1. By Ellie Hayden
Candidate Number: 3101
“Documentary film is a
broad category of
visual expression that is
based on the attempt,
in one fashion or
another, to document
reality.”
“To
document,
you must
become
apart of the
story.”

2. Research
Research
Before any practical work was carried out, extensive
research into documentary film makers was completed.
The focus was on documenters Louis Theroux, Michael
Moore and Nick Broomfield. From researching these in
detail, I was able to get a clear understanding of what was
required for a documentary, particularly from such video
clips as shown below.
Above is a link from ‘Blogger’
of just some of the research
conducted on the documenter
‘Louis Theroux’.

3. Q1) In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
The use of extensive research into documentaries has allowed our documentary to
become conventional. We have incorporated key features , such as interviewing
people to the right of the screen, something seen typically within documentary
making. We have also incorporated statistics, archive footage and voice-overs
throughout, once more conforming to the ideology of documentary making.
* Examples of this are shown on the next slide...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8QxZJZfU5Q - such links as this has
aided the development of research we were able to complete and allowed
us to begin to understand what was required to create a documentary
that sustained impact.

4. Q1) Continued…
This is a video clip displaying a
typical drink driving awareness
advert, warning audiences of the
consequences of driving under the
influence. Such video clips helped to
develop an understanding into the
emotive elements required within a
documentary in order to relate
closely to the target audience.
Challenging the codes and conventions of documentary making
is something that we aimed to avoid, focusing on such features
as structured interviews in order to relate closely to current
documentaries already made.

5. Q1) continued...Q1) Continued...
Interview 3
Interview 4
Interview 5
These screenshots are just a few
examples of how we were able to
continue the conventional themes of
documentary making. It is clear to see
the positioning of the people being
interviewed is predominantly to one
side of the screen, something that
appears within the majority of
documentaries. This is something we
felt was essential to achieve in order
to make our documentary realistic
and reflect that of documentaries
that are currently within the market
today.

6. Q2) How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary pieces?
Within my ancillary pieces, it is clear to see that the target audience is focused throughout.
Within the magazine article, the use of font styles and relevant documentary films evidently
relates to the target audience of the documentary: teenagers.
Such websites as ‘dafont.com’ have helped to
achieve and relate to the required target
audience, something which has been included
within one of my ancillary pieces.
Experimenting with fonts has shown the
importance of attracting the target audience
and sustaining interest throughout.
As a group, as another ancillary piece, we have create a radio advert about the
harmful effects of teenage driving. We used emotive narrative and background
ambient noises in order to appeal to teenagers and therefore create definite
impact.

7. Q2) Continued...
My ancillary pieces have enhanced the meaning of our documentary by the use of
emotive and effective language used within the interview within ancillary piece 1 and
the advert in ancillary piece 2. This helps to relate directly to the audience, by the use
of personal experiences and getting the audience to think about what they are seeing.
Such images like the one shown here from the
‘Think’ adverts gave us the idea to create a radio
advert of our own. Although the differences
between our ancillary piece and this advert are
visual, they both provide a message that
generates impact, something that was important
for us to be able to achieve.
Similarly, such adverts allow the target audience to relate to
and think about the risks of teenage driving, something that both
the magazine article and the radio advert portray. By relating to
audiences of similar ages to myself, it was easy to incorporate my
own experiences as well as completing extensive research in order
to meet the criteria of the audience, something that this video clip
successfully completed also.

8. Q3) What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?
The audience feedback process was found
to be of great success. We showed our
documentary to a group of mixed gender
teenage students, in order to get fair and
accurate feedback. We recorded the
feedback given and found that our
documentary proved to be of great
success, providing impact and making the
audience become more aware about the
dangers of driving. We also were able to
come away with some constructive
criticism, for example, one girl stated that
“the dialogue was too quiet”, therefore
this was something that we could take
away and improve on. The audience were
critical yet complimentary of our
documentary and from this, we were able
to come away with further improvements
to make.
http://ellie-
alevel.blogspot.com/2010/03/aud
ience-feedback-filming.html
This is a link to my Blog, showing
the video of the audience
feedback and displaying the
information we were able to take
away from this.

9. Q4) How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Throughout this process, various
different technologies have been
used in order to complete the
documentary. The use of the Apple
Mac computers, as well as hand-held
SONY digital recorders have been
the main technologies used
throughout, enabling the group to
be able to complete the production
of the documentary, using the Mac
computers predominantly for editing
and the recorders for filming
sequences and practising diverse
shots, something that was able to
develop as the planning and
production process continued.
Technology Used for...
Apple Macs Editing
Sony Recorders Filming
Blogger Planning and
Preparation
Paint Screenshots for
Blogger, Inserting
Pictures into Publisher
DaFont Supporting Pieces
Tripod Steady Camerawork
Digital Cameras Practising Still Shots
PowerPoint Planning and
Evaluation
GarageBand Group Supporting
Piece

10. Q4) Continued...
APPLE MACS SONY CAMERAS
TRIPODS
GARAGEBAND
DAFONT.COM
PAINT
POWERPOINT
BLOGGER
Above are some of the
forms of media
technologies that we
used when creating our
documentary. The top
three pictures are
personally taken to
show the use of
technologies within the
production process.

11. CONCLUSION...
Throughout this process, it is clear that the overall completion of this task was
due to the extensive use of research and background knowledge. This can
also relate to the developed use of resources within the type of technology
used, e.g. Tripods, as well as the develop use of time for planning and
preparation. Although group work remains similar from the AS coursework, it
can be said that the continued process of working together to produce a
successful documentary has resulted in significant teamwork and co-
operation, something that has been affective within the group. Although
sometimes the group struggled to come up with ideas for certain shots and
ways of portraying the genre of our documentary, as well as having some
issues with understanding new software's such as GarageBand, overall, the
success of the documentary particularly can be shown within the amount of
research and time that has been included, potentially leading to our
documentary being completed on time and to the specification set out.