genre and no fixed specific specie of music. 

The creation of my jingle went as follows

Within garage band there are a selection of clips known as loops within the program as mentioned earlier, this allows the musician to select the tracks they wish and drag them into the timeline of the music. 

These loops were from a selection of genres and instruments as above and provided a large selection of "Pieces" that varied in length and style. These would be the primary building blocks of the jingle. 

Alternatively there were also software instruments where the creator could "play " an instrument using an online recorder system. These instrumental tracks could be further modified utilising the trim options where after a music recording was made the artist could control the pitch, note and length of a single piece played by the computer keyboard.

The choice of software instrumental tracks and real instrument tracks were tremendous, many modifications could be made here. The options here controlled for example the amp level, bass enhancement. Or if the track was a real instrument as below then the recording level could be further modified.

Also the reverberation could be modified of these instruments along with echo, allowing the modification to be done to a great extent so that almost every track is different. Therefore almost every jingle could be unique to the last. These modifications could aid the creator in tweaking the genre ever so slightly.

So i began to create my jingle using varied tracks largely in order to create as catchy and interesting an atmosphere as possible, i had a large range of genre to choose from and so could easily create a unique jingle. My jingle was created largely of  a strong beat, accompanied by synth tracks with "funky" guitars and basses. 

After i had created the basic outline of my jingle I proceeded with the project, I modified the sound levels of certain clips as they were "in the red" and became distorted, this was most commonly occurring with the electric guitars so I modified the sound level via a bar in the left hand corner. This helped me to blend the sound levels as to make it sound better. 

Then as i began to add dialogue to the show, i reduced the sound levels of certain clips at points so that my presenters could be heard more easily. This was also another method of reducing sound volume at intermittent points

I then cut my sound clips at certain points to nullify the effects of clips that i didn't want or didn't need. 

I then modified certain vocal files so to make them sound more like a radio show, such as "Chart 40 with John James" at the start during the jingle was modified using reverberation, vocal distortion and reduction of the sound level of the jingle. 

After this I added "Nadine's" voice to the clips, which were still unnecessarily clunky which i attempted to nullify with sound clips. I added my taken sound file from a song and then created the file using the share option.




Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Application to be used:

The applications that i will use throughout is Garageband: and innovative software designed for the task we are attempting to complete. It allows me to create an innovative jingle without too much restriction on the use of loops, which can of course be modified with various sound amplifiers meaning i can create millions of different sounds.

I however will probably use iMovie to create the voiceover as i believe after a test that the voice comes out clearer and can be easily transferred onto garageband for the complete product

The Plan...

I have paved the way for my radio show to be created as a chart show that plays esentially the top 40 as a nday afternoon show. Possibly similar to Radio one's top 40 countdown, it will need to make use of a catchy tune and be easily recognisable to the audience. Therefore in order to be easily recognisable the celebrity will have to be recognisable in order for the radio show to work.

This could be advantaegous as I could select a piece of the song of the artist in question and use that as a method of getting my sound clip. This also could mean that i could play one of their songs immediately afterwards adding to the reality of the programme.

A drawback would be how do i get the 'clean' sound clips that i need in order to make the guest sound real, and even if i do et the 'clean' sound clips i must base the introductional conversation around them.

Presenter
Largely chosen by the target audience genre in this case top 40 music so can't be overly biased to one style of music. So as i have no real celebrity to go on without me breaching a form of copyright it will have to be me. This will be advantageous because it would be incredibly difficult to create a conversation between two actors from different sound clips 

Content
The content of the show is largely decided by the viewers, namely the charts, but in this case one or two tracks may be guest/ (in my case) co-presenter linked. This means that largely the program should be ready to play any type of music of any genre

Audience
This is largely composed to chart listeners which is largely controlled by online downloading now along with the traditional singles and album sales. This means that because the chart music is largely controlled by a younger generation of a demographic of B-D 16-30 year olds as they are use to listening to the younger specie of music. 

Guest 
As the show is a chart show i will need to utilise a person that the audience will almost instantly know, I will retrieve my sound clips of that person through either interviews, or other forms where i can retrieve the sound files that i would need. I selected my guest by allowing my iTunes shuffle and the person was... Girls Alouds Nadine Coyle... great (note sarcasm)

Monday, February 2, 2009

Target Audience

The target audience i have chosen is a large audience not restricting the range of music being played, therefore this gives me a range of possible interviewees to chose from, so basically i can choose any interviewee i want as i am not restricting myself to a specific genre.

As I am appealling to a mass audience arguably the easiest thing to do would be a charts programme, as the music chosen is chosen by public sales and downloads. Therefore I will choose a musician from the charts and use their voice on the radio show.

I can do this in numerosu ways, either via creating an audio copy of the sound and using that as the voice over on garageband or use someone impersonating the person.

Or as a final resort i could use someone from the class creating the voice of a person i have made up.

This adresses the target audience directly as the person being used for the radio show is someone who they admire or know as an artist creating a form of connection between audience and the radio show.