Louis Dodds-Rodgers evaluated their final major project (FMP) which involved creating a documentary trailer and poster about the coronavirus pandemic. Some strengths of their research included thoroughly coordinating research over time and including different examples. However, they could have benefited from researching more student-made documentaries and films for additional inspiration. Their planning helped with preparing interview questions, but they underestimated the need for contingency planning. Time management was good overall, but the documentary could have been improved with more time for additional interviews and content creation. Peer feedback noted liking the poster's tone set by the background color but suggested making it more minimalistic and using higher quality images. Louis agreed with most feedback, especially making the poster simpler visually.

1. FMP
Evaluation
Louis Dodds-Rodgers

2. Production
Process
Evaluation

3. Research
• My research consisted of quite a few strengths one of which being the fact I coordinated my
research very thoroughly over the course of time I did it. I made sure to include different examples
into my research to give as broad of an idea to myself as possible. One main feature that helped
greatly in my researching was the student made documentary I watched on the topic of the
coronavirus, this helped me because it was similar to what I was wanting to create. The student
documentary included lots of different shots, clips and other various media terminology, after
seeing this it helped me decide what I wanted my trailer to look like and what type of aesthetic I
want it to give off. Another helpful bit of research I conducted was taking a look at a BBC made
documentary and how it is presented, the reason this was very helpful for me is due to the fact that
originally I wanted my documentary to show similar qualities to BBC and their layout and angles
etc. But after seeing the documentary put together by the BBC I decided to make mine quite
different because theirs gave off too much negative emotion mixed with shots of grey and dark
images compared to a more light-hearted outlook I was aiming for.
• One main weakness regarding my research was the fact that I did not conclude enough clips or
footage from other student made films / documentaries, this would’ve been a massive help to me
due to the fact I only had one similar documentary to the one in my head which I was trying to
produce. Mainly I could have done one thing better which is; researching more similar products to
my own. I made the mistake of leaving this too late and I just had to develop my project with one
similar documentary to study and to help me make one of a similar quality. If I had managed to do
this it would have had a very positive impact onto my final piece, this is because I would have had
more of a safety net in what I was wanting to create and I would know how good it looks compared
to other student films but in my final production I had only one other similarly made documentary
to follow for ideas such as camera angles, colours and saturation as well as interviewee questions.

4. Planning
• My planning helped very well when it came to finally producing my final product for my FMP, one
strength of my planning was making sure to have questions to ask my interviewee. Preparing
questions for the student I was interviewing for my trailer was a good strength of my planning, this
is because I already had prepared what I was going to say and just before the shooting began I ran
over the questions quickly with the student who I interviewed to give them a sense of what we
were doing. This helped my final product because it made recording a lot easier as well as a lot less
stuttering and uncertainty whilst shooting the clips. Another strength of my planning consists of
getting my equipment early on and starting filming as soon as possible. Before we had started the
FMP I decided to book out a camera for the first week of the final project, this way I could be
writing the questions and sorting out the specifics of the interview whilst simultaneously be
getting establishing shots of everything I needed as well as shots of the weather to set the tone.
This definitely helped greatly in the production of my documentary due to the fact it saved me a lot
of time and also helped me capture a lot of high quality footage.
• One weakness of my planning was underestimating the amount of contingency planning which
would be needed. In my planning I made the decision that the contingency planning would only be
needing a few sections to be filled out as not much could go wrong with the project. Firstly, I
decided to rent out the camera for the filming on my documentary but in the first day or so of
having the camera I accidentally changed a certain setting on it and could not find out how to revert
it to the original state It arrived in, eventually I managed to get my tutor to sort it out for me but if
this could have been prevented I would’ve had even more time to work on my FMP.

5. Time Management
• Personally, I think I managed my time quite well. I think this because I
completed my task on time with some spare time as well meaning that I used
as much time as possible creating my final project and producing it to the best
standards I possibly could have done. Although I did complete my product in
time of the deadline it would have been vastly improved with more time. If I
had additional time to spend on my documentary I would have put this time
to use by taking longer to film some more interview shots with different
students as I only managed to interview one in the end and they were the only
student to appear onto my documentary.
• If I had more time to produce my work I would spend some of this time on
producing my actual documentary to a higher standard by doing things such
as: filming more material, gathering more interviewees and spending more
time taking some more time to add some facts and statistics because this
would help the professionality of my FMP. I would’ve also spent some of this
time creating more media for my documentary as I managed to complete a
poster for the documentary to bring attention to it but I would have liked to
create a social media post for it to give it attention on social medias getting
the film better recognition.

6. One similarity between the two images is the fact that
the fonts are fairly similar in the way they are both
large and bold which creates a message to send to the
viewer / audience, these fonts give the title a deeper
meaning and give more dramatic effect to what they
are trying to portray.
Another similarity between the two posters is
that they both contain the virus itself making a
big impact on the emotions that I want to be
seen and felt through the poster. The virus
cells are enlarged on both images making it
apparent they are strong and powerful
meaning it is being portrayed as omnipotent
and overpowerful
The colours used
in both posters
are quite similar in
how they are laid
out and
presented. Both
of the colours are
single, matte,
block colours. By
doing this the
tone is set to be
deep and to have
a general deeper
meaning than just
lots of bright
colours and other
vibrant images.
My poster
includes more
images and has a
lot more going
one compared to
the other poster
for the pandemic
documentary.
This is because
the other poster
is going for a very
simplistic
aesthetic and
trying to be
minimalistic.
Technical Qualities

