How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

How does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products?

How effective was the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Final Main Product

Final Ancillary Texts

Although we had to use a found image of Stephen Fry, the image on the poster is the original image we shot in Cambridge. This was designed to connect to the final tilt of the transvestite Santa in the main product. 

The Animation - Final Production

Here we can see the two images that we layered to created an animation. When cut together at a high speed we gained a successful mouth action that provided us with our talking head. We specifically chose Karl Marx in order to be controversial. It was an initial plan to use Jesus, however upon reflection we found that some religious groups would find it offense as they may see it as mockery (which essentially it is). We decided that as Karl Marx has come under so much scrutiny for his view point that the satire would be socially acceptable, and all interesting.  

The Initial Animation, The Modifications & The Integral Decisions

The Initial Animation 


As we worked around with our animation idea, we decided to construct a santa which gets increasingly fatter as the voiceover describes the development and influence of capitalism as a force of change in the tradition of Christmas.

Above you can see the progression of our animation and how many images we had to distort in order to create a stream of moving images. We used Windows Movie Maker to create this, and had to master all of the skills. We were able to also use photoshop to create our images, which was a use of new media devices for both my partner and I.

The Modifications & Integral Decisions 

After completing the animation we found it to look incredibly mediocre and unrepresentative of the polished product we wanted to present. It was a little amateur, and in all honest, it was due to our lack of familiarity with the program. Although easy to master, to gain professional looking results it was difficult. We therefore made the integral decision to exclude it from our main product and work on a new animation that played on the political messages more satirically. Although a painful decision after so many hours of work, it had to be done in order to create an animation that really blended well into the concept of the final product.  

Animation Idea & Archival Footage

Animation Idea

Upon reflection, we have decided to add an animation component to our documentary in order to emphasize our view point. The animation will be in the similar style to Micheal Moores "Bowling for Columbine". This will send a political message and confirm the opinions of us as film maker, but also add a more entertaining element to the documentary.

There will be a distinct voiceover that will guide the audience through the history. We hope that like Micheal Moores animation, it will be mocking and critical of the evolution that has come of Christmas.

This video above is a animation "A brief history of Christmas" in which some of the themes of our documentary are echoed. This animation was merely a result of research, however we will not take inspiration from it as it is not as humourous or visually stunning as we hoped our animation will be.

Archival Footage 

 We have decided to use archival footage. As we are assessing the changing nature of Christmas what better way than to include film from an era in which the family was glorified and christmas was actually about Christ. We used to the The Honeymooners as we identified the series as a popular to the contemporary audience and therefore portrayed Christmas in way that was identified with many years ago. 

Production Update - Editing, iMovie & Soundtrack

Editing and iMovie


We have concluded the filming for our production and have now moved into the editing stage of our production. We have selected iMovie, as it provides simple but effective cutting and editing devises that will allow us to merge all of our ideas.

The Soundtrack

The soundtrack is imperative to the success of the documentary. We wanted Christmas music however it was important that it had a certain edgy nature to ensure a cohesion with the messages portrayed through out the documentary.  As we needed to use copyright free work it was important to find tracks that worked with the documentary but were also free to use. My partner was familiar with free play music, so after exhausting all other options including creating our own music on the application Garage Band, we settled on a rock cover of "Deck the Halls". It was almost made for the documentary as it slotted in so well with our introductory montage and title sequence. This was one aspect of the documentary that was almost pulled off without any hitches. 

Audience Research - Feedback

The Feedback 

After sending the survey to a variety of people, we have now received data that is able to the anylzed. We were happy with our sample as the respondents are of a range of age groups. This is important as Christmas features are generally targeted at a families.

Below are the results of the survey as presented by Survery Monkey.

Adapting the Product from the Feedback 

Looking at question 5, we found out that 26% of our respondents said that they would only watch a Christmas feature if there was nothing else on TV. We therefore need to adapt our product to make sure they these people who would rather watch something else would watch our documentary. We did this through the adaptation of the time slot. We were originally going to feature it at 11PM due to the controversial nature of some of the view points, however upon evaluation we can lighten some of the themes through cutting the content of the interviews and adding unconventional titles that would suit more to a film and attract the audience who are not so keen on christmas documentary feature.

Looking at question 6, we noted that the majority of our respondents watched christmas features with their families so it was important to add more entertainment feature to portray the political themes in order to entertain the younger members of a family as well as keep the older audience interested. This was were the initial thought of a animation came into play. 

