Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2

A2 Media Documentary Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge codes and conventions of real media products?
Our documentary Is it worth it? was created as an educational documentary for students and parents for Channel 4 to view. The documentary goes into detail about the rise in university fees and how it has affected students, parents and even head teachers at school/colleges. Our documentary includes a couple of interviews with professionals who have a strong view on the rise in tuition fees and also other interviews and focus groups with students attending college and are planning to go on to university. We decided to use Channel 4 as a broadcast channel as it usually plays documentaries about teenagers and also real life situations. This is why Channel 4 would be perfect for our documentary as the rise in university fees is a real life satiation which will affect a lot of people of the future. When researching into other similar documentaries about the rise in tuition fees there was a range of videos, I found documentaries, interviews with professionals, discussions and debates with government representatives. All videos had good points about hem and we took them into account when producing our own documentary. Some of the facts that I got from the videos were used in our documentary by the voice over.

Use of Codes and Conventions

To make our documentary seem as real as possible we had to follow and include certain codes and conventions in our documentaries. We found most of the codes and conventions by watching clips of other documentaries on YouTube, Channel 4 and BBC iplayer.

Ident
Every documentary we looked at each had an ident of the channel they were being broadcasted on. When doing more research into idents I find out that they are a very important convention in the production of a documentary as it gives the documentary credibility as a production of the channel it is being broadcasted on. We used a channel 4 ident and also had a male voice over cover the ident, the voice over introduced or documentary and said when it will be on and then mentioned another programme which is regularly played by channel 4. We did this because it gave our documentary a sense of realism.

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2

Expert Interviews
In real life documentaries experts are always used to provide there view point which will be classed as a strong opinion as they are professionals. However you would not ask a dentist about students fees because he has a different profession, rather ask a professional who is relevant to your documentary and the topic your are discussing. A principal for my documentary is perfect as he will have a great view point on student fees. We also interviewed a college chancellor who also spoke as a parent, we tried to show a wide range of opinions from different people. To introduce the professionals in our documentary we used captions which also allowed viewers to recognize the importance of that professional.

Paul Ashdown Principal, The 6th Form College, Solihull

Paul Ashdown is the principal of our college, in the documentary he gives his opinion of what he thinks of the rise in university, he tells us what the worst outcome could be as a result of the rise and also ensures students that university is the best option. In real life documentaries interviews are done in surrounding environments of the subject, this creates a sense of realism within the documentary and interview. Our interview with the principal took place in his office, which was the best place we could interview him as his desk was in the background, also his computer.

Neil Attewell Chaplain of The 6th Form College, Solihull & Parent
Neil Attewell is the college chaplain and is also a parent. Neil works with students everyday so he was a perfect interviewee, he gave us his own opinions and also his opinions as a parent. This was very good as he gave us 2 different viewpoints. Again with Neil out interview with him was in his office so the objects in his office gave a sense of realism e.g. His computer, chair posters filed papers etc.

Student Focus Group

Instead of interviewing several students one by one we decided to have a focus group, asking students what they thought about the rise in student fees. This would be better as it would be less time consuming and more efficient, in the sense that questions would be answered more directly by students. Also a advantage of a focus group was that students could bounce of each others answers and be confident as they were being interviewed within friends. When recording with the camera we used 3 students and all of them were pictured in the shot, and we also added zoomed in shots when students answered certain questions.

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2

Use of Camera Shots

We tried to use as many type of shots as we could to make our documentary look more eye catching and keep the attention of viewers.

Establishing Shot

Establishing shots are very important conventions used in all documentaries. They are so important because they introduce the documentary and take you to where you are going for example, the room of where your interview is taking place. In our documentary out establishing shot is of Solihull and also The 6th Form College, Solihull. The establishing shots helps us give the documentary a sense of location, which all adds to the realism and professionalism of the documentary.

Medium Close Up Shot

The medium close up shot was use in both interviews with professionals, this type of shot was best because you could see how the professional was dressed and also see the surroundings, which in our documentary supported the professionals as they were in offices which relates to their job titles.

