Evaluation Question 4

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

We used a range of different technologies throughout the construction of our production. One media technology we used was Imovie, this is an editing software that we used to edit our footage, we found it to be easier than using Adobe Premiere. Additionally it provided us with everything that we wanted to do in terms of editing.

Furthermore, during the construction of our documentary we used a Fujifilm camera to record all of our footage, moreover for our voice over we used a voice recorder and then used IMovie to edit the sound that we had so that it was still able to hear both the voice over and the music in the background. We decided to use our own equipment to film and edit because we wanted to use different equipment this year to gain different skills instead of using the same technology.

For the research and planning stage of our production we used Google to do our research on already existing documntaries for inspiration for our production. We also used Youtube to search for different songs that would be appropriate to include our documentary. After downloading the songs we had to convert them into Mp3 files, to do this we used a Youtube converter that we find on the internet using Google. Furthermore during this stage of our production we used BBC Iplayer and 4oD to view other documentaries so that we could draw inspiration from their ideas.

For the evaluation stage I decided to use Blogger, this was my choice becauase it was something I am very familar with using because I have had past experiences using it for my AS media production. As I am in a group of two for this production we decided to do the evaluation questions seperately but we also decided to record ourselves together talking about our product in relation to the evalution questions that we were given and split the amount we said evenly between us as we both had an equal input into what went on throughout our production.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our docuementary is aimed at teenagers and young adults that are of a C1 social class and below. Before we uploaded our final cut we put up a first cut of what we had so far. By doing this it allowed us to get a mix of different responses both good and bad.

From our first cut we received a lot of feedback both positive and constructive. We reveived a lot of positive feedback which allowed us to develope some ideas that we already had included due to the good response from our audience, for example the talking heads part with out protagonist (Courtney) is telling us about her story and we have her mother talk about her experience aswell, we were told that this was a strong idea and it gave us the idea to work on that more and also include a friend talking about her story and how it has effected other people other than Courtney.

However we did receive a fair amount of constructive feedback to help further improve our documentary, for example our sound levels were really bad and in some parts it was hard to hear the dialogue in some parts because the music which was supposed to be in the background were too high, so we decided to change that and lower the level of the music in the background so that it can still be heard but also the dialogue is still very clear over the top of the music. Furthermore some of the music that we used didnt work well and we received feedback on this from our teacher who gave us ideas about what music we should include so that we are still adressing our target audience and keeping them interested.

Moreover, for our first cut our documentary was far too short and only just reached over three minutes, this was a very big issue that we had to sort out straight away, however it did become a slight struggle as we did keep running out of ideas that we could use that would work well and wouldn't take us away from the forms and conventions of other media products. We adressed this issue by asking our class (after showing them our first cut) what they thought and if there was anything that they would like to have included, or anything they thought would work well. We did use some of the ideas that were given to us, however after receiving the feedback it helped us to come up with out own ideas after listening to how we could elaborate on ideas that we have already included.

Evaluation Question 2

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

The main link between our poster and our documentary would be what is supposed to be a line of cocain in the background of our poster which is effective because it gives an indication to what the documentary will be about, this is furthermore supported by the use of the school students which are overlayed in the foreground of the poster which also matches our target audience.

The combinatoin of our double page spread and our documentary is effective because the page that displays an advertisment for talktofrank.com which is a helpline for people with drug addictions, furthermore this addresses our target audience as our target audience are teenagers and this advertisment provides assistance to those who are in need to help.

Evaluation Question 1

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

We used common conventions of real media products in our production, for example, the use of talking heads which we use throughout our documentary as a way of interviewing our characters, we also used a lot of close ups on our protagonist, this was becuase it expressed the level of emotion which our character was portraying for the audience to capture. Furthermore our documentary also follows the forms and conventions of real media products as it is a very controversial due to its theme being about drugs and the usage of drugs in youth culture, this fits the conventions as other documentaries also often use a contraversial theme.

However, we do not have a straight narrative, this means that we have challenged the forms and conventions of real media products, as we do not follow Todorov's narrative theory which most other documentaries follow, we decided not to follow this theory because we wanted to create sense of distortion which differs from other media products and makes our production unique.

Although we have used talking heads to interview our characters, we have also used a disabled character as well, however we have not revealed the characters disability until later on in the documentary. We have developed this because it makes the audience question why we are interviewing a random person and when it is revealed that the character is disabled it creates a sense of empathy which would make the audience feel bad for the character, but also take in facts that are being used throughout the whole of the documentary.

Ancillary Task 2

Ancillary Task 1

For my first ancillary task we have decided to use an image of teenagers at school with dull expressions on their faces and then by using Adobe Photoshop I overlayed it with another image of what is supposed to be drugs, the use of these images overlayed eachother is supposed to illustrate that drugs are becoming a big issue and are becoming easily accessable in schools. The phone that is in the picture is supposed to be a students phone which is supposed to support the illustration that teenagers are able to not only easily access drugs but are also the ones selling them to more strudents within the school.

Ancillary Task 2 - Inspiration

For my second ancillary task  I had to produce a double page spread of a magazine article from a listings magazine. At first, we decided to base the article around the main character of the documentary, giving a deeper insight into the life of Courtney (the ex drug addict). However, we then read some articles of other documentaries and they were more based around the topic of being behind the scenes of the documentary. Therefore, we came to the decision to base our article on the topic of being behind the scenes of our documentary. This meant we'd have a lot to include, such as descriptions of the equipment we used to film, the locations and the responses to the making of this controversial documentary. Additionally, we decided to add a controversial advert on the second page of the double page spread. This was because the other articles we looked at had adverts next to them, which is a method used to get the attention of the reader. This means our article may get more views if an appealing advert is placed beside it.