Evaluation

IntroductionDuring the first lesson of Unit 8 I given a brief, the brief gave me a list of tasks that I had to complete to complete Unit 8 at the highest level. As Unit 8 was a very open project, majority of tasks applied to my project.

The name of the project brief is ‘Developing a Creative Media Production Project’. The first task was a task you could only complete over the course of your entire project. The brief requirements were to create project journals, this was just a short task to complete after every lesson, to show what I thought were my strengths and weaknesses. It is a way to log my progress during the journey of this project. My second task was to complete a statement of intent which I created on PowerPoint and then also spoke about it in front of the camera, this is a way to show the main points of my project. I was nervous to do the presentation as I was worried I would stumble my words or forget about my project, however, it did go really well after I got comfortable with it. The third task is the research and development stage, during this task I completed all primary and secondary research, this includes questionnaires, focus groups, information about Ofcom and rajar, also information on different radio subjects, for example, presenters, and jingles. Task four is the pre-production phase, from this task I have created all work that is relevant for my project, for example, storyboards, contracts, test shots. Pre-production documents are important for organisation, and time keeping. Production stage, is task 5, this is the most exciting phase, as I get to create my final piece. After completing all other tasks, I get to the final task which is the evaluation.

My target audience is youths, aged from 12 to 21, I have chosen this audience as Pie Radio who I broadcast for, also aims at a similar age group. I also have chosen this audience as they are easily influenced, youths are influenced because they are just learning about what they want to do when they grow old, and if they see other youths being involved with radio they will have the confidence to achieve what they would like to do. and I want to benefit them in a positive way, by influencing them to reach for their dreams. I am targeting youths that are interested on being on the radio and perusing a career in the media industry, as I want to help them achieve this.During this project, I wasn’t expected to make a particular product, however I am expected to take my knowledge from previous units and create a project that I believe I can achieve the highest-grade in.I had three initial ideas that I was considering to complete for my final project. My two ideas that I rejected were:

My first idea was to record a music video for a local band that I am good friends with. I did think this was a really good idea as I was able to go to an event where they were preforming and take some amazing videos of them preforming and everyone getting involved with the band. Also, as I am friends with the band I could have

filmed from behind the scenes, creating them an individual music video to introduce them to the world. However, I chose not to do this in the end as I believe recording sound could be extremely risky as it could be interrupted by the public singing along with them. I needed to ensure I had enough video to go with the length of their original song.

My second idea was to create a short 15-minute documentary, I thought this would have been a great idea as I could expand my skills of recording visuals and sound. This would have shown the UAL board how far I would have come from my first time using to camera to now. However, I couldn’t decide what I would’ve liked to film about, as I have a very wide imagination, all ideas I had were too much of a wide subject to film within a 15-minute period.

Eventually after considering all three ideas, I decided on creating a radio show, as I believe this is where I’ve progressed the most from my first project. I also chose this as I love being on the radio and presenting. (I present my own show, Eunoia Radio, which is broadcasted on Pie Radio).

ResearchThe research was extremely effective for my project as it is extremely based on my target audience and what they would like to listen about. After excessive amounts of research, I found exactly what I was looking for, which was what my target expected from my radio show. I kept a record of my research by creating document and posting them on my blog, as well as keeping track of smart targets. It was useful to keep a log as it allowed me to see my progress and also it helped hugely with time management. I did a varied amount of research from primary and secondary. Majority of my secondary research came from using the internet from learning about different types of radio shows, jingles, rajar, Ofcom, radio broadcasting, pie radio, and finally radio terminology. For my primary research, I completed this as an individual, I created a questionnaire which I gave to my peers to complete, from here I analysed the results, and spoke about what found. I also created a vox pop, focus group where I spoke to some of my peers that completed the questionnaire, I asked similar questions to what my questionnaire did, however we went into more detail and learnt more about what they thought.My research was relevant to my project as I was researching about radio stations, presenters and radio shows which is all relevant and helped me

decide on what I would be talking about throughout the broadcast. The most effective research I believe I did was the focus group/vox pop, this was because it allowed me to have a larger insight of what my peers would like to see. As well as this my primary research, I aimed it at peers that were in the category of my target audience. This helped, especially talking to my target audience in learning what they like and what they want to listen to.I completed research throughout the whole of my project, I did this because I believe as you get into your project you may want to learn more about certain things within radio, for example, researched Ofcom and rajar towards the end of my project to learn what the conditions are of having a radio show, it was good to learn about what these consist of.

