Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

Before we started creating our documentary, we were given a list naming the differing
documentaries otherwise known as the documentary modes. These modes are known
as the Poetic, Expository, Observational, Participatory, Reflexive, and Performative
modes. All of which fall under Steve Neil’s documentary forms. Our documentary is
based on the topic of Stop and Search, finding out the opinions of the interviewees
featured in the documentary. Giving the audience at the same time the real answers to
some of the questions they might pose from watching our documentary. In between
the interviews we placed in some shots of differing surrounding areas, known as
cutaways, seen in figure 0.

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(Figure 0)

These were purposely incorporated into our documentary to enforce or make a link to
what is being said by the voiceover. It also helps in terms of visually engaging the
audience.

It is for this reason that we specifically used interviewees heavily linked with our
chosen topic, to give the audience/viewers the best possible response, so that they
understand the topic clearly. In the case of our documentary we specifically
interviewed Andrew Rosindell the MP for Romford (figure 1), a libertarian from the
Liberal Democrats, a Sergeant from the Metropolitan Police, and some students, so
that a topic that is concerning mainly the youth of today is responded to by the youth
of today. As seen in figure 2 the use of correct framing is important to a good
documentary, especially as I had the role of cameraman.

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(Figure 1)

In this frame I personally made sure that there was just about enough headspace and
that there was more space presented on one side then another.

The main genre category our documentary falls under is the expository mode.

My documentary mirrored styles of filmmaking taken from the expository mode of

documentaries. These techniques have widened my awareness of other styles of
filmmaking. This was highlighted by showing the issues addressed in an
argumentative frame, facilitated with a voice of god narration. That was impartial and
anchored a deeper meaning. While at the same time informing the audience/viewers
of what is going on in the documentary and the significance. As well as presenting
several important stats and facts about the related topic, in our case stop and search,
presented in figure 2.
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(Figure 2)

As seen in the above the editor presented the statistics and cutaway of the public in
the form of a split-screen.

The use of a voiceover is important as it shows that we have been studying the codes
and conventions of the usual documentary. It also presents the documentary as being
formal and serious. This prepares the audience to take note and be serious about what
will be said on-screen. The use of a male voiceover not only conforms to the codes
and conventions of most documentaries, it’s also a voice that our target audience can
identify with.

At various stages during any documentary, there is a sense that things are getting very
repetitive; the same can be said for almost every documentary including ours at
points. This is often done to present the production as being more informative then
entertaining, because while it is good for the audience to feel entertained it is a
documentary and is created to inform as well as interest, without taking the central
focus away form what is being said and seen in the documentary. The fact that the
documentary is based around an issue that viewers can conform with, makes the
entire programme seem realistic. It also allows the audience to feel more secure and
comfortable in terms of possible surprises that could be sprung upon them. Keeping
their focus entirely on the documentary, with no side distractions e.g. visual effects,
etc.

Though the fact that during our documentary the director is heard posing questions to
the interviewee’s, highlights the hints of conventions often seen in participatory style
documentaries.
Meaning that throughout our interviews the Director maintained some interaction
with the people present in the documentary.

At the same time the Director had to make sure that the questions that were asked did
not in any way influence the interviewee’s answer. This was done to keep within the
codes and conventions often seen within our mode of documentary, the Expository.
As the cameraman and sound technician one of the most important issues to think
about was the framing. Making sure that there was not too much headroom, and that
more space was presented on one side of the frame. While making sure that the
quality of the recordings visually was up to scratch. Being the sound technician as
well, it was my job to make sure that via the headphones I didn’t let any preventable
disturbances occurs during the recordings. As well as making sure that the
interviewee could be heard clearly, via the tie-clip microphone.

It was with this in mind that we wanted to continue the tradition of Participatory mode
documentaries and not breakaway from what is usually seen in such a program.
Making sure that it was clear to the audience/viewers that the documentary film-
maker (Director) had a clear relationship with the subjects concerned with the
production.

As like we often see in most if not all movies (whether they are independent or
mainstream), most documentaries use non-diegetic pieces of music to raise emotion
within the viewers. Though unlike the score music you often see in films, a slower
more tranquil tempo is often used in documentaries. Yet at first we thought that some
fast-paced non-diegetic would go well as our documentary is focused on Stop and
Search. It is in this way that we wanted to challenge the conventions of most
documentaries. But after listening to the music while watching the corresponding
action on-screen, we decided as a group that it was best to stick to a slower form of
music. This came in the shape of some classical music.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As well as our main product we were also asked to produce two ancillary tasks,
individually or in a pair. The first ancillary task was to make a print advert, or in
simpler terms a poster advertising our documentary. It could be said that the
poster I created conforms to the usual stereotype of the modern-day poster.
Especially as it engages with the viewers of the advertisement. This is down to the
central image of the poster, which is undoubtedly the most important part of
poster. It was mightily important for everyone in particular me, that the image
corresponded well with the topic of my documentary, in this case being the Stop
and Search system.

