A2 media evaluation

Josh Stobart A2 Media Studies

A2 Media Evaluation on ‘Is Twitter The Future?’

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

During our A2 media coursework we were assigned to create a five minute introduction for an hour
long documentary which was to be shown on BBC 3. We was not sure at first on which topic to
choose to do our documentary on but after various mind maps, discussions and advice from teacher
we decided to do ours on Twitter. Also, we were to make a double page spread to appear in the
radio times and also a 30 second radio trail to advertise our documentary.

We looked into Bill Nicholls’ theory of Documentary Modes (2001), we established that the most
appropriate mode for our documentary was the expositional mode. This is because our
documentary speaks directly to the viewer through the narrator addressing the audience and also by
the informative narration.

We had a rhetorical narrative structure as it portrays an equal argument between whether twitter is
a good or bad part of modern society. We also used comparisons between situations on twitter,
such as the positive sides of the police being more involved with society on twitter and also the
negatives such as the online attacks against Olympic diver Tom Daley. We included these during
interviews for a more professional approach.

Our documentary was to be shown on BBC 3 as twitter is more associated with a younger audience
so we ensured that it would be broadcasted to a younger audience, of which BBC 3 is home too.

Camera and Editing

Our documentary has various interviews, with normal members of the public, college students and
also people of a professional standing. This allows us to get a varied opinion on the topic of our
documentary.

During our professional interviews we attempted to mirror the interviews in ‘Super-Sized Me’ for
example, in the shot bellow, we looked at Mise-En-scene and also used the rule of thirds. The person
in the shot is a teacher at our college so we thought that it would be appropriate to have her in a
classroom with a computer in the background. Also, we put the twitter logo in the background to
look more professional. A tripod was used in this shot to ensure that it was a steady shot.


This is a similar
medium close up
from ‘Super size
me’ as we have
used the same
looking space
techniques which
leave a space to
the left side of
the interviewee.
Again, this uses
mise-en-scene by
having the person
in their place of
work.

We used a tripod for nearly all of our shots during the documentary which ensured that our
shots are professional.

We only used straight cuts during our documentary as we came to an agreement that other
effects such as wipes and dissolves gave documentaries a more unprofessional look. Again,
on Super Size Me they only used straight cuts.

We used some editing techniques such as speeding up footage, for example, when shot is in
a car driving towards the college, we speeded this up by 800% because this is a frequent
techniques seen in BBC 3 documentaries.


Sound

During our classes we watched a documentary called ‘Airline’ which follows the events of
mishaps in British airports and also the working lives of those who work and run airlines
such as ‘Easy Jet’. In ‘Airline’ it has a voiceover which directly addresses the viewer, we
ensured that our voiceover mirrored this for a more professional look overall on our
documentary. We involved parts of our research and planning tasks into the narration, for
example when the narrator says ‘Twitter is now home to 350 Million active users’ this was
secondary research which was included into our documentary.

During ‘Is Twitter the Future’ there was on long audio track playing in the background which
was of a ‘Techno’ genre which was created by us on ‘Garageband’. This was a non-digetic
track as it was only heard by the audience and not the people in the documentary. The track
changed audio levels throughout the documentary as it had to be quieter during interviews
and key parts of narration.

The sound levels did become an issue for us as some parts were to loud and some very
quiet. We had to spend a lot of time editing the sound levels and also even had to re record
some parts of the narration as it was to quiet. We also got a third opinion off our teacher on
the sound levels, however we only let him listen to it so we could ensure that all sound
faults could be corrected.

Radio Trail

We conducted research into radio trails for the BBC F1 coverage. We thought this would be
appropriate as BBC uses similar conventions across all of its channels. We found that they
included exciting and louder parts of their programmes to be included in the radio trail. We
decided to listen through our documentary and write down which parts we all thought
represented the best parts of the documentary and which would be the best to inclu8de.
This would allow us to have a more attractive radio trailer which would in real industry give
us an edge over the competition. We included parts of ‘Vox Pops’ as these had some
ambient noises included, overall causing the clip to be louder which is more likely to draw
the attention of our target audience.

