The document discusses how the author used conventions from real-life media products in their own coursework, which included a documentary, radio trailer, and magazine double-page spread about the recession's impact on young people. The author analyzed documentaries like Super Size Me to incorporate conventions like interviews, establishing shots, and found footage. They also researched magazine spreads to include elements like mastheads, captions, images, and headlines. For the radio trailer, the author studied professional examples and chose a calm voiceover to attract listeners. While adopting many standard conventions, the author also challenged some, like excluding handheld camerawork from the documentary and mixing text and images differently in the magazine spread. Overall, the author aimed

1. Media evaluation:
In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge conventions of
real life products?
At the beginning of our A2 Media Studies course we were briefed that for the contents of
our coursework we would be required to produce a five minute documentary extract, a
forty second radio trailer as well as a double page spread based on my group’s chosen
topic. After discussing possible topics we came to the conclusion that our chosen topic
would be the recession and its impact of young people.
I was then introduced to the documentary theory ‘documentary modes’ developed by
American critic and theorist Bill Nicholas. Nicholas believed that all documentaries fit
into a certain ‘mode,’ or can have different aspects of a mixture of documentary ‘modes’
which are poetic, expository, observational, participatory reflexive and performative.
Poetic mode aims to stress a specific mood or tone in order to persuade the audience to
lean towards the filmmaker’s subjective viewpoint of the subject. Expository mode uses
a narrative voice over also known as the ‘voice of God’ to reinforce the views of the
filmmaker in the documentary as it strengthens their argument of the subject,
something noteworthy about these two modes is that although they are clearly different
they work hand in hand together in order to support to view that the filmmaker is
attempting to emphasis in their documentary. Observational mode is what the public
would most associate documentary with as they are used heavily in wildlife
documentaries. This documentary mode uses the fly on the wall perspective as the
filmmaker cannot interactive with the characters and can only film their actions. This
documentary allows the characters to have a greater sense of power that all over
documentary modes. Reflexive mode demonstrates consciousness of the process of
reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and
representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the modality judgements
they arrive at. Participatory mode is another popular documentary mode used in
numerous documentaries today and involves the filmmakers moving away from behind
the camera and becoming the subject of the documentary an example of this is Morgan
Spurlocks ‘Super-size me’ documentary. Performative documentaries stress subjective
emotional responses through personal, unconventional means in order for the audience
to create their own interpretation of the documentaries events and often
autobiographical in nature.
When applying these documentary modes to my own documentary I believe it
predominately mode my documentary uses throughout is the expository mode. The
reason why I decided to use the expository mode is because it is extremely popular in
professional documentaries on television and therefore by using a well-known
convention in our documentary will allow our documentary to mirror previous
professional documentaries that have used this convention and therefore will create
greater realism for our documentary prompting our target audience to watch our

2. documentary. The expository allowed the documentary to seem more factual as a result
of the statics as well as dates and figures we included. This documentary mode also
tends to be rhetorical throughout in terms of the way the narrative communicates to the
audience, in order to appeal to their emotions of the recession which overall it proved it
by very effective and allows our documentary to have a greater sense of professionalism
which we ultimately invite our target audience to watch our documentary. However,
although we predominately use the expository mode there is an element of poetic mode
within our documentary. My evidence for this is my documentary throughout aims
stress and provides a strong argument that ‘rising tuition fees are unfair.’
In order to ensure that my own documentary would be a
success, I began to research and critically analysis
professional documentaries. Some examples of
documentaries I analysed are Supersize me, Teenager
heroine epidemic and Panorama recession crisis.
I first documentary I analysed was a documentary that
revolves around renowned filmmaker and television
producer Morgan Spurlock consuming solely a McDonald’s
diet for 30 days. From watching his documentary I
discovered a wide variety of codes and conventions, I and
felt I could incorporate some of their conventions into my
own documentary.
From the two images present the similarity isSuper-Size Me Documentary:
evident.
Firstly the rules of thirds apply to both documentaries. The rule of
thirds is a principlethat an image should be imagined as divided
into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and
two equally-spaced vertical lines, in order for the image to
proportioned equally on the page or in this case the
screen.Another similarity in codes and conventions between my
documentary and the real life documentary ‘Super-size me’ is that
both documentaries have their characters looking into ‘dead space’
this was crucial to have in our documentary as not only does it
create realism but it doesn’t make the documentary seem pre- My Documentary:
structured and rehearsed which would result in making our
documentary look fake and unrealistic.
Moreover, from the same images it is also clear at the persona
which they both aim to create. In Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Super-size me’
to individual to revealed to be a professor at a university, the
documentary helps to build this identity as prop use of glasses have
intelligence and sophisticated connation’s helping the audience
believe that this man is a university professor. I aimed to display
mise-en-scene in my documentary also and did so in many aspects.
Firstly the women’s prop, an ID card immediately makes it evident

