Feature For TV Guide - Layout Ideas

I have been looking at the forms and conventions of features in TV guides. I have come up with a rough sketch for the intended layout of my own feature. The Radio Times is the magazine I have taken most inspiration from because achieve a good balance between text and image. I will be aiming my feature at teenagers (my target audience) and so I will need to take into consideration what appeals to them. The visual impact of the feature will have the most importance. So my pictures need to be bold, and take priority. The feature as a whole will need to be eye catching to make people want to read it. The text is important, but the layout of the text is more important.

This was the first sketch that I came up with for my feature. I have made the picture the centre point and placed the text in a conventional and easy to read format. The only problem seems to be that the main picture will be cut in half by the split in pages. So I tried to stick to a similar format, but compensate for the two page spread of the feature.

I want the text to work around the outline of the image. This makes the feature more interesting to look at rather than blocks of text and block images. The image will be a portrait of one of the cast members. I'm going to make up the interview. I will also include small photographs taken in a behind the scenes style. This will help break up the text on the second page of the feature.

Radio Drama Advert Facebook Poll

To get some feedback from my target audience, I uploaded my radio drama advert to Facebook and asked for people's thoughts. I received feedback very quickly and the response was generally positive. Some people didn't appear to understand what I was aiming for in terms of design, but others did. I got quite a mixed response. I am going to leave my advert up on Facebook, so any future feedback can be received.

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF TV GUIDE FEATURES

I have chosen to base my study of the forms and conventions of TV guide features on a feature from a Radio Times article.The Radio Times is a highly regarded TV listings magazine. It aims to appeal to more adult readers, both male and female with it's intellectually high narrative style of writing. It writes in a way that can easily be understood, but at the same time, it is clear when reading it that a more mature audience is the target.

In terms of the images used, there is usually one main picture that takes up a lot of room on the double page spread. It is specific to the subject of the article. Other smaller pictures are included as little inserts. These are often related to the interviewee in a different way from the main article, they may relate to answers given by the interviewee. What they mainly help to do is break up the text, because Radio Times articles are always quite word driven. The Radio Times also include small portraits of the people who wrote the article next to the key information about the related show. This makes readers feel more in tune with the magazine and what they are reading. Another clever detail I have noticed is the way they include an image of the DVD case if the article is about a TV show being released. This adds to the extra visuals and could be a promotional technique of the people releasing the DVD in conjunction with The Radio Times.

The text layout sticks to the standard magazine format of text in rows. At the beginning and end of the article are little blocks of information. At the beginning is the name of the programme that the article is the subject of, alongside the date, channel and time of broadcast. The main article follows then at the end there is sometimes a competition offer. This is something that I could consider for my feature. The biggest piece of text is a line that entices people to the feature. It can sometimes be a quote from the interview. Below this line is a synopsis of the article, who/what it's about and who has written it.

In interviews, the writer often refers to how the interviewee behaved and how they said what they said. It helps readers to visual the interview, makes it feel more like they were there. Sometimes memorable quotes are re-printed larger in the middle of the article to make the article stand out more or to attract reader's eyes. A description accompanying each image is another key element. This makes sure that readers have information on everything.

The main way that the articles promote the radio drama or TV drama is through the interview with the person related to it. This allows readers to get a behind the scenes view of the drama and get a positive view of it from someone was directly involved. It also helps to create a buzz if the person is a celebrity or a famous actor. What the articles do best is to make people feel as though they are getting a direct incite into how the drama was made. And they can get exclusive comments from the stars, this all adds up to a good impression being made. Because of the way technology has progressed, people feel like they need to be more involved with media to truly enjoy it.

Radio Drama - Audience Feedback Statistics

Out of the 26 people in the audience:


Problems / Dislikes

19% thought that some of the sound effects were unclear.

76% thought the audio levels needed changing.

38% thought that the storyline was unclear.

7%  thought that too much was happening in the drama.


Positive Feedback

23% people liked the use of sound effects.

50% thought the story line was good.

15% thought the music was a good addition.

7% thought the acting was strong.


