EVALUATION QUESTIONS

How did you use, develop Or challenge codes and

Conventions of real media Products?

FINAL PRODUCT

FIN

AL P

OST

ER

CONVENTIONS OF A DOCUMENTARY

Hand held Camera

Voice Over

Interviews

Parallel Editing

Archive footage

Mediated culture

Selective editing

Close Ups

Medium Close

Diegetic Sound

Non-diegetic sound

Non-linear clips

Linear structure

My media product is a documentary which explores the life and culture of

skateboarding in Manchester. It gives a different perspective to the target audience which is people, aged 16-30 who don’t skate who want to know a bit more about the lives

of skaters and what makes them want to skate, what makes them want to carry on

skating every day.

As my product is a documentary I have adopted specific codes and conventions which I have used in my video such as cut-away shots, interviews and archived

footage. To begin with I used interviews because it is the main convention of the documentary itself. During my documentary you meet two people, Ben

Grove and Jiri Bulin.

As both are introduced I have used the convention of the name tag, this tells you what their name is without having to have the interviewee saying ‘Hi my

name is…’, so this is useful because it cuts out the boring standard conventional greeting and skips straight to the point which allows the viewer

to get into the documentary quicker.

For the opening of the documentary I went with the time-lapse, shots of people walking and various other buildings but as the music kicks in you see the action of skateboarding which in a way challenges the conventions of a documentary because normally you’d expect some more long shots and close ups of people’s faces or even a blooper or two. With my opening I made sure it would draw the viewer and set

them up for the rest of the documentary. The reason I decided to change the colour to black and white was to give the opening a sort of underground feel to it, make the documentary rebellious to the

generic conventions of a documentary.

I managed to get my hands on some old footage of Ben Grove and Jiri Bulin so that I could make the documentary feel genuine. When I started looking at documentaries I looked at the film ‘Dogtown and the Z-boys’,

which is a documentary about skaters in the early 80s in California. Compared to my documentary I can say that I followed the same

conventions as this documentary did, they used a lot of old footage, you could even say that most of the film was old footage apart from the

interviews with the skaters. My archived footage was from two different video parts which my friends had made a few years ago. The reason it

works so well is because the old footage contrasts with the new, cutting away to the grainy footage then back to the crisp HD modern day footage

really gives the video a documentary feel to it.

Comparison of my poster to that of an existing Product.

My product stands out as it looks professional. I have the catch line of the documentary just like the real one on the left. The photo I shot allows the

viewer to engage with the documentary and makes them interested in what will happen, therefore drawing them into watching it.

My poster looks like a real advertisement to a documentary and the lengthy process to create it was worth it as it looks like it was created by

channel 4’s production team.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOURMAIN AND ANCILLARY

TEXTS?

FINAL PRODUCTSMy main and ancillary products work effectively together due to the link between them.

https://soundcloud.com/#idw42/radio-advert-for-a2-media

Radio Advert

Final Documentary

Final Poster

I think my poster/newspaper advertisement works well with my documentary because it really describes the message I am trying to convey through the video itself, about what being a street skater in

Manchester is really like. Such as skating through rugged back streets to get from place to place. Using the title ‘Stick to Board’ on

my advertisement creates a theme that is being unable to leave skateboarding behind, you will always be ‘stuck’ to the board.

As my documentary is supposed to be aired onto channel 4, I created the advert to mirror that of an existing poster using the

Channel 4 logo on the advertisement itself to keep the identity of the brand consistent.

To keep the brand consistent I also had to take the same font type and create the title and tag line as the real posters

themselves. This involved a process which I have shown in Question 4. Using this technique I was able to support the fact

that my documentary would be shown on Channel 4.

Both of my products are also connected through the information they convey to the audience who are viewing.

All information needed about the documentary is on the poster such as the date, time and channel the documentary is being aired

on, this is useful to the audience as it makes it easier for them to access the content which will be displayed.

This links to my radio advert as the opening lines of the radio advert are ‘Tune in Thursday night, 9 o’clock on

Channel 4’ using this to open the advert makes the information more memorable as it’s the first thing they

hear when listening to the advert.