3. that she is a professional in the college and helps reinforce and establish her position in
the documentary as a mentor for young people. The use of the prop which got its
inspiration for ‘Super-size me’ aids in making the women look specialized and
professional which in turn results in the documentary seeming to appear realistic and
believable. In addition, the women’s clothes also aid the documentary is appearing
genuine as similar to the gentlemen on ‘super-size me’ they are both clothes for a
working environment which have a sense of authority and expertise which helps
reinforce the idea that the individual being interviewed is a relevant and qualified to be
apart and give input and advice in our documentary. Furthermore, the setting also plays
a vital role in establishing the believability of the documentary as like the professional
documentary my documentary has books, folders and leaflets stationed around my
interviewee. This again assists in making the documentary seem realistic as the use of
books in the background aid the interviewee once again to seem professional and
qualified to be in this documentary which helps the documentary seem authentic which
will appeal to our target audience, enticing them to watch our documentary.
My Documentary:
I also decided to use an establishing shot of the college, I
decided to do this as it was a convention I found in all of
the documentaries I had critically analyzed and research
and seemed only logical to have a familiar convention in
my documentary so that the audience can relate this
documentary to previous documentaries they had
watched. The use of the establishing shot will also help set
the scene for my documentary and is useful as it helps
My Documentary:
breaks the sections between my interviews and
voiceovers
My documentary has a presenter, I found this a relevant
convention to use because when I watched ‘Super-size
me’ I found the presenter to be welcoming and friendly.
I believed that if my documentary used the same
approach it could improve my documentary
significantly as the warm, hospitable approach will
entice and invite my target audience to watch my
documentary which will increase the number of rating
my documentary achieves resulting in my documentary
becoming a success.

4. However, one way in which my documentary challenges
codes and conventions are that in Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Super
–size me’ a hand held camera is used. I decided not use a
hand held camera in my documentary for various reasons
firstly, when I researched why hand held camera are used I
discovered that they are predominately used to make the audience see the events of the
documentary through the events of the main character. Or they can be used to reveal
the character’s feelings for example fear. Initially I thought of possible ways in which I
could use the hand held camera in my documentary but when reviewing my storyboard
and the way I wanted to shoot the documentary I decided it would not be relevant for
my documentary and therefore decided to leave it out as I thought it would neither
benefit or improve my documentary.
My Documentary:
The most obvious convention to use in my
documentary is the interviews. Our interviews were
spilt between young people and experienced
professionals which is similar to the way ‘Super- size
me’ filmed their documentaries as throughout it was a
mix between McDonald enthusiast and experienced
food expertise. Firstly, a for my research and watching
documentaries in my own time it is clear that the
mainstream of documentaries have interviews, I felt
that this code and convention had to be used and
should not be ignored as it may alienation our target
audience because without interviews that
documentary may seem amateurish and ill thought of.
I decided to mirror ‘super-size me’ me interviewing
two sets of groups, one group affected by the topic –
the recession and the other giving advice on how to
combat and resolve the problem. I decided to shoot the documentary in this way so that
so the target audience can get both sides of the subject. Nevertheless, on way it which
my documentary’s interviews challenge codes and conventions are that for all of the
students I interviewed they were all males. If given the opportunity to create another
documentary I would alter this as I believe there should be a mix of both male and
female students in order to display that this is a problem for all young people regularly
of their gender in order to seem not biased and focuses solely on one side of the
argument.

