A2 Media Coursework Part 1 Questions 1-3

1. A2 Media Coursework
Evaluation
Questions 1-3
Alex Breeze
5209

2. 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.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
Voice over
Establishing shot
Real footage of events
Conventions found in
professional
Archive footage/stills
documentaries.
Interviews with experts
Interviews with public (Vox Pop
views of the people)
Text/graphics
Sounds (Non- diegetic) e.g. music that has been
added
Visual coding (Mise en scene)

4. 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

5. 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.

6. Sounds (Non Diegetic)
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.
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.

7. Shot composure (Mise en scene)
Professional interviews
The shot composure was very important
to us and we attempted to follow
Interviewee looking common conventions when setting up
across the dead our interviews with the professionals, all
space 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
Wearing a lab coat for believable due to their knowledge in the
authenticity topic area.
Prop Skeleton. Used to show
medical nature of the interview. Graphic used to
Emphasises specialisation introduce interviewee on NHS nurses
screen. No need for uniform provides
voiceover authenticity
Computer displaying the
NHS stop smoking
website
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.

8. Shot composure (Mise en scene) Vox pops
Common background used for
our Vox Pops. Choice of
location was important as to
avoid large amounts of
background noise
Interviewee looking
across the dead space
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.

9. 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.

10. 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
One of two examples of an resources which emphasises the accessibility
NHS stop smoking advert. of the content.
These were used to try and
use a shock tactic to
discourage smokers. An
over the shoulder shot was Another example of an over the
used to capture the video too shoulder shot where we have a
make it look less like found student browsing the NHS stop
footage and make I flow smoking website.
better with the other over the In the documentary this footage
shoulder shots used in the was used as a cut away and
documentary. was sped up to provide variety
and keep the audience
interested.

11. 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.

12. Double Page Spread
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.
Choice of colour Change of text
emphasises the emphasising the
Title in block word
capitals word Full page Caption
image
Quotes from
documentary
Drop
Capitals
Caption
Photographer
Columns Page
Numbers

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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?

16. 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?

17. 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.