A2 Media studies Documentary Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? From the original inception of our documentary we were individually strengthened by our group knowledge of generic documentary conventions. With aid from texts and examples in and outside class, we were able to plan and create the fundamentals of our media documentary. The task set was to produce the opening extract of our documentary, this allowed research on other elements and equipment to ensure that our technique and skills were professional when making the final product. The first obstacle we faced as a group was finding an angle to base our documentary on, and how it could be professionally portrayed to the audience. After deciding the topic and basis of our documentary we decided an interview was the best way of conveying and important piece of information, especially from an expert in the field, but without permission of a direct interview, we became stuck for ideas. Then following a popular documentary convention we decided to use and record a phone interview. This allowed us to get a professional interview. The other obstacle with this was making it suitable and relevant for the audience. With the original interview lasting 11 minutes it was important that we extracted the correct parts of the interview. Also we had to decide how it could be visually presented or what could be on screen to entertain the audience, yet convey the appropriate information. We decided to present it in the traditional interview style and containing the compositional theme by framing the interview with smoking products and advert. We filmed the phone adding a clear indication of who was talking and included a small relevant montage of shots to accompany it. This then became one of the main subjects of our documentary and also featured in our radio trail. Also the sound of this particular interview was messy and in occasion hard to understand which needed to be edited to be clear for the audience. The sound levels were modified; our backing music was dropped and left subtly in the background during the interview and voiceover. The sound during the phone conversation had to be lowered because of the clarity of the voice, the phone provided unwanted feedback that was Sound level editing. avoided with level adjustment. With music being a common convention in documentaries it was important to supply the correct music to flow through the documentary. When adding the background music to our piece we had to constantly check and modify the sound levels to ensure that there was a consistent yet clear volume throughout the entire documentary, the volume level of the music was enhanced in-between the voice over and interviews, to avoid gaps and keep the piece looking and feeling professional.

Shots from the introduction montage

We chose to use a montage introduction to our documentary as this is a very common technique used in documentaries. At the beginning of the montage there is a voice over done by one of our interviewees Tom Kravec, after which our voice over takes its place to introduce the documentary to the audience. The shots used in the montage are short and quick and in some scenes sped up for effect, and the title is clearly displayed in front of footage. During this process we struggling to make them appear professional, so we added the fade transitions , we discovered that with the use of fade transitions we managed to create a more dramatic feel and helped ease into the beginning of the documentary, however after a few shots we decided to pick up the pace to match the audio, here we made use of straight cuts to ensure a rapid effect. Our interviews were shot framed and presented with relevant mise-en-scene to either the subject of the documentary or of the particular person being interviewed. The shots we mainly decided to go with where medium close ups and were framed using rule of thirds or half of the shot.

Medium close up Relevant mise-en-scene occupying about half the shot

BBC Horizon We Love Cigarettes

However we did not keep a constant interview, there were many opportunities where we filled it with various other shots, like the establishing shot to familiarise the audience with location and setting, the cut aways the relevant footage.

Examples of establishing shots

Examples of cut aways

Alot of our other footage had its original audio taken out and was the used as filler . These were used to piece together the rest of the documentary and create a basis to cover with voice over. It also allowed us to make links between shots and relate the audience to the documentary as much as possible, without destroying the consistency of the documentary.

After the correct Research and planning, Our radio trail was created out of the original interview with Mr Withers, we feel this was a wise choose as we based majority of the voice over on his interview. We wrote a voice over to be dubbed over the top and encorporate our Examples of cut aways original documentary music. This allowed us to convey a small amount of the heart of our documentary. Instead of using garage band we decided to use final cut allowing us to finely edited the sound levels and make sure the music and voice over were balanced correctly, especially when editing the feed back from the phone interview with Mr Withers. When creating the double page spread it was very important to keep with the conventions used on the channel four website, as out documentary was for channel four. First we had to pick a suitable picture for the background and a double page spread. It is also important o follow generic conventions used inmagazines when creating one professionally. We decided to go with a split in half approach instead of following the rule of thirds, because it suited our image much more. Each image had to be edited and considered for the double page. We also had to decide a way to convey the text and style appropriately and effectively for the audience.
Selecting an image for the double page