5. Another convention we used which once again used and developed media codes and
conventions was the use of found footage. I decided to use found footage because I
believed it to be a useful way of splitting my documentary away from my interviews and
presenter as using solely these two conventions could make my target audience feel
bored and they would therefore lose interest in my documentary. However, the use of
the found footage gives my target audience something new to look at and will maintain
my target audiences’ interest and attention on my documentary. My found footage was
used to give statics and illustrations of the recession; I believe the statics used through
my found footage will benefit my documentary as these will make my documentary
appear more professional and will therefore draw not only my target audience to watch
my documentary but also others who are interested in watching a professional, well
explorer topic which are affecting people across the UK.
Another convention I used and paid particular interest to when construction my
documentary was sound. From my research I discovered sound fell into certain
categories such as background music, presenter, voiceover, diegetic and non-diegetic. I
decided to use background music as from the documentaries (Super-size me and
Teenager Heroin addiction) I discovered that they both use background music. The
background can also benefit the documentary as the type of music used can portray the
style of the documentary, for example in ‘Teenager Heroin addiction’ the music was
heavy and fast paced in order to depict the sinister and evil aspects of drug use. For our
documentary we used soft music, we did this particularly in the opening of our
documentary as we wanted music that would be appealing to our target audience and
invite them to watch and continue to watch my documentary in addition, my evidence
that soft music will appeal to my target audience is through my questionnaire.
I also decided to use special effects in my documentary, I first decided to use special
effects because I discovered they were used heavily in super-size me and therefore I
wanted my documentary to be just as good as the documentary I am basing it on. I
numerous special effects in my documentary, some examples include a cross dissolve.
The cross dissolve allowed me to create a slight gap between interviews, the presenter
and voiceover which made sure that my documentary was not just a block of text
without any gaps which made sure boredom did not occur to the audience.

6. Magazine Double Page Spread:
Thesecond piece of my coursework was to
produce a double page spread magazine article
revolving around my topic- the recession. Once again I researched and critically
analysed magazines double page spread articles in order to gain an understanding of
them. From this I discovered a variety of codes and conventions which I planned to
instrument in my own documentary. The first convention I used in my doublepage
spread was the masthead. The masthead is a crucial part of not double page spreads but
many types of publications such as newspapers and leaflet. The masthead acts as a title
and also gives information on the topic it is based on.
Another code and convention I used was
the drop caption, I decided to use this as
it was on all of the double page spreads i
analysed and would aid in making my
double page spread seem more professional.
I decided to use a pull quote as once again
it was in all of the magazine articles I
analysed plus it is a way of getting the
attention of my target audience as it is
something that is affecting them which
therefore my appeal and attract them to reader my article.
We also used images all of students in a college
environment, I did this because of target audience are
predominately students and will be in a similar college
as this on and will therefore attract them to read about a
topic that is affecting them.

7. I also decided to display the time; date and
channel the documentary would be
broadcasted. I decided to use this convention
as without it our target audience would not
know when or where to watch our
documentary and it therefore crucial to the
success of our documentary.
Moreover, I used headlines, due to the
fact they were in every double page
spread I analysed. This was useful as it
gave who give the target audience
information on the topic our
documentary was about.
However, one way in which my magazine double page spread differs from other double
page spreads is the layout. Coventionally the layout would be a large image that reflects
the topic on the left hand side of the page and text on the right hand side on the page. I
chose to ignore this covention and have a greater mixture of text and images because I
felt using only one image would seem ameturish and rushed but using more that one
would show that I had put thoght and effort into it plus, this allowed me to have a
greater amount of text on both pages as this is a topic that must have great detail in it as
it is a wide and extensive topic.

