How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

By looking at my three products, it is clear that I have carefully considered every factor to create professional and high quality products. These factors include: genre, conventions of Channel 4 products and the meaning that my audience will take from each product. As a result I feel that I have successfully produced products which are loyal to the genre  therefore appealing to my target audience.

I feel that my newspaper advertisement is the most effective combined with my main product as it relies on one strong image to entice and draw in my audience. Similarly my main product also relies on strong images; as each shot has been specifically chosen in order to create a warm mode of address which is a large aspect of my documentary. Moreover for my newspaper advertisement I had to choose a single image to best depict the tone, meaning and typicality of my main product in order to present an accurate representation of what Passage of Time is as not to advertise it falsely . From the image the audience can infer that the picture that the subject is holding is of great sentimental value.  Whilst also putting value in the people in the photo which connotes the importance of all life, including the elderly's (which is one of our key messages in the documentary).

However, if the Channel 4 brand along with my newspaper advertisement didn't attract my audience, then hopefully my radio advert would. It may be a more enticing form of advertisement as my radio advert offers actual sound bites of the documentary. This allows my audience to listen to fragments of the documentary itself. Moreover through the combination of the symbolic image in my newspaper advertisement and the carefully selected sound bites in my radio advert, then that would surely be enough for my audience to ascertain whether or not they would want to watch Passage of Time.

As my audience listen to my radio advert, they will learn that it is advertising a TV documentary focusing on the life of an elderly woman, who gives her insight into important social topics as well as her personal life. The fact that Channel 4 has chosen to make a documentary focusing on this specific woman will intrigue my audience as they will want to know why she's being filmed of everyone they could've filmed. Obviously after my audience has watched my documentary they will be able to connect the dots between my three products e.g. the story behind the framed photo in my newspaper advertisement or the story of how she met her husband in my radio advert. Furthermore I made sure that there was clear synergy between all three products. This ensured that my preferred reading was clear and consistent as well as ensuring that I don't reveal any of the mystery behind the photo or the sound bites which I limited to several seconds each. This was the main reason I chose not to make a double page spread as it would take away most of the enigma behind Brenda and George. Furthermore my audience might have not bothered to watch the documentary if they had already read the double page spread.

All three of my products fit the codes and conventions of Channel 4 products which is what I based my ideas on and modified them when necessary. This was an easy decision  once we had decided on doing a documentary as Channel 4 is widely regarded as one of the best documentary broadcasters giving our documentary credibility before anyone has seen it (providing it is faithful to the codes and conventions of Channel 4 products; which I believe it is.)

Time and nostalgia are clear themes throughout all three products.

TV documentary-  Time is highlighted through the use of slow motion throughout the piece; making it clear to the audience that they should cherish the time they have with loved ones.

Nostalgia is most apparent when the subject discusses her childhood coupled with the shot of the picture used in my newspaper advertisement.

Newspaper advertisement- as stated before the synergy used between my documentary and my newspaper advertisement is extremely apparent with the consistent call back to that framed photo inferring significance from the subjects past. Moreover the mere use of the old photo links my advert to time and the passing of time.

​Radio advert- this was the hardest product to implement the theme of nostalgia into as the although the sound bites i used somewhat depict nostalgia it's not necessarily clear as the sound bites are presented out of context.  Furthermore it is clear that the biggest flaw of my radio advert is that i failed to depict all of the key themes of my work clearly. In contrast like my documentary to emphasize the importance of time as a theme i also altered the speed of my work only this time it was in the sound rather than the moving image like my documentary. I also feel that the dialogue at the end of my radio advert could be clearer as well as louder as although I maxed out the volume when editing it still is quite quiet.

Overall I feel that the combination of my main and ancillary tasks is very effective as all 3 have clear synergy (particularly my documentary and newspaper advertisement. However, I do feel that my radio advert could be better and more linked to the other two products. Despite this I feel that I did well considering I had to link a product that was under a minute long. As my radio advert is the weakest of the three products perhaps it was a mistake to choose the radio advert over the double page spread as it was extremely difficult to link the products cohesively. Having said that I believe my justification of why I didn't produce a double page spread was valid suggesting that the low quality was due to my poor execution.