Our documentary uses conventions of real media in several ways: 1) In the introduction, we use quick shots and close-ups intervened by questions on a black frame, mimicking storytelling techniques used on Channel 4 docs. 2) Interviews are conducted without an interviewer, focusing on the subject, and others are positioned to the side to set the location. 3) The documentary has a simple white title and uses lighting to brighten the mood and engage audiences on this delicate subject. Framing and shots are carefully chosen to focus on the subject and set the location while keeping audiences engaged throughout. Feedback has helped us improve the audio quality and remove inappropriate content to make the documentary more

1. EVALUATION 2013
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Inspiration
- We looked at several Channel 4 documentaries including My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and The
Undatables, which gave us an insight into how reality was filmed and caught by its directors.
We thought that these documentaries used interesting footage to engage their audience
and that it was mainly suited for teenagers upwards. Channel 4’s documentaries are mainly
based on real life situations and it made us wonder if we could create something along these
lines in order to stick to the conventions of real media products.
- SIX is a student documentary that we found on Youtube and we were intrigued by its form
and use of conventions against the ordinary Channel 4 ones. The creators had interestingly
decided to form a mockumentary which we found funny and engaging. This then
encouraged us to think more about the genre of our documentary and whether we wanted
it to be more reality than fiction.
- Of course we wouldn’t of been able to of completed our documentary without our main
inspiration, Tom. Unfortunately he lost his leg from the knee down to cancer, and his story
has inspired anyone who’s knows him. The main genre of our documentary is social
commentary, and we decided to make the whole series about stereotypes within society.
Disability is seen as a stereotype and we thought that by filming Tom and getting him to
reveal what it is like to be disabled, we would be able to make our audience realise the
truths behind what he goes through every day and how he deals with it mentally and
physically. In part one, we introduce Tom and show how he is the same as any other person
and his strong opinions leave the audience with a sense of appreciation for what they’ve got
and how lucky they are. However, Tom also shows how you can be who you are no matter
what, as he reveals this through his wheelchair basketball group.
How our documentary sticks to the conventions of real media products:
Introduction
In the introduction of our documentary, we have used quick action shots and close-ups, intervened
by rhetorical questions on a blacked-out frame. We used these quick shots to establish the questions
being asked at the beginning; Channel 4 commonly use this technique as if they were telling a story
and therefore we thought it had a good effect for the beginning of our documentary. But also, we
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had to remember that we chose to introduce the documentary series as a whole and then lead it
into part one, so it was important that the audience was already informed of the content of our
documentary and that we used interesting footage to keep them engaged. The music we used
changed to suit the tempo of the footage and in places we edited the clips in order to match the
beat in the melody to create a greater effect when watching. We are looking at stereotypes within
the community, so it was important for us to include location shots which would emphasise this.
Although part one focuses on Tom and his disability, it was crucial that we made it clear how he
blended in with normal society, giving inspiration to our audience that it is possible and that you
don’t have to seclude yourself because of who you are or how you are.
Interviews
- We chose not to include the interviewer, which is the ‘Voice of God’, in our documentary
because we thought that Tom (our main character) had a lot to say, and by making the top
half of his body the centre of the frame, it allows the audience to concentrate on his facial
and body expressions, emphasising the importance of his views.
- Other interviews throughout are mainly questions being asked and people were normally
positioned to the side of the frame, to establish location as well as what they had to say, this
would enable us to help keep the audience informed of where the documentary was being
filmed and how it might alter their own opinion. We are representing a variety of
stereotypes and as our genre is social community, having other people from the same
society being interviewed helped establish what kind of community Tom was set in and the
people he was friends with. In part one we represent disability through Tom and how he fits
into his society, by showing the audience that he is treated equally and showing his life in a
positive light, it makes them think that everyone is equal and makes them reflect how they
treat others in their society.
Text/Lighting
- The only text that we have is in the introduction of our documentary and it is a simple, white
Arial font on a plain black background. The simplicity is to reflect the word stereotype,
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emphasising its normality and highlighting it as an important matter. The narration clearly
explains Tom and as he is only on-screen person, we felt that there was no need for a title.
