Final Evaluation

Introduction

I wanted to make a participatory documentary to enter to the Encounters competition for the
student live award 2019. The biggest prizes for these were an entry to the next year BAFTA awards
and £1000 cash. I wanted to enter this competition because the criteria was quite flexible and I
really thought I could showcase my journalistic research skills and improve my creative skills. I would
be able to enter this competition because the max timings were 30 minutes and my documentary
was only around 15 minutes long, however I would probably not enter this piece of work because
it’s not specifically something that I am massively proud of. So many things went wrong when I was
producing this and it turned out to be something completely different than what I originally pictured
in my head. I worked individually on this final piece however when filming certain things such as the
London protest I had another person with me also filming, these people were Toby Hill, Rachel
Green and Jermaine Thompson.

Overall I think my documentary failed to meet my expectations, at the beginning of this project I had
a very clear view of what I wanted to do. I managed to sort out some really good interviews but then
the people said that they can’t make it in the last moment which forced to me to mould my idea into
something slightly different. Then during the filming process everything was going fine for the first
four days and then I got food poisoning which set me off from Saturday to the next Wednesday so I
was 4 days short of footage. I then wanted to film in a vlog like style, I filmed using a go-pro and a
phone but I made the mistake of not checking my footage every day and so when it came to my
editing I transferred all my footage only to discover that none of it had sound, which resulted to me
having to film a long conclusion and putting silent footage over it when actually I wanted to show my
week in a vlog style without a voiceover and then do a very short conclusion so that it could be more
interesting for the audience to watch. I wish I could do this project again in a different format.

Feedback analysis

All people who responded to my survey monkey said that I chose the perfect genre for my
production. Then for question 2 I asked why and most people said something along the lines of , I
chose a very interesting topic to cover and doing a participatory documentary would help me
present my information found in a creative manor. However I feel like my documentary didn’t
necessarily follow the participatory documentary lines, I lost the audio to all my clips and therefore I
couldn’t really show me participating in this challenge.
I think that I definitely hit the majority of my genre conventions, for example my tone is very relaxed
and natural so the audience know that most of my work isn’t scripted, in the production I watched
for my research called supersize me by Morgan Spurlock and he uses a really informal and friendly
tone during his production making it much more enjoyable to watch. So hopefully my tone will make
my chosen audience think of me as more of a friend rather than a tight voiced presenter, it also gives
me a sense or reliability which is always good in the media industry. Another thing that I do is I voice
my opinions and I’m truthful with them, e.g. Lush gave a free bar of deodorant and normally people
would give a good review for it because it was free however I didn’t like it so I just said how I felt in
my documentary. I think this gives me that extra credibility and makes me seem more human and
normal. This kind of honesty features in another participatory documentary that I analysed for my
research called bowling for columbine and it makes the audience more interested because the
presenter/narrator isn’t scared of showing their political and personal views. I also participated in
my production, obviously that is the biggest factor of a participatory documentary and even though I
couldn’t include the full clips I still talked about my experience and added little snippets so my
audience knows I’m not bluffing. The last convention that I followed strictly was interviews, in my
case I couldn’t get any interviews with professionals so I resulted in using vox pops which are
probably not as effective however they still tell my audience about my topic and how to live an eco-
friendly life.

For question 3 I asked to what level people think I presented my facts, everyone who answered my
questionnaire said that I had a perfect level of facts. However I can’t help to disagree with this, I
didn’t present an awful amount of facts because I had originally included them in my “vlog”
segments but as I mentioned before I lost the audio so I couldn’t include them in my final
production. I think that when I was writing my conclusion I could have included more facts however I
didn’t think of that at the time. If I were to do this project again then I would add interesting facts of
the screen. On the other hand I feel like I have spoken a lot about Henley and hopefully that was
insightful for the audience, I also learnt a lot from my content research but I don’t feel like I
particular reflected this is my documentary

