Evaluation of Documentary Forms and Conventions

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

Documentary
For our A2 media coursework we was told that we had to create the first opening 5
minutes of a documentary of our choice and two ancillary tasks along side it which
were a radio trailer which would introduce the documentary and a double page
spread of a magazine which would be about our documentary.
In order to create these things it was important that we had done a lot of research
into different things so we had an idea of what we were doing.

In order to create the first 5 opening minutes of a documentary, we first needed to do
research into similar documentaries to find out the common codes and conventions
that were used and displayed. To do this we looked at documentaries such as Super
Size Me and Airline.

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

Documentary
Camera Shots
There were many different camera shots and angles that were used in both of these documentaries that
we found useful to use in ours. One main convention is the rule of thirds. This is used a lot in
documentaries when interviews are taking place, this will show the interviewee sitting with an empty space
next too them and being a third of the way in a their eyes to be a third of the way down. We successfully
used this in ours as shown below. It enables the audience to get a better picture of the mise en scene and
things around them.

Super Size Me Our Documentary


Documentary
Camera Shots
Many other shot types that we found were used quite frequently were shots such as close ups, Medium
Close Ups, Long Shots of things, Extreme Close ups and some Establishing Shots too. We used many
medium close ups in our documentary so the audience were able to get a better picture of who the people
are and even their facial expressions and emotions.

Hand Held Camera
We also found that in the documentary Super Size Me, they used a hand held camera for quiet a few things.
Using a hand held camera heightens the sense of realism and can make the audience feel more involved
watching it. We liked the idea of a hand held camera, so we decided to interpret this into our documentary during
our reconstruction. This made it look like the viewers were seeing what the actor was seeing as well.


Documentary
Tripod
The use of a tripod during a documentary is vital for when someone may be speaking like during a professional
interview. This is because there will be no movement through when they are speaking and you may be able to get
it at the right height, distance and position you want it. We used a tripod in our documentary when interviewing
professionals, but also when doing establishing shots. We found the tripod to be useful when we wanted to do
things like zooming or panning as it was able to stay steady throughout, for example when panning across the
college.

Establishing Shots
An establishing shot was used in our documentary when we showed the college, and the people in the canteen.
We found this too be effective as the viewers were able to get a better picture to what was going on.

Our
establishing
shots.


Documentary
Voice Over
A voice over is commentary done by the filmmaker which will run throughout the documentary. In our documentary we
included a voice over, but it was hidden as the person did not appear on the screen speaking to the audience. We found
the voice over to be useful, because they were able to talk about what was going on and give additional information for the
viewers to listen to that may not have appeared on screen. Our voice over explained and read out our information clearly.
We found the information in our documentary from research we had done, so the viewers knew the research was truthful.

Reconstruction
A reconstruction is artificial footage that has been created to explain a
scene that may have happened in the past. It is usually replayed by actors.
A reconstruction helps to create a sense of realism of what‟s going on. We
used a reconstruction in our documentary which was based on a case
study we was given by the police officer. Our reconstruction was a young
girl who had been underage binge drinking, walking through a park alone at
night when she was raped. We found it useful to do this reconstruction as it
would heighten the sense of realism of what can happen to some people, it
may also help the audience emphasise with the girl.


Documentary
Vox Pops
Vox pops are commonly used in documentaries. Its where other ordinary people are interview about the topic of
the documentary about their views and opinions on it. Super Size Me cleverly used this convention quite a lot in
their documentary when they went onto the streets of America and into schools to ask them on their opinions of
McDonalds. We used Vox Pops in ours to ask the people of Solihull Sixth Form their views and opinions of
underage binge drinking. This worked well as the people asked were in the same age range as well and it would
also help give the audience a better insight to what other people have to say as well.

Archival Footage
Archival footage are clips that are inserted into the documentary without the need of additional filming. We
used archival footage well during the first bit of our documentary to show teenagers going out binge drinking.
This helped as it was real life footage so it adds a sense of realism.


