In this evaluation I will be comparing my text to an old and previous documentary on what is alike

and unique. I will be focusing on the following areas:

Introduction

Content

Mode of address

Conventions

Style and form

Technology

Here are the two documentaries I will be analysing to my text:

Old Text

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUOem7bid-0

New Text

http://vimeo.com/29978453

Introduction

My documentary

My topic is on increase on university fees and my angle is how this will have an effect on students. It

is a current recent topic which everyone knows about and wants more information on as it will be

changing from next year as they will be the first to be affected. The reason why I selected this topic

and not the other two is because no other documentaries are talking about the disadvantages on

the increase in tuition fees, other than being discussed on the news. The angle of my documentary is

to show that there are negatives for the rise in fees as I will be mainly looking at the negative side.

My angle of my documentary is what impact the huge amount of fees will have upon future

students, I will be giving my target audience a view on the problems and affected in going to into

higher education now that they have tripled to £27,000. It will give them a clear insight to help make

the right decision on whether going university will or not be the right decision to make, as there are

still plenty of other ways to still be successful, for instance through apprenticeship courses.

Old Text

This text is based on riots which took place in Sheffield Friday December 15th 1893. It focuses on the

cuts and recession There are various views of the public on the riots in the south Yorkshire colliery

1984 were four men were questioned but they thought it was not necessary because they di not

commit any crime, after being found innocent the changes were dropped.

Protesters came from many areas such as Scotland, South Wales, Derbyshire and County of Durham

they arrived in coaches and their main aim was violence. The strikes had lasted for a long period of

time, the police were in control because they had performed their duty such as blocked the plant

beforehand.

Here is the link to the old text: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUOem7bid-0

New Text

This documentary focuses on real life situations which students have based on financial problems. It

is about a group of students from Cherwell College in Oxford, there were different opinions from all

the students such as ,many students would like to go to university for further education as soon as

they have completed the course they are not sure if this will be possible due to the expensive fees.

Whereas other students from Cambridge University have completely different as a student’s said

that they would be willing to go to university for higher qualifications as the students do not see the

issue because other students will also be in a massive amount of debt.

Here is the link to the new text: http://vimeo.com/29978453

Content

My documentary

My documentary is based on the increase in university fees; the content consists of how the rise in

fees will have an effect on students who are less privileged compared to those who are financially

stable. The two documentaries that I have looked at the old text focuses on the protest regarding on

the cuts and recession. Whilst the most recent text focuses on higher education. To help me create

this documentary I received a lot of support from contributors who took my part in my

documentary, they were very useful as they had a lot of knowledge and understanding in this

particular field. For instance what they think about the topic as well as whether it will have an effect

on students and the economy.

Here is the range of interviewees my documentary consisted of in order to receive information on

the increase in university fees:

Old Text

This text has a different topic but the same angle as the documentary is about a riot which is similar

to my documentary as it consists of the protest of the increase in university fees. The text is

different to mine as it mainly consists of males throughout, whereas my documentary appeals to

both males and females. There was also an interview with a defendant who was involved in the riots

who demonstrated what happened in the situation. Furthermore it lacks interviews with experts as

it only consists of one in the entire documentary, were as my text has many different professionals

from many positions.

New Text

This documentary is similar to my text as the angle and the topic is the same. It is target towards the

same age range to both genders, the location is set in Oxford University were students were being

interviewed on whether they will struggle paying the loan on not. I also interviewed a sixth from

student who will be going to university soon, asking are how this will have an effect on her in a

negative way, and for instance taking out a loan. This is alike to mine as I the presenter went to

Roehampton University for an interview with Professor Robert Kagawa it also consists of footage of

students in different locations. The new text on the other hand only consisted of one expert Wendy

Pier from the Russell Group University. Whereas my documentary consisted of professional from

different fields such as MP’s from different parties. My documentary consists of a mixture of

ethnicities as the new text mainly appeals towards whites.

Mode of address

My documentary

For the mode of address my text was not too formal to bore my viewers but was approached with a

friendly tone by the presenter to send a serious message across to my audience. It was also informal

in some areas such as the vox pops to keep my target audience engaged as it would be the type of

language they would use. In this way they would not lose interest but make them want to watch

more to be informed and educated at the same time. The locations I selected made my

documentary look professional such as I visited Portcullis House and Mikes Gapes constituency

office. Whereas the other two location set in the school and the university which related to my

audience as they would currently be in education. These locations appealed to my target audience

as it conveys the audience’s attention with regards to the fact these are popular to them and

consists of a contemporary period for a modern audience.

Presenter cutaway

Old Text

The mode of address for the old text is formal it has a serious tone throughout. It uses voiceovers

throughout as there is no presenter on screen. Because of this there’s no connection with the

audience as the footage has only factual information therefore losing connection with the audience.

Also none of the locations used were similar to the locations I used. My documentary is different

from the old text as it consists of both formal and informal in order to relate to my target audience.

Furthermore everyone included in the old text wore casual clothes for instance jeans, top and jeans.

This is similar to what my documentary includes such as the presenter and Vox pops, it shows that

my text was not tensed.

