Evaluation

I have answered the first evaluation question on Prezi. http://prezi.com/ddffphu2lv4m/evaluation/

How Effective Is the Combination Of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

I created a two-page spread for a magazine as well as a poster for my documentary. The style of the magazine article was fairly professional and made use of a sophisticated colour scheme. I incorporated images relating to the topic which my documentary covered, and included an interview with the director as well as a film review.

The poster I created used a rough, graffiti-esque font for the title which fitted in with the theme of urban exploration. The poster appears well-designed, however it's fairly simple and does not contain too much information. I kept the poster in black and white to create a noir atmosphere whilst still maintaining the image of urban exploration, which hopefully attracts my target demographic of a younger generation.

What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Audience feedback plays a crucial role in analysing the success of a project, so it was important for me to ask a wide range of people what they thought of my documentary, magazine article and poster. I showed my documentary and print products to people of varying age, gender, social class etc., (including my target audience of 16-24 year olds with college backgrounds) and received positive feedback as well as constructive criticism.

I decided that a questionnaire was too much of a closed methodology for receiving feedback, I felt that it would be more efficient and successful if I were to simply have a conversation with them and take notes on their thoughts.

As I had hypothesised, the older generations had more difficulty in grasping the concept of urban exploration, and it was primarily 16-24 year old males who were interested. I will now quote some of the comments which were made and analyse my findings.

I will quote some of the transcripts from the conversations I had with the members of my target audience which were more constructive, particularly the ones mentioning different media elements.

“The topic was interesting, I’ve never heard of urban exploration before now and the footage in the actual buildings drew me in.” Comments such as this were common throughout the feedback process, the target audience all mentioned that the topic of the documentary was new to them, and that it succeeded in keeping them interested through the use of exploration footage.

“The camerawork was pretty shaky, but it worked well.”, “During the actual exploring, the camera shots fitted in with the style of the documentary” and “There was a ride range of shots throughout the whole thing” are three quotes which pinpointed on the camerawork in the documentary. From these quotes I can see that the live, edgy style of the documentary came across to the viewers in a positive manner, and some viewers enjoyed the wide range of shots i.e. establishing shots, close up. One viewer also mentioned that the “interview [with “Oxygen Thief”] was framed well”, confirming that we made the right decision with regards to shot length.

“The music fitted in with the documentary” and “The voiceovers were informative” are two positive comments I received about the sound in the documentary. However, others said that “The voiceovers could have been clearer” and “The music could have been in more shots”. From these two comments I can see that some viewers found the voiceovers hard to understand, and some felt that the music could have played in the background of more shots than it did. I’m pleased that the viewers mentioned that the non-diegetic music fitted in well, however if I were to make it again, I’d have to ensure the voiceovers are clear and have good sound quality.

There were also some comments made about the mise en scéne, such as “The lighting was good throughout, it reflected the topic well”, “The main person presented the documentary well” and “The places they explored were so interesting”. These three quotes told me that the lighting quality was effective, the acting was believable, and the chosen locations were interesting enough to hold the attention of the viewer. One viewer commented that “it was hard to see when they were in the air vents”; it was difficult to provide any proper lighting during this scene, however there was only one person who mentioned this.

“I liked how there were lots of quick cuts, it kept the pace of the documentary up” and “The scene transitions worked well to keep the film flowing” were two comments I received about the editing of the documentary. These quotes let me know that the jumpy style I incorporated to speed the documentary up was effective, and that the fade ins/outs flowed well. One other viewer said that he “likes the way the name fades in the during the interview [with “Oxygen Thief”]”, which confirmed that the editing during this interview was subtle, as intended.

I will now quote some miscellaneous quotes that were made about the documentary:

“It kept my attention throughout, there was never any bits where I got bored.”

“The interview should have been with someone different.”

“I would have liked to see more places that they explore.”

“There should have been more exploring.”

“I really liked this documentary, it’s the first I’ve seen about urban exploring.”

Overall, the feedback I received for the film was mostly positive, and I was happy that so many people were interested in it.

I also received feedback for the magazine article which I produced. Here are some of the comments made about the article:

“The article looks really well put together, it looks pretty professional.”

“It looks like it would be from a proper film review magazine.”

“The colour scheme looks really good.”

These were some of the positive comments I received, and although I was happy with the positive nature of the comments, it’s the negative ones you can learn more from, such as:

“The magazine article appeared to be oddly highbrow considering the topic of the documentary” – This viewer thought that the magazine article seemed quite serious through the use of its content and colours, and didn’t match with the theme of urban exploring. This was an extremely good point, however I feel that the relaxed style of the interview with the director and the use of large images acted as a counterbalance to his points.

A few others mentioned that “the picture of the writer in the top right corner seemed a bit jagged round the edges”, or made comments to that effect. If I were to do it again, I’d have to ensure that I do a neater job with regards to cropping the edges of the image, however it is not hugely noticeable and does not affect the overall quality of the article.

How Did You Use Media Technologies In the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

I have used various new media technologies during the various stages of this project.

Planning and Research

I have used “Blogger.com” to act as a diary for this project, where I created posts containing the research I had done into different media products. I found the website to be fairly efficient at storing posts which can contain text, images and videos.

