Audience research and feedback

Audience feedback

Audience research

We found that in our audience research the people we interviewed said that they liked the idea of a first person narrative, which is focusing on an individual rather than a group, which is what people said they liked about our documentary when carrying out our audience feedback.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages ?

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

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

For the newspaper poster, we decided to go for a two-page newspaper poster rather than a single. This is because by doing this it would attract more attention to the article. Also I find the layout of the poster is particularly effective with the incorporation of the roulette wheel. The use of the roulette wheel illustrates what the first episode is about, showing the viewers what to expect. This poster is mainly based around the first episode about gambling addiction, which is what our main production is about. A different poster will be created every week to promote the next episode and to illustrate what addiction the show will be tackling. Also I am pleased with how we incorporated the landing of the roulette ball on the number ten, which is also the time, which the show is on.

For our two-page article of a listings magazine, we went through some various different design ideas before designing this one. I think the use of the characters with addictions on the left hand page in a large image is extremely effective as it provokes the audience’s imagination as to which of these people has which addiction. Not only that but as the characters are quite young, we expect it to appeal more to younger people this way, and discourage them from getting caught up in any of these addictive activities. We also thought we would incorporate celebrity chat show host `Jeremy Kyle` into our article, as he used to suffer from a bad gambling addiction. Therefore if we were to get him to interview us for the listings magazine would be a good idea as not only does he have experience in helping people with their own problems but he knows what its like coping with an addiction. Not only is he experienced in this, therefore good to have on board as our TV shows are both similar, but as he is a well known celebrity, it will help promote the show, having him involved with the documentary. 

Final Project

          

Filming with new presenter

Today we re-filmed the interview with BK using the new presenter. The way in which the interviewed was done, is a lot more effective than when we used Russell Brand as the interview tackles the situation with Bk a lot more seriously. The interview is in depth and informs the audience of the implications which gambling is having of Bk`s life.

Change in plan

After filming an actor pretending to be Russell Brand, we looked over the footage and had a change of heart regarding Russell Brand  being the presenter. We thought that our documentary should have a more serious approach to gambling, thereby having Russell Brand as the presenter would give our documentary a comical approach, which is not what we are aiming for. Instead of this we will be using a different presenter who will give our documentary a more serious approach by acting in the stereotypical way in which most presenters use. We will start re-filiming with a different presenter tomorrow.

Plan of action

Looking over our footage, we have found gaps in our collection of footage and found that the sound isnt as good quality as we had hoped for. So with the deadline drawing near, we have to get all the footage we need within the next couple of days. Therefore i am going to go and take some pillow shots of outside ladbrokes today. Tomorrow the group and I will be re-doing the interview of our subject BK using Russel Brand as our presenter.

Russel Brand idea

We have had an idea, which is to use famous comedian and actor `Russel Brand` as our presenter and to interview our subject BK. The role of Russel will be played by an actor who bares a similar resemblance to him and can imitate him brilliantly.Our thouts behind this idea, was that Russel suffered from various different drug addictions and would be the perfect face to present our documentary on addiction.

Filming in Ladbrookes

Today the group went to Ladbrokes to get some shots of the gambling machines in their. We ended up get some various different shots of the virtual roulette, black jack, virtual dogs and horse racing. I am pleased with the shots which we got as they are clear high quality shots which we can include in our documentary.

The filming of BK

Today me and another member of our group went to a betting shop to film the reaction of BK when he went into a betting shop feeling confident and walked out after a loss of £200. I am happy with the footage we got as it captured Bk`s emotion after a big loss and then had a brief discussion with him afterwards. This is perfect footage to include in our documentary as it emphasises the certainty of a win that a gambler has before walking into a betting shop, and how it can then backfire, resulting in a huge loss of money.

Re-make of our first ancillary product

We then decided to re-design our first ancillary product as we used a background image from the internet which was not our own image. So we then took some various different images of our own and selected the best one to use as our background image. This is our final poster.

New Production Plan

Production Plan

Monday 14^th Feb

·       Script for BK at Coral, script for interviewing a staff member (during lesson)

·      Retake ancillary product pictures (6.30pm)

·      Interview a staff member, ask for access (4.30pm)

Tuesday 15^th Feb

·      Continue writing script for BK (during lesson)

·      Interview another staff member (4.00pm)

·      Interview Drew and Chiamaka (7.00pm)

Wednesday 16^th Feb

·      Day in the life if BK and filming of him going in and out of Coral (9-10am/ 2-6pm)

·      More pillow shots – lottery ticket stands (2-6pm)

Thursday 17^th Feb

·      Catch up work (during lesson)

Listings magazine article promoting our documentary series

We thought we would take a different approach with the characters we are using in our documentaries, as most make over documentaries use middle aged subjects, however we would like to address the more younger generations who suffer with non physical addictions. By doing this, it helps people with an addiction before it has a chance to progress, as well as addressing the older generations with an addiction, as it will also benefit them as well.

