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Zak Shutkever A2 Media Studies Coursework evaluation For my coursework; myself and the group in which I worked produced

a documentary about the Birmingham riots in august 2011. Our documentary was called Riot Control? We decided upon making our documentary a public affairs documentary similar to other products such as Panorama. Whilst there were numerous areas that we felt we could have made our documentary on, we decided to focus upon: Economic impact, media response and a legal perception, thus we had professional interviews to match. In what way does my media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products. A convention of a media product can be defined as a rule which is generally accepted I feel our media products boast various similarities with other professional products. However, I feel that occasionally we may stray from various codes and conventions, without impacting on quality. I will discuss bellow elements of; editing, mise en scene, camera techniques and sound, and how this may, or may not be challenging a convention.

Editing

click here to view the panorama documentary In order to produce a professional product we had to watch various other documentaries and see what we felt we liked about them, and therefore could include in our documentary. We found a similar product by way of a Panorama documentary which was very useful to us.

This is the title slide to panorama.

Zak Shutkever

This is the title slide for our documentary.

Another important convention I have noticed upon watching documentaries is the inclusion of the television logo that the documentary is broadcasted on. We decided to follow this convention as we felt it was important as it gives the audience a sense of perspective, in the sense that they know what to expect from individual television companies. This is logo indicates that it is a channel 4 documentary

A way, in which my documentary differed from a similar product and perhaps could be seen as challenging a convention, was by the establishment of an equilibrium. We felt this would be a powerful introduction when it contrasted towards the chaos that occurred.

This is in stark contrast to the Panorama documentary, which started with scenes of chaos.

Zak Shutkever

Another way my documentary challenged codes and conventions was to not include cut-away shots. We came to this conclusion as we decided it was better to focus on what was being said, rather than confusing the audience and distracting from the main point. One code and convention that I felt was important to follow in order to give substance and confidence as to the opinions given in our documentary was to add titles to formal interviews. This was a convention which was followed in all the formal interviews I have watched. This is an example of the way in which panorama did this. We also noticed the convention of keeping the title in bottom third; we adhered to this as it looked much tidier.

Both shots give the individuals name and an indication of the individuals profession.

This is the way in which our documentary did this.

We also left the title in the bottom third.

Zak Shutkever

This is where the titles for an individual are located.

One way which my documentary broke a code and convention was by the exlucsion of cut away shots. This was a convention followed in the various documentaries that we watched. However, I felt that it would be better to focus on what is being said on the screen. Perhaps if we had one or two more interviews I would have thought into doing a hand full of cut away shots, however,I did not see it as a necessitiy.

Whilst making our documentary and looking at other similar products we noticed that the pace of editing was quite fast. Therefore we used decided to adopt this technique and adopted various straight cuts throughout, especially in the section where we used the YouTube footage. However at times when we felt there was a serious message we strayed towards using dissolves.

One way in which my media product followed codes and conventions of other relative documentaries is by the use of amateur footage. This was used in a panorama documentary about the riots. We used this technique throughout our documentary this was to reinforce what happend.

This reinforces what is being said on screen about damages to businesses and other costs of the riots, similarly this occurs in the Panorama documentary

The video above was included in our documentary as we felt it was a powerful addition to show what occurred. The video was filmed off YouTube.

Zak Shutkever

In our documentary we used the convention of using statistics to back-up what was being said on screen. We felt this was important as it showed an element of shock in our documentary and bought into figures the impact that was caused.

We showed statistics in our documentary to show facts and about the subject we were talking about.

This is an example of another documentary I found on YouTube. This is similar to our documentary as it has included statistics.

Mise en scene Mise en scene was created in certain environments. For example the solicitors office this was to show them in their place of work. Our questionnaire bought back results regarding the mise en scene in the economics teacher saying that the set up could have been better. However we decided to leave him at his desk which has various economics related posters in the background. We thought this showed a teacher in their natural environment and have no regrets about this decision.

Zak Shutkever This was the interview that some people who filled in the questionnaire suggested the mise en scene could have been better. However I felt this was appropriate as it shows a teacher in an environment the public would be used to seeing them in

Formal aspects that we conformed to in this interview, include: desk, notepad and pen, shirt and tie, certificates of practise in the background. And the interviewee places behind a desk. We felt this mise en scene was appropriate as it showed what we expect a solicitors interview to contain. The mise en scene created in our vox pops was to show the students opinion in their natural environment. This was conforming to a convention of setting up an informal setting for the vox pops.

