3. Channel Four examples
Title with channel four house style. Same font and size, black writing
on white background. Tells you what series the episode is in and when
it is.
Channel
Four logo
is in the
middle, to
the side.
Effect of
blurring
people and
blur around
the girl as
she is being
swallowed
into
ground.
4. We have made the poster portrait as it
imitates another Channel 4 poster
“High on Blow”. We thought having
the poster vertical was more effective
as the contents of the image which we
were using, looked more prominent
and effective when portrait rather
than landscape.
5. Purpose
• The purpose of our poster and our radio trailer is to inform the demographic of our documentary that the
documentary has been made and when it is being aired. It is also used to advertise our documentary to
other audiences. When creating our documentary we tried to imitate examples of other channel four
documentaries and decided that the best type of topic was the lifestyle seasons as the typical channel four
audience were normally interested in these topics that arise. This is because after doing research into
these types of series that channel four broadcast, we found that most series would only have three or four
episodes per series. An example of this again is of Bouncers, this is a typical channel four lifestyle series
and two series have been made, each with only three episodes in. This had been done so that the
information that the audience were being fed was not done over a large amount of time and there wasn’t
that much information in an episode which meant that it still remained entertaining. The research into
lifestyle seasons also shows us that the audience were more open to learning about different topics. This
meant if the audience were not interested in body building in particular, they would still watch the
documentary as it was part of the same season as other episodes that they have seen.
• When creating our documentary, we decided to imitate previous examples of channel four poster
documentaries such as "Britain's forgotten children“ and “High on blow” when creating our
documentaries poster. We did this by making sure that we had a consistent channel four style like they did.
For example, the channel four logo was located in the middle and to the side of the poster. The same
house style font of channel four was used and it was put at the bottom of the poster. The poster “Britain’s
forgotten children” that we decided to imitate also had an effect used of vibrations and so we also used
this on our poster to make it look more effective. We also then challenged this posters conventions as it
was landscape and we decided to imitate the look of another channel four poster, “High on blow” and
make the poster portrait instead.
• We also listened to examples of radio trailers that channel four had created. What we learned from these
trailers was that there was always quiet background music throughout the trailer and some of the words
of the song used would have relevance to the topic of the trailer. We also learned that the trailers used
snippets of actual footage within their programme on their radio trailers so that the audience could get a
taste of what it would be like. At the end of the trailers the music would always fade out before the
narrator would say what the programme is, when it’s on and what channel it is on. Due to all the features
that I have mentioned, we decided to add these techniques to our radio trailer but with our footage and
information.
6. Form relation to Target Audience
• The form of a poster being used to advertise the documentary would usually be found in a
magazine or on a billboard etc. If the advertisement is found in a magazine then it is more than
likely that it has been chosen to be put in this magazine and therefore the target audience reading
the magazine will be the same demographic that the documentary is aimed towards. The
advertisement may also be located in a newspaper talking about upcoming TV programmes.
Although not many young people read newspapers these days and our target audience is from the
ages of 16-35, it will still target our audience as men aging from 35 are the prime audience for
newspapers. http://www.naa.org/Trends-and-Numbers/Readership/Age-and-Gender.aspx This
website shows that at this age, men read newspaper’s regularly and will look toward the sports
pages, the advertisement will more than likely be located near the sport section of the newspaper.
• The form of a radio trailer will be used to advertise the documentary in between radio shows.
However, only certain radio channels who’s target audience are similar to ours will be used in order
to advertise the programme. This is because the documentary will not impress everybody as not all
of the public have interests in body building, gym or even sport. If the radio channel listeners hear
the advertisement they are more than likely to focus on what is being said as they have an interest
in the chosen subject. For example they will focus on what the advertisement is about before then
wanting to hear when the programme is on and how and where they can watch it. This is why the
dialogue in the radio trailer is important as it explains what the documentary is and what it is about
before telling you when it is being aired and what channel it is on.
7. How have you used and developed features of the main
product in your ancillary texts?
Why have you utilised these features in this way?
For our ancillary tasks, we have included many elements of our actual documentary to build them up. For
example, for our poster, we took an image on the same day as our filming day, which we chose would be
the main background for our poster. This allowed us to get an image from a real gym environment, which
shows our audience that the information that we are providing is reliable and truthful. Additionally, for
our radio trailer we used small snippets of our documentary as background sounds, for example, the
sound of grunting and the sound of weights being lifted which featured in the real documentary, have
now been added to the radio trailer. As there is no visual aspect of the radio trailer, the sounds create a
nice atmosphere, as at the start of the radio trailer, you do not know what or who is creating the sounds,
the trailer is then introduced and you learn what the sounds are, but this short period of time, where the
listener is unaware to what the sound is, creates a good sense of tension and anticipation for the listener
to make the whole production more exciting, which ultimately makes the audience more likely to watch
the documentary.
Further more, we also added a couple quotes from our documentary, to be the main verbal text in the
radio trailer, this was an effective method, as this gave the audience a small insight to the content of the
documentary, and hopefully makes then want to watch the documentary, as they want to learn more
about bodybuilding, rather then the small amount of information that we have provided in the radio
trailer.
8. What factors influenced your decision making
when preparing and producing the ancillary
tasks?
There was many factors which influenced the process on preparing our
ancillary tasks. The first thing that we did before anything else, was
research into previous Channel 4 posters and radio trailers. We found
an analysed a number of different posters which Channel 4 had
produced, and used similar elements to what they had done, and
inserted into our poster. For example, “Britain’s Forgotten Children”
was a poster which we analysed. From this we saw that the opacity of
the image had been changed. This was a very effective technique as it
makes the image stands out more, and gives it a very professional
look. Using this information, we altered the opacity of our poster, to
create the same effect. Having the poster portrait instead of landscape
was another element which we were inspired by a previous Channel 4
documentary “High on Blow”. This helped us feel comfortable when
using this, as we can see a professional business as used it before,
therefore proving that it is an effective method.