Medium Angle Shot

We used a medium angle shot when recording the focus group as we needed to get all 3 students into the shot and also show that they are inferior in this situation, we tried to show that the rise in university fees was having a big impact on them and their lives. We had to make the audience feel that these students are genuinely upset about the rise and that it is actually affecting them.

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2

Sound & Editing

Voice Over
Most documentaries include a voice over and a presenter, we decided to use both as typical documentaries also have both. Our presenter was a female member of our group and our voice over was another male member of our group. We decided to use a male voice over as it would create a sense of authority, however I think by using a student we showed clearly who our documentary was targeted at as it was mostly student orientated.

Sound Bridges
To link different scenes and clips in our documentary we decided to create several sound bridges which also helped with adding transitions and putting scenes together. By using sound bridges we were able to prepare the audience for the upcoming scene, for example, when the montage finishes and the scene changes and goes to the presenter the music is stopped and then carried on after the presenter is finished talking.

Theme Music
As a group we decided that we should use a more upbeat and fast paced beat, which would keep viewers intrigued and keep their attention. The soundtrack we used was perfectly suited for our audience, as most of them would be students who are teenagers and would prefer upbeat music rather than slow music.

Transitions
In the documentary we used many different transitions and also used the more simple straights cuts and fade outs. Transitions helped us move from one scene to another and also complemented the sound bridges when we used them to change scene. Whilst creating the documentary or group realised that all the answers we were getting from our questions which we asked students and teacher where very biased to either for the rise in university or against. We had to use more of the against the rise in university fees as that was what our documentary was based on. We had to display the truth so we had to cut out certain clips to show what we wanted the audience to hear. People have different opinions and views on the rise in universities but we had to show why people are against the rise.

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Magazine Listings Page

Radio Trailer
The purpose of creating a radio trailer was to give the audience a short 30-45 second insight to what out documentary will be about and what it will feature. We recorded sound for our radio trailer separate to when creating the documentary, however sound bites from the documentary were used in the radio trailer.

Conventions
Presenter The presenter in the radio trailer was probably the most important part as the presenter would introduce the radio trailer similar to how a presenter introduces a documentary. Sound Bites I used sound bites in the trailer which were from our actual documentary, I used parts of the documentary which were explosive in content and ear catching to draw in listeners. Title The title of the documentary was mentioned at the start when the presenter introduced the documentary and also the channel the documentary will be viewed on is mentioned. Both of these conventions give the radio trailer a sense of identity. Background Music The music which we used was upbeat and was the best for our documentary as it would keep the attention of our target audience, teenagers. I could have improved the radio trailer by adding more opinions of professionals and students rather than just the one voice of the principal.

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?
Creating our documentary was the main focus and aim of the group however, we also had to create a magazine article and a radio trailer which were very important inc creating an identity for our documentary and chosen subject. We used many features from our documentary to link it with the ancillary tasks, our main linked aspects were direct images and quotes from the documentary. The student we used in our documentary as vox pop was also used in our documentary, the student is a studying at The 6th Form College, Solihull and is stressing about the rise in tuition fees. By using him on the magazine article we have created a straight link from the documentary, this shows a sense of identity and if our audience read the magazine article and then watched the documentary they would see many familiar aspects. We used Neil Attewell in our magazine article as he was used as a professional in our documentary. By having Neil on the magazine cover it shows that there is an opinion of an older much wiser person, whose points on the rise will be very strong.

Also we used an image of the focus group interview in our magazine article, this was very effective as they were all students, and this was a direct link and also a direct link to the audience as they will be of same age and same position.

This is a direct quotation used on the magazine article straight from the interview with Neil Attewell from the documentary. By doing so we create a direct link and readers who also watch the documentary will be able to relate to the article.

