1. Evaluation Introduction Niamh Reilly

2. What our coursework involved? For our A2 coursework we worked in groups to produce a short opening to a documentary. Accompanying this main task we also had to produce a magazine article and a radio trailer that advertised our product. Before we started anything we had to work together to research documentaries and then plan our work. 3. Evaluation questions Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback? Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages? 4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 5. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YDocumentary Before we could think about now our documentary would use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of documentaries we had to research into the media product itself. We started by researching the modes of documentaries. 6. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YDocumentary modes One mode was the expository mode. Known as the voice of god this mode is what we identify with documentaries. The expository mode often uses a narrator and emphasises verbal commentary. It addresses the spectator directly using titles and voices that themselves argue a point, propose a perspective or recount history. An example in everyday life of this mode of documentary would be Television News programming. Some expository documentaries that use voice of God commentary find it useful because it judges actions portrayed through images on the screen without being caught up in them. 7. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YDocumentary modes The most artistic of documentary modes is the poetic mode which is an expression and also subjective. These documentaries tend to stress the emotional and lyrical aspects of the world. This documentary type is not as mainstream as some of the others as it sacrifices filmic conventions like continuity and editing to explore associations between images, objects and patterns. 8. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YDocumentary modes The observational mode is seen to be the window on the world and attempts to observes aspects of the world as they happen. These documentaries' typically have no voiceover, nor music or sound and also no behaviour repeated for the camera nor interviews. Social actors behave as if no filmmakers were there. 9. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YDocumentary modes The Participatory Mode involves an on screen presenter and involves an interview between filmmaker and the subject. In this mode the filmmaker is able to address people who appear in the film as apposed to addressing the audience through voice-over commentary. This his gives the audience a sense of what it is like for the filmmaker to be in a given situation and how that situation alters as a result. 10. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YDocumentary modes Having the spectator the focus of attention is a convention of the reflexive mode. These documentaries are set out to re-adjust peoples expectations and assumptions. It relies on techniques that are intended to shock the spectator and sever our engagement with the film so that we are forced to think about filmmaking as a construct 11. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YDocumentary modes The performative mode involves the filmmaker as a participant of the documentary. This mode of documentary raises questions and sets out to demonstrate how you the audience provide entry into an understanding of the more general processes at work in society. Throughout these documentaries tone and mood are stressed from the perspective of the filmmaker who primarily addresses the spectator. 12. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YParticipatory Documentary Our documentary followed the participatory mode it involved an on screen presenter. It also involved interviews between the subject and the on screen presenter following the typical conventions of a participatory documentary. This mode of documentary involves addressing the audience with a voice over which we also do. These features give the audience a sense of what it is like for the filmmaker to be in the situation also, meaning they may approach the documentary with more of an open mind. And it also how the situation alters as a result. 13. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YOn screen presenter Unlike many documentaries ours had an on screen presenter. We developed this idea after watching Super Size Me directed by Morgan Spurlock. This documentary was exploring quite a serious topic, however with Morgan Spurlock also acting as the on screen presenter this serious topic took a more humorous approachable tone. This is something we wanted to achieve in our documentary which is why we decided to have a charismatic on screen presenter. With the addition of this on screen presenter we challenged typical health documentary conventions, as usual they do not have an on screen presenter just a narrator an example of this would be Gary Nulls War on Health. As you can see however not only subverts typical conventions it also reinforces them as Super Size Me uses an on-screen presenter. 14. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YInterviews All of the interviews we included in our documentary reinforce the typical conventions of a documentary. The interviewees were all looking away from the camera towards the person asking the question. This feature is present in many documentaries including Super Size Me and this technique is used in formal recorded interviews. We used it to show that the importance of the questions as the interviewee was always focused on the content of the question in order to answer efficiently. The arrows on the pictures indicate where the interviewee is looking, you can see that they are not looking directly at the camera, and especially in the last one that they are making direct eye contact with the interviewer. 15. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YSuper Size meInterviews Our documentary uses the typical conventions of documentary interviews. These involve the direction of the eyes of the interviewees they are looking adjacent from the camera towards the interviewer. Another convention we use is setting. The setting of each interview relates to the participant of the interview. As they are formal interviews we tried to match the mise en scene with the interviewees job description.Our Documentary 16. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YVoxpops Our voxpops were subjective rather than objective. We made sure that participants involved were not misled by questions and opinions as people often are in documentaries. We also made sure that our voxpops were not biased towards our opinions. This challenges most documentaries because we portrayed both points of view. This challenged documentaries like Morgan Spurlocks Super Size Me because throughout Super Size Me voxpops supported Spurlocks viewpoint. 17. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YTitles We used conventions of documentaries in our documentary by using titles to introduce interviewees of formal interviews. This was a useful way of ensuring that the spectator knew the interviewee and added the benefit of the audience knowing their job title. This was convenient because they could see for themselves how our chosen interviewees were relevant to our chosen topic. As you can see from the pictures to the right this was a convention used in Super Size Me and one we also used. We followed the convention of having the title aligned left and made the name of the interviewee slightly larger than the job title. However we challenged Super Size Mes conventions by making our titles have a bold slightly transparent purple backdrop. We used this because it made the names and job titles stand out. We also placed the titles in the lower third to ensure that audiences could still see the scene. 18. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YBackground footage Another way we used conventions of documentaries was just relevant background footage. This is also present in Super Size Me. 19. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YCredits Alike to Super Size Me at the end of our documentary we put transition credits. However we developed this feature by instead od having a plain black background we had a picture that related to our documentary itself. 20. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YShock factor We developed a convention used by Morgan Spurlock to add a shock factor to our documentary. Many studies show that for the impact on the spectator to be great the use of visual techniques should be shocking. Spurlock uses this in Super Size Me through showing the different sized cups available in McDonalds. We developed this idea further by using salt and showed out audience how much salt was in a McDonalds meal compared to how much salt they were reccomended daily. 21. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YShaped around Public Opinion Unlike many documentaries our documentary is not based upon our opinions it is however based up on the publics. We challenged the usual biased documentaries like Super Size Me and made sure all our opinions were from different peoples public opinions. 22. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YCamera, Cinematography Unlike Super Size Me our documentary challenged participatory documentaries by not using a hand held camera. We challenged this convention because our documentary was not following the on screen presenter around all day. Our documentary was a lot more sophisticated in terms of camera work. 23. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YCamera, Cinematography Establishing shot: The use of an establishing shot is essential in many forms of media including documentaries. We used an establishing shot of Solihull Sixth form in order to show our audience the location of our documentary. Also because our target audience was at students we thought they could identify with the shot of the school/college because they may have been to one at some point. 24. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YMise en scene As our documentary was aimed at students we decided that it would be best to keep our documentary as informal as possible so our audience was able to identify with the scenes, ideas and on screen presenter. 25. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YMise en scene One of the main ways we supported Super Size Mes convention of informal approaches was the dress code of our on screen presenter we kept his attaire simple; jeans and a t-shirt. This was developed because our on screen presenter was also a student. This meant that our target audience was able to identify with the presenter and thus identify with the issues we were discussing. 26. Q U E S T I O N O N ED O C U M E N T A R YMise en scene We felt it was important to reinforce the convention in keeping the background relevant to the documentary. This is used in many documentaries including Super Size Me. We thought that keeping relevant background footage would ensure that the audience members were consistently thinking about our topic. 