Question 3: A2 Media Studies Final Product Evaluation?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

By Shaun Goodwin

Who has given me feedback on my documentary?

• When collecting audience feedback on my documentary, I have tried very hard to gain feedback from a wide variety of people, this means that I was after people of many different age groups and gender to give me feedback on my documentary so that I would have a wide variety of opinions and high standard of feedback to work with. Some examples of different age groups and genders that gave me feedback on my documentary are as follows; my parents both aged 42, Two of my friends both aged 18, My sister aged 16 and my cousin aged 25. Of these six people who gave me feedback on my documentary, 3 were female and 3 were male so I had the perfect mix. My two friends who gave me audience feedback on my documentary study media studies at another college so this was an extra bonus because these two could give me excellent feedback and use media studies terminology. People who reviewed the documentary (Below.)

The Feedback:• Garry Goodwin, Male, Parent, Aged 42: After watching my documentary on YouTube, Garry had several interesting things to say about what he had just watched, he offered some constructive criticism and some high praises of the documentary. For example Garry praised the editing in the first 30 seconds of the documentary saying “The fast transactions make it look very professional” and Garry also praised the “Background setup for the interviews” saying that “it is very appropriate for what is being talked about during the interviews.”

The last aspect that Garry praised was the archive footage used, Garry said “The way that it plays behind the interview looks very professional and all the footage goes with what is being talked about in the interview” I feel that Garry’s praises about our documentary tells me that we've done a very good job making our documentary because he has watched many documentaries and feels that ours looks “professional” which shows that it is level with the professional documentary makers in his opinion. As well as all the praise that Garry gave he also offered some constructive criticism, for example he said, “some of the footage was quite shaky at some stages when filming the people listening to there music” I agree with him that this piece of footage was shaky but there was really nothing that we could do, we had to walk backwards as we filmed the footage which meant it very hard to keep the camera still, as well as this the path that we were walking backwards on was very uneven and meant it very hard for us to avoid falling over, let alone keep the camera still. Garry only had one other criticism on our documentary and that was that the lighting was poor for our interview with the band “Broken Reign.” I agree with this view but could argue that we filmed it in the concert venue so that we had a good use of mise en scene and because concert venues are always dark this was the reason for the lighting being poor.

The Feedback:

• Nicola Goodwin, Female, Parent, Aged 42: After Nicola watched the Documentary she was very impressed with it, I then asked her to pick out some positives and negatives about the documentary and this was the feedback I got. “This documentary is very impressive, The fast cuts from one piece of footage is very impressive and looks very professional.” This is very similar to Garry Goodwin’s comments which tells me that the editing has been a huge success for our documentary and looks very impressive and professional. Another positive that Nicola Goodwin picked out was that the interviews were very easy to hear because the sound quality was “really good” this was because we ensured we used clip mic’s for our interviews and this proved to be the right decision because it meant the interviewee’s voices were clearly heard and recorded at a high quality. I then asked Nicola to try and pick out some negative points that she has seen in our documentary but as she was with Garry Goodwin at the time she said that she couldn’t think of any other points apart from the ones that had already been pointed out by Garry. She said if she had to pick one it would be that maybe “Mike Graingers” interview was a “bit boring” put started to become entertaining again when the archive footage was on screen over his interview. I take this feedback from Nicola as being very positive so I am very pleased with the two feedbacks I have got so far and the documentary that me and my team have produced.

The Feedback:• Kefren Dean & Ben Read, Aged 18, Both Male, Both A2 Media Studies student’s at St.

Nicholas Catholic Sixth Form College.Because Kefren and Ben are both eager A2 Media Studies students I was very keen to get there opinion on our documentary because I knew that they would be able to express there opinions about our documentary using correct media terminology, I also knew that it would be very likely that the two of them were likely to be able to offer not just criticism, but constructive criticism that would inform on how I could do something better. Kefren and Ben gave a lot of praise for the documentary, one example was when both of them agreed that the use of mise en scene in the documentary was “excellent” Kefren said, “The fact that the interview about music studios was recorded in a music studio was very impressive.” Another aspect of the documentary that they both had praise for was the editing, because they both understood the difficulties involved they felt that an excellent job had been done, Ben said “the transactions in the first 30 seconds were very sharp, fast and looked very professional, However I was most impressed with the way the sound bed in the middle of the Ian Austin interview fades in so naturally and is so cohesive with the nightclub scene that is being talked about at the time.”

As well as praise kefren and Ben also offered me some constructive criticism on what could be done differently if we were to remake the documentary, for example Ben suggested that we should of included some “Vox Pops so that an opinion of the general public was included and not just from experts on the matter.” I agree with Ben but as a group we did try on two occasions to get some “Vox Pops” but on both occasions people simply weren’t willing to participate. Apart from this the two A2 media studies students couldn’t think of anything else to criticise and said it was an excellent documentary opening.

The Feedback:• Laura Kelly, Female, Cousin, Aged 25: After Laura had finished watching my documentary her comment was, “It was very impressive.” I then asked Laura to pick out some positives and negatives from the documentary and this is what she had chose. Laura, along with many of the other people that have reviewed my documentary said that she was very impressed with the first 30 seconds of it because of the “fast cuts from one piece of footage to another” and because of the way “music video footage is combined with real footage.”

Another aspect of the documentary that Laura was impressed with was “the way footage is played at the same time as an interview so that there is a visual example of what the interviewee is talking about, this looks and sounds very professional.”

After hearing Laura’s praises for the documentary I then asked her if she had any criticism's of the documentary, Laura responded by saying that “other than the shaky footage of the people walking with headphones in at the start and the bad lighting for the broken reign interview, I can’t think of anything.” This is very pleasing to hear because it means that other than these two issues are documentary has been a huge success in most peoples opinions and the positives from the feedback I have received completely outweigh the negatives.

What Would I do Differently?• If I was to be given another oppurtunity to re make this documentary the there are very few

things I would do differently.• 1. Ensure that the “Broken Reign” interview has substantial lighting so that no complaints are

made about that.

• 2. Add more footage on top of the Mike Grainger interview so that no complaints of people being bored whilst watching it are received.

• 3. I would conduct some “Vox Pop” interviews so that I had an opinion from the general public in my documentary and not just from the experts on the subject that I interviewed.

• 4. I would make sure that the shaky footage from the opening ten seconds is removed and filmed again on a more level service so that it looks more proffesional and so that no more compalints are received about the matter.

• Apart from these four points I would change nothing else in our documentary because I feel that it has been a huge success from start to finish. I am extremely pleased with the final outcome of our documentary and couldn’t be happier with it.

What have I learnt from the feedback?

• After reviewing all of the feedback I have received and being very pleased with it I will now also present the things that I have learnt from it.

• The editing was very impressive in this documentary and everyone that reviewed our documentary praised it.

• The archive footage played at the same time as the interviews made the interviews bearable for the audience because they weren’t just watching someone talk at them.

• The lighting for all interviews in a documentary must always to an appropiate level and so should the mise en scene, this was one of the things I received complaints about.

• Overall people were very impressed by this documentary and we as a group are equally as pleased with it.