Evaluation

How well do you think you have done? Based on feedback from peers and teachers do you believe
you have successfully fulfilled the required brief?

I think I have done an adequate job throughout my production. Of course, there is plenty of room to
improve as I feel I can add music in some areas to improve my edit but I feel the context and
information given throughout is very informative and fit my target audience down to t. I also tied to
include as many interviews with different professionals throughout my production, I used
professionals from Wycombe Wanderers FC and Queens Park Rangers FC to make sure the narrative
is as informative as possible. Below is some feedback I received from my fellow friend Joe Maine, as
you can see his says that my production is informative which the main purpose is arguably. Another
pleasing aspect he touched on was how professional the interviews looked, this was important to
me as I planned in depth for these interviews, I had to think about multiple things like position of
camera, microphones and think about the 360 degree rule as well as the rule of thirds when
interviewing the professionals by taking all of this into account I feel my production looks high
standard. The second piece of feedback I received states that the locations used are very
professional, again I tried to make sure my locations used throughout conform to the genre of my
production hence why I recorded the interviews at both Loftus road and Adams Park as the narrative
of my production is based on QPR and Wycombe so this made perfect sense to conduct the
interviews at the respected locations. Thirdly, Adam sent me feedback, he stated that my production
is easy to understand, well filmed and relatable. This feedback is very insightful as he has given me
multiple areas of referral, Adam also goes onto say that the length of my production wasn’t too long.
At the beginning of the unit this was one of my main concern, I wasn’t too sure on the duration of
my production as I had seen many sport documentaries under ten minutes long, however after I had
added the interviews in my production amounted to just over 11 minutes, I think this is an
appropriate length as my teachers haven’t said anything against this time. Also, from the research, I
looked at other sports documentaries and these were all 7-12 minutes so I think my production
won’t come across as boring because when I watching these videos I didn’t get bored which is vitally
important. Furthermore, I also had to focus on b-roll, as this is a very important element to any
documentary, I do feel my b-roll could be improved as I had to use clips from YouTube to help fill in
certain areas of my documentary as I either didn’t get the right b-roll or I felt what I had shot wasn’t
good enough quality. For the three experts I interviewed I feel they gave very respectable answers
and I had more than enough content to implement into my documentary.
I feel I stuck to my brief, both in terms of my idea and the rules/regulations as I had no reference to
drugs or alcohol, I didn’t copy work from previous units and I submitted all the work on time. It was
vitally important that I complied with these rules and regulations as if I didn’t it would result in a
potential fail. In my brief, I stated specific aspects that I wanted to include in my production, such as
interviewing professionals who work within the community trusts at both QPR and Wycombe
Wanderers. To make sure I suited the needs of my target audience, I included many topics within
grassroots football, for example, I spoke about the educational side of football when I travelled to
Hamilton primary school in Wycombe and Cookham rise primary school. At these two venues I was
able to record what activities the children do to help keep fit and learn the basics of physical
education. Jay Hamon from the Wycombe Wanderers Sport and Education Trust allowed me to
record his sessions in either school, here I developed my understanding of the ‘premier league
primary stars’ programme (PLPS) as I was able to see what the initiative is all about. It entails basic
drills for the youngsters like passing, dribbling and teamwork skills which will benefit them in a wider
walk of life, not just football. Another way I stuck to my brief was including all age groups in my
production, I thought this was a vital element at the start of the unit as I wanted my documentary to
be tailored to a large demographic so by including footage of the children during the PLPS
programme and footage from QPR walking football, I hope to have drawn all ages as the issues
directly affect them.

I made some slight altercations

How well did you work with your client?

I feel I worked well with my clients, both travelling to the destinations was made easy by them as
they gave me plenty of notice with timings the address of the schools and stadia. When I arrived at
the destination, I felt straight at home, both Wycombe and QPR welcomed me by offering
food/drink, I was also abled to roam freely within the stadium and film. This element of trust was
important as it enabled me to get as much footage as possible without being interrupted. Below is
email confirmation from Tom, who I interviewed at QPR, showing confirmation that I am able to
access the facilities. However, one main hiccup I had was finding my clients, it took me 5 weeks, at
first all of the companies I got in touch with and phoned didn’t reply so I was contemplating on
changing my idea to one where I wouldn’t need to use a professional football club, instead I would
travel to local sides within the Reading area like Reading Town FC and my local team Caversham AFC.
After this issue was tackled and I finally found my contacts it was straight forward as they
cooperated well with me. Before I travelled to Wycombe I went to meet Jay, who works within their
community trust, at a Costa in Cookham to iron out what I needed from him and what he needed
from me. This meeting went very well, I explained to him that I just needed him for an interview on
what Wycombe Wanderers do for the community when it comes to their sports programmes like the
primary stars campaign. In return, he needed me to film two PE sessions at different primary
schools, this was for the primary stars campaign, however, and this also benefited me as I included
some of the footage from the schools in my production when I spoke about the campaign and
education within football. I also got invited to QPR to film one of their walking football sessions but I
didn’t go as the event took place on 10/5/18 which is obviously a day before my deadline so I simply
wouldn’t have had enough time to edit the footage as well completing any other week needed.
Overall, I feel I worked well and cooperated extremely well with my clients.
How well do you believe your production followed the conventions of your genre?

