A2 Media CourseworkEvaluation Milling Tang

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

When producing our documentary we made sure that we followed the Codes and Conventions of real documentaries in order to produce a documentary of high quality and professional finish. In order to do this, we researched a variety of different documentaries that attract a wide range of audiences as this allowed us to pick out the main conventions which seemed to crop up in each documentary so we could apply it to our own. An example of a documentary we watched is SuperSize Me, A Good Smack Etc.

At the beginning of the A2 course we were told to produce a 5 minute opening of a documentary of our choice, as well as producing two ancillary tasks; a radio trailer and a double page spread for a listings magazine to go alongside out documentary. We had to research and find out what would go into the opening of a documentary. Before starting our planning of the documentary, we looked at Bill Nicholl’s theory of Documentary Modes (2001), which looked into different types/ styles of documentaries. Bill Nicholl’s said there were 6 different modes; participatory, reflexive, performative, expositional, observational and poetic. The participatory and performative modes are very similar in styles, in which they include the film maker as part of their documentary. For example, we looked at SuperSize Me, as Morgan Spurlock appears in his documentary shown to the viewers, which shows it is very personal and is more about the intentions of the film-marker. This is an effective mode and would suit our chosen topic of teenage binge drinking. For example, Cherry Goes Drinking is a great example for this as she appears in her own work. In addition, the performative mode is pretty much like an autobiography where it follows the film maker’s life. The observational mode is very much like a ‘fly on the wall’ style which tends not to have a voice over or music included. This would not suit out documentary as we need to inform our viewers on teenage binge drinking. The Poetic mode also, would not suit our documentary as it is a documentary mode that has very subjective style. Finally, out of all the modes we thought the expositional mode is best suited to our documentary as we are setting out to expose an issue. For a start, a voice over is a common convention found in the expository mode. We used this in our opening 5 minutes as we wanted our opening to guide our viewers through the documentary. We found this mode effective as it is very rhetorical, as it narrates the viewers and can reinforce important points we put through in our documentary.

Another convention our documentary uses is exposition, in which we use factual information and opinions given by interviewees to pass information to our viewers in order to persuade the viewers. The narration is used as a way of explaining our documentaries rhetorical content. The voice over plays an important part as they speak directly to the viewers, offering information, explanations and opinions of teenage binge drinking. The use of interviews in our documentary offered expertise and relation to the audience which will bring across the meaning of our documentary. Moreover, expert interviews add more emphasis to support the facts of our documentary. We also made use of vox pops which we felt was effective as The overall structure of our documentary used the enigmatic code which is a problem that is only discussed and not solved. This leaves viewers with questions that cannot be yet be solved. It catches the viewers’ attention as they are able to realist how serious something could be, and they want to hear more about these unresolved problems.

At the beginning of the A2 course we looked at many different documentaries in preparation to ours. Many of the conventions I picked up from these documentaries were use of the Camera; which included shots such as Close Ups, Extreme Close Ups, Medium Close Ups, Establishing shot. In our documentary it focused a lot of medium close ups as we did many interviews and vox pops. We noticed that a lot of the documentaries made use of handheld cameras which was used to make the audience feel a part of the documentary, however in our documentary we chose to use a Tripod as we set out to inform our audience and there was no need for a handheld technique. We mainly used the tripod for expert interviews, which allowed us to set up in a skilled manner. The tripod allowed us to take various steady shots and use skills such as Pan, Tracking and Zooming which added emphasis in our documentary.

Our Documentary SuperSize Me

The rule of thirds is the main convention used for expert interviews as it sets up the screen. The interviewee should be looking into an empty space which we have done, with their eyes level at a third of the way down.

We found that the use of montages at the beginning of the documentary were very effective as it offered an understanding and an insight to what to expect from the documentary, this is why we decided to open with a montage as we knew this would immediately attract and draw the audience in. The opening montage would serve the purpose of the documentary, create a strong impression and essentially create an effective impression to the audience which will make them watch on.