‘Don’t forget your kneepads’

Personally I think that my radio advert links to my Documentary through the fact its

skateboarding related. Plus I also used the same soundtrack in my radio advert as I

did in my documentary, this gives the audience a taster of the music which accompanies the documentary itself.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNEDFROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

AUDIENCE FEEDBACKTo get the feedback that I wanted I asked a few people some questions about

what they thought about the documentary this is what a few of the people said:

A lot of the response from the questionnaire don’t really give me much to improve upon however some do make valid points which I should of considered

when editing and creating the documentary.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

After already shooting the documentary it was hard for me to have re-shot the interviews, so I decided to instead use more skateboard related cut away shots in Ben

Groves interview as it means there is less screen time for the shot of the interview

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK RESPONSE

I decided to not only change the amount of cut away shots for Ben’s interview but also for Jiri’s to allow the documentary to flow smoother and not give too much screen time

to one shot for too long so the audience don’t lose concentration

and change channel.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK RESPONSEWhat I learned from the feedback was that sometimes in the documentary I need to change the transitions from clip to clip. One comment that came up said that it didn’t need to fade in some places. So I decided to go back and change the way I edited it so it isn't too jumpy or too slow in

some parts.

I think this is the major flaw in the text in the Documentary. I didn’t say what the profession of the skater was whether is was ‘pro’ ‘semi-pro’ or ‘amateur’. It would of given the audience a better

knowledge of the skater and allow them to have a larger insight into their life, however I did include a lot of cutaway shot of them skating which can easily show their level in the skateboarding industry.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK RESPONSE – Overall ImpressionsFrom what the audience have said about the documentary it all seems very positive so what I did was I went back and changed what needed to be changed. At the bottom you can watch the first

draft and the final version of the documentary. There are a lot of changes which I have made however they are very small it makes a lot of difference and the documentary runs smoother and

makes it look a lot more professional.

DRAFT FINAL

HOW DID YOU USE TECHNOLOGIES IN THE

RESEARCH AND PLANNING,CONSTRUCTION AND EVALUATION STAGES?

CAMERA EQUIPMENT

I used a canon 60D to record all of the footage for a professional feel to the documentary.

I used the Samyang Fish-eye lens for a few skating clips in the documentary.

The tripod I used had a fluid head attached so the footage was a lot smoother on the panning shots.

For the low angle skating clips I used the cam caddie grip to hold the camera steady whilst riding along next to the skater

EDITINGSOFTWARE

To edit the whole documentary I used Sony Vegas Pro 11 to create the main product. It is very useful because it

gives a professional look and is simple to

use.

I also used Adobe After Effects to colour

grade the final product as this is

what professionals use and it gave the

documentary a great visual look to it.

I used Garage Band to create my radio

advert but that is as far as I went with it as it wasn’t much use to me in my other products.

Adobe Photoshop was my greatest asset in making my products, I used it

in all aspects apart from my radio advert. It was very useful when

making my poster.

OTHERTECHNOLOGIES

I used YouTube to upload and share my documentary. This is the most

used video sharing website in the

world and with HD capability it was

extremely useful.

SoundCloud was very useful as I

could upload my Radio Advert and share it on there.

From there I could embed it into my

blog.

Slide share allowed me to upload this

PowerPoint onto it and embed it into

my blog

Weebly was very useful as it is my blog where I have posted all

of my coursework and documentary. It allows me to share my work for free and its

not complicated.

RESEARCH AND PLANNINGOriginally I looked at the documentary ‘Dogtown and the Z-Boys’ and ‘Life’

narrated by David Attenborough. Both Documentaries are polar opposites, they have different themes and completely different audiences.

Looking at both of these documentaries to start with was a good idea because I meant I was able

to get a brief look into the world of documentary.

When I started drafting ideas for my documentary I decided to follow the route of

skateboarding and mimic ‘Dogtown and the Z-boys’ as it is an interest of mine which I decided

to pursue and delve deeper into the roots of Manchester skateboarding scene and history.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING

"Channel 4's primary purpose is the fulfilment of its public service remit, which is defined in the 2003 Communications Act.

This states that "the public service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular:

(a) demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes;

(b) appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society;

(c) makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programmes of an educational nature

and other programmes of educative value; and

(d) exhibits a distinctive character."

CHANNEL 4’S REMIT

RESEARCH AND PLANNINGCHANNEL 4’S REMIT

I will be broadcasting my documentary on Channel 4, and as a part of this I need to look into the remit and

produce a high quality product which goes with these guidelines. As a skateboarding documentary in Manchester one of the most culture cities in Britain, it goes without saying that I match the criteria of the

remit.