New Text

This documentary is new it uses formal mode of address as the presenter is wearing a suit, this sets

the mood that the text is posh. This type of address would not appeal to my age range. The sort of

language being used is advance it also consists of classical music which shows that the text is aimed

towards high class mature people. However the new text is set in Oxford University this is similar to

my text as my documentary includes Roehampton University to symbolise higher education.

Furthermore the students are wearing causal, informal clothes, this is also what I have used as this it

would be the type of style and fashion my audience would wear and therefore appeal to them.

Conventions

My documentary

My documentary consists of many conventions which are the following music, archive footage,

images, graphics, voiceovers, interviews and lastly voiceovers. By using these wide variety of

conventions I believe made my documentary look effective as it made it visual not boring and plain

to view.

Below are several of the conventions my documentary consisted of: Graphic/Voxpop

presenter archive interview image

Old Text

The old text used many conventions which my documentary also consisted such as voiceovers,

graphics, interviews, vox pops, and cutaways.

It was different to my documentary because it did not consist of any music throughout the whole

text. Also another difference is that my documentary consisted of a presenter whereas there was no

presenter though out, but was instead explained through voiceovers.

It was similar in some ways such as through interviews and during voiceovers there were cutaways

and archive footage used of the protests, showing the terror caused. I have done this by using

images and archive footage of the increase in university fees protests of people vandalising for

instance a police van, during interviews and used with voiceovers were needed. Another aspect for

conventions I think is similar is the old text’s opening sequence started with a voiceover to explain

what the topic is about which in this case was the closure of the four who were blamed of taking

part in the riots. I started the documentary off with a voiceover explaining how the rise in university

fees increased in the first place on how this caused chaos in the streets of Britain.

Interviews

New Text

The conventions this text consisted of are of a presenter, music, voiceovers, cutaways it did not

consists of many that I used. There were no Vox Pops used instead the presenter had a group

discussion with students who are applying to go to university soon one by one on whether they

have changed their mind or still going forward with their decision. Furthermore no graphics for facts

and statistics and names during interviews appeared. There was also no use of archive footage in

any of the areas. The text consisted of classical music throughout the documentary; I on the other

hand only used music in one area of the documentary which was for the opening sequence were I

used upbeat music. The cutaways used was similar to my text as it consisted of a establishing shots

of Oxford University I done this as a shot for Roehampton University was filmed. There were

cutaways filmed inside the university for freshers and in the campus. I similarly did this by also

filming inside the university of students studying and socialising. However quite a few cutaways

were used but I feel that my documentary consisted of more cutaways. Lastly I used cutaways of

professional before each interview which this text in this case did not use.

Presenter Cutaway

Style and form

My documentary

I sought that my documentary would be considered to be stylish yet informative, as I wanted to take

my audience on an expedition to find information on the increase in university fees. I achieved this

by having voiceovers and images of professionals to give the audience a short description about the

individual’s role that they play in the society. Furthermore another attribute that was made to my

documentary to make my audience understand the impact on the increase in university fees was to

include opinions of parliamentary officials.

Old Text

I feel that the documentary I saw was not contemporary, but was related to the downgrade of the

society as my documentary focuses on the cuts of university fees. Just the content of my

documentary layout is similar as they used opinions from professionals like I have.

New text

In the documentary the style that is employed is formal and uses posh conventions, imagery that is

depicted is of posh buildings around Oxford. This connotes that the documentary appeals to

students with a more well of background. The text is not similar to my documentary as it sounds too

formal and advanced which does not appeal to my audience in any way.

Technology

My documentary

I used a range of equipment to help me produce my documentaries which are the following, HD

Camera, tripod, boom mic, Apple Mac and lastly a voice recorder.

As I used Final Cut Pro it was very beneficial to use as it advanced my skills, it was straight forward to

edit, although I did face couple of problems during this stage as the sound for the Mike Gapes MP’S

interview was not syncing in. Furthermore by using this software also gave me a different selection

of text to choose from which was good.

Here are some of my graphics I produced:

Also in few areas of my documentary the sound levels were not balanced I should have used a better

high quality mic instead in order to pick up the sound to make it make easier to hear such as during

the vox pops. The sound levels would have been more consistent throughout.

Old Text

There was a good use of technology used as the old text it consisted of many different types of

camera shots camera movement and both high and low angles throughout. This is similar to my text

as I have also done the same. Also the standard of the sound levels were the same and clear all the

way through it shows that they used a high level boom mic to pick up sound. Moreover the

voiceovers were clear and straight to the point it was similar to what I had done.

Here are examples of some of the shots the old text consisted:

Long shot Mid shot Close up

Panning

New Text

For technology the new text did not consist of any graphics in any areas, however different types of

camera shots and camera movement was used all the way throughout. I don’t think it was edited

well enough as the text did not consist of graphics. This made the documentary look plain and boring

to view as it only including talking throughout. However the text did consist of fade in and outs

during cutaways in the beginning. My documentary on the other hand was completely different as

my text included of important facts and statistics and named during interviews, as well as effects for

instance fade in and outs. Made it look appealing, creative, eye-catching, broken down in areas. The

quality for the new text is in high standards, as everything has been filmed correctly and all the

sound levels are balanced and easy to hear. Although my documentary was filmed correctly my

sound levels in couple of the areas were not stable.

Long shot Panning Close up

High angle