We created a brand new track for our Radio Trail instead of using the same as the
Documentary. This is because we had the opportunity to use a faster more upbeat track to
draw the attention of the target audience but if we used the same track throughout the
documentary it would be too distracting for the viewer and it would not let the focus
properly on narration/interviews. The track used was a ‘Techno’ upbeat track so it would
attract the target audience who will be more likely to listen to similar genres of music.
Below is a screen shot of us creating the track for the radio trail.


For the voiceover of the radio trailer we ensured that the person who was speaking was
enthusiastic, motivated and sounded professional. This is to excite the listeners and ensure
that we catch the target audience’s attention as soon as possible. The narrator had a softer
tone as the radio trail consisted of lots of questions being asked. This is a technique used in
professional radio trails as it subconsciously makes the listener want to know the answer to
these questions.

We discovered that after our research, radio trails tended to be longer (over30 seconds)
some even a minute long, however, if it was too long then the listener might get bored. We
decided that between 30 and 40 seconds would be short enough to keep the listener
engaged and also long enough to include all the key pieces of information needed in our
radio trail.

Magazine Article

Our article was to appear in the radio times, Radio Times is a British
weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, founded and originally published
in-house by BBC Magazines. As our documentary was to appear on BBC 3 we felt that radio
times was the most suitable magazine for it to appear in.

This article from the radio times has similar conventions to the double page spread that we
produced. We based our conventions on similar ones used here. For example where the
glasses and text spreads across both pages, we felt it would be appropriate to mirror this in
our article. We also varied the text choices, as done here and also we involved various
colours which would stand out from the page.


We used various images from parts of our
documentary, we chose to select ones which will
be most eye catching. For example, images of
the policeman that we interviewed. As he was a
figure of authority this would be more eye
catching as oppose to a normal person.

We also included various images which
were relevant directly to the topic. Twitter is
all about tweeting, so we thought it would
be appropriate to put an image of someone
tweeting about our documentary.

One of the most effective pieces in our double page spread was a quote from the
documentary. This was the quote: “OBAMAS VICTORY TWEET
HITS HALF A MILLION RETWEETS” This was a record breaking
achievement of the most retweet ever. This was an important
part to include for various reasons. Firstly it was about president
Obama so that would immediately attract the readers eyes, but
also it showed that Twitter is becoming an important part of
society if Obama is using twitter to interact with the world.

We made sure that the twitter logo appeared multiple times across the double page spread
as it would again, attract the attention of our target aui8dnce. Also, by doing this it fills up
more pages on the double page spread, leaving less ‘white space’ and giving it a more
professional look.

Overall, I feel that our Documentary, Radio Trail and also our double page spread follow
closely the convections and techniques of real media products, however it also challenges
them as I feel that we may have picked up on some points in which the professionals may
have included.


How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Target Audience

Before finalising on the topic selected, we had to ensure that we had picked a target
audience. With Twitter in mind, we thought that the target audience for it would be people
aged 15-30. This is the highest age group which use twitter so this would be the most
appropriate target audience.

After taking this into account we decided that all of our media products ensure that there
are clear relations between our target audience and the things we are to cover in our
documentary. One example of how we did this is was to primary interview a younger
population as the target audience may subconsciously attracted by clothing, voice and
manner of speech. This will also allow the target audience to relate to the people in the
documentary.

Being as we were planning to air our documentary on BBC 3 we did some more research
and discovered that the highest percentage of people who watch BBC 3 is people aged 16-
30 so this allowed us to ensure that our media products would be effective in all areas
which we were going to assessed on.

BBC 3 looks into relating to a younger audience. Our documentary is all about the views and
opinions of the nation in regards to a significant part of younger person’s social lives. Social
networking can take up hours of younger people’s days. This allowed us to realise that BBC
3 was perfect for ensuring that out media product is as effective as possible.