- The lighting is a very important aspect of our documentary; as the topic is a delicate subject,
the lighting helps to brighten up the mood and tone of the documentary, creating a more
engaging atmosphere for the audience. It is important that the audience feel comfortable
watching our documentary and that is why we have been selective over where Tom was
interviewed and other location shots, we wanted him to feel relaxed as well.
Framing
As we haven’t got a presenter for our documentary we decided to centralise Tom in all of our frames
when he is speaking. This highlights him as the main person in our documentary and it helps the
audience to engage with his facial expressions and mood. When Tom is speaking, only the top half of
his body is in frame and his crutches are placed beside him; this reminds the audience of his
disability, yet it also shows how he is making a statement – by the crutches being left at the side of
him, it creates the illusion that he does not need them like any other person, but throughout our
documentary, we would have been expressing how it doesn’t matter because we are all human. Like
with the interviews, some interviewees are positioned either left or right of the frame and here we
have used the rule of thirds – it creates a more interesting shot and helps to establish location as
well.
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Archive Footage
This means footage that has already been created and filmed by someone else and many
documentaries use such archive footage to either help express an opinion or add effect to their
documentary. We only had limited time for archive footage and we decided to include some from
the Channel 4 coverage of the Paralympics and a random skating video from YouTube, which helped
establish location.
Voice Overs
Also known as the Voice of God, we used our own voice as a narration for our documentary. We felt
this was suitable as our documentary was aimed at older teens and adults and would help engage
them more. We used a voice over in our introduction of the documentary and at the beginning of
part one, but only to establish our aims, purpose and what we were focusing on. As Tom was our
main focus we felt it was appropriate that he explained everything so it would be more believable
for the audience, instead of information being constantly ‘spoon-fed’ throughout the documentary.
Shots
A variety of shots was used throughout our documentary to keep the scenes interesting and
engaging for our audience. Establishing shots were used to show location in our documentary,
cutaways were used inbetween different types of footage that didn’t quite fit together and we used
close-ups and mid shots when having someone in focus so that the audience were able to
concentrate on their facial expressions and body movements. It was important to choose the correct
shot to suit the sequence otherwise we could of given our audience mixed messages and they might
of got confused, which is something we definitely didn’t want; so we were careful to spend time on
choosing what shot would suit our footage as it makes all the difference when viewing it.
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2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Advertisement 1 - Double Page Spread
Our double page spread advertises our documentary series as a whole and as it is about stereotypes
it seemed obvious to have an image of a group of stereotypes. Using the internet we researched the
different kinds of double page spreads and from researching their conventions and forms we were
able to gain an insight as to how ours should look, which would make it seem more like a real media
product. It was crucial that our double page spread included information about our new
documentary and when it would be first aired on television. There also had to be a relevant image
and fact box to keep the readers intrigued. Our double page spread is simple, yet formal to
represent our documentary as an important matter that we would be trying to address. The main
aim our double page spread to make the public aware of our new documentary and what it would
entail if they chose to watch it, and hopefully our double page spread would help convince them to.
Advertisement 2 – Poster
We created an advertising poster which displays the image of a person posing in three different
styles. By using the same person we are emphasising our documentary’s main catch lines, “We Are
All Stereotype” and “We Are All Human” and the chosen images help express this viewpoint across
to the viewer. By using Photoshop we were able to create a simple plain background and blend in
our images against it so that it looked like a real media product. As we would like our documentary
to be broadcasted on Channel 4, we thought it was a good idea to research other Channel 4 posters
in order to see their layout and conventions. From looking at samples, it is clear that Channel 4 use
strong thought provoking images in order to advertise their products, they're quite simple layouts
and the positioning of the text and logo is always cleverly thought about and you can tell by just
looking at the posters. The text is always blocked and stands out amongst the picture, yet doesn't
take away focus unless it’s meant to and the image clearly gives a clue as to what the poster is
about.
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3) What have I learnt from audience feedback?
The feedback back we were given for our production was positive; however they did give our group
some improvements. We asked a multiple of people what they thought of our Documentary, we
gave it to a tutor group and asked for their opinion on what they thought was good and could be
improved.