With point (A) my documentary is about skateboarding using all types of shots and angles, also the idea itself is showing

innovation and creativity towards different types of cultures. which leads into point (B). As I take a journey into the world

of skateboarding in Manchester it not only appeals to a certain group of people but a large population of people, I

have created it so it is interesting to people who are uneducated about the culture and being a skater myself I

have made it so people who don't skate can understand the world that is skateboarding.

RESEARCH AND PLANNINGCHANNEL 4’S REMIT

Point (C) is an obvious one, it is educating the public on what skateboarding is and why people continue to do it.

Point (D) is a no brainer, nothing has every really been done like this before, especially on television. With the documentary it is very distinctive because as a culture skateboarding is one of the fastest growing cultures in the UK with more and more people

picking up the 'sport' everyday. And its not just aimed at children or rebellious teenagers, skateboarding is becoming a very family

friendly sport, especially in Manchester with the new coaching for schools, children and adults.

RESEARCH AND PLANNINGCHANNEL 4’S REMIT

CAMERA USEI used the Canon 60D to film my documentary. Overall as a camera it allows for a professional look and feel to any video recorded on it. This help greatly in the construction of my products, not only my documentary but also my poster which I shot the initial photo back in November 2012 on a 50mm lens.

What I originally planned to do was create a longer documentary but on the shooting days a few people weren't able to film the interviews as they had work or couldn’t make it out so instead I filmed more cut away shots around Manchester to fill the gaps.

In terms of the skateboarding footage I attached my camera to my Cam Caddie handle with a Rode video

microphone and filmed the footage that way following closely behind on a skateboard.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE DOCUMETARY

Using Sony Vegas Pro 11 I took all the footage I had gathered over the past few weeks and took to the editing process. As I have experience editing it wasn’t too hard taking the clips and putting them into the program. However deciding how I was going to lay them out was a different story. Going off my storyboard I was able to create the opening sequence easily, however after watching it through multiple times I still was unsure if I liked it or not, so I played around with colour grading and changed the opening to black and white

CONSTRUCTION OF THE DOCUMETARY

This is the opening clip of the

documentary in the editing program.

To start with I selected properties which takes me to the menu of the clip and allows me to make

necessary adjustments

From there I deselect ‘maintain aspect ratio’ (which stops the

clip from stretching or changing when I render it out) and select ‘Disable resample’ (this means that is will not blend any of the

frames together when rendering out the full video)

CONSTRUCTION OF THE DOCUMETARY

Once I have completed the first step I go to the ‘colour corrections’ tab in the top

right and choose which effect I will use.

For the opening sequence I added the effects ‘100%

Black and White’ and ‘Studio RGB to Computer RGB’ these normally work

best when editing my product as they give a clean look to the video without it

looking overly edited or grainy.

This is how it turned out.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE DOCUMETARY

To insert text into the video I had to right click on the

timeline above the clip I just used then a menu will

appear and I clicked ‘Insert text media’

From there another box

comes up where you can write out what text you need

CONSTRUCTION OF THE DOCUMETARY

Adding music to the editing software is just as easy as adding a clip from the folder however choosing the right music to accompany the documentary is critical. It must not infringe copyright laws and it must fit right with the documentary.

I contacted a friend called Jonny Sivel, otherwise known as RMONE on SoundCloud. Listening to his music I decided that it would fit best to my genre.

SICK CHIRPSE I was contacted by the web company Sick Chirpse who wanted to post my documentary onto their website. This was through the Black Sheep Skate Shop whom I currently work for filming different projects.

Sick Chirpse asked me to create a few more documentaries like this one to create a web series, this is why the documentary is labelled ‘Part 1’

CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEWSPAPER ADVERT

To create my poster I had to go through a lengthy but simple process in creating the text as the Channel 4

‘font’ was unavailable but a picture of all the letters was.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEWSPAPER ADVERT

To take the channel 4 font type you must select each letter with the selection box tool and drag the letter into another document

After doing this I had to select the magic wand tool and delete the brown colour which was attached to the background of the letter. Following these steps with each letter I needed I came to the final step which was aligning all the letters.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEWSPAPER ADVERT

I cropped down the original image and added a few colour corrections

Then I added in the text and channel 4 logo and the newspaper

advert was complete.

EVALUATION OF MY FINISHED PRODUCTS

To conclude my evaluation, I would say that everything went to plan, for example, production and post production of the video went to plan bar a few interviewees dropping out. The poster couldn’t have worked any better and my radio advert didn’t take long to complete. Overall the production process of this project went very well.