My documentary is expository, I travelled to places in order to gain footage and form a narrative
based on grassroots football. I used multiple techniques throughout my production like interviews
and my style of voiceover. When it came to interviewing the professionals I had to make sure my
camera angles were on professional, here is a screenshot of my camera setup, I decided to angle
both cameras on the interviewer as I when it came to editing I wanted to switch between
perspectives rather than just having one camera fixated on him for thirty seconds as this would
mean the audience will get bored very quickly instead I was able to cut between angles in the editing
process.

I also had to make think about my voiceover style, as I wanted my production to appeal to a wide
audience, I had to be very specific with how I worded my voiceover, I had to stay away from
sophisticated words and instead try and keep it simple so my potential younger viewers can
understand

I believe my production followed the conventions of my genre well throughout, I stuck to my script
and included lots of different information regarding grassroots football, disability in sport and health
benefits of sport. By focusing my production on a number of different topics relating to sports, I
hope that my I meet my target audience. I feel included facts and information appropriately
throughout the course of the production, as I have a very large target audience I needed to include
facts as the older watchers will watch with the purpose of taking information out of the
documentary after they have watched it. Of course, I was mindful that I would have younger people
watching so I included a cartoon illustration aimed to simplify what I’m saying as they may find it
confusing. I also tried to make my voiceover clear with sophisticated vocabulary that is
understandable for all ages. When researching the conventions of my genre by looking at other
documentaries on YouTube I noticed that many have b-roll, then a snippet of an interview, more b-
roll and a different interview, after I picked up on this I tried to model my product to a structure
similar to this. I feel it was important to do this as this makes for a more entertaining and captivating
watch as the documentary is always switching focus from one shot to another even though my
product is over ten minutes long. However, I could have diverged away from the normal convention
s and focused more on the way I shot and edited my production but this would have been risky and
could have been unsuccessful plus this would have meant I wouldn’t have conformed to my brief as
it didn’t specify on the way I shot and edited the documentary. Having said this, I feel I conformed to
the norms of a sports documentary and having watched it back it makes for clear and easy to watch
as the interviews are implemented in areas that correlate to what the interviewee is saying.
Furthermore, the b-roll I used fits with the voiceover. Overall, I feel through appropriate b-roll and
interviews my production both conforms to the conventions you’d expect to see in a sports
documentary

What would you do differently next time?

Next time, I will plan more extensively as I feel I left some of my filming too late which in turn gave
me less time during the editing process and evaluation. Having said this, I did get all of the work
submitted in time but of course, if I had finished my production sooner I would have received more
insightful feedback and I would have been able to act on it. I would also, make sure I have my clients
lined up sooner than the five weeks it took me, this definitely hindered me as I couldn’t start my
research on potential clients until I received official confirmation from my clients, however, this is
somewhat out of my control. Furthermore, I would also bring another person with me as this would
allow to capture more b-roll as I was working against the time when filming in the schools. I would
also change certain aspects in my research as I feel I didn’t focus enough on how the interview
process as I only researched where the subject should be positioned. Additionally, the main difficulty
I had throughout this production was my timekeeping, I found it very hard to make sure I had
completed the work to a very high standard although it was all there, a few factors can be to blame;
at the beginning of the unit I thought I was going to have to change my idea as I found it hard to
contact partner up with a client but after a few weeks QPR and then Wycombe Wanderers got in
touch saying I would be able to film at their stadiums. After this, I knew my idea would work as I had
clients to work with as a result I was able to crack on with my research which in my opinion, was the
part of the unit I lost the most time because I couldn’t begin it due to not knowing exactly what my
specialism subject was going to be about. Having said all of this, it became easier for me to grasp the
work once I began the research process as I was constantly developing an idea of how and what I
was going to film. I considered camera angles for the interviews, what camera would have the
microphone attached as well as other factors like filming b-roll footage. Yes, I would say I am pleased
with the quality of my b-roll and interview but ultimately if I had been better prepared I would have
been able to go out and film more b-roll and given myself more time to improve other areas of my
work once I had received my feedback.