Our positive feedbacks were:
- Our documentary flowed nicely together
- The camera work was strong including angles and positioning
- The music worked well creating emotions and feelings for the audience
- Our interviews were strong as well
- We did get a positive comment from a viewer on YouTube
Our negatives were:
- Our voice over’s needed to be louder and to duck the music more allowing a clearer
understanding for the audience
- There was one clip with some swearing in so we were told she beep it out
We didn’t have a huge amount of negatives given to us but we still wanted to improve our
documentary as best as we could. We went away tweaking our audio to try and get it perfect, we
constantly played it over and over again making sure that the sounds was as best as it could be.
The things we have learnt from our feedback is that our production will never be perfect, there will
always be little bits that need adjusting and tweaking and feedback is the way to find it. The sound is
the key aspect that we have learnt from; we now know that it is so important to get it right so that
everything is clear for the audience. Another thing that we have learnt is that a higher quality
camera can enhance emotions and feelings as it can pick up key parts that we are filming and display
is better.
To say that our documentary results in a hypodermic-needle would be wrong, as we are not directly
feeding information from our documentary to our audience. We have not created our documentary
so that it is pictures and pictures surrounded by facts – this is an inefficient way of thinking how our
documentary is perceived by the audience. However, we can say that it is more like a two-step flow,
whereby our ‘voice of god’ and Tom narrate our documentary by telling the story, meaning that our
documentary can be perceived better than others. It is more believable for an audience to hear an
opinion through the person who’s stating it, thereby our documentary is more effective in this way,
engaging more of an audience. With this in mind, we need to make sure that we do not switch from
one method to the other, otherwise this could lead to our documentary being misleading and our
audience confused.
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4) How did you use media technologies in the construction research, planning
and evaluation stages?
Throughout the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages we used a number of
different media technologies. We used tripods for the camera to allow a steady shot making our
filming look more professional and allow the audience to focus on it more clearly. The camera we
used was cannon 350d, a high quality camera with HD 1080p however we only used this camera for
the 2nd stage of our documentary; the first half we used a standard Samsung hand camera. For our
interviews we used a boom and microphone so we could pick up the audio more clearly for the
audience. The editing software we used was iMovie, a basic editing software that allows you to
adjust clips and audio an allows you to merge clips together; it was a fantastic software to use for
this production.
Planning was the hardest part to this documentary, we all had to visualise the same production as
each other which was a really hard thing to do. We all decided to draw our ideas on a piece of paper
along with descriptions to how we thought each section should be. We all decided on our favourite
ideas and decided to stick with them. We created PowerPoint presentations and pitched our idea to
the rest of our class; we also gained feedback from this which was helpful. Blogging was the key part
of the planning, we stored everything we planned on a website called Weebly, it was a great source
to our planning as everything was stored together and we could see how much our planning was
coming along.
During the construction stage we used the cameras, tripods and microphones to gather the footage
and audio necessary to make our documentary. After all of the clips and audio were made we
transferred them onto the Apple Mac’s and onto our editing software iMovie and from there it was
all editing.
5) How has my use of technology advanced from foundation to
advanced?
HOLLY
Last year I took the role of director for our group and I have again carried on this role throughout
this year’s course. However, even though I have taken on the role as the director of our
documentary, I have been heavily involved in the editing and filming of our project and this has
helped my skills to develop even further. By using IMovie a lot more this year I have been able to
discover new techniques in editing our project and these newly gained skills have allowed me to be a
more conscientious editor, meaning more time and effort has gone into our project. I have never
really used Garage Band throughout my media course, however this year we have used it to try and
create our own pieces of music as that was part of the course specification. Not forgetting my
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leadership role, I feel that I have learnt to become more patient with my group and it has helped us
to work together more effectively, but if there ever was a dispute then I would do my best to resolve
the problem without being biased, looking at both point of views made me more open to ideas and
trial and error. My knowledge of filming has also developed because I have learnt new camera shots
and how to use them effectively when filming. This has made a massive difference to the way in
which I look at different kinds of footage and I feel it has helped me to become more aware of what
footage ‘will do’ and what is ‘perfect’.
