Natalie Williams

Media Evaluation

My 5 minute opening sequence of a documentary (Failure) incorporates

the conventions of which are expected of a documentary consistently
through the media product. The main focus within a documentary is a
subject matter that can result in a balanced argument. Furthermore, my
documentary highlights an argument about the real world. I feel not only
has my media product done this, but it also challenges its forms. The way
in which I have decided to deliver my topic can differ within the
documentary genre. This can be shown through Bill Nichol’s documentary
mode. In the case of my documentary I feel that the mode of which it falls
into is the expository mode as it directly addresses the audience with the
use of voice over and also raises social issues.
The social issue that myself and my group have chosen to focus on is ‘the
under achievement of black males’. Although the title of our documentary
can appear to be a statement it can also create an even-handed argument
as many of our interviewee’s believe that this issue is becoming less true.
The pre production of the documentary played an important part of
successfully developing my media product. Planning was vital as if my
documentary was to air on the BBC accuracy and clarity would be
essential as we must inform the viewer rather than impose and idea. This
is because documentaries shown on the BBC have to be relevant to its
viewers as there is an high expectation of what they deliver as TV licences
are paid in order for viewers to receive BBC. This stresses the importance
of tasks such as our brainstorm, which is shown in figure 1 and our
potential target audience.
 My groups first brainstorm
before choosing my final
topic for the documentary.

FIGURE 1

Within the pre-production we were able to demonstrate how we would

ensure our documentary would fulfil the generic conventions of a
documentary.
As the director I feel I had to ensure that my documentary would carry a clear
message throughout. Expanding on the interviewee’s opinions on the topic
the use of cut-a-ways help convey a much clearer message. This would be an
apparent example of a documentary code and convention as many use the
tool of cut-a-aways to aid in its message to the audience. We also challenged
the forms as although this maybe viewed as a convention of a documentary, it
is seen as a more individual convention rather than generic as the cut-a-
aways are individual to our documentary. In figure 2 shows an annotation of a
cutaway we used within our documentary when Duncan Williams was talking
about black boys and bad behaviour.

A young group of black

boys. A cut-a-away on
how they may be
represented.
The way in which he is
standing can connote a
laid back attitude. This
relates to our
documentary as it can
reflect one of the ways
in which young black
boys are under-
achieving. FIGURE 2 Exterior shot.
Giving a different
location to where
we filmed or
interview.
 Another necessity within the documentary genre is the way in which my
documentary shows strength is the aspect of realism, my documentary
engages with the real world. The use of the voice over also highlights
conventions within the media product. This is something that is commonly
found within the documentary genre. This aids in the deliverance to the
audience, and again gives an emphasis on the codes and conventions
within a documentary. In reference to Steve Neale, 1980 states “The
existence of genres means that the spectator…will always know that
everything will be ‘made right in the end.’ This calls attention to the voice
over bringing ‘sense’ to the documentary. The use of non-diegetic sound
(score music) is another element that adds to the conventions of my media
product. This makes the documentary seem more effective and I feel that
the final product did this. As the director I had to make certain that the
mise-en-scene whilst filming was correct at all times as the mise-en-scene
supports the topic in which my group members and I have chosen to
discuss within our documentary. I feel again this technical aspect within
media gives a clearer as well as visual message. An example of this would
be when we interviewed a student at Barking Abbey sixth form. The
location that I had decided to film in was in the library, shown in figure 3.

Ensuring we used
As the director I chose to
the correct framing
shoot the interview in the
placing the
library. This can be seen
interviewee on the
through the mise-en-scene
left hand side of the
of library books on the
screen.
shelve.

FIGURE 3

This reflected his argument, as he is a young black male achieving within the
British education system. This again stresses to the audience the side of the
argument he is on. The mise-en-scene also aided in the cut-a-ways that we
filmed. This proved to be just as important as it gives the audience a clear
visual outlook. Making sure that we used the rules of thirds also emphasized
the visual aspect of our final media product, ensuring that cinematically we
used the correct codes and conventions of a documentary. A diagram of the
rule of thirds is shown in figure 4. This shows similar comparison to the way
in which we framed our interviews, which is also shown in figure 4.

FIGURE 4

As director I helped assist the editor when editing so that we could build on
the ideas in which we had. The opening to the documentary I feel was
individualistic but still use the conventions of a documentary. This proved
itself to be difficult in the beginning but eventually resulted in a successful
part of my documentary. According to Steve Neale repetition is what
makes the genre and In the case of documentaries, the repetition of
interviews makes up the documentary genre.

