MEDIA EVALUATION 2011Daniel Waite, Michelle Foster and Megan Scrivens

IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?Media Coursework 2011

Our Documentary was a factual, non scripted, genuine product with genuine opinions of those that were affected.

A piece of original investigative journalism which we have not seen before in previous examples from our educational institution and what we have seen in the media on television.

It is about students and their interests but also made by students which challenges the convention of many documentaries especially with such current and controversial issues.

Also, in previous examples, we have not seen any reality footage that was un-staged. For example, the protest in Manchester was chaotic, unplanned and spur of the moment. Our interviews were also genuine people with their own thoughts and emotions towards the subject. However, on the day of the protest, we did not know who we would talk to, we simply had to be spontaneous. This is just like professional news crews and people who make documentaries. They will see how it turns out on the day.

HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?Media Coursework 2011

Our Final media products, in our opinion, we think we used new media technologies to a good standard.

The majority of the group were unaware of how to use the editing software. Having more experience with Photoshop, the beginning of the editing process took a long time due to not being able to work with the programme effectively, however as time advanced, we were able to be more technical and creative. For example, the opening sequence with the channel 4 logo was created at a later stage in the development process due to the skills we had gained through learning and trial and error.

The recording equipment this time was Panasonic HD cameras which are totally opposite to still shot SLR cameras we used last year when some of our group did print. As well as this, they came with Sennheiser radio microphones which enabled us to record people we interviewed from a further away location whilst still being able to here them. Also, the camera sound recording equipment isn’t as good of listening quality to that of the sounds recorded by the radio mics’. Again, using the equipment started off at a slow pace but our knowledge of them grew as time progresses.

Channel 4’s backlog of documentaries on the online 4OD channel was of great use to helping us with our research and helped us into deciding to make a documentary in the early weeks of being given the brief.

Facebook helped us not only to stay in touch but also to showcase our work to our friends and enabled us to get our feedback quickly, a really good advantage of web 2.0

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

Media Coursework 2011

The feedback we received was varied between a mix of positive and negative.

Interestingly, good feedback came from our younger viewers whereas negative feedbackcame from our older viewers, e.g. some adults think that given the budget deficit, maybe higher fees are needed.

We knew that our subject matter ‘Student Fee Rise’ would be received differently by People and would therefore form a basis of their entire opinion on our work because of it.Also, the music genres we used are that of what are generally more popular with a younger audience due to their loudness and fast pace. To suit the music style, we adapted our editing style in places to reach a fast cut finish which meant that lots of dramatic and establishing shots were shown in a relatively short time.

To gain our feedback, we experimented with WEB 2.0 technology and used social network sites suchas Twitter and Facebook

For example, Christine Engel, aged 51, said on Facebook: - “The music was in parts much too loud and the first lot of photos changed much too fast, so that I couldn´t always recognise everything. About the political views, I couldn’t agree more.”

On the other hand, Josh Nicholson, aged 17, said: - “I thought it was very informative, well laid and the interviews with Jo Baily and people at the protest was also professional. There were In-between shots that could have been cut shorter but nothing majorly wrong with it that stood out and really need to be changed. You involved lots of different people and didn’t just ask students, I felt represented. The music was also to my liking and helped it to establish what audience you were aiming for when it first came on.”

Perhaps if we were to do another documentary, maybe we could spend more time editingAnd also pick music and tastes that would suit more people in order to gain more views.

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

Media Coursework 2011

There are several links between our documentary and our ancillary texts…

Newspaper Advertisement – the student protest is a prominent feature of our documentary. With this in mind, we used pictures from the protest to create our newspaper advertisement as we felt that it was a memorable experience from our documentary. This is effective as the protests are recent events in the media, thus being recognisable to the public.

Radio Trailer – we used a question and answer setup to make the radio advertisement quirky and lively. In link with the documentary and the newspaper advertisement, we used the noise from the protesters as they were chanting as the opening and closing sequences to the advertisement. Also in relation to the documentary, we used clips of the interviews to give the audience a quick insight to the programme. We used Lucinda for the voice of the radio trailer to give continuity.

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

Media Coursework 2011

As the documentary is mainly set in college, we feel it is representative of middle-class teenagers. This is reinforced through the whole idea of the documentary – university fees, as it is typically middle and higher class students that make it to university. Furthermore, the presenter of the documentary is wearing a blazer which strengthens the middle class ideology. At the protest, we interviewed three girls who were very outraged by the government decisions. This challenges typical conventions as it is often male teenagers that are presented as rebellious in the media more than female teenagers. Moreover, the loud, indie music is used to represent our target audience of students.

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

Media Coursework 2011

Our media product is primarily aimed at students affected by the fee rise, but the secondary audience would be adults that are interested in government affairs. With a niche market of students in mind, we tailored our documentary to suit the needs of a young audience. The majority of filming for our documentary includes students (the student interviews, the students at the protest etc) to appeal to our target audience to ensure that they can relate to the documentary. We decided to base our filming on students as they would have a similar view and similar emotions to our target audience. Furthermore, within the research stage of our production, we found that channel 4 is very popular with students, thus putting our documentary on this channel.

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Media Coursework 2011

We attracted our audience with our ancillary products, a newspaper advertisement and a radio trailer. To gain interest, we created the newspaper advertisement without putting the name of the documentary. This would provoke curiosity and hopefully encourage students to look for more information about it. Also, as the documentary is part of a series (Inside:…), we would use this technique throughout all the advertisements to ensure continuity and to develop audience recognition. This has been seen before with channel 4’s series: Dispatches. We postorised the images in Adobe Photoshop to capture the chaos and to make the documentary look lively. This would attract our target audience. Moreover, the chants from the protest featured as the introduction and ending to our radio trailer to give the audience an insight into our documentary. The quick question and answers offer the audience clips from the documentary which emphasise public emotions.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR AS COURSEWORK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM THAT TO YOUR A2 PRODUCTION?

Media Coursework 2011

As a group, our AS coursework consisted of print and radio. Last year, we all worked individually so we had to divide the A2 coursework between the group. In creating a documentary, we developed skills in camera work and Adobe Premiere and by the end of the production, we all feel comfortable using the recording equipment and editing software. The members of the group who did print for their AS coursework were able to work together on the newspaper advertisement and despite the fact the other member hadn’t worked on Photoshop before, she was also able to contribute to the advertisement and gain skills on Photoshop. The same happened with the radio trailer. This shows that we equally contributed to all areas of our A2 coursework and were able to learn new skills in the process.