Zak Shutkever This is a convention that we would expect to see. From the various documentaries I have watched, there is a pattern, that is that when asking public opinion on a particular issue, they are shown in their natural enviroment, therefore do not have as much time to prepare a response as a proffesional, where an interview is set up days in advance, with pre-set questions.

Sound We did not have an on screen narrator, this was because we felt we would connect better with the audience if we had an off-screen narrator being able to describe what was on screen, also as our documentary was only five minutes we felt that in order to familiarise yourself with the narrator they may have to be on for half our time limit, this would therefore hamper our ability to put quality interviews into our documentary, this can be seen as breaking a convention, this is because most of the documentaries I have watched; for example, Panorama and Supersize Me have an on screen narrator. Upon adding any new files with sound to final cut express we had to make sure that the sound wasnt too dominating on our documentary. Therefore we had to spend time altering the sound levels to make sure this problem did not occur. A non diegetic soundtrack was added after we put together the documentary. We decided to make the background music nonexistent over the interviews because we wanted to focus on the diegetic sound. This can be seen as challenging a convention; this is because during the Panorama documentary they did have non-diegetic sound of their interviews, however, when they did have none diegetic sound the genre of it was different to the genre we used. We used a more electronic style soundtrack where as the Panorama backing track was percussion based. The type of background music we chose was very important to us, therefore we made a conscious decision when choosing it, we noticed a trend throughout documentaries that we watched, this was, that, the non-diegetic backing tracks were nearly always instrumental and did not contain lyrics, I felt this created a better dramatic effect, therefore we followed this convention.

Zak Shutkever

Camera One way in which my media product follows a convention was by the interviewee not looking directly at the camera. This was followed in the Panorama documentary throughout.

This was also the case throughout our documentary especially during formal interviews as we felt it came across to the audience that the subject wasnt speaking to them, but an interviewer.

The interviewer is not looking at the camera. As expected from a formal interview.

From the various documentaries I watched it was clear that when showing a new location this was shown in an establishing shot. This shows the whole location in one large shot. I felt this was important as it gave the audience a perspective of where they were.

This was the way in which Panorama introduced a new location.

Zak Shutkever

This was the way in which we introduced a new location

In order to conduct an establishing shot, we used a tripod, this made it easier as there was no jump in the shot. This enabled us to create a professional touch that without the tripod we may not have been able to conduct. One convention which I noticed was vastly adhered to was the inclusion of the mid shot in formal interviews. This is generally from the waist up in shots. As two out three formal interviews were conducted behind a desk I felt we followed this.

This is a midshot; this is because its from the waist upwards.

A convention which we tended not to keep was with regards to the framing of a shot in a formal interview. We left ample head room so we could get the background in the shot; this helped negotiate a natural mise en scene. We used a close-up shot to highlight significant elements within our documentary, this was because we found that it was generally a convention which was followed. By using the close-up shot, we felt that it showed the audience that what they were watching was particularly suprising.

Zak Shutkever

This shot was particularly useful as it showed how many people had been arrested, who were suspected of criminal activities.

This was also the case in the panorama documentary. This is a close-up shot of a candle; this is a vigil in the documentary as a result of a death.

With regards to the set-up a vox pop interview. We noticed a tendency that the interview was constructed with ample head room. We decided to follow this convention as we felt it aided showing the vox pop in their natural environment, this was because as there was more headroom , you were then able to see the background.

click here to view this clip.

Zak Shutkever

Both shots are similar in the sense that both include a large amount of headroom.

Double page spread

The time and date our documentary was on we felt was an important convention to include.

The inclusion of the date the article is released is a convention we kept to.

We gave an introduction into the purpose of our documentary

Brand identity was important to us.

We followed the convention of using stills from our documentary.

We used pull quotes to highlight various aspects we thought would make an impact on the audience

We kept to the convention of keeping a page number.

Zak Shutkever We decided against using conventions such as a stand first, we felt that this was not a necessity for our target audience, and they would not notice whether it was there or not. We also did not include a by-line; we felt it was unnecessary as it was an interview based article. Radio trailer We decided upon creating a radio trailer that would fit in with our brand identity of riots however we also aimed to incorporate various codes and convention that you would expect to see. In the radio trailer we used the expected convention of telling the audience when the documentary will be aired

We used sirens at the beginning and end to create brand identity, whilst also engaging the audience.

We used a backing track, this is conventional within radio trailers.