Documentary
Expert/Professional Interviews
Expert interviews are sometimes used in documentaries to authenticate peoples views. Having experts talk about their
views and opinions helps the viewers to get a more factual insight to things as the experts will know what they are talking
about, they may also sometimes disagree and give a negative view. The expert interviews were used in both super size
me when he is talking to health care professions and in airline when they are talking to people who work there. We liked
this idea and interpreted it into our documentary and used a police officer, the college Chaplin and a health and social
care teacher as well. Like super size me, we also used headings to introduce them.

Super Size Me
Our documentary


Double Page Spread
Main Image
Main Image
Masthead
Masthead

Caption

Drop Cap

Stand First

Columns Smaller Image Caption
Stand First Grab Quotes Columns Smaller Image

This was our final design of our magazine article (above left) next to it is a magazine article from Radio Times (above right). As
you can see we done a lot of research into magazines and what are the main codes and conventions of a magazine and what
we would need to include to make it successful. We also chose Radio Times to be the magazine to publish our article.


Double Page Spread
Drop caps are almost always
used in magazine articles to
introduce the sentence. This
was used in the double page
spread to make it look more
like a professional magazine.

A masthead is always used in
magazines to give the title to your
article. It may sometimes be a quote
from the article of what someone has
We used smaller said or more than likely the title of
Date, time and channel is always
images taken from the documentary, if it is documentary
used on a magazine to make
our documentary to based. Ours is the title of our
sure the readers know all the
give the readers an documentary.
information. We sectioned ours
insight to some of
with two pink lines to make it
the clips showed in A grab quote is sometimes
more visible.
it. used in magazines to grab
the readers attention to
something. They often
include an interesting
A stand first is used in magazines to normally
quote that is already used
A caption of text on the introduce the article. This gives the readers a
in the article and make it
picture gives the readers better insight to what they are going to be
bigger, this is because
a better understanding of reading about. Its normally something short
they think will interest the
what the picture is and that will grab the readers attention.
readers.
what is going on in it.


Radio Trailer
After listening and analysing several radio trailers such as the Italian Grand Prix on radio 5 live, we gained
knowledge on many common codes and conventions that are used in radio trailers and took note of this on our
analysis sheet. The common codes and conventions that we found we used for ours to make it effective and
interesting as it was appealing to an audience on Capital FM.


Radio Trailer
Scheduling Information
Having scheduling information on a radio trailer is very common as it allow the listeners to get all the information
needed on when its on, what channel and what time. We used this at the end of our radio trailer by saying “Tune
in to channel 4 at 9pm this Thursday to really see how much is too much.” This gives our listeners all the
information they will need on when to watch our documentary.

Extracts from the Documentary
Throughout the radio trailer we used different extracts from our documentary, these included a clip of the interview
with the police officer and some vox pops form the students. By adding direct extracts from the documentary it
makes it more effective for the listeners and it also helps give them an insight to what may be in the documentary.
It was important for us to choose more up beat interesting quotes that the listeners will want to hear.

Music and Voiceover
We made sure that in our radio trailer linked to our documentary, we done this by using the same music from the
documentary in our radio trailer. We wanted music that had a good beat as we was broadcasting to a young
generation so it was important that they didn't get bored. We also made sure we had an enthusiastic voice over to
keep the listeners attention throughout.

Length of Radio Trailer
After listening to several radio trailers we noticed that they seem to last between 30-45 seconds. It isn't that long
but it is long enough for you to get your point across, and short enough so the listeners don't loose interest. Our
radio trailer lasted around 33 seconds, which was long enough for us to get all of our information across that we
needed to without making it seem boring.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary
texts?

Our main product to create was our documentary. We was also told to create a magazine article and a radio trailer that
would link in with our documentary as well. It was important that when doing the double page spread and the radio trailer
that we focused on how they would help sell and advertise our documentary to our target audience. Our target audience
was teenagers and young adults, we chose this target audience because we feel they can be known for being the worst
binge drinkers so it was important for us to get the message across to them.

Narrowing our target audience down, it will mainly be aimed at those who have turned 18 or over that may go on holiday
with friends for a non stop binge drinking week or even those who are younger who may be influenced by peer pressure
and society today, that feel they have to start drinking and they may become addicted to it.
We haven't defined our target audience to any specific race, religion or disability. With gender we have aimed it at both,
as nowadays each gender binge drinks. With age it is a younger target audience, but it can also be reached out to an
older target audience who may be parents of teenagers as we can show them the damaging effects binge drinking
causes.

