The document provides an analysis of a student's media coursework which included creating the introductory 5 minutes of a television documentary, a radio trailer, and a double page magazine spread. The student researched conventions of documentaries and used techniques like interviews, facts, music, and shots to develop their documentary. They targeted their content at ages 16-25 and evaluated the effectiveness of their documentary, radio trailer, and magazine spread through feedback questionnaires. The student utilized software like InDesign and GarageBand to construct their ancillary texts and researched conventions by analyzing existing media.
2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
We were all given a brief at the beginning of creating our coursework, this brief was to create the
introductory 5 minutes of a television documentary. Along with this 2 ancillary tasks of a radio trailer
for the documentary and a double page spread in a TV listings magazine.
We started by researching different types of documentaries to see what goes in the opening 5
minutes of a typical documentary. We watched Supersize me and Come Fly with me, as part of our
research.
Bill Nicholls’ theory of documentary modes in 2001 was a theory into the different types/styles of
documentary. According to Nicholls’ there are 6 different types, poetic, participatory, reflexive,
performative, observational and expostional. One of these modes is the
Our documentary used a narrative style, arguing a point and shown in a rhetorical order, we did this
by presenting a good argument, appealing to emotions and addressing our audience directly. We
used expert opinion, facts and figures, history and comparison to help argue the point we were trying
to make.
Our documentary uses the enigmatic code, this means there are many unanswered questions for the
viewer and although there is a point being made viewers can have there own opinion on the debate
of the documentary.
3. Our documentary used interviews, background music, facts and figures and rule of thirds for the interviews.
We also used the Camera in our documentary for example different shots, movement and camera effects. We
used medium close ups, close ups, long shots, establishing shots and extreme close ups in our documentary.
We also used pan and tracking movements of the camera. These were effective for establishing shots and we
noticed they were used in many of the openings of professional documentaries.
We also used different types of camera for example, handheld and tripod. We found the handheld camera
was an essential use in many existing documentaries and found it to be very useful in the making of ours.
Using the tripod meant we could use effects such as pan, tracking and zooming. But we used the tripod to
mainly to record our interviews. This allowed us to take into account the rule of thirds, Mise en scene and set
up of the interview.
Sound is another tool we used in our documentary, we used diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. We also used a
voiceover and background music in our documentary. The background music worked very effectively as it kept
the audience entertained without distracting them from the information being given. A lot of real life
documentaries use background music so we decided to try it too. We used some sounds that the audience
could see along with the actors and some which the actors couldn’t I think this was a good combination and
worked well.
This is an example of our rule of thirds, where
the viewer is attracted to the middle of the
screen so the ideal position of the interview is
selected that will keep the viewer interested
and also be eye-catching to the viewer. We are
comparing ours to an already created
documentary and as you can see ours is very
similar if not the same, this gave it a
professional feel and made it look good.
4. The opening of our documentary was fast paced and used a lot of still images entering and exiting the picture
with several effects on them. The aim of the opening is to hook the viewer and make it eye-catching and
interesting, hopefully with the fast pace and effects our opening was both of these. With less talking we hope
that the viewer wasn’t bored and it kept them glued to the screen. The opening is also supposed to give a few
clues away as to what the documentary is about, some of the images we used are above and I think that they
definitely give the theme of the documentary away and show us what to expect.
Establishing shot Pan shot
Above are two examples of the shots we used, on the left an establishing shot. Many pro documentaries
use this to set the scene for the next shot or show where they are interviewing people in there
documentary. We used establishing shots to show where we were and set the scene for the voiceover or
upcoming scene. We also used it to match or make sense of the voiceover rather than just talking alone.
On the right there is a pan shot this also helps to set the scene but is also an interesting and eye-catching
shot. Using the camera on a tripod gave us the perfect opportunity to use a pan shot. We used a pan
shot to interest the viewer between interviews or changes in scenes.
5. Mid Shot/Over the shoulder
Here is another shot we used, this is a mid shot of
Charlotte typing. This is effective as not only is it a mid
shot it is also an over the shoulder shot, this works well in
this shot as we can see what she is doing at the same time
as being able to see her. We used this to show her typing
into a fast food order which was interesting and very
relevant to our documentary. A lot of pro documentaries
use this to show not only the actor but also something
else relevant in shot.
