Evaluation

The two media products that we made for our campaign are a short documentary and three posters about our campaign, regener8. Although the two media forms cover different topics and have different messages, we have made it clear that the two products are linked by creating visual continuity between each of our products. We have created a house scheme using the colours green, black and white in each of the posters and trying to use these as much as possible at convenient points during the video. We have also used the same typography as in our logo for all the text on each of the posters and throughout the video, and there is also the use of our logo and slogan, central in each of our posters and shown for a long period at the end of our video. The methods of contacting us at the bottom of the poster/ end of the video are also the same links (we have focused on the same websites). There is also a subtle similarity in that we have used images of the same teenagers on our posters whom are in our video, which not only creates another link but could help create a corporate identity/ face for our campaign. There are also further links between the three posters, for which we have used the same idea and template. The visual continuity between the three posters and the documentary make it clear to the audience that these media forms are all linked and belong to our campaign, making it look authentic, genuine and professional.

When we were first given the brief, we were informed we needed to 'encourage them to participate in the renewal or protection of this local space' drawing on our 'local knowledge and your media expertise'. We researched two areas in order to successfully understand the brief and create a campaign- the media and conventions, methods and techniques used in campaigns, focusing on local projects such as 'Wild Stevenage' and 'Baldock Needs a Skate Park'. We then researched regeneration, focusing on the impact it had on community so we understood the information we would include in our campaign. This enabled us to meet the needs of the client by creating a successful campaign using effective methods and techniques with information relevant to what they believed in and wanted to educate people about.

We looked at the codes and conventions of campaigns during our research section and tried to apply this to our own work. For example, we created a logo, slogan and company name specifically attracting the target audience. We included various methods to contact us (we chose Facebook and Twitter, which lots of campaigns use as they are the two most popular social networking sites). We used techniques such as direct address, statistics and rhetorical questions to accompany the images on our poster (similarly to our video, with clear caption and popular, current background music).

We have tried to make this campaign as specific to teenagers as possible, considering the stereotypical teenager at each stage of brainstorming ideas and designs. Our campaign name, 'regener8' and slogan 'it's up 2 u', use text talk which is used or understood by most teenagers and is slang particular to that age group. We have used images of teenagers in each of our posters to attract them and show how they are impacted by regeneration. Similarly in our documentary we have interviewed a variety of teenagers appealing to all 'cliques' and even included a section dedicated to teenagers to get their attention and encourage them. We also considered teenagers when selecting the music music in the documentary, generally using young artists with popular songs in the 'indie' genre, voted most popular by teenagers in a recent online poll.

Throughout the campaign we have tried to represent the stereotypical teenager, whom the target audience can relate to, making the issue seem more important because it has an impact on them and they cannot ignore it. We have used teenagers in the documentary and shown them as the kind of person they would expect to see by dressing them in casual clothes, generally jeans and a t-shirt to make them seem approachable and not above the audience, adding to the impact of the message (how it affects everyone). We have shown flashbacks of the teenagers doing typical activities e.g. going to the park or playing on their phone. The language they speak in is not unprofessional but still casual and how a typical teenager would speak.

When we were producing our products, we created two production schedules- one for the documentary and one for images to use on our poster. We ensured the schedules did not overlap so we had plenty of time to focus on both products. We made sure to stick to this schedule so we could meet deadlines. We tried to film the material as close together as possible because we wanted to focus on editing the footage.

We tried to make our campaign as appropriate as possible and did not include any text, dialogue or images that could be seen as rude or offensive. We did not include references to any products, companies, people or other campaigns to avoid being disrespectful. We took these precautions to oblige with any existing rules or regulations regarding campaigns.

The products were created as a team. We both came up with separate first drafts and ideas that we then looked at and combined so that we both had an equal say and ideas. We did the same whilst creating scripts for the documentary and arranged to film separate parts of the documentary to save time, and then edited them together. We both created separate sets of posters, although we used some similar techniques and ideas so that we both contributed equally to the campaign overall.

To improve, there were a few technical issues we would have liked to fixed had we the time, for example the sound quality in the video wasn't good because of the weather conditions and the edges of some of the images we used were slightly pixelated which doesn't make the campaign look very professional. We would have liked to have shown a wider variety of teenagers, especially in our posters where the images are all of females which could suggest our campaign is biased towards girls or they are the only sex who would benefit from our ideas which is not the message we want to send. The second section of our documentary, 'Why is regeneration important?' also includes some jargon, such as brownfield and greenfield sites- we should have elaborated and included definitions to make it more easier to understand for the target audience.

I think our representation of teenagers and the materials/ techniques we used to attract them were successful- we received positive feedback through social networking from lots of teenagers. We also like our final idea for the poster, using a smartphone to capture what the future looks like- we like how it links in with the corporate image of the campaign and is creative. We are also really happy with the final documentary as it runs smoothly.

This is some of the feedback we received through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube