media evaluation word

8/3/2019 Media Evaluation Word

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Katie Line

Media Evaluation

Question One; In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real mediaproducts?

Since the beginning of the A2 course I have watched many documentaries in preparation for creating our own. They can all be

very different, however will use many of the same conventions as eachother. I spent a lot of time analysing documentaries such as‘Supersize Me’, ‘Airline’ and ‘A Good Smack’.Many of the conventions that I picked up from these were the usesof Camera. This included the shot types such as Close ups,Medium Close ups, Establishing Shots/Long shots andExtreme Close ups. In ‘Airline’ the most commonly used shot

was the medium close up, which we then used a lot in ourdocumentary to get a good look at people’s expressions and how they feel

towards the situation. We used handheld camera a lot in our documentary to make the viewer feelas though they are there, and get a feel for what is going on. This was used a lot in‘Supersize Me’ and we found that it was very effective for our documentary.The other type of use of the camera, is by using a Tripod. We used this on variousoccasions such as establishing shots of the college, for showing college equipment such ascomputers, classrooms, and of students walking in and out of college. The tripod meantthat we could have various steady shots, and use skills that we know such as Pan, Trackingand Zooming, in a professional way. The main use of the tripod was for expert interviews,

which enabled us to set up the camera in a professional manner;

Sound is another

important part of television documentaries, and this included Background Music,Voiceover, Presenter, Diagetic and Non-Diagetic sound.‘Super Size Me’ used a presenter in their documentary, as well as a voiceover. This

worked very effectively and makes the documentary feel much more personal with theaudience, however we found that for our documentary being more informative and basedat a college, we did not need to use a presenter, so had just a voiceover. This is what thedocumentary ‘Airline’ uses, as they have a narrator to tell the viewers what is going on,and guide them through the documentary.

Supersize Me Our Documentary

A main convention used when interviewing experts, is using the rule of thirds to set upthe screen. The interviewee should be looking out into an empty space which we have donehere, and positioned a third of the way in, with their eye level at a third of the way down.

This is part of our script that we recorded using the Microphoneand Headphones and put into Final Cut Express.



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Background music was something that we used in our documentaries just like all others we had looked at. The background music had to be simple and and not overpowering of the voiceover/sound from the documentary. We looked at simple sounds such as those used in‘Super Size Me’, however a lot of their music included copyrighted songs such as ‘FatBottomed Girls’ by Queen. In ‘Airline’ they didn’t use so much music, just the themesong that is used at the beginning and end of the documentary. Again this was copyrighted

music, and for ourdocumentary we neededsomething that wasn’t.

We used GarageBand forour background music sothat we had simple beats, likethose used in realdocumentaries.

The music worked effectively for using real mediaconventions, however the music that we chose, wasslightly more overpowering that the script, and didn’t feel like a background noise. This issomething that we would certainly improve to match the conventions of a real televisiondocumentary.

Research; the research into the topic is very important to a documentary, especially if it is

to inform the audience. In ‘Airline’ their research is first hand and primary, nofacts/statistics, but upfront with the customers and their views/opinions.However, in ‘Super Size Me’ it is filled with first and second hand research. The

beginning of the documentary is very informative, and filled with so many facts said by the voiceover. We used this in our documentary and filledour opening with statistics.

We then imported our track as anMP3 into Final Cut Express sothat we had a beat runningthroughout our documentary.

‘Super Size Me’ statisticsin the first five minutes of the documentary.

Our documentary. We used facts on our documentary,throughout the opening five minutes,and found that the large numbers worked well coming up on the screen inlarge text.



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Special Effects are used several times throughout the documentary ‘Super Size Me’,they work very effectively, a lot done with special graphical effects, and some done with thecamera. We used a few effects in ours on the camera such as changing the focus andzooming. However, when we came to editthe documentary, we looked at real

documentaries on ideas of how to edit ourfootage to make them effective. Oneof these was changing the speed of our clips. We sped up students

walking in and out of college, toemphasise the amount of studentsthat there are, and how many peopleare effected by job unemployment,university increases, EMA cuts etc.This is how the same effect is used in‘Super Size Me’ uses the effect

when they are emphasising theamount of people that go in and out of McDonalds every

single day.

Magazine Article

This was ourfinal

magazine double page spread, which weproduced for the magazine ‘Radio Times’. We looked at various magazines first, to get anidea of the conventions that they use and how effective they are. Magazines range so muchfrom ‘ TV mag’ to ‘Radio Times’,

but each with similar conventions. As our documentary was based ona serious topic, we kept the layout

very simple and straight to thepoint.

‘Super Size Me’

Still clip from ourdocumentary onStudent Finance, wesped up the shot for

the purpose of showing the amountof people that go tocollege.

How we changed the speedon Final Cut Express



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Magazine articles for televisiondocumentaries almost always have a morethan picture. These tend to be shots fromthe documentary, showing still clips of people that are involved. We put in a stillclip from our documentary, of an expert

we have interviewed, showing the readers whothey can expect to hear from.

