Megan Breslin
EVALUATION QUESTIONS
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL
MEDIA PRODUCTS?
Conventions of documentaries include vox pops, interviews, music, graphics, voice overs and talking heads.
ACTUALITY: Filming real events as they happen are a convention of real documentary, but this could prove difficult with certain things like trying to film a hurricane. This is when archive footage can be used.
FLY ON THE WALL: This is when you film real people as they do real things focussed on their lives. In terms of your documentary, you may be able to film things like conversation, a live sporting event, or following a certain individual around.
VOICE OVER: Most documentaries have a voice-over, and a narration of what the programme is about, giving key information and introducing the topic of debate. No voice overs make the documentary lack legitimacy.
GRAPHICS: Documentaries often use graphics with written texts. Maps, drawings, still photographs can be incorporated into the opening sequence through JPEG files.
INTERVIEWS: An expert interview with someone who has ample knowledge of your topic can give a clear insight into issues is vitally important.
VOX POPS: This is more of a random interview with someone on the street with a hand held camera, with a microphone popping up asking people what they think.
TALKING HEAD: A shot of someone talking directly to the camera as a presenter of the documentary could also be used. The talking head is the authorative figure.
MUSIC: Music is critical for the opening sequence but the sound of the song or music should not dominate thesequence, you need to balance the sound.
In relation to my media product (Inside Manchester: Music and Fashion) I have used, developed or challenged these in the following ways:
When gaining interviews to make up my documentary, I used the convention of vox pops - where random people on the street are targeted to answer a few questions. This method helped me to gain a wide understanding of many people’s differing opinions,
which I could include on the debate for my documentary.
A few of my vox
pops
VOX POPS
Expert interviews are also a key part of a documentary, to gain valid insights to what experts in the field think or know about the topic. They also could provide facts or
figures and knowledge which may not be generally known. I interviewed three people of interest in the field of music or
fashion to follow this convention, BBC 6 Music DJ Mark Radcliffe who provided information on music in Manchester and generally, upcoming singer/songwriter Sam Webb who we questioned on both topics and Amy Heard who is a teen model provided knowledge on fashion and any relations to
music in the modelling world.This is the extended Mark
Radcliffe interview I edited together as an extra video people can watch if they want to see
what else this expert had to say.
EXPERT INTERVIEWS
This is an expert interview on one of the documentaries I analysed initially, complete
with caption. It also is a mid shot framed in the experts
working environment, which I mirrored when filming my
expert interviews
Documentaries also can have a presenter, who looks directly into the camera and leads the documentary, who also may be the one asking the questions. This authoritative figure and anyone looking directly into the
camera is called a ‘talking head’. I challenged this convention by not having a direct presenter to introduce the documentary and only using a voiceover. As I could only create a 5 minute excerpt I decided to save
as much time as I could to include the vox pops and expert opinions rather than have a presenter. These authoritative figures aren’t always including on all documentaries, as one of the ones I analysed about ‘Yo MTV raps’ didn’t have a presenter yet it still flows well and the topic of
discussion is easy to follow.I used a voiceover to introduce my
documentary rather than a presenter as
presenters are mostly found in
historical or nature documentaries, such as David
Attenborough in ‘the living planet’
rather than fashion or music
documentaries.
PRESENTER
A documentary often targets hard hitting issues or events, and this requires filming real events as they happen which is Actuality. My documentary wasn’t about significant events particularly so
didn’t require this convention, but I did film cutaways of real people in their daily lives walking or shopping in Manchester; which may be classed as fly on the wall filming, which is used to capture real people doing real things in their lives, such as following a person around their day to day life.
I used cutaways to set the scene, provide some location details and when switching between questions which are a feature of documentaries such as Panorama and can also be a feature on
the news which reflects a serious edge to my documentary.
Certain things can be hard to film live so this is when Archive footage can be used which is another convention that can be included to provide a look into the topic it is on from the past. My documentary was about current impacts of fashion and music rather than the past, so I challenged the need for Archive Footage by not including it, but including opinions of people who reminisced
about the past instead.
