Evaluation by Jessica Thacker

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product develops and challenges the forms and convention of real
media products as it has stricter convention whereas last year was variation this
year is repetition. The convention in terms of our product this year I used the rule
of thirds when filming the documentary The rule of thirds is a concept in video
and film production in which the frame is divided into nine imaginary sections, as
in figure 1. This creates reference points, which act as guides when framing the
image.
In the rule of thirds there are Points or lines of interest should occur at 1/3 or 2/3
of the way up or across the frame, instead of being in the centre. Like many rules
of framing, this is not always necessary or desirable but it is one of those rules
you should understand well before you break it, hence why I took them into

Figure 1

consideration before filming each interview.

In most "people shots", the main line of interest is

the line going through the eyes. In this shot, the
eyes are placed approximately 1/3 of the way
down the frame.
I used these rules when on set of the interviews
and tired to incorporate each rule when setting up
the framing to make sure this convention was
covered.
For the voice over I choose to use Andrew
Pooperwell due to the fact he has a well-spoken
and clear voice. He also has had radio experience due to working for the BBC so
he was very good to use for our documentary. The final cut of the vice over was
really effective over our documentary as he has a formal tone and an upper class
voice. It makes our documentary formal and informative as I have included facts
taken from the guardian and the government website. The reason for the facts in
the voice over is to make the documentary more relevant and factual for the
audience. Also it does not tell the audience what to think it simply supplies them
with the facts and allows them to make up there mind, and that is what the BBC
aim to do.
For our assignment the documentary was not the most important part due to the
fact that that was only the final component of it all. The most important part was
the planning and research as without that there would be no documentary as you
need to plan and look into other documentaries and conventions so that we
follow and keep to there rules. I got organised by making sure we completed
these tasks:
1. Brief, in which cutaways, speakers and group roles are clearly identified
2. Voice-over script (one per group)
3. Preparatory storyboard (one per group)
4. Documentary reviews (a minimum of two per candidate)
5. Audience research, identifying the specific target audience, perhaps using
online polls or Face book groups
6. Subject research notes (one set per group)
7. Other documentation, such as notes on speakers and locations, brainstorms
and weekly updates evaluating you progress
8. Links to a range of appropriate websites, such as You Tube for your
documentaries reviews, or the BBC Editorial Guidelines, or speaker articles and
biographies

All these tasks made the documentary what it was as if these tasks were not
complete then the documentary wouldn’t have been able to be up to decent
standard.
I kept to the conventions of making a documentary due to the fact that the
audience doesn’t expect to be surprised or lead on they expect to see a BBC
style documentary. This involves simple shots, a formal voice over, cutaways,
interviews etc. They do all this and more without persuading the audience by
trying to tell them what to think as they give fair and even sides of arguments and
let the viewer make up there minds for them selves. Also following the codes and
conventions of a documentary tightly it makes the audience feel secure and they
engage more with the topic as they do not feel persuaded to follow and believe a
certain views.

The main purpose of the documentary is to make sure the audience is focused
on the content and that they are well informed of key facts and information the
we the makers are trying to tell them. We will try to secure the audience in sense
that they aren’t going to get any bigger surprises. Predicable or redundant so
instead of thinking 'pretty graphics' they are focussing on content which is why
we haven’t used fancy titles or any fancy shot to confuse the audience.
The weakness that are possible in the sound of the documentary is whether or
not the editor decides to use the music I composed due to the fact they have the
final say in how it is all put together so they decide whether it is used. Also if the
sound onsite of interview is clear and focused on main vocal point as possible
e.g. talking in the background.
2. How effective is the combination of your main media product and
ancillary texts

I made sure that my radio trailer and news paper advertisement linked together
with the documentary due to the fact that it is all about the same thing and they
need to support my documentary. To achieve full support from both the radios
trailer will be played on the radio, this is a good way to promote the documentary
as radio is frequently listened too and is quick and an easy way to spread the
word about the documentary. Where as the news paper advertisement is eye
catching and intrigues people to look harder and want to know more. And is also
a positive way to spread the word due to the fact newspapers are still in frequent
use.

The radio trailer is produced on Havering college- HCTV. The making of the radio
trailer was quick to make due to the fact it is short and sweet. I was able to
record and put it together within a day and is very effective due to he fact it has a
real life situation feel to it and the audience feel like the are in the situation. Also
it has the date and time it will be shown as well as what T.V channel.
The news paper advertisement combines with the radio trailer and documentary
as it is again like real life, I have put the audience in the situation a lot of young
people face- being drunk due to excessive drinking of alcohol and giving
examples of the dangers they face. The newspaper advertisement is a simple
picture of a young girl after a night out lying on a bench passed out due to

Figure 2
 excessive drinking! This shows the audience how vulnerable to danger this girl is
and will hopefully make the audience think before they drink.
Where as looking at other news paper advertisements I can see that they use
other conventions as in figure 2.where they use a lot of big and bold writing to
grab the audiences attention and a small picture.

