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

The brief we were given at the beginning of our media A2 course was to produce the opening five minutes to a documentary. We were also provided with the task of producing two ancillary tasks, of which consisted a radio trailer and a double page spread for a television-listing magazine. We had to conduct research into how we could open a documentary. Many documentaries follow different moods and conventions in order to get across the message that the wish to convey. In our documentary we mainly followed the conventions of a serious mood in order to portray the negative effects of drugs. We aimed mainly towards a pessimistic style as we felt this would appeal to the majority of people when opening the documentary. One of the forms of more specific research we undertook in the course was of Bill Nicholls documentary modes (2001). Types of documentaries that come under these modes are poetic, participatory, reflexive, performative, observational and expositional. The poetic mode is a very subjective style of documentary. In contrast the particpatory and performative modes are both very similar. This is due to the fact that both of these styles include the narrator of the documentary being part of the piece itself. Supersize me is a clear example of this as Morgan Spurlock takes part in the documentary himself. It is a form of documentary that can have great effect as the narrator can influence his own opinions. This form of style we used in our own documentary as we felt it was necessary for someone to influence there own opinions. I myself was the presenter os the documentary and I felt it worked well. Observational documenatries also known as fly on the wall use a hidden camera in order to record a sequence of events hidden from the people involved, creating far more realism as the audience can witness first hand. This did not fit our stylr of documentary as it would have been hard to gain someone who was willing to take part in a documentary so they can be exposed as a drug user. Also these forms of documentaries tend not to use dramatic music throughout. Finally the main style that is used throughout our documentarry is that of the exposatory documentary. This is gernally present in all documentaries as it is the general idea of all documentaries. The idea of this is it uses a narrative and a voiceover throughout. The topic needs to have a lot of research in order to explore in to the chose topic. This is the main idea of what our opening five minutes were about. Our documentary uses a narative structure throughout the piece as it appeals to the audience by persuading them towards the argument and by using there emotions in order to make them empathise with the argument you are putting across. Argumentation schemes that can be found in documetaries include problem-solving, history, illustration, and comparison. One that we thought was necessary to use in ours however was that of authority. By using this method we gained an automatic respect from the audience as it allowed us to gain views of people who have natural knowledge and first hand experience in dealing with the topic of the doucmentantary. Another argument scheme we used was that of numbers. By gathering statistics we gained a far more persuasive argument that can be verifeid by factual information making our documentary appear more reliable to the audience. The overall structure of our documentary is that of an enignatic code which is a problem that is discussed but not solved. This is the only necessary way of opening a documentary because if it is answered in five minutes the viewer will not be interested in what is yet to come also the argument will not be as persuasive.

Since the beginning of the A2 course I have looked at many different documentaries in preparation to create my own. I analysed many codes and conventions that would have allowed me to produce a succesful task. Some of the documentaries I looked into included Supersize Me and a Good Smack. The majority of conventions I picked up from the research into these documentaries was the use of camera. The camera use in documentaries is vital. The majority of camera shots that were used were close ups, medium close ups, long shots and establishing shots. All of these took place in interviews such as vox pops and expert interviews. In supersize me the most common shot was in fact the medium close up as it does not allow too far away to connote distance but not too close to feel to intrusive it allows for a comfortable feel for the audience. Camera use was also important in the documentary. Like in our documentary both Supersize Me and A Good Smack would often use a handheld camera in order to create a more intimate and hands on approach as though a lot of research had taken place. A tri pod was also used in our documentary in order to create a more steady and professional image when conducting establishing shots and interviews. We generally used it for establishing shots of the college and our expert interviews this way the camera was steady and would connote seriousness. Skills such as pan, zoom and tilt were also used due to the nature of the tri pod.

As you can see by the images above I have clearly followed the conventions of a lack of dead space in the expert interviews, likewise has Morgan Spurlock in supersize me. This means that the interviewee is looking towards the area where there is dead space and there is a lack of space between from where they are sat. Generally this is known as the rule of thirds as they are sat a third of the way in with there eyes a third of the way down.