My 4th question was all about content and how it was presented. People who answered my survey
monkey said that they liked my opening segment where I have my interview with a London
protestor and Henley college students, they said that it was a nice mix of answers and perspectives.
However the last segment where I am talking about my challenge gets a bit lengthy and therefore
boring. Perhaps I could have added another professional interview, I had planned to do a
professional interview however the person pulled out last minute. I am also not proud of the last
segment because I intended for it to be a participatory led vlog and not just solid minutes of me
talking, this once again links back to my audio being lost. Like I mentioned before I would’ve like to
added more facts that I’ve talked about in my research because I feel like it would be more eye
opening for my chosen audience. My research was definitely very useful to me, it helped me
understand my topic better and I gained a lot of knowledge of the amount of damage I was doing to
earth by being careless, for example before this project I have been using a plastic toothbrush for as
long as I can remember because it was something “normal” however after I discovered through
research that toothbrushes will never decompose and they are one of the hardest things to recycle, I
switched to using a decomposable bamboo toothbrush. I also gained a lot of knowledge about
Henley through my research, I think I portray this well through my documentary, beforehand I didn’t
know that Henley had a package free shop however I explored it during my documentary and now
I’m more willing to go plastic free on products such as oats/pasta.

For question 5 I asked if my audience have learned something new from my documentary, 100% of
the people who answered my survey said that they have learnt new things about Henley, in
particular where to shop if you want to live a more eco-friendly life and where to eat. On the other
hand they said that they wished it would be a bit more informative when it comes to facts and
statistics. I think if I was to re-do this project, I would make it half about Henley on Thames and half
about facts and statistics. However, I do have to agree with my audience that my documentary did
give a great insight into eco-friendly Henley on Thames and the options it offers for students.

Next, I asked what my audience though of the way my production was narrated, they said that they
liked the opening segment because it gave my production a somewhat of a structure and diversity to
the narration because it was a mix however the ending segment got quite dull when I had to do my
conclusion. Once again I wished I could have avoided this, the last segment was meant to be a “vlog”
like piece with me speaking about the difficulties and victory moments when they were actually
happening but sadly the sound to my footage went missing, I think that If I could have gone through
with doing my “vlog” like segment the narration might have been much more interesting and
engaging for my audience. This problem definitely taught me to check my footage as I go to make
sure that everything ran smoothly, when I do my second year work I will definitely be checking my
footage and sounds more often so that when it comes to editing I will have my desired context.

For question 7 I asked if my audience overall liked the way it was made, I asked this because I myself
wasn’t sure if I necessarily liked this but everyone who answered my questionnaire said that they
liked the way it was made but they didn’t leave a comment why. I wished they told me why because
then I could write out what I did well and what people liked so that the next time I would be making
something similar I could keep the things that a young audience like. I would have liked my
documentary to look a little bit different, for example I wished my editing was a little bit more
complex however this was not something that I was particular fussed about because I was more
invested in my research and sorting out the things that went wrong. On the other hand I was
actually proud of myself, this was the second project that I did completely solo (the first one being a
radio show) and now that I look at it considering my circumstances I feel as I pulled my piece
together quite well.

My last question was about my technical qualities and what they thought of them, one comment
talked about the fact that my editing was still a bit rough and clunky and very basic. I know that my
editing isn’t necessarily the best and I wish I could have done it a bit better, however I’m quite proud
of my editing because at the beginning on this academic year I was absolutely clueless on editing and
using a computer to the point where I didn’t even know how to create a folder, I was scared at just
the thought of editing so actually I think that this documentary shows that I have learnt a lot about
editing through the year, and I still have a long way to go but my confidence in it is growing. When I
was researching into techniques to use in my production, I analysed a video that talked about how
to get handheld footage, this is because one of my main inspirations Louis Theroux uses this method
to make his documentaries seem rawer and more unedited. So, through my piece you can see that I
have tried to include this element as I have been practicing it and I am quite happy with it as I also
tend to struggle with filming and filming techniques.
What went well