This is the text from the article as it is difficult to read in this format.
We invited Jeremy Kyle to profile and interview the people behind Channel 4’s new makeover show `What’s your addiction?`

Jeremy Kyle had his own demons that he faced when he had a serious gambling addiction. After overcoming his addiction he started his own daytime talk show on ITV, helping families and couples to manage problems problems of their own.

What made you think of this documentary series on addiction?

One of the producers is a former gambling addict and set out to raise awareness of non-physical addictions, which harm people more than they realize as they have the same severity as physical addictions due to the fact it ruins relationships in their lives.

Which non-physical addictions does this series focus on and what in particular made you address these addictions?

Our topics we have chosen to cover are gambling, self-harming, shoplifting, sex and gaming. The reason for choosing these addictions is because other addictions such as drinking, drugs have more media coverage and we believe that these more uncommon addictions have just as harmful and self destructive repercussions and need more people to be aware of the damage these can cause. It will also provide the public with these addictions with answers and advice.

A lot of documentaries have been focused on addiction. How do you believe this innovative new show will help cure an addiction in a way that hasn’t been done before?

We are taking a different approach on these addictions due to the fact we are aiming to solve their addictions, rather than merely observing them by taking a makeover approach. Our main goal is to help the subjects to recover, rather than providing people with an endless set of statistics, which is what most documentaries on addiction do.

Their has been a lot of methods used in attempt to cure non-physical addictions why do you think this particular approach will be more successful?

Our documentary is attempting to highlight how these people with addictions are not alone and can receive help. We are also trying to show the individuals that their addictions don’t only affect them, as it also affects the people who are emotionally attached to them.

What would you as producers like to achieve with working with these addicts and what set goals would you like have by the end of it?

Help people realize that nobody can be addicted without impacting the people around them and the harm it does to the people they love. And hopefully through showing them this they’ll make better life choices and it will help them understand they don’t have to do this alone as they have the support of their family and friends. In addition we will refer them to support groups where they can receive further help from fellow addicts.

The first documentary of the series is on gambling addiction. Our first makeover subject is, 25-year-old BK, (Inset, bottom left) who has a serious gambling addiction. Him and his family have been coping with his affliction for nearly two and a half years now. On average BK spends £400 per week, feeding his addiction. To find out how the `What`s your addiction` team helps him to face his demons, tune in for the first episode at 9.00PM on Thursday 3^rd September.

Second ancillary product - Listings magazine

For our second ancillary product we have to do a two page spread for a listings magazine, based around our documentary. Jeremy Kyle, who is a former gambling addict and now a tv presenter, will be interviewing us for our article in a listings magazine. Our first episode of our series will be on gambling addiction, therefore its appropriate to get Jeremy Kyle to interview us as he can relate with his experience on the topic.




example of a two page spread

Filming

Our plan for this week was to film in betting shops and get some shots of the virtual roulette and virtual blackjack etc. However this is proving difficult for me and my group, as we are finding it hard to gain access to film on their premises as it is company policy that people cannot film in the betting shops. The other thing we were going to do was to film some shots of lottery ticket stands and scratch cards in post offices etc, however this is also proving hard as we are not allowed to film on their premises either. In order to overcome the situation of gaining access in a betting shop, we phoned head office of a betting shop called William Hill in order to try and get permission to film in a local betting shop. The person we spoke to on the phone was very helpful and said he would speak to a few people in order to try and gain permission, however he didnt get back to us, but we will continue to try and get it sorted out.

If we do not gain permission, we may have to resort to secretly filming in a betting shot. This could however mean that we get some poor quality shots and have the risk of getting asked to leave the premises.

Ancillary Product

This is the first poster for our newspaper advert. Our group attempted to get as close as we could to the Channel 4 format with their logo and the font we used. This is one of the five posters made for the different episodes of our series; Gambling, Self Harming, Sex Addiction, Shoplifting and Gaming. My idea was to keep the layout and design the same for each poster but change the background picture in order of the content of different episodes.

audience feedback