Radio Trailer

Captions are alwaysused with the images,to explain what isgoing on in thephoto, or who theperson involved is.

Imagesfrom ‘Radio

Times’ withcaptions.

A Drop Cap is nearly always used inmagazine articles at the beginning of the text. I used this in my article tomake it look professional.

A Pull Quote is a clip of thearticle showing somethingthat may interest or pull inthe reader to the article. Inthis case we used aninteresting/shocking fact.

Many magazines use pullquotes as a way of grabbingthe reader’s attention.

Example of a pull quotefrom a magazine article

The date, time, channeland name of theprogram is often hereon an article. We likedthe way that this waslaid out, and thereforeused it in our article, tomake it clear when they program was on. Articles are always

written in 2 or 3columns, which is why we have used columns inour article for talkingabout our televisiondocumentary.

The Masthead is the headline/title of the page, and is alwaysused in magazines/newspapers. Magazine articles for televisionarticles are sometime headlines based oncharacters/puns/plotlines, but sometime the title of theprogram, especially when it is a one off documentary/series.



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For our radio trailer, we listened to lots of real ones to get an ideaof the conventions that they use and what makes them effective.

We have listened to radio trailers off radio five, bbc one, capitalradio, and different radio stations that play advertisements. Asour radio trailer is for capital radio, it needed to be something to

appeal to the audience, and reach out to young people/students.

We used rhetorical questions in our trailer to include the listener, such as ‘Worriedabout going to university? Or where to go next?’ these are personal questions that thelistener may think they really want to find out more. It puts them in the situation, and if

what they are saying appeals to them, then this documentary could be of some interest tothem.

Even though the documentary is on a

serious topic, it is for a younger generation who could get bored easily. Therefore weadded a good beat to the background, andhad an enthusiastic voiceover reading thescript. This pulls the listener in and catchestheir initial attention.

The time, date and channel of the documentary is something that all radio trailers willhave in them, to make sure the reader knows when it is going to be on. We addedthis to the end of our documentary, by saying ‘8pm Tuesday, on Channel 4’,followed by ‘don’t be late!’ this added something associated with the

documentary to the end, and was then followed by the sound of the college bell.

Most of the radio trailers that we listened to were around 20 to 40 secondslong, as they don’t go on too long, yet are long enough to get their point across.

We made ours about 33 seconds long, as this was long enough to say what weneeded to say to sell our documentary.

We also used clips from our documentary, including something a student says, and someshocking facts from the voiceover. We used ambient sound such students talking, and thegeneral ‘background noise at college’ between clips, to keep it fast pace and realistic.

Our documentary overall

Our documentary used many elements from real documentaries, such as fly on the wall where the camera is filming students at college, as if the camera isn't really there. It is partof a series which is common for documentaries, as it keeps the viewer watching each week.

We used a narrative structure, which meant that we started with a problem and then wenton to discussing the facts. If we had finished the documentary, then this would have goneonto how to solve the problem, and a summary. As we made the opening, this was just tohook readers in to see more.Our documentary used the enigmatic code, as it was filled with questions, but there is nosolution/answer at the end of it. It meant that we could leave this open for discussion and

be something that the viewer can question themselves on. This is common in television

We created our Radio Trailer on Garage Band

We filled in sheets to analyse radio trailers, including the the music, targetaudience, tone of voice, effects, sound levels, length etc.



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documentaries, as they often will be on a topic that there is no answer to, and a problemthat many people may face.The documentary is informative, and to give the viewer lots of facts that they do notalready know, and possibly help them with their options. The tone is serious andpessimistic, as it is on a situation that we have portrayed as negative and very difficult.This is because negative situations are often what someone will be interested in.

We stuck to the main conventions of a television documentary however the only part that we challenged was the use of our transitions. The most common cut in a documentary isthe straight cut, and is used far more than any other. We did use the straight cut a lot,however we put in transitions such as cross dissolve and non additive dissolve, as wefound that it put our clips together effectively and looked effective and appealing to the

viewer.

Question Two: How effective is the combination of your main product andancillary texts?

With our television documentary we created a magazine article and radio trailer. As thesetwo products were to sell and advertise the documentary to our target audience weneeded to make sure that they work well together.



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Judging how each of our products appeals to the target audience shows whether they arecombined together effectively. The Radio trailer and the magazine article both back up thedocumentary by using clips from it.

Radio Trailer

In the radio trailer we used clips from the documentary such as a student talking, the background noise, the bell from the opening of the documentary and facts from thenarrator. Each of these are aspects that the viewer is able to recognise in both thedocumentary and the radio trailer, and they then combine well together. We also used asimilar beat from the documentary in our radio trailer, and the enthusiastic radio

voiceover appeals to a young audience.I think that the radio trailer sells the documentary, and tells students what they candefinitely expect to hear from it. It is for Capital Radio, and therefore will be reaching the

right target audience for the the documentary on Channel 4.Capital Radio has a listening figure of 7,079,000, in which each of these listeners on

average will tune in for 6.5 hours a week. As Capital Radio reaches out to a lot of people, itis a suitable radio station to put our radio trailer on, as the more people, the more viewers.