When going through the process of my ancillary tasks, I believe that the
outcome was successful. I feel that these were an essential part of my end
product as it aided in the production of my final media product. There is a
strong link between the ancillary task and my final documentary as they both
show similar style. I feel that keeping similar style ensured that my ending
products showed continuity. As the director writing the script for the radio was
a very critical task. I consider this because the delivery had to be effective and
strong in order to grab the listener’s attention. Therefore short voice grabs
from our documentary was an efficient way to do so. I feel that this technique
was vital as it accentuated the interesting parts of my groups documentary to
attract an audience. There were parts of the documentary process that went
well which also assisted to the effectiveness of my documentary. However,
during the production of my radio trailer working as a group we felt it would be
more beneficial to produce a radio trailer individually.
 Creating a newspaper advert was a challenging process as it was my first
time using Adobe Photoshop. This helped me as I was able to gain more skills
using new media technologies. After completing 2 drafts I found that my
image was too dark, and maybe with adjustments to the colouring layer I
would have a better end product. In figure 5 is a draft of my first advert.
I took this font style from a
website called DA font where I
was able to find something that
suited my overall image of my
Our original production poster.
was called –NPR.
However, as time went on
we decided to change the
name to HCTV. As it was
representative of the
college.

When I printed this out it came

out to dark towards the bottom.
Therefore using adobe
Photoshop I was able to change
they background layer to make it
darker.
FIGURE 5

Another important element to my main product and my ancillary task would be

the convergence of my product. Throughout the project I have used the
internet, newspaper and radio in order to target my audience. Creating a blog
and a website, updating my progress as well as uploading my final
documentary and my ancillary task to it expanded on the main product. The
use of the radio trailer and the newspaper again opened opportunities for a
wider audience as I used different mediums. Although I intended in keeping
the style approach to both my ancillary task and main media product the same
in places there were some difference. A good example of this would be with
the voice –over I used in my documentary and the voice I used for my radio
trailer where different. When recording my radio trailer I felt that this was
necessary as radio trailers are usually taken from a sales approach because
of the purpose of those documents however, in context to my poster it has to
capture more of a similar and attractive style to my real media product. I
consider that the use of a male’s voice within my radio trailer seemed more
dominating than the female voice over that I used in my final documentary.
Being the director of the group when I decided that a female voice over would
fit our documentary I felt that having a softer voice talking about a subject that
could be viewed as quite a sensitive would bring a sense of sympathy and
an awareness to the issue. Other real media products use other mediums to
promote their main products; this can be seen on channel 4 documentaries as
well as those shown on the BBC. However, instead of a radio advertisement
the use of TV adverts maybe used. An illustration of this would be when you
when advertisements are aired on certain channels in between programs they
use that time in order to promote their media product.
Within a documentary it is essential that the audience ‘read’ the
representations of which the documentary has to offer. Therefore producing a
pre and post audience testing was a way of doing so, in which my group
members and I did this, in order to find out if our audience felt our
documentary met all the codes and conventions of real media documentaries.
One way we did this was using facebook to create a group in order for the
public to give feedback on the way in which the documentary was delivered
and suggestions of how we could develop on the topic a little more. This was
a good method of receiving feedback whilst using new media technologies. In
figure 6 shows a discussion on facebook that was posted by facebook users
on a group that was created by me after my documentary was posted on
YouTube.

FIGURE 6
Below is link to the facebook group:
www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=21079925666
9&ref=mf
All of this refers to Daniel Chandler’s semiotics for beginners, Modes of
address. The way, in which they differ in their directness (Tolson 1996, 56-65)
from the feedback that I received some, would say that the message was very
direct, however some felt that I could have used a variation of options.
However, this was the only opening 5 minutes of the documentary and
doesn’t reflect the documentary as a whole. On the other hand, many said
that they would thoroughly enjoy watching the full documentary.
Our filmed evaluation allowed a group of three to watch my documentary then
answer a few questions about what they thought of our media product. This
can be viewed on my group blog. I feel that I have learnt a lot from the
feedback in which was given to me in my pre and post production. Within the
pre- production many said that interesting cut-a-a ways is what keeps them
hooked when watching documentary genre, which can be seen in figure 7
12
therefore my group and I tried our FIGURE 7
10
best to film cut- a ways that were
8
stereotypical of black boys,
6
however found some that do go
4
again the stereotype which
2
enabled our audience to see both
0
sides of the argument. Cut -a -aways Facts and Figures Still images/iconic On screen graphics
images
This is a graph from my pre-audience
testing showing that cut-a-aways were what
people most enjoyed when watching
documentaries.