Most documentaries then also have a voiceover to introduce the programme and give key information which may be discussed throughout. I used this convention in the opening sequence
which I thought gave a good introduction to the documentary which would have been the same as having a presenter, but this allowed me to use cut away shots and other documentary conventions
which I may not have been able to include otherwise.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE
One cut away I featured
An interviewee who
reminisced about the 80s
and 90s
Archive footage in a fashion and music documentary
Graphics also feature in many, such as photographs in the opening or closing sequence to provide an overview of the topic in a different format (2D). I used this convention by
having graphics for titles, questions and captions as I removed the planned opening sequence of including many
pictures to use cutaways instead. I did include some location shots at the end where I added pictures to follow
the 2D or archived footage convention.
Using captions like this documentary
Opening titles, question graphics and end credits
GRAPHICS
A soundtrack or music behind the voiceover or throughout the documentary is also a main feature, as this provides some background noise over silent
clips, or can link the many vox pops together. The music should be balanced and not be too loud so opinions cannot be heard. I used two songs behind my
documentary (which were kindly provided and made available for use copyright free by Sam Webb’s band and SoundHub records) making them
relevant to the topics of discussion by showcasing some music from a local Manchester band. They also linked my interviews well as there was an on-
going noise behind them rather than varying levels of background noise from the original clips. I developed this convention by using music throughout, rather than only during the introduction or end credits to provide a more
interesting level to the documentary. I also featured one of the same songs on my radio advert, this was to create more of a brand image for my
products by using similar sounds for both of them, so its will be easier to recognise they are connected.
SOUNDTRACK
Editing techniques in documentaries have a mainly linear narrative, which mine did about music and fashion, but also is non-linear as the interviews aren’t chronological and go
between different people throughout which happened to my documentary to make it more interesting and to hear different people’s opinions on each different question.
I followed this convention by
interviewing many different people and
intertwining responses if they are longer to
build a narrative between different
responses. The linear narrative throughout my documentary was investigating fashion
and music in Manchester, but each response in varying
orders create a multi strand narrative.
EDITING
My documentary has included most conventions traditionally found in documentaries, developed a couple
and challenged a few. This makes it a more valid recognisable documentary from all well-known features but with a different edge to make it more unique and stand out as a serious documentary informing audiences about music
and fashion within Manchester.
Inspiration for my opening
titles.
Radio advert conventions: I followed the soundtrack convention as in the background of my advert I used the
same track from the opening titles of my documentary and featured voice overs which were clips from the
documentary like how TV shows promote their programs by including key lines in the radio advert.
ANCILLARY PRODUCTS – RADIO ADVERT
My radio advert is similar to
these adverts because it uses sound clips from
elsewhere – I used
documentary sound clips,
these adverts used horror and sound
effects
I followed the channel 4 guidelines of layout and font for portrait a4 to make my newspaper advert realistic as possible to something that channel 4 may produce.
I challenged the one shocking image convention channel 4 usual conform to on
their adverts, by using many different pictures to gain interest and focus
audiences attention on comparisons between the fashion shown rather than one striking or shocking controversial image. I did this to get them thinking
about the documentary to intrigue them into watching.
Also used a rhetorical question for the tagline to get the audience thinking
further and adding the element of music I couldn’t quite show on a 2d advert.
ANCILLARY PRODUCTS – NEWSPAPER ADVERT
I took inspiration from these
adverts using lots of images
rather than just one.
This is how I used the same layout in my
advert
HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE
COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN AND
ANCILLARY TEXTS?
MY 3 PRODUCTS
Documentary
Radio Advert
Newspaper Advert
My products all intertwine with each other, they are all about the same thing (Inside Manchester) so include the same details and pictures or interviewees so it is clear that they are all related as the topic is the
same for each and the theme is continuous. I tried to combine them as much as possible by using as many similar things as I could.
I did this by using the interviews as much as possible, not only in my documentary but including voice clips in my radio advert from the documentary and still images of the interviewees on my newspaper
advert so they all are involved with each other.
COMBINATION OF PRODUCTS
Mark Radcliffe featuring in my
documentary and my radio advert
SYNERGY
These people featuring in my documentary, newspaper advert and my radio advert
The interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc.; synergism.
MUSIC
The same track on my advert and documentary
I also used the same music in my documentary on my radio advert, to promote less well known bands, get the audience
thinking about new music and to give my products a stronger brand image. Using an upcoming bands soundtrack from
Manchester also gave authenticity to my documentary and products to show I am more involved in the local music
community which then reflects my topic of my documentary. This also means the audience can feel at home and link the
two together when they hear them separately, to clarify they are related.