Where as figure 3 uses a big picture and small writing below and separate from the
picture to grab the audience’s attention. I tired to include both and in subtle ways to grab
my audiences attention. I done this because my target audience was teenage and late

Figure 3

20’s and I no that’s too much writing can be boring and young people don’t want to read
a lot of writing so snappy writing and a big eye catching picture is more for my target
audience.

I feel that both my ancillary task grasp the audiences attention in the correct way
although given a bit more time, care and attention I would like to edit them a bit more

Figure Figure
3 4
and tweak them up but as they are now I am reasonably happy as it grasps the
audience in the correct way and enables them to be put into that situation.

3.what have you learnt from your audience feedback?

When viewing the audience feedback I could evaluate my work I a critical way due to
the fact that it wasn’t just my opinion that I could see it was the audiences! First I wrote
out pre and post documentary questions this allowed me to see exactly what my target
audience wanted and expected to see in our documentary. I wanted to give the
audience exactly what they wanted so by doing this I could see that they expected the
typical codes and conventions of a documentary.

Basic question were asked as you can see in figure 4 over half of the people asked
were 16-24.

Figure 4

I also found out what documentaries are watched the most as you can see in figure 5:

Figure 5

We can see that stop and search documentaries are often watched.

I also asked 20 people to watch my documentary and fill out a short questionnaire and I
got reasonably good feedback from that there are always going to be thing that need
altering or improving as we cannot cater to everyone. Also we are still learning which is
why we do audience feedback as we can get a general opinion of people who have
watched our documentary and improve as we go along.

The positive feedback was nice to hear as it showed I had done something right but
also showed me that it wasn’t all a waste of time. The general feedback from the post
documentary questions we asked was mostly good e.g. was a non bias documentary
which is what my main aim as that is what the BBC focus on, also the voice over was
clear and bring the audience into the documentary. But of course there was negative
feedback but that goes without saying! I needed graphs to support the facts and figures
and also better score music but that they are minor aspects and will be taken into
consideration the next time I make a documentary.
 4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
I used many new media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages and without these I would not have been able to complete
this project. New media products play a massive part in the 4 stages
(construction, research, planning and evaluation).
So to complete the 4 stages I used fruity loops to compose my music, I had the
software at home with the appropriate equipment e.g. speaker and a key bored. I
made all 3 pieces of music on this software.

I then uploaded them onto my USB drive and then uploaded them onto
www.soundcloud.com this allows me to access them from my blog. I also used
www.scribd.com to upload word documents like my documentary analysis etc.
My phone also played a key part in the organisation with the group as we
arranged times of where to meet and discussed key topic over the phone or via
text.

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Also email was used to send or save documents as rather than printing out as it
was easier to send files over the Internet. Blogger.com was used to upload and
display my work this was a main technology as my work is accessed through
blogger.com. I used the internet for research as this is a big new media
technology due to the fact that so much can be accessed through the internet for
instance I used www.youtube.com to watch and analyse the documentary
analysis as part of my research.
I have learnt a lot through there new media technologies as I have learnt how to
use fruity loops and PhotoShop, I had never used these two software’s and they
worked well and I enjoyed learning how to use them. I learnt through trail and
error when completing the 4 stages and when using the new media technologies.

Another software package we used was Final-cut Pro this allowed me to edit out
cutaways that were unnecessary. Although this was a problem for the me as I
had quite a few cutaways but unfortunately many of them were unrevealing when
editing the final bits. Going back out and re-shooting more shots solved this
problem and finally I had enough cutaways to put the documentary together.

I used a variety of equipment to film the documentaries without it I couldn’t have

filmed, I used a PD170 camera.
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This was really easy to use and I had no problems what so ever, it was small and
easy to set up, it enabled to watch my footage back and also re-film if I needed
too. The camera a provided a brilliant and professional out come as it enabled
me to film at a high standard and made the picture quality a lot better than it
would have been.
I also used a microphone clip and this was discrete and enabled me to pick up
the sound better than if a microphone wasn’t used. It clips onto an item of
clothing and isn’t visible unless made so, I liked using a microphone clip and it
was small and discrete.

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I really enjoyed making this documentary on my own I struggled editing the

documentary but I gave that documentary my best shot an I am quite pleas with
the results! Although more time could have been put in, it was time I didn’t
always have; I am over the moon with my documentary its self and couldn’t have
asked for it to come out better, although the planning and research could have
been a little less rushed