8. Radio trailer:
Before contruction my radio trailer I watched a variety of
professional ones in order to gain an understaning of them
and filled out my findings on my ‘radio trail analysis’ grid.
Although my topic is a
serious one affecting
many people in the UK I
did not want to have a
grim voiceover as this
will be an unattractive
quality and may lead to
our target audience not
watching our documentary. Therefore I decided to use a calm, relaxed voiceover, as the
audience can recieve all of the information about my documentary and a more
composed voiceover will seem more appealing and make the radio trailer and the
documentary seem more professional prompting my target audience to watch the
documentary which will led to it becoming a success.
I also mentioned the time, date and channel of my documentary, due to that fact that
this is the most common convention used in radio trailers and would therefore only
seem logical to have it in our radio trailer. This is important to have in our radio trailer
as without it my target audience would not know when to watch our documentary.
Overall, i believe I used numerous codes and coventions of documentary, radio trail and
double page articles and although at times I also challenged them i still believe this not
only aided but improved my coursework pieces and will lead to them becoming a
success with my target audience.

9. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillarly texts?
Along with my television documentary I also produced a radio trailer along with a
double page spread magazine article. The finally two coursework units were contructed
to help sell and advertise my television documentary, and therefore it was crucial that
they blended and worked well together. Our target audience for my documentary is
males and females as the recession will ultimately affected everyone regardless of their
gender. In terms of age I am targeting an age range of 18-25 as this is the age who I feel
will be affected by the rising university tuition fees and rising youth unemployment due
to the recession. My target audience’s social class will be stationed on the C2/D border
line as these are the two classes who will feel the full force of the recession and the
affects that have followed. When discusing lifestyle we discovered through research that
young people have an interest in music, going to the gym and cinema. We decided to
incorprate some of this in our documentary in order to display the problems our target
audience are having in managing their fiances and being unable to do the things they
enjoy due to the recession.
My radio trailer consisted of our footage from our
documentary and both contain similar aspects such as
revealing facts, young peoples and experienced
professionals opinions, ways to resolve the recession
and the impact the recession has had on our society e.g.
rise in crime, unemployment and tuition fees, it is for
this reason that I believe they link and blend well together as they both convey the same
message throughout. In addition I also used the same background music and voiceover,
this will definitely create a strong relation between the two mediaproducts and help
create a musical slogan. Having the same background music and voiceover on both
media products will help my target audience remember my documentary due to the
beat they hear on my radio trailer.
I decided that my radio trailer should be on radio 4 as from my discussion with my
target audience through focus groups I discovered that it is a popular radio station with
them. My other evidence that radio 4 would be the ideal radio station to promote my
radio trailer is because on average radio 4 capture 10.83 million of our target audience
every week. Due to the popularity radio 4 has with our target audience I believe that
once our target audience listens to our radio trailer they will then be enticed to watch
our documentary on channel 4.
The magazines article on the uses the image of a student, I did this to show the audience
of someone they will expect to see and hear in the documentary. I felt this links the
documentary well with the magazine article as it directly shows something that the

10. audience will see when they watch it. However, I felt the magazine double page spread
does not appeal to my target audience as much as my radio trailer as it was a lot harder
to build a relationship between it and my documentary, something I would change if I
had the opportunity to do it again.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
In order to gain feedback on all of my media products I conducted a small scale pilot
study through the use of a questionnaire and get it to 20 individuals, and posed the
following questions:
Feedback for my documentary:
The results from this questions
show that a large percentage of
Were The Sound Levels Consistent
the 20 individuals that took part
30% in this small scale study pilot felt
that the sound levels were
Yes consistent. I paid particular
No emphasis on this as it was an
important part of the
documentary. However the
remaining 30% felt it was not
70%
consistent, this is useful
information to know and can aid
me if I had the opportunity to
create another documentary.
From the results it is evident that
Can You Hear All Of The Dialogue a large percentage agrees that
they can hear the sound dialogue
15%
Clearly clearly. I am satisfied with this
85% result as it shows a large majority
Yes
are pleased with the sound which
No I focused on heavily when
constructing the documentary.

