Production of Ancillary Text

As one of the ancillary texts accompanying my documentary, I am creating a newspaper advertisement to attract my target demographic to watch the documentary. As newspapers have a wide audience across the country, it is essential that my advertisement is as aesthetically pleasing as possible, conveying the particular style and genre of my documentary. Below, I have shown the process I undertook in order to create my final product:

1

This image was my original photograph, taken with the digital Canon SLR camera. I particularly like the background as it depicts the "rugged" vintage look I am trying to create. The subject is also making direct mode of address, which engages the reader into wanting to find out more about the product. The model fills the majority of the image, this eliminates any distraction and consequently, confirms that the focus remains on the topic. As the model is holding a cigarette, it denotes the emphasis of my documentary, providing a deeper insight, which as well as as advertising the documentary, is this product's primary aim.

2

I have edited my original image using PhotoShop. Firstly I cropped and enlarged my photograph in order to fit on an A4 sized piece of paper. As I have enlarged the model, this engages the readers' attention and makes the advertisement seem more appealing. When editing the image, I have adopted the "Brannan" technique, in order to make the advertisement appear more vintage (an analogue film effect). 

3

Next, I have inserted the title, "Cannabis: The Double Edged Sword", using the same font featured throughout the documentary: 'Helvetica', in order to sustain the same style in all 3 products. 

4

I decided to change the allignment of the title "Cannabis: The Double Edged Sword" to the left hand side, which I believe appears more professional and resembles a newspaper advertisement. In addition, airing details e.g. time and day are typical conventions of a newspaper advertisement, therefore I have also included "Tonight 9pm", to provide more information for the audience.

5

As I reflected on my previous research of newspaper advertisements, in particular, Channel 4 documentaries, I noticed the scheduling information appeared in the bottom left corner and there is minimal text or a slogan to accompany the details. This influenced my choice to locate this information in the bottom left corner. In addition, in order to attract the reader's attention, I created a white background for the black text, seen in the Channel 4 documentary advertisements (shown in my prior research).

6

In order to enhance the words of the advertisement, I have created a background. PhotoShop does not have a tool allowing to create a background behind text, therefore I used the "rectangle tool" as shown above to create a background. I chose white as the background colour as it is typically seen on well-known documentary advertisements.

7

As shown above I moved the text layer below the shape layer in order to create a background type of image, which again, conforms to the codes and conventions of a newspaper advertisement.

7

This image displays the original 'Channel 4' logo that features on the newspaper advertisement. I used the "background eraser tool" in order to remove the white background, which will leave the outlines of the logo to feature on the advert, typically seen on documentary advertisements.

8

After erasing the white background, I used the "magnetic lasso tool" to cut out the shapes I required, which I then implemented to my final product. This enabled me to resize and position the image to the right hand side of the product, conforming to the typical conventions of a newpaper advertisement for a documentary.

Below displays my final version of the newspaper advertisement as one section of the ancillary products. After researching the codes and conventions of typical newspaper advertisements, this allowed me to apply the specific conventions to my own product.

After showing my target audience the final product, they had some suggestions in order to improve the advertisement, which as a consequence appears more aesthetically pleasing than the version above. The aspects that my target demographic suggested to be improved included:

• The channel 4 sign does not create emphasis, it blends into the background
• The techniques "bevel and emboss" used in the title does not appear professional
• The scheduling details and caption at the bottom also do not appear professional

Below shows my final version of the newspaper advertisement after using the advice from my target audience to improve the product.

Initial Designs of Ancillary Products

After taking and deciding which photos to use, I roughly sketched some flatplans which I then showed to my target audience. I had two options for each product and the feedback generated from the focus group helped me create more professional looking products. I created a presentation on SlideRocket to illustrate the process:

Reviewing the Documentary

After showing members of my target audience my documentary, there were still a large number of improvements to implement. These additions and enhancements are listed below:

• Include an introduction - in order to give a deeper insight into what the documentary is about

• Change the font and positioning of title "Cannabis: A Double Edged Sword"

• Separate the interview with the policeman to provide a brief insight into the young people section which relates to the topic that the policeman is talking about.

• Include the documentary-maker when interviewing policeman.

• Include more information regarding the apparent benefits of using cannabis for medicinal purposes. This influenced my product, and I therefore interviewed a doctor to gain a more balanced argument regarding the topic.

• Change the font for statistics and put on a plain black background in order to keep the audiences' focus on the information being given.

All of this feedback has contributed in making my final product look more appealing to the target audience.