YouTube played a big part in acting as a service through which I could view and analyse music videos, documentaries and short films. I used a popular social news website “reddit.com” to decide which media products to analyse. On this website I posted a thread asking people about their favourite music videos etc., and analysed the three highest rated videos.

Construction

During the construction phase, I used a Nikon D3100 and tripod to film. This camera was excellent for filming as it provided a good sound quality as well as long battery life and video quality. Copying the files over onto a computer was also easy as it was all stored on an SD card. I ensured that I made good use of various camera functions throughout the recording process, especially with regards to focusing.

I used Final Cut Pro on an Apple iMac to edit the documentary. I thought the software provided me with a lot of options, and I was able to edit the sound as well as the video clips. I trimmed and cropped clips, applied shot transitions and fades, and applied certain colour filters for when certain shots seemed off-colour. I was also able to add in a song to play quietly in the background of certain shots.

I used Adobe Photoshop CS4 to create my two-page spread magazine article and poster. As I have had previous experience with this software, I was able to make good use of all the functions available to me. I applied subtle gradients to spice up the colour scheme, and used the lasso tool to crop certain images.

Role Allocation

As Jamal and I were working together to create this film, we felt it necessary to divide the tasks between us equally.

Jamal recorded most of the shots for the film (with the exception of the interview with Sam), as well as completing the drawings for the storyboard.

I was the presenter in the film, and was in charge of editing the documentary which also included music. I also completed the write-up for the storyboard.

Initial Shot List

Below you can see a very roughly put together shot list, along with a transcript.

Shot 1 - Quote "exploration

Shot 2 - Montage of buildings

Shot 3 - Introduction - Urbex is.... Speech Shot > Voiceover

Shot 4 - Medium (/long) shot of protagonist on laptop

Shot 5 - Cut to information on pad close up

Shot 6 - 12 - Quick cuts of travelling via train

Shot 13 - E.S of SH

Shot 14 - HH continuous shot > walk over to Sam

Shot 15 - Focus on brick cracks Steady out of focus as we walk past

Shot 16 - HH Sam laughing as person walks past

Shot 17 - Quick cuts climbing in. Sam > Alex > Jack

Shot 18 - Jack on triangle "Come look at this" Me helping Jack over, Sam checking road

Shot 19 - Brought into focus, pans round gear, ends on me talking about hi vis jacket

"Cut out roof"

Shot 20 - Camera - steady - bottom/top of stairs

Sam me, walk up, climb up vents long shot Sam pulling me up

Shot 21 & 22 - Camera overlooking ledge & on ground running inside

Shot 23 - Sam walk past

Shot 24 - Jack's feet, HH running

Tilt up, cut > Sam looking over edge

Shot 25 - Sam jump off ladder, I walk down a few rungs

Shot 26 - In town ramp, walk past police

Shot 27 - Formal interview with Sam

Shot 28 - Interview with expert

CCTV archived footage

29 Quick Cuts - Climbing over gate, dropping down, walk towards wall

Shot 30 - Sam explains as we walk how to climb

Shot 31 - Steady climbing

Shot 32 - Tilt, climbing in

Shot 33 - Changing rooms, out onto swimming pool.

As you can see, this was a very rough plan which was later developed into a full storyboard, viewable in the next post.

Conventions of Documentaries

Bill Nichols’ books Introduction to Documentary and Representing Reality claim that there are six different types of documentary. These are – poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, and performative. There are also sub-genres of documentary, which are categorised by either the topic they revolve around such as nature, history, science, or the style in which they are created, such as investigative, fly-on-the-wall and objective.

One thing which each subset of documentaries has in common is their codes and conventions; whether that documentary challenges them or not is a different issue. Conventions of documentaries include (but are not limited to) –

Voiceovers – Where a narrator (such as David Attenborough from Planet Earth) discusses the topic of the documentary, allowing video clips to simultaneously play in the background. This is done to inform the viewer, or to perhaps sway their thoughts on an issue.

Archived Footage – This is where the creators of the documentary implement already-existing footage to aid authenticity and to perhaps add further information which they were unable to obtain themselves.

Vox Populi – Latin for “voice of the people”. This is where people on the street are asked a question regarding the topic of the documentary, possibly to show what the thoughts of the masses are, or to act as a stepping-stone to which the presenter/narrator can elaborate upon.

Interviews With Experts – These are usually included after a view has been expressed through the documentary, to back up a point already made. They are also included to reassure the viewer that what they’re being informed of is authentic.

Natural Sound and Lighting – Documentaries will often choose not to alter the natural sound and lighting offered by a scene or location, as this could affect the “realism” they are trying to portray.

Facts and Figures – Statistics are typically used to enforce a point that the documentary is making (such as in Inside Job), however these figures should not always be trusted. If the documentary is critical of an issue/topic then figures will be incorporated (such as in Supersize Me, to make McDonalds appear worse than it is) but not justified.

Camerawork – This is usually affected by the style and nature of the documentary, for instance handheld shots are more common in documentaries about world events. As for interviews, the camera is typically positioned at a medium length, with the interviewee’s eyeline 1/3^rd of the way down the screen.