11. Does The Documentary Flow? I am very pleased with the results of
this question as it evidently shows
that my documentary was a success
with my target audience which was
Yes the purpose of its creation.
No
100%
Are all Of The Interviews Relevant
To The Topic Of TheDocumentary This question shows that a
19% large proportion of the people
who completed my
questionnaire believed that my
Yes interviews were relevant to the
No documentary, this was very
important to get right because
if it were not my documentary
could have suffered and may
81%
have led to it becoming a
failure
Does The Music Suit The
Documentary
11% This was a crucial to achieve as
Yes it is a key convention of
No documentaries, from the
results it is evidence that my
89%

12. documentary is successful in accomplishing this.
This was the most vital
How Successful Would You Say The question to get a positive result
Documentary Is? 60% 20% on due to the fact that this
question determined whether
10% 8% my target audience felt my
documentary was a success.
2%
From the results it is clear my
Very Successful documentary was a success
Successful and it did appeal to my target
OK audience which was the
Just About purpose of its creation
Not At All
The editing was another
How Successful Would You Say The crucial convention to master
and be performed correctly
Editing Is? 89% 15% 10% in order for my
documentary to have a
Very
Successful professional appearance.
Successful From the results I feel I
achieved this which
OK
strengths the previous
evidence that my
documentary was a success

13. Feedback for my radio trailer:
Were The Sound Levels Consistent The sounds levels were a top
31% priority to get correct as the
audience can only hear the
content on the radio which
Yes
No was therefore extremely
important to get it right in
order to make our radio
trailer a success, which from
69% the questionnaire results
evidently shows we did.
How Successful Would You Say The When constructing the
Editing Is? radio trailer I paid
75% 15% 10% particular concentration to
Very the editing. I did this
Successful
Successful
because from my research
into radio trailers I
OK discovered that the editing
had to be strong in order
for the radio trailer to be
successful. From the
results it is evident that
my target audience
believed my radio trailer’s editing to be strong which therefore shows that my radio
trailer overall was strong and successful.
Does The Radio Trailer Flow From the results
shown it is evident
15% that a large
majority of my
target audience
Yes believed my radio
No trailer did flow and
evidently
demonstrates that
75%

14. it was a success. Although 15% of my target audience believed it did not flow this is only
a small percentage and the 75% outweighs this small minority greatly. This shows that
overall my target audience believed my radio trailer was successful in blending and
flowing together.
From the results shown it
How Successful Would You Say The is evidently that in a
certain degree my target
Radio Trailer Is? audience did believe my
radio trailer to be
successful however, it is
evident that they believe
there is room for
Very Successful
improvement. If given the
Successful
opportunity to construct
OK the radio trailer again I
Just About would put my emphasis
Not At All on the radio trailer in
order to ensure a greater
level of a successful rating from my target audience.
Feedback for my magazine double page spread:
Did The Language Fit The Style Of When researching double
page spread articles I
The Magazine Article discovered that the language
80% 15% used is very important in
attempting the lure and
5% entice your target audience
Very Successful
to watch your documentary.
Successful From the results I believe it
OK is evident that my target
audience do find the
language used suitable which
will in turn attract them to
watch my documentary as

15. Does The Images Used Support The
Style/Genre Of The Documentary ultimately make it a success.
It was very important to
stress the genre and the style
Yes No of the documentary in the
magazine double page spread
95% 5%
in order for my target
audience to be appealed to
watch the documentary and
from the results it clearly
shows that I achieved this.
However, we did receive
feedback in ways that we could have improved the use the double page spread through
use of images which was ‘using experienced professionals not only young people’
although young people are a main focus point of my documentary it also focuses on
experienced professionals also therefore, if given the chance to attempt to reconstruct
my double page spread I would add images experienced professionals to strengthen my
magazine article and ensure of wider range of my target audience and others audiences
watch my documentary.
How Successful would you rate the From the results it is clear
75% that are large proportion of
magazine article
my target audience believed
20%
my magazine double page
5% spread was successful in its
Very successful message to appeal them to
Successful watch the magazine.
OK
Not at all
After Reading The Magazine Article
Would You Watch The Documentary From the results it is evident
that the majority of my target
audience would watch my
documentary after reading my
Yes No
double page spread this was
the main purpose of the
98%
2%