Score Out Of Ten

MALES

1/10

2/10

3/10 - 1

4/10

5/10 - 4

6/10 - 3

7/10 - 4

8/10 - 1

9/10 - 1

10/10 - 1


FEMALES

1/10

2/10

3/10

4/10

5/10 - 1

6/10 - 1

7/10 - 4

8/10 - 2

9/10 - 3

10/10


From this feedback, it can be seen that the main issues our audience had with the drama were the audio levels, the storyline and the sound effects. I think that our drama has got a lot going on in five minutes, but we were trying to make it as entertaining as possible. Which I think we have achieved from looking at the scores. The females in our audience seemed to be giving it higher scores than the males. This may be down to the main characters being Teena and Zane who are in stange relationship involving Facebook. Overall we are happy with the feedback we have received. It is generally positive, and we now know where we can improve it.

Newspaper Advert - Feedback / Idea Re-Think

My tutor looked over my newspaper adverts. He gave me a few areas to work on, and he raised a few questions with them. First was the white background, I had thought that it would make the contents of the poster stand out, but he said that there is too much white space. I can see where he is coming from. Black would be a more appropriate background colour: it fits in with the genre and can still make the advert stand out without seeming too blank. He then questioned why I had a girl on the advert, accompanied by "what possessed him to do it?" which doesn't make sense. I now think that I will stick to the Zane advert and not have the two different ones. The Zane advert was the one that he preferred out of the two, the only problem he saw was the effect I used on Zane's shadow copy. He said to try and make it look less tacky and more realistic. The final point he gave was that to use up more space on the ad, I should add in quotes from reviews. This is a common convention of any media product advert.


From hearing my tutor's comments, I decided to re-think my ad. I felt that it needed more of a theme. Facebook is an element of the drama, and both Facebook and the Internet are two of the most popular cultural sites  for teenagers (my target audience). And so, I decided to use graphics that relate to the Internet and computer screen graphics. I edited the Zane portrait and using the Mosaic Pixel Filter, I made the portrait pixelated. I then placed it in a square box to resemble a 'profile picture' from a social networking site.
 Then I added a mouse arrow, as if it's clicking on the picture. I stuck to the original colour scheme of red and white because red connotes horror, blood and danger. White is the background colour for Facebook. I wanted that element to stay, because I tried out black as a background and it just didn't work. It came on a little too strong. I want the image and text to be the focus, not the background colour. I also used slightly pixelated fonts.

 Although computer graphics have moved forward a lot and aren't as pixelated as they used to be. I wanted to give the poster a more retro feel, because this is popular with teenagers in modern fashion. I made up a quote from a The Guardian review because they are one of the more highly regarded newspapers. Our target audience may not read that paper, but because of it's status, it's opinions are trusted by many.
I have tried to fill up more space like my tutor said I should, and I have improved the image and general concept of my radio drama advert. I have still kept with the minimal yet bold style that I was trying to achieve. The finished advert can be seen below:

To reach the target audience of our drama, we would need to get the advert published in modern magazines that are popular with teenagers and young people. An example would NME, which is a good music and entertainment magazine. To reach the right audience we would need to have it published in relevant magazines such as The Radio Times. As well as newspapers with a more balanced view and a more regarded reputation such as The Guardian. But the best way to reach our audience would be to use cross media convergence and use the adverts on Facebook and other social  networking sites. Through using these sites we can reach a more specific audience through methods such as behavioural advertising.

The other members of my group also made adverts, they can be seen below:

Newspaper Advert - Production

I started work on my Zane character poster by using Quick Selection to cut him out, then I added the same filter as I had done with the Teena poster. I used the same layout as the Teena one, but I decided that I would make the Zane one different and a bit more sinister because he is the villain in the drama.

I made a copy of the cut out figure and rotated it horizontally, then I began adding different filters. I found a shadow filter that changed the colour of the portrait and added a dark glow.

I opted for the colour red for the glow, to connote blood and danger. It looks more eye catching too.

From here, I added it to the original poster layout. I placed it behind the bright portrait of Zane, it looks almost like his shadow. I wanted this to connotte the fact that he says he is possessed in the drama. But it doesn't give away whether he actually is or not, which is the twist in the tale. It's also following the convention that villains have two sides to them.


I decided to stick to the two main characters for my ad campaign because they are what the whole episode revolves around. I also have the balance of one girl and one boy to appeal to more people in my target audience. I think the ads will attract the attention of my target audience, because they are simple, bold and they use modern technology and modern people (the models). The final versions can be seen below:

 

Teena

Zane

Newspaper Advert - Production

Before I started work on InDesign with my original idea, I came up with a better concept for my newspaper advert. The idea I came up with looked more like a film poster than a radio drama advert. This new concept that I'm going to run with follows more of the conventions of the radio drama ads I looked at in my research.

