The document discusses how the student used media technologies in producing their documentary project. They researched existing documentaries to plan their production about a serial killer. They used websites like Google, Netflix, and YouTube to research and watch clips. Planning involved writing ideas, creating a storyboard and animatic. Filming used a digital and still camera. Post-production used Adobe Premiere. Ancillary tasks included a poster made in Photoshop and a magazine interview made in Publisher. Feedback was gathered through a showcase and the student made changes like adding transitions and a microphone. The documentary incorporated conventions like handheld shots while also challenging some by not featuring the subject and using cross-cutting in interviews.

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

2. Research
For our Media production task we got the choice to produce either a
documentary, film trailer or music video, I chose to produce a documentary as
they have always appealed to me. Then I had to decide what I wanted my
documentary to focus on, eventually I decided that I wanted to do it about an
infamous serial killer as I find documentaries like this very interesting. I took
inspiration from different documentaries when planning my production for
example I looked at Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Serial Killers: The
Real Life Hannibal Lecters and Silence of the Lambs. I used these documentary to
get an idea as to what content I should add in, however for the actual style of my
documentary I took a lot of inspiration from Louis Theroux’s documentary style. I
used many websites in order to research relevant media texts websites such as
google to find the websites I needed I used Netflix and YouTube, to watch clips
of the documentaries to see what they had included I also used Wikipedia and
IMDB to see when they were released and how they presented them.

3. Planning
Once I had completed my research I decided it was time to write my ideas down I
started off by roughly writing my ideas down in a list just so I could get an ideas as to
what order I wanted things to be in and so I knew what sorts of things I wanted to
include which gave me a rough idea as to what was going to be include and in what
order. Once I had done this I started on my storyboard this gave me a better idea as to
what each shot as going to look like as well as adding small amounts of dialogue so I
got an idea as to what the characters would be talking about. Once I had completed the
storyboard I decided to make an animatic using adobe premier editing software, this
gave me the opportunity to get an idea of how long my production was going to be.

4. Production & post production
which was an interview in a magazine about the upcoming documentary
When it came down to actually filming the documentary I used a Cannon Legria digital
camera and for taking still photos I used a regular Canon still camera. When filming I
used a lot of hand held camera shots as a lot o shot included me walking and talking to
the camera however I did use a tripod when I was interviewing people.
The filming locations included my house, Ware high-street, the school, Ware park and
my garage.
For my post production I used Adobe Premier this is because I could use it a school and
because I used it last year and so I was familiar with the programme which made it
easier and quicker as I did not have to learn to use a new software.
I also used Adobe Photoshop to produce my first ancillary task which was a poster for
the documentary, and I used publisher for my second ancillary task which was an
interview about the upcoming documentary

5. Evaluation
For my Evaluation I decided to use PowerPoint as again it is a very familiar
programme and I have used it throughout my schooling life in many different
subjects which again makes it much easier as know where everything is and
how to use it.
It also meant I could make it look more professional as I could change the
background colour and format and change the font style, size and colour making
it look more professional and interesting.

6. 2.How effective was the
combination of your
main product and
ancillary tasks?

7. Links between Documentary and Poster
The poster I chose to make for my documentary does follow the conventions set by other already
existing documentaries as it has a fairly simple layout as do most documentaries do. The reason
the poster for my documentary is quite simple is because it is supposed to be a documentary
about real events and so it would be inappropriate to have a dramatic flashy cover, this is why
my poster is just a picture of me standing in front of a back drop of a derelict building which is
supposed to be one of the sites where one of Clifford Randal's victims was found.
The name of the documentary is in a large font at the top so it leaves more of an impact on the
people looking at it also along the bottom I have the images of the awards the documentary has
won to show it is a successful documentary.

8. Links between the documentary and the newspaper interview
The link between the newspaper interview and the documentary is that it is the presenter being
interviewed also all of the questions are relevant to the documentary such as why I chose to
produce the documentary and whether it suited the intended purpose, I also added in a picture
of me underneath the heading and added in a picture of the documentary in action as well as a
picture of the serial killer himself.
I took inspiration from an interview with Louis Theroux from the guardian newspaper which is
where I got the idea of doing a single page spread interview. At first I thought about doing a
review but I then decided it would be better to do an interview so I could explain some of the
choices I made behind the documentary.

9. 3.What have you
learned from your
audience feedback?

10. My Target Audience
The primary audience for the documentary I produced are people between the ages 30 – 65
as they would be more interested In watching serious documentaries, I do however
understand it would attract a secondary audiences for example some teenagers may want to
watch it. The target audience is not specific to gender, ethnicity or race, however I expect it
would mainly be watched by people in Britain because it was made in Britain it is also a
documentary about an incident that happened in Britain.
We based our audience on people in the socio economic groups A – C1 as they would be
more likely to watch my documentary.
I targeted my documentary towards adults as the style of documentary I produced is for
more of a mature taste and is on quite a dark subject that would not appeal to younger
viewers.

11. Feedback
In order to find out what improvements needed to be made I needed to get feedback from
people within my target audience to gather this information our teacher set up a showcase day
whereby everyone In the class got to showcase their productions, other teachers from the
school were also invited to come along and watch. The teachers that did come along fitted in
to my target audience and so they were able to give me valid feedback.
One piece of feedback I got was that some of the shots where I was outside were too quiet and
they could only hear the wind blowing into the microphone on the camera and not what I was
saying. They also said that at some of the cuts that link certain scenes together where slightly
abrupt, for example when it cuts from day one to the second day was to abrupt and people
were unaware that it was going from one day to another.
I did however get positive feedback as most of them said they liked the idea of the
documentary itself they also said that the interview scenes where good and the questions
being asked where interesting.

12. Changes based on feedback
with this feedback I received I instantly went back out to film the scenes where I was
outdoors however this time I took a microphone with me so I could pick up more sound
I used an extension lead so that I could get it nearer to my face so it would pick up my
voice and not any background sounds. From the feedback I got about the cuts from one
scene to another I decided to go back and add in some transitions so that it looked a lot
smoother, for example at the part where it cuts from one day to another I added in a
fade to black as this implies time has passed and is less abrupt than a quick cut.

13. 4.In what ways does
you media product
develop, or challenge
forms and conventions
of real media
products?

14. developed
I incorporated many different contentions in my documentary in order to give my audience the
feel of the genre and so I used many techniques that are also used in the genre.
One convention I used a lot throughout my documentary is the use of hand held shots, there are a
lot of shots of me walking toward the camera talking about where I am going and who I am
seeing, there are also a lot of tracking shots where the camera is behind me as it follows me where
I am going.
Another convention I used is cross cutting I used this a few times throughout the documentary
for example when I was interviewing the friend of Clifford Randal's final victim I used this
technique so you could see both my reaction and the reaction of the person I am interviewing and
is an effective technique.

15. Challenged
One way I challenged conventions is by not having the person in question feature in the
documentary, as the documentary was about the fictional character Clifford Randal I did
not include him in the documentary. Although I had thought about including an interview
whereby you could only see half of his face, however I decided against the idea as I did not
know what questions to ask without it sounding and looking silly.
Another way I challenged documentary style conventions is by using cross cutting in some
of my interview scenes, this challenges conventions because usually they get both the
presenter and the other person in one shot and some times the presented is not in the shot
but behind the camera e.g. vox pops. The reason I used cross cutting is so you could see the
reaction of the person being interviewed and my reaction.