Documentary

Radio Advert

Print Advert

Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or chllenge forms and conventions of a real media product?

Question 1

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

As we have been creating my media product in the style of a real media product we have only followed forms 

and conventions of a real media product and not challenged them in anyway.

Framing shots

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/one-born-every-minute/4od#3054909

Our product

The framing of the shots is essential to creating a real media documentary. As you can see from the two images above we have used the forms and conventions of a real media product. The channel 4 documentary ‘One born every minute’ has been framed to the right hand side of the screen look towards the left side; this is the same as in our documentary. The Interviewee in our product is an adolescent and has been represented as happy; she has been filmed in front of different images of makeup to show what the interview is about but the mise-en-scene makes the interviewee more upbeat as it links towards our target audience of 17-24 year olds. The channel 4 documentary is represented as being slightly more formal because of the topic of the documentary, therefore the mise-en-scene has made the interview more formal this is suitable for the target audience of the documentary.

Graphics

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-new-brain/4od

Our product

Graphics are used to illustrate to the audience who is on screen, therefore they are essential. Like the channel 4 documentary ‘My new brain’ we have shown who is being interviewed and what their role is, this shows there importance in the documentary. Because our documentary was fun and girly we chose to use pink writing, although we had to add a white background as the text could not always be seen, in the channel 4 documentary ‘ my new brain’ the topic is more serious therefore they have used plain white writing. We also chose to use a coloured text because our audience questionnaire suggested we use a colour that would make the documentary seem more upbeat. The technique of our documentary in the interview is a ‘talking head’, it is important that you make it clear to the viewer who the interviewee is so that the audience understand how they contributed towards the documentary.

Mise en scene

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/ninety-naps-a-day/4od#2920802

Our product

Our product uses natural lighting with a background with a montage of images that all link to makeup. The channel 4 documentary also uses natural light and its must be coming for the window located behind the girl, therefore they have made the framing slightly tighter has chosen to set the interview within a house as this must be something to do with what the girl is talking about.

Narrative structure

We have used a linear narrative structure, this is the most straight forward type of narrative structure, taking you through the different views on makeup.

Use of cutaways

Cutaways used in girls on the pull

Cutaways on our interview with an Avon representative (cheryl jones)

The cutaways are one of the most important things to keep a documentary flowing. Cutaways are key to the transition between shots they also help in certain editing situations for example when the question has been asked in an interview and you don’t actually use the question in the documentary, you would need to disguise the jump between the two separate parts of the interview. In our interview Cheryl is talking about selling Avon products so we have filmed her whilst she works and used this as a cutaway to show the audience what she does, we have also used cutaways of the makeup she is talking about so the audience can actually see the makeup she is talking about. This is the same as the channel 4 documentary ‘Girls on the pull’ as the woman being interviewed is talking about hair and her hair salon, so they have recorded her whilst she is in work and used those as cutaways. We have followed the codes and conventions of a real media product as we have used cutaways when and where they are necessary. Cutaways can also be used when a voiceover is taking place. And example of that is below:

Because our documentary is an expository documentary and not an interactive documentary it is important that the presence of the camera and the crew cannot be seen therefore the cutaways are essential in order to disguise this.

Voice over

Voice over script with corrections

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/ninety-naps-a-day/4od#2920802

Voice over in our documentary.

Voice over in radio advert

A voice over is essential when watching a documentary as it explains in more detail what will be happening in the documentary and what it is all about. We produced a script for both the Documentary and the radio advert. We did not challenge real media product conventions in anyway. The ‘Voice of God’ asked rhetorical questions as this a conventions used in most documentaries. We thought up the idea that makeup is a confidence booster and went along with the idea through both of the voiceovers, and used them in both of our voiceovers to link them together. We created the questions for the radio advert script based upon the original script used in the documentary. As our documentary is in the style of an expository documentary the ‘Voice of God’ is used in order to address the viewer.

Use of music

Use of sound

We used both Diegetic sound and non-diegtic sound throughout the documentary. The non diegetic sound was the soundtrack and the voice over as we had added these in during the editing process in order to fit in with the documentary.

The use of Archive material

Archive material was used as cutaways and it was important because it is pre-existing material therefore it is valid information. We have only used some Archive material and it was hard to attain, but we have used clips from music videos on you tube, as they were relevant to the voiceover that we had linked them to.

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

The Documentary, Radio advert and Print advert all include the title so that audiences will know they are all combined for the one documentary.