Sound is another important part of a documentary, this includes Voiceover, background music, Diagetic and non-diagetic sounds. In SuperSize Me, they used a presenter as well as a voiceover; which worked very successfully as it made the documentary feel more relatable and personal to the audience. On the other hand, we found that our documentary was being more informative and therefore there was no need of using a presenter, so we just had a voiceover. We used the voiceover effectively as we used it to guide our audience through the documentary.

Background music was something we found made the documentary complete. The music had to be simple and not over powering the voiceover and general content of the documentary. We used Garageband as it allowed us to make royalty free loops and track which meant we did not infringe on any copyright when using them as part of our documentary and radio trailer. The backing track helps convey mood and we used an appropriate backing track for use with both the documentary and radio trailer. A background track also keeps viewers interested in more lengthy sections of video and speech.

The inclusion of the title in the documentary is a common convention of real life media products. It is mainly used for practical reasons as it is something you would usually expect to see within a documentary. Our title; ’17 and Smashed’ is plastered on to a bottle of a well famous alcoholic beverage ‘The Famous Grouse’. Underneath our title you can still make out the beverages name. This will catch the attention of our audience as they would instantly recognize the name and then realize that our documentary title is in fact replaced the name on the bottle. This is effective as it is instantly eye-catching and will make the audience want to carry on watching.

We used cut-aways throughout our entire documentary which is necessary and relevant. For example, the cut away to a clip of drunken teenagers highlights how teenagers drink to get drunk and their behavior when drunk. It also reinforces what has been said and creates more emphasis on teenager binge drinking.

Editing- Cut-aways

Cut-away during interview

We included an over the shoulder shot to capture the archived footage on the screen to make it look less like found footage and make it flow better with other resources in the documentary. We decided to use this sort of shot as we wanted to reduce the amount of full screen found footage. Our archived footage is of a team of officers in newsagents’ over underage alcohol sales. In our documentary we used this footage as a cut away as our voiceover began giving important facts, this keeps the audiences interests. It also shows a student viewing the resources which emphasizes the accessibility of the content.

This graphic is used to introduce the professional interviewees on screen meaning we didn’t have to use voice over all the time. We used a red boarder as this stood out the best over the footage.

The chart is used as a cut away. It is a good example of a visual aid where the voice over explains the findings while it is on screen. It provides an easier way for viewers to absorb the given information as is provides visual evidence. The chart shows the % of 15-16 year olds who had 5 or more drinks on one occasion, in the past month; with the UK being at the top of the chart.

Text and Graphics are a common technique used in many of the documentaries we viewed during the initial planning stage, they were also used in SuperSize Me. Text and Graphics are used to transfer information to the audiences.

Double Page Spread We chose to follow the layout of ‘TV Choice’ as we wanted our article to fit in with our audience as well as our topic which we felt TV Choice would represents. We wanted to follow the conventions of not just a general magazine article but a TV Choice article. When researching the magazine article we found they appeared to use a statement image and a very brief article.

Main images – dominate the half the page

A Pull Quote

I kept the House Style simple and consistent which is similar to that of the TV Choice articles. As you can see there is a main, dominating image, it article still catches the readers attention which is a convention I have tried to apply to our article.

Screen Caps of footage – are both framed with a white boarder. TV Choice does not use drop shadows, so we did not use that on our images

Drop Cap – Makes the article stand out

Documentary name, date and time

Rule of Thirds is used in all magazine articles

Radio Trailer

We first researched which radio station we would actually be broadcasting our trailer on, and once we established that we analysed exemplars of radio trailers from that station so we could get an idea of the conventions that arise in professional radio trailers. We analysed BBC radios in particular as this was the station we wanted to broadcast our documentary.

In terms of conventions of a radio trailer, we wanted to keep the radio trailer clean cut and simple; as well as professional. Backing music was a common convention we found most popular in radio trailers as well as a voice over and clips that prompt what is being advertised. Most importantly they include details of when the product is being advertised will be released and broadcasted. We used all these conventions in our documentary.

