A2 Media Documentary Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge codes and conventions of real media products? Our task was to create a 5 minute introduction to a documentary. The topic was our choice. Our documentary Fashion: Pushed to the Limits was created as an informative/social documentary displaying the influences fashion trends have on the youths of today. Our documentary includes experts and interviews, which helped created the realistic look we were going for. We used a range of opinions from people of different ages, so it suited our target audience of teenagers and theyre parents or carers. Our chosen broadcast channel was Channel 4. This was because Channel 4 usually show documentaries in a series format and the main target audience is teenagers to people in their late 30s. An example of this would be Dispatches, this series includes various documentaries addressing and investigating different issues. Some of the episodes include Britains rubbish and Britains Sex Gangs. Another documentary I personally looked at was Trophy Kids.

Use of codes and conventions

To make our documentary seem and look professional we had to include various conventions and common codes found in real documentaries. We analysed other documentaries and listed the codes and conventions we needed to include. We used YouTube to find documentaries to analyse and we also watched some off Channel4documentaries.

Ident Most channels use an ident before a programme starts to show the channel airing them. We chose the ident shown to the right. The channel 4 ident clearly identifies the channel the show has been created by. We created a voice over to be played over the top of the ident. This was a male introducing a show that was airing after ours. This made the intro to our documentary seem very professional and realistic. Expert Interviews In professional documentaries, interviews with experts and famous people are generally involved. Most documentaries show both sides of the argument, as does ours. The person being interviews is usually to the left or right side of the camera. The people staring in the interviews can be famous, students, experts, adults or anyone that works in the Industry that has a valid opinion. For our expert interview we asked, Neil Attewel a college Chaplin at Solihull Sixth Form College to voice his opinion, this was valuable as our documentary was aimed at teenagers and their parents. Most teenagers attend a college of some sort, therefore his opinion would be valued (Shown to the left). We also interviewed a college councillor, Jag Jagdev. He deals with students on a daily basis and explains why they feel the need to subject themselves to following the latest fashion trends and the crowds (Shown on the right, below).

Interview with college chaplin Student Interviews The purpose of our documentary was in to inform students and their parents that following the latest fashion trends is not essential. With our core target being teenagers, it was a good idea to involve students talking about theirs views on following trends. We interviewed a student called Hannah, she explained her views on people that follow the crowd and this made the documentary more interesting and relatable for teenagers. Although Hannah isnt an expert in fashion, her opinion will help many teenagers in the same position. She is standing in front of some shops which fit in with our topic. The shot is a medium shot showing her shoulders and her face. This enables the audience to see her expressions and feel as if they can relate to her.

Student Vox Pops Channel 4s Trophy Kids included many vox pops, they voice people opinions and are often very short clips. We have included approximately 5 of these with in our documentary. Vox pops usually show the difference in peoples opinions and show both sides of the argument. The purpose of our vox pops was to give a range of opinions about fashion, these were fairly short, catchy and straight to the point. The mise-en-scene included various shops in the background, as this was relevant to the topic.

Sound and Editing

VOICE OVERS: Our documentary did not have an actual presenter although some documentaries do, we chose to stick to a voice over. Voice overs are essential to a documentary as they explain what is happening and have a voice of authority. We used a male voice to talk over our footage, to explain and give statistics on our topic. A voice over makes the audience feel more involved by asking rhetorical questions and telling them what is being investigated. DIEGETIC SOUND: We used diegetic sound in our documentary in various scenes. For example of a scene like this we filmed in Mell Square, Solihull. We filmed a vox pop in front of New Look, we kept the original background noise to make the scene feel more realistic and like a professional documentary. It also gives the footage an original, un-touched feeling. SOUND BRIDGES: Sound links are commonly found in documentaries to link together different screen shots. We created a variety of sound bridges, which also added to the transitions we used. For example in various places when the voiceover or the person in the shot stops speaking, the sound track comes in until the next shot.

THEME MUSIC: My group decided to choose upbeat music to our documentary. We did this so that the soundtrack suited our target audience of teenagers and their parents. It will also keep teenagers interested as its fast paced.