I think that one of the biggest things that went well was my research, I put a lot of time and effort
into it and made it very thorough. I even ended up going to London when #extenctionrebellion was
on too get a deeper insight into people’s views of this eco-friendliness topic and see just how
dedicated young people are to make a big difference. This research really helped me understand my
topic better and understand what I have to do in order to be more eco-friendly, researching the
statistics and facts helped me to grasp just how much damage I carry out to the earth during a daily
basis that’s unnecessary for example using every day toiletries which are smothered in plastic, they
are completely unnecessary seeing that I can buy or make some package and toxic free ones myself.
I would say that I gained a mass amount of knowledge through my research which helped me carry
out with my documentary but whilst being in the process of making my documentary I also learnt a
lot about Henley on Thames and what it has to offer as a town to be more eco-friendly, before this
project I would have never known that we have a bottle re-fill scheme or that we have a shop which
sells everything from spices to granola plastic free called The Willow basket. This documentary has
taught me a lot about myself and my resilience, I mean I went a week without plastic and just
managed to use one plastic bottle from peach tea and that’s very little compared to all the plastic
and unnecessary waste I collected over the week where I wasn’t doing my challenge. This makes me
feel like If I wanted to then in the future, I could make more videos like this because I know that I
van commit and carry out a challenge.

What could have been improved?

I think that one of the major things that could have been improved were my organisational skills, I
had amazing plans for this documentary but I had no valid plan b’s so when my original plans
faltered I was stuck with what I had and what I could do last minute, for example at the beginning of
this documentary I wanted to interview the head of the Henley residence group but sadly they
pulled out a day on the day when I arranged the interview so then I had only a very short amount of
time to finish my documentary filming and I couldn’t find anyone professional to interview. I had to
end up changing the shift of the documentary from talking about Henley as a whole to talking about
students and their approaches, which wasn’t ideal but at that point in time I did not have a plan B, If
I were to do this again I would think about things like this in my contingency plan. Another thing that
could have been improved was my editing, I feel like if I sorted out filming my documentary earlier
then I could have had a much more relaxed approach to editing and my production could have
possibly have ended up better edited, however I still feel proud of my editing because I have come a
long way since the start of the school year. Quite a few things went wrong whilst I was doing this
project, the first one being my interviewee pulling out (my solution being replacing her with student
vox pops).The second one being me getting food poisoning during filming week, mid-way though the
challenge I got food poisoning and I was bed bound for around 5 days. This meant that I had to stop
the challenge and I couldn’t film but it also threw me off track with my work as I had a lot planned
for that week, this made me really behind and I found it really tricky to catch up again. The last this
that went wrong was the fact that I lost the audio to my clips which were meant to be put together
to make my “vlog” like segment, this sucked because I worked really hard on them and I wanted to
show my confidence in front of the camera with through them but obviously I could not because
they were now silent clips. This changed my production completely because I had to replace that
segment with me talking for a solid 7 minutes which is much less interesting but as with the other
point, I didn’t have a plan b.
What would I do differently next time?

Next time I would be more organised, I failed to have more sufficient back up plans this time and this
resulted in my production turning out to be something completely different from what I have had
imagined it at first. I would stick more to my production schedule and remind everyone who I want
in my production to be there on time, I would try extra hard not to fall behind because it’s extremely
hard to catch up on coursework as you have 101 other things going on with your production and if I
did fall behind then I would catch up as quick as possible. Next time I would definitely check my
footage as I go to make sure that I have the context that I want and if not then I could always re-
shoot whatever I was filming, that way I would be able to stick with my original editing plan. If I was
to do this again, when researching techniques I would probably research into how to edit these
types of videos so that they are entertaining to watch for a younger audience and I would research
more into how I can get successful b-roll because even though I have some b-roll in my production I
don’t thing it’s as good as it could be. Another thing that I would put a harder emphasis on if I did
this again would be facts and statistics, I learnt a lot from the facts and statistics that I’ve researched
however I didn’t present that information to the audience in my documentary and I feel like the
production could really benefit from this as it would make them understand the importance and
severity of this topic.

Work comparison

I will be comparing my final piece with Louis Theroux 2003 documentary called Louis and the Nazis. I
chose this production because I really liked it and thought it was made great.

