The document describes a 5-minute TV documentary created by the author on the topic of racial stereotypes. It discusses how the documentary uses common conventions of the genre, such as interviews, a voiceover, music, and establishing shots. It also includes a draft and final version of an article created to promote the documentary in a TV magazine.

1. A2 Media Evaluation Alana Williams

2. Introduction We were asked to create a 5 minute TV documentary on anything of our choice. We decided to do racial stereotypes as it is an important issue in society which effects people badly, especially people of our target audience. We wanted to find out peoples views on racial stereotyping and how they are affected. We have followed a variety of the common codes and conventions of TV documentaries to ensure our documentary looks professional. We chose our to have our documentary on BBC Three due to the fact that BBC are known for having many documentaries and their aim is to inform and entertain, which our documentary has aspects of as well as being a serious topic. We chose to have it on at 9pm as the target audience is between 15-25 and younger people don’t base people on stereotypes until they are older.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? In this task we were to create an opening 5 minutes of any documentary of our choice. To make our documentary we used our creativity to make the documentary look and sound like a professional one. In this case, we used a variety of forms and conventions just like real documentaries would. At the beginning of the documentary we did a montage introducing what the documentary is about, we had people of different ethnic minorities opening the documentary to grab the viewers Attention within the first 10 seconds. We decided to follow the traditional documentary conventions as it seems to catch the viewer and creating new conventions could risk not being appealing. When doing interviews, we made sure that each person was framed into the camera correctly, being situated to the left or right looking across and having correct mise-en-scene that is appropriate for what the interviewee does for a living or on a day to day basis. When the interviewee was interviewed again they were in exactly the same space and we did a medium close up to get a clear view. Here the interviewee has their name and what they do appear on the screen, so whoever watches the documentary will know what part the interviewee has. Mise-en-scene is suitable for the interviewees job. Sitting by a computer and filing cabinet shows that the interviewee is an expert and works in office environment.

4. Like any other documentary we chose to use poetic mode by doing a voiceover repeating questions that we asked during interviews, which is a typical convention to keep the viewer interested. Throughout the voiceover and music we edited the volume levels to make sure the volume stayed consistent all the way through, so we normalised the sound levels to be clear and loud, just like a professional documentary would. For the sound bed we used constant upbeat music to appeal to our target audience, if it was slow and not upbeat the viewer may not be interested and we made sure that during interviews and the voiceover the music was turned down so that the audience can hear clearly. We put in cutaways and establishing shots as filler footage, instead of having consistent interviews. By having establishing shots the viewer can see what the documentary is about and where interviews took place. All of the filler footage related to the documentary of racial stereotypes whilst cutting out unnecessary parts from interviews. When going from one cutaway to another we added transitions, the main one being dissolve. Cutaway/filler footage of over the shoulder shot on relevant news article. We used this cutaway to support what the interviewees were saying. Establishing shot Cutaway

5. Any professional documentary is made to the publics interests and typically the majority include interviews with for and against views. When choosing who to interview, we made sure that we had vox pops and experts. This would make our target audience/viewer feel included as everyday people just like them show their opinions which is interesting to see. All professional documentaries include expert interviews and vox pops, so it was our main priority to follow this convention. We used a popular convention that is used in many documentaries, this is actuality. We chose to base our topic on real life events and filmed a variety of people, this differs from a film that is scripted. We believe that doing this would appeal to our target audience as its peoples opinions and they can learn from it. At the beginning we used exposition mode, to introduce the documentary and what its about, we did this by showing facts and figures on the voiceover, opinions of interviewees and using narration to describe what is going on. This can help to grab the viewers attention setting a theme. To follow these modes and conventions, we looked through a variety of documentaries and noted down what we needed to include. One documentary that went with our topic of stereotyping was ‘ Hoodies Can Be Goodies’ .

6. Here is a draft of our article for a TV magazine. We followed some conventions from the Radio Times in order to make our article look professional. Catchy masthead. Implies people stereotyping ethnic minorities is bad, yet people go against it. Main Image supports title

7. Here is the final version of our magazine article, which follows many conventions a professional TV magazine would. Pull quote. This makes the article more interesting for the reader and brings in part of the documentary, we wanted to use consistency. Columns – a typical convention, many magazines use this . Main image for article – Like any other magazine, our main image supports the article. A group of different ethnic minorities, the reader will know that the article has something to do with this. Catchy main title and subtitle that doesn’t give too much away. Details of when the documentary is on, however, unlike other articles, we haven't put the date. This effects our article as not many people would watch it. Background of mast head shows a broken wall, implies people going against Britain and breaking the ‘barrier’ Page number which is crucial on any magazine

8. Parts of vox pops from documentary cut up Up beat music throughout radio trailer Voiceover using rhetorical questions Sound levels adjusted, beginning and end. Cutting unnecessary parts When listening to preview radio trailers, we found that bits from the documentary were used but cut up. We mentioned what time and channel the documentary would be on, although, we didn’t say what day, as we assumed it would be on that night. For the voiceover we said ‘Are you or any others around you being affected by racial stereotypes?’ Immediately, the target audience/listener knows what the documentary is about rather than dragging it on, we got straight to the point, therefore, the listeners will be interested.

9. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Our target audience 15-25 year olds may not be as interested in the double page spread as the radio trailer; getting straight to the point. As there is a large article. Our target audience may rather see a variety of pictures. After writing the article, we didn’t realise it would be this long, however, it could still appeal to the majority of our audience due to the images. The masthead and subtitle/caption stand out to our target audience, being bold, but following the colour scheme looking sophisticated and professional throughout. We decided to use parts of documentary in our radio trailer, so the audience will recognise parts in the documentary, therefore, the trailer and documentary are combined well. One quote we found important to put in the radio trailer was ‘Stereotypes are born out of ignorance’. Using opinions will interest people who feel the same. The music on both the documentary and radio trailer is similar, upbeat and appealing to the target audience, however, the voiceover isn't continuous on both. We chose to do this as it would be interesting to have different people doing voiceover rather than the continuous same one which can be boring.

10. Furthermore, we didn’t put the date on both the article and radio trailer, this may confused the audience as they wont know when to watch the documentary. We chose for it to be on the night its advertised and hopefully the audience will realised. Throughout the documentary you see different ethnic minorities and statistics and figures, then on the radio you hear parts of the documentary and on the article we put a pull quote which was also from the documentary. People will see the brand identity of racial stereotyping. I believe that our documentary and radio trailer create the brand identity and are combined well, as in each you can clearly see that the topic is racial stereotyping . During the radio trailer rhetorical questions are used and racial stereotyping is mentioned a lot, also, by having parts of the documentary cut up and put in the trailer, the audience will recognise the topic. Inserting parts of the documentary into the trailer, deleting parts that were unnecessary on Garage Band. Having simple quote bursts would catch the audiences attention and instantly they know what the documentary is about.

11. The documentary and main article are combined together well, as some of the students on the main image of the article were interviewed, when the audience sees the article they will recognise it from the documentary, who are from different ethnic minorities, this is creating a brand identity. The article appeals to our target audience of 15-25, as the layout is clear, bold and colourful. However, for the older audience, we didn’t include people of that age, this may not appeal to them, therefore, if we were to the article again I would make sure this wasn’t an issue. Our documentary and radio trailer suite all of the target audience as it is sophisticated yet interesting and bold, full of a variety of different opinions. We used BBC for both our documentary, radio trailer and the main article. The documentary is on BBC Three, the main article is in the Radio Times and radio trailer is on Radio 1. By using the same company, our audience will be able to guess what channel the documentary would be on from the radio trailer and article. It would be unlikely that the documentary would be advertised on a different radio. Parts of the documentary used in main article. Key quotes that the audience is likely to remember. Some quotes are from expert interviews, the audience will be more interested to see the documentary, as they can rely on someone who knows what they are talking about and are experienced in.

12. What have you learned from your audience feedback? We decided to create questionnaires, to get feedback. We asked a variety of students of different ethnic minorities and ages to get a variety of responses. One question was on whether the students found the documentary appealing. 85% of the students asked, agreed that the documentary was interesting and marked it highly out of 10. We had a question of how we could improve our documentary, the feedback we got was positive although there were a few changes that can be made. One being having less interviews and more cutaways during interviews so the audience is kept interested. We also asked our audience whether they found the montage appealing and whether it hinted what the documentary was about. 46% said the montage was appealing. The rest didn’t, this made us re think on how we could have made our montage better and next time speed it up.

13. We were very surprised that 95% of the students said the main article was interesting. As we felt we missed a few bits out we didn’t think the percentage would be so high. Only 5% said it wasn’t interesting. We also asked how we could improve our TV listings page, the only thing was to make the main image clearer and include the date it would be on. It was near enough an even amount that said the radio trailer was both interesting and uninteresting. At times, the radio trailer went on for too long and there was constant talking. Our audience may have got bored with this.

14. The students preferred the radio trailer and documentary over the main article. The majority of the group said the TV listings page was good, however a few said it was poor, this may be because we left out main forms and conventions a professional magazine would have. Overall, the documentary was good, but a few improvements could be made, such as, more vox pops interviews and more professional footage from previous articles and documentaries. The radio trailer had 12 people saying it was very good, as we used cut up bits from our documentary and had a loud upbeat to suite the audience. The students suggested a few improvements, such as, Radio Trailer

