A2 Media Coursework Evaluation

Questions 1-3 Alex Breeze

5209

Decision on subject for documentary.

Smoking:We decided to choose smoking as out topic because it is currently the second largest killer next to heart disease in the UK. We have a large amount of resources specific to this area and feel it it’s the best decision as out documentary topic.

Target audience for your piece-

We will be targeting 16-26 year olds. We have decided to target this age range because younger people are largely influence to start smoking without having a complete knowledge on the risks and dangers related to smoking.We are going to target men and women equally avoiding gender stereotyping.The classes we will be targeting will be B, C1 and C2 because these are the classes of people which watch documentaries.Young 16-26 year old men and women, classes B,C1 and C2

The Channel we will be broadcasting on will BBC Three at around 8:00 PM. We have decided to choose BBC Three because its target audience is similar to who we are targeting for our documentary. Also BBC Three shows a large variety of shows including documentaries.We have chosen to air the documentary at 8:00 PM because BBC Three has aired similar documentaries at this time.

The Radio trailer will be broadcast on BBC Radio 1 as it also targets a similar audience to who we are targeting. Also the BBC generally advertises its own programmes on its Radio Channels.

The final decision was to pick which magazine we wanted our double page spread to be in. We settled on The Radio Times as it has done many articles on BBC shows and looked like the best choice available.

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

Conventions found in professional

documentaries.

Voice over

Establishing shot

Real footage of events

Archive footage/stills

Interviews with experts

Interviews with public (Vox Popviews of the people)

Text/graphics

Sounds (Non- diegetic) e.g. music that has been added

Visual coding (Mise en scene)

Montage and Exposition

Montage is a technique from the poetic mode in film editing where you have a specific sequence of short edited clips. It is generally fast paced and bombards the viewer with information hopefully interesting them causing them to continue watching the documentary. We thought it was a vital technique to be included in our documentary because so many of the ones we analysed made use of this feature. An example of a documentary that also used Montage was ‘Super Size Me’ we found this to be an effective feature.

Exposition- Occurs at the beginning and introduces the important themes of the film It creates viewers first impressions and introduces the viewer to the content.

We have created a public affairs documentary Probably the most traditional of documentary formats Usually shown by public service broadcasting channels. BBC Channel 4 etc. Normally investigate/ explore current affairs issues. In our case the dangers of smoking.Can often be polemical – drawing attention to a perceived wrong – and can have significant impact

Using forms and conventions typical to documentaries

Example of voice over used in our documentary

Voice over is a common production technique and is an example of non-diegetic sound because the speaker can’t be seen on screen.

Voice over was present in all of the documentaries we viewed during the initial planning stage. It’s a convention which is widely used and we thought necessary for our documentary.

Example of the original voice over script for our documentary.

Sounds (Non Diegetic)

Another typical convention of a documentary was a sound track (background music). The backing track helps convey mood and I think we picked an appropriate track for use with both the documentary and trailer. A back ground track also keeps the viewer interested in more lengthy sections of video and speech.

Screen shot of Garage Band for the Mac. This is the track we used for out documentary and trailer. We made the track in garage band and then exported it for use in Final Cut Express.

The use of Garage Band was an important choice when it came to creating our backing track. Garage Band features royalty free loops and tracks which meant we didn't infringe on any copyright when using them as part of our documentary and radio trailer.

Shot composure (Mise en scene) Professional interviews

Interviewee looking across the dead

space

Wearing a lab coat for authenticity

Prop Skeleton. Used to show medical nature of the interview. Emphasises specialisation

Graphic used to introduce interviewee on screen. No need for voiceover

Computer displaying the NHS stop smoking website

NHS nurses uniform provides authenticity

Both professional interviews follow specific codes and conventions found in many documentaries as shown. An example of a documentary that included these is supersize me where interviews from medical experts were also used.

The shot composure was very important to us and we attempted to follow common conventions when setting up our interviews with the professionals, all of which are shown. The correct Mise en scene in a professional interview provides the audience with confidence when taking in the given information. This is because what they say is believable due to their knowledge in the topic area.

Shot composure (Mise en scene) Vox pops

Interviewee looking across the dead space

Common background used for our Vox Pops. Choice of location was important as to avoid large amounts of background noise

Vox Pops are the popular opinions of the public. We found them an effective way to convey opinion to the viewer. They were used in all of the documentaries we viewed during the research stage of the coursework so chose to include them in our documentary.