Sound understandably is key when making a documentary. Elements such as Presenter, Voiceover, Background Music, diagetic and non-diagetic sounds are all used generally across documentaries. A good smack like ours uses narration however ours similarly to Supersize me uses both narration

and presenting. Due to the generic nature of our topic we thought it would be effective to use an opinion from the presenter in order for the audience to relate.

Background Music however was the main element of sound we used in our documentary. We wanted to use a song that was already well known however due to copyright laws we were unable to achieve this which effected the typical conventions to follow in documentaries such as supersize me. However we used a simple beat that could create meaning and a serious message, throughout our documentary. For this we used garage band. The research into our topic was needed especially so we could stick to the conventions of an expository documentary. Without research, this would not have as much effect as it would be based on pure opinion rather than fact. In the documentary A good smack the research is purely first hand which is expected as the majority of the documentary is fly on the wall, however in supersize me it combines both first hand facts with gathered evidence to balance it out well. Our documentary focuses mainly around research, which is what was best for us, if there was one thing we could have done differently it would be to perhaps gain first hand figures in order to increase the validity of our arguments and follow conventions set by supersize me. As you can see supersize me flashes up statistics using graphics on the screen in bright bold fonts. Our documentary decided to go agaisnt these conventions. Due to the seriousness we felt our topic upheald we chose against writing the statistics on screen and left it to the job of the presenter as seen below. However we used research from Home Office as can be seen in the clip as we knew that figures should be used in order to create a clearer image of the seriousness of the topic.

Special effects are generally not necessary in a documentary however when following codes and conventions of real documentaries they are often used. A common one that was used in supersize me which we chose to use in our own documentary was a speed shot on the title sequence when piecing together the word drugs. we sped up the shot of the tablets being placed in order to emphasise the amount of people that could be influenced by drugs on a daily basis. Supersize me uses this effect tp emphasise how much New York citizens walk per day. Both have effective uses and follow conventions of a documentary. As you can see by the pictures below this is how the respective documentaries used the speed shots to effect.

Print Screen From Final Cut We also would use the zoom on en establishing shot in order to gain different perspectives of different shots. For example I zoomed in on the college in order to show the viewers where the interviews would be taking place.

Magazine Article Our magazine article was produced for the television magazine radio times. We researched into various magazines in order to gain the best choice. We looked into both lower brow papers such as TV Mag, and higher brow listings such as the Radio Times. In the end me chose the radio times as we wanted to keep are article serious and straight to the point.

Normally magazine articles tend to have various pictures from the documentary but we chose to break away from the typical codes and conventions and chose one who picture from the documentary of the presenter and put it across the top of the article. This does not give a lot away about the documentary and we have used the text to portray the main message. As you can see from articles shown below our article does not follow the normal conventions.

A drops cap is also a common feature. I used this to follow a professional convention

The article will always be divided into columns as a basic layout tool.

A masthead is always used in order to drawn in the reader. It is common in magazines/ newspaper and will often be in this case a catchy line from the documentary or what the tile of the programme will be.

Radio Trailer Our radio Trailer we listened to many real ones in order to gain a good understanding of the features that are required in order for the trailer to be successful. Listings from five live, Radio 2, Radio One and Capital FM in order to gain different ways of advertising on radio stations. We chose a range in order to decide which would be best for a younger target audience but that was not reaching out to people who were too young.

Garage Band Print Screen: We mainly used background music and voiceovers throughout our radio trailer. We wanted the trailer to contain a suitable amount of information from the documentary so that the viewers felt as through they were missing out by not knowing what happens. We used background beats in order to create a dramatic tone for the serious topic that played over as a second track; this made it so that although the topic was serious it did not appear to bland. We also used a voice over that was the same as the presenter in the documentary. This would also give the listener an idea of what time the show was on and give basic information of the actual documentary, which is one of the main conventions of a radio trailer.