TRANSITIONS: To make our documentary seem realistic, we decided to use transitions to link different screen shots and scenes together smoothly. We did this so that the shots didnt just jump from one to another and there was no black screen inbetween.

Use of Camera Shots

Establishing Shots: Establishing shots are an important convention used in documentaries. These shots introduce a certain location, setting and environment to the audience. It allows the audiences to create a connection between the images of the places in the establishing shot and the voiceover. Trophy Kids also uses establishing shots.

Our documentary was based in Solihull Town Centre, therefore we used shots of road signs and the main road leading through Solihull. The shot also shows buses and car driving though Solihull giving the impression that its very busy. The buses also show good transport links and set the scene. Extreme Close Shots: Still Shots:

Used in the montage at the begginning, extreme close ups

Use of still shots during montage.

keep the attention of the audience.

Developing Conventions
Listings PageWe created a magazine listings page to advertise our documentary, before doing so we researched and analysed other printed double page spreads and annotated their common conventions. I picked an article out of TV BUZZ, I picked out the main conventions and labelled them clearly. By using common conventions in our listings page, it would look more realistic and much more professional.

Developing conventions
Masthead: Drop shadow makes the text stand out and look professional Pull Quotes: In the middle of block text to break the text up Image: The dominant image is bright and takes up half of the second page, attracts attention easily. Images are also print screens from within our documentary. Text: The text colour varies to add interest and variety.

Drop shadow behind title Red attracts both genders Date and Magazine name printed in top left
hand corner

Documentary name, date and channel

In our article we used Pull Quotes. A simple line taken from the block text, enlarged and put into quotation marks. To make them stand out we used drop shadow and a red colour, different from the rest of the text.

We used captions along the bottom of the images we had chosen. These images were print screens and shots from within our documentary. The images are bright and will attract the reader attention easily.

Just like in professional magazine and newspapers, we put the date, the channel and the title of the documentary at the top of the article. We used bold text and drop caps so that it would stand out.

Radio Trailer
The purpose of our radio trailer was to advertise the content of our documentary in a maximum of 30 seconds. The conventions we followed were the followingPresenter The presenter is the most important voice in the radio trailer. The same as the documentary, the voice over in the radio trailer introduces the documentary. Content from the documentary The radio trailer is only based on same, so it is important to use short clips from within that will catch the listeners attention. The Title The title Fashion: Pushed to the Limits is mentioned and brands the documentarys identity. Music We used up-beat background music to keep the listeners interested.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?
Although the documentary was our main task, the listings page and the radio trailer helped us created an identity. The main things that linked our documentary, radio trailer and our listings page together were the images, quotations and the voices used.

IMAGES: We used the same images from the documentary on our listings page. The article in our listings page was based on Chloe a student from the Sixth Form College Solihull, is also features in our documentary expressing her opinions on high street fashion trends. This links the two together. We used various screen shots from within our documentary and placed them onto our listings page.

QUOTATIONS: On our listings page, we also used a pull quotation stating the following Its like if she has one I want one, or if he has that I have to have it. This quote in said during our documentary and during our radio trailer. It features on all 3 of our tasks, therefore shows our consistency and links the 3 together.

TEXT/ARTICLE: The first part of our article also relates to the topic we cover in our documentary about how often teens use their phones and what make they want to own. This straight away relates and links to our documentary and our radio trailer.

EVALUATION OF TASKS: I think all three of our tasks fit the target audience of teens and their parents. I think the language and the screen shots we have used have suited the audience well and I think the theme music used will keep them interested. Effectively I think our radio trailer could have been a bit clearer and the sound could have been edited so that it was all at the same level. However I do think it advertised our documentary and its contents well.

The Listings Page, used print screens of the shots used in the documentary therefore was able to show the contents used in the documentary and give an insight into what the reader can expect. The image were bright and attractive therefore would grab the readers attention especially if they were teenagers as bright colour attract them more then dull plain writing and text.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We received audience feedback from within our media group to find out what aspects of our documentary people liked the most and what areas we could improve in. Split into four sections, the questionnaire asked our media group their thoughts overall on our documentary, certain aspects of our documentary, what they liked about it, and what we could improve on.