We also used a point of view shot,
this is interesting as we can see
Point of view shot what the actor can see from their
The series of pictures below show a 360 degree angle. We used this as it was
shot of the gym, we used this as it was very interesting but also provided some
interesting eye-catching and also showed a very relevant information, in this chase
different but relevant view of something featured a food advert in a newspaper. This
in the voiceover. Along with the voiceover this was very effective and gave us a
shot was very effective as it was interesting and different type of shot which could
showed a very important shot of what was being interest the viewer and at the same
spoke about on the voiceover. time keep them interested with
relevant information to go with the
360 degree shot voiceover without distracting them.
6. High angle shot
This is a high angle shot we used, this is an interesting shot and shows a different
angle on the matter, it also gives us a better picture of what is going on. This was
very effective with the voiceover as it shows us a relevant picture to match what
is being spoke. This shot also gave us the chance to use a hand held camera
which is used in a number of pro documentaries. This was very effective and
gave the feel that you were standing watching the person run down the side and
gave the feeling of real energy which was the purpose.
Shown above is a series of stills that we used in our documentary, this is very effective as it
gets us away from filmed footage which after a while can become boring and just drag in terms
of the documentary. The quick fire still images are eye-catching fast paced and keep the
viewers attention, they also go very well with the documentary and fit the voiceover. A series
of quick fire images is something many real life documentaries use as it is interesting and
clever.
7. Archive footage
This is footage already created and used by another company. We used this to
break up our own shots and also give examples of things that we were saying on
the voiceover. For example we spoke about TV advertisements so we would show
an advertisement that was featured on the TV we did this for both healthily
(Special K) and unhealthily (Burger King). We found this to be affective as it helped
us back up our voiceover and give examples of the things we were saying. It was
also effective as it got away from our own shots which could possibly of bored our
audience.
9. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our target audience was 16-25, so
our magazine spread needed to
appeal to this audience, therefore
had to be eye-catching and at the
same time not bright and childish.
10. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Target audience
• When identifying we listened to radio trails and watched documentaries to see the type of
people who watch our genre of documentary.
We came to the conclusion that our target audience would be both males and females of
the age 16-25, this was because they would be interested in there health and also be at an age
where obesity could be changed so they could listen to our tips and hints of how to lose weight
and watch the expert interviews of what they have to say about the topic.
This was we chose BBC3 at 7pm, BBC3 have a lot of reality documentary but at the same time
have a younger target audience which was what we had decided. This was perfect as it has shows
like Junior Doctors at 6-7 so would be a perfect opportunity to put our documentary on just after
it. Many teens and young adults are in the house at this time so we decided that this was the best
time to attract more of an audience and more people would watch it at this time.
We found most of our information from looking at all BBC’s target audience and shows they put
on, we found there main target to be inform and education but at the same time entertain its
viewers so this was perfect for our documentary.
11.
12. Would you watch the documentary Did it keep you interested? How would you rate
after listening to the radio trailer?
the radio trailer?
Very good
Good
Fair
Bad
This shows us that people thought our radio trailer was good and entertaining with the
majority of people rating it as good. It also showed us that half of the people who
listened thought it was interesting. And over half saying they would watch it after
watching the documentary.
Was the spread eye-catching? Did it follow typical conventions?
How would you rate the
spread?
Very good
Good
Fair
Bad
This shows us that our magazine was eye-catching and interested people but at the same time followed all
the conventions, this is good because it is what we aimed for. Also this feedback shows us that people
liked our magazine and rated it Very good(the majority) So overall our magazine was a success.
13. How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
When we started our documentary we used many different techniques to do audience research one of
these was creating a questionnaire and also watching other documentaries to use similar techniques. The
questionnaire helped us to understand our target audience and what they wanted to see in our
documentary. It also showed us what they are most interested in seeing in a documentary. The
documentaries I watched, were ‘Supersize Me’ and ‘Supersize Vs. Super skinny’ this helped me understand
some of the typical conventions and give me an understanding of what to include in my documentary.
When beginning the double page spread, I read through several TV listings magazine for example TV Times
and TV choices, these both helped me pick out the typical conventions and helped me to think about what
to include in ours. This was helpful and I included some things I maybe wouldn’t have otherwise.
In creating in our radio trail I looked to http://www.ibaudio.com/?Page=BrowseCategories&CategoryID=32
for inspiration, we also did group work listening to trailers and identifying common trends on how to attract
audiences and the common features of radio trails.
14.
15. We use InDesign to create our double page spread. This was
the best as it is practical and very good for making magazine
spreads, there are also a number of different texts you can
use. And a number of different eye-catching effects that keep
readers interested
16. We used garage band to create our radio
trailer this was good as there were a number
of different sounds you can insert to make
the radio trailer interesting. Also it is easy to
insert extracts from the documentary and
makes it easy to have a long running
voiceover through the whole thing.