I also tried to make my products follow channel 4 guidelines as possible, my newspaper advert follows them well, I chose to make my documentary quite
serious, similar to documentaries on channel 4 (dispatches) which was a mistake as my target audience wouldn’t want to watch a serious
documentary about a topic which could be comical. This is how my newspaper advert follows these guidelines, which then relates the seriousness and aspects of channel 4 shows in my documentary.
NEWSPAPER ADVERT
Tagline/slogan in the top half of the
page
Logo in centre of page on the right
Text black with white
background
Title and air date in the bottom left
corner
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
As I aimed the documentary at a target audience of 15-25 year olds, it was easier for me to ask this age range what
they thought of my documentary as I was making it. I asked for friends and classmates opinions of it as I was editing to find out if the footage I was using would appeal to them or how I edited the responses was interesting enough to keep
watching. This initial feedback helped me make better decisions about the video clips to include, such as leaving out interviews with older generations as the information they were giving was not very relevant to the target age
group. This ongoing feedback taught me what is important to the audience and how to include what is right to meet
the audiences wants to create a more professional documentary and a realistic ancillary products of a
newspaper advert and radio advert.
FEEDBACK
I created a survey on SurveyMonkey to gain feedback from anyone who watched my documentary. I asked questions such as ‘how effective is the documentary?’ and ‘what improvements could be made?’ to gain an insight to what people really thought of it and also help me out so I could make the documentary better before the finished product was uploaded.
QUESTIONNAIRE
After completing the questionnaire I tweeted a link to it and my documentary to gain more feedback from a wider range of people to see what more people think of the finished product.
I analyzed the results and my feedback to look at any overall trends of patterns of what the audience thought and learn what the good
points of my documentary were and what could be improved upon.
The points from my feedback could help me in future projects, such as making it less serious to appeal more to younger audiences, despite
being aired as a serious documentary on channel 4. I could’ve done this by incorporating
some of the outtakes of the Sam Webb interview or more humorous responses from
interviewees.
RESULTS
This survey is also useful after the video was completed, to review how my documentary is being received and to see if I
aimed the audience correctly or a different audience would be the ones to watch or enjoy it.
This was an original draft of my newspaper advert, from
feedback I learnt that I needed to include a tagline to summarise the documentary
and intrigue the audience into wanting to watch it.
On this advert, the details of the name, air date and time
blocked many of the photos so I moved this to showcase more of the photos and
varying fashion in Manchester.
The channel 4 logo was also blocking out a picture, so only the background was the only
thing you could see, I changed this in my final draft as
recommended by my audience feedback.
FIRST DRAFT ADVERT
Through all the feedback we have received I have taken many aspects into account and learnt so that in the future mistakes are not made again.
Main points that I have learnt and would improve on if I were to undertake the project again would be to pay more attention to sound. I would think about background noises in future and plan to film away from loud noises or street performers in order to get clear sounding clips of what I want, rather than having to interfere with volume levels after getting all my
footage.
I would also try and use a higher quality camera with a decent microphone, this would give a better picture and allow focusing and
wouldn’t have to mean using a separate microphone. I would also carry out checks on my camera so that it would film continuously rather than the
one we used, which had a fault that meant filming cut out after 10 seconds, which limited the footage we collected as key points were often
missed or lost.
Another point I learnt was to focus on the target audience more, if I did this project again I would include some of the outtakes from interviews and liven the documentary up by decreasing the number of responses I include and adding shorter questions with quicker responses to keep
people interested in watching all of it. I would also film for more days in order to catch more people with unusual or longer responses willing to be
interviewed, to improve the quality of my vox pops and improve the content for audiences.
WHAT HAVE I LEARNT FROM FEEDBACK?
HOW DID YOU USE TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
RESEARCH AND PLANNING,
CONSTRUCTION AND EVALUATION STAGES?
iMac
iMovie
Garage Band
Keynote
Photoshop
Publisher
Weebly
PowerPoint
Youtube
Still camera
HD Camera
DSLR Camera - Canon 5D
Green Screen
Slideshare
SurveyMonkey
iTunes
SoundCloud
iPhone
TECHNOLOGIES I USED:
When researching my documentary I used the internet to find out conventions of the genre and to look at common
features of most documentaries.
