Under the Mushroom Cloud: Final Version

Evaluation 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I have used many different media technologies all throughout this media coursework. The main one is this blog. The use of a blog helped me keep organise and keep a track of what had been done and what needed to be improved. Using a blog was also an easy way to upload different types of media format such as videos, images and text. This helped massively with my coursework and was a much easier way to view anything. A blog also meant that I could present my work online and it would be easily accessible 24/7 on a mac, laptop, desktop computer and even my phone! It was also much easier to update over time.

Another form of internet technologies in social networking, I used Facebook to gain lots of audience feedback on not only my radio drama but on my ancillary texts also. This was easier for people to evaluate my work as they could just comment and I would have the feedback to view at any time. Using social networking also helped promote to my target audience and gain feedback from the appropriate people.

I also used alot of sophisticated software throughout the process of production. I used Soundtrack Pro, Photoshop and InDesign to create all three of my products. My skills using these programmes developed massively over time and I feel like I would be much more confident using these programs if I was to ever do this again as I am now much more familiar with them. All these programs helped in such a massive way and I feel like I would not be able to create products to an appropriate standard without these pieces of software.

I also learnt to use a piece of software called CELTX in the planning stages of the script. This is a script-writing software that can help create a script layout at a professional level. This helped massively when learning about script-writing and how to produce a script layout.

I also used youtube in all stages of the coursework, creating various videos on Windows Movie Maker and uploading them onto youtube then converting them to be used on this blog. I had never used youtube to upload videos and now this has broadened my mind and skills around it and I think that I will use it much much more as from now on!

Finally I also used digital technology when it came to photography, I used a DSLR camera which helped massively in my photography skills and quality. I had a kind of 'tutorial' on how to use such a camera by my sister who does photography in her spare time. She taught me all the correct settings and buttons and again my mind was broadened when using digital technology.

In the research stages I used many forms of media, such as magazines and the internet. I found so much information on radio conventions, the history of radio and on individual radio dramas online. I also managed to listen to various dramas using Iplayer which helped in the initial research and planning skills.

Overall, I feel that I utilised and developed many different skills by using various forms of media technology and this was really reflected in my final products.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The audience feedback that we recieved on our radio drama was fairly positive and quite high. We gained an average of 7/8 out of 10 on 'Under the Mushroom Cloud'. The majority of the comments were very successful and overall we are very pleased with the outcome. People very much liked the narrative, with the massive twist at the end, this seemed to entice listeners and they wanted to know more. We were also complimented on our choice of genre as sci-fi and post apocolyptic themes are very popular when it comes to television and movies but are somewhat missed when considered for radio dramas.

There were a few minor faults with our drama, but these were justified and in the final processes we decided not to change anything. We were criticised on Nick's Scottish accent, saying that it was an unintentional comedy element, however we felt that we wanted to portray his accent in a very loud, brash and over-the-top way as this was to reflect his character. Another criticism was the acting quality, however we felt in a real situation we would be able to have real actors and actresses to bring our script to life and up the quality massively.

The feedback for my poster was generally positive. The feedback felt that the poster campaign reflected the drama very well and audiences would be enticed to learn more just from the poster. I was also complimented on my photography skills and that the colour scheme and theme were very sophisticated and that of a high quality. However, audiences felt that perhaps the use of photoshop skills were maybe a little bit amateur. I agree with this as my Photoshop skills are not perfect and I tried as hard as I can and learnt alot more about photoshop for this task than I have ever learnt before.

My double page spread was also recieved very well. The comments I recieved were very positive and a couple of people even suggested that it wouldn't look out of place in a real magazine! I feel that my writing itself was that of a high quality. From my audience feedback, I also learnt that the photographs complimented the double page spread very well and the links were very clear from that of the ancillary task 1.

Overall I have learnt that perhaps I could improve on my skills, technology wise, such as InDesign and Photoshop, and this would make my work look much more professional. However my creative process and ideas were very well recieved.

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

My aim was for my ancillary texts to have a theme that ran with both of them that complimented the main product as this would really sell it to our target audience. I think the outcome is that it could work well and could rake in a large number of listeners. I feel that both the ancillary texts are eye-catching and both are relatable to the main product itself, they were well thought through and not just 'thrown-together' with no thought or creative process being taken into account, this shows in both the advert and the newspaper article as they both are very similar. This was done as a marketing strategy so that for viewers it would be easily recognisible and could create a buzz around 'Under the Mushroom Cloud', and could therefore even lead to a viral marketing campaign.

I feel that the poster could work as a persuader to entice people and hopefully gain a bigger audience, this would then bring people to the article and readers would want to read on if they have previously seen a newspaper poster to promote this very product. The end result of this would be that the main product would be listened to by a vast audience.

I feel that all three products work very well together and compliment each other and all can bring in a slightly different audience and create much bigger target audiences if we got it out there enough. The double page feature gives much more information and could hopefully be the decider to readers.

After much audience feedback on all three products, I feel that these campaigns can work successfully. The majority of feedback I recieved was very positive with many people saying that even just after seeing the poster they would be enticed to listen to the drama. The majority of people are suggested that both ancillary texts worked very well and they could see the connection and links between both the poster and the double page spread.

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

Our radio drama 'Under the Mushroom Cloud' uses many conventions and theories. It uses conventions such as emotional music, extravagent sound effects and specific things such as 'fake radio broadcasts' with inspiration taken from radio dramas such as War of the Worlds. We also used accents in our dialogue which conformed with general radio codes and conventions, for example Nick's scottish accent reflects his personality and can be more memorable for the audience. Using accents can also show diversity between characters on the radio when visuals are not produced. We also had a very strong narrative and created lots of tension with our action filled plot which again is another narrative convention. We also conformed to many theorists in our radio drama such as Propp, we used many of the various characters Vladimir Propp stated that should be in a drama, such as the hero and the villain.

However we also challenged codes and conventions by including a twist, this completely took apart the theory of the equilibrium by Todorov as we have an 'agent of disruption', however he won and owned the rest of the narrative, therefore we didn't use the classic 'hollywood' narrative and have a happy ending and a new equilibrium. We also didn't include scene changes which is another convention, we felt this distracted from the actual radio drama itself.

As I did extensive research into real media products which were similar to ours, I managed to conform and challenge and learn the codes and conventions for all the tasks such as the radio drama, poster and newspaper article. Because of this, I feel that I was able to create the tasks of that to a higher level and to a near proffessional level as I had a basis to work on.

My poster and double page spread take many conventions of real media products such as titles, photography and colour schemes. I took many influences and inspirations from real media products such as NME and radio covers for CDs. I also looked in newspapers and magazines at feature film adverts to get some knowledge on layout and how to make a magazine advert or article look professional and sophisticated.

Overall, I feel that my products used and developed conventions of real media products rather than challenge them. Although the conventions we did challenge, I feel they worked in an effective way and could make my products seem much more original and memorable for an audience.

Running date and details

As Under the Mushroom Cloud is a six part drama, it will run for a course of six consecutive weeks. Each episode will air on a saturday night as this is when the majority of our target audience will be available, e.g not at work etc. Doing this means our listening figures can be much higher and we can appeal to our ideal audience. It would air on Radio 4 Extra as we believe this is the channel that the majority of our target audience would listen to.