The Radio times is one of the BBC’s top radio magazines, also there is not far off one million
readers. This would ensure that the biggest possible audience would see our double page
spread in which was advertising our documentary. The radio times is also home to other
popular programme articles such as harry potter. Harry Potter has been one of the biggest
film series for the past 10 years. This means that Harry Potter falls right into the lives of our
target audience. This shows us that Radio Times is the best magazine to advertise in as other
major successes (Harry Potter) have chosen to do the same.

The Radio trailer is to be broadcasted on BBC Radio 1. Radio 1 has the highest percentage of
younger listeners. This is because Radio features ‘The Chart Show with Reggie Yates’ this is a
2 hour+ show of all the latest music. The music is most popular with a younger audience,
again which falls under the same audience as who we are aiming at. Whilst the ‘Chart
Show’ is on, there is regular twitter updates from BBC Radio 1 again, so the actual Media
organisation is associated with the topic of our documentary so this supports the fact that it
will the most effective way of advertising our radio trail.

Overall, I feel that all of our three tasks relate a best as possible to our target audience and
we have conducted careful and successful research to insure that we have not missed out
any other key media products which could have been better. The brand that we have
created is exactly what I would personally expect to see on any of these media products or
organisations, and I am an active listener of radio one and an active viewer of BBC 3.


What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I and my group made a questionnaire which was given out to all the members of our media
class (approx 20 people) all of which were aged 17-19 which falls right into our target
audience. They were the perfect people to gain feedback not only because they are in our
target audience but also because they were also creating media products so we could get a
more professional response.

Here are Pie Charts with the results:

With 16 out of 18
people agreeing
that the colours
were relevant
shows us that the
colours were
successful.

All of those who
answered agreed
that our information
was relevant,
supporting the fact it
was a successful
documentary.


All of those who
answered show us
that our article
was good enough
to make everyone
watch the
documentary, this
is the exact
outcome we
wanted.

Only one person stated
they thought that the
images weren’t relevant,
some images however
were there for effect and
stylistic purposes, they
may not have realised
this

A third of those who
answered stated that the
layout was not realistic,
this may have been
because we rushed our
double page spread, if I
was to do it again, I
would ensure that I left
enough time to make
sure all tasks are done to
the highest standard
possible.


Just over a third of
those who answered
agreed that the music
was suitable, if we
were to complete this
task again I would
research further into
social networking
documentaries and
see what sort of
music they use, then I
would apply this to
our project.

We had to re-
record our
narration as there
were problems
with it, this was a
last minute
decision so to only
have one person
not find it clear is a
good result overall.

Again, the
narration was re-
recorded last minute
so only 2 people not
finding it accurate is a


We based the length of
our radio trailer on
professional radio
trailers form the BBC so
to only have one
negative response is a

Just over a third said
that the radio trailer was
not effective, we would
have to look into our
radio trailer and
compare against BBC
ones again and see
where we went wrong.

Everyone who we
asked agreed that the
narration was relevant
which an excellent
result is. We would
compare against this
narration content if
we were to do another
project.


All but one agreed that the documentary did attract their attention immediately. The one
person who didn’t may not have been interested in the topic however we could find ways
improving this in future tasks

Everyone who we asked agreed that the documentary was edited coherently which is an
excellent result. We would refer back to this project if we were to complete another task
like this.


Only half of the people we
asked agreed that the audio was
well managed. The audio was
something which was a problem
throughout the documentary.
This is mainly because all the
different segments were
recorded in different
environments and it was hard to
keep an accurate sound level.
We did improve the sound
levels considerably from what
they were at first. In future I
would see if we could use some
microphones which were
attached to the presenter rather than try to use a directional microphone which was
constantly effected by wind and other ambient noises.