We have chosen to broadcast our documentary on channel 4. Channel 4 is a channel that will broadcast many different
educational documentaries. We feel our documentary is of an educational topic that a lot of people who watch it will
benefit from. Documentaries such as „My big fat gypsy wedding‟ have had viewers of nearly 8,048,000, so it is clear that
our documentary would be reaching out to a wide target audience.

texts?

Radio Trailer
In our radio trailer we used clips from the documentary such as clips of students talking, some of the same facts that are
stated in the documentary and the same beat. By using all these same things in our radio trailer the audience are able to
recognise that these are from the documentary and will be able to make the link. The music we chose had a beat to it
meaning it may be more interesting to listen to and may attract the listeners more. We also had the same voice over we
used in our documentary as well, the audience will be able to make this link and combine them well. The voice over is very
enthusiastic which means it will keep the listeners more interested if we are appealing to a young audience as they could get
bored.

Our radio trailer is being broadcast on Capital FM. Capital FM‟s new Network isled by London‟s 95.8 Capital FM - broadcasts
from key areas around the UK such as Scotland, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, South Wales
and the South Coast. From this is it clear that Capital FM is able to broadcast to a wider population, so using this radio
station will mean our advertisement will be listened by many. The majority of the Capital audience are females with 58% of
them and 42% being males. 58% of those who make up the audience are aged between 15-34, which is the target audience
we are aiming for.

This radio station links well with our documentary that is
being broadcast on channel 4 as they both have a similar
target audience. I believe that our radio trailer and
documentary have combined well as they both share same
components like the music, voice over and clips.

texts?

Double Page Spread

For our double page spread we used one main image that is seen in our documentary and three smaller images that are also
clips from our documentary. We used the main image we chose because we feel it is eye catching and it shows the kind of
target audience we are aiming at. Using these images shows how we have directly linked it to the documentary so the
audience will recognise it.
For our layout we used a simple basic layout that is commonly used in the radio times magazine. The colours were basic, but
by doing this is made it look like we was portraying a more serious topic. By using a basic layout it may have seemed boring to
our audience and it may not have interested them to look at it, which meant they might not have been interested in watching
the documentary.
Even though radio times isn't really aimed at the target audience we were looking for, it still contains articles for all different
channels such as BBC 1,2&3, ITV and Channel 4 which was the channel we chose. So it still ranges to a wide audience.
Overall, I think that our double page spread was our weakest text and may have let us down a bit, because the layout was too
basic and may not have been something that attracts our target audience.

3.What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before we started our documentary we sent out a questionnaire asking our target audience about what they like to see
in a documentary. By doing this it would help us in order to create a documentary that everybody would like and would
watch. From this research we found out the channels they normally see documentaries which was Channel 4 and BBC
Three , we also found out that they like to see vox pops of peoples views and opinions and reconstructions as they find
them interesting.
After completing our three tasks we then sent out another questionnaire asking what people thought of our documentary,
radio trailer and our double page spread.

Documentary
We asked our audience ‘Do you think the reconstruction worked well?’ 90% of our
audience said it worked well with feedback such as „it was realistic‟, „the point of view
shot worked well‟ and „it was effective‟. On the other hand the other 10% felt it didn't
work as well with the documentary

We asked our audience ‘Do you
think the vox pops and
We also asked our audience „What do you think professional interviews were
worked well in the opening of our documentary?‟ 40% used well throughout the
said that the alcohol shots worked well, 20% said the opening?’ 100% of our feedback
archive footage was successful. 20% said that the all said they thought it worked
montage of images went well. Lastly,10% of students well with comments like „they
said the vox pops worked well and were interesting were interesting‟ and „it provided
and the remaining 10% said the statistics were good answers for questions‟.
as it gave them some information.


Radio Trailer
We asked our audience ‘After listening to our radio trailer would you watch our
documentary?’ 90% of our audience said that they enjoyed it and would watch our
documentary. 10% of the audience said they would not watch our documentary after
listening to our radio trailer.