As seen in figure 2 it can be seen clearly that the young teenager is pointing the
knife in a provocative manner. As knife-crime is one of the many offenses the stop
and search procedure has been enforced to prevent, I wanted my poster to
represent that exact point. I feel that my image worked well as it provokes
emotion within viewers, partly because of the age of the central character within
the poster. The fact the offender looks like young teen, hints strongly to many
people that people of all ages are getting involved in a vicious circle such as knife-
crime. This finally raises awareness how important a topic such as stop and search
really is, figure 3 backs this statement.

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(Figure 3)

In terms of the typography, the bold lettering I used as part of the textual layout
was purposely included to make the poster stand out not just from a distance, but
to also make the statement seem stronger, therefore attracting the a viewers
attention.

Which will in the long-run hammer home the point to the audience, making it a
more effective poster. The font size and type of font in a way match the style of
the documentary. As we want the documentary to be hard-hitting, and to present
both sides of the story. Such details as the air date of the documentary, the web
address, and the TV station logo e.g. HCTV present the poster in a much-more
formal way, while at the same time giving the poster a more professional edge.
Yet again these features conform to the stereotype.

The documentary has a few features that can be linked with the poster. Features
such as the use of imagery to illustrate what is trying to be said, whether through
the voiceover of a documentary, or the statement of a poster. In the case of the
 documentary the cutaways are used to backup visually what is being seen on-
screen, or to establish a point being made. The latter point is heavily linked to the
effects I wanted to achieve with the advertisement. In terms of the 2nd ancillary
task (radio trailer) the effects of a voiceover is ever-present. Much like the
stereotypical voiceovers often heard in professional documentaries, the presence
of a formal speaking male voice is used. This aids in giving a flow to both the
ancillary task and the documentary, aiding in the documentary being stylistically
consistent.

This was used as well as the audio gathered from an interview featured in the
documentary. To make the radio trailer more effective I added some non-diegetic
music that would be at the beginning and end of the trailer. The radio trailer
engages the audience primarily through the use of the male voice-over, and the
interview audio. Also as the majority of people being stopped and searched are
male, we wanted the documentary to be targeted at primarily males.

In terms of typography both ancillary tasks use differing styles of lettering to catch
the eye of the audience/viewers. For example the use of the red lettering at the
start of the documentary, which can be seen in figure 4. The use of the brick wall
graphic coincides with the title of the production as well, in this case being
Against the Wall. Which is a clever effect, as it gives a greater chance of the
audience wanting to watch even more of the documentary before it has even
started?

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(Figure 4)

In both the ancillary task (the poster) and the documentary the use of dark colours
and bold lettering occur, this is known as thematic continuity.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

As like all productions whether it is a film or documentary, there is a part or aspect

that could have been better or altered. It is for this reason that we wanted the opinion
of those who had seen the whole 5 minute opening sequence to our documentary. So
me and the rest of the group constructed and filmed some audience feedback.
The first positive thing picked up on was the careful arrangement of cutaway shots
seen in the production. For example the use of one shot presenting the procedure
being used on a teen girl (Figure 6).
Plus the fact that when the voice-of-God starts talking about ethnic minorities, the
cutaway displays a black family walking down the high street, both can be seen below
(figure 5).

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(Figure 5)

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(Figure 6)
Figure 6 presents to viewers how the stop and search procedure might look.
Another positive to be noticed in our documentary is that of the non-diegetic
music used to arouse emotion within the audience. As is the case in most
documentaries, the use of non-diegetic music is a common ploy often used to
relax the viewers, and as a helper in terms of keeping the attention of the
audience. For our documentary we thought that the inclusion of classical
music (Beethoven) was appropriate for our style of documentary. This also
conforms to the sound-related codes and conventions, which on many
occasions have been heard. Though at one stage the rest of the group and I
considered using a sample from the music that we created. The music’s fast
pace just didn’t correspond with what was being shown on-screen. The
inclusion of Robert Waller from the Libertarian party, gave the documentary
both sides of the argument over stop and search laws. This gave that balance
to our documentary that it had lacked previously.

After listening to the comments given by the one of the three students who
watched our production, it was made clear he didn’t like the music. He felt that
in some way he did not understand why that particular genre of music had
been incorporated into our documentary. At one stage I had my heart set on
using the created piece, but realised it could possibly take away the effect of
the serious points being raised within the piece.

One of the more positive comments to come from the Audience Review, is the
engaging way in which the documentary had been edited. As touched upon
earlier such uses of split screens, cutaways, and statistics meant that the
audience’s central focus was the documentary. We thought this would be a
better way of presenting the vital stats and facts, rather then just bore the
viewers with random facts and numbers on a blank screen. Below are the 3
students we filmed for the review.
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To gain more knowledge of how are documentary would be received by

people, we conducted a some pre-documentary questions for our audience
testing, and here are the results seen in Figure 7. The 4 questions we asked
were Do you think documentaries are too long to watch? The result of which
11 of the 20 people said yes, 2 said no, and 7 didn’t know.

The next question was What idea for a documentary do you like best? Of the
20 people asked 12 said stop and search, 5 said animal testing, and 3 said
unemployment in London.

The third question was How often do you watch documentaries? 53% said
monthly, 33% said yearly, 14% said weekly, and14% said weekly.