The Majority of Radio trailers that I listened to varied in length of times between 20 and 40 seconds. 40 seconds was the maximum time we felt we should use for our trailer, ours ended up at approximately 35 seconds. This allowed us to have enough time for basic information as well as enough time to make the documentary sound effective. By following conventions for specific times this allowed us to drawn in viewers for the documentary and not bore them with too much information. The radio Trailer consisted of many clips and short snippets from our documentary, this allowed the listeners to want to know what would be coming in the documentary but not know too much so they dont need to watch it. We used interviews, Vox Pops and statistics in order to attract viewers Overall We did stick to the main conventions of a TV documentary and I felt that we made a successful one all together as well. I felt we did challenge the conventions slightly when it came to not emphasising statistics more and perhaps did not make the most of transitions and speed shots however as a whole the documentary followed the main conventions of a typical documentary. The article did challenge conventions a little bit too much and if I had the choice I would maybe decide to focus more on keeping it typically as a normal double page spread but overall even the article was successful in doing what it needed too. Finally the radio trailer perhaps could have used more tracks and perhaps less documentary information in. But other that that it followed the majority of the codes and conventions of a typical radio trailer.

Question Two: How effective is the combination of your main product andancillary texts?
The overall main task was to create a documentary opening however with this task came two ancillery tasks. These were to create both a radio trailer and a double page listing. As these two products were intended to reinforce the purpose of the documentary and to sell it to our target audience they needed to link well together. Target Audience Our Target Audience was generally aimed at an audience of older teeneragers and even people heading into early twenties. Geranlly this would be aged between 16-24. We chose to aim it at this age as these are the groups that are stereotypically known for taking drugs and It made the most sense to aim the documentary towards this age group. The documentary appeals to both males and females and gernally to lower brow audiences as it would stereotypically be more relatable to them. Generally the documentary can not be defined by demographics as there are few that it fits into. Location will appeal to many as Birmingham is seen to be a stereotypically working class City therefore once again it will appeal to lower classes due to the nature of where the location of the documentary is.

Based on how the products appeal to the target audience, this determines wether the products are combined in a succesful way. Both the article and the trailer use clips/segments from the documentary therefore this shows clear links between the two tasks.

Radio Trailer In the radio Trailer we used clips from my documentary in order to emphasise what the documentary is and to sell it well to the listeners. Some of the features that I have included are Interview segments, Vox Pop clips and Narration Statistics. Each of the elements that I have included in both will be easily ben seen by the viewer/listener of these products and will be clearly relatable to the public. If the public can clearly see the link between the two then it shows that the products are extremely succesful. We did use different background music in both however both beats were dramatic and had the same effect. The use of different tracks does also ensure that the same sort of beat was not getting to old for the listener and does mix it up for the listeners. The radio trailer does clearly sell the documentary in my opinion and does appeal to our target audience. We chose to have our trailer on radio 1 as it is a station aimed at a younger generation and also reaches out nation wide. It clearly links in well due to the simple fact that our documentary is on BBC3 therefore it is the perfect station to advertise our documentary. This was the last survey based around BBC radio 1 accosring to the website http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php This clearly shows the success of the BBC Radio 1 station as an individual station in comparisson to Capital FM the other station I could have chosen.

The above charts clearly show that of the two stations shown, BBC radio 1 not only links nicely to my TV channel, as they are by the same provider, but it also has the majority share of the station frequency and the most listeners. Therefore it was a wise choice to use this station. The Following quote expresses the aims of BBC Radio 1 The remit of Radio 1 is to entertain and engage a broad range of young listeners with a distinctive mix of contemporary music and speech. Its target audience is 15-29 year olds and it should also provide some programming for younger teenagers. It should offer a range of new music, support emerging artists especially those from the UK and provide a platform for live music. News, documentaries and advice campaigns should cover areas of relevance to young adults