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2 When creating the radio trailer I decided to use direct sound bites from the interview with the principal from the documentary as his opinions would be essential, I did this because it would link both and also give the documentary a sense of identity from the audiences perspective. However the radio trailer was okay but I think I could have added Neil Attewell being interviewed and also opinions from students themselves, so students could actually relate to who is talking whilst the radio trailer is on air. Nowadays radio trailers and magazine articles are not as effective as they were many years ago at promotion documentaries amongst the teenagers of today. Since the internet has developed dramatically and social networking sites have now been made available for people, most teenagers are a part of one social networking website. Therefore instead of using radio trailers and a magazine article I would rather have use online social network sites like MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook. 3.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

From analysing student feedback, I realised that students did really take a liking to our topic, this being the rise in university fees. Students found that the topic was relevant to them as they were students and also they found the interviews with Neil and the principal very good as they would have liked to hear their opinions on the rise in university fees. We handed out questionnaires to students within our class who watched the documentary and asked them to rate our documentary, the results from the questionnaires are listed below:

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2 50% of people who completed our documentary felt our choice of topic was very good, 40% felt it was just good and 10% felt it was excellent. From these results we gathered that our selected topic was very liked by our audience and also as the audience were students, we felt as we had met our target audience. Results for the appropriateness of our target audience shows that majority of people thought out decisions for our target audience was very good and the rest of people either thought it was excellent or just good. These results show that we successfully determined our target audience. Results show that majority of people felt our documentary was good based on professionalism and how it was in comparison to real life Documentaries.

Results for the filming/shooting of material show that the majority audience thought it was good and a decent amount of people thought it was very good. As we never had any poor results, we can conclude that out footage was appropriate for our documentary.

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2 Results show that majority of people thought the use of sound/music in our documentary was appropriate, also there is an equal number of people who thought the use of sound/music was just ok and excellent.

Results for our editing of the documentary so it could be understood came to majority of thinking it was good and a couple of people saying it was very good and one person thinking it was just ok.

Results for the use of effect show that most of the people thought they were good and a few people who thought they were very good and just okay were equal.

Overall our audience thought our documentary was good about 70% thought this, 25% thought it was very good and 5% of people thought it was OK. These results tell me that overall our documentary was a hit with our audience, we could have easily improved but in the time that we was given we produced a good documentary based on the rise in tuition fees.

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2

What you have learned from out student feedback? Likes Good selection of topic. Good interviews. Range of opinions from professionals. Range of footage. Titles, captions etc.

Dislikes Sound levels needed improvements. Needed a more enthusiastic voice over. Lighting was very dark in certain places. Transitions through interviews.

Conclusion of Feedback
The interview with the principal had lighting issues which could not be fixed throughout the editing process, this was due to us having to rush the interview with the principal. We had to rush because we previously recorded an interview with the principal which did not go as we had hoped, there was a major problem with the sound as we could not hear anything. But in the end the interview with the principal came out to actually look away, despite having a few errors. The magazine article had a very effective and simple layout but was not very eye catching, the colour scheme needed much improvement and also the main image as it just did not look right. Overall I think the listings page needed a lot of improvement, with the main focus being on the colour scheme and also the main image, with these 2 improvements the magazine article could have been much more appealing. The radio trailer was produced by me in a very short space of time, I produce it on my own so I rushed through most of it. It was very relaxed and the sound bites were very engaging for the audience. The radio trailer sounded very professional however, sound levels could have been improved as it was slightly quiet.

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages?
During the research and planning stage of producing our documentary, the internet play a huge part in helping us decide as a group what the topic for our documentary would be. Finally we had decided what our topic was, we started researching into out topics and listing ideas for footage. We used search engine websites such as Google to find other articles and documentaries which linked to our topic choice, we also used BBC News as a source of updated information on the rise in tuition fees. Below are some articles which helped us with the research and planning of our documentary:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17053581 http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/tuition-fees http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/futurestudents/undergraduate/funding/facts-figures-about-new-financesystem.html

YouTube, 4od and BBC News

Looking at documentaries online on YouTube and 4od gave us an insight into what we should involve in our documentary such as typical codes and conventions in typical documentaries. The reason why we looked at documentaries on 4od was because our documentary would be played on channel 4, therefore we would have to have certain codes and conventions which were the same such as ident, title sequences etc.