Our target viewer for the documentary is teenagers/young adults that are going througheducation/looking for a job. Narrowing this down, the main audience is those leaving college and areunsure whether university is the right option, but if not, how can they get a job? It appeals to bothmales and females and is a problem right at the top of students minds. It will be aimed at peoplefrom a working to middle class family, as they may be able to possibly pay the fees, but it is still alarge sum of money.Under the different demographics that society statistically splits characteristics, there are a few that we can define our target audience under. There is no specific race, religion or disability that

our documentary is aimed at, and in terms of gender we are aiming at both. The age range isparticularly 16-19 year olds, however this can range further to those in their early twenties, wherethey may be leaving education and needing a job. Location is another aspect, where we can appealmore to hose that live in high unemployment areas, such as Birmingham, where our documentary is

based.Pyschographic profiles define people in their lifestyle characteristics, including aspirers,strugglers, resigned and explorers. This was created by the advertising agency, Young andRudical, called the Cross Cultural Consumer Characterization. In terms of our documentary’starget audience, we have focused particularly on the succeeder and the mainstreamer. Thesucceeder is someone that has goals, wants to do well in their life, and in the case of students, passtheir grades and go on to higher education/a successful job. This also links in briefly with theaspirer, who in this case, isn't materialistically aspiring, but aspiring to be someone in a few yearstime. The aspirer tends to be a younger person, which our audience aims at. Another pyschographicprofile that we are aiming our documentary at is the mainstreamer. Someone who is passive,habitual, domestic, and part of the mass group of the population. Someone that wants an ordinary lifestyle, to find their best route for the future, and not end up with any money issues.

Our target audience



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Capital FM radio also reaches out to people all over the country as shown on the right handside. It especially will reach those in main cities, such as London, Birmingham,Manchester, etc. This is helpful, as it will advertise for the documentary that needs to reachall sorts of students all over the country. In big cities such as Birmingham especially, is

where our early research showed low unemployment, and as the map shows, there is FMand digital coverage, and this may attract a lot of the listeners.This fits in very well with our documentary, and the radio station has the same targetaudience as Channel 4. The elements that we put in our radio trailer, such as the

documentary clips, voiceover, background beat and ambient sound all help back up thedocumentary and combine them both very well together.

Magazine Article

We used a still shot from our television documentary in our tv listings pageso that they link very well together. We used the shot of our expert interview to show the viewer someone that they can expect to hear from in thedocumentary. This linked the documentary well with the magazine article as itdirectly showed something that the audience will see when they watch it.

However, the magazine article is what doesn’t appeal to the target audienceanywhere near as much as the radio trailer. The magazine article has aprofessional finish for a serious topic, however this caused us a few problems.

As the colourful ‘TV mag’ style article looked tacky and unprofessional, weused a simple layout that you would expect from the radio times, andsomething that would be based on a serious topic, which is what we hadchose.However, as our target audience is a young 16-19 year old area, it needed to

be far more colourful, exciting and eye catching for the reader.The dark background and lack of

images meant that we were

unable to make someone of a young agegroup want to see the documentary at a first

glance, yet it worked for the topic that ourdocumentary was on.

We chose Radio Times, and eventhough they are genuinely appealing

to an older audience thanours, they still have a

readership of 2,280,000. Although 579,000readers are in a youngerage group (15-44 yearolds). Even though the

Their main listener groupis between the age of 15and 24, which is our maintarget age range.

The social class is very similar in figures, andas ours is aimed at around a B,C1,C2, this issuitable for our target listener.

“Capital’s target audience of 15-34 year olds are big fans of

popular music, they are media savvy and are on trend. Capital

gives them social currency which they use to fit in with their

friends. They live on their mobile phone and life is just a text,

tweet or status update away.”

- Target Audience from ‘thisisglobalradio’ in cooperation with RAJAR.



Katie Line

readership for young people is not as much, the circulation will be less as this is theamount of copies that are sold. The readership is the amount that it is read and passedaround, for example someone aged around 45-50 may buy the Radio Times, and theirteenage/student daughter/son is likely to read something that they have at home. Onaverage between 2003 and 2010, each copy of the Radio Times has 2.3-2.9 readers.

Radio Times includes many different articles, ranging from those aimed at BBC 2 viewers,to a younger audience watching Channel 4/BBC three. As there are pages for all differentage groups, and ours is based on a serious topic, Radio Times is still appropriate for ourdocumentary. However, this is what I feel let us down the most in terms of thecombinations between our documentary and ancillary tasks.

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