- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My documentary includes shots which depict the whole project as a story and like most documentaries, the narrative's view is seen to be the 'correct' opinion and is often challenged by characters in the documentary.
Another way in which my project used the conventions of a real media project is the way that it featured a voice-over which help tell the story to the audience throughout the project. I was inspired through watching various Nick Broomfield documentaries such as 'Kurt and Courtney' and 'Aileen Wuornos - Life and Death of a Serial Killer.' From these inspirations, I drew some of the neccessary components of documentary making, and incorporated them into my own project. These components include, the ability to tell a story, ability to capture opinions, voice-over and the occasional shot of scenery etc which would depict my back-story int he way of the Jersey surf lifestyle.
Another way in which my project uses the traditional conventions of a real documentary is that it includes any uncomforatble and akward scenes such as interviews, which are used to make the story more genuine.
My magazine review uses the traditional conventions of a real magazine film review through the way it is set out and its structure. For example, I incorporate clear collumns in my piece as well as using bold subtitle for texts such as my credits and synopsis.
My documentary develops the forms and conventions of a real documentary in the way that it does not only just include shots which depict what is going on in the story, but also shots that establish where the story is taking place. For example, in my project there is occasional a short clip in which breaks away from the story and characters in the story, showing wildlife or the surrounding environment, which is a feature which is seldom used in documentaries.
My documentary challenges the regular forms and conventions of real media projects in the way that the climax of the story is not what the audeince is expecting. The search is led in vain and the narrative and the narrative's opinion is wrong. This is different to normal documentaries due to the fact that the voice-over is seen as either being un-bias or correct. In my documenatry, the voice-over and narrative is neither.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of my main product and ancillary texts is extremely effective due to the fact that I have maintained the same kind of theme throughout all three pieces of work.
The ancillary tasks go well together in the way that a person who has not watched my main project would be able to associate the ancillary tasks with the main project due to information and the themes presented which I have carried out through all the projects.
My ancillary task poster is very effective due to the fact that it grabs the audience's attention due to its eye-catching bold colour scheme and background contrast.
The magazine review had to be done after I finished my main project due to the fact that it had to be an accurate description of what was happening in the film. The review had to be truthful when describing the features of the film and I could not simply make things up.
It was fairly difficult to compose a review in which sounded like it had actually been written by a film critic, however, with the combination of clever use of language and a good text structure, composed on In-Design, I managed to complete what I was aiming for.
I feel as though my ancillary task film review ended up being effective due to the fact that I had looked at numerous examples before hand and so had a fair idea in my head as to what the review should look like as well as how it should be set out and structured.
In terms of creating the magazine poster, I found this to be the easier ancillary task due to the fact that I had already gained a wide range of knowledge on how to use Adobe Photoshop CS4 from the previous year. I decided to make the poster simple as from what I could tell by looking at other examples, this was the most effective way. I had to base my project around a picture and so I went out and took a long shot of a friend surfing before using the 'bevel and emboss' effect and cutting the picture down to size in combination with the 'blur' effect before I was ready.
Editing and finding the most aesthetically pleasing enhancement to use was the most difficult aspect in which I had to decide for this project. Once I was satisfied with the picture I had used and edited, I then added in text and star stamps for the ratings.
The star stamps in which I used under the reviews were very effective because it made the magazine poster look genuine.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From my audience feedback, I have learned that a similar feature of an extended duration would go down well due to the fact that most people said they would like to see a longer documentary.
I also gathered that most people found the subject matter interesting which tells me that it is an issue in which I can perhaps establish more.
From the audience feedback, I also understood that despite my efforts, just over half the audience felt as though my project did not challenge the codes and conventions of a real documentary.
I found out also, that only 20% of people found the information from the documentary very useful despite that 68% of people suggested that the plot line was interesting enough. The conclusion that I can draw from this specific poll is that perhaps in future projects, I will need to sacrifice more of the story - side of the project in order to get more useful information across to my target audience.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Within each of the stages, I used various multimedia technologies during the onstruction and research, planning and evaluation stages.
Firstly, when I tackled my first ancillary task, the film poster, I used Adobe Photoshop CS4, which I had already gained experience with during the previous year. Photoshop allowed me to experiment and manipulate images and texts to suit and present how I wanted the final ancillary project to be.
Secondly, when I took on the next ancillary task, producing a magazine review, I was able to set my written review out so that it looked genuine, with a decent picture in contrast to a clear background which would give the audience an idea of what the subject of the review was at a glance. The only problem I had with this ancillary task was the fact that I had to use the program 'InDesign' in which was very useful, but complex also, bearing in mind that I had little experience with this software. Soon, I managed to pick up the basics and so constructing a magazine review became much easier.
During the planning stage of my main task, I simply used www.blogger.com to record any ideas I had, along with my storyboard and timetable.
During the research stage of my main task I wrote down which answers people gave in response to my questions and so I was then able to insert these statistics into the Microsoft Excel database. Once I entered the statistics, I was then able to produce detailed bar charts which gave a smoother, more aesthetic idea of the answers that I had received.
During my main task, I shot my documentary using a Panasonic G2 camera which was suited and had HD recording. I edited my footage in iMovie and Final Cut Pro. I started off editing my program in iMovie and then realized that although it was useful for cropping and organizing my footage, it did not include the more sophisticated features in which were compulsory in order to come out with a decent final project.
Once again, iMovie was useful for constructing the basics of my project and as we can see from below it easily allowed me to use 'ducking' where by I cold alter the volume of the original audio so that I could make the voice over more clear when need be.
During the evaluation stages of my project, I showed 40 of my peers my project and recorded their opinions one by one after the project had finished. I answered any questions and had then gathered enough information to store it, like my planning and research into Microsoft Excel, where I could then manipulate the statistics into bar charts and graphs as to get an alternative and perhaps clear, more aesthetic view on my poll.
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