This page keeps to an failry simple colour constancy of black and white. The headings are clearly displayed in alternate colours. The font used is consistent through out. The Channel four logo is easily recognizable. The page is also framed by a black border clearly indicating channel four and all other references from the page. Relevant large image clearly displayed with catchment text placed around it. With our double page spread, we decided to Keep the consistency of the Channel four webpage. We used it colour for the text and background, surrounding framing, and the logo to re create this page but as a magazine. The image we chose was edited to appear more professional and darker; this would help it fit in with the consistency of the pages.

Our double page spread is set out in half the page being the main focus of the image and the second page being used for text. The page features grab quotes directly from the text and the entire background is made up from the image. On the bottom left of the double page we featured a few screen shots and captions from our documentary piece. We also kept the original continuity of the channel four theme and created a frame to sit around the frame which featured the channel four logo. In order to make the text stand out on the image we created a transparent box for the text to be placed on. To create and transparent box for the text I created an original text box and altered the settings. This allowed me to have a professional looking background with a stylish and effective colour theme. In this example the background image provides basis over the entire article which is similar to our piece. The left page is used for the main focus of the image, and the second page is used for text in a similar fashion to our piece. Here you can see that our double page spread covers and challenges most conventions of the average magazine article. We also cover all text based conventions, the second page is broken up into the rule of thirds, there is use of drop caps and grab quotations, and sub text below the title.

After research and careful planning we decided that the focus of our Target audience for our media products were ages 15-25, this is why we chose channel four because of its direct reputation with this particular age group. The topic of the documentary had a big impact on the target audience as we felt it was more significant at that age. Our documentary was created around the ideal of this particular age group, which influenced a lot of choses for the documentary.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? I feel as though the three products we created work generally well together as they all have similar consistency and continuity throughout. The radio trail and documentary both feature the same music and voice. There are also particular aspects of the products that are specifically significant to both of the pieces, tying them together and making them easily recognisable and relevant to each other. The double page is consistent with the themes and colour of our documentary. It follows the pieces directly and we feel gives of the same feel and therefore relates to the other pieces. The double page also featured screen shots from the documentary; this helped create a link with the two products. The radio trail also had featured one of the main aspects of our documentary, and Interviewee who also featured in the double element of the Mr Withers phone interview, we added this page spread because of its significance in the documentary and felt it was the best way to get the topic across during and small radio advert. All elements and products are easily identifiable as a set and relate directly to the subject of the documentary.

The only problems that occurred was the basis of text for the double page spread, where as in the documentary and radio trail, talking about the topic was fairly easy. Writing the article was difficult, it had to be based around the topic yet not too text heavy, it was also a concern on whether it was appropriate for the target audience, and whether it was too fact heavy. However with the chatty relaxed style of a magazine I feel we have improved it from a senseless fact log. We decided to use fact based information to tempt and promote the style of our documentary. Also our radio trail was slightly rushed and could ve been improved for the use of footage and relevance. The documentary was the strongest aspect of the three products, it had the most powerful conventions and aspects that conveyed the topic of our documentary. There was a large variety of editing types and personal views and opinions. It used the facts and opinions directly from the experts of the trade. Overall I think the two tasks combine perfectly containing elements of each other and supporting each other through out. They look and sound as if they belong with each other and have clear links with interviews and information that promote the subject of smoking. The radio trail is short, exciting and contains all the correct elements to inform and entertain the target audience. The double page spread continues the continuity of the style of the channel four webpage while still in relevance with the documentary piece. perhaps if we were to improve our products, we would perhaps change the aspects of the texts in the double page spread, and create less of a factual formal feel, and allow more of a chatty easy going style to fit our target audience.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback? We sent out questionnaires during the showing of our documentary to get accurate feedback directly from our target audience to ensure that our documentary was as effective and relevant as possible, this would also help to highlight and improvements needed. We asked how effective the music was in the background of the documentary and received a positive response, this is one of the main aspects of our documentary that we felt could break the barrier to the age group, so to know it was effective was a good sign.

no yes

Was the background music appropriate and effective for the documentary and radio trail?