We also asked our audience ‘ What do you think worked well on the
radio trailer?’. 30% said they liked the vox pops, another 30% said it
sounded realistic, 20% said they liked the music that was used. 10%
said they liked the scripting of the trailer and the remaining 10% said
they liked the facts that were used.

Lastly, we also asked them ‘What do you think that could be improved on
the radio trailer?’ 60% of our audience said it was good and nothing needs
to be improved, 20% said that we could include a few more vox pops.
10% said it could be a bit longer and the remaining 10% said the sound
levels needed to be consistent throughout.


Double Page Spread
We asked our audience ‘ After reading the article in the double page spread
would you watch our documentary?’ 100% of our audience said that they
would all watch our documentary after reading the double page spread
magazine article.

We also asked our audience ‘What do you think that we could improve
on the double page spread?’. 50% said that they would give no
improvements to our double page spread. 30% said they would
change the font and size of our text and the remaining 20% said they
would add more text to the article.

We asked the audience ‘Do you think the space was used well
in the layout of the double page spread?’. 80% said that they
thought it was used well with feedback such as „conventional‟
and „the images were used well‟. On the other hand 20% said
that the double page spread was a bit too spacious.

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

Research and Planning
For the making of our production of the documentary and our two ancillary tasks,
it was important that we done initial research into the topic of binge drinking so
we understood it a lot more. The first main research we done wasn‟t really using
any technologies, instead it was making story boards of what our documentary
could look like and doing things like mind mapping our first ideas

When researching into the topic of binge drinking we had to make sure we was
finding correct and truthful information to use. To do this we used several
different websites on the internet that we knew would of gave us useful
information to use. These were websites such as „The Guardian‟, „BBC News‟
and „Sky News‟. These were trusted websites as they always had up to date
news, so using it in our documentary would be relevant to today‟s society.

We also had to do research into what kind of channel we wanted our
documentary to air on, we did this by looking through several different channels
and what kind of audience they appeal too, after researching this we decided to
use channel 4..


Research and Planning
During the research we decided that we needed to look into similar
documentaries to find out the common codes and conventions of a
documentary and how the first 5 minutes of one may be structured. To do this
we used many different online websites such as youtube, BBC iPlayer and
4oD on demand.

When we had felt we had done most of our research and planning we decided
to upload it to our blog on „blogger.com‟. We used things such as „prezi‟ and
„slideshare‟ as different ways of uploading our work. It was easy to do as all
there was to it was making sure we had the HTML code. We found these sites
useful as we could use different ways of presenting them and making our
work look more interesting to read.

We had to click on embed and
copy the code from prezi.

After clicking „create a We then finally clicked publish,
new post‟ we clicked to where it would then appear
HTML and copied the on our blog.
code into the space.


Filming
After conducting our research it was time to carry out our filming. To do our filming
we used several pieces of equipment. Our main one was our camera which was a
Canon HG20 Camera. This camera was very useful when filming our footage as it
came equipped with all the technology we could of wanted like being able to take
still shots as well as video footage and being able to change the lighting and the
focus to how we wanted to.

We found this very useful when filming our reconstruction. As we was filming it in
the day our reconstruction may not have had that much of an effect on the viewers
with it being daylight. So we changed the focus on the camera and the lighting to
very dark so it made it look like we was being filmed at night time.

Throughout our filming we tried to use a variety of different shots to make the
documentary more interesting to watch. This was easy to do as our camera was
light so we were able to use shots such as a handheld camera, but also many
different still shots where we was able to do zooming in and out. We was able to do
still shots because of the use of a tripod. We found the tripod very useful when we
was filming our professional interviews and vox pops, because we were able to get
the right angle and distance on the camera without it moving.

When filming the professional interviews and the vox pops we needed equipment
such as headphones and a microphone. These were very easy to use as all we
need to do was plug the microphone and headphones into the camera. The
microphone enabled us to get rid of any background noises that may have
occurred.


Editing
After filming all of our final footage, we had to put it on to our apple Macs. We did this by connecting
the camera to the Mac and transferring all of our footage into a folder we had created. After getting
all of our footage onto the Mac we needed to transfer it to finally cut express, which is the
programme we was going to use to create our documentary on. To do all this we used log and
transfer.