Everyone who we asked
agreed that the
documentary was well
structured. This is an
excellent result and we
would refer back to the
structure of this project if we
were doing a future task like
this.

Everyone who we asked
agreed that our
documentary followed
professional codes and
conventions of media
products. This is one of
the primary tasks of the
project so for everyone to
agree is a fantastic result.


Overall, according to all of our feedback I feel that we have had a very successful
documentary as there was never any less than 50% of the people we asked felt that
something wasn’t good enough. This shows that the documentary was of a professional
standard and if there was one major issue it would be ensuring that sound levels are perfect
throughout the documentary as this could have a negative effect upon the whole
documentary. I have learned that I and my group were able to create a successful project
and that researching into the topic and other media products was key to the success as
most of the positive feedback was due to this.

If I was to do this project again I would ensure that editing and sound was the main focus
areas. Here are some images of our editing parts on the documentary:


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

Research and planning

By using media technologies, it allowed our project to be much straighter forward and allowed us to
access information which we would normally never have access to. Internet explorer allowed us to
gather factual information all about twitter. Internet Explorer gave us access to all the vital sites
which we used during the project, especially Google. Google was starting point for all queries that
we had about our documentary. Google allowed us to navigate directly to the pieces of information
that we needed in order to create successful and factual narration, scripts and most importantly ,
project. We also used Wikipedia for some parts of the research and planning, Wikipedia can be
edited by anyone so we were careful to check that all the information was correct, we checked it
through Google.

Blogger was the tool in which we used in order to upload all of our research and planning onto to
keep track. Blogger also allowed us to label our names on the project so that the correct people in
the group got the credit for the work which they did. Blogger also keeps everything in the order in
which was very useful. We was group 4 in our Blogger account.

However, with blogger we could not upload our documents straight onto it so we had to use other
websites in order to be able to put documents on. I used various up loaders, the main one I used was
SlideShare. I found SlideShare the easiest to work and also the fastest up loader also. However I also
used Scribd which is another document up loader, but I have heard negative things about Scribd so I
only used Scribd when there was a problem with SlideShare.


I used Microsoft word to store most of the documents I had created for the
research and planning. Microsoft word is the world’s
most popular word processor and it was been around
for over a decade. Word is very user friendly and most
schools will teach students from primary school on how
to use it. I used it because I have been using it since I
entered primary school in 2003 and I have never had
any problems with it. I also used word to create the
questionnaires which our class members completed on the quality of our
documentary.

We watched ‘Super Size Me’ in class before we began our project, it was very useful to watch and
after note taking it gave us lots of ideas on how codes and conventions are used. However, as a
group we decided that we should keep refereeing back to it as watching just once was not a
beneficial as to keep refereeing back to it. Personally I used various online programmes to watch it,
but the main one was YouTube. YouTube had the whole documentary uploaded on there and with
the easy to use navigation system it was very easy to refer back to certain parts of the documentary.


Filming

The camera which we used to film our entire documentary was the Cannon HG20 and the HFG10
camcorder which both house a 60GB hard drive. One also has a manual focus ring. This was key to
allowing us to create artistic shots which contained focus pulls. The Cannon also had a very sensitive
zoom feature which allowed us to get the perfect shots. There was an LCD touch screen on the
camera which made it easier to navigate between options, effects and also content. The camera
luckily had a USB port attachment so there was no problem with getting the content onto any
computer.

However, the Cannon did have some problems it had to be charging in order to get content from the
camera to the computer so when there were no wires available there was lots of idle time which
could have been used for editing or reviewing footage. If we were able to use this time to review the
day’s footage then we might have gained more footage the next if we realised that we had missed
out on it. Also, the camera did not have a long battery life, it would only just last for an hour’s filming
and if the cameras had been used in a session before ours then we would have been given less filing
time.

Through both vox pops and the professional interviews we used a tripod to
ensure that we had the most effective, professional shot at all times to
complement an overall professional documentary.