Ancilary Product - Interview with Stephen Fry

As we further research into our ancilary product we have decided to use an interview with Stephen Fry, due to his relateability and public notariety. Below is the initial construction for an interview for the double page spread:

'Do they know it's Christmas Time at all?' featuring Stephen Fry

A documentary produced by two young film makers with executive producer being no one less than Stephen Fry, Britain's glorious and clever actor/comedian most famous for the programme QI. This collaboration has had the outcome of the fantastic controversial documentary ' Do they know it's Christmas time at all'.


Stephan Fry: What is the main issue you are trying to raise and portray with your documentary?
Us: Firstly we want to portray the correlation between capitalism and 'the celebration of joy and love' as this time brings a lot of controversy and contradiction with it mainly because of it's changing tradition. Also, we want to explain and portray the origin of Christmas and what Christmas is like today and what little baby Jesus birth in a barn in Jerusalem has to do with presents, pine trees and roasted 'traditional' food.


Stephen Fry: Does this Documentary have any approach towards the Marxist perspective of the world?
Us: Absolutely! For us the change in tradition and over time is of interest as well as the origin of traditions and celebration (Christmas in this case). Our documentary is not Anti- Capitalism but considering the fact most modern/western societies engage in this economic system, we want to show how consumerism and the economy change and alter traditions as well as showing how they motivate us to conform to these new traditions and ideals. It is simply fascinating to see the history and change of this really important event in the year.


Stephan Fry: Right, so what is your personal interest in Christmas?
Sonja: What fascinates me personally is the myth around Santa clause. When I was young i got told this story about Santa being an invention of coca-cola. Apparently Coca-cola took the mythological Russians figure father frost and simply made him a little fatter and a little rounder ever year until one year he was wearing red and driving a sledge led by reindeer's. However recent coca-cola adverts show Santa adjusting to evolution as he is know driving a huge red truck delivering joy and coke to all. I ask myself whether he makes it to Ethiopia...
Danielle:The thing that really makes this documentary something quite personal for me, is the change that I have seen in Christmas as I have gotten older. As a child christmas was entirely about the presents and 'what I got' from Santa, however as the novelty of Santa wore off and I moved past the materialistic obsession.. Christmas became completely about being with the ones i love and just having a good meal. Now, I reflect upon the traditions and I see that at not ones stage of my life was christmas ever about Jesus, religion or going to church. This makes me question the reality and validity of my celebration and what made me construct such a view of Christmas.


Anciliary Products Research - Radio Times

While looking at various types of listings magazines, I think it is important to note a varying demographic in the prints. In doing this we have established that within our print we will have an interview in which the producers will explain the concepts and production of the documentary. Radio Times does this quite regularly in spreads about up and coming features.

Furthermore, the Christmas edition of the Radio Times is a popular festive themed listings magazines. Also, Christmas has been established to be the time of year in which people are interested in seasonal themed shows. Radio Time's christmas edition has already used imagery on thier cover pages about the controversial nature of Christmas, which upon reflection is a good platform to present a documentary discussing themes of the changing nature of Christmas.

In the cover spreads above, it can been seen that the producers of the magazine are noting how Christmas tradition is changing and how people are accepting this new views and controversy of Christmas. This is also evidence that the themes we are developing in our documentary are already established in Christmas media, and are of interest to the demographic that we are targetting.



Ancillary Products - Listings Spread

As we are creating a listings spread, it is imperative that we conduct research of the magazines and we can use the resources to benefit our own double page spread. These magazines target a various array of demographics, and perseve different shows in different ways according to the target audience. This is something we must take into consideration when looking at creating our own double page listings spread.

Advertisements take up a large proportion of spreads. This is shown below.



Production Plan

In order to complete our documentary extract, these are the shots and the planning that we will complete so that we have a variety of choices when it comes to our editing.

1. Different shots of various people expressing thier views on Christmas. We will do this to create the opening sequence, and appropriate opening for our documentary. This will not only show the diversity of opinion about Christmas, but it will also entice our audience into the themes of our documentary. This will also appeal to a wide audience, as we are showing a wide range of people.
2. Titles will be of a Christmas theme and Christmas music will be featured.
3. Voiceovers will be featured over the shots of streets decorated for the festivities, and will begin to disucss the diversity and change how Christmas has seen. Here we will also feature a brief history of Christmas, outlining the development and the change and set up the pretense for the documentary.