15. The whole project has been created through various technologies. From the different types of hardware to the various software. Before creating the documentary, we analysed other documentaries to follow their codes and conventions and to see how a typical documentary is made. To do this, typically, we used a Television to watch them and a Computer/Laptop to watch other documentaries on websites such as, YouTube. We also used the computers for research into what channels we could put our documentary on and articles that relate to the topic. We chose to use BBC Iplayer to see what documentaries were of a similar topic and read through BBC Articles on issues of racial stereotyping. Due to the fact that our documentary, radio trailer and article was all to do with BBC, we thought it would be a good idea to look into the work that they do, which is very popular. To start creating our documentary we noted down everything we did and what we researched into, using Blogger.com. This was a very straight forward website, however only had the simple things, for example, making a new post and changing font colour/type. I found it difficult to upload images that I used in other software's, as blogger wouldn’t let me, the images could only be saved as JPEG. We uploaded posts including similar documentaries to ours, research into what our target audience is interested in, initial ideas and scripts for the documentary voiceover and radio voiceover. We found that when inserting large amounts, we could use Scribd. This put all of the work together so we were able to put it in one post, which was very efficient. We also used a scanner, at times where we drew out ideas and drafts. By using the scanner it saved time, so we didn’t have to re-do work that we had completed. It also creates variety, which looks interesting rather than continuous text. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

16. To film our documentary we used a Canon HD Camcorder, which was straight forward and easy to use. We used this for both still images and filming. To put the images and filming onto the computer was easy, plugging in a USB from the camera to the computer off the harddisk. The overall view and focus of the camera wasn’t very good, it was basic for zooming in and out. When using the camera, we put it on a tripod, which made it easy to move around, instead of using hand held. This made the video more professional, as, if we were to hold the camera it would be shaky and not still, however, at times we were unsure on how to put the camera on the tripod and it became stiff to lock on. For the audience to hear the voice of the interviewee clearly, we used a microphone, which was very light to move around with and easy to put together, connecting to the camera. With the microphone you need to use headphones to be able to hear how clear the interviewees voice is and if there is any background noise. This saves a lot of time, as we found out, after filming one of our interviewees you couldn’t hear their voices properly, so we had to redo it. Also, when doing voiceover for the radio trailer we made sure we used a Dictaphone, which shows whether the sound levels are normal and clear, if not you can change them, which saves time. For the majority of the documentary making, we used an Apple Imac, at first, i found this tricky to use, but after having help from teachers I began to get my head around how it works. We used the Imac, which is commonly used to edit and design to upload footage and edit it suitably for our documentary. I believe that this was the best hardware to use for creating a documentary.

17. When editing our documentary we used Final Cut Express, where we uploaded all our footage by logging and transferring, viewing each piece of footage then right clicking and sending to queue, the pieces of footage we felt would fit in the documentary. Once we put all the clips together, we had to make sure that the volume levels were all the same. Below the red line. Here is the timeline of our documentary Transitions: dissolve To cut up parts that weren't needed To move clips round Edit sound levels to meet requirements of volume levels beside it To unlink sound and clip We were able to add effects, such as, different transitions, but we chose to stick with dissolve, to use continuity throughout. We added text showing questions, facts and figures and who the interviewees are, like a professional documentary would. This was simple to do, and adding a translucent effect made the overall image more professional.

18. All our our chosen clips are stored in this sequence folder Cutaways on another level, so they dissolve in smoothly Voiceover and music Use of pen tool. Also, this software allowed us to change the sound levels to fade in and out of music, so the audience can hear the interviews. Text inserted For the montage we were able to speed it up, so it was constant upbeat and eye catching For previewing clips Editing clips

19. To design our magazine article for the Radio Times, we chose to use Adobe Indesign, due to the fact that we had used this in our last project, it was straight forward to use, if we hadn't of had experience it would be difficult, as its complicated to use. Indesign allowed us to add effects on the text, we used A drop shadow on the masthead and made the subtitle/caption stand out With white edging To insert an image. Clicking the X icon and placing a box across where the image is going to be. Then clicking file and placing it. Insert a Drop Cap Put article into columns Overall, Indesign was the most suitable software to use. It made our magazine look professional and stand out using conventions of a real TV magazine article.

20. To make our radio trailer we decided to use Garage band. We exported parts of the documentary from Final Cut Express to Garage Band, then cut the necessary bits up to make the trailer catchy. Garage band is known for putting together music and creating your own, we chose to use an already made beat rather than making our own, which saved time and still sounded professional. After recording the voiceover we imported it into Garage Band and cut up what we didn’t need. We were then able to move parts around freely, the whole process was very easy. We did the voiceover then were able to cut it up and move bits round to wherever sounded best. We changed the levels of volume on each clip, for example, when we cut an unnecessary bit of the interviewee talking, we lowered the volume then increased it to act as a transition. At the end of the radio trailer we also faded out the beat, so it didn’t cut straight away. Overall, Garage Band was the most suitable software to use for our radio trailer, anyone can create music on it. To cut parts of the voiceover up. ‘Trim’ icon

21. Sound levels adjusted, beginning and end. Overall view of our radio trailer Beat for radio trailer Close up of clips that we clicked on, this enabled us to be able to see clearly where to cut parts.