OCR A2 Media Studies Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

Behaviour Managing BritainBonnie Hartrey

My task.I was required to create a documentary film opening with a duration of 5 minutes.I learnt the codes and conventions of a documentary in order to help myself decide what to use in my documentary in order to make it an effective and enjoyable piece. I looked at the various codes and conventions in detail including Fly on the wall, Cinema verite, Voice-overs, Narration, Archive footage, Re-enactments.

I watched multiple types of documentary films in order to give myself an idea of what could be used in my own piece. One of the documentaries I watched was The Imposter, which was within the thriller genre. I found that the imposter was an extremely gripping and enjoyable film. The film consists of a variety of talking head interviews in order to create a sense of realism and allow the audience to connect with what is being said. After watching this film I decided to use multiple talking head interviews in my own film order to create a sense of realism and allow the audience to see that the interviewee’s are genuine and passionate about what they say.

I set out to make a documentary, which was going to allow a lot of people to feel connected and relate to the topic, in order to allow my documentary to be effective and for people to recognise and appreciate the message that I was attempting to give.

I decided to make the documentary about school behaviour as it is a subject , which is continuously brought up in the media, as it becomes an increasing problem for majority of schools throughout the United Kingdom.

My documentary is extremely similar to documentary's like ‘Educating Essex’ and ‘Educating Yorkshire’ as they are programs, which are also about British schools and related to the behaviour in schools. They are also about how behaviour is an extremely important aspect of teaching, as it has a huge impact on children’s education in majority of schools because a students inability to behave in school and focus on their work affects the education of both the student who is misbehaving and ultimately anybody around them. For example close friends, class mates, and also teachers because having to deal with a students misconduct makes them incapable of doing their job as they are not able to educate other students in the class, whilst dealing with another students behaviour.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I used various tracks over sections of my documentary, which linked to the theme which was being explored. The reason behind me using this music was because music affects how a person thinks and feels and I wanted people to feel emotionally affected and connected to the documentary allowing the message to be stronger and more effective. For example, I added an inspirational track over the video footage and narration of a student who had made huge progress in allowing himself to overcome his bad behaviour and as a result his education is radically improving giving him a chance of attaining high grades in his GCSEs. I used inspirational audio I used over this section of the documentary in order to allow the audience to feel more emotionally affected by the students progress and to feel a sense of achievement has been made. I intentionally included George’s name and made his story personal in order to allow the audience to feel close with George so that they can feel affected by his progress and sense of achievement.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

What type of documentary is Behaviour managing Britain?

Behaviour managing

Britain

Expository

speaks directly to the viewer in an authoritative

commentary using voiceover or titles, proposing a strong

argument and point of view.

I use a rich and sonorous male voice, which I use as a voice-of-God narration. I was originally going to use my own voice in my documentary, however a male voice is usually used for documentary, as it is a much more powerful and stronger

voice of authority than a young women’s voice. I believed that this impact of the male voice

would make him appear much more reliable and trustworthy to the audience because of the strong impact his narration had.

Observational

It observes real life.

I also included voice-over commentary, dialogue, music, and

re-enactments, which our observational techniques.

Observational documentary is usually aimed at individual human

character in ordinary life situations, which is included in my

documentary as it is about the behaviour in British Schools, which appears to be an ongoing issue in

Britain.

Voice of authority Voice of God narration

Filming interviews I used the XF 100 camera when filming my interviews, as it wasextremely high definition which was important for the purposeof my documentary, as the footage needs to be clear and visiblein order to create a sense of realism. The XF 100 produces a much higher quality than the handicams I previously used I decided to use this camera, as the camera I previously used in AS produced poor quality of filming in AS due to poor image quality and sound produced by the basic handicams. The background noise cancelling setting on the XF 100 was extremely important for the purpose of interview as it meant that the speech was clear and that the audience could understand and follow what the interviewee was trying to say. An example of when the noise cancelling setting on the camera was crucial for my documentary was when videoing one of the teachers in my documentary, there was a lot of background noise coming from the corridor, fortunately because of the noise cancelling setting this noise was not picked up by the camera.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Recording audio I recorded the audio for my documentary in a recording studio using the following technology: Mic, Apple Mac, mixing deck. I used this technology in order to make sure that the sound of my narration was of a high quality, in order to make it as clear as possible for the audience to understand.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

After gathering all of my archive footage, interview, voice recording, music, pictures I imported all of my media onto iMovie. In total I had 2 hours of footage for 5 minutes of a documentary film.