The quote above clearly defines the audience that BBC radio 1 aims to gain and my audience clearly falls into that therefore my products clearly all match well as my target audience fits that the BBC aims to appeal too on this radio station. BBC Radio 1 broadcasts nationwide which is very useful as although my documentary is set in one location it is clear that my message is spread across nationwide. Therfore again it is clear that my radio trailer and documentary link well together as the radio trialer can advertise nationwide and can gain maximun viewers for my documentary. Magazine article We used a still shot of the presenter from our documentary in order to put in the article. As there is a clear link between the documentary itslef and the article it therefore shows that there is a clear link that works well between the article and the radio trailer. The fact that the presenter is shown it automatically will be something the audience recognise as soon as they begin to watch the documentary. It is clear however that our magazine will not appeal to our target audience as much as our radio trailer will. This is due to that fact that the serious nature of our topic needed a serious magazine layout in order to gain a serious read rather than the younger generation seeing something that looks immature. The layour we chose was perfect for the Radio Times therefore we chose that TV Listing in order to gain the respectful and mature readership we wanted. However the Radio Times does have an older readership which clearly does not link well with our documentary and Radio Trailer. However this can be countered as the Radio Times has a large readership (2,280,000) which shows that there can be signs that the younger generation could potentially read the article. Therefore although it is a risk it is clear there is potential for the Magazine to gain a good readership and provide the documentary with good viewers. Radio Times has a range of articles for all different age groups however due to its natural higher brow and the age group that the magazine is naturally aimed at I feel that this part of the task was what let us down as we could have used a lower brow listings or at least opened the documentary up to a larger age range. Overall though the magazine was not too bad as a product.

Question 3 Generally we found from audience research prior to the documentary that there was a lack of people who watch documentaries. It was clear that we was aiming at a very neiche audience. This research we gathered allowed us to determine that we should target our documentary on BBC 3 as it would allow us to appeal to a wider and younger target audience. From the results of our feedback we managed to put together a questionaire to gain feedback for our documentary, radio trailer and article. Below are some of the key questions and results we asked in our questionaire and the results gained from them. I gathered separate results for my questionairre as I felt it would be necessary to gain wider feedback.

Documentary
Did you think the opening sequence was effective?
Do you think the Opening Was effective
1 2 1 0 8 6 4 2 0 Yes Answer No Series1 Series2

We asked the people surveyed if they generally thought the documentary was effective and all of the people we surveyed said they felt it was. This clearly shows that we have produced an effective product for our target audience.

Are the sound levels of good quality? As seen on the right this graph depicts the results of the audiences views of the sound levels. It is clear that sound levels need to be edited further as some people did not feel the sound was of clear quality.
Is the Sound level of Good Quality 8 Frequency 6 4 2 0 Yes Answ er No Series1 Series2

Are the voiceovers clear and understandable?

Are the Voiceovers Easy to Understand 10 8 6 4 2 0 Yes Answ er No

Series1 Series2

This graph clearly shows that other than one person, the voiceovers were generally clear and understandable. Clearly we edited the voiceovers well so they did not dominate the documentary or overshadow the music.

Do you feel that the documentary runs smoothly?

1 2

Frequency

Does the Documentary Run Sm oothly

The fact that all the people I questioned felt there was cohesion in the documentary clearly shows us that we achieved a good product overall.

1 0 8 6 4 2 0 Yes A nswer No Series1 Series2

Does it appeal to our target audience? (16-35)

Does the Docum entary Appeal to the Target Audience
1 5 1 0 5 0 Yes Answer No S eries1 S eries2

Once again from the results we clearly learned that our documentary appeals to our target audience and as the people we interviewed were of our target audience it clearly has more relevance in the results.

Radio Trailer:

Was our radio trailer easy to understand?

Was the Radio Trailer Easy to Understand
8 6 4 2 0 Yes Answer No Series1 Series2

The radio trailers understanding had mixed reviews. The fact that around 30% of people could not understand it shows that perhaps there should be better cohesion to the trailer so the documentary can be advertised far more successfully.