Worst category: Sound Best category: Appropriateness for target audience Most popular positive comments: Range of footage, meets target audience, interesting Most popular negative comments: Sound levels inconsistent

OVERALL RESPONSE TO DOCUMENTARY

As the graph shows, 40% percent voted our documentary very good and 40% voted it good. 20% percent voted it satisfactory. No one thought it was poor and no one thought it was excellent, this means there was plenty of room to improve which is understandable. We were very pleased with our results as it showed we had meet our target audience as the people who gave their comments were of our age, 17/18.

CHOICE OF TOPIC FOR DOCUMENTARY?

10% - excellent 30% - Very good 50% - Good 10% - Satisfactory Overall our documentary topic was very well suited for our target audience and was a realistic topic choice.

APPROPIATE FILMING MATERIAL FOR DOCUMENTARY?

0% - excellent 50% - Very good 50% - Good 0% - Satisfactory Overall our footage was very good and suited our topic. It was appropriate for our target audience, however there could have been more if we had more time.

APPROPRIATNESS FOR TARGET AUDIENCE? 30% - excellent 40% - Very good 30% - Good 0% - Satisfactory Overall our documentary was appropriate for its target audience.

USE OF SOUND AND MUSIC? 0% - excellent 50% - Very good 30% - Good 20% - Satisfactory The sound in our documentary was our weakest point. The sound levels varied and could have been edited to a higher standard.

EDITING IN ORDER FOR AUDIENCE TO UNDERSTAND MEANING? 10% - excellent 50% - Very good 40% - Good 0% - Satisfactory Overall people thought the editing in our documentary was done well and helped the audience understand the topic.

USE OF EFFECTS AND TRANSITIONS? 20% - excellent 40% - Very good 40% - Good 0% - Satisfactory Overall the transitions and effects we used in our documentary worked well and to our advantage.

DID THE DOCUMENTARY SEEM PROFESSIONAL?

20% - excellent 50% - Very good 30% - Good 0% - Satisfactory Overall our audience thought our documentary seemed professional and realistic.

What did you like most about this documentary?

1. Good range of shots 2. Clear footage 3. Transitions looked professional 4. Good choice of topic 5. Edited well and professionally 6. Good statistics and informative about topic

What didnt you liked about this documentary and how could we improve?
1. Some shots and some footage was a bit wobbly 2. Sound levels were not equal at various parts 3. Voice over sounded rushed in some parts 4. Camera needed to be steady in some areas.

LISTINGS PAGE FEEDBACK

Overall our listings page had great feedback. With everyone we asked rating it over a 7/10. One person wrote Brilliant use of colours and the layout if simple but effective.

10% gave us 10/10

40% gave us 8/10

20% gave us 7/10

30% gave us 9/10

Conclusion and Improvements

- 70% of the group thought our documentary seemed very professional and realistic1 - Everyone we asked thought our listings page was over 7 out of 10. - Many people thought the documentary was well suited to its target audience and the footage was very appropriate. The weakest part of our documentary was the sound. We did have a problem with editing the sound to the same level so it played evenly, however we could not edit this in time for our deadline. This therefore made the sound level in our documentary inconsistent. We also had music playing throughout the whole documentary which someone commented on saying that it would have been better if the music was lowered or stopped in some areas where the voice over was speaking. Our core audience was teenagers so we thought using fast paced, upbeat music would keep their attention for longer. If we could improve the sound now, I would suggest we stopped the music in some parts and many use various soundtracks to keep the documentary interesting.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages? Research and planning?
The Internet During the research and planning stages, the internet was the main source for my group when deciding the topic of our documentary. After listing down a number of choices for our topics, we used major search engines such as Google chrome on the internet to find ideas for each. Once we had a few ideas for each topic, we chose the topic we had the most ideas for and that was Fashion. We looked at similar documentaries and research major events such as The Clothes Show. We watched YouTube videos and interviews and gathered various ideas for our own documentary. After watching these videos and reading through articles on the topic we decided to aim our documentary at teenagers and how they are affected by fashion trends. We read thought the clothes show website and found out the number of tourists it takes each yeah and the main age it attracts being teenagers. Celebrities and adverts create materialism and encourage teenagers to purchase the latest trends. We came to the conclusion our documentary was going to explain why it isnt necessary to follow the trends or the crowds.