When placing my documentary on YouTube we were also able to receive

views and feedback from the site itself also in figure 8 shows the amount of
views we received in the 1st 3days of or documentary being posted on my
YouTube account.

FIGURE 8
Shows the amount of time
the public have viewed my
documentary.
 Throughout this project I have constantly used new media technologies. A
simple example of this would be in planning. Whilst planning I used online
news paper articles to round up my facts and figures. This is not only the
technology of the internet but also the convergence of newspapers. In figure
9 you can see an online article in which we used to gather questions for our
interviewees. Not only could this but we use the facts and figures within our
documentary
News paper
articles online.

FIGURE 9

From researching newspaper articles,

facts and figures online, I was able to
incorporate some of the general
statistics within my documentary.

Besides regularly updating my personal blog as well as my group blog also

insured I used technology such as ‘blogging’ but also again used the internet
to do so. When uploading files to my blog I used a website called ‘scribd’. This
website allowed me to create PDF files to place on my blog, and developed
my knowledge of using new media technologies demonstrated in figure 10 a
print screen of my scribd account.
 A screen shot from my
scribd account. This
allows me to convert
word files to PDF’S.
FIGURE 10

During producing one of my ancillary tasks although I was the director I was
able to use final cut pro in order to take a still image from my documentary in
order to produce and advert. This has broadened my use of new media
technologies as even though I didn’t take on the role of the editor I was able to
use the final cut pro software. Not only to produce my advert but also to
create my radio trailer. I did not only use final cut pro but in addition used
soundtrack pro in order to create a WAV audio file. Using these new media
technologies within this project has been essential as it ensures that we can
use every aspect of the media in order to put our main product out to our
audience. As the director communication was crucial as I had to make sure
that all interviews were arranged and organized efficiently. This means that I
would make calls in order to arrange appointment times. Again this is the use
of another media technology. Furthermore, being the director created an
email account in order to email all or interviewees and keep them updated
with any changes that may have been made. In figure 11 is a screenshot of
our email account.

Email account that was created in

order to communicate with
interviewee’s. (Using yahoo mail)

FIGURE 11
Using adobe Photoshop helped me gain skills in order to produce my
newspaper advertisement. This was testing although I feel I have had a high-
quality outcome. It was testing as it was my first time in using this software,
however with my hard work was able to complete the task. Not only did I
complete the task, but I was able to use media software to do so. Uploading
my final documentary to YouTube, and importing my trailer to sound cloud are
other methods of media technology that was used. In figure 12 shows sound
cloud and YouTube account. However when uploading our evaluation-
audience testing, the editor and I had problems as the way in which it
uploaded to YouTube was unsuccessful as there was only audio and no
picture.

My status on
soundcloud on my daily
plays on my audio file.

This is my YouTube
account and the amount of
views, and comments that
are given daily.

Additionally when producing my own radio trailer I used final cut pro and
soundtrack pro. This helped me in terms of variety of the software packages i
used as my role within the group was not the editor but I was able to broaden
my skills when it came to using them for my ancillary tasks. In figure 13, are
screenshots from my time line whilst using final cut pro, also testing the score
music, and sound levels on soundtrack pro.
 FIGURE 13

Final Cut Pro Soundtrack pro

During planning for my textual analysis I used another media form that uses
convergence, and this was channel 4od. This is channel 4 online where I was
able to analyze 2 channel 4 documentaries. This helped me develop my skills
of research and also helped me use online access to documentaries
previously aired on channel 4. In figure 14 is a screenshot from channel 4oD,
search page leading to the documentary area.

FIGURE 14

All of these new media technologies aided in the research, planning and
evaluation stages of this project and the production of my documentary.

In conclusion, producing this media product used all the codes and
conventions of real documentaries. Using ancillary texts, audience testing and
feedback, planning and research and consistently used new media
technologies all aided in the process of a documentary that uses
meaningfulness and visualisation which are both strong features within the
documentary genre. Working as group strengthened each area or production
and planning and as the director I feel that our documentary delivered ‘hard
news’. However there were areas of which that could have been improved
when generalizing audience feedback in terms of our creativeness with
speakers and constructing an even more balanced argument.