Radio Trails Analysis

Trail for
(station/channel)

Target audience

Game Over Channel 4 Documentary advert

The documentary focuses on teenagers and whether gaming is dangerous to

our youth therefore the primary target audience is most likely teens, could
be targeting males more than females as e.g. all the voxpops were of young
boys. Secondary audience could be parents as theyd be concerned with their
children health and want to hear more about how games affect them.

Tone of voice?
The tone is neutral but leaning more towards serious than relaxed. This
highlights the serious topic of the documentary and makes the advert sound
professional.
Sound effects?
(SFX)

Wildtrack/ambient
sound?

Use of music?

Sound used in the advert except the voiceover and music is a deep disturbing
voice saying Game over and laughing at the end of the advert. This sound is
likely from a video game and it gives a negative impression of danger at the
end of the advert which can make us assume that the documentary is biased
towards proving dangers of gaming. Other sound used is from voxpops used
in the documentary and from one of the experts.
There appears to be no ambient/ background sound in the advert. In the
voxpops boys talk about their favorite consoles and there is no sound that
would indicate that they were filmed outside (e.g. wind, cars etc.). This
matches the topic of the documentary as gaming is usually associated with
spending a lot of time inside and not being out as much.
Music used at the beginning of the advert and playing in the background
throughout is a theme song from a game Super Mario Bros. Its a sound that
most teenagers know as its a very well known game and it clearly links to the
documentary topic. The upbeat, happy tone of the music contrasts with the
sound effect at the end of the advert.

How many tracks?

Two- voiceover and snippets from the documentary

Sound levels?

The voiceover sound level stays consistent throughout the advert. The music
is louder at the beginning of the advert and then the sound level decreases so
that it plays in the background without disturbing the voiceover.

Length?

The advert is 30seconds long. That is enough to present the topic and main
question of the documentary as well as say what channel and time it can be
seen at but its also not too long so the listener wont loose interest.

Other notes/common
elements/conventions

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