We took snippets from our interviews and voxpops which we thought conveyed the most important points of the documentary. This also gives a taster of what to expect in the documentary. The voice over we used was clear and easy to understand. Recording the voiceover was similar to the process of recording the voiceover for the documentary. We placed the voiceover into final cut before transferring it to Garageband.

The announcement of the title of the documentary gives identify to the documentary.

The radio trailer was created to offer a 45 second preview of what would be in the documentary.We used the software GarageBand on the Apple Macs. We did various research into the typical conventions of a radio trailer.

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

I personally felt that overall, all three media products (main product and ancillary tasks) were an effective combination and achieved our goal to relate to the target audience. We did this by using the same backing track for both documentary and radio trailer. We also included snippets of professional interviews and vox pops and incorporated them into the radio trailer. If someone was to listen to the radio trailer and then watch the documentary they would be able to relate both of them together. We emphasized a time, date and channel in our radio trailer and double page spread.

Since we chose the BBC as our broadcaster we had to choose the appropriate channels and magazine to use. We chose to use BBC Three as our channel because it is the most relatable channel that provides to our target audience. We also chose to broadcast our radio trailer on BBC Radio 1 because this is the main radio station the BBC use for TV programmes showing on BBC Three. We chose TV Choice as our magazine for our double page spread, as this magazine is more informal and relatable to our target audience.

The Documentary was the strongest out of all three media products because it was the central task and required a higher level of input from all of us and then from the documentary, we were able to put together the radio trailer and double page spread. Without the documentary the construction of the ancillary tasks would have been difficult but possible to produce.

Our article had a house style which effectively represented the topic of our documentary as we used a faded out image of a main image, which creates an illusion of a mirror effect. We also incorporated images of our professional interviewees and a full page image of a bottle with our documentary title name on it. This same bottle was used in the opening of our documentary, so readers can recognize this when they watch the documentary. It also creates the idea of continuity; a link between article and documentary. I think the idea of the bottle as our main image is a effective idea as it works well for our target audience by including large images. We did not want to make it heavy with text or images so we tried our best to maintain a balance between the both. We also used a pull quote taken from an interview with Julie Maitland which further emphasizes the link between the two.The layout we have chosen seems to be very common in TV Choice articles. It incorporates many conventions and features typical to a magazine article. All this adds up to make an authentic piece that works well with corresponding products.

Double Page Spread

The same date, time and name is used on the double page spread and broadcasted on the radio trailer which emphasizes the link between the two products.

The radio trailer uses the same backing track as the documentary which again makes a link between the two as it creates a sense of brand identity to keep everything consistent throughout all 3 media products.

In the radio trailer we used clips from the documentary which consist of student talking, facts from the narrator and professional interviews. These are aspects that the audience can recognise from both the documentary and radio trailer, and they then combine together well.

The radio sells the documentary and briefly provides information about the documentary.

In addition, I felt our ancillary task combined successfully with our documentary. They all link and a clear brand is established. Both the radio trailer and magazine article contain similar information which successfully promotes the documentary and automatically attracts the attention of the audience.

Radio Trailer

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to gain audience feedback we firstly carried out a questionnaire which we gave out to our target audience of 16-25 year olds. Our classmates fitted into this category so we therefore gave our questionnaires out to them as they have been through a similar process to rate and suggest improvements in particular areas.

We asked our sample what they thought of our sound levels in the documentary as this was an important feature because if the sound levels were not great then the documentary will not do its job in informing our audience about teenage binge drinking. Overall, we got a 90% positive result with a low level of 10% of negatives. This was due to the ending of the documentary where the sound levels were not great as we had to put in extra clips to make up for blank spaces and too fulfill the request of making a 5 minute clips. Regardless of this, we are satisfied with the scores we achieved and the rest of the documentary was successful with exceptions of the ending, the rest of the documentary was of high standards. Taking all this in, it is clear that we would need to change the ending of our documentary if we were to improve it.

We also asked the question ‘Does the documentary run smoothly throughout?’. 95% thought it ran smoothly with 5% saying it didn’t. This again is due to the ending sequence of the documentary. If we were to improve this, I feel we would need to capture more video footage, where we would have more variety to choose from and decide which clips are most appropriate and provide excellent quality than the clips we had already used.