We firstly clicked file and
then log and transfer.

We then clicked add
selection to queue, where
all of our selected clips
would be added to final
We then dragged all of our cut.
clips on to the log and All of our clips
transfer window. were then on final
cut express ready
to be used.


Editing
Throughout our documentary we experimented with different things we could find. One effect that
we did like to use a lot was a dissolve. The dissolve we liked was a cross dissolve. We liked this
effect because it broke up the transition between clips a little bit and made them seen more
effective. It gave a little break before going into the next one. If we hadn't of used any dissolves then
our clips would of just merged into each other one after another which would of been boring.

All we had to do then
We firstly clicked the was drag our dissolve
effects tab which was down to our editing bit
on the side. and place it where we
wanted it, which was
usually before text, or
before another clip.
When the effects
tab opened, we
clicked the dissolve
transitions box, and
then went down to
cross dissolve.


Editing
Another main edit that we used in our documentary, was creating a montage of images on top of each
other. This idea came from the documentary we watched called „Super Size Me‟. We found this too be
effective and something different from just having talking and our video footage as well.

Firstly, we had to
find all the images
we wanted to use
and then log and Clicking
transfer them like scale
before onto our allowed
final cut. us to
change
the size
of the
image.

Rotation
allowed
Anchor point
us to
We selected the image allowed us to
rotate our
we wanted to use by choose how
image to
clicking on it and we long we
whatever
then went on to click wanted the
angle.
motion where we was transition to
able to edit the picture. take.


Double Page Spread
For our double page spread we used many different editing techniques in order to make it look more professional.
The programme we used to make our double page spread was In Design. I was already familiar with this
programme as I had used it in my AS Preliminary task.

Creating a drop cap After we had wrote our This is what our drop
first sentence we cap looked like after
highlighted the letter we we had edited it.
wanted to make a drop
cap and went up to the
top tool bar and clicked
the button that shows a
drop cap. We increased
the size too 2.
After we clicked the
tool our grab quote
went into the text
Creating a grab quote Creating a grab quote and the text
was quite easy. We first wrapped around it.
had to create a text box We used a grab
and write what we quote as we found
wanted in it. We then them too make the
placed it over the text of magazine look
where we wanted it and more interesting
then went on to the and they are
toolbar and clicked the commonly used.
wrap text button.


Creating Columns
Another thing we found that is always used in magazines is columns. Columns are used to break up the amount of
text so it doesn't make the reader feel they are reading endless amounts of information. We decided to use three
columns on one page and two on the other.

To make columns we firstly had to select the tool that
allows us to choose how many columns we wanted.
After selecting the column tool and
choosing how many we wanted. This is
Adding an Image what our magazine text looked like.

To add an
image I had to I then went on I could then
click on this to file and place my
box on the side place which final image
which enabled let me open anywhere on
me to draw a the image I my double
box the size I wanted to page spread.
wanted. use.


Radio Trailer
When we had to create our radio trailer we used the programme called garage band. Garage band enabled us to
edit our clip for example cutting bits out and it also came with loads of soundtracks that we could use to put on it as
well. Once the radio trailer was complete we was able to export it where it would be able to play as an mp3.

Choosing the sound track
To allow us to see
the tracks that we
could choose from
we had to click the
button that had an
eye on it.

A selection of different
genres then appeared
which included tracks After clicking
inside. We clicked on on the genre
dark. all these
different tracks
came up and
we just had to
choose as
group which
one we wanted
to use.


Cutting the voice over
After putting our voice over onto the sequence, we realised there were some bits that we didn't want
and some bits that were in the right place so we had to cut them.

This was our voice over
on the sequence. To cut
it all we had to do was This red line would then
click in the place we appear to show us that
wanted to cut and hold is where we was splitting
down certain buttons to the clip.
do it.

Altering the sounds
Some of our sound
levels were not After clicking on track
consistent with the volume, these blue
others, so too make dots appeared. The
sure all the sound blue dots enabled us to
levels were right we move them higher if we
clicked on track wanted the sound to be
volume. louder, and move them
lower if we wanted the
sound quieter.

Evaluation of Documentary Forms and Conventions

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