We also looked at news stories about the rise in tuition fees, to get an insight into how it was effecting other people. We found a lot of relevant information which then we used in our documentary, the voice over used some of the information we found such as the facts and figures which the voice over was saying were actually from the research we did at the start.

The Blog
The blog was a very important part when we had to create our documentary. It helped us keep up with deadlines for each task we were given. The blog can be accessed by all students in college and also from home, this is very good as if students are behind on coursework they can catch up from home or if they are off sick they can carry on

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2 with work at home. All information was posted on, information included research for the documentary, magazine article and the radio trailer. The blog helped us keep up to date with what work had been done and what work needed to be complete. After logging onto the blog we would come to this screen, this is where we would select to view our blog, edit our blog or add a new post.

This is where we added text, images, hyperlinks etc. When finished we would select publish post and our content of information would be put onto the blog. Some features of the blog were: place images, hyperlinks, and audio clips, add videos, format font in every entry, spell check, preview before posting and also edit posts if mistake had been made.

This is where we were able to see how many posts each person has. We were able to view posts, edit them and also delete posts from this page if they needed to be

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Equipment
Apple Macs The macs have been the key to everything we have done for our documentary, as everything was produced on the Macs using programmes. We did our research on the macs and even produced the radio trailer and the magazine article using the macs. Kodak Easy Share Digital Camera The camera was very useful when planning and taking images which might have been used in our storyboards for the documentary.

HD Canon Camera The video camera allowed us to record our documentary, the camera had a variety of features such as zoom, manual focus etc, these all helped as they allowed us to do what we wanted and create a image which we wanted. We uploaded clips which we recording as soon as we finished recording and put them onto Final Cut Express, which is an editing programme on the macs.

Tripod These were essential for us when we wanted the camera to be steady and no shaky, the most important times when we need the tripods was when did out interview with our professionals.

Microphone This was used when recording interviews, it allowed us to have much more clearer audio then just using the standard microphone on the video camera.

Headphones Kept the sound when recording clear and also allowed us to easily notify if sound was not right and needed recording.

Recorder With this we were able to set audio levels to a volume to keep audio at a certain volume. We had a with the audio levels and also sometimes could not if we was recording or not.

certain problem identify

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2

Software
Final Cut Express This is where we viewed clips and our actual documentary. Our clips where put together for each minutes in certain bins.

This is the sound and video layers, they have been placed on timeline, idents and captions would be put on another layer which would be above this. I created sound bridges in the documentary by using the fade out tool. This allowed clips to blend into other clips without looking weird or not professional.

We were also able to change sound levels for clips, this came essential for us as all our clips had different sound ranges, by using this we were able to change all sound levels around about to the same level. We could also use the sound levels to fade out parts of the clip which we wanted to be silent or just did not want in the scene.

Kaleem Harvar Amjad Media Studies A2 Garage Band For the radio trailer I used garage band, I used sound bites from the documentary o the principal speaking and also recorder a voice over myself using a recorder. I was able to easily upload sound clips onto garage band and overall found it very easy to use. Also the background music for the radio trailer was sampled from garage bands own loop selection, by using certain drum, synths and guitar loops I was able to create a upbeat soundtrack which worked successfully and kept the audience listening. I layered clips over each other this allowed my whole radio trailer to be easily visible and usable. Overall I think using garage band was very easy, it was not complicated as everything was simple, also the handout which I was given by my teacher helped me. Burning Once we had completed all of our work we had to burn our documentary and radio trailer to disc. We used a CD-R disc to burn. The radio trailer was very easy to burn but for the documentary we had to export our documentary file as a MOV file, then we used iDvd on the Apple Mac and also then created a professional looking menu for the documentary. Evaluation The best way for me to present my evaluation was on Microsoft Word, this for me was the best as I found it the most simplest and I was already use to the programme. It allowed me to import pictures, add hyperlinks and also allow me to make my evaluation as interactive as possible.