After editing down the footage and selecting the relevant footage for the purpose of my documentary I was then left with 20 minutes of footage. I then dropped the remaining footage into my film timeline. I then edited all of the relevant footage splitting the clips into sections, which best presented and defined the message I was trying to give for the purpose of my documentary.

How I created Behaviour managing Britain using iMovie

I then added audio to my movie timeline. After detaching the audio from various clips I added voice overs using audio that I had taken from interviews with various staff at the school, which was related to the video in the documentary giving the audience a clearer understanding of the affect behaviour has in local schools. I used various tracks over sections of my documentary, which linked to the theme which was being explored. In order to section my footage I used a number of transitions throughout my documentary including fades. I also used video footage with detached audio in order to create a transition between sections of my documentary, for example when the music changed, the subject changed or there was a transition between one interview to another. I also added titles to my documentary, which introduced the interviewees and their role. I also added title to my documentary introduce the topic and the questions which the interviewee were being asked. I created multiple different layers of editing when adding all of my audio and video into the timeline. This made the editing complex, as every layer of footage had to be in the exact place in order for it to be presented accurately and for the audio and video to link together.

How I created Behaviour managing Britain using iMovie

Difference in project typeMy AS and A2 projects were

completely different as at AS I was required to complete a

thriller film, which was fictional meaning it didn’t involve as much f thought or planning as I didn’t

have to create a sense of realism, which proved challenging in A2

when trying to make my documentary appear as close to ordinary life as possible. When

creating my documentary at A2 I had to plan to make sure that my

documentary film represented the truth and how to make sure that the audience would believe and trust that my documentary

represented the truth.

Difference in processes to create it

At AS the process was quite simple as I only needed original

footage and a non-diegetic sound track as there was not any

diegetic sound in my thriller movie. However, when creating my A2 product it was a really

different process, as in order to create my documentary much

more media was needed including original footage,

archive footage, audio recording, interviews, voice overs, which meant that much more editing

was required in A2.

Technical skill developmentAt A2 I have extremely improved my editing skills At AS I only used a couple of layers in my editing as it was linear meaning that there

wasn’t much editing needed. However, at A2 the editing was

extremely complex and non-linear so I needed to use a multiple

amount of layers including sound, voice overs, video, text, subtitles,

and interview.

Importance of messageAt A2 I didn’t have to focus on the importance of a message as in my

thriller film I did not intend to deliver a specific message to the

audience.However, because a documentary

represents the truth the message it provides is extremely important.

This meant that when creating my A2 documentary it was important

that I made sure that anything included in my documentary didn’t offend or make any individual feel

uncomfortable because the message was about about a real

topic, and may also been a personal and difficult subject for

some people. It was also important that I made sure that anybody

included in my documentary was happy to have their personal thoughts and views public.

Progress from AS Thriller to A2 Documentary

My documentary, radio advert, and poster are closely linked, as they all have the same theme, tone, content and colour scheme.

I put a lot of time into research for my adverts, in order to be able to see what was best for the purpose of advertisement for my documentary. I also used the style guide in order to make sure that my documentary would be compliant for a channel four film advert.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Research for documentary advert (similar documentary advert)

In order to get inspiration for my own documentary poster and to help decided what type of style would both

make my documentary look effective and match the content I decided to research both the layout and style of

similar documentary adverts with the same content about the education in schools and the effect behaviour has on the learning. These programs included Educating

Essex, Educating Yorkshire.

Target audience

Research for documentary advert (channel four style guide)

When taking into consideration the content of my documentary I decided that Channel Four would be the most suitable channel to broadcast my documentary. After deciding to use Channel Four I then researched the style guide for Channel Four Advertisements in order to make sure that my advert complied with the standards of a Channel Four poster.

Compliance with Channel Four style guide

Compliance with Chanel Four style guide

Compliance with Channel Four style guide

Compliance with Channel Four style guide

Newspaper advert (first draft)

After receiving feedback from other members of the group I decided that I could improve my newspaper advert by including the dates and times of the show I was advertising, so that anybody who was interested in my documentary would know exactly where and when to watch my documentary.

Final draft pic

As a result of the feedback I included the date and time that my documentary would be starting. I also included the channel four logo in the bottom right of the picture so that people would know what channel my documentary will be aired on. Also the Channel 4 logo will give anybody reading the advertisement an idea of what the documentary is about, as they will be aware of Channel 4s content.

