EvaluationIn what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

My media product attempts to use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products in a variety of ways. Such as with my voice over’s (Voice of God) develop on what other documentary voice of God’s would usually sound like, this is due to my voice over being a young male rather than the usual more dominant, older male voice. This is due to my documentary being specifically aimed at 21-40 years old. Also the subject at matter is also performed by many young people, so somebody taking the time to expose the truths, who is also a young person, could connote to the audience that not all young people are like this. Also the voice of God which I used also goes over relevant clips and goes with what is being shown within the clip.

The use of two interviews; this usually coincides to that of what normal documentaries have. This is due to getting to see how a certain person is affected about a certain subject, and seeing as my documentary is expository, it is exposing the effects of street racing and how it affects certain people, such as with my first interview with a local neighbour, she is constantly getting woken up and disturbed by street racing. Also this interview contains over the shoulder shots so you can see the expressions of both people, this again challenges some codes and conventions, as some interviews just show both people in the shot at a single time, or only focusing on one person point of view.

Before my first interview, I had an establishing shot going by houses introducing the subject then leading onto an interview of somebody who lived in one of these houses. This again goes with the normal codes and conventions of documentaries. As they would normally show an establishing shot, in order to inform the audience of where a certain location is.My documentary also contains transitions between each shot in order to provide a smooth transaction between each clip. This would also be seen within many documentaries, as it would make the documentary look more professional and easier to watch.

I also used archive footage which is usually available to most people if they get permission. The archive footage I got was from a BBC report, however I used the voice of God over rather than what was being said, as it enables me to progress my documentary into a second interview, this challenges normal codes and conventions as normal voice over’s would not often occur over archive footage.

My Documentary also starts of slower than normal documentary, rather than giving a quick overview of what will be within the documentary, instead I decided to go straight into the details. Although it may also seem slow at points, my documentary is not meant to be glamorous, but instead, to expose the truth behind Street Racing.

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

The combination of both my main product and ancillary texts was very effective. My factual insert creates a pun which is “two worlds collide”. This could suggest two different things, that the two different worlds of those who are affected, and those who actually participate within Street Racing. Or it could relate to the image which is shown on the factual insert, this is of two cars colliding with one another, as a result this makes my audience more interested and want to find out what it is actually referring to, leading them to actually want to watch my main product (documentary). As a result this makes my factual insert (ancillary text) very effective as it does what it is suppose to do and entice people to watch my documentary.

Another thing which suggest my factual insert is very effective as a combination with my documentary, is that the actual text on my factual insert, is very effective as it is directly addressing the audience with the use of “you”, although the situation may not actually be facing, it can make them think what if it was them and how they would be affected, this again goes along with what I did in my documentary which links in with what I said in my factual insert which was “So you just bought a new house for your young family and now you find yourself disturbed by screaming and yelling outside your bedroom. But it’s not the baby keeping you awake at night it’s the screeching of car tyres and roaring engines”. This links to what I had in my documentary which was an interview with a local resident who had a 6 month year old baby and was often kept up and night by the screeching and roaring engines.

My second ancillary task, which was a radio advert, is an effective combination with my documentary. This is due to what Is being said on the radio advert attracts and allures the audience in as it has language such as “devastating impact felt by local communities “. This again can relate to what I pout within my documentary with the interview with a local resident who is explaining the impact it has left on the community such as leaving the area to get away from it. Within my radio advert, it said “the passion, the thrill and the dangerous consequences facing those taking part “. This gives the audience a feel to, what it will be about in a brief summary. This also links in to where I was interviewing a motorist, who gave us his views and enlightened us with his own knowledge of Street Racing. He also mentions the dangerous consequences of it such as having friends die, which again can also be related back to my specific questionnaire where I asked if people had been affected by Street racing, and asked how; I got answers such as friends dying due to street accidents, this again makes it more appealing to the audience as they may be able to relate to what is being said. Within my radio advert I had an extract from where the motorist is talking about his friend who died and how it made him realise what he was doing. As death is a very serious matter it gives the audience an eye opening to what the documentary will be about, this makes it much more appealing to the audience.