Planning and ProductionMy planning went really well for my project, as I already produce Eunoia Radio every Wednesday, I followed a similar plan to what I would every week, however I went into more detail about the reasons why I would be talking about subjects and the songs I would be playing. The planning of production I did a range of different documents from interview questions, set list, play list, however as I do have an independent show, I don’t follow a script which makes it very free flowing.Planning helps with my project as it gives me a platform to follow whilst broadcasting, also as we did have Hoozy live on air with us, it did make it quite hard to follow a tight schedule of subjects and songs.As I have previously said Eunoia Radio is an independently ran show produced by myself, with help from the studio, and Pie Radio, because it is independent it’s hard to keep to a particular time scale, I do always try to include all songs and subjects on the set list throughout the show. Time scale can be dramatically changed when having guests on the show, as they like to talk about themselves and advertise themselves or their brand. However, I like when guests do this as I like my listeners to have an exclusive of the guests. The majority of changes we have when it comes to the playlist, this is because we either have too many songs or not enough, also if someone’s messages in and says they want a particular song on, messes up the songs on our playlist.

Practical skills and PresentationFrom the beginning of the year to now my skills have improved by a massive scale, from the start of unit 1 not knowing how to a camera and

no adobe players, to where I am now being able to set up and studio with cameras, and what I believe to be a great video and interactive webpage. Personally, I think that I have been extremely successful within the production of my video and interactive web page. Recently and over the last couple of months I have been doing workshops to improve my overall skills of camera work, and using the adobe software’s, hopefully you will be able to see this throughout my final project. During the workshops, I have mastered camera angles, composition of edits and shots, mistake I have previously made in other units I have corrected. As I have been doing workshops I have advanced my recording skills, increased on speed of editing which gives me the opportunity to be more experimental. To where I am now with a completed video and interactive webpage, I followed many different processes, the first process was the camera work that I completed, however, although there wasn’t much I had to do, I set all three cameras to the right settings and focused them once on the tripods. As my project is a radio show, I have created an additional feature of a video and interactive web page to utilise the skills I have learned. All cameras filmed throughout the entire 1 hour broadcast. From here I copied all videos files over to my files and along with the sound recorded by the Pie Radio studio, I believe using the sound file recorded by the studio would be more beneficial as it would be correct and smooth. I used premiere pro to edit the broadcast and add the visuals to the sound, this was a fun yet long task.

Throughout the editing process of creating the video I used a lot of special effects, as when we aren’t broadcasting and we have songs playing, were having fun, dancing and having a quick chat, throughout this time used a blur effect, I did this because even though I want to show behind the scenes I want to keep conversations private and also splits the video up, allowing the viewer not to get bored watching blocks of talking and images. However, when I was editing sound that I received from the Pie Radio studio of the broadcast, the last song cuts of half way through, which is a problem as it’s lost sound which is unavailable to get back, for this reason I solved the problem by editing it to fade out so it’s not just a sharp cut. I did however, trial and error some ideas, for example I was going to put text over the video, but the video cuts short the sounds, for this reason I placed text after the image stays. I have a very specific look that I like to keep when designing my web page, this is because I like to present my project professionally. I believe it looks professional as during my research I researched design and layouts of other radio web pages. Throughout my web page I have kept to a particular font, America typewrite, I’ve chosen to do this to keep it constant. Also, my layout of the project is very straight and everything is equal to each other, the design I followed was design number 2. During the beginning of my project and during the editing I didn’t conduct any tests as I am extremely confidant when it comes to broadcasting, as I am a very outgoing person. For my web page, I did conduct a few practice designs for the layout of my web page, this was really helpful because for my final web page I followed the designs.

Evaluation and ReflectionOverall I believe I was extremely successful because what I planned and the image I had in my head of my project, it turned out better than I thought it could ever have. I completed everything to the highest standard that I was able to. I followed the brief throughout every stage of my project, I chose to do this because I believe the brief was giving me support, helping me complete my project at the highest grade. I have completed every task the brief offered. My favourite and what I believe the best part of doing my project was recording the radio show, I had such a good time, being able to relax and myself and talk to people that I’m good friends with and having a laugh. I love being on the radio, talking to the world. The worst part of my project was either my editing, or my timings. I believe my editing was bad because it was the first project editing since having workshops, so although my editing turned out good, I was worried about it not going as well as I wanted it to be. Also, my timings weren’t so good as we were meant to film my radio show three weeks before we eventually did film, this was because problems with actors unable to film on the day or the studio wasn’t open. I dealt with this by speaking to the owner of the studio and ensuring he was there for the last chance we had to film, for this reason I had to edit I complete lots of work in a short amount of time at a high standard. I have received extremely good feedback from teachers and audiences, this has influenced me to carry on what I love to do. It has given me more confidence to believe in myself to go further in this career. I could develop my project, by creating a mini series of radio shows, talking to other people, playing new music, and travelling, creating bogs/vlogs. I have learnt so much throughout this project, although I was already on a radio show, I learnt about behind the scenes of what goes on, through Ofcom and Rajar. This is really good to learn about if you are looking for future in radio, which I am.

Overall, I believe everything I have gained throughout this project, research, workshops, pre-production all comes together to create the

highest standard broadcast worthy radio show. Pie Radio and Eunoia Radio broadcasted this radio show on 7th June, live.

All skills I have gained and developed over this first year on the UAL course I will take to year 2 and hopeful develop further to the highest standard.