Unit 21 Evaluation

For our unit 21 project we were told that we could create a project to show our skills that we have learned

over the last two years of our BTEC media. Originally I was planning to do a music video however when

planning out ideas I decided to go with a documentary. This was very different from a music video however I

wanted to stand out from everyone and to produce something that no one else would think of.

Over the last few months I have found out that my new neighbour worked with many famous people in the

60’s, he has shared many thrilling stories with me and I have been interested and inspired by what he has told

me.

I decided to base my documentary on my neighbour; his name is John Lyndon and he has lived an amazing life

so far. He was involved with Brian Epstein in the 60’s and worked alongside him to produce some of the

world’s best singers e.g. The Beatles and Cilla Black, I planned to use his work as the story of my documentary

which would walk us through a small area of the 60’s.

Part of the reason I chose to do this documentary on a man in his 70’s is because I wanted a project that had

the target audience of middle age plus. Most people will produce something that is aimed at the younger

generation however I wanted to grasp people that want to remember the ‘good times’ (40+) again to stand

out from the crowd.

Once I had settled down some final ideas I made a proposal to list them. This was my

Mind map of the ideas

I planned to use in my

documentary

Format: Documentary

Title: ‘Saunders Story’

Genre: Documentary on neighbour’s life

Content: Pictures, Videos, Speaking..

Style& Approach: different sections,

photo sections, video sections, backing

music

Audience: Mid age to older people (40+)

Length: 2-3

minutes Legal issues: Email so I have no copy

right issues

Comparing finished project with proposal

Overall my final project worked out similar to my proposal however there were changes, for example the title

was much different. After thinking that ‘Saunders Story’ would be a good title I discovered that John’s sir name

that he was known by in the 60’s was Lyndon. This meant that I had to go by this is my documentary and

change my title to suit it. I thought about having ‘Lyndon’s life’ but then decided it didn’t fit properly. After

completing my project and watching it through a couple of times I realised that my project was more so about

what John had done behind the scenes however no one had credited him for it therefore I came up with the

name; John Lyndon

Hidden hero of the 60’s

For the content of my project I thought that I would have John speak about more people however when

coinciding with him we decided to just speak about a few ‘main’ people (Cilla Black, The Beatles, and Brian

Epstein). This was because this would allow the documentary to stay within a small time period rather than

skipping into different decades. Also this way I would keep my initial length to 2-3 minutes so that my

audience will not get bored. In the end I think that It worked out much better that I had john speak about

fewer people rather than more because it allowed him to go into more depth about those who he spoke

about.

My style & approach was how I imagined it to be however with fewer sections than I planned. My final project

flowed much better than what it would have done if I had the sections such as question and answer. I did not

use this in my documentary because I found that it was much easier for John to talk about what he felt

comfortable talking about; I did not want to ask him anything that he would struggle to answer. I did have

songs playing in the background as planned and I have short video clips and pictures.

I believe that I truly captured my target audience as I have shown a handful of people that fall within my target

audience and they have all really enjoyed it. I have also shown some people that do not fall within my target

audience and they also like it however they were not half as interested as the people in my target audience.

I kept my video short even though I could have kept it going; my video is 3 minutes and 30 seconds. I think this

is a good length as it does not get boring and it is short and sweet.

For my legal and ethical issues I made sure that John was happy for me to ask questions and ask him to talk

about his past before starting to film. Also, I emailed the record owners of Cilla Black and The Beatles to make

sure I could use the music and videos in my project.

A screen grab of the email I

sent asking to use the songs

by The Beatles.

This is my placement story board for my documentary; I

could not do a storyboard as I did not know what the

outcome was going to be to John speaking.

Below are a few screen grabs of my video to show that my proposal is similar to my video

Here is a shot of The Beatles music video ‘Love Me Do’

This was the song I used at the introduction of my

documentary; the music video was playing with the song.

Here is a shot of John starting to talk about the 60’s. I

have placed the title in the top right so the audience

knows what my documentary is about. I have a few of

these sections in my documentary.

Here is one of the rolling images I used of Cilla Black in

my documentary whilst one of her songs was playing.

This is another rolling image I used in my documentary

whilst John was speaking about the Apple store when it

was owned by The Beatles.

This image is from a book that John has called FabGear.

I made a production schedule of

what and when I would be doing

in media throughout my project.

I found it difficult to stick directly

to this because it took me longer

to do my pre-production than

expected.

However I managed to keep

within the time management to

have my project in by.

If I were to do this again I would spend less time on pre-production.

Here is a step by step of how I made my documentary.

I filmed the main footage in John’s home that I would use in my video

First I imported my work that I

was going to use in the editing

File

Import

I then dragged in the footage,

images, songs and videos into the

right order I wanted them in

During my placing I cut

them using the razor tool

to make them the length

that I wanted them

I added effects such as writing on

my project, this writing reads ‘John

Lyndon, Hidden hero of the 60’s’

Title

New title

Default

still

I added effects to my video such

as dissolve; this is where the video

fades out into another clip

Video transitions Dissolve Cross dissolve

I finally exported my video so that it

could be put onto my blogger and

YouTube

I edited the music many times to make it fit with the footage and to make the sound fade in and out

Feedback

Overall Comments Strengths Weaknesses Improvements

Teachers Interesting subject great topic, fascinating subject, especially as I love the Beatles and the 60s

Well edited using music from time The subject, he is great. Plus good use of music and images

Make it Longer considering subject, talked more about different bands better use of his book, maybe some images with his commentary

Add him concluding his time Longer, he’s too interesting, he needs more time. Plus maybe more interviews with his fans, colleagues and people who were there.

Students Enjoyable Different to everything else Enjoyable but only to those who are 40+ Very interesting

Interesting to watch Well suited to target audience Well suited to target audience Looked professional

Use more pictures Talk about more things Use more video clips Maybe have a section of me asking the questions

Make it longer Have him talk about other time periods too Add more detail to make it more interesting Add more locations of where he is talking. E.g., walking in his garden, in the forest

Personally I agree with many of these comments, if I had more time and if I were to redo the project I would

definitely make it longer so that I could add more detail and I would film in other places. Some other

improvements I would make next time would be:

1) Have more short video clips and images to make it more interesting

2) Have john go into more depth about some artists and also talk about other artists too

3) Use some real life work that he had such as his book and costumes

4) Perhaps have a question and answer section where you can hear me asking the questions so the

audience knows exactly what he Is talking

I like how I have incorporated the

title into the documentary where we

first see John I like how I have used the

rule of thirdsand kept John

near the left and have the

cabinet with interesting

ornaments in it on the right

I believe the positioning of

the camera is good as it

does not have any

pointlessness about it

I made sure that I filmed it all in one day so

that John was wearing the same clothes so that

it did not appear odd to the audience

Here later on, John is in the same

position; I think that I could have had

him in a different area of his house to

make it more interesting

Improving and adding all of these to my project will make it more enjoyable to watch. I also think that if

there were more excitement to it, it would also appeal to the younger generation.

I was very happy with how my project came out and I believed that there were strengths however there

were also weaknesses.

Strengths

Well edited

On topic the whole time

Well suited to target audience

Not too long so it didn’t get boring

Interesting subject

Weaknesses

Could have been longer so that there was more detail

Could have added more artists into it

There could have been more music and louder

More images and video clips

Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of my project and am pleased that many people have good

comments about it.