Max Fox

Evaluation A2 Media Studies Question One; in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

For our A2 Media Coursework we were given the task of creating a 5 minute introduction to a full

length documentary on a topic of our choosing. We were also asked to produce two ancillary tasks;

being a double page article and a radio trailer to accompany and promote our documentary.

We also did research into documentaries by watching and analysing different styles of documentary.

One theory we researched was Bill Nicholls’ theory of Documentary Modes (2001), this theory states

that attempts to distinguish particular traits and conventions of various documentary film styles. He

identified 6 different ‘modes ‘that are, poetic, participatory, reflexive, per formative, observational

and expositional. Most documentaries will contain more than one mode and may return to different

traits from others. Poetic is a very objective style and hasn’t got much relevance to our

documentary. The observational mode has a very ‘fly-on-the=wall’ feel to it and tends to have lots of

raw footage, without the use of interview or music. Our documentary was very different to this as

ours contained added music, interviews and a voice over. Parcipatory and performative have more

relevance to our documentary as it has the film as they include the film maker as part of the

documentary, in our case, the presenter. One example of Parcipatory would be Bowling For

Columbine (2002) as Micheal Moore appears in his own work to express his views. Some

documentaries containing the Parcipatory mode can come off as biased but we tried to make our

documentary as unbiased as possible so the audience can make up their own opinion on the subject.

Performative on the other hand is more on a personal level with the presenter/film maker, almost

autobiographical, an example being Super Size Me (2004) as he takes a personal challenge upon

himself. This would not have been a very good mode to base our documentary on as we focused

more on informing the viewer on the wider picture.

The expositional mode is most relevant to our documentary as it addresses the user directly with the

use of voice overs, a presenter or titles upon screen. Our documentary uses a narrative voice

throughout to ‘hold the viewer’s hand’ for the first 5 minutes of the documentary. It also contains

titles upon screen containing facts and figures

In preparation and for research I have watched many documentaries and the majority of

them will conform to the same conventions as one another. I analysed documentaries

such as Bowling For Columbine, Airline, and Supersize Me. We had discussions on which

conventions we would follow, one of which was whether for not to have a voice over

and/or a presenter. In the end we decided to use our presenter as the voice over to

keep a familiar voice connected with the viewer. We also discussed the introduction to

our documentary quite a bit, but we finally decided to follow the convention of having a

face paced, memorable introduction to ‘hook’ the viewer in. our intro contained aspects

of Supersize Me’s introduction as both contain faster than normal paced editing and

facts and figures.

The documentaries I analysed contained many conventions we wished to conform to in

ours. Some of these conventions came under the category of camera. Many shot types

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where used ranging from establishing shots (used often to show the setting), close ups (to help show

emotion and show detail), canted shots, long shots and medium close ups. The most common shot

during expert interviews within Bowling For Columbine was the medium close up, we tried to re-

create within our documentary as we believed it followed the convention and it was a good shot to

show emotion and the interviewees. Framing was important and we tried to follow the following

conventions;

1. Rule of thirds is used when setting up the screen

2. Looking room into an empty space

3. Suitable and comfortable background

Handheld camera was used within our documentary to make the viewer feel like they are there.

Lacking steadycams equipment made some handheld shots look un-professional so the majority of

our shots where using a tripod, this was to stabilise our shots and have professional looking tracking

and pans. Tripods were also necessary to get some zoomed shots as some days where very windy

and while zoomed in, smaller movements of the camera can cause the footage to jerk and not have

smooth movements. All our expert interviews were filmed using a tripod to ensure footage was

stable.

Here we have two expert interviews, the on the right being from Supersize

Me, we have followed the convention of introducing the interviewees to

show authority and importance

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We also applied the convention of filler footage. This was used as a way to keep the audience

interested and concentrated. We used shots from relayed footage to what was being said at the

time and the subject. One shot for example is when Paul Ashdown is discussing firearms within the

college and it cuts to a shot of police cars driving into a police station.

We also followed some conventions in

sound. Throughout our documentary we

have background music, diegetic and

non-diegetic sounds, a voiceover can also

be heard. The voice over helps guide the

viewers through the documentary and

keeps them up-to-date with what is on

screen with relevant information. It also

makes it feel more personal with the

viewer. Having voice overs is a common

convention within documentaries which

we chose to follow as we thought it was

very beneficial.

The background music we used varied in

volume depending on which footage was

on the screen. It rose in volume during shots without the use of voice, and it lowered in volume just

enough when the viewer needed to concentrate on something else. One example of this within our

documentary is during the title screen. The music is dominant while the title screen is showing, then

when the shot cuts away to different footage and the voice over begins speaking it lowers in volume

to a discrete level allowing the viewer to concentrate on what is being said. The voice over also

speaks clearly and simply to help all viewers understand what is being said. All sound levels had to

be monitored as to not have one part much louder than others. We had to balance them so the

footages volume was consistent.

Supersize Me, Bowling for Columbine and our documentary all contain primary and secondary

research. Airline is different as it contains no secondary research, all data is from the customers.

Containing both primary and secondary research is good as it allows you to present a large amount

An example of a draft for the script of the voiceover

This is one of the background tracks being made in Garage Band, the shaker lowers slightly at the

beginning to allow room for the intro drum fill; this has been done by altering the track volume.

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Here are two shots we blurred, the shots are relevant but don’t take the emphasis off the facts on screen

of secondary data in the form of facts and figures, and primary data, in the form of first hand, fresh

data.

Some special effects where used in our documentary, one example would be the blurring of footage.

We filmed some footage of people walking around outside of Touchwood shopping centre, we then

blurred this footage and displayed facts in the form of text on the screen. Blurring the footage helps

the viewer read the text easier and doesn’t take their eye of the text as much.