Filming style-

Both Louis and I use similar filming techniques, we both have a handheld camera which can
potentially produce shaky footage. This is done to give our documentaries a sense of truthfulness,
the audience know the footage isn’t perfectly clean cut and edited instead it’s raw and gripping. I
think Louis does this more effectively because someone else dose the filming for him, Louis is a
presenter/narrator and has a separate cameraman who dose the techniques for him. Whereas
during my final project it was quite hard to find someone who was willing to film for me so most of
the time it was just me filming whilst asking questions. I think my research on how to get successful
handheld footage really helped me with this project because it allowed me to gain techniques and
knowledge of what I was about to do.
Opinions-

Louis is never afraid to give his true opinions, all the way through his documentary he talks about
how he finds the Nazi families strange and even talks to them about their negativity, this makes the
documentary more interesting for the audience to watch because they know Louis is being truthful
and that makes it more entertaining, especially with the uncut reactions. In some sense I also do this
in my production because I talk about my true feelings to my topic but you can see that my footage
is edited and so it perhaps doesn’t have the same effect as Louis, however I’m not afraid to voice my
opinion but you could only have a certain amount when it came to my topic. I think this is something
Louis does better, and I could work in the future on presenting my opinion in a stronger manor.

Symbolism-

All through Louis documentary he shows swastikas weather it’s live or just pictures and cartoons, he
dose this to enforce the topic of the documentary in the audiences head. It also adds to the tempo
as the flashes are very quick and that reflects on his crazy topic that it also out of control. I also tried
to do that in my documentary, I tried to add pieces of litter everywhere but compared to the other
documentary it’s very minimal and Louis did it better. Perhaps the next time I do a project I can
focus on symbolisms and different kind on sings and how they affect people.

Interviews-

In Louis and the Nazis he does multiple interviews with people who are very relevant to his
documentary, they are all thought out excellently for example the Nazi family has their interview at
their house because it’s the most intimate location to them and a home is meant to resemble a
happy family. There is also a lot of professionals in his piece to explain his topic. I wasn’t so lucky
when it came to interviews because my professionals bailed on my last minute and then I was forced
to use multiple vox pops, I wish I had my professional interviews but I still think my vox pops give a
great structure to my piece, I think my vox pops match my type of production more than interviews
actually.

Participatory mode-

I think we both participated in different ways. Louis participated by almost become a part of these
people’s family as he showed the audience their lives and he took part in some of the ridiculous
activities and that was really engaging and definitely made it a participatory documentary. In my
case mine was a little less participatory, if I included my “vlog” segment then I could confidently say
that my documentary hit my genre but instead I had to extend my conclusion and my audience have
to take my word for the fact of me participating, I tried to save this by putting silent clips of me
participating on my conclusion. I think both documentaries are participatory just to different levels
and in different ways.

Overall-

I feel like overall as a production Louis Theroux is the best one because of the way it was made and
because it’s professional and it has a bigger budget than mine and he could afford people such as
professional camera men. Another advantage that he had was that his name is well known,
therefore professionals are more likely to agree to be in his documentary than mine. I don’t think my
production is bad for someone at my level taking into account that before the start of the school
year I never did any media subjects or filming or edit practicing. I feel like there is a lot of things that
I could have done to make my production better, I’ll make sure to do them next time.
 How suited am I to the media industry?

I think that I am quite well suited to the media industry in some ways, for example I love doing
research and I feel as if I’m actually quite good at it. It’s one of my strongest points as I love to learn
new things and I enjoy presenting it. My confidence has improved massively this year, I am no longer
shy on camera so I feel like I could possibly be suited to the broadcast journalism industry. I would
really like to work in the radio industry when I finish this course so this year I’ve really been working
on my radio and presenting voice, I have gotten a lot more relaxed and natural with it which is
reflected in my documentary. There are also a few things that I will have to improve on to be better
in the music industry, the first and most important thing being organisation, my lack of it gave me
quite a few problems during this project so before I finish this course I really need to focus on
meeting deadlines and following my production schedules. The other big thing that I will need to
improve on is editing, obviously it’s a timely process but I’l keep trying and learning new editing
techniques so hopefully by the start of the next school year I will have improved on it. The biggest
thing I want to work on next year is the journalism prospect of my course and radio work including
radio editing.