EvaluationWhat have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback, I have learned that my documentary looks “extremely professional” and has been “put together professionally”, this makes me feel as if I have done a good job on my documentary. I also received feedback which says that my documentary was very factual with comments such as “The content is factual and you explain your opinion very well”, “It was a good informative video, and I did learn about something I didn't even know about.”, “As already said the documentary is very factual”, as this was the main aim of my documentary, to inform and expose a certain thing, especially to people who do not know much about street racing, it reveals at certain thing to them and achieves one of the main purposes of this type of documentary.

I also received a comment about the use of the channel 4 logo at the beginning , different camera angles and shots I used “I like how you have put the channel 4 logo at the beginning and how you used different camera shots and angles.” As my documentary was mean to be following the channel 4 style guide, this shows me that I did follow the style guide, through the use of the channel 4 logo. Also it suggest that the camera angles were noticed and gave more of a perspective of the location, making it draw the audience further in.

Another piece of feedback I received was “The slide transitions and Clips are well structured” this suggest to me that the way in which the documentary was structured works well to ensure my point is reaching those I intended to attract which is shown through the following comment I received; “The interesting use of camera angles and the voice over were great to keep people interested”.

The only criticisms I received was that the background sound during the interviews was a bit off putting;•“background music during the interviews is a bit loud and at points takes away from the conversation” •“the background noise is very of putting but apart from that a good video” •“However when interviewing the motorist the background noise makes it extremely difficult to hear what is being said, meaning people will miss some of the useful information given.”which shows that if I was to do it again I would have to try and deal with this sound, however as I was only using a HD camera I could not avoid the background sound.

Another criticism which I received was “there is too much 'content' for the beginning of a documentary, there could have been a bit more introduction into what the show was about” From this I have learned that, rather than just go straight into the facts, give more of a introduction to the subject at hand.

Another method which I used to get audience feedback was when I presented my work to the rest of my class. I showcased what I had done throughout my Advanced Portfolio, and again when I showed them the Youtube video of my work, I received comments on how the background sound during the interviews is a bit off putting and makes it harder to hear.

The only reason why the audio is not as clear as it could be, is due to Youtube downgrading audio settings and also it depends on people’s own personal settings. If people had more advanced audio settings they could changed the sound balancer and fix the audio this way. Before I uploaded my documentary to Youtube, I played the file back on the Macbook and the audio was fine and clear, which again suggest Youtube has affected the quality of my documentary.

EvaluationHow did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation

stages?

During the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of my work, I have used media technologies vastly. I have used things such as the Macbook, this was used in order to put together my documentary and to access things such as iMovie which is the editing software I used to put it together. Seeing as I was not very experienced with using iMovie, I had experience of using other software such as Sony Vegas Prop previously which helped me to use what I already know and apply it to this piece of software. I was also able to record my voice over’s within iMovie as it had a button which enabled me to record over a certain clip which was very useful. I also used the Macbook for planning as before I edited all my clips, I messed around with the order of my clips to see what would fit better where.

For research I also used audacity as another form of presenting my work. I recorded two of my analysis’ of two documentaries. I found that this was better than just having the analysis’ in a word document as it was something different.

I also had to use a HD camera. As I was not very experienced with this; I had to practice with it in order to get a feel for how to use it properly. Once I was able to use it correctly, I was able to record the different camera angles which also required the use of a Tripod. Using this would enable me to record with my camera without it shaking, I used this within my interview as it meant it would stay perfectly still and have what I want within the clip, rather than it moving from side to side and getting unwanted background in.

Along with this I used Youtube as a method of research in order to see what other documentaries were like. This helped me in my analysis of six other documentaries. I also used this as a method of getting feedback from my audience which I found really useful as I received both critisicms of what could be improved, and what was good about it.

Another piece of software I used was Garageband. This enabled me to record my radio advert, however as I was unfamiliar with this piece of software, so I had to get use to it.

The most essential piece of media technology was Blogger; this enabled me to blog about what I was doing in regards to my documentary and what I did on certain days. It also enabled me to upload my work. However at first we found it difficult to use it as there were many things which at first we were unable to figure out. I also had to find a presentable way in order to present my work and make it easier for people to read and look at.