- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
It was vital to us in the research stages of this project that we looked at other documentaries so we could pick up different codes and conventions which we could use in our own documentary. An example of some of the documentary's which we watch included:
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| Columbine High School Massacre |
- Subheadings/ Titles
- Real Footage.
- Interviews
- Re-done footage.
This were all things which we have used in our documentary, so by watching this documentary allowed us to do it to a higher standard as it uses the codes and conventions. Another documentary which was very beneficial to us to watch was Major Fraud - Who wants to be a millionaire:
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| Major Fraud - Who wants to be a millionaire. |
We believe that we challenged the codes and conventions of other documentaries by using an interviewee which people would not normally expect. As this is a topic which most people in the UK will be intrested in as it will effect most people, we wanted to use someone which people would not even think to use. The interviewee which we used was Jeremy Lefroy:
He is the MP from Stafford. Typically you would expect to see someone like the prime minister or someone who has more power over the situation. We believed that by using Mr Lefroy made it more effective as it shows that there is more people than you think who are in power over our lives.
- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The ancillary texts which we chose to produce to go with our main product is the newspaper article and a radio trailer for the documentary. We chose these as we think that they would be best when informing people of our documentary ' A Close Call for Britain'.
The first one which we produced was the news paper article,
To start with the target audience for our documentary was aimed at the older ages, anyone above the ages of 17 years old. We chose this because this is the age range which would be most intrested in our documentary. A newspaper article is suited to the documentary as a newspaper article is what our target audience would read. Also as our advertisement is in the daily mail is even more effective as this is a newspaper which talks about current events in a formal way, this is the newspaper which people would turn to when wanting to know about how certain events such as BREXIT will change their life, this then clearly directs them exactly to our documentary on the BBC.
This is a newspaper article which is accessible to anyone, there are a verity of places where these can be brought from. We wanted to make sure that our advertisement could easily be seen. It is very effective to have this newspaper also as it has links/ web addresses to our Facebook and twitter pages which also contains more valuable information about our documentary.
Throughout the newspaper article we have included valuable information, for example, what the main topics of the documentary will be on, were people can watch it and what time it will be aired. This leading onto the fact that we have used specific quotes from the documentary in the newspaper article from different interviews that we have had with the verity of people, such as Mr Lefroy and Donald Trump. This makes it even more effective as our viewers can have an incite of what they can expect to hear in our documentary, it also makes a direct link between both the newspaper article and documentary.
Another thing which directly links the newspaper article and the documentary which makes it effective is the the images which we have chosen to use. These are both images which you can expect to see in the documentary. It is also effective as the first half of the documentary focuses on the current events happening in the UK with us as a country leaving the EU, hence the picture of Big Ben which i took myself. Continuing onto the second half of the documentary which focuses on the their recent election where Donald Trump has come into power, this why we have used this specific image, which we had found of the internet and received full permission to use.
The second ancillary text which we has used is a radio trailer,
If you would like to have a listen to our radio trailer, please click here to be directed to the page.
Just like our newspaper article we wanted to make sure that our radio trailer was informative which would directly link it to the documentary, doing this by containing all of the valuable information such as the dates and times. A radio trailer is not something which you would expect the younger ages to listen to. Therefor the radio trailer will be effective to us as it is something which i target audience would listen to. A radio trailer is something which would have been used years back and there not very common unless you are of an older age. It is inviting to the older ages as it is something which they are use to.
We wanted to make sure that our radio trailer was short and snappy. It was important that we dragged people in with in the fist few seconds, it was also important that people were intrested straight away as this is something which they would listen to before they watch the documentary so it needs to be intriguing. Our radio trailer goes very well with our documentary as yet again it gives a direct incite to what our documentary has to offer.
The music that we used in our documentary at the start and at the end is the same which we used in our radio trailer. We did this because it will also give the audience an insight of what they can expect, it makes it even more recognizable which makes it more effective. We wanted to be consistent throughout the making of both ancillary's and main product as they are all about the same topic, also by being consistent means that our audience will recognize that it is about our documentary when either reading about or listening about 'A Close Call for Britain.
The nature/ topic of our documentary is very formal, as it is about a current and serious event. However, even though we wanted to make our radio trailer, fun, exiting and snappy to intrigue people we needed to make sure that it fitted the nature of our documentary. We did this by using a middle age mans voice, this made sure that it sounded like a well read yet serious matter. By using this voice made it effective to our documentary as it is a serious matter, so we did not want to use a young persons voice as it would not be suited. If you would like to hear the different voices that we wanted to choose from please click here to be directed to the radio trailer page.