Here is our final double page spread for our intended magazine,

the Radio Times. We looked at the various

conventions magazines contained, specifically for

documentaries. We looked at different magazines

and went with Radio Times in the end, we look at

articles it had published and tried to base ours on a

similar style.

We have followed several magazine related

conventions, including;

Drop cap – Used at the

beginning of the majority of

cmagazine article

Pull quote – Part of the article showing something interesting

to pull the reader into the article. The quote is usual

something interesting or shocking to attract the reader, in our

case, we chose a quote that reflects the article

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We chose to display the time, date, name and channel which

the program is being shown on. His is because we believe it is

important that the readers know when the show is so they can

watch it.

Our radio trailer also contained aspects which conformed to

the conventions of radio trailers. We analysed a few different

ones advertising different sorts of shows ranging from

documentaries to sports shows. We decided to broadcast our

trailer on BBC Radio 2 as we believed it would appeal to the

same audiences of our other two media platforms. Our trailer

was approximately 30 seconds long and used sounds clips

from the documentary itself, it was just long enough to get the point across. It also contains music

from the documentary which will give the viewer a sense of familiarity. It also contains a voice over

to help guide the user and feel more personal. We adjusted the sound levels to make sure the

emphasis of the voice over wasn’t over taken. All radio trailers contain the time; date an channel of

when the documentary is broadcasted. We added this at the end of the radio trailer so it was the

last thing our listeners heard so they remember it better. Overall I believe that we stuck to the

conventions pretty well throughout all three pieces and didn’t challenge many of them.

We also decided to use a still from our

documentary as the main image in our double

page spread. This is common when documentaries

are advertised within magazines as it adds a sense

of familiarity.

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Question Two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Over all I believe that our ancillary tasks (radio trailer and magazine article) and the main task

(documentary) combined well and worked together. We linked the documentary to both the radio

trailer and the magazine by placing samples into them. We had stills from the documentary placed

into the double page spread and audio samples from experts and vox pops taken form the

documentary. This is gives them consistency between them and so the audience knows that they are

meant to be linked together. We used memorable quotes which where relevant and which the

target audience would remember. We tried to appeal to and reach our target audience across our 3

chosen platform (BBC Radio 2, Radio Times and BBC2) we did some research into the majority of the

audiences for each one and discovered they were roughly the same ;the majority where of the more

mature audience. This was good because our documentary is more formal and on a serious topic.

The radio trailer and the documentary go well together as the trailer have the same characteristics

as the documentary; it is reasonably fast paced and contains a lot of information. I believe the radio

trailer and the magazine article do a good job of advertising the documentary as they catch the

attention of the audience and give all the relevant information needed to be intrigued and view the

show. We discovered form our small pilot study that the majority of people watched BBC2 and

regularly watched documentaries, we used this information to help select our channels of

distribution .All 3 texts are broadcasted on things which are related to the BBC, BBC2 are obviously

part of the BBC and up to 2011 was published by the BBC.. This will reach a broader audience, and

repeat the advertisements to people who are audiences of all the platforms. I do believe we made a

mistake on the double page spread though, we should have added the Radio Times logo onto the

pages to enhance the fact that it was advertised in radio times.

Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages? Before and while creating our three tasks we gathered a lot of information, statistics, and facts and figures. Some of the main sites we sued where the Guardian, BBC.com, YouTube, and Google. We sued these to access stories on firearms and gun crime within the UK and the US, be it up to date news, or a previous story. One example would be the footage we gained of the Connecticut shooting in the US, this story is up to date while some of the facts we used were published in 2011. We also gained some of our statistics from trusted sources such as government websites. These websites allow us to download reports on certain issues, in this case, fire arms offences.

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I have learnt to use many pieces of software and equipment throughout the course while constructing the tasks. We used handheld HD cameras to film the footage for our documentary, we had to familiarise ourselves with the cameras first. Getting used to the key components like zoom and focus was important so we know what shots we could set up. We also plugged headphones into the camera along with an external

microphone; this allows us to record in a higher quality and hear what we were recording. We used the playback function on the camera to check to see if the just recorded footage was good or not. A tripod was also used frequently, after setting the tripod up, the camera could be mounted on it to allow steady shots without sway. It also allowed us to zoom and pan professionally.

While making the documentary we did all our editing within Final Cut Express on an Apple Mac, I was reasonably new to this software so I had to get sued to it first. After getting used to it though I was reasonably good and new my way around it.

Audio tracks Visual timeline

This browser allows you to

add un-edited shots

Tool bar

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Raw footage had to logged and transferred first

We also had to change the sound levels of the footage in Final Cut this could be done by

selecting this tool on the tool bar and marking points on the audio timeline, it could then be

adjusted up or down.

Added effects Added text

Displayed footage

This is the log and transfer window, it shows

you the footage on the right and the clips on

the left. Clips can be renamed accordingly.

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We also added blur to the shots in the background while facts in text form where shown on screen.

This was done by using the Gaussian blur and changing the radius of it.

The radio trail was made within Garage Band, this software allowed us to easily transform and

manipulate audio while adding musical tracks.

Audio levels Instrument tracks

Select instruments Timeline time

Options

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The double page spread article was first written in Microsoft Word as it is a good word processer. It

was then pasted into Adobe InDesign which is good for manipulating magazine like texts. It allows

you to add and change the number of columns, add and edit images, add lots of boxes to increase

accuracy and a number of other things to help in the process of creating a magazine. I had used In-

Design before so I was familiar with the software, I have used the shadow, and glow functions

before.

3-column layout was

selected and edited within

InDesign