16. creation of the double page spread and clearly demonstrates the it was a overwhelming
success. Although 2% of my target audience would not watch the documentary this is
useful information because I can use their criticism and make sure I do not make the
same mistake again if I have the opportunity to produce another double page spread.
Overall this 2% in a small minority and does not have much effect on the overall success
of my double page spread.
To conclude I believe all the results show that all three of my media products were
successful and I have also received constructive criticism which I can use to my benefit
if given a chance to produce any or all three of the media products again.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
Research and planning was critical in order form my construct a successful television
documentary as well as a radio trailer and double page spread. Although I would later
use media technologies I began simply using paper and plotting ideas for my
documentary. I did this through the use of mind maps and by creating a storyboard to
depict the events of my documentary. Once my topic was selected and how I would go
about depicting my documentary I began to research my topic. I first began about doing
this by using a variety of newspapers and article websites such as BBC, The Guardian,
The Daily telegraph, The Times and The Sunday Times through the use of the internet.
These websites were extremely beneficial for our research and planning into the
recession and it gave me facts, figures statics as wells as the public’s personal stories on
how the recession has affected them. This allowed me to strengthen my knowledge and
outlook on the recession and equipped me with a variety of information which I then
planned in incorporating in my documentary.
After gaining insightful knowledge on the recession I then turned my eye to television
channels in order to establish which television channel would be the most suitable to
broadcast my documentary. I then began going to various television channels and
looking on their documentary channels, I then began to look for any documentary
programmes that were similar or were is some way compatible to my topic – the
recession. The television channels I researched were BBC One, BBC 2, ITV, Channel 4
and BBC Three. I discovered that BBC three was the most suitable and most compatible
television channel to broadcast my documentary, I came to this conclusion as all of
the documentaries I found on their website and by watching BBC Three
documentaries through YouTube and BBC iplayer that their documentaries focus on
social issues in our society that are affecting young people, this is the exact genre of
our documentary and therefore I believe this makes it evident that BBC
Three was the most suitable choice.

17. All of the coursework that I or a member of my group had done was then to be
uploaded onto Blogger.com; this is where the group first started their journey
into researching and constructing documentaries, radio trailers and magazine articles
and shows the process we have all made from the beginning. This website was useful as
it allowed us all to work together, share ideas and strengthens each other’s
coursework.
When all our researching and planning
was completed we then began to put our
theory into action by using all of the information we had collected to
actually produce the documentary. To film the footage for our documentary we used
a Canon HG20 High Definition Camera, this was a very useful and had integrate
design making it was easy to take shots as well as filming our characters. The
camera allowed us to zoom in and out which was useful when we wanted to frame a
shot or make the shot apply to the rule of thirds. We were also able to manipulate
the lighting, we did this because in some areas where we took our shots the lighting
was very bleak and the camera allowed balancing the lighting which aided
in our documentary to appear professional and well planned. Moreover, we
also took photographs with this camera which allowed us to manipulate
and edit them when producing the magazine double page spread. The
camera was relatively light and easy to hold and we did this was taking
shots for our magazine article however, when it came to filming our
interviews and voxpops it was essential that we used a tripod. The tripod
allowed centring the camera in order to get a straight shot which from our research
suggest we key to get right, it also allowed us to use a variety of other shots such as
panning and zooming in and out without the camera moving or shaking. The only
negative aspect of using the tripod was that it was difficult to keep moving to different
locations to film different setting as at first it was difficult to fold up after using it and
was fairly heavy.
Moreover, as wells as using a camera and a tripod it was crucial that we
used recording equipment for the sound, because from our research and
general knowledge of documentaries it is essential to get the sound right
otherwise the documentary will lack and will look amateurish and
unprofessional. The equipment we used was a directional microphone for our voxpops
and interviews to record the sound and used Sennheiser headphones to ensure that the
sound levels were correct and to ensure that no unwanted noise mixed in with our
interviews such as background noise or other students talking who
were no needed. Our environment
being a college was loud for most

