Post on 12-Jan-2015
description
EVALUATIONJosh Fry
4073
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
?
My documentary is conventional in many ways as per other documentaries in the
media industry. It has the following features:
- a very standard yet unique rhetorical type question title or a questioning title that
the documentary will hopefully answer with the information provided and presented
in the argument they are supporting.
Fees Uncovered
Other conventional aspects are visible though it has its own unique flare too.
Neutral shots when interviewing reinforce atmosphere and that much needed
sense of importance while keeping a formal interview format. The creative shots
I took coupled with the verbal discourse comply with conventional documentary
styles conveying the issue and relevance of the problem and demonstrating a
macro view of who it will affect and in what capacity.
The mix of shots of students moving between classrooms and panning shots
around the large buildings of the campus complement each other capturing a
sense of populous diversity to visually cue the viewer to the potential scale of the
changes afoot whilst the blend of staff and student affected is examined too.
My documentary utilises skills that I gained via my research - during this
period I watched countless documentaries submersing myself in the various
documentary formats to learn of ways to present my own. I feel the
documentary gives a more of a big brother style narrative with just me and
my classmate providing vocals with no visual appearance. The slideshow
style montage of images mixed with text format to hopefully impact the
viewer with the reality of the situation and what happens that is not always
publicised, I feel this convention meets with the norm found in real
documentaries although displayed in more unique fashion with the use of a
number of stills as that defies the form of a real media product.
The documentary supports an expository theme that is supposed to provoke awareness within the
viewer, as I set out to do. This I hope will allow the viewers to experience the thoughts and opinions of
people that are teaching and representing the student body, to give a well rounded view of the topic
as this is the conventional method for an expository documentary to present a case. The modern
documentary that is found on prime time television would convey a case a non biased manner : the
wording of the presentation often being more hard hitting than their counter argument. This is an
editing skill and sudden atmosphere change that allows the directors to make a balanced argument
but for the side there are supporting to resonate with the viewer based partly on their control of the
way they have presented the facts. This occurs often in Michael Moore’s documentaries and it is
where I found some inspiration for the mode in which I presented my product.
How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?
?
I decided to make a magazine front page for my single supporting piece as I felt
this would resonate with my target audience. This was for the viewers I was
hoping for would be the younger generation entering the UCAS system and
looking at the proposed fee increases with fear. I would hope that my product
would attract the audience I have chosen as I have gone for a colourful yet
informative piece that will hopefully provide a relevant linked project that will lead
nicely onto my final piece. My other supporting piece was inspired by a poster I
saw while filming at Kingston University advertising a protest in which it invited
students to attend with a snappy title and a clean and clear view of their intentions.
My supporting pieces link and resonate with my final product as they were
designed to be linked from conception. My supporting pieces are set to
convey the message of my documentary in a compact visual medium. My
Poster is supposed to represent the protest filmed in my documentary. The
magazine imitates a normal magazine with the added effect of the more
political story it contains. In terms of similarities my poster matches the
home made look that is conveyed from the rugged hand drawn posters I
found in the university.
?What Have you learned
from your audience feedback?
Audience Feedback
The audience feedback was very illuminating, I found that there were a
number of positives that people enjoyed and some small faults that could be
very easily rectified.
The feedback was mostly positive it includes points that made reference to
the context and the relevance of the piece in this troubling time.
Others commented on the technical aspects that showed expertise and
some tips to learn.
Overall the comments were positive or constructive criticism this led me to
the conclusion that the product had many successful traits and overall was
both worth watching and enjoyable.
?How did you use media technologies
in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I used many technologies to create my final outcome; I learnt a huge amount
throughout my journey of production and specifically about the technology that is
used to produce a product, and how utilising even the simplest of software can
create something truly unique and creative. This course allowed me to explore these
media construction technologies in an in depth fashion and learn to use them too.
Products explored throughout the course varied from software to hardware but one
of the most prominent in my studies is “Blogger”. This is a website that allows you to
blog your learning processes which can range from research to idea generation.
Blogger is an interesting a useful recording tool : it allowed me to provide images,
video and other creative mediums of course including text work.
Blogger is accessed via the internet and here is a quick video I made to show some of the features available on the
blogger homepage I wanted to portray the ease of use and how the program can be used by anyone. Blogger is the
collective product that allowed me to show my project in a progressive and sophisticated manner. Click the screen to
play.
Sony Camera
The Sony camera was a key piece of technology producing
good quality footage. It was very easy to use, quick to start up
and simple to import onto the Apple Mac for editing.
The camera was reliable in terms of battery life, though at
some points there were sound recoding issues as it was very
receptive to background noise.
Sony adaptable Tripod; I used this tripod throughout the filming process and found
that it was easy to carry around and very useful when creating
a set fixture which was appropriate for my interview style
filming.
Yeti The yeti product is an incredibly useful tool, it is a
recording device that is very sensitive and picks up a good high quality voice recording. I used this in the voiceovers of my product and found it to be very compatible with the Apple Mac.
Digital Camera
I used a normal digital camera and IPhone camera to take still shots of any relevant content
throughout the project.
Apple Mac
The main tool of my project was the Apple Mac, this
technology was the lifeblood of my product. it brought my
documentary from a plan to a real product with the use of
Imovie. Imovie allows you to import and edit footage you
have taken into a movie format.
Wordle;
Wordle is a program accessible on the internet. It allows you
to paste in words - press the start key and it will generate a
fantastic formatted word cloud that can be precisely edited to
produce the most purpose suitable picture.
Prezi is an amazing software application: I used it to create a presentation showing how I manifested the links between my different theme topics .
The software works very well. The program can be easily integrated into other means of presentation with a linking system that is compatible with Blogger.