Video Trailer & Social media ( extras)
Although as video trailer and social media sites were not part of the ancillary pieces we wanted to make sure we made full use of different technologies to inform our target audience of our documentary.
To start with i made a video advertisement which also contained all a verity of different images and videos which you would expect to see in our documentary. A trailer is something which is also accessible to everyone and what it very up to date in today's society. This makes it very effective as it will be seen by anyone as it will be shown on the BBC between other programmes which will be airing at the same time. Therefor it meets all the target audience which we are aiming at. An example of some of the videos which we used in our video advertisement to make it effective can be seen below:
Although that we used these videos i edited them to make sure that they fitted and ran smoothly. Here is our overall video advertisement:
The choice that we made to use footage from London also makes it effective as it is recognizable as it is similar to footage to that which we would be using in the full length of our documentary. By using a visual aid as well as a radio trailer and a newspaper advertisement makes it more attractable as people can see what they are getting by watching the documentary other than just reading or listening to it.
This leading onto the fact that we chose to make Facebook and twitter pages. Although using Facebook and twitter is not something which you would expect the older ages to read on, they are both very well known pages which can have a massive knock on effects. It is also something which many of us may turn to when wanting to find out more about a specific event. As you can tell from looking at our newspaper advertisement you can see that we have directly linked our Facebook and twitter pages at the bottom of it.
Another thing by using these social media pages which has made it effective, is that as our documentary is on a current event which is effecting our country people will be talking about it all over social media. On Twitter there is a 'Trending Page' Which talks about current events, this is where you will be able to see were our documentary will be advertised. This makes it very current and very effective. this may then lead them on to watching the documentary which is something which making the pages aims to do.
By using these different social media sites and a video advertisement makes it effective when informing people about our documentary. Each one of the extras which we have made along side with our ancillaries link directly which our main project, they all combine and mix well together which is what we aimed to do.
- What have you learned from your audience feedback?
It was important to us that we gathered our audience feedback as this would allow us to see other peoples opinion on our documentary, to see it through someone else eyes. This allowed us to gain the knowledge of what we did well in our documentary, what engaged people, if it follows the codes and conventions of other documentaries also what we could improve on if we were to do this process again.
To begin with in the documentary our audience feedback ( as shown in the video above ) said that the documentary flowed well with the use of different cutaways, also with the use subheadings which allowed us to introduce our interviewees to our target audience. This was good to know as we wanting to make sure that our documentary was engaging. We intended to show different shots with the use of cutaways and a verity of videos to make it as informative as possible as this is what the aim of our documentary was, to inform people of the events which will take place when the UK leave the EU.
Although hearing the positives were very beneficial it was good to hear on the things which the audience would improve on or would advise us to improve on if we were to do this project again.One of the main things which we were already aware of was the buzzing noise which could be heard throughout the interview with Mr Lefroy. This was a technical problem which we were unable to solve, as we only has one time slot with Mr Lefroy we were unable to correct as we were unable to record it again. Although we tried to solve this problem with the programme audacity we were unable to remove it completely. This is one of the big issues with our documentary, that if we were to do this again we were undo this error.
Another comment which was beneficial to us from our target audience was they suggest that we use Mr Lefroys voice over a variety of different clips as this may break up the interview with Mr Lefroy. Although we had already thought of this, we believed that the interviews which we had were already short and we believed that if we kept cutting away to other shots it would not let the interview with Mr Lefory to be shown to the full extent. Even though after hearing this feedback we feel now that it would have been beneficial and more effective to use more of these cutaways.
After listening to many different people and what they thought of our documentary it was very beneficial to us, as it would allow us to improve on the sections which they believed could improve on if we were ever to do a project like this again. It was also beneficial to hear the positives as this showed that we reached our aim of targeting people, as we made our documentary attractable to them.
- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Media technologies were a vital part of the documentary, we used them throughout the process. At the start of this process we used the media in order to gather valuable research about the documentary genre. This consisted of watching videos on YouTube, looking at a verity of prezzies, online magazines and many more.
Media technologies were also vital in the construction process, for example we used many different sites in order to produce the documentary we did. This insisted of, movie maker and audacity. Movie maker allowed us to edit our different clips and audacity allowed us to edit and put together different sounds.
Even at the evaluation stages, media technologies were very important to us, we wanted to make it as creative as possible, we did through similar technologies which we used throughout the research and construction process. Here we used videos, through audacity, voice memos and Prezi. This allowed us to show what had learnt throughout the process in a fun and exiting way.
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