We also used sennheiser HD201 headphones to listen to what we were
recording, we also used the same headphones to listen to the editing part of
the project.

To record the sound for our project we were using a directional microphone.
This meant that it only picked up the sound waves coming from the direction
you were pointing it in. This was essential for cutting out ambient noises when
recording Vox Pops especially. For example in the hallway by the restaurant it was very busy so the
directional microphone did a good job to cut out most of the ambient noises. In future I would have
used a personal microphone as it may have had a better result however it was not feasible in our
situation as the wire would have in the way of passing students.


Sometimes we had held the camera rather than
used the tripod as it was easier to get certain
shots. For example in this shot, we were able to
get lower and get a better angle on the police car
than what we could of using a tripod.

Editing

We used an Apple iMac in order to do
the editing. The college had an editing suite in which was home to 12 apple
iMacs for the students to use. To begin we had to copy everything off the
cameras at the end of each filming session onto the Macs and store the footage
in our own individual folders.

The software which we used in order to edit and put together our whole documentary was an
excellent piece of software called ‘Final Cut Express’ which was very user friendly and allowed us to
everything to do with editing all in one piece of software. The clips had to be ‘Logged and
Transferred into ‘Final Cut Express’ before they could be used in the documentary. Once this was
complete we labelled them appropriately and moved onto the next step.

This was our project in Final Cut Express:


We used various editing techniques
throughout our documentary but one
of the most effective ones was the
speeding up of some shots. This was
used twice in our documentary and
gave our project a much more professional look as this was a technique which we have seen on
various BBC, Nat Geo and more documentaries.

Other editing techniques included ‘overlays’ these are the
names of the person you are interviewing appearing in a
box on screen. This edit is often seen on the news so it is a
professional technique which supports the fact that our
documentary follows the codes and conventions of
professional media products.

We only used one main transition throughout the documentary which was the straight cut, this
could be done two ways, if the clip was already at the correct length it was nice and easy to just
drags into place or we could use the razor tool on Final Cut Express to cut the clip to the correct
length.

This razor tool could also be used for the audio tracks on the documentary which again, made it
easier to edit out the smaller mistakes.

I personally used Photoshop in order to create the title screen which had our names on it for the
opening scene. It also had our names on it which were inputted again using Photoshop.


Radio Trailer

We used garage band in order to make the radio
trailer. This is the same software which we used to
create the music for the documentary music. Garage
band allowed us to import all of the vocal tracks
which we had recorded and then add in some backing
tracks to give the radio trailer an upbeat tune which
would attract our target audience.

We used some of the pre installed loops off garage
band and then added in sound riffs to give it that hip-
hop beat which the target audience will be attracted
too.

We used various fades in and out to allow the track to have more depth. This would make track
sound more professional and relate more to some of the professional radio trailers which the BBC
produces for example.


Double Page Spread

I used InDesign in order to create the magazine article which was to be displayed in the radio times.
InDesign is a publishing programme and it was very similar to photoshop which I had used for the
title page at the start of the documentary.

When I was putting together the double page spread I had to ensure that I followed the codes and
conventions of a professional article which would be expected to be seen in the Radio Times. One
thing we realised about our Double page spread after production of it was that it did not actually
include on the page the words ‘Radio Times’ and after careful research into other radio times pieces,
they do. If I was to re create this in another project I would be sure to include all the relevant
information and ensure that they key codes and conventions are followed.


Evaluation

For the evaluation I used Microsoft word 2007 edition which was perfect for moving all the images
around, cropping and also entering in all the relevant text. I would not have wanted to use any other
programme as I feel that I am most comfortable in word than any other programme. Word also gives
a much more professional look to documents, this is another reason why I chose to use it.

Conclusion

Overall, I feel that I have used media technologies to my highest advantage for research and
planning of the project and also the construction of it as well. By using all of these different
programmes, I have learnt new skills especially on Final Cut Express.

Josh Stobart

A2 media evaluation

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