All the radio trailers that I have listened to contain a backing track. We included this in our documentary, this makes it upbeat, and therefore people will be interested in the documentary and decide to watch it. We followed a convention of telling the audience when they would be able to view the documentary; this is an important convention and therefore was one which we decided to follow. Target audience Our target audience was the demographic of teenagers, this ascended up-to the age of 24. We stumbled upon this target audience as it became aware to us that this was the age group the seemed to get the brunt of the media attention from the riots. Therefore this may include the E- C2 social grade, this I feel would reflect where our target audience may be placed within society.

Zak Shutkever

We decided upon airing our documentary on channel 4 at 9pm, we felt this was an appropriate time as other similar products air at this time. I feel that also our double page spread would be best suited for the radio times. We decided upon airing our radio trailer with capital fm we felt it would be best suited to this radio station as it is vastly popular with our target audience.

How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary texts. I am very pleased with two out the three products we produced. I feel that the documentary worked really well and we were able to communicate point throughout, with precession. I feel that we could have adopted another technique which was used in our radio trailer and I believe worked really well. This was the use of sirens at the start, this automatically captures an audiences attention, as they think something exciting is going to occur. With regards to the radio trailer I feel that it helps to promote out documentary very well, not only does it capture the audience by telling them what they will expect to see in our documentary, but it automatically engages them with sirens at the start and end. This helps to create a brand identity as there is a clear link between sirens and riots, the topic of our documentary. Another way in which the radio trailer and the documentary intertwine well is through the use of segments of our interviews on the radio trailer. We used a really passionate vox pop in our radio trailer. The audience upon seeing this in the documentary will then recognise this. I feel this is an element that worked really well. I feel that both the documentary and radio trailer target their audience well.

Zak Shutkever

I feel that the magazine does relate to this, with regards to the police car in the bottom right, this adds to a brand identity. Moreover I feel that the inclusion of the title of the documentary in the double page spread helps create a brand identity, thus when the audience comes across all three products they will feel familiar. The magazine article has still from our documentary, therefore when people watch the documentary, upon reading the magazine article, they will feel familiar.

Above is the clip that is in our documentary, we used a still of this so we could include it in our double-page spread, this helped to create a brand identity between the two products.

Zak Shutkever

However, I am somewhat let down by the magazine article as I feel it could have been better produced, not only that but I feel some conventions within it, we did not follow, for example, having page numbers on both sides, I also feel that the double page spread would have been better on a white background, as opposed to a black background. One thing that may particularly appeal to the target audience with regards to content would be that the balance between text and images is quite small. We have included a fair amount of images in order to give the audience an idea of what to expect. With regards to the voiceover, we decided against giving both the radio trailer and the documentary to one person, this was because two people in our group wanted to do a voiceover, with hindsight it may perhaps have been better to keep the voiceover for one person, on both products. This would have further enforced a brand identity. What have I learnt from my audience research? We handed out a questionnaire within our class; the purpose of it was to find out how successful our documentary was. Here are the demographics of who we asked: There were five males and 11 females. 15 were under the age of 20 and one was over 20

All 16 people, said that the opening titles were effective.

Therefore we were right to break the convention that we saw in the Panorama documentary and show a normal situation.

Zak Shutkever

All 16 people we asked said that the background music was effective.

This means that we were potentially right to have the background music nonexistent over formal interviews and the reason we broke a convention was to make the product better.

All 16 people said that the transition effects were appropriate in our documentary.

Out of the 16 people asked, 11 said the sound levels were not level, 5 said they were.

This means that we did not spend enough time tending to the sound levels. If I were ever to do something similar to this project again, there would definitely be more time spent in this area.

Zak Shutkever

14 people said there were no problems with the camera work; however, two saw minor issues.

Therefore, it can be regarded that our camera work was successful.

15 people said the documentary suited its target audience. However, one said it didnt.

This means that the main purpose of this documentary was successful, this was because we aimed at a young target audience. Upon getting back the questionnaire and evaluating our results we found that it was evident that a few issues seemed to get noticed by our audience. Firstly, the general outset was, that the voiceover was not suitable for our documentary, if we had the chance to do it again, I would certainly aim to achieve higher in this area. Secondly, it was said that the mise en scene in the economics teacher interview could have been set up better, however, upon already discussing this above, I feel that it was appropriate as it showed a teacher in their natural environment. However, I would probably be more aware next time. Thirdly, our questionnaire bought back results that the background music was too quiet. This may have been a problem; however, we felt that it was necessary to get what was being heard on screen as the main focus point. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? In order to create three successful products myself and my group had to be very versatile in the technologies we used. We decided we did not want to over complicate our task; this was because we felt it would have perhaps caused more problems.