18. of the time when filming therefore we came up with a solution which was using a quiet
empty classroom and conducting our interviews there.
When all of our filming was complete we used an Apple iMac to editing our footage to
form our documentary. At first we found the editing quite complex however, after
repetition and instruction by our teacher is some became easy and second nature. To
editing our footage we used Final Cut Express and used this programme constantly from
the beginning to end of our documentary. To begin to edit our footage we would have to
‘log and transfer’ the totality of our documentary footage and then watch and sort out
all of the footage that we wanted and did not want for our documentary.
We then renamed all of the footage that we wanted to use in our documentary so that
we did not become confused by the numerous amounts of footage and then went onto
begin to edit. Below is an example of our documentary of what it looked like during the
editing stage.
A window to watch
My group’s unedited footage
our documentary
Timeline for
documentary
Editing tools
Visual footage
Audio footage
Whilst using final cut express we all we given the opportunity to edit and become
familiar with its tools, throughout the editing process we used a variety of tools such as
transitions. We used this tool a lot through firstly because it was a major convention
used in documentaries which we discovered through ‘Super-size me’ ‘Teenager Heroin
addiction’ and various other documentaries we watched. Moreover, it was a useful way
of breaking up the interviews, voxpops, presenters and establishing shots which made

19. sure of audience would not get bored and encourage them to continue to
watch our documentary.
An additional tool we used frequently was the razor blade tool particularly for
our interviews and voxpops. For our interviews that we some points were not
valid or relevant to our documentary or were too long,
the razor tools allowed us to select the section of the
interview that we wanted to use and discard any
unwanted footage. This was a useful tool and allowed us
to adjust our clips easily with little effort.
The sound levels tool was another valuable tool we used
throughout the editing process, it was essential that the sound levels were correct and
this tool allowed us to pan, centre and balance the sounds levels to the frequency that
we wanted. This was a simple tool to use however, it was crucial that we used it so that
we could produce a high standard documentary.
Moreover, we also used the text tool often, we decided to use this tool because from
watching our model documentary ‘Super-size me’ we discovered that the professionals
or people of note or importance to the documentary were named visually. We decided
to adopt this to our documentary as it helped in making our documentary seem more
professional and raise a high level to our documentary.
To produce music for our documentary we decided to make it from scratch by using a
programme called ‘Garage band.’ We create simple background music for our
documentary by used it predominately for our radio trailer.
When using media technologies for our radio trailer Garage band was the main
programme we used for its construction. Garage band gave us a variety of sounds to mix
and play with until we were happy with the sound we produced. The music options we
were given were ‘cheerful, urban, electronic, guitar, piano, drums etc. The controls were
easy to use and once we were happy with the music we created we simply transferred it
into an mp3 file and added it to our radio trailetc.
Our magazine article required use to use two pieces of software which were Adobe
Photoshop CS6 and Adobe InDesign CS6. To begin to create our double page spread on
Adobe InDesign we open a double page spread and then began to import all the images
we wanted to use. After all of our images were selected we then used Microsoft Word
2010 to begin to attempt our text for our article. Once our text and images were
arranged and complete on the double page spread we then began to add codes and
conventionsof double page spreads which we had learnt from our research
such as masthead, pull quote, headlines, caption etc.

20. Once my double page spread was complete I then wanted to edit my images because
some of them had people in the background looking at the camera and or in other shots
I wanted to add an effect. For both circumstances I had to use a tool of Adobe Photoshop
CS6 known as the magnetic lasso. This was a useful tool that ensured that any areas of
the images that I wanted removed could be done so easily with minimal effort. From my
research editing the images correctly was an important convention that must be done
correctly, and when I look at my double page spread I feel I have achieved that.
To conclude, I feel my research, planning construction and feedback of my
documentary, radio trailer and double page spread was successful and I am happy and
proud with the coursework me and my colleagues produced and I believe it has be
accomplished to a high standard.