I also used websites such as YouTube and Vimeo when researching other documentaries on similar topics to what mine would be, to analyse these and see how effective they
are to inspire me to make my documentary.
RESEARCH
I used a range of cameras for each section of the project.
For filming the documentary I used a DSLR Canon 5D camera. This camera gave me the ability to film high quality footage to improve the quality of my documentary and also has a built in microphone which
improved the sound quality when a extra microphone wasn’t available.
When filming the interviews, I used a tripod to balance the camera and to keep the footage level. I also used a microphone to record my interviewees voices clearer and to minimise background noise. The
clear recordings also allowed me to separate the voices from the clips to then use in my radio advert.
To take the pictures around Manchester and of the interviewees, I used a separate stills camera for better quality images and to save
memory on the DSLR (30+ interviews held a lot of space).
CAMERA
To take pictures like this one I used for the header on
my blog
I used various camera to film and take pictures in order to gain high quality footage and images to use for my products.
I then imported my footage to the Mac so I could use the software built in on them to develop my products further, using Macs was a huge advantage as it gave me the option to use software such as iMovie and Garage Band rather than having to use Windows Movie Maker or Audacity on a PC to hopefully create more professional
looking products.
I used iMovie to create my documentary, this was easy to use and straightforward to import clips, edit them and build a complete movie/documentary.
Then when it was complete I uploaded it to YouTube.
DOCUMENTARY
Importing all my images and footage from the camera onto the Mac then into iMovie to
construct my documentary
I used garage band to create my radio advert as this was also simple software available to me and allowed me to use sounds from my documentary on a ‘movie
soundtrack’ and then split them so they can be moved around and edited further to tune out background noise or add sound effects and put in the order I needed for my
advert. It was also simple to use and drag my chosen clips in the order I needed them, it was also easy to import tracks from iTunes into it to provide the soundtrack.
I recorded my clips through a microphone and also used clips from the footage I imported on iMovie for my advert, after inserting the soundtrack.
I used SoundCloud to broadcast my advert which then allowed me to embed my advert onto my blog which was useful to share to gain audience feedback.
Using Weebly as a blog meant it was easy to set up and use as the layout was clear, making it easy to put text boxes, documents and videos onto a website to display all
my work in one place.
RADIO ADVERT
Screen Recording - radio advert.mov
NEWSPAPER ADVERT
I used a combination of Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher to create this advert. I used some of the images that I took of people around
Manchester and of the interviewees I used to show varying fashions and to link back to my documentary product.
I used Photoshop to edit the images I was going to use, to change the brightness and contrast so they looked clearer to the eye and also to
enhance the pictures so they could be the best they could possibly be for this advert.
I then assembled the complete advert in publisher because my Photoshop skills are limited and this was simple software to use, and
allowed me to switch up the layout easily until I found what I wanted. I also used a font website to find a font similar to the one used by Channel 4 to type up the text and logo, needed for the advert to look more official
and realistic.
YouTube was very useful for lots of aspects of this project, I used the website to carry out research as the project started, so I could find out what
documentaries were like and common features and conventions of them initially.
I then posted my preliminary video task on YouTube, to test how it runs and to test upload speeds to estimate how it would be when exporting and uploading my final documentary. This was also useful to test the comments as a form of
feedback to see how it would work and if it would be reliable to use for feedback on my final documentary.
I used YouTube to upload all of my videos, the documentary, video diary and extra full length interviews, as it is a well known site which is simple to use and
has enough users to use feedback from (in the form of comments and likes).
YOUTUBE
I used Weebly to showcase all my work and put it online in a clear format in order to separate each section of research
and the products I created.
This website was simple to set up and easy to navigate which made it straightforward to display my work as the
project went on. It was easy to insert text boxes and titles to split up each section, and it was useful to divide each
part of the project on different pages.
However, if I was to do this project again, I would use a different blog site which would be more advanced and less
likely to crash when uploading documents or videos.
WEEBLY
Screen Recording - weebly.mov
Screen Recording - weebly1.mov
Screenshot Videos of my blog whilst uploading
some planning work and an overview of my entire
blog
I used PowerPoint to write up all my evaluation questions for the coursework.
PowerPoint was easy to access, freely available and the software is simple to use and then transfer onto my blog
through SlideShare.
This way I could use separate slides for each question and divide them further into each of my products or the order I
carried them out (research, first draft, feedback, final product).
POWERPOINT