Evaluation

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?At the beginning of the course, we decided to look at documentaries on YouTube as inspiration and to influence how we would edit our documentary when putting all the clips together. Below, is a link to a Channel 4 documentary uploaded on to YouTube which we found interesting. It takes part as inspiration to the opening of our documentary; related clips (example: shots of Solihull Sixth Form College and its attending students) to the documentary and a narrator giving the audience a clear idea of what the topic is and how it is being discussed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HVoIC-e3nI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HVoIC-e3nI

The main codes and conventions of a documentary are:

• Archive footage• Background footage• Facts and statistics• Interviews• Music/Sound• Voiceover• Vox pops

We stuck to these codes and conventions as well as challenging them.


conventions of real media products?


conventions of real media products?DOCUMENTARYThe setup of our interviews are similar to those seen in ‘Panorama’ as they both have a background to make the interviewee look more professional. We also added a banner which includes the name of the interviewee and what their status is at the Solihull Sixth Form College. We also placed them on one side of the camera and looking across to the interviewer, this is evidence of how we have used the codes and conventions of interviews.

Archive footage is also a convention that we followed without challenging. We used archive footage to show the opinions of people who also feel the same as those in vox pops. We also included footage of riots that show the people involved and how they dressed as it shows they dress similarly to how ‘ordinary’ people dress and explains that it doesn’t mean they would have been a part of it.

Using facts and statistics is another convention we did not challenge. We used appropriate information that the audience would find interesting and are more likely to learn from our documentary. We placed the text over a shot we took for our documentary but we blurred the shot, making the text more readable.

A convention we challenged was the music. In the link below, you will find music throughout the documentary which have been recorded by famous music artists. However, our documentary and radio trailer feature a soundtrack we created ourselves on GarageBand.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcgAzuNKGNA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcgAzuNKGNA

RADIO TRAILERThe length of a radio trailer is slightly longer than a regular radio trailer you would hear on Capital F.M. A regular trailer would last roughly 15 - 30 seconds, however, our radio trailer lasts for 1 minute and 10 seconds. This was because we wanted the audience to know more than what an average trailer would give them as we felt it was not enough to draw in our target audience. It also includes clips from the documentary itself as it shows the audience what will be shown to the audience once it is shown on TV. There is also an audience connection at the end of the trailer. It mentions Twitter, a social networking site, because it is used by teenagers and young adults. Our target audience with an age range of 15-25 is more likely to have an account on Twitter and so mentioning a ‘hashtag’ is more likely to make the audience feel more involved with the documentary that they can relate to.



MAGAZINE ARTICLEOur magazine article uses quotes taken from the documentary as part of grabbing the audience’s attention and it lets them know what the general public think of stereotyping. It is a convention that is used a lot in magazine articles, however, we



changed the colour of certain words as they are descriptive and show the audience that their opinion on stereotyping is shared by others. We also used images of people featured in our documentary as they support the quote. When the audience

watch our documentary, they will recognise some people who are featured in it that are also in the magazine article.



An important convention that is used in a magazine article is the heading and sub-heading as they are there to grab the

audience’s attention straight away and tells themwhat the article is about. The title of the article is also the title of our documentary, ‘Who We Are’, because once it captures the readers’ attention then they are more likely to remember it when they see it on the television. This is a way of challenging the convention as usually it is a phrase or a play on words/a pun, but we decided to use the documentary title as we felt it is more likely to be remembered.

SUMMARYOverall, our documentary is mostly using and developing conventions rather than challenging. This is because we felt our documentary did not need to challenge the conventions as much as possible as we thought that using them is a better way of attracting our target audience. As opposed to risking a challenge that may or not fail in making our documentary more convincing to watch.



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

When producing the documentary, magazine article and radio trailer, we kept to the same target audience to show how all three texts are related.

for people who are of a high status such as first class so that teenagers are able to find the information about our documentary provided is interesting.

The images we decided to use were screenshots taken from the documentary itself. It is clear that this combines the two texts together and shows the audience which documentary the article is informing them about.

Our target audience is an age range of 15 to 25. Looking at examples of other magazine articles with a similar age range for an audience, such as ‘NME’, we decided it would be appropriate to write an article in a formal way but not

MAGAZINE ARTICLE

Our magazine article starts with a drop-cap as we have noticed that it seen as a norm in other magazine articles. We thought to follow this norm rather than not using it as it would be a fraction of our brand identity that would go unnoticed, whereas inserting it into our text would capture the reader’s attention.


RADIO TRAILERWe decided that Capital F.M. is the radio station that would be suitable for our radio trailer to be broadcasted on as it is known as being one of the most popular stations across the UK. From our research we found out that approximately 2 million listeners tune in to Capital F.M. across the UK. Their audience range from the age of 15 and over. Our documentary is directed at an audience who of any age between 15 and 24. As part of our brand identity, we thought it would be unique for the narrator of our documentary to also feature in the radio trailer and give out specific details about the documentary to the audience; specific details such as the time, date and TV channel. It also combines the radio trailer and documentary together, showing they are of the same product. Our radio trailer consists of snippets of vox pops and interviews which have been taken from our documentary as part of giving the audience an idea of what is included in the documentary.