As I took on the role of director, it was my duty to make sure that my team were up together and
that whatever we did was to plan. This year, I found that it was extremely important to brain storm
our ideas and storyboard our scenes; this gave us the foundation for our documentary and from
then on we were able to start planning when and where we were going to film. Of course, when it
comes to location, you always have to consider the weather and practicality of everything and how
necessary it is to your footage. We had really bad weather this year so it took us a long time to film
our footage and it affected the lighting and travel. It was obviously very important to make sure that
the equipment we were using was in good condition and had plenty of charge, so that we were
prepared if anything took longer than planned. Once everything was planned and storyboarded, it
was crucial to establish who did what and I myself landed with the role of director, meaning that I
would have to manage our project altogether and organise our group. From this role, I have
developed my organisational skills and people skills, allowing me and my team to work efficiently
together and hopefully on time.
JOSH
At the start of our use of technology, I was unfamiliar with the equipment and software. The
software iMovie was a different type of software that I have used in the past and we had to get used
to it. Over time I was able to learn how to import clips and how to link them together to make the
scene look good. I am now able to upload and edit at a much faster pace than before, I understand
how to merge clips together to create a successful piece of work at a professional standard.
The cameras were a lot trickier to get to grips with; when using the Cannon 350d’s they did not have
an auto focus when using them in film mode. I had to learn how to adjust the focus according to
what we want to stand out at that moment in time. It was a very hard process seen as getting the
perfect focus was incredibly hard. I have now learnt how to focus according to what we wanted and
how we wanted it at an almost perfect standard every time and I am now confident with the
cameras and have no trouble selecting the right mode for what we wanted.
Throughout the course I took on the role of editor and because of this my skills at using IMovie have
improved majorly; as previously stated, by using such software more frequently I have been able to
become quicker at editing clips together and adding effects to them to make them look better.
Overall our progression has grown rapidly over time, we are aware of what can look bad in our
production and we understand what a professional standard is, we are careful with what we use and
how we use it so we make it successful and unique which is what we want to achieve.
PHIL
Talking from the perspective of the camera man what lesson I found most useful is take as many
shots as possible, if you see something which looks interested and can in anyway be linked to the
product then shoot it, this then gives you a range of shots which can be used as cut away when
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editing and especially when doing a documentary cut always are really effective. I also solidified
lighting and framing of interviews and lighting in general, what I learnt last year was to use lighting
effectively, what this year has shown me that lighting is an important aspect and can always be
monitored. I have also adapted on the skills I learnt about thriller and I have a greater understanding
of how shots types can represent an emotion, especially when mixed with camera angles.
I have also advanced in the quality of the actual filming, I found that my own camera created more
impressive shots than, with the school camera, but where the quality of shot was better, manual
focusing was essential when using this camera, but this allowed me to create into focus shots which I
think are really effective, especially when focusing from one subject to another in one shot.
Obviously therefore I adapted my skills with the tripod, how and when to use the tripod and how
every situation requires a different technique e.g. interview can be either one or more cameras on a
person or group of people can be stationary where when filming sport, manoeuvrability is key, this
shows the difference between a how the tripod can be turned tight, or kept loose.
Using a new camera meant learning a new set of skills and also after speaking to university students,
learning from them gave me the stepping stones to the advanced level I have come to learn and that
the only way to now improve is to experiment, try new and revolutionary things with the camera.
Also when filming solo, it is important to be confident, you must take any action necessary to get the
shot you want, so on a philosophical level I think that camera work is 50% luck and being in the right
place and the right time and 50% skill, you must know where the next good shot is going to come or
quickly move into the best vantage point for any given shot. It is important to first know the area
you are filming, start with establishing shot and work your way around to get the three key shots. An
action shot, a shot of something both symbolic and impressive of the day’s events, a shot which
sums up the atmosphere of the day, and a shot not necessarily of the main event but something
which on a sub textual level sums up the day, for me in the documentary it was the focus, over the
shoulder shot of Tom seen at the end.
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