The radio advert and the documentary where combined effectively as the voiceover that has been used has been used in both of the products which allows you to make a link between them. The scripts used for the voice over are very similar as they talk about the same things such as confidence with makeup, although words have been phrased differently in order for them to sound slightly different. The radio advert is upbeat and happy, linking to the target audience and the style of the documentary. The ancillary texts are closely linked together as they both specify the same channel and scheduling on each, they also both use a slogan in order to be linked together by the audience.

Our slogan

The image of the girl with half make-up on and half make-up off shows that the documentary is finding out about all aspects of make-up not just the wearing of it, as it is not one topic because it includes sub topics within it.

                                                                                  

The print advert is for a newspaper because of the landscape setup of it, however it could also be used for a billboard advertisement if necessary. our advert will be placed in certain newspapers in order to attract the right target audience. The newspapers we will use are listed below:

The channel we have chosen is channel 4, therefore we cannot advertise on any of the BBC radio stations as they are only used to advertise BBC television programmes, because of this we have decided to use commercial and national radio stations that would be suitable for our target audience. The stations we have chosen will be widely accessible which allows us reach a mass number of viewers around the country. Will will also advertise our radio advert through local radio stations in each area (these have not be listed below). these are the main radio stations we will use:

In order for Channel 4 to fund other programmes it is important to advertise our documentary because channel 4 will need viewers, as they will be looking to sell advertising space in between the advert breaks therefore helping them raise money.

Our Radio advert will be scheduled to broadcast 7am-9pm and 4pm-6pm in the weekdays as this is a prime time for radio listeners. Our target audience will be listening to the radio whilst making breakfast, driving to work, going to school, doing the housework, driving home from work, returning home from school with their children or preparing tea. It will also be played throughout the day on the weekends in order to catch people at different times of the day whilst they are on the move. The listeners will use the radio advert in order to get information and also to entertain them with a range of peoples opinions and a catchy song.

Any form of Advertisement for a product is important as it allows the producer to reach out to the target audience in ordser to gain viewers for the programme itself. Therefore when advertising your product you would need to make sure that the target audience you were trying to reach would be listening to were you place your advertisment.

Question 3. What have you learned from you audience feedback?

To collect audience feedback we brought together a focus group, They watched our documenatray and listened to our radio advert, as well as looking at our print advert. At the end of the viewing we asked all the viewers to fill out a new audience feedback questionnaire that asked questions on what the viewer thought of the documentary. Thr group also allowed us to make any adjustments or any extra work that needed to be finsihed or changed on the products, therefore helping us improve them futher.

Audience feedback Questionnaire for The truth behind the slap.


1./On a scale of 1-5 (1 being the highest) how informative is the documentary?


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2./ Was the documentary interesting to watch ? (if not why?)


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3./ Did the background music suit the documentary and the interviews? (if not why?)


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4./ Does the documentary run through smoothly?


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5./ Was the sound in each of the interviews easy to hear?


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6./ Did you like the voice over that was used and did it suit the topic and the target audience? (If not explain why?)


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7./ Did the opening sequence catch your attention and make you want to carry on watching? (If not explain why?)


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8./ Where the images and archive footage used in the documentary suitable and used in the right places?


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9./ Do all of the media texts (radio advert, Newspaper advert and Documentary) fit into the topic that was chosen? (if not please explain?)


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10./ What would you rate the print Advert out of 10? (please circle)


1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10


11./ Would you watch the documentary after listening to the radio advert?


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12./ Do you think our documentary should be scheduled on channel 4? (please circle)


Yes No

Tally of Questionnaire Results 
Question 1 = 1-0, 2-8, 3-0, 4-0, 5-0

Question 2 = yes - 8

Question 3 = yes - 6, no-0, maybe- 1

Question 4 = yes-8, no-0

Question 5 = yes-6, no-2

Question 6 = yes-8, no-0

Question 7 = yes-8, no-0

Question 8 = yes-8, no-0
Question 9 = yes-8, no-0

Question 10 = 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, 7-1, 8-3, 9-3, 10-1

Question 11 = yes-8, no-0

Question 12 = yes-8, no-0

Pie charts of results

Feedback is essential when it comes to documentary production. As it lets us know if  our target audience would actually watch our documentary after listening to our radio advert, seeing the print advert and also from just viewing the first five minutes. One of the main reasons for this was that the editing was suitable for our target audience as it kept it fun and upbeat, as well as letting the audience know how people feel about makeup.