Basically, the date and time of broadcast will be at the top of the advert, accompanied by the radio station logo. In our group we decided on Radio 7 because it broadcasts the most drama and comedy, and is a BBC radio station. BBC radio stations reach wide and varied audiences across the world. After the information comes the title of the drama. This is following the basic convention of having the text in an easy to read order from top to bottom. I chose the font "More Than Human" from Dafont.com because I felt it was the most striking and best fitted to our drama's genre. I downloaded the font for free and installed it on my computer.

Installing "More Than Human" Font

I decided to come up with a tagline for the radio drama, this isn't a usual convention of radio drama ads, but I added one to make it different. I included on the ad the rhetorical question: "what possessed him to do it?". This makes viewers of the ad ask themselves the question and the only way to find out the answer is to tune in. It also adds mystery to the drama.

After the title comes the main image. From the ads that I have looked at, it's usually one image, in the center of the ad. I have decided to use a portrait of two of the main characters that the drama centers around: Teena and Zane. I have made two different ads, one with Teena as the main image and one with Zane. I decided to use the test shot of Teena that I took because it came out really well. But I re-took the Zane portrait to get a better image. I decided to put the portraits against a white background to make them stand out a lot. The white background will make all the features of the ad stand out. It also adds more mystery by only giving viewers the text and the image to give them an idea of the drama.

I opened the photograph of my model for Teena in Photoshop. Using the Quick Selection Tool, I highlighted her and then cut her out. 

The portrait cut out from the background

I then blurred the edges of the portrait to take the edge off of the cut. From here, I started experimenting with different filters to add a spookier edge to the portrait.

I eventually decided on the filter seen directly above in the screen shot. It makes her look ghostly, mysterious and gives the ad more edge than just a simple portrait. Then once I had finished with the portrait, I began putting my ad together in InDesign, following the layout I had decided on. I found the Radio 7 logo using a google images search.

Once I had completed my ad, I exported it as both a PDF file and a JPEG file.

Newspaper Advert - Test Shots

The basic idea for my advert, is to have a portrait of Zane at the center of the poster, he will be pointing downwards with both hands at the two other main characters of Teena and Andy. This is to connote his influence over them. Then above Zane, and just below the title, I will have a large image of an arm pointing. I will edit this on Photoshop to make it seem demon like. This is to connote that Zane is saying that he is possessed, and the arm represents the possession. I have taken some test shots for my first advert idea. They can be seen below.


This is my first image of Zane, using Photoshop, I will cut him out of the picture from the torso. I will then drag and drop the cut image into InDesign and play around with sizes to see what fits best. I will be doing this with all my images until I am happy with the layout.

Below is my Teena test shot. This photograph is the one I am most proud of. Her expression and body language are really striking. This image draws you in.

 

My test shot of Andy is quite close up, I wanted them all to be different images to make the advert more diverse. However, I may take further shots if these shots don't work out on the advert.

And my final test shot, is of the possession arm.

Newspaper Advert - Ideas Development

Above is my first sketch idea for my advert. I want it to be based heavily around the title and the photographs. These will be the main features of my advert. I had a look at fonts on dafont.com to see what would fit the mood and style of the drama.

This font has quite a retro feel to it. It reminds me of the Scooby Doo cartoon. It still has some menace to it though, with it's slightly wobbly edges. It's bold and I think at the same time it connotes horror.

I like the effect of this one and the way it fades out. It connotes something sinister with it's boldness and it's blunt edges. Then it adds a twist by fading out at the end. It looks similar to dripping blood or ghosts materialising.

This is another font that has a more old fashioned feel to it. Retro and vintage are in fashion at the moment. Especially with our target audience. And so I think it might be good idea to do an advert in the style of old horror such as The Twilight Zone or War Of The Worlds. I think it would also be interesting to have a retro style advert in the way that it would be juxtaposed with the modern feel and content of our drama.

