In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and convection's of real media products?
Many convection's that we used in our project are universal to all documentaries, as I have found out from my research. During the production of our documentary ,we tried to observe a number of the convection's, that we had found in other documentary examples. Such as ones from the national geographic, & BBC.
The one obvious convection that struck me immediately was the use of narration in the documentaries. Much of the information is tied into the images being shown, for example in the documentary I analysed, we are told that the Burj Dubai is the largest building in the world ,and then shown footage of the building to reinforce this.
We ,in our documentary, have tried to meet these similar convection's. An example that stands out is the filming of the mining statue and explaining that Barnsley's is trying to move away from its mining past to the future.
We have included time lapses also in our production to show the constriction of Barnsley college. A time lapse is useful in a short production such as ours, as it can fill a short space with many frames.
An image from Boom or Bust of the time lapse.
Time lapse can especially relate to documentaries like ours ,about redevelopment, and also the one I have analysed as part of the project. The overall purpose of our documentary is to show some of the redevelopment changes in the area ,and these are seen in real time by the audience.
A major part of the documentaries that we analysed ,related to how the information was given to the audience. In the documentaries most of the factual information is given though narration with the aid of images. This helps the audience link what they are seeing ,and what they are hearing together. It allows the audience to be educated ,and displays the information in a simple format ,that is easy to take in and learn about. We in our project have also stuck to these convection's ,and give the audience the information through an enjoyable format. Another way we have provided enjoyment for our audience ,whilst still attempting to put across the factual information, is to include interviews in the production .Many similar documentaries use this format to give their information to the audience. By including interviews in the production it allows us to give the personal views ,along with educated answers and responses from individuals actually associated with our subject matter. Thereby giving an experienced view on the subject, to give the production some credibility.
The documentary i analysed contained many interviews with professionals
Also during the filming of the interview we used a number of different shot types at different angles to give another perspective to the viewer. We edited these shots together to give a professional interview effect shown in many news programs and documentaries. The examples here of the interview with Mike Stokes show the different shots used for the interview.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The ancillary texts express and contemplate our main production. One of the major parts outside our main production was the advertising, most notably the use of radio trailers and posters.
In the same way as our documentary, we wanted the radio and posters to show the changes in building and development happening in Barnsley. For example, in the posters we created we all used similar or the same photographs of the recent developments taking place in Barnsley. This was so the viewer of the poster knew what they would see on screen, but it was also useful to show local people the site locations that we had filmed at when making the documentary.
You will also notice that the text in the posters does not take centre stage. Instead it is sidelined by the photographs. This was used first for simplicity ,and to make the poster easier on the eye of the viewer, but also to be more appealing.
By including only the information that was needed for the audience, such as the name of the documentary, and the time that it is shown. It informs the audience and entices them to discover more about the documentary ,hopefully by encouraging them to watch it.
Before creating our posters we viewed many different examples and analysed some of their convections further in-depth. Many of the posters from channel 4 where very similar in both style, layout and text .
Many of these ideas were then implemented into the creation of our posters. In many of the channel 4 posters I viewed, the image mainly dominated the page, with the text and logo much smaller, only providing the information needed like the poster I analysed, which is shown here.
This layout gave inspiration to my poster, along with the posters of other members of the group. The C4 style guide was also helpful when creating our posters, as it gave information on the font, layout and colour used in channel 4 advertising. I got many of the ideas for my poster from this guide ,but it was also helpful for other members of the group.
When creating our final poster we used many different ideas from each member of the group. Each poster that we created had many different designs ,and so when creating our final choice, we picked the best ideas of each .For example the font in one poster, or the colour of another.We finally settled on this design for the final poster which is mainly an amalgamation of my design and Sam's shown below.