YOUTUBE + 4OD
We used YouTube and channel 4 on Demand to help us see what kinds of codes and conventions are used in professional documentaries. We also analysed the type of camera shots used and how the voice over linked with what was being shown on screen. We listed down all the codes, conventions, musical themes, colours and cameras shots used to give us ideas for our own documentary.

Analysing Documentaries:
We analysed 4 documentaries and picked out the common codes and conventions. We analysed Trophy Kids which was about teenagers being pressurized to be the best by their parents. This documentary had the same target audience as ours therefore was a good choice to analyse. We kept note of where the voice came in and the backgrounds for interviews and vox pops etc.

THE BLOG
The blog was an important part of our task, it helped us keep record of all our work. We uploaded our individual tasks after completion. All members of our group could access the blog and post their individual work, we each had a student letter, so that when we posted our work we could label it with our letter. The blog can also be accessed at home, therefore it made it easier for us to upload and manage all of our work. The blog is an interactive way of representing all of our coursework, whether it is still or moving image.

We were group C04. Once logging onto the blog, we can select our individual group blogs. Everyone else can also access our blog to view our work, however only our group posts on there.

FEATURES: - Able to place hyperlinks and YouTube videos - Able to format the font - Able to upload photos from your home drive - Able to use colours - Able to use spell check - Able to go back and edit posts if you have made mistakes - Able to preview post before publication

You can also edit all your posts on the Edit Posts screen. You can save posts as drafts until you have completed them, therefore they arent published un-finished.

CONSTRUCTING THE DOCUMENTARY

Apple Macs:
We used apple macs to do most of the tasks for our media coursework. We edited and pieced together our documentary, radio trailer and our listings page using programmes such as -Photoshop -InDesign -Final Cut -Garage Band -Comic Life -Print Screens

Cameras:

Kodak Camera: This allowed us to take stills for our documentary, which we also used for our story boards, produced in Comic Life. We also used these to take images of our audience feedback in progress.

Cannon HD Camcorder: This allowed us to film our footage. With this camcorder we were also able to playback our footage and clips. We uploaded our footage the same day as we completed our filming sessions so the camera memory was free for next time. We uploaded our clips to Final Cut were we could Log and Transfer them.

Tripod: Enabled us to take steady shots. With the tripod our shots werent steady and more focused. We used the tripod to film scenes where we wanted still images and filmed with a handheld camera.

Microphones: We used these to gather any additional sound. This made the recording clearer than they would have been using the camera.

Headphones: We were able to listen to our footage without being disturbed through headphones that could be connected to the Apple Macs. We could also use these offsite which meant we could hear the person in the shot more clearly as we couldnt hear interfering sound.

FINAL CUT EXPRESS

TextWe edited our text on top of the documentary. It lasted for approximately 5-7 seconds. Viewing the VideoWe could view our video so far here. This is where we also took our print screens from.

Selected ClipsWe selected the clips we wanted to use within our documentary

Sound and VideoOnce we had picked the clips for our final footage, we put it on the timeline in the order we thought flowed best. We put the sound clips below on to the time line and cropped them to fit with the various footage clips. We overlapped the two to create sound bridges.

Adjusting the sound We were able to adjust the sound levels so they were all even. Although we had some problem when equalling our sound levels out.

GARAGE BAND -

Sound Levels We could edit our radio trailer sound levels so that the sound was consistent.

We extracted sound on to garage band to edit the sound. We edited sound into the background. We chose an upbeat track to play quietly behind the speaking of Neil our main speaker. We were also able to edit the sound levels so they fit with the tracks playing behind, We edited the voice over so that it was louder than the background track.

PHOTOSHOP AND INDESIGN

We used Photoshop and InDesign to produce our Listings Page. We used Photoshop to manipulate the images and make changes to the contrast. The we used InDesign to finish the layout and finally produce the page.