Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Our documentary was centred around the hotly debated topic of whether the
mediaǯs portrayal of the youth of today is fair and how this affects the general
public image of that age group. Called ǮTeenagers: Out of Control?ǯ, following the
straight to the point style of common documentary titles, the opening 5 minutes
of the documentary explain the topic and its issues, and set about tackling the
issue immediately by interviewing young people of the focused age group (also
the target audience) and assessing some of the claims made about teenagers
across the media.
This issue is one that has been raised throughout the media in the past, with
newspaper articles and websites targeting the issue as one that should be
considered important, as this BBC article shows;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7820245.stm
It is this sort of article that inspired us to take this issue as the focus for our
documentary, as the reality of the issue would result in a professional
appearance to our documentary and would be easy to advertise in the radio
trailer and attract our target audience.
The similarity between the opening shot is clear, with a mid shot/MCU used in
both instances, as well as the background being important in the mise en scene
hence why the presenters are stood lightly to the left or right of centre. Both
presenters introduce their programǯs topic, and then both also cut to a montage.
Montages are used in the opening 30
seconds of almost every documentary on
television, especially Channel 4, and so
we felt we should follow this convention
and continue the show with a montage
ending in the title of the show,
ǮTeenagers: Out of Control?ǯ.
The music used in the documentary is also used purposefully to follow codes and
conventions of documentaries we watched and analysed in the research and
planning stage, in order to add to the professionalism we were looking for. The
first piece of music used in the documentary comes whilst the opening montage
is on as part of the title sequence, and I
chose the Oasis song ǮCigarettes and
Alcoholǯ, which I bought, owned and so
was copyright free, as it has clear lyrical
references to our topic and rebellious
youth, and fits in with the images used
on the montage, such as shots of youths
rolling cigarettes and images of alcohol
as well as teenagers Ǯlooking for some
actionǯ, as the lyrics state. The excerpt of
the song is very relevant to the topic and
particularly the shots used in the
opening montage/title sequence, which
is why I chose to include it. The other
main piece of music featured in the
documentary is the copyright-free track ǮCybertoyǯ, used as background music to
most of the documentary because of its subtle but noticeably beats and melodies
that fill the empty sound but and add atmosphere but do not detract attention
from the main documentary. This use of a subtle beat-based track is used by
almost every documentary made, and all of those we analysed, so is a proven
convention of the trade.
For the task we also had to produce a 30 second radio trailer, which I created
entirely, and a listings page for a TV magazine, produced by Student B. The radio
trailer was for the local commercial station BRMB, and I included a copyright
free version of their indent in the trailer to make it sound like a real media
product that would be played on that station. The trailer also includes excerpts
from the documentary with snippets of interviews used to highlight the sense of
debate and opinion in the program that prove it as a serious issue, a convention
used in both the radio trailers I analysed in the research and planning stage.
Another convention followed in the radio trailer was the final voiceover giving
the name, time, date and channel the program is to be broadcast on, a vital
feature in an advert for a television show.
Õ !
"
#
The trailer opens with an extreme claim from a student ǮI think itǯs quite obvious
the media hate usǯ, which immediately attracts the listeners attention using
controversy and introduces a sense of debate and anger to the documentary. A
male voice over introduces and describes the topic of the documentary
throughout, in between other excerpts from interviews and vox pops on the
documentary. Including these clips from the documentary is of course vital to its
advertising, and is a convention used in all of the radio trailers analysed,
especially the Stephen Fry trailer. Also, the trailer keeps to the projects brand
identity by including clips from teenagers themselves speaking about the issue,
and slightly dramatizing matters to maintain our young target audienceǯs
interest.
Also required as an ancillary text was
an article to put in a TV listings page,
also to advertise and support our documentary. Designed for a channel 4 listings
magazine based on the Radio Times, it had to describe in detail the topic and
purpose to our documentary, and why the issue was one worth investigating.
Using images, pull quotes, large text and subtle fonts it advertises both the
documentary and the topic well, and would fit in any real TV listings magazine
such as the Radio Times. These codes and conventions were taken from
studying a real TV listings article from the Radio Times itself, entitled ǮMy
Grandfather Knew Gandhiǯ, which can be seen below, with the similarities
obvious. The listings page shows images of teenagers smoking and hanging
around in groups, following the trend set by the documentary and the radio
trailer that they are the main focus here, as that age group is both the one we
concentrate our documentary itself on, and our primary target audience. This
means that again the second ancillary text follows the brand identity set by the
main
documentary
product,
following
with it the
production
aim.
Õ $
"
Another category
that received very
positive feedback
was the
ǮAppropriateness
for Target
Audienceǯ section,
which also
received 3
ǮExcellentǯ marks,
proving that our
target audience
believed our
documentary to be
interesting,
relevant and
informative to
their own age group, which was our general aim when creating the documentary.
The graph shows the full results of the questionnaire, with the only real
disappointing result in the use of sound and music column. Feedback from the
group indicated that some of the sound levels were a little unbalanced and some
shots, like the opening shot of Shivani by a road, had too much background noise.
These are issues we accept and would endeavor to put right if more time was
available. However, overall I am very pleased with the feedback we received
from our target audience as they
branded it a professional, quality
documentary with a subject fit
for television, Channel 4, and our
target audience, which were our
main and general aims when
constructing the media
product.
Õ!
Other
technological skills I had to learn and develop
included the blog system where all research
and planning work, documentary
information, plans and ideas, audience
research and anything related to the
documentary and its preparation and
production had to be logged. Having never
used a blogging website before, this is
another skill I had to learn in order to ensure
my blog work was uploaded and recorded for
future reference if it was needed i.e. referring to any research and planning
during production. The blogǯs website for our group is as follows;
www.c03documentary10.blogspot.com
In all cases of blog work I was encouraged to include pictures, video and
hyperlinks, which I did as much as possible using the Blogger technology, and
overall I completed all blog work to a level I am proud of.
In terms of real technologies, a wide array of items were used to create our
media products. As well as the Apple Macs that brought everything together to
create and mould in its programs, technology was
used throughout the project to get our material.
HD video cameras were the most vital technology
used, as the cameras and tripod stand captured the
footage we were to use for our main media
product, the documentary. I used all of the camera
equipment to full effect and with relative ease, as I
did with the microphones and headphones that
were also used and required. The microphone and
headphones were also used along with a sound
recorder to capture voice-overs for both the
documentary
and the radio
trailer, so
played a vital
role, along with
the other
technologies mentioned, in the production of
our media products thanks to our
accomplished skills in using the technology.