My poster
Sam's Poster
Another advertising product that we used was the radio trailer. When creating the radio trailer we linked it as much as possible to our main product. One of the ways that we established this link is to make the music in the radio trailer the same as that in the documentary. The radio trailer was also quite short, and so gave the audience the information that they needed straight away. The information was also provided in a clear format so the audience could hear what was been said ,without background noise that is present in many other radio trailers I've listen to. an example of this is shown here
Much like our posters, the radio trailer provided enough information necessary to inform the audience about the subject matter, whilst encouraging them to watch the documentary. Our radio trailer is shown below
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience research was one of our most important considerations when making Boom or Bust.
Before starting the project, it was important for us to establish that our idea for a documentary about the redevelopments taking place in Barnsley and South Yorkshire, would be of importance to the local community, and to our target audience of 15+.
This was to ensure that if the documentary was produced.
1. There would be an interest in the topic material .
2.That we could change the content of the documentary if necessary to appeal to a wider audience to make it a success.
In our audience research we asked a range of six questions , covering areas from how regularly documentaries are watched, to what time you watch them, and if you would be interested in watching a documentary about the regeneration of Barnsley.
We asked these questions to a wide group of five different people who fit into our target audience in hope of giving us a better understanding on what type of documentaries are the most watched ,and how people prefer to watch them. A link to the audience research that took place when planning the documentary is found here.
Once the filming of the project had started ,we made sure that what we had learnt from the audience research had not gone to waste.
Many of our audience said that they did not watch documentary's for fun ,but rather to be educated more than entertained. We took this information on board , and when interviewing people a number said that they would be interested in learning more about redevelopment in the Barnsley area , so we made sure that the documentary included many interesting facts about the redevelopments.
Also interviewing important people in Barnsley, such as councillor Mike Stokes who could give us a professional view on the developments that where happening , on the state of local economy in Barnsley, and if these developments are likely to continue.
We also tried to make sure that the audience was as involved as possible when watching the documentary. Trying to educate the audience, but also trying to entertain. When first making our documentary we where going to use narration over what we have filmed to tell the audience about the individual buildings in detail ,much like content in the documentary's we had watched and analysed. However we did not want to distance the audience too much, so we added a presenter to give the feeling that you are being taken on a journey around the developments happening in Barnsley.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In each of the stages of the making the Documentary we used technologies to great effect ,and would have been lost without the help of new media technologies, such as camera equipment and media programs.
In the early stages of the product ,many of the technologies that we used did not require a high technical skill ,and were basic software technology. We used many when planning are previous project.
In a notable example, the internet ,which we used for research into different products/documentaries is an example of this. You Tube which I used to search for similar documentaries and programs, such as Barnsley a portrait of a town and its people
I also found many notable examples from the BBC archives an example been Park Hill Estate Sheffield Regeneration - Video Link ,and the The Chinese Are Coming a BBC documentary that I found on YouTube.I found these useful, for showing me many of the convection's ,such as narration, and how they are used in a professional documentary. Youtube also allowed for me to find many different radio trailers from which I could quickly learn about the convections of radio trailers and when making our own trailer know what would have to be included.
The internet was also useful for finding research on local developments in the area, from one that had recently been completed ,to others that had already been developed ,and also what future developments where happening in Barnsley. .
This research was crucial to the development of our ideas, and in turn to that of the project.I also found many notable examples from the BBC archives an example been Park Hill Estate Sheffield Regeneration - Video Link ,and the The Chinese Are Coming a BBC documentary that I found on YouTube.I found these useful, for showing me many of the convection's ,such as narration, and how they are used in a professional documentary. Youtube also allowed for me to find many different radio trailers from which I could quickly learn about the convections of radio trailers and when making our own trailer know what would have to be included.
Youtube was very useful thought the duration of the production
The internet was also useful for finding research on local developments in the area, from one that had recently been completed ,to others that had already been developed ,and also what future developments where happening in Barnsley. .
Without a significant amount of pre-planning it is unlikely that we would have know what subject matter we where going to base the documentary on ,and we would not have come up with the title boom or bust without knowing the fate of many of the redevelopment project in Barnsley.
The internet also allowed us to research Channel 4’s documentary style. Posters and designs, from the very useful C4 style guide ,gave a lot of inspiration for our own posters, drawing on ideas featured in this guide.