Whilst the focus group watched our documentary we found that our interview with Tina (picture above), had poor sound quality because the interview was in house of fraser and it was busy. Because of the way we framed the shot we alos had the microphone futher away from her mouth than we would have liked because we did not want to be caught on screen. If there was an aspect of the production process I would be able to repeat this would be one.

The audience feedback also confirmed our channel and scheduling time. Because our topic is one that would be suitable for most people we chose to schedule it at 8:30 just before watershed as our target audience would be watching teleivision at that point.

We then posted our Documentary, Radio advert and Print advert onto facebook to get a wider range of feedback from different individuals.

Feedback from people who watched my documentary.

We had very pleasent feedback from all of those who watched the Documentary on facebook. It was also good feedback as all of those whow atched the documentary where in the age range for our target audience. We also learnt that all those who had watched it enjoyed the documentary and thought it was a fun and upbeat and interesting to watch. Our feedback also allowed us to see were people thought things could have been improved, Amy griffith told us that the beginning rewinding part of the opening title was abit to fast, and when i looked back I agree with her comment.

Print ad comments

Unfortunatley we had one negative comment for our print ad , but we were happy to recieve it as we know that not everyone will like all of our products. The good comments encorouged us as they have mentions how it conveys the correct image.

Radio advert Comments

Our radio advert comments were also very encouraging as everyone enjoyed it. The feedback has helped as people have said the clips used in the radio ad were good and that they liked the ones that we had picked. This also shows that our target audience would watch our documentary from listening to the radio advert.
Feedback from audiences is extremely important to the production of a documentary, as it allows the producers of the documentary to know whether the intended target audience would watch the documentary, and therefore whether or not it would be successful. Like us, media orgainisations often conduct a focus group to test the documentary they have produced, this way they can get feedback on the changes that need to be made for it to be successful and more professional. The focus group is usually picked at random and money is normally offered in order for someone to participate in the group.



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

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


Video camera and microphones

The video camera allowed us to capture the footage for our documentary, Without it the documentary would not have been filmed. The microphone is also essential as it provides a better sound quality than the cameras built in microphone would, therefore getting a clearer and more professional sounding interview. We also used a tripod which helped keep the camera upright and steady for a clearer shot.

Stills camera

The stills camera was used so we could take pictures as evidence of our filming. We also used the stills camera during our audience feedback, to photograph our focus group whilst watching our productions.

Blogger

We use blogger in order to present our coursework in a fun and interactive way by uploading videos and pictures.

Adobe premier pro

At first I found using Adobe premier pro difficult to use because I had not used it for a couple of years. But once I got used to all the different tools I found it fairly easy to grasp onto and started to enjoy the editing process. it had tools that allowed us to add the graphic onto the interviews, to cut out sections of filming. It also enabled us to fast forward or rewind certain clips.

Adobe photoshop

We used photoshop last year, so I just had to remind myself of certain tools, which I quickly grasped a hold of using again. The polaroids of the celebrities meant that i was able to make normal pictures more like my own in a more creative way than just have still images shown.

Ice radio recording suite

I had never used the equipment in this room so it was all new to me, but once it had been explained i was able to open a new file to record over, set the levels, turn the microphone on and successfully save the recorded work.

Internet
The internet is one of the key technologies because without it i would not have been able to upload any of my work or researched into the topic i was going to study. the internet allowed me to get onto to blogger and also receive some of my audience feedback due to facebook.


Computer
The production work was mostly based on the computer, I used different software programmes, such as; microsoft word in order to make graphs from my target audience research questionnaire, I also did my running order on word. With out a computer being available at all times it would have been difficult to keep on top of all of the tasks that were asked.


Mobile phone
I used my mobile for many things as I took some pictures when i was out filming with it, i also used it to do some voice recordings. I also used it to video record some answering my target audience questionnaire.


DVD player
We used a DVD player when watching examples of documentaries, in order to prepare us for what our production would look like.


Windows movie maker

In the evaluation process I have also used Window Live movie maker. This programme allows me to make quick simple videos in order to show my evaluation in a more fun and interactive way. It also allows me to put on voice clips as blogger does not allow me to do this.


Over time New media technologies have developed over time, and because of the huge impact on us they allow us to experiment with them to produce new and exciting products. The technologies we have used throughout have been very helpful in our production of our documentary, without them our product may now have been as high of a standard it could have been and that I would have hoped to produce. The equipment we used was smaller and lighter to enable us to carry it around and easily put together.

New technologies have now enabled us to produce new types of documentaries, therefore meaning that older forms for example the very rare Intervactive documentaries are becoming less common, Because of the development in new technologies this method may still be used regularly.