7. Personally I believe my final project looks good due to a lot of different aesthetic qualities which I decided
to add to it, one of which being the matte block colour background which gives it a good overall aesthetic
which fits the area I was trying to locate. I decided to go with this colour because it represents a lot of
features in my trailer for my documentary for example; the dark matted colour could represent the
darkness the pandemic shunned over us as a civilisation. This was the main point I was trying to make
when I originally began creating my FMP, I chose this because everybody can relate to it currently and it
appeals in numerous ways to my target demographic.
I would say my work is definitely creative due to the fact I could not find anything similar to it online
which sets it apart from documentaries with similar concepts as my own. I looked at some related images
to the subject my trailer revolves around and had a look at some documentary thumbnails and posters
and saw a few things which I thought would be great to adapt in my own way onto my own project.
My favourite aspect of my posters visuals is the film reel expanding with lots of images related to the
pandemic such as: NHS in masks, bodies being recovered, York college and a few other images which
correlate with the point I am trying to put across. This is my favourite aspect of the poster by far because
it took the most effort and applies great to the subject my FMP revolves around. If I were to improve my
poster firstly I would go around making the lady from the NHS look more rounded as the top of her head
is quite squared off which I feel gives my product quite an unprofessional look to it. I would do this by
either choosing a better image or using the eraser on a low hardness and a large brush size to make the
squared off part look more faded compared to just a straight line.
My strengths in this part of my project definitely revolved around the fact I am already quite experienced
in photoshop and find it easy to use compared to other programmes, this helped my production very well
because I had more time to actually produce rather than learn how it works which gave me a good
advantage.
One of my weaknesses would be putting a little too much on the poster making it look crowded and
overbearing, I would have preferred that I just made It minimalistic compared to overwhelming with lots
of cut-outs and images. This weakness definitely effected the aesthetic qualities of my final product but I
will now know how to correct myself next time.
Aesthetic Qualities

8. I appealed to my target audience precisely how I wanted to with my poster advertising my documentary
trailer. I did this by adding a lot of things the audience can relate to and therefore it appeals them this
includes things like; the coronavirus and how it effected us, this is shown to the fullest extent in my poster
as it includes people suffering the consequences of the virus like the lady wearing a mask as well as the
bodies being moved and the statistics of the virus which is shown in the reel of film I added into the
poster. The main reason for my poster appealing to my specific audience is because it involves everything
they can not only relate to but sympathise with because everyone has been through a similar thing
throughout this last year or so. I expressed this through the use of dark colours to give my poster an effect
of dramatic irony to conjoin the idea of the virus with a dull, dark matte black.
My final product does match my audience appeal through my questionnaire because I used the responses
to mould the trailer as well as the poster I created. I asked simple questions as easy as ‘did you enjoy the
pandemic’ and from the responses to this question I moulded my poster into a dark and moreish setting
to give off the aesthetic of darkness and sadness to represent the troubles of the past year. Another
helpful question I asked in my questionnaire was ‘In a documentary about a pandemic what do you think
the most important?’ to which I had some black and white optional responses whereas a couple of people
chose other and specified some great things which I could ask in my interviews and when it came to
recording my trailer and interviewing other students I chose some of the asked questions from my
questionnaire which is going be a great help when it comes to audience appeal.
My last question was one of the most helpful in my questionnaire which revolved around asking ‘what is
most important to you in a documentary’. This was a good last question to help find out more about
audience appeal because the overall answers were mostly flooding towards ‘the message behind it’ as
well as ‘the presentation’ so I focused as much as possible on both of these qualities to make sure I can
appeal to my audience as much as possible.
Audience Appeal

9. Peer Feedback

10. Feedback 1
• What did you like about the product?
– The lady in the coronavirus mask because of the
connotations behind it.
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– More colours could have been added to the
poster.

11. Feedback 2
• What did you like about the product?
– From the poster the thing I enjoyed the most was
the connotations behind the film reel image
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– Higher quality images

12. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
– The background colour and how it help set the
tone
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– Making the poster more minimalistic

13. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer feedback?
– I agree with the majority of my peer feedback. I mainly agree
with the criticism because a lot of the responses criticised
similar things to myself. The comment I agree with the most is
subject to making my poster more minimalistic.
• What do you disagree with from your peer feedback?
– The only statement from my feedback I disagree with is ‘more
colours could have been added to the poster’. The reason I
disagree with this statement so heavily is due to the fact the
reason I have minimalistic colours in my final piece is because it
is meant to represent the hard times of the past year as the
colours are very minimalistic as they are meant to show that the
world almost went dark as people lost hope and that is the type
of emotion I am trying to capture in not only my documentary
but also my poster.

14. Peer Feedback Summary
I would make a few changes to my one of my final pieces based on my feedback from
peers. One of the changes I would implement into my poster would be making the
image more minimalistic, I would achieve this by taking away some of the PNG images I
included on the poster and just having more space for either small text or another small
image. My reasoning for this is because I believe that my poster ended up looking quite
cluttered at the end of my production which takes some of the aesthetic appeal away
from it. I feel that if I made my poster more minimalistic and a bit more aesthetically
pleasing it would send over the message I am trying to connote with the poster a lot
clearer.
Another change I would happily make to my product is getting some images with higher
quality. Earlier in my evaluation I spoke about how the lady who works for the NHS
which I added and then edited looks a little out of place due to the top of her head
been cut off in a straight line, this made my product appear unprofessional and messy
as it gives the impression that I cannot cut images properly which effects the aesthetic
qualities of the poster quite heavily. I would change this issue slightly by edging off the
top of the ladies head with an eraser accompanied by a hardness of 0 to give the effect
of a fade. This would also help get the message across better from my poster as the
fading of the NHS worker could be interpreted in a number of ways.