One other specific part of the internet that we used regularly through the planning stages, right up to the end of the production’s completion was Blogger. The Blog proved very useful ,not only in the planning and research stages, but also the construction stages. The most useful aspect of the Blog during the research stage, was being able to bring all of our research together, this allowed us to share ideas between each other ,and compare our individual progress with the progress of the other group members, and the group as a whole. The blog also helped, when adding the research we had found, as it gave us a medium to collect and combine our findings, and an area where we could look back at previous research, during future stages of development . Adding work onto the blog , allowed us to get easy access to it ,through the internet, this enabled us to work on the project outside our hours in college, at home, or when we had spare time. Another small part of the planning and research stages was digital photography this was only used on one task in particular ,which was taking the location photos for the project ,though these photos did prove useful in later stages.
One other specific part of the internet that we used regularly through the planning stages, right up to the end of the production’s completion was Blogger. The Blog proved very useful ,not only in the planning and research stages, but also the construction stages. The most useful aspect of the Blog during the research stage, was being able to bring all of our research together, this allowed us to share ideas between each other ,and compare our individual progress with the progress of the other group members, and the group as a whole. The blog also helped, when adding the research we had found, as it gave us a medium to collect and combine our findings, and an area where we could look back at previous research, during future stages of development . Adding work onto the blog , allowed us to get easy access to it ,through the internet, this enabled us to work on the project outside our hours in college, at home, or when we had spare time. Another small part of the planning and research stages was digital photography this was only used on one task in particular ,which was taking the location photos for the project ,though these photos did prove useful in later stages.
During the construction stages of the project ,one of the most obvious technologies we used was of course the camera. The Sony HDV 1000 with DV tape, though much larger than the small hand held cameras used in our first project was vastly superior ,not only in picture quality and sound ,but also mechanics. This allowed us a much sharper image that made the production seem all the more professional.
A shot from our AS film in which we used a hand-held camera
A shot from Boom or Bust where we used Sony HDV 1000
None of the group including myself had used the camera before ,this did create some problems when first using the camera ,as we were given no instruction on how to use it , and it took us as while before we could complete a simple task, such as white balance. This was mainly down to the different set up of the camera, most notably a touch screen. However, though these problems did cost us time, once we gained the hang of the camera it became all the more easier to use than previous equipment.
The old hand held camera used in AS production
Newer Sony HDV 1000 use in Boom or Bust
Another technology that was also new to us as a group ,was the editing software Final Cut which we used for this production. This was superior to i Movie application we had used previously. This previous software seemed inadequate in comparison ,as what would have taken us a couple of hours to edit before ,now only took a couple of minutes .
So much so, that we wished we had made use of it in our previous project. Unfortunately we had never used this technology before so were not familiar with it ,though, we were given a walk through on how to use it . However getting used to using final cut was quite often a case of trail and error.
When recording the sound for the production we mostly used the standard camera microphone however when needing to record in high quality examples been the Councillor interview, narration and presenting the buildings we used a microphone and Zoom recording. Thought these where new technologies to us that we had not used before we had not problems with them they where easy to used and we where told how to connect them to the camera the most difficult part about recording the sound was not the technology but getting some where quite to record.
Another part in the construction of the project was making the poster for this we used the Photo shop program. Some of the group had used this before and others had not but we were all show how to use the software. Before creating the poster we all researched similar examples from Channel 4 and also used the C4 style guide as an influence for creating our posters. The style guide was most useful for many of the convection's the Channel 4 posters. Such as colour text and the overall style of the C4 posters as a whole. The Photo shop program and images that we had taken as well as the C4 logo from the internet allowed us to create professional looking posters that where similar to that of channel 4. Though we had no problem with Photo shop itself the uniqueness of the channel 4 text meant that it was impossible to use as it was not supported by any program. This meant that we had to search for a similar text, use a different one or create are own text for the posters. I personally found a very similar text from research thought this was only a small problem.