Zak Shutkever However we did not want to use a limited amount of technology as this would reflect in the final stages. Out of the various technologies I to assist me within the making of my documentary The main product that aided us was an Apple Mac computer. This was because we made the documentary on it. At first I hardly knew how to use one, but once experiencing it for a while I became extremely confident using it.

This is similar to the computer we produced our documentary on.

The program used was final cut express once the clips we filmed were edited, we then had to go through the stage of log and transferring this meant that we had to write down what part of each clips we were going to use and then add them to the pile to chose from. This was particularly useful in the aiding of construction. This is because it enabled us to move round our clips to suit our needs. We were also able thanks to the multiple layers in which you are given; to have various clips playing at once.

In this section of our documentary we were able to place four, independently filmed clips and have them running together, however entering at different times. This worked well as it created a powerful image of what occurred.

Zak Shutkever

This is how we began our project on final cut express The top lay represents the video file. The bottom layer represents where the sound files of a clip is located.

This area contains all the clips that have been logged and transferred, therefore are ready to put in the documentary.

This timeline shows how long the video will last.

This area is what I know as the TV screen this enables you to watch through your documentary to see what the

Another technology which aided the production of our documentary was for the double page spread. This was produced in inDesign this enabled us to create a layout, tailor made for our needs, and import text and images to create the final product.

Zak Shutkever

This is the final product we were able to make.

YouTube was an extremely useful tool in the creation of our documentary. This is as we filmed various clips to use in our documentary. This is because as obviously we did not have the cameras to make the coursework at the time which the subject of our documentary occurred; it was a necessity to use. As we were able to gather enormous amounts of background footage which we were able to use.

This is an example of a clip in which we found on YouTube. We felt it worked extremely well in order to give substance to our voice-over.

Zak Shutkever

The use of my mobile phone particularly aided the creation of my documentary, This enabled me to ring potential interviewees with ease, furthermore it enabled quick and effective communication with my group, who all have one. Another use in which the phone had was that I was able to contact interviewees out of office hours, via email. Therefore without the ability to make contact with interviewees, we would not have had the basis of our documentary.

I used Microsoft word in order to complete the evlautation stages of my documentary, I decided upon using this as I felt it was a simplar way of communicating various points and illustrating it with images, therefore creating a succesful evaluation, that can be easily read through. I also used Microsof word in order to create the various audience feedback questionnaires we had to proudce.

Zak Shutkever

I also used Microsof excel, i found this useful in my evaluation stages as I was easily able to tabulate the results of my questionnaire. I then made it into a pie chart so it could be easily understood.

The research and planning element was made easier by the ability to electronically blog throughout the making of our documentary. We were therefore able to record elements that enabled us to plan. Such as, logging phone calls of potential interviewees. We were also able to record findings of other similar products.

This was the blog for my group.

Zak Shutkever Once the blog was created, we were then able to upload various elements such as our magazine article.

In my opinion, the blogger website for me was not as useful as it could have been. This was because that occasionally we would forget to blog after wed worked on our documentary. Furthermore I felt that unless you were on the blogger website as you were doing your work it would have been easier to write what you had been doing down on paper.

In order to make our documentary the most important ingredient was a camera. We a used a Cannon HD HG20 video camera, sitting on a tripod throughout, therefore we could see if the shot was level and therefore would not shake, as a handheld camera would. I found the cameras easy to use. Not only were they portable put i felt they were easy to get used to, and wernt too complicated. We also used a seperate microphone which enabled use to be more specefic with what sound we were picking up.

Zak Shutkever

This is a tripod similar to one we used. It was very useful as we were able to conduct various shots with ease; however it was quite heavy if carrying for long periods of time.

This is a directional microphone, similar to the one we used. It only picks up sound in the direction it is pointed.

One way in which our assembly of our documentary was made easier, was, by looking at the contruction of other similar products. For example the panorama documentary. Although this was not particularly regarding the Birmingham riots it was helpful as it aided us in conventions that could be used in the construction of our documentary.

One item which helped us vastly was a scanner, this enabled us to put our brainstorms on the blog with ease, thus this helped in the planning stages. This is the risk assessment that we were able to put on the blog, by using the scanner.

Zak Shutkever

The final piece of technology which I used was scribd; this enabled me to publish this evaluation onto my blog. With ease, this also keeps the format of my evaluation the same on the blog as it is on the Microsoft word document.

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