Would listening to our radio trailer make you more inclined to watch the documentary? This result shows that we made a successful documentary as it would make the majority of people want to watch it after the trailer. The main purpose of the trailer has been fulfilled.
Would Listening to the Radio Trailer Make You Inclined to Watch the Documentary
1 0 8 6 4 2 0 Yes Answer No

Series1 Series2

Were the sound levels consistent throughout?

Were the Sound Levels Consistent Throughout

We clearly had problems with some of the sound levels. Although the purpose was fulfilled through information, it is clear that sound levels needed to be changed and perhaps edited.

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Y es A nswer No Series1 Series2

Double Page Spread:

Do you think there is sufficient amount of text?

The purpose of the article is to advertise the documentary through the content of it, therefore by the text showing meaning and having a suitable amount of information in the text the audience clearly see the purpose of the article.

Do you Think there is a Sufficient A mount of Text

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Yes Answer No Series1 Series2

Are the pictures of good quality? The photo was taken as a screen shot from the documentary. The audience generally thought they were good although a couple of people did not like the quality of the images. Therefore maybe next time I would use better quality images in the article to appeal to 100% of the people.

A re the Pictures of Good Quality

10 8 6 4 2 0 Yes Answer No Ser ies1 Ser ies2

Do you think that this article would be appropriate in the Radio Times?
Do you feel the Article w ould be Suited for the Radio Times
8 6 4 2 0 Yes Answers No Series1 Series2

The audience did not all feel the article was suited for the Radio Time, therefore to some the magazine itself was too high brow for our article however the majority felt it was therefore we made the right choice according to the public majority who were surveyed.

Clearly there was a mixed response to some of the questions of the survey. Overall I feel that our products were a success as a whole. The biggest problem that was picked up throughout the survey was of sound levels, which perhaps next time I was to do this I would spend more time editing sound levels. Howevever the products as a whole fulfilled the purpose they were there for and the people surveyed agreed with this.

4). How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Research and planning

Our research and planning process took a great deal of time and we had to schedule this accrodingly so we could make the most of it. We developed our ideas using a mind map of multiple solutions for our documentary, which we put together in Microsoft Word. We then drafted up a story board of ideas which we felt were necessary in order to put together a succesful documentary. We made the most of the online resources avaliable to us as we felt that we needed to undertake maximum research in order to put the correct information in our documentary. In order to do this we used internet Explorer in order to search for statistics. We used Google in order to search for useful information.

Both of the above tools allowed me to access useful statistics to be placed in the documentary.

When looking into similar products to ours we had to make sure we could use other products to help us determine factors such as which channel our documentary will be on, or even who we will aim it at. We did this sort of research in order to gain features and ideas from documentaires that would help develop our own product. We mainly used youtube in our group to watch documentaries. We felt that it was a good source of information in order to gain documentaries similar to our own as many of them were generally to dark to be shown on television. However we did also look at documentaries from the BBC and Channel 4 in order to gain a more mainstream idea of what traditional documentaries can look like in order to follow conventions. Filming After our research stage we began to film the actual footage. For this we used a Canon HD20 HD Camera. This was a very useful piece of equiptment as it meant we could gain good qulaity footage that would be effective when it came to the editing process. The camera was relatively easy to use and we made the most of the zoom feature on the camera. This allowed us to get different perspectives of different shots making the documentary look extremely effective. Although at some stages we used the handheld camera as normal we would often use the tri pod in order to gain a more proffestional feel to

the documentary. This came in very useful for vox pops and expert interviews so we could keep the interviews looking as proffesional as needed. We was forced to use handheld when it came to fimling on grass due to the bumps in surfaces however it was extremely useful and was a major contributor to a succesful product. In order to gain sound for our documentary we needed to use a microphone and headphones in order to capture sound. This was vital as if we picked up too much background noise when recording the sound levels would have been no use to us. Generally it was hard whne filming outside due to wind and unwanted background noise however these problems were easy to overcome as a whole and again the equiptment was of good qulaity and easy to use.

