A2 Media Evaluation Tech-No-LifeQuestion 1In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My Documentary:

In order to look at and analyze my documentary effectively I decided to look at and compare my documentary with a documentary of the same genre in order to see the similarities and differences between my documentary compared to a professional documentary.

After watching the similar documentary I picked out the similarities and differences between my documentary and the professional documentary and have demonstrated the similarities through the use of screenshots I have taken from both my documentary and the professional documentary.

The use of these screenshots will allow give evidence of the similarities and differences our documentary has compared to professional products.

Screenshots of a real media product: Here is the link to the BBC Newsnight documentary Addicted to Technology?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW5nqfurlPs

Addicted to Technology?:Tech No Life:

On screen narration has been used in both our documentary and the BBC documentary about technology however the BBC documentary used on screen narration consistently throughout the documentary whereas our documentary used both on screen and off screen narration so that there was a mix between the two which could be described as challenging conventions as we are not following one narrative style.

In both our documentary and the BBC documentary archival footage was used with the presenter speaking over the footage. Here I followed the conventions of documentaries by following the Bill Nicholls Expository mode and I also used the voice of god narration style. This would be considered to overall be following conventions.

The expert interviews in both my documentary and the BBC documentary were both filmed in the same style with the narrator asking the questions off screen and the expert responding on screen. The interviews were a key part of my documentary and the use of the expert interviews allowed my documentary to give an expert opinion on the topic in question. There were some differences between the two interviews as I decided to add a caption to the interview telling the audience exactly who the expert is. I also framed my expert in a way so the audience can see my experts hand gestures as I felt I helped to explain his opinion.

In my and the BBC documentary I used the over the shot as I saw this as a professional shot type to use especially when filming the expert interviews as it allowed the audience to see the on screen narrators reaction to the responses the experts are giving to the questions being asked.

The use of different shot types in my documentary made the documentary feel professional and seem to follow conventions of documentaries of the same genre.

Here are the title screens for both the BBC documentary and my documentary. The BBC documentary title looks more professional that my documentary, this is an issue which I would like to change in order to make the documentary more professional looking.

Vox pops were used in both my and the BBC documentary however more prominently used in my documentary give an in depth view into the publics opinion on the topic at hand. Here I feel I followed conventions as I got the opinions of many different members of the public to get a wide view of the publics opinion. Something I would change in the documentary would be the amount of detail I got from the vox pops as I felt the vox pops answers featured were not as detailed as they could have been.

Overall my documentary followed conventions and I feel it was successful as my documentary is very similar to that of the BBC documentary of the same genre. Through the use of different shot types, a range of interviews and opinions and the mix of types of narrative style the documentary I would consider the documentary to be considerably successful and that it follows conventions.

Radio Trailer My radio trailer is around 35 seconds long and involves the narrator of my documentary speaking directly to the audience asking them about the different pieces of technology they use on a daily basis, the use of rhetorical questions were used to attempt to grab the listeners attention to draw them in so that they will be interested and to watch the documentary when it is aired on BBC Three. We also made use of background music to make the trailer more interesting for the audience in another attempt to grab the listeners attention. Also in the radio trailer we mentioned the 30 day challenge the on screen narrator/presenter so that the listener would feel inclined to watch the documentary to see how the presenter copes with the 30 day challenge they will be undertaking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtOjbwGi3nk

Here is a radio trailer screened on BBC radio 1 for the new episode of doctor who.The similarities between my radio trailer and the doctor who radio trailer include the narrator explaining that the new episode of doctor who will be featured on BBC One and the date and time the program will be screened.There is also the use of background music to keep the listener interested in the program and also there is a brief description of the programs timeline and what will be featured in the program to make the listener want to watch the program.

Double page spread I compared my magazine to the radio times magazine advertising the TV show on BBC One called Hustle. My magazine followed coneventions as it has a headline, main image, stand first, quotes, secondary images and uses a three column layout. The use of all of these conventions mean that overall I would say that my magazine is conventional. The only thing I would like to change is the area in the top left where there is some dead space or empty space where i could have added something to make that area more interesting for the readers. Thomas Cave