Comparative evaluation

Above are screenshots from a documentary I researched earlier in the unit and below that are three
screenshots from the documentary I made. As you can see both documentaries include interviews,
however the documentary I researched included a two shot interview with both the person asking
and answering the questions in frame whereas I decided to be off camera as I wanted the Jay to be
the main focus as he’s the one providing the information, I also thought if I was to be in frame it
would be somewhat pointless as I was never going to include myself asking the questions so if I had
put myself in frame I would have just been there nodding my head and the focus wouldn’t have
been on Jay which is what I wanted. One similarity of both productions is the use of football clips
throughout, as you can see both the professional and my documentary have included similar shots,
this is because the main focus of the production is about football and the shots included correlate to
the narrative. I was talking about QPR in the community so I added b-roll of participants within the
community taking part in one the programmes QPR put on. I also wanted to make my production kid
friendly so I researched YouTube clips of health benefits within sport but as this is a complexed
topic, I implemented cartoon drawings so that the subject is easier to understand for teenager
younger kids watching. A difference between the two productions is the type of interview shot, the
professional piece has a long shot of Ian Wright (middle) when he is narrating, and however I didn’t
include this as my target audience never suggested I should so instead I opted for a medium shot of
the interviewee.

I chose to take many elements out of the documentaries I researched and try to implement them to
the best of my ability, as shown below here is a side angle of an interview with Ian Wright and two
angles I used in my interview with Tom from QPR I saw this and wanted to make sure I implemented
angles like this with my interviews. I feel that by mirroring codes and conventions from professional
documentaries similar to my specialism it has helped me in a number of ways from correctly
applying what my target audience wanted to giving it a more professional look.

A difference between my documentary and the Ian Wright documentary is the two shot interview
(below) as you know I didn’t use this type of shot for my documentary because I thought that by
doing this I will take the focus away from the subject which isn’t what I wanted, additionally my
target audience from said they didn’t want to see me on screen when I conducted my focus group
(below) so it was important I stuck to what my audience wanted to and not what I wanted because if
I had subverted away from my target audience it could have resulted in many of them disliking the
production as they essentially didn’t get what they wanted.

Another similarity between both productions is that they both include people of all ages meaning
that both productions are trying to appeal to a large demographic and this is exactly what my target
audience asked for as the infographic below shows. Due to both our productions being based on
grassroots football, it is critical that we include the younger generation and explore the ways in
which different programmes like the primary stars can help integrate key stage 1 and key stage 2
children into sport and help raise awareness of the benefits of exercise from an early age. On the
contrary, I felt that talking about other issue like disability in football is equally as important as with
any documentary you need to explain and justify your points so I did this included footage of QPR’s
walking football programme which is aimed at the 50+ age group and benefits them because it helps
them to socialise and to keep fit.
By producing a documentary on grassroots football, I have not only learnt about the benefits of it
but I have developed my own knowledge on certain aspects with the broad subject. To continue, I
found out about the health benefits of sport in the elderly, some of these benefits include
decreasing the risk of a stroke and lowering cholesterol. Another key fact I have gained from
producing this documentary is learning more about what QPR and Wycombe Wanderers do for their
local communities, both clubs hold many events across a wide range of areas like health/inclusion,
youth/communities and education/employability. Both clubs have ties with nationwide
organisations like the Princes Trust and the Premier League. It has come to my recognition that
grassroots football is a much broader topic than I first thought due to the funding and involved and
the sheer amount of people that work behind the scenes at clubs like QPR and Wycombe as well as
organisations like the FA and Premier League. Furthermore, I found that disability is taken very
seriously within sport in the modern day, most clubs across England will have programmes like ‘pan
disability sessions’ and ‘tiger cubs’ which help promote disability within football. I found that QPR
have recently introduces a couple of new programmes like ‘Tiger cubs’ which brings together
children who have Down syndrome through football, it benefits the participants as they make new
friends and learn to live an active life. Another massive advantage of grassroots football is the
number of high quality footballers that get scouted by clubs at a young age, most areas within the
UK will have multiple local teams playing against one another on a weekly basis and it is this way
that future premier league footballers begin their journey. For example, Ian Wright started off
playing for Greenwich Town and then got scouted at a young age.