The final question stated What age category do u fit in? Two said 13-15, eight
said 17-21, seven 22-25, and 3 said 26+, as seen in Figure 7.

For our posy-documentary question we first asked, Do you think that all our
interviews were filmed using the rule-of-thirds? 13 said yes, 5 said no, and 2
said maybe.
The second question was Do you think the background music corresponds
with what is happening on-screen? 7 said yes, 12 said no, and 1 said maybe.

The third question Do you think our documentary illustrates both sides to the
issue in debate? As a results 14 said yes, 2 said no, and 4 said they didn’t
know.
The last question was Does the first part of our documentary make you want
to watch the rest? Of which 15 said yes and 5 said no. Altogether the 1
negative was the sound, there were probably better tracks we could’ve found
to aid the documentary.
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(Figure 7)
For our post-documentary question we first asked, Do you think that all our
interviews were filmed using the rule-of-thirds? 13 said yes, 5 said no, and 2
said maybe.
The second question was Do you think the background music corresponds
with what is happening on-screen? 7 said yes, 12 said no, and 1 said maybe.

The third question Do you think our documentary illustrates both sides to the
issue in debate? As a results 14 said yes, 2 said no, and 4 said they didn’t
know.
The last question was Does the first part of our documentary make you want
to watch the rest? Of which 15 said yes and 5 said no. Altogether the 1
negative was the sound, there were probably better tracks we could’ve found
to aid the documentary. The results were presented in bear charts, and pie-
graphs as the figures show.

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

The first piece of new media technology we faced, was that of the site
blogger.com. As our first task was to create both a blog for the group that
would contain all the groups work, but also an individual blogs that would
consist of independent works. For example the brainstorms, and character
profiles would be for the group blog, while the 3 poster drafts and the 2+
documentary reviews would be drafted into the individual blog. Blogger for the
duration of the entire course, was used for things other then the listed tasks
though. It was also used to upload images we had gathered to support, back
up, or prove points being made in certain tasks. In terms of presentation,
blogger also allowed many of us to display our information in a more
appealing fashion. Meaning a bland looking blog could be made to look easier
on the eye. An example can be seen in Figure 8.

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(Figure 8)

It wasn’t just images that we uploaded onto blogger, there was also audio in
the shape of the radio trailers.
Which brings me onto the next NMT (New Media Technology), Adobe
Audition. Creating our radio trailer was the most difficult task we attempted
throughout the whole course. Largely down to the complexity of extracting
audio from interviewee’s in our case Andrew Rosindell, and then having to
trim parts of the audio making sure to trim the irrelevant bits and not the
important parts. Many times I trimmed the wrong part of the audio, and also
placed that section in at the wrong time. In this particular task the placement
of audio is important, as the radio-trailer has to have a smooth sounding effect
to it. My radio trailer is pictured in Figure 9.

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(Figure 9)

The background sound I used for the radio-trailer came from Soundtrack-Pro,
this can be seen in Figure 9. Though process in itself took quite some time, as
I had to scroll through many instrumentals to find one that was suitable for my
trailer.

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(Figure 10)

Software packages such as Final-cut Pro enabled the group in particular the
editor, to remove unnecessary cutaways. This was a problem for the group, in
the sense that we had enough cutaways, but not enough of them that were
relevant to the documentary. Therefore the Director and I had to go out and
film on locations where there was a high amount of members of the public. So
the place we thought best was the Brewery shopping centre and The Liberty.
Both packed with passers-by in the Christmas Rush. The effects of which
Creates that link between the public and what we are trying to say in our
production. In terms of on-screen graphics, final-cut pro also enabled the
editor to add in dissolves, etc to make the whole mise-en-scene look more
appealing to the audience.

As well as the more complex pieces of software there were also everyday
products used in the research and planning for the documentary. For instance
the mobile phones the Director and I used to get in contact with hard to get
interviewee’s such as Andrew Rosindell and Robert Waller libertarian. The
internet was also frequently used in the gathering of vital statistics and
numbers related to our topic, in our case being Stop & Search. The research
into documentary types was also aided by the web.
If getting through to some of the interviewee’s proved difficult, then e-mails
proved another avenue. Contact via e-mail at times seemed not only
frustrating but also time-consuming, especially when waiting for a response.
One of the New Media Technologies used can be seen in Figure 11.

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(Figure 11)

One of the last pieces of NMT (New Media Technology) to be used was the
broadcasting site YouTube. We used the site to post up the group’s final
documentary, so it could be viewed by many others. Most importantly this
would enable the group to see the comments of many others, including those
outside of college. Meaning we are enabled to gain feedback not only from
friends but also those we may not know.

For this evaluation many of the images were stills from the interviews and
cutaways in the documentary, as well as print-screens from the group blog,
and the Internet.

Overall it’s been a tough and rather long journey we have taken to create 5
minutes of a documentary. That has tested teamwork, friendships, patience,
and determination but we got through it. Personally I know realise the difficulty
of making an entire documentary let alone 5 minutes. I have also learned the
meaning of teamwork, and I believe the duration of this coursework period
has made a majority of us stronger!