Usually, radio trailers feature music that is also played in the documentary. We challenged this by creating the music ourselves for both aspects of the overall product. However, we decided to stick to a similar sound when creating both music tracks as part of our brand identity and so the audience is able to recognise the track as part of the ‘Who We Are’ soundtrack. The track used in the radio trailer is fast paced and upbeat, catching the audience’s attention from the beginning. The track used in the documentary is not as fast paced but is still upbeat. It is slow paced as it makes it easier for the audience to hear what the narrator and interviewees are saying. Another way we decided to promote our documentary was by using the radio trailer to alert the audience of a certain ‘hashtag’ that can be used to get their opinions noticed on the social networking site, Twitter. This allows them to feel more involved with a documentary they can relate to.


[Printscreen taken from the process of producing the radio trailer on Final Cut Express.]

DOCUMENTARYFrom our audience feedback, we learned that our use of camera was good as it was not shaking and did not look hand-held as we used a tri-pod. Filming for background footage was approved by our audience as they felt it was suitable, supported what the narrator was saying and did not look out of place when placing facts and statistics over it. The lighting was done well as the picture was always clear and could see what was happening. The interviews had a good background was not a dull and plain colour. There were computers, books and posters that made the environment look busy and made the interview more interesting.

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We also received negative feedback to show improvements. Shots taken of websites such as the BBC and DoSomething.org were noted down as lasting longer than it should have been. An improvement would have been to include more footage of other websites.

MAGAZINE ARTICLEOur magazine article was noted down as good but average as it looked similar to those seen in real life magazines but not professional enough. The contrast of different colours caught their attention and noticed that we picked our certain words to add a different colour to. It gives specific information, such as the date and time of the documentary and what channel it will be shown on. There were also smaller but still important elements of the contents page such as page numbers that the audience were able to pick up on and praised us for that, also.

RADIO TRAILERWe were praised for including an audience connection by using Twitter, and the information such as the date and time were given. The music was appropriate however it felt out of place at times due to the snippets playing as it picks up people talking in the background and suddenly stopping because another snippet was being played.


SUMMARYWe felt that the feedback was acceptable and honest. When a negative aspect of all three texts were given, we felt that these were improvements we could touch on if we had been aware of these mistakes before. If we were to make another documentary, we would check to see that we have avoided making a mistake in the shots we have taken and we would take more background footage. Our radio trailer would not include different sound levels due to people talking in background. And our magazine article would look more professional and include more colour, rather than looking like a simple article.


Our first piece of media technology that we used was Blogger. This was very important as it was our way of keeping a record of what we have done, what haven’t done and what was needed to

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

be done. We first started to use Blogger as a filming schedule because we found this as an easier way to film certain pieces all in one lesson and then decide what to film the next. As it came closer to the deadline for filming during lessons, we took note of else needed to be filmed and we achieved those aims by going over what we have and have not got and what we still needed to film. We then applied this to the editing process of the documentary, radio trailer and magazine article. We were able to take note of what to edit in lesson and then whether to improve that or then edit another part of the text in the next lesson. It also became useful when writing a script for the documentary and the radio trailer as we could save it as a draft and then improve it outside of lessons also.

After setting up our blog, we then had to do some research into documentaries to find inspiration and develop them into our own creative ideas. Using YouTube as a way of finding documentaries aided us in getting an insight on how to capture an interview, background footage, etc, and this helped us realise what the codes and conventions of a documentary are and how we are to deal with that. We found our facts and statistics on a number of websites such as the BBC, The Guardian and DoSomething.org and would not have found them in a textbook as it is not easy to find one based on the concept of stereotyping.


Final Cut Express is a software that we used to put all the pieces together and make our documentary and radio trailer. During the editing process, we were able to cut clips up and put them together to make a montage of vox pops, alter the sound levels, make sure the sound came out of both headphones/speakers and we found that there were useful tools that helped get rid of unnecessary sounds and breathing in an audio file. This made the documentary and radio trailer easier to listen to and made it more


clear. Also, Final Cut Express allowed us to insert banners in the interviews which is part of the interview convention in documentaries, so we felt that this helped us out a lot.

Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop were used to create the magazine article. InDesign was the main software used as it helped place the two pages together. We found that it was simple to insert texts and images and change the colours of the texts. This became a major advantage when making the title and of the article and main heading as it was not an issue to make fancy text.


Photoshop became useful when editing the image on the first page of the article. It allowed us to trace around the image, getting rid of the background around it so we could have the image of a person over the white page.

[This was the tool used to trace the image, allowing us to place the picture on to the white page.]

Microsoft PowerPoint was used for putting the evaluation together. This was because it looked neater to have information with supporting images on a slide. Microsoft Word has a whole page shift the text and image, etc, about, whereas PowerPoint includes certain information on each slide. It felt easier to click on the slides for more information as it is not confusing.

As well as using Blogger, Microsoft Word was also used for writing scripts as we felt it was easier to separate each section into what part of stereotyping, the narrator was talking about.


Technology

Evaluation