Editing We edited all of our documentary on an Apple Mac. This software is easy to use as it is ready made with software that is easy to edit clips with. All we had to do was save our clips to the student drive under a folder with our names on. We then opened up Final Cut Express. From there we logged and transferred all of the clips we had into the software. This was complicated at first but after a while the software became simple and with help from the group we edited a lot of clips.

On the left are the majority of the clips we used in one area. Above is the step-by-step guide on how to log and transfer the clips. Once all the clips were converted the clips were selected and added to the queue to be sent into the document itself. In our documentary we decide to change the speed of one of our clips. At the start we felt it would look effecitve if we had a speed shot of the title sequence. We decided to incrrease the speed quite fast so that it would have meaning to the viewer. The camera was on a tilt on a tri pod so that it was looking down at the table. We did edit the speed on various clips at times so that it was not too slow however this was most noticebale and we felt it worked well.

As can be seen by the picture on the left we had to play around with sound levels a lot on our documentary in order to make them to a similar level. For some clips it was easy enough to move the pink line (as seen on the green bar) up and down. However for some clips we had to use the razor blade tool to separate the clips. From there we would edit the sound levels individually. The razor blade tool.

As can be seen in this picture, for some clips we decided it was necessary to fade the sound in. therefore this created an easier effect and allowed other sounds to be heard. A gradual increase rather than a sudden loud noise sounds far more professional

We also decided that we should add the expert interviewees name on the screen as a sign of authority and respect to their profession. To do this we had to click on the clip, click the control tab above the clip box then a menu would appear. This allowed us to edit the persons name that appeared on the screen. As seen on the right the name has been changed and it clearly shows the persons proffesion this appeared on the clip in the documentary with no problems. Now all the clips had been refined we aimed to focus on the transition stage of the clips. By doing this it allowed for a smooth and well planned

movement from one clip to the next. We chose the cross dissolve and cross fade however there was a list of many too chose from.

There were clearly many effects to chose from however we felt in the opening five minutes there was no need for extremely flashy or tacky effects, just keep it simple and it worked.

The cross fade was used in the transition of the presenting clip going in to the title sequence. It faded out the presenter in order to cut in towards the drugs being placed on the table. Overall it looked extremely effective.

The final thing that was left was to import background music. We made a roughly 5 minute long song in garage band on loop of just a piano and a bass for dramatic effect and kept it on loop. This was played a lot throughout the documentary. I then exported it as an MP3 and used it in Final Cut as the Backgorund music.

Below are the sound levels of the Track in Final Cut.

Radio Trail Our whole radio Trailer was completed in Garage band. However I did import clips from final cut express as MP3s and made them into Loops. The same principles applied as the skills shown when using final cut express and adding presenting clips. When imported into garage band the software was simple to use and was extremely effective.

Like the sound levels on final cut, they could be altered to fading in and out by moving certain areas up and down. If I wanted to emphasise a voice or make the music quieter I could simply drag the line down so it faded out manually.

If I wanted to repeat a loop I had to hover over the top right of it until a curved arrow appeared then I clicked and dragged it along.

We also chose to use an echo on some of our clips it adds an area of drama to the clip. This was a good effect. However it did affect the whole line so it meant having to change lines and moving clips around.

Magazine Article

The magazine article for us was produced purely on InDesign. The software was extremely easy to use and the group already had knowledge on how to use it. We took a screen shot of a picture from the documentary and based the whole article aorund that picture. We decided not to giove anything away and left it as a picture of the presenter.We left the background white as we felt that the basic colours and a black to white colour pallet would suit that of a radio times article. Generally we used a lack of the features on InDesign as we felt that we would keep the article simple and focus it around the text. We chose not to use image manipulation and purely used the basic features.

By using the Drop Cap we showed a basic feature of any magazine article and we clearly stick to the main codes and conventions. This opens the article clearly and effectively.

The other main feature we used was to edit the number of columns. This allowed us to set out our text in a neat fashion and to keep it looking in a suitable manner.