Research survey responses:This is an example of the survey that I have used in order to retrieve mixed views and

opinions about what a documentary about badly behaved pupils should be about in order to help with the planning and research of my documentary.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback

Audience feedback – What I found out

I took into the account that my documentary wasn't clear of it's message as it wasn't clear whether I was trying to talk about the behaviour of students in general or the improvement and history of an individual school in Bristol, which some of the facts I included about the school were inaccurate. In order to avoid confusion I decided to avoid the background of the school Oasis Academy John Williams and introduced the schools behaviour rather than including too much background information about the school and its history in order to avoid mixed messages. Because of this change I ultimately decided to change the name of my documentary from 'Educating Oasis' to 'Behaviour Managing Britain' generalising my documentary about students behaviour over the country and how it as improved rather than focusing only on the school Oasis Academy I used the school as one example of other schools in Britain, as if I were to finish the documentary I would later go on to visit other schools. I also changed my narration in order to make sure that my documentary generalised behaviour in Britain over a wide range of schools rather than talking about Oasis Academy as an individual school and its behaviour. This allows my documentary to now give a clear message of what it is really about and avoids confusion for the audience.

I also took into account that spectators had made a point about some of the shots at the beginning being 'too busy' or 'too jumpy' making the narration difficult to follow and concentrate on. My intention of using sped up film footage, busy shots, handheld shots and as a result shaken was to reflect and capture the hectic and frantic nature of most secondary schools, however I could understand the point that was being made, so in order to improve this I have cut the amount of shots making it easier to follow. However I have kept the nature of the shots in the beginning quite chaotic in order to fulfil my intention of setting the scene.

Critical theoryThe Expository Mode•‘The voice-of-God tradition fostered the cultivation of the professionally trained, richly toned male voice of commentary that proved a hallmark of the expository mode even though some of the most impressive films chose less-polished voices precisely for the credibility gained by avoiding too much polish.’ Bill Nichols – Introduction to Documentary (p.167) This quote applies to my documentary as I used a rich and sonorous male voice, which I use as a voice-of-God narration, as I believed the impact of the male voice would make him appear much more reliable and trustworthy to the audience because of the strong impact his narration had.

John Corner 1995 – ‘’What distinguishes a documentary is the portrayal of sound and images of actuality’’John Corner’s theory links to my documentary, as I show the image of a real and typical school environment in this present time . I show the real life problems within the school education system without hiding any important facts.

Film makers opinion – ‘’All attempts to record reality is affected as people act differently on camera’’This theory applies to my documentary as one of the students in my film is known for showing off in front of an audience, therefore him being filmed may have potentially caused him to misbehave more than usual for the camera.

Dianne Tammes - ‘Everybody who makes a film is putting their own truth on the screen’Dianne Tammes’ theory applies in my documentary as I don’t have a balanced argument in my documentary, which may make people think my documentary is biased because everyone I had interviewed agreed that the educational landscape has changed throughout the years and that the behaviour has got worse. People may see this as me putting my own truth on screen because I don’t show any interviews with students or teachers that don’t believe this is the case. Viewers may also see it as biased because I don’t show any students views or opinions. I also think this quote means that a film maker will do any thing in their power to get there point across for the purpose of their documentary, which I think I do extremely well as I create a strong argument for the viewers because of the amount of video and sound I use to back up and support my point throughout the documentary, which persuades the viewer to agree with and feel emotionally affected by the point that I make.

I feel that my film was extremely successful and I was pleased with the end result because I had achieved what I had set out to do completing my documentary to a high quality and standard. I was happy with the way I was able to display the reality and the truth of Education in schools after showing a range of different peoples opinions and views. I was able to give a clear and strong message after giving an insight of an individuals life and how behaviour has affected his education after his inability to control his behaviour resulted in him being in isolation and as a result missing out on vital classes and work for his GCSES. I feel that I was able to target my audience extremely well and I have high hope that my documentary will allow individuals to be emotionally affected by the documentary, which may allow anybody in a similar situation to the young pupil in my documentary to realise that behaviour can have serious negative effects on education, however there is always hope for that pupil to be rehabilitated if they are willing to work in partnership with the school to ensure that they can put themselves back on the route to a good education and positive future. I also feel that the subject of my documentary is something, which is commonly talked about and is currently a major concern for the public this meant that my documentary would interest a wide range of people. I was able to include many different codes and conventions into my documentary including voice over's, narration, interviews.

Summary