27. Q U E S T I O N O N E M A G A Z I N EOur Magazine 28. Q U E S T I O N O N E M A G A Z I N EUsing Typical Conventions This headline shows the main themes of the article and essentially what it includes. This is used in all magazines to show the spectator what they want.Main articleSocial media icons represent where the reader can access more information.This box is used to display how the audience will access the documentary. This stand first displays to the reader an overview of what the article is about.Dominant image attracts the readers attention.Pull quote s attract the readers attention.The radio times logo used to reinforce the magazine and the page number is also on the side.ALSO: as you can tell overall the house style is red, black and white and a conventional feature of a magazine.Screen shots of the documentary intrigue the reader and give them an insight into the documentary. Also there will be picture credits underneath. 29. Q U E S T I O NUsing Typical Conventions Heading emphasising scenes.Pictures give another insight into the article and what the article is about. Picture captions explain what is going on.O N E M A G A Z I N EMain heading lets the audience know what is happening The stand first lets the audience know what the article is about.Page numbers Main articleRadio times logo and page number 30. Q U E S T I O N O N E M A G A Z I N EUsing Typical Conventions Heading emphasising what its aboutPicture captionThe stand first lets the audience know what the article is about. Lets the audience know what time and where they can watchPicture dominantPull quote s attract the readers attention.Page numbersMain article Radio times logo 31. Q U E S T I O N O N E M A G A Z I N EDeveloping Typical ConventionsWe added a contrasting background to emphasise where the reader can watch the documentary.The use of social media icons draw the readers attention towards it and make them want to look into it and find out more information. We also reinforced where they can watch the documentary and when. 32. Q U E S T I O N O N E M A G A Z I N EDeveloping Typical Conventions We used a drop box to display information about McDonalds meals. Information that is relevant to our documentary. 33. Q U E S T I O N O N E M A G A Z I N EChallenging Typical Conventions The layout of our magazine article subverts typical conventions of a magazine. As the dominant picture is on the right hand side. I thought of putting it here because we read from left to right and the way the arm curves leads the eyes back on to the page and back into the article. The title is also not as dominant but stands out through the use of bold capitalised font. 34. Q U E S T I O N O N E R A D I O T R A I L E RRadio Trailer To research radio trailers we looked at previous student trailers and also existing radio trailers to find out the typical conventions of radio trailers. It was especially useful when listening to the student radio trailer seeing whether or not they had reinforced or subverted these conventions. 35. Q U E S T I O N O N E R A D I O T R A I L E RRadio Trailer Listening to the radio trailers we found that many of them included voice overs and found that this was a typical convention. 36. Q U E S T I O N O N E R A D I O T R A I L E RRadio Trailer FOLLOWED CONVENTIONS - We used a voice over at the end which was that of our presenter to tell the audience where and when they could watch our documentary, this kept up with typical conventions because it kept continuity with our documentary itself and the article. 37. Q U E S T I O N O N E R A D I O T R A I L E RStudent Radio Trailer -SIMILARITES: Used music throughout Had a voice over Used interview and voxpop sound bites States when and what channel the documentary is onDIFFERENCES: - States different points of view strongly and goes into some detail about both sides of the argument where as ours states facts to intrigue the audience - Starts with a sentence explaining what their documentary is about where as ours starts with a group of phrases that are related to our topic.Click to listen CHALLENGES: We challenged this radio trailer by NOT having a consistent voice over. We felt that it was more approachable and intriguing if the audience had to think about what they were hearing. Rather than being told out right, they had to make connections themselves. We also felt that having a strong phrase at the start as opposed to a sentence explaining our documentary gave it a subtle serious tone as if there was no time for irrelevant self explanatory words. This kept it fast paced which is a feature we desperately needed to keep our target audience - students - interested. 38. Q U E S T I O NStudent Radio Trailer 2 -O N E-R A D I O-T R A I L E R-SIMILARITES: Used music throughout Had a voice over specifically at the end like ours is Uses mainly archived sound from interview and voxpop sound bites of differing opinions, at the start until the voice over, like we did States when and what channel the documentary is on The only voice over narration was at the end and it stated when and where this was on. DIFFERENCES: There were few differences between our documentary and this one. However there was one which was that the content of this trailer included mainly peoples opinions where as a large section of ours was quotations from an anorexia website.Click to listen DEVELOPMENTS: We imitated the use of overlapping archived sound from our interviews and voxpops in this but also used a collection of anorexia quotations that were at the start of our documentary.