Establishing Shot

The establishing shot is another example of shot choice used in our documentary. What this does is show the viewer a quick introductory shot to where we were. It establishes the environment of a show or scene. Once again this was a common feature in many of the documentaries we viewed during the research stage. We thought it was important to include and worked out effective as we had voice over run over the top explaining where we were and what we were going to do.

Archive Footage, Over the shoulder shot

Both of the screenshots are examples of archive (found footage). We decided to capture them using an over the shoulder shot to reduce the amount of full screen found footage. It also shows a student viewing the resources which emphasises the accessibility of the content.

One of two examples of an NHS stop smoking advert. These were used to try and use a shock tactic to discourage smokers. An over the shoulder shot was used to capture the video too make it look less like found footage and make I flow better with the other over the shoulder shots used in the documentary.

Another example of an over the shoulder shot where we have a student browsing the NHS stop smoking website. In the documentary this footage was used as a cut away and was sped up to provide variety and keep the audience interested.

Text and Graphics

Text and graphics is a common technique and convention used in many of the documentaries we viewed during the initial planning stage, they were also used in supersize me which we analysed in detail. Text and graphics are used to vary the transfer of information to the viewers. We found they provided an interesting mix of variety and kept the viewers attention.

The two graphics above were used to introduce the professional interviewees on screen meaning we didn’t have to use voice over all of the time. We also used a slight drop shadow to make the words stand out better against the backgrounds.

The graph is used as a cut-away it is an example of a visual aid were the voice over explains the findings while it is on screen. It provides an easier way for the viewer to absorb the given information. It is showing the increase in young people smoking in Britain regularly. It also provides % of males and females.

The final graphic used in the piece was at the end of the five minute introduction where the title appeared in a type writer style.

Double Page Spread

Drop Capitals

Choice of colour emphasises the word

Change of text emphasising the word Full page

image

Columns

Title in block capitals Caption

Page Numbers

Quotes from documentary

Caption Photographer

We chose to follow one of the Radio Times' layouts we were provided during in lesson time. Since we were broadcasting on the BBC we decided to choose the Radio Times as they generally both go together. We followed many of the codes and conventions typical to a radio times article and feel that it appropriately represents our documentary.

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

I personally felt that our three media products (main product and ancillary texts) were an effective combination and achieved our goal as having a unified style. To do this we did simple but effective things. For example we used the same backing track for both the documentary and the radio trailer. We also took snippets of the professional interviews and Vox pops and incorporated them into the radio trailer. We emphasised a time, date and channel in both the double page spread and radio trailer. If someone was to listen to the radio trailer and then watch the documentary they would be able to recognise which parts have been used.

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 provides to our target audience and we also chose Radio 1 as it also provides to our target audience. As for our double page spread there was a clear choice and this was The Radio Times as most BBC programmes have articles in this magazine.

I think out of all three pieces the Documentary itself was the strongest media product . I think this because it was at the centre of the entire task and did have a much higher level of input from us all. Having said this I think all three pieces compliment each other well.

The article had a house style which effectively represented the topic of our documentary making use of colour to emphasise dirt. While also incorporating images of our professional interviewee and a full page image of some cigarettes captioned ‘Death Row’. I think it works well for our target audience by being more colourful and including large pictures. We had to be careful as to not make it to text heavy as this would not suit our target audience. This layout was chosen as it seemed very common in many of the Radio Times articles we were provided with. As mentioned on slide 9 it also incorporates many conventions and features typical to a magazine article. I think all of this adds up to create an authentic piece that works well with the other products.

What have you learned form your audience feedback

We collected audience feedback by creating a basic questionnaire which provided us with the necessary information.

This questionnaire was then distributed to a class of 24 who viewed all 3 media products.

How would you rate our documentary our of 10?

Is there a clear brand identity?

Is the radio trailer and article effective in promoting the documentary?

Did we successfully follow or challenge any conventions?

Audience feedback results

We distributed the questionnaire to a class of 24 people, 15 of which were Male and 9 were Female.

Our highest overall documentary score was a 9 while our lowest was a 4. Our average score was a 7.

18 people voted yes on there being a clear brand identity while 5 said No.

14 people said that the radio trailer and the double page spread were effective at promoting the documentary while 9 said they weren't effective.

20 people said we did successfully follow and challenge codes and conventions while 4 said we didn't.

The main criticism that reoccurred on the most questionnaires that the music overpowered the Vox Pops.