Majority of our feedback was positive, however, we did receive some negative responses. This showed us and area of improvement. We asked the audience about the sound levels in our documentary, this was a significant aspect of our documentary and so it was important to get correct, especially with our variation of medium (phone interview).

no yes

Was the sound levels balanced correctly?

In the future we will work harder to improve on aspects like the sound levels. Especially as its such and important aspect to the documentary. However we were always aware of the risk when using a phone interview, and how difficult it can be to edit the sound with such difficult feed back. If we were to repeat the project again, we would spend a lot more time on the sound levels to ensure the clarity for the target audience, also to take out less relevant information to again improve clarity.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? When creating our media products we used a variation of different programmes, software and hardware, both familiar and unfamiliar. We also used technology along the initial planning of our work, with the use of other documentaries, questionnaires and class discussion. The Internet was often referred to for strong secondary research along with TV. We also used the computers for majority of the creation and editing of our documentary, we also used blogger to upload progress throughout this task. Using blogger we could effectively save and recover work. It was also a reference and a clear productive medium of communication between mine groups. We also used as number of sites to help our research:

The video on demand services proved helpful especially with examples and guides. Blogger was useful for documenting and presenting our work, however did prove difficult and confusing, especially when we began using the site, it also didn t provide much in the way of features, were as other sites like Tumblr can allow music and video files, and may have been and easier way to store and present work.

When designing the majority of the ancillary task we used Indesign to create a basic template idea for our double page spread, the programme easily allowed us to create an accurate and effective design. When we began production we were introduced into the Cannon HG20 and its high quality and many useful features. The camera was easy to use and explore its features, we learnt several new techniques like, racking focus shots, unique shots using sunlight, handheld ect. and ensured we got the footage we needed. It also came in use when uploading needed to be done, it was quick and manageable to move the images and footage I needed for my products. In order to get a clear and accurate sound from interviews and the voice overs, we used the Audio technical directional microphone The audio in our products was recorded effectively, and even good quality for our phone interview.

Cannon HG20, HD camcorder with hard drive

Audio technical directional microphone

These are the applications we used in during our product research, editing and design. In design helped us create edit and design our double page spread. Safari was what we used to access the internet and get the appropriate information needed. Photoshop was used to edit pictures at a professional level for our final products, and Final cut express was used to edit and create the final documentary product. We were fairly familiar with safari and could navigate and use it easily. The interface was clear and it enabled us to collect secondary research and resources effectively. We used Photoshop to edit our images from our camera, this helped our final design for our double page spread. The final image really helped with the colouring, continuity and style of our products. We also learnt a lot of techniques for editing images while experimenting and learning the software, which raised a big advantage when creating our final product.

Examples done on photoshop

Final cut was a new software to me and I learnt a lot in the process of editing and adding effects to a video. This is where we leant the many effects featured in our documentary, and where we learned how to effectively edit the sound levels, and properly present our documentary.

One of the more useful things I learnt from Final cut express is the transition editing where we were able to create a slow yet more dramatic transition between shots, which was a great advantage when creating the opening montage to our product.

Fade transitions edited into our documentary I also learned how to modify the speed of a shot which also combined to the effectiveness of the opening montage sequence. We were able to show a large amount of significant footage and present it in a interesting and suitable way.

We also learned how the effectively break up cut and re-arrange footage. This improved the efficiency of our documentary and helped up to edit out useless of irrelevant footage. It also work with the audio which allowed us to carefully craft the interview to create effective feedback and avoid off topic discussion.

Examples of cut footage

We also used Final cut express for our radio trail. We felt more comfortable with the software, and it was easier to manage the audio straight from the original clips. The sound levels were easier to adjust because of our practice throughout the documentary, and we believe to have created and effective trail fit for its target audience.