Newspaper Advert - Brainstorm Of Ideas

Myself and my group went through a thorough brainstorm of what each of us wanted to achieve with our individual adverts (which can be seen above). I then went into detail about the title of the drama, which will be the most important aspect of the advert, followed by the photographs.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

We had a feedback session where all the groups got together and we listened to each others radio dramas. We also had an outside audience of teenage girls and boys around the same age in to get extra feedback. This was useful for us, because they were all from the age group of our target audience. A comment sheet was filled out by each participant. This allowed them to outline what they liked/disliked about the drama and what they thought could be improved.

The main issues raised with the storyline were:
The ending being a little confusing.
The fact that one of the main characters goes from being sceptical to being converted too quickly.


The main issues raised with the sound were:
The middle section of dialogue is quieter than the rest of the drama and lets it down.
The volume levels at the end make it hard to understand what is going on.


The feedback we received was mostly positive. Our target audience preferred our drama over all the others. This was very encouraging to hear. The most raised issue was the volume levels of the dialogue and sound effects. Another problem was that quite a few listeners found that the ending of the drama was confusing and they weren't sure what had happened. This was down to our choice of sound effects, and so we can easily amend it. One aspect that appeared to polarize opinion was our decision to use repetitive dance music as background audio during the gathering scene. The older members of the audience found it too repetitive and intrusive. But our target audience liked it. Dance music is supposed to be repetitive, and we had to go with our target audience's opinion. Other positive feedback was that people liked the storyline. A few commented on the way the story was easy to follow, others said they liked the modern feel and references to current culture. One comment was that one of the main characters goes from being sceptical to being converted too quickly. This was something we were already aware of and made ammends to. We only received the comment from one listener, who wasn't part of our target audience. So we don't see it as a main issue but if we have time, we may add in some dialogue to make it more realistic.




From our feedback we now need to make the following amendments:

Change the volume levels throughout the drama.
Change the sound effects at the end to make it clearer as to what is going on.

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF RADIO DRAMA ADVERTS

Because radio dramas aren't as mass produced as films are these days, it is rare to see adverts for radio dramas in the outside world. They are however, used on websites and printed in magazines such as The Radio Times. Because radio dramas are audio media products, it is harder to promote them visually. A solid visual image is needed to communicate directly what the drama is all about. Before I start production on the advert for my radio drama, I need to look at some examples to gain a good idea of the conventions of radio drama adverts.

I came across this poster and originally thought it was a film poster for Star Wars because it follows a similar structure. But through studying it further, the fact that it's for a radio drama soon becomes clear. The image is of an important and recognisable character in the drama. It takes up most of the poster, and the character combined with the background gives viewers a clear idea of what the drama is going to be about. Each section of the poster follows on from the other, in a straight line. This makes the poster easy to read for viewers. The name of the drama is bold, eye catching and clear. It's closely followed by "Exclusively On Public Radio" which lets people know that it's going to be broadcast on radio. It also aims to get people excited by this fact. Following on from the three main elements (the image, the title, the tag line) is the important information about when it's being broadcast and on what station. Overall this poster is very well made, it's precise, clear and bold whilst still remaining informative.

This isn't an advert for The Goon Show, it's the cover for the CD format of the radio drama. It still has the job of selling the drama however. It has a very simple layout, but it still communicates what's needed. The photographs of the characters grab the attention, they also give a visual idea of the characters in the drama. So when people listen to the drama, they can picture these characters. The title is clear, bold and colourful and the rest of the required information is easy to read. The layout is also well composed and the whole piece communicates precisely what it should.

This BBC radio drama is a different genre, but the layout is very similar to that of "The Goon Show". This is partly down to BBC's apparent house style. The main image is the signifier that this drama has a science fiction theme. This is due to the futuristic technology theme. This also has a catchphrase as a predominant part of the layout. It's good to establish a phrase to go along with a radio drama because they are word based forms of entertainment.

RADIO DRAMA - Progress

We have decided on a final version of our drama. We are very happy with it but to make sure; we are going to be playing our drama and receiving feedback from various listeners. This will give us an idea on whether we have made a connection with our target audience, how good our drama actually is and how it all sounds. Further editing may be needed after the listening and feedback session, but for now we are happy with the drama we have made. I exported the final file as an mp3 file using Soundtrack Pro.

Below the final version of the drama can be heard on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InUxoKzScL0&feature=channel_video_title

EDITING EXPLANATION VIDEO