By Victoria Emerson

Semiotics, Iconography and Amendments

The Hope FM logo is a recurring piece of iconography in the Documentary – as it not only appears at the forefront in the beginning of the Documentary – but also makes several more subtle appearances in the background of shots, too.

ICONOGRAPHY

Figure 1: A leaflet, shown in the introductory section of the Documentary.

Figure 2: The Hope FM logo appears in the background during an intercut.

The colours red, blue and yellow are shown throughout the entire Documentary – in various unexpected places. Red, blue and yellow are the only primary colours in the rainbow, therefore implying that they are simple and not too complicated. These colours are also bold, which perhaps means that they welcome a variety of people into their own community. I chose to emphasise these colours because I felt that a strong motif would reinforce the opinions that I wanted to express.

SEMIOTICS

Figure 1: The keys in the corner of the shot contain red, blue and yellow plastic tags. This makes another reference to the colour scheme. Also, the time table in the very upper left corner contains elements of red, blue and yellow, much like the logo.

Figure 2: I created some Legends in order to compliment the colour scheme – I felt this applied a professional touch which would appeal to the audience.

To amend my work, I must first look at the problems I encountered. Firstly, when dealing with technology, human error is bound to be a factor. There had been a few times where plans were made and one of us had forgotten various important items such as tripods, SD cards or camera batteries. Also, considering that there were various interviews and two crew members, it was difficult to arrange a time and date that would suit all of us at the same time, and occasionally appointments we had made had to be cancelled at the last minute.

AMENDMENTS: Part 1- Human Error

To ensure that this happened less frequently if I were to remake the entire Documentary, I would be more organised when arranging interviews, and keep the date, time and interviewee name written down, along with the required equipment, so I would not forget. I would also make sure that the SD card had enough space on it before bringing it, and check the battery, charging it the night before if necessary.

How would I improve it next

time?

Halfway through the creation of Hope FM: Life Changing Radio, we decided it would be beneficial to use a higher quality external microphone, which we would sync with the video during editing. However, this caused issues because we did not use this device throughout the entire filming process.

AMENDMENTS:Part 2: Consistent

Sound Quality

I would use the external sound recording device (Tascam IM2) from the beginning, or re-record the sections which did not include the new device.

How would I improve it next

time?

Other than the previously stated problems, there were a few Amendments to be made, which have since been corrected. An example of this was the involvement of Paige Van-Der-Zee, the Documentarian. In the rough copies, we fail to distinguish her role clearly, misleading the audience by showing her at the very beginning, and using voiceovers throughout, but not giving her character/role a resolution at the end. To solve this, I simply took out the video footage from the beginning, whilst keeping the voiceovers, meaning that now the mode is more Expository than it was before, and refraining the Documentary from misleading the audience.

AMENDMENTS:Part 3: Addressed Issues

In the rough versions, the audio was out of sync, which disorientated and irritated the audience. In order to correct this, I spent more time editing the audio, until it was entirely in sync. Also, I improved the narrative device from the first rough cut, making the upcoming interviewee look more distinct than the others. This was a huge improvement from the prototype, as it is also animated, reinforcing the flow of the overall Documentary.

AMENDMENTS:Part 3: Addressed Issues

(continued)