A question we asked was whether the opening sequence was effective. The overall score was positive as the viewers thought the montage was effective and a great idea. Moreover, if we were to improve it, I feel that we should include a wider range of ethnicity and filmed it at a different location.

The voiceover is another important part in the documentary as it plays an important part in presenting and passing information onto the audience. We asked whether the voiceover was clear and easy to understand. We received 100% positive reviews on that which shows that we did an excellent job at this and that the information is passed on effectively to the audience watching it.

The overall review of our documentary has been positive which shows that we had did a successful job in producing a 5 minute opening to a documentary. Most importantly, we asked our target audience if the documentary appealed to them, and all of them said it did, which again shows we did a good job in presenting information clearly to them and that our documentary followed typical conventions.

We then asked our target audience, if we were to improve our documentary, what would need improving. A majority said that we would need to improve on the sound, this was mainly aimed at the section at the end of the documentary as it the sound levels were not of one level and did not flow as nicely as I would have expected it to flow. This would be improved by replacing that footage with new footage that’s of quality or changing the sound levels. Others also said that the editing needs improving, this would include cutaways and transactions used between clips. In improving the documentary, we would use more transactions between clips in the relevant places if necessary. It could also imply that the line up of clips towards the end needs work, this would be improved by us taking more care and paying more attention to detail.

If improvements were to be made, what should be improved?

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OtherFootageCameraEditSound

The overall results for our ancillary tasks were positive as they found the radio trailer easy to follow and understand. They also said it was appropriate to the documentary and topic.

Are the images used well?

Is the article suitable for the target audience?

Was it appropriate?

Was the radio trailer easy to understand?

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NoYes

We asked our audience whether the article was suitable to the target audience as they positively rated it was. This shows that we are on the right track and our article is suitable to our topic of choice and relatable to our documentary.

The target audience found the sound in the radio trailer to be really bad as the levels were not the same. Also, the editing was not great either as clips would cut off too early. This was due to lack of technique used.

Radio Trailer

Double Page Spread

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Overall Good ImagesEditingSoundContent

Any improvements to:

The double page spread was reviewed an overall good with the exception that the images were too overpowering.

Conclusion of feedback: From the documentary feedback, I think the montage of students saying their favorite drink, was very effective as it creates a relationship to the target audience who are also of similar age. However, the clips towards the end of the documentary was slightly muddled and not of great quality. This was due to the fact of shortage of footage and the deadline fast approaching, so we were rushed in time in completing this. However, overall the documentary was quite professional and our target audience liked it even with sound errors, it came out effectively tackling the controversy.

The radio trailer was effective in presenting a brief taster to our documentary. However, I thought the content could have been better and included better sound editing. The sound was not level throughout, this was again due to the fast approaching deadline. If we had more time, we would have corrected the sound levels.

The double page spread, the audience found this effective as it was very visual and informative. However, it could be improved to be more subtle, as I find it to be overpowering as the image is very heavy on colour. Although this, the layout was good, the article worked well and the software's used to produce this was used effectively.

Gaining audience feedback was very crucial to finding out how well we had done. Particularly because we had accessibility to ask our target audience about this. We learnt a lot overall about how the sound levels could be improved in our radio trailer and how time management is key in producing this. Overall, all three media products were successful and also gained constructive criticisms which we would take into account if we were to do redo or make another documentary. As well as people making suggestions on improvements to be made to the radio trailer, i.e., sound, we were overall satisfied with the feedback we gained from our classmates, especially as they were familiar with the process we had been through in producing these pieces of work.

How do you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Looking at examples of documentaries to do with our topic online helped us to get a feel at how ours should look with the correct conventions. As our documentary would go on BBC Three, we looked particularly at their documentaries and what makes them appeal to their target audience. Although similar topics to our documentary had not been informatively made recently by them, getting the overall idea from others helped us to see what goes into them.

