2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
To begin with, we researched other media products that inspire us and relate to our
preferred style of documentary. For example, we studied Louis Theroux’s social
realism documentaries. We found it interesting the way he used rough hand-held
camera shots which mirror his topics, which are exposing and at times,
uncomfortable.
We focused on one of his BBC documentaries, ‘Miami Prison’ and analysed his mid
shots which capture both speaker and background. When filming our documentary we
used this style of shot. It was helpful and practical because we needed a visual
background on London as well as a close up of the emotions and expressions of our
interviewees. This reminds the audiences of our main topic and gives us insight into
the people of London.
We developed and challenged our documentary by combining old London with new
London, adding other shots and using secondary shots of the London Olympics, or the
Royal wedding and the streets in 1910. This creates a visual diversity and also allows
the audience to take a break from the interviews. By studying other real media
conventions, we were able to decipher what is popular and what niche audiences
demand from social realism documentaries.
3. How effective is the combination of your main product and
ancillary texts?
Our A2 coursework task was to produce a five minute documentary, and two
ancillary’s tasks, a magazine advert and a radio advert. Once we had finished the
documentary we were able to start the ancillary tasks. We tried hard to keep a
consistency between the three tasks, in order to strengthen each and make the
documentary recognisable through different media products.
For example, in both documentary and magazine, we have the same voice over for
both. This reinforces a continuity between all products. Furthermore, we used a logo
we created with a silhouette of London skyline on all three products as a constant
reminder and to raise awareness for our ‘company’. The same locations are
mentioned in all three, visually in the documentary and verbally in the magazine and
radio. This is to reinforce the main focus of our documentary. If we had more time to
plan, I believe we could have created more obvious links and similarities between the
three texts.
4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We gathered audience feedback from various sites such as Survey Monkey and hand
written questions in order to collect both positive and negative comments.
We used excel to collate and analyse the information to give us informed, primary
evidence to help us make the correct decisions on our documentary
Most people commented on the sound in our documentary, which we struggled with
on iMovie. It was hard to film interviewees on the streets of London without the
camera picking up on the load noises of people, buses, traffic etc…
This was really helpful because we were able to go back and make crucial changes
such as adjusting the voices of the interviewees and reducing background noise, which
made a significant difference.
5. How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research – For our research we watched other documentaries online and analysed
them on our main site, Blogger. This was helpful by showing our step-by-step
progress. For example, we analysed Louis Theroux on the intricate software Prezi.
Planning – To show evidence of our planning we did rough sketches and story boards
which we then scanned onto a computer and uploaded onto Blogger. We also
explored with the cameras and tripods, and filmed a few people in rough to
experiment and plan. One of these films are uploaded onto Vimeo and YouTube, to
gain audience feedback.
Construction – When it came time to produce the real media product, we had to use a
high quality camera, tripod and microphone while traveling around London. Once we
had all the footage, we edited the documentary on complex software such as iMovie
and then onto Final Cut Pro. This was to finalise any finishing touches of our
documentary.
Evaluation – For our evaluation, we typed up our answers on PowerPoint and then set
up a green screen and spoke to the camera, evaluating our product verbally and
making it more interesting and vibrant.
6. How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research – For our research we watched other documentaries online and analysed
them on our main site, Blogger. This was helpful by showing our step-by-step
progress. For example, we analysed Louis Theroux on the intricate software Prezi.
Planning – To show evidence of our planning we did rough sketches and story boards
which we then scanned onto a computer and uploaded onto Blogger. We also
explored with the cameras and tripods, and filmed a few people in rough to
experiment and plan. One of these films are uploaded onto Vimeo and YouTube, to
gain audience feedback.
Construction – When it came time to produce the real media product, we had to use a
high quality camera, tripod and microphone while traveling around London. Once we
had all the footage, we edited the documentary on complex software such as iMovie
and then onto Final Cut Pro. This was to finalise any finishing touches of our
documentary.
Evaluation – For our evaluation, we typed up our answers on PowerPoint and then set
up a green screen and spoke to the camera, evaluating our product verbally and
making it more interesting and vibrant.