Youtube was another search engine but for videos and useful clips that may help us with our documentary. The analysis of TV documentaries was made easy as it was fully accessible. Youtube also allowed us to upload our final documentary and it was a good choice as Youtube is a widely used for sharing videos and is probably accessed by a lot of our target audience.

During research and planning, the internet was an essential as it was useful to find out the most up-to-date information on the topic we’ve chosen. In doing so, we used Google to find news items and helpful sites with the appropriate information.

Throughout the coursework, it has been very important to upload and update our work on to a blog through Blogger.com. Blogger.com allowed us to upload our research and planning, which helped us to organize the research and see what was missing and who needed to do what. Most sections of the research and planning was split up between us three and the work should be uploaded on to the blog each time it is completed.

I found Blogger.com overall a good simple site which helped us to stay on track and it became very useful later on when we were uploading the rest of our work. It was useful in a way that it is accessible from college and home. Blogger.com was easy to use as uploading photos and videos was not complicated.

To upload and show our work, we also made use of Slideshare and Scribd. Such sites provide interesting ways in presenting our work instead of using PowerPoint or word. None of us had used these sites before, however they were very easy and was not a challenging software to use. It made the blog look more professional and more simple, so overall, it was a useful piece of software to use as it was easy for viewer of the blog to read.

We used SoundCloud to upload of radio trailer. SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform which allows collaborations and promotions of audio recordings. SoundCloud is easy to use and upload audio clips to, it made public so anyone can have access to it.

Camera allowed us to take HD quality footage on the go. It also allows our footage to look professional and of high quality considering it is HD. The camera also allowed us to frame different shots and zoom in and out. After shooting the footage, we could instantly replay this on the spot. We can then upload the footage on the same day it was shot, in order to avoid loosing it and then log and transfer clips into Final Cut Express.

Microphone allowed us to capture sound and to make interviewees feel like it is a professional interview.

Headphones allowed us to monitor the sound levels when doing interviews and vox pops. Without this, the sound levels of footage would not be appropriate to use and therefore, jeopardises the whole footage.

Tri-pod allowed us to take steady shots of our footage instead of using a hands-free approach which we did not want. It makes the footage look professional.

Apple Mac Computers offered a viarty of softwares which we could use to edit our footage and to produce our media products. These softwares helped in producing high quality work which regular computers cannot. They were also useful for researching and planning purposes.

GarageBand was used in creating backing track for both documentary which was also used in the radio trailer which was also made using this software. Garageband was also very easy to use and prevented us from using copyright material. Garageband offered different types of sounds such as, cheer and urban. It also offered different types of instruments such as drums and guitars.

It was simple to understand how to use and allowed us to find the types of music we wanted, with variety of choices to choose from.

Final Cut Express to create the actual music video, which without this software the video would definitely not look as effective or professional. To create the magazine advert we used ‘picmonkey’ to add the effects and text on top, this made it look much more effective rather then adding generic fonts used in microsoft word.Microsoft excel proved useful when it came to creating graphs in our evaluation stages, as we had no other way of presenting the data that we found out when doing our audience feedback. Another media technology we used during our evaluation stages was Windows movie maker, as once we had filmed our evaluation question this was the technology available for us to edit.

I used In-Design to create my double spread page and give it a professional look. It also allowed me to design my page in which it would look similar and have similar aspects to a TV Choice article. I had used In-Design for my AS media work and was quite familiar with the software and I found it easier to use and could use my skills that I have learned and apply them to make my article look professional and part of an existing TV magazine.

I used PhotoShop when creating my ancillary tasks. PhotoShop is professional software which meant I had access to a wide variety of professional tools and features to aid the creation of a professional media text. by using PhotoShop I was able to edit images as well as create pages and text. This meant I could create the entire text in one program as opposed to editing the image separately and pasting it onto the page. I made use of PhotoShop's photo editing tools to make the images, particularly the image on the poster, look striking and clear.

Microsoft Office Word was used in producing the questionnaires and feedback sheets for our target audience.

The audience research we produced involved the use of Microsoft Office Excel so that we could produce graphs to make our data more visually appealing.

As these software's were not new to us we found there was no real difficulty in using them.